Chapter 91: Scared Or...?

She tossed the card onto his chest.

Declan hurriedly caught it before it could fall, and Kiara walked away, stepping into the elevator before disappearing down.

"Huuuuu..."

Declan exhaled, wiping away the sweat before his steely eyes turned toward Eloris, who was half-kneeling on the ground.

"Imma get you next time, fat ass. Don’t even think this is over."

Eloris hmphed as he rose to his feet.

"Over!? You wish! Even in death, Imma crip-walk on your grave, you bastard!" he shot back, and Declan’s brows quivered.

’Tsk, let’s see you talking big soon,’ he thought, calming his anger before swiping the purple card across the scanner and stepping inside.

The moment he entered, he was blown away.

The living room was massive, almost as though his previous living room and bedroom in the Newcomers’ area had been joined together.

Everything was tiled in white and furnished with sofas and a glass table, alongside a TV and gadget stand, although the latter remained empty.

He stepped into the bedroom, where a massive bed awaited him, one that would have no problem accommodating five adults sleeping side by side.

Declan lay down on it, and the moment his body sank into the mattress, it felt like he had fallen straight into paradise.

"Oh lord, finally some mercy," he said, his tongue rolling out in relief.

He soon jumped off the bed and checked out the other two doors.

One led to a bathroom with a bathtub installed, while the other held the toilet.

Both had been combined in the Newcomers’ area, yet each room here was bigger than his entire living room back there.

One thing he did notice, however, was that there was no space for a training room.

And Declan absolutely understood why.

There was an area marked on the map, one labeled X Guard Training Area.

It was a place accessible only to second and third years and strictly forbidden to Newcomers.

He had heard rumors about how great the place was, so it made sense that they wouldn’t waste space putting an extra training room inside the students’ residences.

After all, the Newcomers’ area had no such training facility.

"So this is my new home. Not bad... not bad at all!" Declan mused with a satisfied grin as he returned to the living room.

Bringing out the bag he’d received, he quickly inserted the memory card into his new device.

And speaking of his new device, it wasn’t a foldable one this time.

Instead, it was a flat, 7.1-inch device that was as thin as paper and made from surprisingly transparent glass.

"Quite fancy," he mused as he watched the applications rapidly download.

Within mere minutes, a notification appeared.

[Rebooting Complete!]

There were more applications this time, and even his map had been upgraded.

Places that had previously been marked red on the map were now marked blue, while some areas that had previously been hidden were now revealed to him.

"Perfect. Simply perfect," he mused happily.

Navigating to the rules app, he quickly browsed through it.

There was nothing particularly crazy about them, and as expected, the rules favored him more.

They were vastly different from the Newcomers’ rules, where he had felt that practically everything was ridiculous.

After only a few hours of browsing, Declan had become quite familiar with everything.

He was going through the list of instructors when one name caught his eye.

[Instructor Name: Sir Lycanoid.]

[Hierarchy: Special Grade Instructor.]

[Duty: Responsible for Quests and Mission Welfare.]

"Now that reminds me, I really gotta do something about that man."

[Why did you even run back then? The fight was going your way, and yet you still ran.]

The system panel blinked before Declan as he reclined on the sofa, scrolling through his device.

"I didn’t run. I walked off."

[And why did you walk off? Scared?]

"No. He’s an instructor, and I’m a Newcomer."

"Even as strong as I was, the second years can still put me in a difficult position with the rules simply because they’re second years."

"He’s an instructor. There are a thousand and one ways for him to fuck me up without raising a finger, so far he is able to get proof that I attacked him."

"Something that will be more than easy for him considering the scale of destruction that will happen if we both fight. It will alert everyone in the staff building."

[And?]

"The rules will absolutely be biased toward him, and the academy will most likely try to make me a scapegoat in front of the other students for messing with an instructor."

"So...I left."

Declan explained.

He had actually been pretty excited about fighting Sir Lycanoid. The instructor was strong, and Declan wanted a glimpse of an instructor’s power, or at least the power of a higher-level Nexian.

But when he also considered the rules, he knew he would be the one getting screwed over at the end of the day.

They might cancel out his reward for the expedition and demote him back to being a Newcomer.

The risk simply wasn’t worth it for a few minutes of excitement.

[Tell me you’re not naive enough to think he would just let that go because you ’walked’ away.]

"Of course, I’m not."

"Arrogant pieces of shit like that will always want revenge. I bet he’s already got his plans ready."

"And since the fight started because he wanted in on my secret of power, he must now be more interested in learning about it than ever."

"With the position he occupies and the power he holds, who knows how far he would go in pursuit of that?"

Declan replied, his brows furrowing as he quietly analyzed the situation in his mind.

’His eyes are on my back, and I can’t fight because of the difference in our hierarchy. Then there’s only one thing left to do.

In the next moment, he went to the call app on his previous device and dialed the number.

It rang, and just five seconds later, it was picked up.

"Boss Morg?" Declan said, sitting upright.

He could hear the sound of hurried footsteps, followed by something being blasted apart.

"A call is quite unlike you. What’s up?" she said, and Declan was about to reply when he winced.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

It was like an atomic bomb had been dropped right beside his ear, the explosion echoing so loudly from the other side that he instinctively pulled the device away.

It made him pause, and when the noise finally quelled somewhat, he asked,

"Hey, you uh... busy with something?"

"Just some annoying roaches,"

She said, though in the next moment, there was the sound of bullets showering the area, followed by metal dropping rapidly to the ground and the sickening sound of bones being crushed.

"You know what? I’ll just call you again ten minutes from now," he said before cutting off the call.

It felt as though she were in a battlefield, surrounded by bombs and gunfire.

Just three minutes had passed when his device vibrated on the table from an incoming call.

It was Boss Morg.

"I heard you went on some expedition. How was it?" she asked after he picked up.

The other side was quieter this time.

"It went well."

"Even though you were out for two weeks or so?" she asked, causing Declan’s brows to quiver.

’How does she know everything...?’

"I take it back. It was bad, but I’m fine now."

"Okay. What do you need?" she asked.

"I have someone poking their nose into my secrets. He’s an instructor, so... kinda hard to, you know," he explained, and he could hear her exhale a cloud of smoke before asking:

"What’s his name?"

"Sir Lycanoid. That’s his official name in X Guard."

"Lycanoid, huh? You don’t have to worry about him anymore," she said.

Declan paused quietly for a moment before responding.

"Thank you, Boss Morg. Will check in later."

He cut off the call and exhaled.

He hadn’t talked much with Boss Morg since her last visit. Actually, he hadn’t spoken to her at all for the past three months.

He had no reason to reach out, and she had never texted either. In a way, he felt this was for the best.

’With Sir Lycanthrope off my back, that’s a major headache gone.’

"But now, I have to choose a class," he mused, his fingers tapping on the device.

In the first year, students typically took the same classes, such as Combat, History, and Weaponry.

In the second year, things were much different.

They were divided into two institutes:

Mech Design and Core Defense.

Each possessed completely different classes that never overlapped.

Moreover, each of these institutes had its own sub-institutes.

Normally, Metric Ranking determined where a student would be placed, but since Declan had entered with a promotion, that requirement was excluded, allowing him to freely choose.

He had already made his choice long ago, and he didn’t plan on changing it.

His fingers clicked on Mech Design, and he quickly watched as his new class schedule downloaded, along with highlighted class areas appearing on the map.

It also mentioned that he needed to collect necessary items such as lab coats, gloves, and other supplies from a specific building.

He tried to pick a sub-institute but received a notification informing him that he needed to spend a month in General Mech Design before unlocking that option.

Going through the schedule, he quickly noted his classes.

"There’s a Mech Module Class from 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM tomorrow."

"Wow, that’s a full six hours," Declan mused in disbelief, and that wasn’t the only class available.

"There’s also a Source Optimization Class from 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM, and another class from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM."

[Quite the steep schedule.]