Though named as such, the camp of ten thousand had at most, several hundred students within.
Maybe its name stemmed from thinking of it in a broader sense, maybe when combining the number of students in all the camps throughout the city, it numbered at ten thousand.
Or maybe the Core district alone had ten thousand students reaching its theoretical requirements every year…?
7:30 a.m. 1st of July, Blackridge district.
A young boy with brown hair and shining hazel-colored eyes waited at a bus stop next to another young man in a wheelchair.
Unless suffering from some special injury, most humans these days did not need glasses.
What he used to wear was a special piece of technology that greatly helped with studying, especially if one had a tendency of procrastinating in their studies.
So, right now, Felix did not have on any 'glasses'.
"Brother," Felix glanced at Lener, "I've promised you that I'll enter the academy. I've completed the first step."
Honestly, he was proud of himself.
Only he knew the nights of torment he killed himself with to have a satisfactory chance of reaching the minimum requirement.
He was no genius, and never had he claimed to be one.
"Hehe, you'll be going to see that Anon boy you always talk about."
Lener chuckled as he glanced at his younger brother. Lener's hazel-colored eyes only showed brotherly affection for this slightly naïve youth before him.
At that time, he too had entered the camp of ten thousand, going one step further and entering the military academy.
But after offending some scoundrel from a greater family, he saw his body broken and his very spirit injured.
Though healing pods existed and there were treasures to recover one's spirit, the nature of the spirit remained quite mysterious and confusing.
Its secrets had not yet been unraveled by the earthlings of the current time, so due to this, since then, he was a cripple, paralyzed from waist down.
Naturally, the academy did not have use for him, and his results weren't high enough to transfer into U.S.A.P.
"I don't 'always' talk about him." Felix frowned, "You make it sound sus."
"Alright then," Lener grinned, "Hehe, you'll be going to see that boy who you always speak of, no homo. Happy now?"
Winking at the end, Lener covered his ears and shouted blah, blah, blah, ignoring Felix's annoyed moaning.
Since he was paralyzed from the waist down, he could still do this much.
Time passed, and Lener watched on as Felix departed into the bus.
The two had relied on each other for quite a long time, so it was only natural for some tears to shed in their separation.
As the bus left, Lener took to his feet and grabbed the handle of his wheelchair, walking the invisible person sitting on it.
Lener's figure was dreamlike as he passed by many individuals on the sidewalk, none of whom seemed to perceive him.
His single earring reflected the hundred stars' lights that came from above.
You knew his history...
It was just as previously stated.
However, after the damage to his spirit, a rather peculiar reaction occurred with that particular family heirloom attached to his ear.
Since then, he received government assistance due to his disability, earning a monthly stipend.
At the same time, his strength was not what the government had recorded.
"Little brother has a similar heirloom."
Lener grinned. "Harming my Felix would only allow him to grow, oh Anon."
"I've heard many whispers about you."
...
On this day, many high rankers in the district's final exams gathered at the entrance of military zone #91.
They had to pass through three layers of security, resulting in a long, winding line filled with hundreds of high rankers.
In this line, the embers of hope, determination, and desperation were thick and palpable.
Somewhere among them stood Cassius, his expressionless face betraying nothing. In the military academy, status did not matter.
You did as you were told. Such rules began from the camp of ten thousand, so even he had to stand in line.
'If Anon had let me join…'
Maybe such thoughts were flashing through his mind, but it didn't matter now. Meanwhile, somewhere else, Felix stood.
They patiently made their way through the three layers of security before being led into a massive building where the orientation ceremony took place.
At some point, Felix, who desired to quickly head to the dorm room he was assigned to, made a quick search in the crowd.
It was a bustling crowd, but he was fortunate enough to spot a few students from St. Hope High School.
There were even one or two who weren't from class- A and still made the necessary requirement to enter the camp, but this wasn't too unusual.
As for Anon, Felix didn't see him.
However, knowing Anon, he figured there was no way he could fail so badly; he must've been somewhere in the crowd.
He was both right and wrong.
Though students needed to be at the orientation, the six stellar geniuses were allowed some leeway.
Still, Catharina and Melissa went, Andrew too.
But the other three boys did not.
In dorm room three, Nickyle sat before a broken table.
His arms rested on the shattered desk, cushioning his head as he remained utterly silent.
This eerie silence could unsettle any soul. Yet at times, his body would tremble, and he would release pained groans…
Seth was within dorm room two.
He had finished fifth in the final exams, but the rankings amongst the rest of students within the camp did not matter once becoming stellar geniuses.
As the strongest amongst stellar geniuses, he would've been in dorm room one, instead, he opted to leave Anon in room one.
In fact, his relationship with Anon had steadily improved since he had defeated the child of humanity's strongest.
Right now, though, he was preoccupied with pleasure.
Each of his breaths felt charged with anticipation as his body responded to an unrelenting desire that coursed through him.
The bursts of pleasure coursing through him were unimaginable as his fingers traced the contours of his bedsheets.
The soft texture sent shivers down his spine as each gentle movement gave him a thrill whilst sensual moans of pleasure escaped his lips.
Rolling around his bed, a smirk played on his lips.
There was a rhythm to his thoughts, a dance of exhilaration that left him aching for more.
The boundaries of his body felt almost irrelevant, urging him to explore more...
In dorm room one, Anon slept peacefully.
It had been two weeks and some since he last got a nightmare, and he planned to use every bit of that time, as if he could stack sleep in preparation for the nightmares and their return.
Stacking sleep?
Though it would be a nice invention, it wasn't exactly something that could be invented…
Anyways, his sleep continued into the late morning.
But around eleven, loud bustling from outside his room stirred him, causing him to frown even in his sleep.
As the noise intensified, Anon's eyelids trembled and soon after, he rolled out of bed and stumbled to the door, opening it with annoyance to see what the big scene was.
"No rushing, please," Elissa's exhausted voice echoed as she descended from the third floor after showing over twenty youths around the building.
With Andrew amongst this crowd, minus the three boys, there were exactly twenty-seven.
When the group made it back to the second floor, the excited students gossiped with one another whilst Elissa attempted to drop this festive mood with words of caution, but no one really took her on.
As they exited the stairs and turned into the hallway lined with dorm rooms on either side, the students noticed something strange.
At the other end of the hallway, two heads poked out almost simultaneously from their respective rooms.
Anon emerged with an annoyed expression, while Nickyle's haggard gaze revealed traces of anger.
At the same time, a student suddenly stepped forward and asked Elissa, "Isn't that dorm room three? Why is someone else there?!"
He was ranked fourth on the official rankings, behind Anon, Melissa, and another male.
According to the rules, dorm room three in the male dorm was his.
"Yow, shut the fuck up and get in y'all rooms."
At that moment, the door to dorm room three fully swung open.
Nickyle stepped out.
His gaze was all over the place and there were dark circles under his eyes.
His complexion was sickly pale, and his eyes were bloodshot as his body released a palpable hotness that could be felt on the other side of the hall.
"For fuck's sake, stop making so much noise else I'll fucking slam y'all heads into the fucking walls."
Nickyle squeezed his forehead, feeling the heat of his skin.
Some students heard this and wondered if they heard correctly, and others seemingly recognized who this was and began putting two and two together.
After all, even Cassius wasn't sure of the genius program and had confirmed only after seeing the instructors arrive at his household for Catharina.
There were a couple students that had their own pride, so along with the fourth ranked student, they stepped forward.
Even though Elissa attempted to persuade them, before she had time to explain the situation, Nickyle was already approaching.