It can be said that in later part of the game day, Artha was not concentrating. His whole life, his family's, everything was stuck on the results, why wouldn't he be tense? He gave up spamming his only spell and walked back to the inn. He hadn't chatted much with only few people including the village chief, his guard and maid, the mentors. The mentors behaved like a struck up br*ts, believe it or not. He went to his nook and started reading and his mind calmed completely.
The reminder to log off came and Artha was happily shocked to realise that he needed just 5 minutes to completely read it. Would he spend coins for those five minutes? Just kidding.
He still had to make a copy of the book. No need to rush and read entirely today.
Let's be honest. There were already few apprentices present. It's not as if Artha will get bonus to complete quest early. So he happily closed the book, logged off and completed his routine.
Today would be a brand new day in his life. Atharva didn't know if he wanted time to move faster to know his results or the time to slow down so that he could be carefree, relatively.
10 a.m.
Atharva entered the results site, logged in. He didn't check the various lists out there but entered his profile to check his results directly.
Yes!!!
He had passed.
Oh! He got A+ here.
What??? How could he just get mere A here. Oh, it was that just subject. Oh, alright then. It's great that he actually passed, so getting a A is also good.
This news had to be shared.
Conference call.
"Just saw the results. I passed!"
"Ah!"
"Ahhh!"
"Ahhh!"
"Eeeee!"
"What?!! Hmmm. Well done!"
The first responses from the family. So they really thought he would fail. But yesterday they were boisterous, pushing him up, supporting him. Hypocrites! Atharva just grinned and didn't talk about their two faced behaviour.
This called for celebration. Just like that, they decided to splurge and come and meet him near the college over the weekend. Years before, he had come alone for interview, for selection and even for admission. They were poor. So poor that, all had to pull their emergency stash just to send him here.
But now... Even if they had to get loans, they would come and join him. Make new memories. This person from the family had come to such prestigious college and finished his studies successfully. The bragging rights could go on for few decades.
Just like that, an hour passed, with each adding to the plan. Who will come, when they'll come, where to stay, what all to do.... after a long time, Atharva talked wholeheartedly, without worries.
Then, it was time to check in detail. After all, he had written more than one exam, attended more than one practical exams, handed over more than one project/thesis. Time to see if his gamble paid off or not. If it did, his starting salary would be in millions of credits. If he lost, he would have millions of credits as education loan.
Meanwhile, every one, practically every one in the campus was searching for a certain A. Murphy, who had made a new record in Saint Augustine.
Who is he? Never seen him. What type of sicko is he? How could he even think of doing such a thing?
In the history of 538 years since the opening of Saint Augustine, it was the very first time such a thing happened.
Atharva should really thank Mrs Briggs for the care. She had locked all his details to the highest level when she had checked his education status when he had reached out to pay a part of his education loans. Without that protection, he would have been found sooner and then... Better not to think about it.
Atharva was also peculiar. He had paid less than a million after the first day of playing the game
Without knowing all the hungama that was happening in the college and beyond, Atharva decided to sleep. Yes. Sleep. In the broad daylight. He had a hunch that he would not suffer from nightmares this time. After all, he had run against the time not just because of his family circumstances but to escape from the nightmares plaguing him. He substantiated with three to four hours of sleep after working heavily, just to get normal shut eye. But as the exam time came near, it had been impossible. The nightmares turned into daily recurrence and the story within it was equally horrifying. Apparently, his brain was fixed on single pattern and was overloaded, so he suffered from same nightmares.
This was another reason why he took the asinine decision of playing the game
All in all, few hours of blissful sleep with no nightmares. For this, he was ready to sleep in the day too. For this, he was ready to not step out of loft too. For this, he was not sharing his results with faculty or fellow cohort of students too.
Sometimes, occasionally, an unknown step taken for different reason can also turn out to be useful. He was sleeping and someone put in the pillow. He was turning into a monster in the eyes of people in the campus and beyond, but he tucked his tail, fluffed his feathers, fixed his nest and went to sleep. A dreamless sleep. What a bliss!
What a disaster! The admin section were thinking. All the files regarding certain A. Murphy had turned into SSS level highly encrypted files, needing authorisation from highest level to read. None had an inkling of who that person was. No one in the whole cohort could think of who that could be. And these were people who attended classes together, gave exams together. If they can't recognise a person, how could people from admin section do? But they could not say that aloud. So, all swallowed the bitter recriminations and ploughed on, tried same thing again and again, knowing that it was just like flogging a dead horse. Completely useless.