Shane turned to look at his master, who averted his eyes and said, "Let's get this going. Next!"
"Are you not going to explain to me what the hell is a 'diabolic' system?" Shane squinted his eyes. Master Ed and Dirt were acting suspicious, "Is it something bad?"
"We'll talk later. You can stand aside."
Shane had to listen to the bald man as he sighed and walked back to stand beside Dirt with a bored expression on his face. He watched as people kept getting cool systems one after another. His sister and Frank both got amazing jobs: Fire Summoning and Death systems. These two sounded so alluring that Shane almost wanted to change his job with them.
As if reading his thoughts, Dirt turned his head one eighty degrees as he glared at the boy, "You only get one job, and you're very unlucky to get diabolic!"
"Can you just shut up? I'm already confused."
"I don't want to talk about it."
After that, neither Dirt nor Ed even spared a glance at his face. They all continued to act until the job assigning session ended after half an hour. When all the students got their jobs, they all walked out of the white room after Ed and his robot and stood in the same positions in two lines.
Ed turned toward everyone as he gave a quick glance at the youngsters, pausing for a microsecond on Shane's face before averting his eyes. If one looked carefully, one would end up seeing a hint of anxiety in his eyes while glancing at Shane just now.
Too bad, students here weren't too familiar with him at the moment. So none of them could figure it out.
Once they all stood there silently, Ed opened his mouth, "Let's go to your first experience as a system. I'll randomly assign you a world and a virtual host in groups of two based on your jobs. This session is important since it'll start granting you experience points and will help you level up. Remember, the experience points obtained from hosting are ten times more than from killing monsters.
"So do your best."
Shane couldn't help but feel a little excited. Even though his luck wasn't good enough until now, he didn't believe he would continue to face drastic situations at all times. He was optimistic since this was his only chance to save himself and his sister in this strange world.
Just then, a student raised his hand and asked, "Instructor, when do we start getting Crana?"
"The moment you pass the academy, you'll be awarded Crana based on your level. For example, those who reached level ten will get up to ten thousand Crana. Below ten and above five will receive five thousand, and the below fives will receive five hundred Crana only," Ed paused and asked, "Any more questions?"
"Yes," another student raised his hand and glanced at Shane as he asked with a smirk on his face, "What's a diabolic system? It couldn't be something that can be used with power, could it?"
"I bet it's simply a worthless job that'll probably give him less experience."
"Oh, then none of us will have to see his face anymore since we're all going to head to Occident. He can stay here for as long as he likes!" Another female student snickered.
Occident was another continent, just similar to Orient, the current continent with a system's academy. It was said that when the students graduate from this institute, their future was decided based on whether they could reach level ten or not. If they could, they would all be sent to Occident, and if not, they would continue to live in Orient in poverty.
Why would they be surrounded by poverty? Simple, It was because the systems living here would get the worst of all the jobs as systems, or little experience points, and even Crana obtained would be so little that even after years of struggling, none of them would be able to get out of Orient.
Normally, a student could escape this continent by leveling up to ten, but an average resident would have to pay about two hundred thousand Crana to use the portal once. There were even cases where the systems would be rejected for being 'too weak' to enter Occident and would end up losing all their hard-earned money.
So basically, staying back in Orient was a bad idea, and that was what they had all learned all these days. They were fired up to escape this hell-hole as soon as possible.
Shane heard all the accusations and glared at the people behind him. He had ignored those comments thinking they were all beneath him, and that they weren't worth it, but these days, they all seemed to have gotten bolder and bolder with their words. He opened his mouth and said, "Oh? You think you can go to Occident so easily? Let's make a bet then."
"Who's afraid of whom? I'm ready for the bet!"
"Are you guys not afraid of me anymore?" Veins popped up on Ed's forehead as he glared at Shane and the other student, "I'm still standing here, ain't I?"
Everyone else fell into silence at this point, as they stared at the instructor, who cleared his throat, "Let's go."
Ed walked ahead without looking back, as Dirt also walked beside him. The two people, one robot and one man, walked, but they looked strange together. While Ed's build was huge with broad shoulders and a toned stomach, his robot looked more like a child in front of him, a cute one.
Shane lowered his eyes as he thought about his future while going through the corridor. If this virtual hosting thing could become successful, he might have a hope to survive here. His fingers curled up to form a fist as a hint of confidence appeared in his eyes.
Ed stopped in front of a room with a bold name above it: "Virtual Portal". He looked at the students and said, "I'll call you out one-by-one, and go inside. Dirt will handle all the formalities."
About ten minutes later, everyone else went inside under the instruction of Ed, and only Shane was standing at the end. He knew that his cheap master wanted to talk about something. So he said nothing as he crossed his arms on his chest and stared at the bald man with squinted eyes, "Now tell me. What's this diabolic system all about?"