Chapter 73: Hungry for More

  It was officially time for the term break to begin. Technically, it had begun two weeks earlier for the rest of our classmates, but for us participants, this was the first real chance to unwind since orientation.

  It was the day after the end of the tournament, and our school was in high spirits. Fresh off our overall victory over Horizon High, our school decided to celebrate by announcing a 50% discount on all meals within the school compound. It wasn’t much, but even a small change like that was enough to break the monotony of cafeteria food, drawing a huge crowd to the restaurants in the mall as a result. A minor incentive was enough to influence behaviour. That was just how people responded to change.

  In addition to that, the arcade had also just officially opened, so understandably, the mall was absolutely filled to the brim.

  My friends and I too were on our way there, and of course, just about everyone nearby was staring at us. Despite the unwanted attention, our little group included a semi-finalist and the overall victor for the first-years, so there wasn’t much we could do about it.

  Instead, my mind was focused on something more important. Dr Connor had requested that I attend a reassessment of my Ability, and I had accepted it. We had agreed to do it first thing this weekend—tomorrow, in other words.

  But for that, I would have to leave the school and travel to the assessment facility. Frankly, I was a little lazy to go, but now that my true abilities were out for the world to see, there was no use hiding behind anything but a 5-Star Rank.

  Well, getting that Rank was easy. It was the star that came after it that piqued my interest. 6-Stars huh… I wondered if I could get it if I really tried.

  A familiar-looking girl came bounding up to us. “Hey guys, well done for the tournament! Y’all did an amazing job!”

  We hadn’t seen Krystal since our last training session before the event. I remembered her as the 3-Star fire esper who had finished runner-up to Asher in the DreamPod tournament, and had personally asked Scarlette to mentor her afterwards.

  “Yo, what’s up?” Scarlette beamed.

  “The tournament was insane. The level that you fought at… I can only dream of,” she gushed.

  “Nah, I’m sure you could do it too if you put your heart into it!”

  As the two fire espers showered each other with compliments, Kaede had a question for me.

  “Are you gonna try out the DreamPods once they’re certified ready for use?”

  While the arcade was now officially open, the DreamPods were still off-limits. They utilised technology that the majority of the student population were unfamiliar with—myself included—and the school didn’t want us breaking their new toys as soon as they were launched. There was probably going to be a briefing, or maybe a tutorial video uploaded on the school network, but for now we could only wait.

  “I’d be interested in trying them out,” I answered. I had thought of adding “Maybe I can finally go all out without actually killing someone instantly”, but I figured that my friends may not appreciate the dark humour.

  “Awesome. I hope there’s a co-op feature… like, you know, one where we can all team up against you.”

  "It’s no use, Kaede," Jonah huffed. "I’d imagine Cadel wouldn’t break a sweat against the rest of us. He could probably take on the entire school and still come out on top."

  Frankly, that felt like a bit of a stretch. If it was just against the cohort, sure, but the whole school? A couple of particular espers from the tournament came to mind—actually, make that two: Asher and Celestia.

  Asher was an obvious choice. He was my fellow finalist, and currently the only other esper that I felt could match me in terms of intellectual ability. He was incredibly cunning and hard to read. There was also the fact that Dr Connor was his father, but maybe that was a bit of a stretch. Asher was dangerous enough on his own.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  The other name that came to mind was Celestia. She was the winner of the third-year duel competition, and it honestly hadn’t even been close. She had completely run away with it. The way her Ability worked was still a mystery to me, but I suspected it had something to do with time manipulation. If that were true, it would be a significant piece of information for me. I had always found time powers fascinating, and I was dying to square off against someone who had them.

  Fortunately, we had exchanged contacts during the prize-giving ceremony, and she had mentioned that she was open to a sparring session. For now though, that would have to wait while I focused on the reassessment.

  I put my internal monologue aside as we finally arrived at the mall. Saying it was packed would have been an understatement. It felt like the entire school had shown up.

  “Um, sorry guys, I kinda underestimated the crowd,” Scarlette blushed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked to sleep in…”

  I looked around for Krystal. She wasn’t in sight, so I assumed she had silently rejoined the rest of her friends.

  “No worries! You deserve a good rest after how much you put into the tournament,” Kaede reassured her.

  That was true. Unlike me, Scarlette had multiple close battles. And with how gruelling and tightly packed the tournament was, it had definitely taken a toll on her body. She had also been the one to shut me down when I suggested meeting up at half past eight in the morning.

  “The mall doesn’t even open till nine! I’m sure it’d be fine if we went around eleven,” she had texted in the group chat last night.

  Unfortunately, we were now paying the price.

  “So uhh, where should we eat?” the instigator asked sheepishly.

  “Since all meals are 50% off, most people would be going for the more expensive options to get the best value,” I reasoned. “We could always go for something a little cheaper. There should be shorter queues there.”

  “I feel like it’s a bit of a waste if we just get something cheap though,” Kaede said. “It wouldn’t be much different from their usual prices.”

  Jonah surprised everyone. “Honestly, I’m with Cadel on this one,” he began. “If we wait for all the higher-end places, we’re going to be queuing for dinner by the time it’s our turn.”

  No offence to Jonah, but that was a relatively rare glimpse of logical understanding on his part, relatively speaking.

  Fortunately, Scarlette had another solution in mind. “Okay so like, I feel kinda bad. But I did get some credits from my third-place finish, and you guys did treat Cadel and me before the competition, so maybe we can come back on another day? Meals will be on me.”

  Jonah did a complete 180. “Yup, that works too. Sounds good.”

  “Are you sure?” Mira asked. “You don’t have t—”

  “Yeah! We can come back on like, Sunday or something. Since Cadel will be gone tomorrow.”

  “Speaking of which, you better get that 6-Star rating,” Jonah warned, glaring at me.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I said.

  Scarlette rolled her eyes. “Anyway, let’s see if we can find a shorter queue at one of the cheaper places.”

  We ended up navigating our way through the crowd a bit before stopping by a café.

  “This one looks good,” Kaede said. “Food seems pretty decent, and there’s almost no queue!”

  The rest of us didn’t have any objections, so we agreed. However, just as we moved to the front of the line, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

  “Looks like y’all had the same idea,” Asher greeted us.

  I looked around. “You’re by yourself?” I asked.

  “Ouch. Not everyone has friends, you know,” he chuckled. His laugher had an almost grating tone to it.

  “What about Bob?” Scarlette prodded. Now that they weren’t competing with each other, I sensed Scarlette being a little more comfortable around the guy that had not only knocked her unconscious, but out of the tournament as well. Still, the wariness was definitely there, but it was something you couldn’t really blame her for.

  “We were only together because the two of us represented our class in the tournament. He already has his own clique back at school,” Asher replied.

  “Oh… sorry,” Scarlette apologised. “I didn’t mean to sound accusatory. I guess... you could join us if you want? If nobody here minds.”

  “If Scarlette doesn’t mind, I have no issues,” nodded Kaede, with Mira and Jonah both agreeing with her.

  “Cadel?”

  I didn’t particularly mind either, but it was obvious he was fooling around. I wanted to try taking the bait and see where it led to.

  “Um, personally I’m a little uncomfortable with having a liar at the same table as us,” I commented.

  Scarlette frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Remember when Asher won the first mini-tournament with the DreamPods at the arcade? There were already people cheering for him before the first game. And after the tournament, I saw him with a bunch of other students. They looked too close to just be random supporters.”

  Asher smirked. “Good eye. It’s true that they’re my friends. The reason I’m here alone is because I was eating with them when I saw the bunch of you walk past, so I thought I’d say hi.

  He wasn’t done. “Oh, and also, I just remarked that not everyone has friends. I didn’t say anything about me not having friends,” he added. “So what exactly am I lying about?”

  It was a good comeback, but I wanted to try prodding him a little more.

  “Did I specifically mention that you were the liar I was referring to?” I replied. I was aware that it was a lame argument, but I was curious to see how he’d respond. Whether he played along or went overly defensive would give me further insight to his personality.

  “No, but anyone could clearly see you were referring to me. If you weren’t, then you were being intentionally misleading, even to your friends.”

  “Since you were misleading us about not having friends in the first place, maybe I was just following your lead.”

  “Table for five?” the waitress interrupted. Looked like our table was ready.

  Asher sighed. “Well, guess I’ll be going now. Don’t wanna delay your lunch and all that. Enjoy your meal.” He left without another word.