Bang!
Caus crashed against the wall violently. His nose was bruised and his face was swollen while his body was covered in dirt from the floor. He pushed himself up off the ground and looked at Monty and the others, who were sneering at him coldly.
“How is it? Does it feel good?” Monty stepped forward and pinched his cheek.
“Frankly, I’ve been annoyed at you for a long time. First Seat of the first grade, you’re truly something.”
“Are you done?” Caus lowered his head and spat out blood and saliva while his face remained expressionless.
When Monty noticed Caus’ persistent cold gaze, his heart trembled slightly for unknown reasons. “Still holding up?”
He furiously kicked his foot outwards again.
Bang!
The pointed end of his shoe struck Caus’ lower abdomen and caused him to bend over even further. The pain forced him to curl up like a dried shrimp before he fell onto the ground sideways.
Caus remained silent and held his head quietly without even sighing. His behavior made Monty feel extremely uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the red-haired male student who stood on the side had become dazed long ago after witnessing everything, as he’d never expected Monty to act so harshly.
“That’s enough, Monty. This is pretty extreme,” suddenly, the voice of a young man echoed from the corner.
Monty turned around and looked before noticing a tall but otherwise normal looking male student standing in the doorway suddenly. This fellow had tanned skin and looked extremely simple and plain. Furthermore, there were no prominent features on his square face. However, he gave off a composed and resolute air when he spoke.
“Hey~ It’s Nicholas, the Elite Student,” said Monty cynically.
“Show me some respect,” Nicholas calmly glanced at Caus who was still lying on the ground.
“Show you some respect?” Monty sneered but did not refuse him immediately. Although he did not fear Nicholas, he was still wondering whether it would be worth offending a strong individual with a good future just for Nonosiva’s sake. Therefore, he was merely judging if his actions were worth the repercussions.
After hesitating for a moment.
“Alright, this matter ends here because of my respect for you,” he waved his hand so that his other friends would release Caus and the red-haired male student.
“Many thanks,” in reality, Nicholas had been somewhat anxious earlier. Monty had a lot of support from the other Elite Students who were also advanced, highly-skilled Mech Pilots. Therefore, he was usually arrogant. Nicholas had never expected that Monty would actually respect him. Clearly, the person who was receiving his blows earlier was not very significant.
He walked over and helped Caus. Once he saw Monty and his group of people leaving slowly, Nicholas could finally feel his heart relaxing slightly.
Inside the classroom
Garen lifted his watch and observed the situation above him while remaining expressionless. However, Vera and Kell, who were beside him, were somewhat displeased.
“You’re just going to let him off lightly? Aren’t you making it too convenient for him?” Vera could not help but say.
“It’s no big deal, just pay attention in class,” Garen did not express it openly, but the animosity between Caus and himself had been settled completely at this moment. However, this was probably Monty’s main goal, forcing him to rely on the other party’s background strength even more.
This matter was settled just like that. After a full day of class, Garen did not see Caus return to the classroom either.
When he returned to the dorm, another student who was walking with him informed him that Caus had been taken away by his older brother. There was nothing else after that, as his older brother Cor did not express anything. It was clear that he merely planned to endure everything.
The stormy winds calmed down.
Garen’s life became a series of daily routines. He would spend a few hours practicing his Training Methods daily before spending some time with Monty, Vera, and the others, especially Vera and Kell. Due to their personal conditions, both of them came into contact with more people and had a wider source of information. Furthermore, their figurative short-sightedness made them a suitable and definite source for Garen to receive information. Meanwhile, Monty and the others seemed rough but were actually more pessimistic individuals who were unsuitable for intimate friendships. Most of the time, their information was not timely either. However, Garen continued to maintain good ties with Monty. Of course, these people were not useless either. With the help of Monty and the others, Garen was gradually able to become one of the main tyrants in his grade that no one dared to mess with, despite not having this intention at all.
The second-grade course was really dull.
Theory classes took up a large portion of their days while practical classes were mainly focused on experiments of accelerated gravitational forces. Therefore, they would need to sit inside the narrow Mech simulations and practice continuously to adapt themselves to higher levels of accelerated gravitational forces and inertia. They were training the adaptive abilities of their bodies to get used to more intense Mech Piloting in order to prepare themselves for actual practice. In order to become a true Level One Mech Pilot, one would need to be equipped with comprehensive fighting abilities. Therefore, subjecting themselves to intense acceleration and inertia was a vital part of their training.
After the acceleration adapting training, it was rumored that there was a simulated battle environment to help them adapt to radiation and a tactic simulation experiment to develop different areas of their brains, besides other actual combat courses. These things were mainly determined by the different levels and types of Willpower that humans used to adapt to different environments.
Most of the time, Garen would cut class right after grasping these things quickly. He would either practice his Training Methods in his dorm room or go and discuss sales with Celine and the others.
Each day, time passed slowly until more than half a month went by in the blink of an eye.
*************
Katak.
The pale green pool ball was hit by the white cue ball lightly before it rolled slowly towards the hole at the corner after the collision.
Beside the pool table, Celine got up and used a cloth to wipe the cue while happily watching the green ball roll into the hole.
She was dressed in a white shirt and a little black vest over trousers and shiny leather shoes, which gave off a fine and mature air. At first glance, it was uncertain if people would be able to notice that she was actually a girl. Moreover, she was only a young female student who was not even twenty years old.
Garen stood on the side while dressed in a black shirt. Both of his hands were twirling the cue unenthusiastically while looking on as Celine continued to hit the balls.
The bright but soothing light cascaded downwards from above. There was a black ‘L’ shaped bar counter on the side while soft slow music played. Meanwhile, a female bartender was dazzling them with her techniques before she finished shaking the cocktail quickly. The colorful alcoholic drink formed bubbles of various pale shades when the rays of light reflected against it.
Both of them were currently inside one of the underground cellars that Celine’s family owned. This place was located within a short distance from the academy and was used as a temporary residence when Celine made special purchases.
“How are the recent business sales?” asked Garen simply in a bored manner when he noticed that Celine was about to clear the table in one go.
“Still alright. With your blessings, everything is going smoothly except that the sales operations are far too relaxed. I feel guilty every time I get one-tenth of the profits,” Celine looked at her own results happily and smiled while getting up.
“It doesn’t matter. Without your support, more money would be depleted because of many other things. You should rest at ease,” Garen smiled.
“Actually, I did not have any sales at all. When news broke out at Vivienne’s side recently, a crowd of people flocked over immediately to inquire about the supply and quantity of goods. Dozens of bottles of powder were ordered at once,” Celine was extremely satisfied with their collaboration this time. After receiving two consecutive payments, she gradually began to look forward to these collaborations. She gradually warmed up to Garen as their relationship became closer as well. Besides their mutual support for each other, both of them had favorable opinions of each other as well, allowing them to naturally have a close friendship.
“I don’t have any problems in that aspect. However, the progress of your combat training is still really terrible,” said Garen while shaking his head. “I’ve used various methods to train and guide you but you’re still unable to meet my demands.”
“Don’t you think that your demands are too high?” Celine asked in a puzzled tone. “I couldn’t even meet your demands despite risking my own life.”
“Try again during today’s training in a little while.” Garen was getting impatient. As a high-level martial arts master, he had his own honor as well. If the students he taught merely turned out to be garbage, they would definitely affect his reputation when they went out into the world.
Although he took great precautions to only teach Celine certain unimportant combat theories and general knowledge and made sure that she followed these principles and knowledge to undergo her training, the effects and results were unsatisfactory. However, he had seen Celine’s vigor for training. She had an insane passion for it and dedicated almost all of her time in training.
“You really don’t see me as a woman…” whenever Celine mentioned training, her thoughts would become somewhat silent. When she thought of Garen’s state during training, she often felt that he was strange despite her being a maniac who was always striving to become stronger.
“I should do that,” Garen watched as the last ball on the table was finally hit into the hole before a female server walked over and arranged the balls properly again. He snapped his fingers before picking the white cue ball up and placing it in the right position.
“Actually, ball games like these are much simpler. If no one disturbs me, I can usually clear the table in one go. For instance…”
He moved the cue gently.
Pop.
When the crisp noise rang out, the pool balls that were arranged properly on the table dispersed immediately. Next, they rolled calmly and slowly towards all of the holes in the surroundings.
Plop plop plop plop…
Moments later, a series of noises that indicated that the balls were rolling into the holes lingered continuously.
Celine began clapping instantly while a defeated look appeared on her face.
“Despite already knowing that your level of abnormality is out of the ordinary, I still feel unhappy whenever I see things like this. I’ve been playing pool for more than a year but I’m still not as good as you even though you only learned it two hours ago.”
“This is the difference between geniuses and normal people,” it was rare for Garen to make jokes like these.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Celine did not laugh along but shook her head instead. “Let’s go back up.”
“Mmhmm.”
Both of them put away the cues and climbed up the steps that led to the surface from the underground cellar. There was a large majestic hall at the entrance that led to the surface. The large hall was completely golden while various oil paintings depicting happy scenes were hung on the surrounding walls. Some of the paintings depicted countryside life while others depicted either metropolis scenes or portraits of prominent figures. Most of them were oil paintings of various Mech models.
A few maids attended to them and took them to wash their hands. Next, they drank some natural water before changing into a set of bandage style clothing that was especially worn during training.
One of Celine’s main habits during training was her love of wearing different types of bandage style clothing. White bandages could be wound around her chest and other more cumbersome and voluptuous parts of her body to reduce air resistance while increasing the speed of her combat movements. She was a paranoid person who would always notice the slightest bit of inefficiency.
Meanwhile, Garen was different. He changed into bandaged style clothing as well because Celine strongly suggested it but wore special protective tight clothing on top. The white protective clothing resembled a somewhat tighter white windbreaker that was both beautiful and practical.
Once both of them had changed into a new set of clothes, they entered the actual combat hall that they normally used. It was a square hall that was more than one hundred square meters wide. The surrounding walls, ceiling, and floors were covered with a thick layer of black alloy walls. This type of alloy that was known as Issim had a high level of toughness and strong spontaneous recovery abilities. It was mostly used to build the outer shell of Mechs. The true affluence of Celine’s family could clearly be seen from their usage of this material to build this room.
Almost seven to eight hundred thousand Units were spent to build a room like this.