"That's unimportant. I won't interfere with your mission, as long as you stay out of my way."
I decided to comply, since I wasn't sure what the repercussions would be even if I managed to kill him here.
"How can I trust you'll keep your word?"
He glanced at his wrist watch for a moment and his lips curled into a smile. "You can't and I would advise you not to. But you can trust that I have nothing to gain from sabotaging your mission. In fact, sabotaging your mission will put the shadow king on my tails, that would be a bit troublesome. Of course, if you attempt to harm me or disrupt my plans in any way, I won't hesitate to let the world know what the shadow king is planning to do here."
This is dangerous. I never expected to meet someone like him here. I don't even want to think about what would happen if Hayley was in my place right now.
I closed my eyes briefly, then frowned "Fine, we have a deal."
Phil stretched out his hand with a coy smile on his face "Nice doing business with you."
I shook my head a bit not shaking his hand
Did he think I was stupid? Why would I shake his hand when I don't know his ability?
I gently rose from the cushion and made my way to the door "I suggest you delete the recording, it'll bring you more harm than good."
Without waiting for a response, I stepped out and shut the door quietly behind me.
A few seconds later, soft laughter echoed from within the room.
Phil walked out of the bathroom with a phone in hand. "Hale Servas... Very impressive. Just as expected."
He opened the latest recording on his device and, without hesitation, deleted it.
I knocked on Hayley's door. I didn't get a response even after knocking for quite a while.
I sighed and took out my phone. I sent a text to her, describing the boy's features, our conversation and telling her to avoid making contact with him.
Sliding my card through the scanner, I unlocked my own door and stepped inside. The room layout was almost identical to Phil's. Same eight-by-seven space. Same functional design. All the furniture was modular—lightweight and easily moveable. It looked like they'd designed it so every student could customize the space however they liked. Not bad.
I was feeling too lazy to do anything else, so I just collapsed onto the bed and lay there, staring at the ceiling. My thoughts kept circling back to the conversation with Phil.
Still, there wasn't much I could do now.
I let out a slow breath.
–Bang! –Bang!! –Bang!!!
–Ring!
And somewhere between thoughts, I drifted off to sleep.
I jerked awake to the combined assault of noise. My phone was blaring like a siren, and some moron was banging on my door like it owed them money.
I already knew who it was.
Groaning, I grabbed my phone. The screen read 32:06. I'd been asleep for about five hours.
I rejected the call and trudged over to the door.
I opened the door, and just as I expected, Hayley was standing there in white pajamas, looking mildly annoyed. But when she saw my equally irritated face, she held back whatever rant she'd been preparing.
Without a word, she stepped inside—uninvited, of course—and made herself comfortable.
I closed the door behind her and walked over to the bed. She was already sitting on one end, so I sat on the other.
"Alright," I muttered, rubbing my eyes. "What do you want now?"
She pursed her lips slightly. "Do you remember the Eleven Human Gods?"
"Yeah, what about—" I stopped mid-sentence.
Through our father, Hayley and I had access to information most of the world didn't. We knew the truth: the gods were once mortals. The ones who ascended from humanity were called the Human Gods. Only eleven of them were known.
And among them was one in particular—Hamon, the God of Wisdom and Intellect.
So that's where I heard it…
I turned to Hayley. "You think Phil is directly related to the God of Wisdom?"
She nodded slowly. "It's likely. There's even a small chance he is the God of Wisdom—but that's… less likely."
After thinking about it for a while, I said "Let's just stay away from him for now, he's not on our list anyway."
She sighed softly, then let herself fall back, lying on the bed. "Are we really using our secondary abilities tomorrow?"
"We don't really have a choice, we can't reveal our abilities now."
The room went silent for a while. Hayley soon left for her room, while I decided to wander the school a bit. Checking my phone, it read 21:28. I decided to get a midnight snack. I got to the transport point and teleported to the point nearest to the vending machine. I put in a 2 rin bill and got myself a drink and a sandwich. Apparently the vending machine sold fast foods, that could be kept fresh forever as time didn't move inside the machine.
I was heading to the transport point when I heard the sound of whimpering. Following the sound, I came to a corner, There were 6 students, 2 boys and 4 girls. They were beating up a vaguely familiar boy.
Derrick? What are the odds?
I knew I had to help him, but there was a small problem. Besides Joshua Parker, the rest were all lesser-grade, just one of them could kill him before he could react, of course that's assuming he doesn't use his ability. With my strength sealed, if I didn't use my ability, I would just get bullied alongside Derrick. I decided it would be alright if I used my ability as long as I knocked them out instantly.
I gently closed my eyes as a phrase appeared at the back of my mind
Delta Ratio
Derrick was visibly terrified, the kids who were beating him up, suddenly dropped to the floor for no reason.
He heard footsteps approaching him. it was the boy who saved him earlier in the hall today.
"Why are you always getting bullied, are you that much of a loser."
I glance at one of the girls who was out cold and kick her face "Getting bullied by trash like this, there's no way you're that weak. Hand me your card."
Derrick just kept looking at me like he didn't understand what was going on
It got a bit annoying, so I shouted at him
"Didn't you hear what I just said? I won't say it again."
Snapped back to reality by my voice, he fumbled. "O...O...Okay." He pulled out a card from his pocket and handed it to me.
I took it but didn't look immediately. Instead, I shot him a hard glare. "Get up. Let's go."
He hesitated but managed to stand. Without another word, I turned and started walking away, feeling his footsteps close behind.
Only then did I examine the card's contents.
Name: Derrick Arben
Age: 18
Qualitative Existence: Minor-Grade-2
Combat Grade: F+
Estimated Intelligence: 107
Abilities:...
Ability Grade:...
Overall Student Evaluation: 7741
Okay, I was wrong — he's weak as hell. And there are still a thousand students weaker than him.
Higher up in the building, a woman with dazzling yellow hair sat cross-legged in a chair, her gaze locked on two students through a surveillance camera.
"Interesting," she murmured. "A temporal-type ability... I wonder which family he's from."