Chapter 266 - 264: How Could I Be Recognized?

Finally, Walter Lane closed the file, looked at the two of them, and ordered, "In short, I don’t care what it takes. You must meet this person and secure this program for me!"

The process didn’t matter to him; he only wanted results.

Surely we can’t let other corporations get a major product upgrade from a single program, while the Lane Group is stuck playing catch-up with expensive hardware, can we?

How much more would that cost our group over the course of a year?

The Lane Group absolutely cannot fall behind on this front!

The two managers didn’t dare to object, so they could only bite the bullet and agree.

At No. 2 High School, the bell rang, signaling the start of the lunch break. Students flooded out of their classrooms like a tidal wave, rushing down the hallways toward the cafeteria.

As the students of Class 3-1 filed out, their eyes were all drawn to the spot by the door. There, they saw that the new boy had already finished all his exams and was tidying the papers into a neat stack.

Finally, someone couldn’t resist walking up to him. "Dude, you’re already done?" he asked in amazement.

Ethan Sterling finally looked up, a warm, sunny smile on his handsome face. He gave a slight nod. "All done."

A small crowd gathered around him. One of them asked, puzzled, "You did the exams for Math, Language Arts, English, Social Studies, *and* Sciences?"

"Yes."

"Holy crap, that’s insane! You finished them all in a single morning? Doesn’t your brain need a break?"

Surrounded by unfamiliar faces, Ethan Sterling actually felt a little embarrassed. "It was alright. The exams weren’t that difficult."

"Awesome! You’ve gotta be in our class. Come on, head to the cafeteria with us."

His new classmates were more enthusiastic than he’d expected, but Ethan Sterling quickly declined. "It’s okay, you guys go on ahead. I have to drop these exams off with Mr. Sanders. Do you know which floor his office is on?"

But before the boys beside him could answer, a delicate, pale hand suddenly appeared in front of Ethan Sterling. "Give them to me. I can take them for you."

Ethan Sterling instinctively looked up and saw a girl with a ponytail standing before him.

Renee Reid held her hand out. When he didn’t respond, she blinked and added, "I was just about to drop something off for Mr. Sanders, so it’s no trouble at all."

She spoke with an authentic Lorcain accent, and her clear, gentle voice was especially pleasant to the ear.

"She’s our class president. You can definitely trust her with them," a classmate chimed in.

Ethan Sterling nodded and handed her the papers. "Then I’ll have to trouble you. Thanks."

"You’re welcome."

Renee Reid took the papers and left, while Ethan Sterling was dragged off to the cafeteria by a few enthusiastic male classmates, who offered to let him use their meal cards.

On her way to Mr. Sanders’ office, Renee Reid couldn’t resist a curious peek at Ethan Sterling’s exams. He had finished a full day’s worth of tests in a single morning, yet his handwriting was still impeccable. He had even tucked his scratch paper in with each test to show his work.

"His handwriting is beautiful!"

Renee Reid murmured.

In the school cafeteria, Ethan Sterling was like a tourist receiving the warmest hospitality from the local students.

One person swiped their card to get him a full meal—four dishes and a soup. Another bought him a drink, and a third got him an order of fried chicken.

"Ethan Sterling, these are all the bestsellers at our school cafeteria. We’re not sure if they’re to your Veridian taste, but you definitely won’t find them bad."

"Fried chicken and milk tea are pretty much a national staple. You guys in Veridia have that too, right?"

Feeling their genuine enthusiasm, Ethan Sterling was a little overwhelmed. "Thanks, you’re all being too kind."

A boy beside him, full of curiosity, asked, "Ethan Sterling, why’d you transfer at this point in the year? You can’t transfer your academic records, can you?"

"That’s right. My records are still in Veridia. My family had to move for certain reasons, so I didn’t have a choice," Ethan Sterling said.

"So you must have been a top student at your old school, huh?"

"My grades were always pretty decent," Ethan Sterling said, a rare note of modesty in his voice.

Just then, a boy sitting across from him, who had been staring intently without a word, suddenly slammed his hand on the table, making everyone else jump.

"What the hell was that for? You scared me!"

The boy’s eyes lit up with excitement, as if he’d just discovered America. Pointing at Ethan Sterling, he exclaimed, "Ethan Sterling! I knew you looked familiar! The more I looked, the more I felt like I’d seen you somewhere before!"

The other students looked on in confusion. "You two know each other?"

Ethan Sterling shook his head. "I don’t think so. I’ve never met him before."

But the other boy suddenly broke into a knowing grin. "You were the jungler for team SYBF in last year’s League of Gods National Autumn Tournament, weren’t you!"

Ethan Sterling froze, unable to hide the surprise in his eyes.

’No way...’

’He recognized me from *that*?’

’Someone actually remembers me!’

The others were shocked too. One asked excitedly, "Ethan Sterling, you—you’re a professional League of Gods player?"

"No, we were just an amateur team, formed on the fly for fun. Not professional at all," Ethan Sterling quickly explained.

The boy across from him grew even more excited. "Holy crap, Ethan Sterling, it really is you! I saw that match—you were a beast! You almost knocked a pro team out in the qualifiers!"

"You’re that good at gaming, and you’re a top student too?"

Ethan Sterling smiled sheepishly. "I just play for fun. School is still my priority. Besides, I haven’t played at all since the Autumn Tournament. I don’t even recognize the new heroes they’ve released."

"What a shame. Based on your performance back then, you were prime material for a pro team. If you’d entered the Youth Training Competition, you definitely would’ve had a shot at going pro."

When guys get together and talk about video games, they bond instantly—especially when one of them, like Ethan Sterling, had played in a national tournament.

Over the course of a single lunch break, some of the students had gone from simple curiosity to outright admiration.

Back in the classroom, Renee Reid was resting her head on her desk. Her deskmate rushed back to her seat and said excitedly, "Hey, Class President, did you know? That new transfer student, the one taking exams by the door this morning? He used to compete in the League of Gods national tournament!"

"Huh?"

Renee Reid sat up straight, her face a mask of astonishment. "He’s a competitive player?"

"Yep, a jungler." Her deskmate grew more and more excited as she spoke. "He gets good grades *and* he’s good at gaming. That’s incredible. My grades are decent too, but I’ve been playing League of Gods for almost three years, and the highest I’ve ever gotten is Gold III. And I can only play Support."

Upon hearing this, Renee Reid said, "It’s just a game. For most people, it’s just for fun, a way to pass the time. There’s no need to take ranks and things like that so seriously."

League of Gods was the most popular online game in the world; almost every young person played it.

Her deskmate tilted her head to look at Renee Reid. "Class President, you always rank first in our grade. What’s your rank in the game?"

Renee Reid looked at her deskmate, blinked, and said with a slight smile, "Silver V!"