The second incident in the story began with tension brewing between Aerox and some senior students.
"You think you're a big deal now that you're famous,"
one sneered.
"You should show some respect to your seniors. When we speak to you, stand up!"
another demanded.
"Why don't you prove yourself in a duel? Let's see if you really deserve the fame you're getting,"
the leader challenged.
The root of this incident was twofold: jealousy from the seniors over Aerox's rising fame and the manipulative actions of Professor Lance.
Professor Lance, who taught the second-year students, orchestrated the confrontation.
Displeased by the attention a commoner like Aerox Sun was receiving, he used his students to harass Aerox and assert the supremacy of noble-born individuals.
As the seniors hurled insults and threats, Silvana, one of Hiro's classmates, intervened.
"Why don't you seniors leave? Our class is about to start,"
she said firmly.
"Why should I leave? Who do you thin—"
-SLAP!
The leader of the group slapped the one who had spoken disrespectfully to Silvana.
"Haha, this guy clearly doesn't know who you are, Miss Silvana. Please don't take offense,"
the leader said, trying to smooth things over.
Turning back to Aerox, he added with a smirk,
"I didn't expect the famous guy who fought a Rank-3 Poacher to hide behind a girl."
It seemed the leader recognized Silvana and her powerful background.
Deciding not to escalate further, the group left, leaving Aerox to himself.
As the seniors caused trouble and walked away, I initially thought it had nothing to do with me.
But one of them, clearly the leader, turned toward me after being nudged by his friend.
"Oh, look who we have here. The so-called Romeo of our school,"
he sneered.
"I hear you don't respect your seniors or teachers. Didn't you argue with one of our professors recently?"
He smirked.
"They say you're pretty capable. How about we test that out in the duel ring?"
I was caught off guard by their sudden challenge.
I had expected them to pick on Aerox, just like in the novel.
But it seemed like Professor Lance hadn't forgotten how I embarrassed him in front of Professor Layla before.
His grudge was clear, and now these seniors were trying to provoke me into a fight.
I ignored them.
I knew they were at least 2+ rank, and fighting them would only bring unwanted attention.
Besides, they couldn't just attack me outright—starting a fight would get them expelled.
That's why they'd been targeting Aerox, mocking and insulting him until he felt forced to accept their challenge.
Now, they were trying to use the same tactics on me, even going so far as to insult our entire class.
"What's wrong? Afraid to face us in the ring?"
one of them sneered.
"Or is this whole class just a bunch of cowards like Aerox?"
It was a deliberate attempt to pressure both Aerox and me.
They wanted to turn our classmates against us and force us to agree to their challenge.
And it worked.
Our classmates started whispering among themselves.
"He dares to argue with a professor but won't step up to a duel?"
someone muttered.
"All talk, no action. Just good at showing off, but scared to face the consequences,"
another said.
Some even confronted me directly, blocking my path and accusing me of shaming the class.
Flash and his friends were the worst, calling me a coward.
"One coward is always a coward,"
Flash said mockingly.
"They say he fought Poachers from Black Talon, but that must've been a lie. He doesn't even have the guts to take on a challenge."
"Our whole class is being called cowards because of you two. Even if you lose, you should've just accepted the duel!"
Day after day, the seniors would come to harass us, insult our class, and leave.
Instead of standing up for us, our classmates blamed us for the trouble.
This constant ridicule lowered Aerox's reputation in the class.
While I didn't care much—my standing in the class was already low—it was different for him.
Once surrounded by friends, Aerox now found himself isolated, with only Silvana, Lily, and Maxpad sticking by his side.
Most others were too scared of upsetting Professor Lance or the seniors, or they simply didn't want to get involved.
For me, it was just another day.
But for Aerox, the shift was undeniable.
Silvana and Lily could have stepped in to stop the bullying, but they didn't.
They understood that the people causing trouble were just following orders from higher-ups, and getting involved would only make things worse.
The bullying didn't bother me much anyway.
I was too busy buying level-up potions and running my company to care.
After drinking all the potions, I'm confident I'll reach Rank-2 by the end of the week.
As for the company, I appointed one of my employees to supervise the team and report to me only if there were any major issues.
The supervisor I chose is Ekapal, a 46-year-old man who used to work for a prestigious Diamond-grade federation.
Ekapal always dreamed of creating something like my game, Dungeon Dashers, but his federation rejected his ideas and told him to stick to making defense and attack software.
When I launched my game, Ekapal was amazed by its features.
So, when he saw the job ad saying I was hiring, he immediately applied.
I was impressed by Ekapal's innovative ideas.
While I built Dungeon Dashers using knowledge from my memories of other worlds, Ekapal thought of similar concepts entirely on his own.
That's remarkable.
Not only did Ekapal help me set up the company office, but he also upgraded our servers, ensuring everything ran smoothly.
Given his experience and skills, it was an easy decision to put him in charge.
Most of my other employees are recent graduates from software engineering schools, so Ekapal, being the oldest and most experienced, was the perfect choice to lead them.
Most senior developers don't leave their jobs for a completely new company, but Ekalpa was an exception—and a lucky one for me.
After covering the costs of hiring him and setting up the company office, I still had 60,000 coins left.
I set aside 40,000 for operating expenses and used the rest to buy level-up potions.
Meanwhile, the situation with Aerox was getting out of hand.
He had been ignoring challenges from classmates because they weren't worth his time.
But when they kept bothering him and disrupting the class, he finally accepted a duel to put an end to it.
The duel was scheduled for next week since it needed approval and supervision from a professor.
One of the challengers smirked and said,
"Hehe, so you finally accepted the duel. It'll be a two-on-two fight—me and Rowan versus you and Xerox Zee."
Wait, what? Me?
"I didn't agree to this duel,"
I said.
"Hehe, no need for your permission,"
he replied.
"The professor said it'd be a good experience for you. Cooperation is key when fighting stronger opponents."
In other words, Professor Lance approved the duel and thought this was a great chance to use me as cannon fodder.
How thoughtful.
Aerox protested,
"I agreed to the challenge, so why are you dragging someone else into it?"
"This is for your junior's benefit,"
the challenger said.
"The winter tournament requires teamwork, so we're teaching him early."
Yeah, right.
They just wanted to gang up on us.
Since Aerox and I were first-years, we hadn't practiced teamwork yet, unlike them.
Before Aerox could argue further, I cut in.
"No problem. I'll join."