Saint Academy, Student number: 543123
Asher glanced at his student card before feeding it to his wallet.
Nearby, other new students were celebrating, being chearfull with their friends.
From the crowd, Asher saw the others who were sponsored by MacBuilder. It seemed like they all passed as well, not like it mattered.
{Ding}
His brecelet suddenly vibrated with a notification, flipping his wrist, a holographic screen appeared.
[Mac builders congratulates you on becoming a student, the president has requested your audience this afternoon, a car will pick you up at the front gate at 16:00. Don't be late.] The massege read.
'They operate fast.'
The bracelet was given to him by his "sponsor" among other things.
Lifting his head, Asher discovered that the others also received the notification. It seemed more then likely, today's meeting was gonna be with the big man himself.
Ignoring everyone around him, Asher opened his bracelet again. Ignoring the multiple massege, he went to a specific one.
A three-dimensional map of the acedemy appeared, and a red dot showed his current location. After a brief glence, Asher closed the screen again.
He headed towards the Main academic building. A few other new student were headed in that direction.
Asher basked in the warmth of the sun, which was rare in the current world.
The campus was big...
Along the way, Asher saw alot of different students. He saw; students with wings behind their back, students with long pointy ears and exceptional looks, even students who were extremely short, despite their ages.
After a few more minutes of walking, he arrived at the academy's main building.
After talking to the receptionist, he received a set of pitch black uniform.
Having grabbed his things he followed the map to his dorm building.
Set south of the Acedemy, were a colony of settlements.
It took a while of walking before he found his arrangement.
Asher entered a gate, arrived at a courtyard.
A house stood in the middle of the yard, surrounding it were similar houses, but they were smaller.
"You must be one of the new students I take it." A short middle aged woman with red hair, was sitting outside the porch.
Looking at her light-red hair and long ears, Asher recalled a person with similar features. Albeit she was taller and always had a deadpan expression.
"Yeah, and you are?" Asher walked up to the porch.
"What, no greeting? That's quite straightforward of you, but I like it." The woman said while knitting something.
Without lifting her head she continued, "The names Loloki and I'm the landlord of this place. By the way, call me landlord."
"The academy should have given you a room number, take the corresponding room card and use it to open you room."
Asher saw a knitted bowl with a bunch of cards on it.
"The rules here are simple, the gate is locked at 9, any noise that leaves your room isn't allowed, clean after youself after using the kitchen and also the room and outside." the landlord explained.
'Are they related?'
The landlord's uncaring behavior was very similar to the Nanny at Asher's orphanage, so too were her features.
_2024_
Asher quickly found his room and opened the door with his room card.
'Why does everything require a card?' he thought tucking away his wallet.
An empty two bedroom apartment, greated him. The room was clean but warn out.
'How prestigious.' Asher remarked, looking at the metal bed with a single blanket.
He placed the black plastic bag with his belongings down. This was all he had, clothes and everything.
*grrr*
'I need to find a way to make money.' Asher's stomach growled, he hadn't eaten since this morning and today was an exhausting day.
With barely any cents he chose to ignore his hunger.
Looking at the time, it was 13:00, 3 hours away from the supposed meeting.
"System."
At his words, a red semi-transperate screen appeared in his center of vision.
[A Baptism is required to start the system]
[A Baptism is required to start the system]
[A Baptism is required to start the system]
....
That massage kept flashing on the screen, along with an angelic voice.
He took off his shirt and started doing push-ups, "1,2,3,4,5...."
'What are you? And I hope I'm right.' Asher pondered at this lifelong mystery.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
A loud knock suddenly came from the door.
"90,91,92,93,94,95."
Confused, Asher opened the door, only to see an unfamiliar face.
A headsome boy his age, slightly taller, but scrawny with basically no muscles. His hand was leaning on the door frame.
"Hey my-- oh your a dude. Anyway, hey brother I'm Atlas your next door neighbour." the boy was disappointed at first but regained his smile and hugged him after a handshake.
Asher frowned at this hug, not only was he shirtless but also covered in sweat. You expected me to be a girl? Since I'm not why are you getting close, don't tell me his homosexual!
"I'm Asher, nice to meet you." With a frown, Asher pushed the boy back, while he leaned backwards.
"Asher my brother, I've got a situation here, you see, I'm hungry, so what are we eating?" Atlas said with a straight face.
Did this guy just ask what are We eating? Asher has had those times he was hungry, hell he was hungry right now, but he has never shamelessly asked others for food, doing so would be embarrassing.
He was stunned for a sec. Asking others for food with a straight face, brother have some shame!
Starving at a prestigious Acedemy! Asher thought that would be a great newspaper article.
"I've got nothing, I haven't eaten as well." Asher shook his head.
Growing up in the orphanage didn't allow him to make money easily, especially since his time was divided by school and training.
"Damn! You just like me fo' real, not gonna lie that's a sad case. Don't tell me your fridge is empty as well" Atlas had a helpless expression. Asher couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
"Fridge?"
'Yeah, don't tell me this brother doesn't know what a fridge is, that's tough'
"Yeah we all got em', you didn't check yours?" Seeing his confused look, Atlas shook his head sympathetically before explaining.
Asher shook his head
"Let's check it out. I'm coming in." Atlas became enthusiastic.
"Sure." Asher stepped aside. He thought, 'Why bother asking when you've already entered.'
'This dude, has no filter or sense of boundaries, but his friendly I guess.' Asher thought back to his previous classmates.
"Hey fridge!"
As soon as Atlas said that, at the corner, a hexagonal fridge emerged from the ground.
"It's the first thing I checked when I got in here, My fridge had a moldy peanut-butter sandwich." Atlas stated as he opened the fridge. "But one sandwich ain't enough to fill anyone."
'Wait, you ate it?' Asher wore a surprised expression.
Opening the fridge, they were greeted by cold breeze and fridge full of meat.
"Ohh hoo hoo! We eatin'!" Atlas's expression brightened up, jumping around before throwing his arm over Asher's head.
"It's stiff, figures, it must have been left by the previous students." Altas stated as he thawed out a pack of meat.
"After we eat we can go pick up some girls."
'Why not, I'm also hungry.' Asher thought, while following him out, and they came to the main house
Greeting the old lady, they quickly entered the house. The first room they saw was the kitchen. It was so spotless, they could eat of surface.
After a few minutes, they searched and didn't find a single pot either. Asking the landlord, they discovered that they needed their own pots.
"It's the perk of living alone I guess." Asher shook his head.
"No worries' I got an answer, follow me." Holding the pack of meat, Atlas wore a reassuring look, patting Asher on the shoulder.
Walking back to the corridor, they passed Asher room and came to a door.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
The loud knock reveberated into the corridor. Not long after, the door opened.
A mascular boy, the same height as Asher armed with a sharp gaze, stood at the door. The boy also had sideburns with a beard slowly growing.
"U a dud a to! Anyway my dude, I'm Atlas and this is Asher, we live in the area." Atlas looked disappointed at first but then gave a familiar introduction.
"I'm Abel." the mascular boy responded with a deep voice.
Similar to Asher, he pushed Atlas away with one hand, while leaning back.
"My brother Abel, we got a situation here, we're extremely hungry, so we found this meat but we don't have a single pot." Atlas said with a serious expression.
Asher wanted to injerject but it was true
Abel looked at the two with a frown, 'What kind of person asks to borrow pots, these guys are weird. I don't want to associate myself with them. Also are they gay, getting this close to me. '
"Sadly I forgot them at home." Abel shook his head.
Hearing this, Asher and Atlas looked past the boy's shoulders. Behind him, a plethora of things were in a pile, incidently, they happen to see two pots.
Asher and Altas exchanged gazes, then look at Abel.
*Grrr*
Just then, Abel's stomach voiced it's complaints, causing the boy to blush. No doubt, hungry men learn fast, and were more honest.
"Ain't no worries my brother, pull up with the pots and some rice if you got any, we got enough meat." Atlas didn't dwell on the situation, and patted the boys shoulder.
"Okay," Abel's face was tinted with a blush, he returned to the door with two pots. Truth be told, he was hungry as well.
"I got no rice, but I heard the guy from next door complain to the landlord, about finding rice in his room." Abel locked his door.
"Complaining about having food? What sort of rich person is he?" Atlas was confused for a sec. (Even the author is shocked)
"No worries' I got the answer, follow me." Holding the pack of meat, Atlas touched Abel's shoulder, reassuringly.
'Déjà vu! Are we gonna recruit every person at school?' Asher didn't know how to feel. He was impressed by Atlas's shameles- ability to bring people together, yeah that's the term.
'This guy does and says whatever, without a care.'
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
Just like that, they moved to the next door.
A familiar face greeted everyone, followed by a familiar voice.
"I'm not interested in purchasing meat of unkown origins." After a brief glence the boy slammed the door.
Asher and the others exchanged gazes before.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
The door opened again, this time the boy looked visibly upset. He adjusted his glasses and said, "I thought I made it explicitly clear, I'm not interested in purchasing anything."
This was the first student who spoke up at the third invigilator, dubbed by the teacher, as four-eyes.
"Relax now brother four-eyes, you need a girlfriend to unwind." Atlas said, putting away the meat.
"I'm Atlas, this is Asher and Abel, we're here for the rice. " Atlas explained, while rubbing his temples.
"Rice? Are you it's owner, I was in the process of discarding it, your-"
Before four-eyes could finish, he was yanked by the neck.
"You throwing away food?" Atlas suddenly wore a fierce expression.
"This is unscientific, Unhand me you brute." Four-eyes struggled to remove the hand but the grip was too strong.
"Oh! That's my bad dude, I lost my cool for a sec, it's the hunger man, I swear." Atlas shook his head while rubbing his temples.
"No worries l'll make it up to you. Bring the rice, and we'll have it with some meat." Atlas's serious expression came out again, proceeded by a wide grin.