Buji waved to the girl when she looked at his side. For some reason, the girl was hesitant to let her eyes off Buji. He was a nerd, kind of, yes. But he was also handsome, although he had a lean body.
On Buji's side, he imagined befriending a girl as beautiful as Kira. Emra was indeed beautiful but here is Kira, having everything both in the facial looks and body shapes.
'No one will see a good thing and not accept it, right? I'm already liking this girl.'
Once again, he was distracted by the silence in the crowd as the girl hurried back to her seat. Instructor Hay, with his stare focused on the ground in utter disappointment of what the girl had maybe, unknowingly done, muttered.
"Next is Buji Yinyin. Recommended by the Zin family."
There was an uproar in the hall. Everybody seemed to put their last hope on Buji, although they don't know what fate had in store for him. Somehow, they wanted him to be the greatest awakener for the day.
On the other hand, some doesn't want that. They claim the Zin family had always recommended students who end up being the highest awakener, but they don't want the position to come from the public recommended.
All hope was now on Buji.
Finally, it was his turn. His heart pounded as he walked to the stage, the weight of more than a hundred eyes pressing down on him.
At least, he managed to face the crowd, searching for Emra with his eyes. And there she was, giving him some thumbs up as some sort of encouragement.
'Not like you want my good. You're certainly happy your plan is about to start working.'
"You can do it, Buji!"
He turned to the direction of where the voice had come. Lo and behold, it was the most beautiful girl he had seen so far in the hall. It was Kira.
Even though all the students in the hall jeered him like they did for others, Kira was more encouraging to him maybe, because he wanted to make her proud of him and become his new friend.
With this, he approached Kyrexis and reached out his fingers brushing against the cool surface of the object. For a moment, nothing happened, and he was nervous at the same time. Still, he had to do it.
So, he placed his hand on the shimmering part of Kyrexis's stem and held onto it. As it had done for others, the orbs projected its light to Buji, except that this light was brighter than anything that had come before.
Some students murmured that he was going to suffer the same fate as Lorian, maybe a worse fate, while some others attested that it was certainly going to be something higher—like something like that had never happened.
Buji's hand remained on Kyrexis for some time longer than others' but nothing had happened. A murmur from the students followed, trying to discourage him already.
Some said he never had any potential from the start which was why the Kyrexis was not able to detect anything. Others said he had been numb right from when he entered the hall.
Students from the crowd said all sorts of things, including things that made no sense or in no way related to what was happening. But Buji heard two voices, and a glint of hope reappeared.
"Do not disappoint the Zin family, Buji."
"Make yourself proud!"
The last statement was what raised his hope high. He was not there to make the Zin family proud, he was there to make himself stronger and prouder, and he really needed to do it. Unfortunately, he couldn't manipulate Kyrexis to show any sign, he just held onto its core.
As if detecting Buji's persistence, the bright light suddenly faded and came alive with another light, this time around a dim light.
It projected visions that were strange and fragmented. Shadows wriggling in the darkness, a full moon reflecting in still water and a pair of glowing eyes watching from a far distance.
As if it was not done, the dim light wrapped Buji, pulling into him a terrifying and exhilarating sensation, before finally releasing him. Making him stagger backward with his breath ragged. Scribbling some writings in the air.
Awakening Interrupted.
But it wasn't done. It released another vision. But it was unlike expected. It had shown a vision of a void coast, wrapping it up with image of another void coast.
'Mad. Why is my turn?'
This dim light finally faded and lightened up again. It was now like normal and it started leaving some writing in the air.
Awakening Completed. S-Rank awakened. Talent: _ _ _
Its cursors still wasted time to complete the talent he had awoken. Meanwhile, everyone in the hall started praising Buji, especially Zin's recommended. Last year, it had been a Zin, this year again it was going to be a Zin.
But the uproar in the hall was short-lived. Everyone mellowed down and stretched their pairs of eyes to see what the object had finally written.
Error Detected. System Unbinding—Shutdown…
Buji fell to his knees while the object of awakening finally went off. He didn't know what it meant, but from the shouts that had come from the audience, it was really not a good thing.
Instructor Hay had said something about awakening no talent.
'So, it was real. And why does it have to be me?'
Buji felt the ground should open and swallow him. He couldn't imagine facing the students after what had happened. Awakening an S-Rank with no talent, there was no use.
He remained on his knees on the ground, his stare continually focused downward.
Maybe he shouldn't have accepted Emra's invitation. If he had known this kind of thing was bound to happen, he was surely not going to accept. His world seemed to lay in shambles in front of him and he could do nothing.
'Not all would be your friend.'
Maybe this was what Emra meant when she said that not all were going to be his friends. He could feel the rejection roaming around without hesitation.
'Emra won't leave me alone, right?'
"…"