After Ms.Ashford came in and briefed the class about the events for the day, the students got up and headed out to the track field, where the sports festival was held.
Walking behind Lucian and James, Ethan wrapped his hands around the necks of his two friends, putting some of his weight onto their bodies.
"Let's go, guys! Let's go win!"
James and Lucian frowned and peeled Ethan's arms off.
"Get off. You're heavy." James glared.
"Aww, come on, we're buds, are we not?" Ethan countered with a hurt look.
"Doesn't mean we want to carry your weight just because you're too lazy to walk on your own," Lucian added.
Ethan dramatically clutched his heart.
"To think my own friends would throw me away… I'm hurt…."
Watching their antics, the other nearby students frowned and ignored them.
While watching the 'three stooges' mess around was somewhat interesting initially, they'd long gotten used to the sight.
As they exited the school building, Lucian was greeted again by the detestable ball of fire in the sky.
[The Presence of Sunlight Detected!]
[Reducing all stats by 30%]
[Stat Reduction will disappear when not exposed to sunlight]
He'd gotten used to it now but still hated having his strength sapped from him.
Lucian needed to find a way to get over his weakness or gather enough stat points to offset his lost power.
Unfortunately, the stronger he got, the more strength he would lose due to the sun since it directly reduced 30% of his total power.
"I just hope nothing serious happens during this event today… I don't want to fight when I'm weakened," Lucian muttered.
Lucian had prepared for the worst-case scenario but didn't want to let things get that far.
Opening his phone, he checked if Alecia had any new updates for him, but she'd had yet to find anything of value.
Even now, his nanobots were watching all of the event's proceedings, sending the live feed straight to Alecia, who filtered through the info to find if there was anything amiss.
Deciding to trust his partner, Lucian took a deep breath and forced a slight smile on his lips.
"By the way, do you two have anyone coming to watch?"
Since the event was open to the public, relatives and friends of the students could come and watch the events.
James smiled wryly.
"My mom should be coming. I just hope she doesn't go overboard…."
The two nodded in acknowledgement.
James's mother doted on her only child quite heavily, so they weren't too surprised that she would show up for events like these.
"It just shows that she loves you," Lucian added with a sad look.
However, his friends didn't manage to catch it.
"I guess, but it's embarrassing," James blushed slightly.
"Aww, James is blushing! Look, Lucian, his face is as red as a tomato!" Ethan exclaimed.
"S-shut up!"
James lightly punched Ethan on the shoulder, but that only caused him to laugh harder.
"James is a ts-un-de-re!"
Lucian facepalmed and walked past them, hoping that no one would associate him with those two.
Unfortunately, though, since they were all collectively called the 'three stooges,' there was no way he wouldn't be associated with them…
***
A food truck drove through the academy gates before looping back around to the back of the main building.
Parking the truck near the back entrance, two men in blue uniforms stepped out and greeted a lady who, based on her appearance, was most likely a lunch lady.
Their blue ballcaps covered their eyes, so to the average onlooker, they would
"Can you unload the groceries right here? We can handle moving it in," the lady said with a smile.
The two men exchanged glances before shaking their heads.
One of them turned to face the lady.
"There was a change in our company policies, so it's become mandatory to help move the goods after unloading them."
The lunch lady's eyes lit up happily.
"Oh really? That's very kind of your company; by all means, please help us! But, unfortunately, we were a little busy because of the event today, so we're kind of shorthanded now since some of our people are helping with decorations and other similar jobs."
The two men smiled and shook their heads.
"No need to thank us, ma'am. We're only doing our job. Just tell us where you would like these, and we can take care of it all on our own."
"Okay, thank you! The security guard will be here in a second to verify the goods, but once that's done, I'll show you where to put the goods."
After waiting a minute, a slim woman wearing a black security guard outfit walked out of the building and came to the back of the van.
She appeared to be carrying a tiny scanner, which she would no doubt use on the food boxes.
"Okay, please show me the goods."
As soon as they disappeared inside the truck, small smiles formed on the lips of the three.
"I assume everything so far is according to plan?" The lady security guard asked.
"Yup, perfectly. We will transfer your payment as soon as this mission is done. It's best that you get yourself out of here quickly, though. Unless you have a death wish," one of the men responded.
The woman shivered slightly as she had a rough idea of what would occur.
"Yeah, I value my life, so there's no way I will stick around in this death trap."
The other man let out a small sigh.
"It's a pity that so many kids will lose their lives today… But, well, it's their bad luck for being in the wrong place at the wrong time," despite sounding like he was genuinely pitying the students, his nonchalant tone said otherwise.
His associates picked up on that and simply shook their heads.
The female guard walked towards the truck's exit and stepped out of the truck.
"Okay, since I finished 'verifying' the goods, take them to their designated spot."
The two men nodded before lifting some of the boxes in their hands and walked over to the lunch lady.
"Alright, ma'am, where do we need to take these?" One of the men asked with an evil smile.