Chapter 48: Getting in Trouble with Hoverboarders

It wasn’t considered impressive at X Guard Academy, where true greatness began at C-Grade, but it was still enough for him to undergo Core Fusion without worrying about dying from the procedure.

Declan checked his schedule and saw that there was only one class tomorrow, starting at 6:30 in the morning and lasting three hours, ending at 9:30.

"I’ll go to the Core Fusion Lab at ten."

He had no idea how long the procedure would take, but it shouldn’t take more than a day, and if he went immediately after class, he should be back in his dorm by night.

"I can’t wait."

Declan couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice.

"Hey, heads up!"

A voice suddenly called from behind, causing Declan to turn just as a hoverboard came flying straight toward his face.

His reflexes kicked in instantly, and his hand shot forward to catch the edge of the hoverboard, stopping it just three inches from his eyes.

"What the—"

The person riding it was suddenly thrown from the board, rolling several times across the pavement before crashing into a light pole and coming to a stop.

"Leo fell!?"

"No! That guy tripped him!"

"Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?"

Seven people on hoverboards immediately surrounded Declan, and as usual, they were moving as a group.

Declan slowly lowered the hoverboard and looked at them.

"I don’t know. Maybe trying not to get blinded by a hoverboard?"

He tossed the board back toward them.

’If I were actually an ordinary human and hadn’t caught that thing, it would’ve smashed straight into my eyes and blinded me.’

A girl among them frowned.

"Leo is new! You had no right to just whisk his hoverboard away like that."

"If he’s new, then he shouldn’t be blitzing around like that."

Declan turned and resumed walking, passing Leo, who was still rubbing his aching back from the collision.

The guy glared at him, but Declan ignored him.

"An ordinary human talking big. So what if your eyes got blinded?" Leo spat. "You don’t belong here, trash!"

BOOOOM!

The air behind Declan suddenly exploded as a fist shot toward the back of his head.

Leo’s punch came roaring toward him without hesitation, a sneer tugging at the corner of his lips, but Declan simply shifted his head to the side, causing the fist to sweep harmlessly past his ear and miss him by barely an inch.

VROOOOM!

"He dodged it!?"

Leo blurted out in surprise as he quickly pulled his fist back, blinking once before his eyes widened when he realized a massive palm was already inches from his face.

Leo instinctively tried to move his head away, but the motion only existed in his imagination because Declan’s hand had already clamped around his face and lifted him cleanly off the ground.

BOOOOOOOOM!

Leo’s head was driven into the pavement with enough force to create a spiderweb of cracks across the cement, leaving the surrounding group frozen as they stared at him with widened eyes, his head now half-buried in the crater.

Declan grabbed him and pulled him back up, revealing blood smeared across half of Leo’s face, and as he looked directly into Leo’s right eye, he calmly asked,

"If I’m trash, then what does that make you?"

Those were the last words Leo heard before Declan swung him away, sending him hurtling toward the road, and before he could recover his senses—

PIIIIIIIIIIIIM!

A car horn blared, and Leo barely had time to turn his head before a bus slammed directly into him, sending his body flying off the road and crashing into a nearby light pole.

"BLEEERRGH!"

Blood burst from his mouth as his body crumpled to the ground, his eyes rolling backward.

Declan glanced at the group that remained standing before him.

"Fuck off."

The words were enough to make the others immediately lose their nerve, and instead of trying anything else, they rushed toward Leo.

’Idiots.’

Declan shook his head and continued on his way without giving them another thought, completely unaware that, across the pavement, a boy holding a camera had been filming the passing traffic when the entire confrontation was accidentally captured in the background.

Realizing what he had recorded, the boy quickly uploaded the footage to the X-Net under the title:

"Human Vs Corer. Unbelievable Win."

Within minutes, the video had accumulated hundreds of views, and the discussion surrounding it began spreading throughout the entire X Guard Academy.

Declan however remained completely unaware of the commotion he had caused.

By the time he returned to his dorm, he had already forgotten about Leo, and after bringing out his green card, swiping it across the scanner, and stepping inside, he headed straight for the bedroom, where he immediately noticed that the damaged wall from earlier had already been repaired and even the destroyed punching bag had been replaced with a new one.

"He really did fix it up, huh?"

Declan looked around the restored room as a mischievous thought slowly formed in his mind.

’That means I can blow this place up as much as I want. Now that’s just perfe...’

The thought had barely finished forming before,

BEEP!

BEEP!

His device interrupted him, and when Declan pulled it out, he found a message waiting on the screen.

[{From: Dorm Officer}]

[{Message: Every dorm user is entitled to only three free room repairs. You have already used one, leaving two remaining. Use them wisely.}]

Declan stared at the message for a moment before sighing.

’I guess that’s a no.’

He shrugged and returned to the living room, where he grabbed his bag from beneath the sofa, having hidden it there because of the dorm officer’s earlier visit, and checked the remaining materials inside, only to find that although there was still something left, it was nowhere near enough to create the second gadget he had planned.

"I’ll need to visit that trash place again."

He glanced toward the window before continuing,

"I can’t do it tomorrow because of my fusion, but I should have a chance the day after."

With that decided, Declan dropped onto the sofa and brought out the small cube, folding his fingers tightly around it as the nanotechnology immediately responded, with metallic blue nanites spreading across his palm and wrapping around his fingers before forming the nozzle at the center of his hand, where condensed photon energy began crackling inside.

Even after seeing it several times, the sight still amazed him, and as he stared at the weapon formed across his hand, another thought entered his mind.

"What if I made an entire armor suit?"

Declan’s eyes gradually brightened as his imagination began running wild, already envisioning the possibilities.

"I could equip photon blasters on both palms and maybe place smaller ones beneath my feet to give myself more jumping momentum, and if I could create a levitating nozzle underneath each foot, I might even be able to achieve actual flight."

His gaze shifted toward his chest as another idea came to mind.

"And maybe I could place an ultra-large Photon Nucleus there and use it to release one massive attack."

The more he thought about it, the more possibilities came to mind until the idea began taking shape in his head.

"A true Nano Combat Armor."

He leaned back into the sofa, his mind already piecing the design together as he considered the materials he would need.

’The wasteland is a good place to find materials, but a project like this will require much better components.’

’One mistake with the armor, and I’ll be the one getting blown up before I even get the chance to blow anything else up.’

His ideas were getting crazier by the second, but reality remained a problem because he was still a student, and there was only so much he could accomplish with the resources currently available to him.

Before he could think any further—

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

Someone knocked on his door, and Declan raised an eyebrow.

’Who is it this time?’

He got up, swiped his card across the scanner, and opened the door, only for a familiar head to immediately appear on the other side.

"Evie?"

"Ai yoooooooo."

"What do you want?"

"Waaaah, so harsh. I thought you said we’re good now?"

Declan nodded.

"I did, and we are."

"Then why are you asking what I want?"

"Because you’re standing at my door."

Declan with a raised eyebrow.

"What? Neighbors aren’t allowed to check up on each other anymore?"

"I’m busy. Go check on the other door."

Declan gestured toward the empty room beside them, but before he could close his door, Evie shook her head.

"There isn’t a student there yet."

"And the other door after that?"

"Still nobody."

"And the other, other door?"

"There are only two of us in this corridor," Evie replied, looking at him as though he were missing something obvious. "We’re the only two students here because we’re the only ones in the scholarship program."

Declan raised an eyebrow.

"You didn’t know?"

"Why else do you think the rooms here look so shitty compared to the rest of the dorms?"

"I haven’t seen the other dorms."

Declan glanced back at his room.

"And mine looks fine to me."

"It’s all trash."

Evie shook her head before continuing.

"But that’s not the point. Since we’re the only two scholarship students, we’re both stuck in this corridor reserved for scholarship students."

She then stretched out her hand toward him with an exaggerated smile.

"So, we’re neighbors. I know we started off on the wrong foot, so how about we forget all that and start over with a friendly neighbor’s handshake?"

Declan stared at her outstretched hand for a moment before rolling his eyes, then stepped out of his room and shut the door behind him.

"There’s a tracker between your fingers."

Evie’s smile immediately stiffened.

"You know that, right?"