Alex cleaned up after his exercise. He dressed up and left the room, locking the door behind him and starting to walk through the hallway.
The location of his room was not too far from that of the other boys, so as he passed, he could see some of them getting out of or into their rooms, getting ready for school.
He could also hear their scoffs and irritated voices as he walked past them. He was the only first-year who somehow managed to stay in a room alone.
Not to mention the fact that he was younger than all of them. This caused their envy and hatred for him to grow. There was also the fact that he never spoke to anyone, nor did he act as though he felt special or anything.
But Alex could not be bothered by this, because the more they hated him, the more they would stay away from him, and he would no longer put anyone's life in danger.
He didn't want anyone to get close to him. After all, he was a curse—he had hurt enough people already.
He kept his head forward as he walked. Regardless of what reached his ears, he wasn't bothered in the slightest.
He left the dorm area and made his way to his class. He was relatively early today. He entered the main building, where other students were also heading to their classes.
The whole place was crowded, so he had to be careful not to bump into anyone. He dodged from left to right to avoid the crowd, but as he was about to pass a group of students who were talking, one of the students playfully pushed his friend.
The pushed student stumbled backward and bumped into the unsuspecting Alex, sending him to the floor. The person who had hit Alex down immediately moved to help him up.
"Oh, my bad. I'm sorry," the boy said apologetically. He stretched out his hand to help Alex, but when he looked at Alex's face, he paused.
"You... aren't you the one that disgraced my mate?" the boy asked.
Alex's expression darkened. He got to his feet, didn't say a word, and started walking away.
But the boy stretched out his hand and grabbed Alex by the shoulder. Immediately his hand touched Alex's shoulder, a massive pulse of darkness flowed through Alex and slammed into the boy's hand.
"Arghhh!" the boy cried out in pain and fell to the ground, his hand throbbing violently, his veins popping as though they would burst.
Alex didn't know what caused his darkness to react like that. All he knew was that he was pissed off right now, and somehow his darkness had reacted to that.
He looked at the boy lying on the ground, and with a cold expression, he spoke. "Stay away from me," he said and walked away.
Everyone around him stood and watched the whole thing unfold. They couldn't believe that Alex didn't even need to move to take down a second-year.
The craziest part was that it seemed as if Alex didn't even want to do it—it just happened. Alex had just taken showing off to a new level, or so they all thought.
But in the crowd of idiots, a few stood who were smart enough to know that Alex didn't try to show off and that he had absolutely no control over the darkness pulse.
The darkness pulse had reacted to touch. The reaction speed was less than a split second—something that anyone Alex's age should not have been capable of.
And that could only mean that the darkness had made the move on its own and attacked the boy.
"That darkness pulse just now... that's what I need to be able to circulate darkness around my body," Alex thought as he walked, thinking about the darkness and ways to make it flow through his body.
"It happened when I was angry. I was pissed at that second-year. So anger is my fuel. Then maybe I can use it to get the darkness to circulate," Alex thought about a way to try and decided he would do it after his classes today.
After walking for a while, he made it to the class and walked in. He headed for his seat and sat down quietly. More and more students trooped into the class until it was full and time for classes.
The teacher was a young man, not more than twenty-five, with a low buzz cut, a black button-up shirt, and black pants.
He had a calm demeanor and carried himself with a good amount of confidence.
"Alright, class. Today, I'll be taking you. My name is William. Firstly, there's a special announcement, and then the class we will be holding.
One of your instructors, in charge of teaching weapon combat, has disappeared for a bit without informing the academy or anyone, so another teacher will be taking care of his classes.
Also, there will be a simulation training tomorrow, where you'll be sent into certain simulated battle images to see what you're all made of and to know what direction to guide all of you.
The simulation for you will be a battlefield of survival that all of you will fight to survive in groups of five—that's all the first-years, including the ones from the other classes as well.
This simulation will allow us to know where to place you, what class is truly yours, and what sort of training you'll get.
In the simulation, you'll have to survive an attack of Crawlers for a full night. You can also gain points by killing Crawlers and saving people who are helpless there."
When Alex heard that they would be fighting Crawlers, his attention piqued. He looked at William with keen eyes, not wanting to miss any detail. After all, now he would be a step closer to destroying the Crawlers.
But as he focused on the teacher, he failed to notice that someone in the classroom had their eyes pinned on him, watching him carefully.