The Elusive Book Keeper

In the changing room, Jet looked coldly at Zane, his eyes narrowing into tiny slits. During the class, sometimes his eyes would dart to Avery Millox only to see her eyes were on Zane. Even after the lecture, Avery had continued staring at Zane. 

Jet was disgruntled by this. Zane might have been the second ranker in the CAT but that was nothing compared to real life. How many geniuses or high scorers in the preparatory schools still made it in reality. Was he not just a level one sniper? He on the other had awakened with nice attributes and skills and even joined Whitebane, one of the top three clubs in the school.

The moment he awakened, he felt brand new, like everything had changed, so why did he still have the feeling of being looked down upon?

Bang! 

A loud noise distracted him. He turned to look at another student punching a locker, a holographic screen in the shape of the school  ID before. "That m*****f***er." The tall lanky boy with dyed green hair swore.

Jet eyes narrowed, "He really issued demerits?"

"Can you not ask me such a stupid question?" The boy, John, was clearly too annoyed to bother with Jet.

Jet narrowed his eyes and within seconds John's hand was firmly gripped by his and from the look of pure pain on the boy's face, it was a light grip. His voice was threatening and loud enough to be heard by the entire room." Don't you dare speak to me in that manner?"

Zane quickly put on his clothes. It was a dark T-shirt, green trousers and boots. It was tailored to his size and oddly light and comfortable. 

"Wow." The twin ranger, Olive let out a small gasp. "It is as if I am still nȧkėd." He turned around, checking the clothes on his face before he suddenly realized what he said and blushed.

Zane comforted him with a smile. He did not think it was that extreme but yes. The uniform was very comfortable and light. He touched the material, it was weird. Not cotton or silk either. Perhaps it is a material gotten from a dungeon or ruin. 

He reached into the locker and brought out a piece of equipment. It was a plain black band. He wore it. It was not constricting and was as light as the uniform. A holographic screen appeared in front of Zane.

(Incoming Bionic Sports Band. Permission to connect.)

Zane clicked yes and the band was connected to his Atlas. Zane was used to sports bands. They were issued to students who were about to take a fitness or combat exam. 

One of its purposes was to detect irregular heartbeats such as arrhythmia heartbeats thereby saving lives. Zane had once heard the alarm go off for a middle-aged woman near the library but never a student. However, it was still being used which means there are such cases, even if they are rare.

The last things in the locker were a water canteen and a weapon. Zane brought out the disassembled parts of the sniper rifle and with practised hands, he quickly put them together.

The sniper rifle was a bolt action weapon. Times had already evolved as this sniper went out of popularity decades ago. However, it was one of Aaron's favorites. He was a firm believer in traditional weapons. He claimed that only by training with such traditional weapons can one learn the basics better.

The bullets were boat-tailed blank bullets that were probably filled with paint.

As he continued to inspect the weapons, he heard a ruckus in the changing room. He lifted his eyes slightly to see Jet walking towards John. He watched them only to witness Jet's violent display and threat. He carefully observed the entire group of students. 

Some looked confused, some were in shock but two people had reacted quickly. One was a very quiet, gloomy looking boy called Sami. He was clenching a dagger and his eyes narrowed on Jet. 

The second one was Olive. The shy looking kid with freckles who had introduced himself in class after Avery's Flying display. A pistol suddenly appeared in his hand. The crazy thing was that he was backing Jet yet Zane had a feeling that he was battle ready. His entire body looked tense like a lion about to pounce. Zane smiled, his class had pretty interesting characters.

He took out a protein bar from his inventory and took a large bite. Hopefully, it would help whatever evil plans Mr Aaron had for them today. 

Finishing all in his mind, he finally walked to the two boy's having an alteration. "Jet, John, Is anything wrong?" He gave them a worried look.

Jet removed his hand from the bruised wrist of John and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, "Nothing much. It is the first class and my mate here already got a demerit. Wondering what to do? What do you think?" Jet asked not bothering to hide the malicious smirk on his face. After all, the introduction earlier had made Zane the pseudo leader of the class.

Zane could feel all the stares on him. He gasped, his eyes widened by a fraction, "One demerit? Don't tell me Mr West was serious. It is only his first class, surely it was a warning. Are you sure, have you checked properly?"

Another boy that was done changing nodded, "Yes. Zane is right. We are new students and don't know the rules yet. I don't think that it would abide by the school policy."

He rubbed his wrist. His temper had already fled with the pain in his wrist and he just looked lost, "What should I do?" Having a demerit on the first day of class would be demoralizing to anyone. Especially with the school system that the Amherst college was running.

Zane rubbed his chin before he switched in his Atlas to look it up. After a while, he said, "Since Mr West has a blue code authority, you can ask him to give you merits."

Everyone, including Jet, looked at him like he was crazy. They had not been in the school for so long but they already knew that merits were not things given out for free like salt. Every instructor had a fixed number of merits that they can issue to students.

"You can't be serious?" The boy that initially supported him said.

Zane shrugged, "Still not a bad idea to try, you can ask if there will be merits for giving an exemplary performance in the test. He might agree. He seems like a kind instructor." Zane's stomach twitched at the last statement, "Let's all change. I am sure the girls are already ready." He smiled at Jet who had not yet started changing his clothes. Leaning on his locker, he popped open another protein bar.

~~~~~~~

In the classroom, the kind instructor Aaron was looking at the files of the students he would be having this year.

He read through Avery Millox's file. A winged sniper, not bad. However, an amazing class does not immediately subscribe to combat ability, in fact, most students with specialized pathways die a lot quicker in dungeons due to the misguided confidence they have in their skills.  Her focus had only been at 56%, it was a little weak.

He flipped the next page to Olive Knight. The boy looked ordinary, his only distinguishing feature on him was his freckles and yet this body had the highest focus in the entire class at 85%, Aaron had rarely seen such in one so young. Not to mention that he had a twin, that would be interesting.

The door to the class suddenly opened and Aaron looked up, the files vanishing in the process.

Two identical boys walked into the class. From their hair to their shoes, they were completely similar.

"Good morning, Sir. How is your day?" The first one asked?

Aaron smiled at him, "My day is going great. I have got a good bunch. You guys are right on time."

The second one mȯȧnėd sadly. "It's not fun with you Mr West. Can you at least pretend to consider it for a few more seconds?"

"Alright, Alec. Sorry, next them I will take a few more seconds." Having indulged him for a moment, Aaron focused on the class, "We have fourteen students, nine boys and five girls. I have sent their files to your Atlas. Go through it in order to identify them. We don't want a situation like last year Alec, number one and blue shirt are not students' names."

Alec turned red and elbowed his snickering brother in the ribs but didn't take offense. They had been Aaron's teaching ȧssistants for two years now and were close to him.

The students started to trope into the class and before minutes they were fully ȧssembled.

Aaron smiled at them, "We will be using the training rink outside the classroom. Hope everyone is ready."

John bravely raised his hand, "Sir if we have an outstanding performance in the test. Would we get a reward?" In the end he had been too embarrassed to ask for merits before the whole class.

"Sure if you have an outstanding performance, you get a merit.. Since we still have time, we shall have a small fitness test before the marksmanship test. What does everyone think?"