Chapter 34: Veer
Chapter 34: Veer
Hugh woke up early in the morning and found the sunlight seeping through his window. He rubbed his eyes and walked up to the window, and opened the curtains.
Blinding light filled his vision as the morning sun greeted him with warm air. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the light of the sun, but once he did, he looked out into the outside.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself. He was still in a haze as if everything that happened to him was a dream. All of a sudden, his world turned upside down, and his future could now be soaring in the heavens or falling in the ground with disgrace.
This life that he currently had was just a house of cards, and once the CDA finds out about his condition, it will crumble into pieces.
He summoned his uniform, and white liquid came out of his skin. It morphed into the standard Wolrath Academy uniform that freshmen and sophomore wore into school.
++++++++++++++
DAILY MISSION:
Eat 100,000 kcal (0/100,000)
++++++++++++++
A system notification appeared in his mind. This was his daily mission that granted him the ability to improve his Desire.
Today's mission was simple, which made him disappointed. He thought that if he continued to get tasks to eat wood and metal, he would continuously improve his armor to be a more viable option in a fight.
When he thought about it, having a rest day was not bad. Maybe the system needed time to absorb and consolidate the new materials that he ate.
He walked to the stairs and went down to the kitchen. He configured his touchscreen refrigerator to buy another buffet to finish his daily mission.
He closed the refrigerator and waited half a second before his food was delivered. He chowed down on every food he ordered at top speeds. He did not even take the time to chew his food and just shoved it down his mouth.
The food tasted somewhat bland, so he treated the food as nourishment or mandatory for his mission rather than for pleasure.
He looked down at his belly and found that it was not getting bigger. It seemed like the tons and tons of food he ate were stored in a different space in his body.
He waited for a few seconds but there were no notifications about his reward for finishing the mission. He tried to summon his armor and found that it was much easier to control than before.
He took a bath and got ready to go to school.
He did not dally any longer and went into the shifting room to teleport to the classroom. He came across the mirrors and patted himself down, ensuring that his uniform was in good shape.
He brushed his hair nervously to calm himself down. Hugh felt little vertigo when the shifting room reached the classroom.
He walked out onto the hallway, the same lockers and windows greeted him. He was alone, and only the sounds of his footsteps accompanied him towards the classroom.
He started to sweat, a regular occurrence for him in his everyday life due to his high metabolism. A cacophony of chattering reached his ears as he got near the classroom.
The students were lively, judging from how much they were socializing with each other. During the first day of school, hardly anyone talked to each other. They were still awkward with each other, keeping them from mingling.
It seemed that during the day off from school, his classmates got acquainted with each other. They were developing friendships while Hugh was busy completing his daily missions.
Hugh did not care that he was left out. His only focus in going to this school was to improve his Desire and live a comfortable life.
He stopped at the door and took a big breath. He steeled himself and opened the door to the classroom.
As soon as the door slid away, the chattering stopped, and Hugh could feel the gazes directed at him. He was a little bit late in class, but he did not think it warranted this kind of reaction.
He ignored the stares and pinpointed his eyes towards an empty seat in the back. He wanted to be away from the front because that would give him the attention he did not wish to have.
He noticed that his classmates were whispering to each other while looking in his direction. This left him confused as he did not know what he did to be the center of rumors.
He looked at his seat and positioned to sit on it, but he noticed something on the chair. There was a holographic pamphlet in his chair that had weird text written on it.
He picked it up and read it.
[Hello, Hi, and Greetings to Everyone,
This one's ears have heard of an exciting tale
A fight that sent a burning jock running behind his tail
Even a white-haired bad boy was left black and blue
They were defeated by a fat man, was this true?
Oh, how exciting Class A will be!
Your mysterious reporter will be watching behind a tree.
Tune in for more
For I'm sure, everyone has something in store.
From yours truly, Veer]
Hugh read the strange pamphlet that led him to curl his eyebrows. He had already guessed that the mysterious reporter was writing about his fight with Aric and Dempsy. His heart stopped as the thought of his transformation being found out.
How did this person know? All kinds of thoughts ran in his head as he tried to think of a solution to his current problem. He was ready to burst out of the classroom and make a run for it.
He tried to calm himself down as he looked at the pamphlet once more. He heaved a big sigh of relief that it did not mention his transformation. More importantly, it was just a rumor that he could deny every time.
Hugh looked away from the pamphlet, afraid of what it will imply. He looked around the classroom and saw that they were all looking at him while holding the same booklet that he had read.
It all clicked in his head. His classmates had read the strange report and were whispering around themselves.
He looked to the corner of the classroom, and his heart stopped. Aric was leaning on the blackboard, his face was full of bandaids, and his arm was on a cast.
Hugh gulped. Aric knew about his transformation, and he could use that to take revenge on him. Cold sweat poured down his back as he stared at Aric.
After a few seconds, Aric withdrew his gaze and started to talk to the three male students surrounding him. He did not seem angry or distraught.
The only consolation to this was that Aric did not seem to tell everyone about his transformation. If he wanted to, he would have already done it yesterday and reported him to the CDA.
Aric was smart enough to know that the transformation was too powerful to be a low-class Desire pill. Even the top quality Desire pill did not give that high of jump in power levels.
Aric was holding on to his secret, but he did not know why.
His anxiety seemed to multiply as time passed. Everyone waited for the professor to show up while they socialized with each other.
Hugh watched from the sidelines as his classmates formed cliques around each other.
Aric seemed to be the one most of the men looked up to. His charisma led them to be his follower, and most wanted to get to his inner circle.
Aric formed a natural rapport with the men as he exuded what most people call Alpha energy. In high school and even in this academy, Aric was always the leader of the jocks.
One of the men inside Aric's inner circle was called Tanner. Hugh remembered him from the introduction on the first day of school. He wore his uniform tight, accenting his muscles for all the girls to see. His hair was styled to be a buzz cut.
Brad was another one of Aric's friend. His red-colored mohawk was his most noticeable trait. Traces of tattoos were visible under his uniform.
Another man in the inner circle was called Chip. Everything about this guy was what most people would call normal, except for the nose piercing.
They all joked around and was boisterous enough to cause trouble inside the classroom. They pushed each other around jokingly until Chip collided with a girl.