Because it was already late, after spending the entire day handing out identity cards and testing of powers in the P.A.C., the recruits were taken to the dormitory, which was divided into two buildings: The male and female dormitory, directly facing each other.
Kai, Frode, and Erik all had to share one dorm because they were a team while Ingrid and Annika shared one as well in the female dormitory.
Erik had taken the biggest bed and ordered Kai and Frode to take the smaller ones. None of them dared to refuse or challenge him, especially Kai who now understood that he was levels below Erik and Erik could smack him to pieces anytime he wanted.
Kai lay down on the bed and stared up at the metal ceiling, thinking about his sister and whether she was getting better. If he was kicked out of the academy because he had no powers, that meant they would kick out his sister from the hospitals as well.
Tomorrow was a big day. The colonel and professors will do an academy tour to showcase the entire S.T.A.R.L.I.T.E to all the recruits. But the only place Kai cared about seeing was the study repository. It was a scientifically established library where information was stored in microchips that could be put into a Nano Monitor so someone could read the information stored inside.
Kai didn't have a Nano Monitor, he was too poor to buy one. But Frode told him that the academy would share one with each of them tomorrow. Kai knew that the first thing he was going to use them to do was to find out what his powers were.
αα
The sound of a loud thundering bell woke everyone up the next morning and they were ordered to follow the signal arrows on the floor and go to the cafeteria. Breakfast is served!
The recruits all arrived at the cafeteria and lined up as they served them a tray meal of waffled balls and gravy stew, then a box of apple juice to swallow it down. Kai couldn't believe his eyes when he saw this food, he had always wanted to eat the popular waffled balls and gravy stew but because he was too poor, he could never afford it.
But now he was getting it for free. Living the life of a recruit was much better than the life of a slave.
"Hey you, grey rank!" A boy called to Kai. "Come here."
Kai looked at the boy and saw that he was a blue rank. He knew that the boy wanted to bully him or maybe take some of his waffled balls and so he turned around and continued walking.
"Kai!" Frode yelled, calling Kai to come sit with them. Kai joined Frode and Ingrid in the table. He knew that this was a table for losers, and even though Frode wasn't one of the low ranks, he hung around with them too much, making him a loser too.
"We've been waiting for you," Frode said.
"Thanks," Kai replied. "Hey, Ingrid."
Ingrid smiled nervously and she chewed on her waffled balls. Then to their surprise, Annika joined them at the table. She was the most popular girl in the academy, so joining them at the table was going to make them look cool in the eyes of others.
"Annika!" Frode exclaimed. "You're sitting here?"
"Yes. Why not? You guys are my team," she replied.
Kai felt like this was too suspicious. She was being too kind all the time for an elite, especially for someone who was the daughter of the president. "You don't have to sit here, you know that right?"
"I want to," Annika smiled. "Don't be hostile all the time, Kai."
"Yeah chill out, Kai," Frode added.
Kai started to enjoy his waffled balls, but then his head got slammed onto the table by none other than Ake Randi. "Ouch!" Kai cried.
"Didn't you hear my teammate calling you, wasteland scum?" Ake asked. He then punched Kai on the tummy, making him fall to his knees, groaning in pain.
When Kai's friends stood up to defend him, Ake told his teammates to stop them, and the friends all stood back.
"Ake, stop this!" Annika cried.
"No! I have to teach this useless slave that he doesn't belong here with us."
Kai was in pain and he started to struggle to his feet, anger filling up inside him. He hated this idiot Ake Randi and he wished he could beat him up.
-|SYSTEM ACTIVATED|-
-|BATTLE MODE INITIATED|-
-|NEW CHALLENGE: DEFEAT ALL FOUR RECRUITS|-
-|EXP PRICE IF CHALLENGE IS SUCCESSFUL: 70EXP|-
The interface cleared from Kai's eyes. 'Defeat all four of them? How is that possible? They're blue and green ranked!' Kai thought.
"Get up slave!" Ake grabbed Kai and used his air powers to throw him hard on the wall. Then they all gathered him one by one, beating him up with their powers and no one dared stop them.
'Why does this node hate me?' Kai thought. 'It's giving me impossible challenges to do. It just wants me to suffer
-|DAILY QUEST OF NOT DRINKING WATER FOR 24HRS WILL BE COMPLETED IN TEN SECONDS|-
-|POWERS WILL BE TEMPORARY UNLOCKED TO ASSIST IN YOUR CHALLENGE|-
'What? Are you finally going to help me?' Kai thought.
-|POWERS UNLOCKED IN FIVE SECONDS|-
Kai started to struggle to his feet, as everyone watched. "This stupid slave doesn't know when to stay down!" Ake snarled.
-|5|-
-|4|-
-|3|-
-|2|-
"I'll teach you a lesson, you piece of trash!" Ake conjured an airball in his first and raised his hand to punch Kai.
-|1|-
-|CONGRATULATIONS. POWERS ARE TEMPORARY UNLOCKED|-
Kai's eyes immediately turned red, and his hands started blazing with fire. He quickly caught Ake's hand in midair and the airball disappeared.
"What the hell?" Ake said fearfully.
"My turn," Kai smiled. He picked Ake up by the neck as if he weighed nothing and then flung him to the table. Stu Maracher, Randy Dege, and Jax Rivershop all looked in shock as Kai approached them. He looked like a demon.
His entire body was covered in fire but he didn't seem to be burning up. Kai then began to create a huge ball of fire.
-|YOU ARE ACTIVATING SKILL: FIRE BALL|-
Kai fired the ball at the rest of the three, making them all fall explosively on the ground, their hp drained to 4/10. But as Kai turned, Ake sent him a wave of wind, hoping to turn off the fire. But it barely affected Kai, he quickly ran to Ake and gave him a fire punch.
-|YOU ACTIVATED THE SKILL: FIRE PUNCH|-
Ake then lay defeated on the ground.
-|AKE RANDI HP CALCULATES TO 3/10|-
-|CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THE CHALLENGE. POWERS WILL NOW BE DEACTIVATED|-
'Deactivated? No! Don't go!' But the powers quickly disappeared and he was back to being normal powerless Kai again.
He looked up to see everyone looking at him, they were all dumbfounded by what they had seen. But before Kai could say anything, he felt a burning pain in his back.