"Huh? Who?" Caelus's expression immediately darkened. "Who are you, lady? Are you slandering me right now?"
Caelus had already added this girl's name to his hit list.
Damn, why did every citizen and his dog know about him?
As far as he was concerned, he was known as the foot-licking dog of a girl who hated his guts a few days back. Perhaps due to that, he had become infamous?
"Caelus... we are literally classmates," the girl said, looking dumbfounded and speechless.
"What?" Caelus's lips twitched.
It had indeed been a few days since he crossed over, but he never bothered going back to school. He was just engrossed in understanding the world, after all.
Only Albert, who he shared a dormitory with, ever checked up on him.
Hence, he, who had jagged memories and only remembered the humiliations he suffered, didn't recognize most of the people.
"What, an E-Rank?" The burly guy behind the young man looked at Caelus with undisguised disdain.
"..." Caelus sighed seeing this.
This was what modern racism looked like.
Back then, people demeaned others because of their skin color. Now, people looked at others with disdain or treated them as sub-human because they had an E-Rank affinity.
The world truly was a dark place, wasn't it?
"Hey, dumbass, if you look at me like that again, I will beat you up." Caelus glared at the big guy and spoke.
As an advocate of equality, he must stand his ground against discrimination and mana affinity racism.
The girl, hearing Caelus's threat, was dumbfounded.
"Huh?" A voice of confusion escaped her throat.
Was this really her old, gloomy classmate who didn't talk to anyone?
And more importantly, what gave him this confidence? Was he seeking death?
Perhaps he had awakened a talent?
"What did you say?" The big guy immediately erupted.
"I will teach you a lesson, kiddo."
"..." Caelus stared blankly at the guy.
How good. Another individual for him to extract talents from.
He wondered what the guy had.
Caelus's eyes glowed.
But one thing was for certain.
The guy was weaker than Caelus.
Caelus was confident in winning.
Against discrimination, one should show the other party what they are capable of.
"Enough." The young man who appeared to be the leader stopped the burly guy.
"I am sorry for the trouble. Since you are in the same class as Riya, you are a fellow classmate. We do not need to fight."
"Are you all from Fortis-01 High?" Caelus raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't know they allowed people with mental illness into the institution." Caelus gave the burly guy a side-eye.
"You!" The burly guy's expression twisted once again, his muscles bulging.
Caelus looked at him with pity. Was this guy really that easy to rage-bait?
If he was in the burly guy's place, he would probably make fun of the guy's E-Rank affinity. Of course, that was only if he was an evil villain, which he wasn't.
"What, me? I was just saying it in general. Sorry, I am a weird guy. I like talking to myself. Do I not have freedom of speech? Are you going to harass me because I am someone with an E-Rank affinity again? I will have you know that I stand for no discrimination. It is not like you came out of a donkey, making us different. We both came from the same race, right? Let's all make peace, alright?"
"Are you calling me a donkey, you bastard?!"
"What?" Caelus shook his head in disbelief. "Why should I call you a donkey? Yeah, you must be stupid. Or are you confirming that you are actually part-donkey and you got offended by it?"
"..." The party of two witnessing their bickering were dumbfounded, while the burly guy stared in confusion and rage.
Then, Riya unexpectedly burst out laughing. However, it was short-lived because all three men were staring at her.
She coughed slightly and hid her embarrassment.
"Okay, that is enough, Arnold. If you do not stop, then I will step in." The young man turned to the burly guy and glared.
Immediately, the burly guy, Arnold, quieted down.
"I am Aron, from Class-1. Pleased to meet you, Classmate." Aron went forward and invited Caelus for a handshake.
"I am Caelus." Caelus accepted the invitation and gave a firm handshake.
"You guys can rest here. Like I said, I already took care of the boars here."
"..." All of them stared at him, completely speechless.
Just how shameless was this guy? He clearly had an E-Rank Mana affinity and he was clearly Level 1. Saying something like he took on a pack of boars and an elite monster was just on a different level of boasting.
Of course, there was a chance he had awakened a powerful talent, but how come he didn't have any party with him if that was the case? Nobody was dumb enough to go into the Newbie Plains alone without a party unless the person simply didn't meet the requirements to join any team and got ditched by everyone.
"I know that look," Caelus said with an indifferent expression.
He once again put on the air of an expert.
He sat back on the tree trunk and waved his hand. Immediately, 10kg of boar meat fell from his inventory.
The instant they saw the freshly cut meat slices that amounted to 10kg, they were dumbfounded.
"You... Classmate Caelus, how did you obtain this much boar meat?"
"Didn't I tell you? I killed them all and then took it myself," Caelus said while clicking his tongue.
Faking it was one thing, but the incident being real and people not believing you hurt on a completely different level.
What did he, Caelus, who was only born with an E-Rank Mana affinity, do to deserve to be treated like this?
"But Caelus, even if you killed them, where did you learn to cut meat like this? These are all precise cuts and require a lot of skill to pull off." Riya came forward and asked with a frown.
"I have never seen you take the Fierce Beast Dismantling classes."
Caelus's expression darkened.
These people sure loved asking questions, huh?
Fine, have it your way.
"Yeah, I lied. This is something I found on the road randomly, so I put it in my inventory."
The party of three became even more bewildered.
This answer was even harder to believe than the one he had given before.
"Since Classmate Caelus has meat, then forget about where he got it from. We should all cook it and eat it together."
"Nuh-uh." Caelus shook his forefinger left and right.
"Who said you can have it for free? You have to pay up. Do you think I am running a charity?"
"I would have given it for free, but that Arnold guy over there ruined my mood. And since he is too dumb to understand what suing for emotional damage and distress fees is, I have no choice but to use this method."
"But, how are we supposed to pay you, Classmate Caelus?" Aron had a lot of patience, but with twitching lips, he inquired.
He and his party were exhausted from battling. Cooked boar meat could swiftly get them back to full power so they could get back into action just as quickly. Hence, he held in whatever curse words he had in his mind and asked politely.
To this, Caelus stayed silent and simply stared at the sky.
And just as quickly, a server announcement appeared.
[System Announcement: 1 hour has passed in the New Servers.]
[System: Trading system is now active.]
[System: Players can trade goods and services in exchange for Origin Credits.]
"Yeah, that will be 20 Origin Credits for 10kg of boar meat, dear customers." Caelus flashed a toothy grin as he rubbed his hands together.
"..."