"It really works like you said. Hahaha
Or it would be ages to gather the materials again"
Luke laughed in relief while patting Mikel on the back but Mikel seemed to be in deep thought.
"I hope this event won't land us in trouble" Mikel mumbled to himself as he saw the expression of Professor Patrick when he put down the hub on a random table in the canteen.
"What are you mumbling about?" Luke asked seeing his friend's unusualness.
Mikel shook his head before heading back to class.
"Hey Hey. What about the hub?
Are we going to leave it there?" Luke asked Mikel nervously.
"The next round of janitor is 2 hours away.
There will be curious people since I have set some interesting words there" Mikel said before he added.
"And I also don't want Professor Patrick to know that its ours"
Luke looked at Mikel with a new found light in his eyes before he poked Mikel in his right shoulder.
"I didn't know you were this smart" Luke said teasingly.
"What did you set on the screen?" He asked, curious.
"Just a spark for a curious cat" Mikel said without bother explaining to Luke leaving Luke quietly contemplating those words on his own.
…
In the canteen, there was a handsome student walking by to get something to eat as he was told by Professor Lana to correct his failed test making him late for his lunch.
There, he found an empty hall with no students or teachers in sight but there was a particular thing that stood out in the empty canteen.
On one of the table, he saw a rectangular box with some shining word on the box.
'Ask away. For there is no secret in the world'
The handsome student just scoffed and planned to turned around to walked away when suddenly he paused and looked back to the box.
The student that found the box was William Carter who was a second year student that didn't stood out in academically.
However, in terms of his looks and demeanors, he would ranked in top three in the whole school.
There are many girls that fell head over heels with him for many years and he didn't seem to be interested in any of them.
William came to school everyday like he was just passing the time as he didn't seem to have any passion towards anything except sitting in the classroom and looking out of the window.
There was a rumor that he didn't have to plan for anything by himself since his Governor father had already paid a considerable price for him to joined the Capital's office through the backdoor right after he graduated.
William picked the box up and took it with him to the remote corner where he tried to learn about its contraption.
When he realized that he couldn't pry it open without breaking it apart, he gave up and whispered to the hub.
"Does Mary has someone she liked?" William blushed after he finished whispering.
At the other side of the school, in the classroom where Mikel and Luke were studying.
Mikel's face turned strange after he saw the input coming from the hub.
'I never knew that Mr. Handsome guy is interested in such a mediocre girl' Mikel thought while typing the replies.
'answer available'
'20 cu'
The messages displayed on the screen startled William.
He looked both scared and curious at the same time but after sometimes his face was full of determination and insert the money into the hub.
'I hope it's not a scammed or else who made this would pay' William thought while waiting for the answer.
'...'
After the money was inserted, the screen didn't show anything other than a moving dots.
William nervously clenched his fist, almost slamming it on the hub to get his money back when the screen lit up with some words.
'No one'
After seeing the reply, William almost cursed out loud when he noticed that the cursor was still moving.
'You have a chance, William'
After seeing the last sentence, William's eyes lit up while he stood up excitedly totally forgetting about the hub and how it knew his identity.
William just sat there, fantasizing about the future when he caught a glimpse of something moving on the display again.
'Pass the hub to the other person or the question you asked will be exposed'
The word rang out in his mind like there was someone banging on his head with a steel hammer.
William's face turned pale and he hurriedly made his way to his classroom along with the hub forgetting that he hadn't have his lunch yet.
"Hey Henry, I saw this thing on the side and it was somewhat interesting.
Since you and your dad are a mechanics, why don't you play with it a little"
The student who was sleeping woke up to the voice of William when his empty hand was replaced with something solid.
The same message appeared again but this time it was another student.
At first Henry scoffed and tried to throw it away but he decided not to when he saw how persistent William was.
Henry looked at William doubtfully and finally asked the box some random question that was in his mind,
"Who stole my lunch box last week"
'answer available'
'10 cu'
"I have to pay 10 cu for it?
Seriously?" Henry looked at William but William already had his head down.
Henry squinted his eyes, and a vague idea suddenly appeared in his mind as he saw William's suspicious behavior.
Henry just tossed 10cu into the box to confirm his thought.
He waited for just a breath or two when the display screen lit up again.
'It's William'
Henry abruptly turned toward his right where William was sitting and the scene of William lowering his head further validated the box's authenticity.
"I knew it, William!" Henry yelled at William.
"I was hungry, okay?
Professor Lana didn't gave me a chance to go for break and when I went for my lunch break, my favorite sandwich was already out" William looked at Henry and defended softly.
"Don't get upset, bro. Today's dinner is on me, okay?
I am in a very good mood today" William smiled and said like he didn't do anything wrong.
Henry looked at William strangely before he gave in.
"Alright, but you have to tell me what makes you especially happy today, okay?
And about this creepy box, too"
Before Henry could speak further the same message about passing it on flashed on the display screen when Henry gave William a curious look.
"I don't know either, man" William shrugged.
"How did you get it in the first place then" Henry asked.
"I picked it off the ground" William said with a straight face while Henry looked at him with a face full of disbelief.
"It threatened me before so I passed it on to you" William added.
"What did you asked?" Henry squinted his eyes while looking at his friend.
"Just passed it on, okay?" William suddenly changed the topic while he blushed at the thought of the answer he got.
"Or what?
The school can know you stole my lunch for all I care.
I'm more interested in the internal system, its database and its model.
It could give me some inspiration" Henry spoke while changing his focus from William to the hub, eyeing it with scrutinizing gaze.
'Please passed the hub or all the data would be made public'
As if it heard the conversation of the two students, which it did actually, the hub displayed the message for the two of them to read when suddenly William snatched the hub from Henry's hand and ran out of the classroom.
...
Luke looked at Mikel's smile and couldn't help but say
"Are you done playing matchmaking?"
Mikel stretched, smiled still plastered on his face.
"It's actually quite fun, and I just realized that I was so resourceful" Mikel said, proud of himself apparently.
"Oh and I think it would return to our hands before the school is over, so we can begin the next phase without having to scavenge much as we had some money" Mikel added excitedly.
Hearing that, Luke reached out to his backpack like he just realized something before he took out a paper and a pencil and draw something on the paper stroke by stroke.
After a while, Luke let out a long breath and looked at the paper with a proud gaze.
"What's that?" Mikel asked.
"Our next phase, The Bug"