The man couldn't believe what happened. He thought he had 10 new interns in the bag, but everything was fucked up when that good-for-nothing Mario lost the competition. But if it was just that, he could easily mitigate the damage to their reputation by saying that Mario was a bad apple in their midst.
However, that wasn't the reason why people started to turn away from the Ruobber company. It was because of those three dark horses. Because of their high-profile win in their competitions, the announcers investigated their history and figured out what they all had in common.
All three of them left the Ruobber company and immediately gained tremendous powers.
This showed to the rest of the people that the Ruobber company was a trash group that didn't know how to nurture talent. It showed people that they were a company that couldn't even recognize a diamond if it was staring right at them in their faces. Nobody wanted to join a company that didn't know how to recognize and nurture talent.
But for Mario's superior, it was completely unfair. After all, he knew personally that those three dark horses were completely talentless when they were at the company. They were useless! They didn't have any sort of talent at all, which was the very reason why they got desperate to join their internship.
They joined the Ruobber company because no one else was taking them! That's how untalented they were.
But now that they have shown their powers, everyone will think that they were just unappreciated in the Ruobber company.
And even if people did think that the dark horses were untalented at first, then it would be much more impressive that a different company was able to transform them into these new rising stars.
Who would they rather join? A company that didn't know talented people and couldn't nurture talent? Or a company that could make a person soar through the heavens even if they were untalented from the start?
Judging from how fast they got their Teqx powers, this new mysterious company was willing to give out Teqx powers to anyone as soon as they joined the company! How absurd was that? Even the Ruobber company was touted to have a very generous program since they were willing to give a guaranteed F-class Teqx to their interns after only 1 year.
But this company could give out a Teqx in just one year?
Everyone would want to join that mysterious company! They wouldn't spare a glance at the Ruobber company.
This was bad news, not only for him but for the entire company itself. Their very source of labor was these interns. And if they all decided they had enough of the hard tasks they were forced to endure, then the company would lose all of their power.
There must be something sinister afoot. He smelled competition.
He wanted to find out more about how they got their Teqx and their powers. If he was able to find out this secret enemy that they were dealing with, then the company could forgive his sins of humiliating and degrading the reputation of the company.
But first, he had to go to Mario and berate him for his horrible performance. He decided to demote Mario back to intern. Firing him would be too easy. He would first use up all of Mario's life energy, letting him think that he had a chance to redeem himself if he did all these jobs. But of course, that was just a lie.
And just as he left his booth to go towards Mario, a shadow emerged from the corner.
It was Andres. He was quietly observing the movements of their enemy, especially the Ruobber company. He was smart enough to know that this high-profile performance from the three interns would gain notoriety around the whole school. So, as a precaution, he sent out his clone to observe what they were planning.
Andres took out a disposable cell phone from his pocket and texted himself.
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Mario couldn't believe his luck. Because of this race incident, he was demoted back to intern. He would have to go through that slaving phase once again, doing all kinds of arduous chores for his superiors without any sort of compensation at all.
The worst part about it was that he didn't have any to order around this time. Andres and the others were already gone from the company, which meant he would have to do this by himself this time. He would have to scrub the toilets by himself! It wasn't something he was used to.
His mood was terrible. His anger for being humiliated and being demoted was like a balloon that was about to burst. If he didn't want to explode, then he would have to let out his anger through other means.
He walked and walked until he saw a familiar man sitting in a mobile massage chair. He smiled. Unlike Jorn and the others who he couldn't bully anymore, there was still one more person who he could easily beat up.
That was Patty.
His smile got wider as he saw Patty by himself, waiting just outside the school grounds. Patty was enjoying himself in his massage chair, with no stress and no worries on his face.
Mario hated seeing Patty look so happy. The fact that he lost the race and got a base score of 20/100 made him extremely angry. Why did he have to go through all of that, when this lazy bum only stayed in his chair and still got a 100/100 in his Physicality Test? It was completely unfair.
He walked over to Patty and was ready to berate him and bully him. After all, he was an easy target, right?
"Hey! What do you think you're doing here?"
Patty looked over at him and just gave him a shrug. He didn't have to explain himself to someone like Mario. He was simply waiting for Andres and the others to finish their things and chauffeur him back home. After all, he was too lazy to go home by himself.
But Mario thought that Patty's calm attitude was just a manifestation of his fear. He thought that Patty was being silent because he was afraid of Mario. This made Mario even more confident and more aggressive.
After he lost everything during that Physicality Test, he wanted to win. He wanted to prove to himself and everybody that he was strong! And the way to do that was to beat up Patty and show him that he didn't deserve that perfect 100 score on his test. Mario was the one who should have gotten that score!
"I'm talking to you, you lazy bum!" Mario raised his hand and used his hands. His whole arm was glowing a bluish-green, a sign that he was using his Teqx powers to nullify the air resistance in his punch.
He was letting out all the frustrations he felt when Jorn passed him by in that race. He was letting out the anger he felt when his superior demoted him back to being an intern when he didn't deserve to be demoted.
This was the strongest punch he could ever muster.
Meanwhile, Andres and the three dark horses were walking away from the gymnasiums and towards the bus stop. That was their agreed meeting place. However, they were late in getting there because they were being bombarded by interviews and the media.
The journalists wanted to find out about this mysterious company that they were all a part of. The aspiring students all wanted to know how they got amazing powers and talent in just a few days. Some fangirls in the midst simply wanted to take a picture of the three dark horses. There were even some brave ones who asked for their phone numbers.
On the other side of the street, Andres saw Patty waiting for the bus stop. His eyes turned serious when he saw Mario right next to Patty, with his hands ready to punch.
Jorn immediately tried to activate his Ice Skating powers to try and rush towards Patty's side. He was the fastest one out of them all, so he could easily go over there and prevent Mario from attacking their leader.
But then, Andres gripped his shoulders and stopped him in his tracks. Andres pointed towards Patty, who was looking at them.
Even though Patty was getting attacked and punched, he didn't seem worried at all! He even had the confidence to look at them and give them a thumbs-up! If the reporters saw this, they would have lost their minds. After all, this kind of feat would only be done by professionals with years and years of experience.
Unfortunately, everyone's eyes were focused on the three dark horses. They didn't see that they were looking over at Patty.