Not long after the teacher left, the class bell rang loudly and the students started to disperse for lunch.
'This guy's memories are all jumbled up.' Noah as well walked out of the classroom engrossed in his own thoughts.
When he first magically appeared in this new body, a flood of memories had assaulted him but they were not easy to understand.
There were several crucial missing pieces.
For instance, only today he came to know that he was a repeater. Most of the memories from the past years were missing.
He knew that his affinity was zero but he did not know what exactly that meant.
Instead of explaining these useful things, most of the memories he had were rather associated with pain and frustration.
Wasn't this guy just a high school student? Just how much pain was he in? Noah couldn't understand. "Well, I guess all I can do is take it as I go. Time to go eat something."
He walked over to the cafeteria and quickly finished his lunch because he wanted to come back to the class when the crowd was still filtering in and out.
He absolutely did not want to stick out like a sore thumb at least until he had more of the shit figured out.
'Lay low'. Noah reminded himself as he nervously whistled, walking back through the busy corridor.
He almost reached the class when suddenly… someone rammed into him, hard enough for him to stumble and fall back on the ground.
The person who tackled him as well fell, but on top of him.
"NOAH! I am here! Ta da!"
Feeling the two soft mounds pressing up against him, Noah looked up to see a young girl on top of him.
She was dressed in the checked marron school uniform for the first years and had clear blue eyes that peeked through long lashes, expectantly searching his face for something.
"Did you miss me?" She tilted her head and flashed an adorable heart-melting smile at him.
Ah! Noah remembered this face. This was Ella, the best friend of the guy! They had known each other since childhood and they were very close.
And since she was two years younger than him, she was only just now joining the high school. Hence probably her excitement for seeing the guy.
"Hey! You are here!" Noah weakly answered with an awkward smile. It took him a second but then he realized something more important!
Fuck! Every single student around them was currently looking at them!
He quickly pushed the girl away and scrambled to stand up. Why did she have to be good-looking? This was definitely going to bring him more trouble.
"NOAH!" The girl pouted and also stood up to block his path. "Why are you not happy to see me!" She bit her lips in frustration.
"Sure I am. Can we talk later?" Noah was sweating profusely.
Thankfully for him, the next second, the class bell rang loudly and saved him.
"Ah! You dummy! Alright, I will see you after the last class! Don't go anywhere!" The tornado ran away just as fast as she appeared.
Noah had a bad premonition as he smiled bitterly and walked back into his class. He ignored the several eyes on him and directly went to his corner seat.
'Damn it.' He cursed inwardly and did not look up. This was not his first time attending a high school. This darn girl just made his life a hundred times more difficult!
He could already hear several snickering noises next to him.
However, the next second unexpectedly everyone quieted down. "Phew!" Noah let out a sigh and looked up just in time to see a teacher enter the classroom.
The heck?
This was definitely not the same teacher they had in the morning. The tall, thin middle-aged man who had guided them in the morning was now replaced by a hot bombshell beauty.
The entire classroom immediately fell into a pin-drop silence, all the eyes glued on to the seductive hourglass figure of the woman.
She on the other hand did not seem to care. She leaned on the table, her pencil skirt revealing her long legs and her eyes sternly scrutinized everyone in the classroom.
"I am Ana. I will be your new homeroom teacher from today." She said.
After a moment, she clapped her hands and made another announcement. "Everyone pack up your things. We are going for a field trip."
All the students still hadn't recovered from the previous shock and now they were even more shocked!
"What? Field trip? But isn't that dangerous?" A student blurted out. Others also started whispering and murmuring because what he said was not wrong.
They all knew what a field trip meant and it was truly dangerous!
However, the women had already started walking out of the class, not bothering to listen to anyone's whining.
Behind her, Darius and his group of friends walked out first. All of them had confident expressions and they looked as if they were just going on a picnic.
After that, the other monster in the class walked out and he was even worse. He yawned and rubbed his eyes sleepily.
Seeing these guys moving out, the other students began to reluctantly follow.
Noah as well stood up and left the classroom to attend this field trip. He was rather happy that they were doing this and not too concerned about the danger part.
Surely, how dangerous could a school field trip be? He was more interested in taking a better look at this new world.
Soon, the entire class was settled inside one of the school buses and the vehicle started moving.
They drove out of the beautiful school campus that stretched for several acres and into the city. This was Noah's first time taking a look at the city with his own eyes.
Majestic. That was the first word that came to his mind. There were several tall buildings, lots of greenery, and people were in a rush just like any other happening city back on earth.
By seeing this, one probably would not even guess that there was magic in this world.
Just as he thought this, the bus started picking up speed. Slowly the trees and the buildings became blurry and soon they were shooting forward at about 200 or 300 miles per hour?
Fuck! Was this a school bus or rocket?!
After that Noah was not able to pay attention to anything. All of his focus went to keeping down the lunch he had just minutes ago. Only when the bus finally stopped he was able to breathe.
He looked outside and saw the teacher Ana talking to a few men in military uniforms.
They did not look happy to see the teacher or the school bus, but after a couple of minutes, they obediently stepped aside.
"So fierce!" Noah made a mental note. He needed to be on the good side of this teacher.
All the students then began climbing out of the bus and gathered in the front.
"Everyone listen up. This is not your grandmother's garden. So pay attention." The teacher loudly reminded, bringing everyone's attention to her.
"Who knows what is this place?"
"Miss Ana, this is a void gate," Darius answered first.
"Does everyone know what is a void gate?"
All the students nodded. Noah as well quickly followed suit.
"It is not enough to nod. Open your mouth and explain." The teacher's sharp eyes scanned the group and were about to land on Noah's side when Darius once again answered.
"Void gates are spatial anomalies from which beasts and other monsters enter our world. These holes cannot be permanently sealed so every void gate is closely guarded by our military."
"That is correct. This is why you are all able to sleep in the night peacefully. Do you understand?"
"You have all tested your affinities and your elements just this morning, so if you think that your life is going to be smooth sailing from now on, you are just fooling yourself!"
"We are living in dangerous times. We need to constantly guard everything we have. Otherwise, the life we know might disappear within seconds."
"Each and every one of you should work hard and become someone that our country can rely on. Do you understand?"
Everyone silently nodded.
"Now I brought you all here to take a look at the kind of monsters we will be dealing with. Form a line and walk alongside this road. Don't do anywhere else."
She pointed to the long winding road that extended from the parking area to the several camps that lay ahead of them a few miles away.
And beyond these camps, there was a thick dense forest, surrounded by a guarded perimeter wall.
"So this is the void gate huh?" Noah mumbled as he took a good look at everything around him.