In the room, Micheal and the others stared at the screen, who had the face of a young man with a goofy smile, there seem to be explosions in the background, and the young man seems to be moving about.
"Sorry, about that drop in, Mike!" the man shouted and Micheal's eyebrow couldn't help but crease.
"But you know, we have some students having their first test there, Aditya!"
"Well, I couldn't think of a better place, besides Regina is on rampagae here" the man said as he turned his phone towards a particular, seeing the whole place, it was in space but everywhere was filled with large rocks, and broken spacecrafts, there some huge beasts, Aditya dodged a beast claw as he pointed his camera towards a slim man in red armour who was punching through beasts and space crafts alike.
"See, he's having fun... The enemy isn't gonna give us a break, so there's more of that thing coming, cancel the test or whatever!" Aditya said as the call ended.
"So the test ended like that?" Dr. Zeckfred asks as he sighed and Micheal just massaged his eyebrow.
"How many times is this now??" Dian asked.
"This has happened every time we are having the exploration, so we can't keep count" Bee said.
"How do we grade the first years then?" Sarah asked and everyone looked at Micheal who had stood up from his chair. Micheal turned around and walked, "Based on the number of kills and their level upgrade, them joining a society would be thing of their own choice". then he walked out of the door.
Meanwhile, Raven stared at the young lady standing before him, he was surprised, not far away was Zhang Que who was watching this with a wry smile.
"Uh, sorry... Do I know you?"
"Oh... You seem to have forgotten me, my prince, how unfortunate..." the lady said as she made a sad face with doe eyes and Raven sighed for the upteenth time. "... It was I you saved from those traffickers 2 years ago"
"Eeh... You still remember incidents from 2 years ago?... But 2 years ago..." Raven thought and quickly remembered. "Were you the big sis whose face was full of snot?"
Raven remembered how he had walked in on a group of human traffickers while coming back from his workouts one evening, he had noticed the eldest girl amongst the girls there crying with her face full of snot, she was even being reprimanded by a girl younger than her for not having a little bit of courage. Raven had chuckled at the sight.
Seeing how Raven remembered her made the girl blush, as she looked at him, her heart couldn't help but skip a beat, she still remembered what happened like it was yesterday, one of the traffickers had sneaked in among them, and after Raven had beaten his colleagues up, he grabbed her and placed a knife across her neck.
She thought she was done for until she heard Raven sigh, "I wouldn't have touched her if I were you" was what she heard him say.
And when she blinked, she saw that she was in another person's embrace, she saw Raven's face close to hers as he stared at the man who was shouting as he held his hand that was bent into an uneven manner. Raven looked down at her, her usual cold heart shattered as a fire burnt within them, when she was still marvelling in that feeling, the police arrived and she fell into darkness.
Raven stared at the girl who was looking at him with dreamy eyes, and he felt uncomfortable, "uh?"
Hearing his voice pulled the girl from her daydream, she walked up to Raven and grabbed his hand and held it firmly within her grasp, - so warm. "I'm Preeya and I would like to be your girlfriend" the girl said as she looked at Raven with determination in her eyes.
Raven was immediately stunned and Zhang Que fell into a coughing fit as he tried to hold back his laughter. Raven looked over at him and begged with pleading eyes, Zhang Que shrugged and walked over.
"Uh...big sis Preeya, you guys just met beside you're older than him" Zhang Que said.
"I don't care, I've been wanting to tell him this for 2 years, besides I'm just older by a year, and I don't care if he's younger than me, it gives me more reason to protect my love" Preeya answered without looking away from Raven who was looking everywhere else aside from her eyes.
To say he wasn't moved, he was... cos in the entire of his 17 years of living, no girl has ever confessed to him, not to even speak of writing him a love letter, they either feared or despised him. So he was kind of spooked with all this.
"Uh..."
"Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the exploration would be coming to a close early enough and the gradings would remain the same" There was an announcement and Raven immediately sighed in relief as he pulled his hands away from Preeya's grasp. Preeya looked at her empty hands with a forlorn look but didn't try to take Raven's hand again.
"Raven, I declare here and now, that I, Preeya Srivastav will pursue you and make you mine within a thousand days!!" Preeya immediately shouted as she pulled Raven and kissed him. Raven stared widely as his mind shut down. Who am I?_Where am I?_
Zhang Que looked away as he tears running down his eyes, "why can't my luck be this good?"
Preeya pulled away as she kicked her lips, "That is just the beginning, I stole your first kiss, I'll steal a lot more from you, I'll steal your heart, then your last name", she turned and walked away with a hop as her brown hair bounced leaving a dazed Raven, while Zhang Que stood by the side to think about life.
Some minutes later, Raven and Zhang Que walked out with some other students as they went towards the ranking board to check their grades and kills. When Raven got there, a crowd has formed around, as they talked in groupd about their experiences and also those in the top 5 ranks.
"See....see... That's my man up there, the 3rd on the ranking!!" Raven heard Preeya scream and immediately shivered as he looked towards the voice and saw beside three other people, two girls and a young man, he saw the man frown and say something to Preeya to which she harrumped and look away only to catch sight of Raven who dodged.
"Hmmm... Or did I see wrong?" Preeya muttered as she squinted her eyes and looked in that direction carefully but couldn't make out Raven so she moved away as she stared back at the name in the number 3 spot on the board.
Raven sighed in relief as he looked towards Zhang Que who was looking at him with a wry smile. "What?"
"You lost, I came in 2nd, that means I had more kills than you do, you lost the bet" Zhang Que said as his smile turned into a grin.
"Yeah yeah, so what's your wish?" Raven sighed in resignation.
"I haven't thought about it yet, but you're the biggest winner here, you got yourself a girl" Zhang Que said as he winked at Raven who shook his head, he looked back at the ranking board and looked at the guy in the 1st spot. "Antonio Lopez"
"So we'll be given classes based on this, how convenient" Zhang Que nodded as the ranking board refreshed and it was replaced with the information of where to find your academic building.
"As the exploration has come to an end, this begins your entrance of learning about the new world, your classes will be determined by the grades you get and the unanimous opinion of the board members" a huge speaker appeared above the crowd and a voice resounded from it.
"Take tonight to rest, as you'll be resuming fully tomorrow, as you've experienced in there, the world isn't small as you think it is, your academic schedule would be sent to you via your wristband, so also your classes, so by tomorrow morning you would have known your class, you can all go"
After the speaker disappeared, the crowd of students dispersed, Raven abd Zhang Que walked towards their residential area as they both thought about their own stuffs.
Raven was mulliing on the quest the system had given him, staring at the holographic screen.
[Universe System Quest]
[Become the Universal Monarch]
[Reward: The Universe]
[Penalty: Death]
-End of Chapter 12-