When Ryoshu approached her, Esther couldn't stop trembling. But she was a strong woman with a great ego. Therefore, she wouldn't allow herself to lose to a commoner like the young man standing before her now.

  "Hey! What are you pnning to do to me? Are you trying to eliminate a witness? Don't think I'll just stand still and let you do whatever you want!"

  Her deep red eyes suddenly fshed. Red spheres gradually formed on both sides of Esther's shoulders.

  She remained vigint every second against that incomprehensibly powerful force. Sweat had appeared on her forehead without her even noticing. She recalled his performance during yesterday's css pcement test and felt even more afraid.

  Additionally, she felt a chaotic mixture of envy and respect. 'Even without Mana, he's this strong...' - That was the truth because Ryoshu hadn't used Mana even once yesterday.

  But precisely because he had no Mana, she also pitied the boy. Because she understood better than anyone... without Mana, one couldn't advance further.

  Despite her intimidation attempts, Ryoshu boldly walked toward her. 'Should I attack him first?'

  Ryoshu's footsteps didn't falter at all. They continued steadily one after another.

  Esther could no longer ignore this. She immediately directed projectiles from the two spheres toward him. Dozens of deep red bullets flew out like a storm.

  "You started first, you know." - His voice seemed to become even deeper than before.

  Although Esther was very afraid, she stood firm because she was 100% confident in her special technique. However, contrary to her expectations...

  Ryoshu put on his mask. Then he picked up a rusty sword. And immediately sliced through all the blood bullets. The blood bullets quickly split in half and deviated from their flight path.

  All these actions happened in just a brief second or two.

  "What the-! I thought you didn't use swords! And why did you take out that mask again!? Don't tell me you're using-"

  In an instant, Esther lost her composure, and his presence completely vanished before her eyes, which were now filled with the noble blue color of Mana.

  "Damn it! What a cowardly trick!" - Despite trying to use Mana to find him, it had no effect at all.

  Esther created a closed space in the shape of a half-sphere. 'If that commoner comes in here, I'll immediately sense him!'

  She heightened all her senses to the maximum. But after waiting for a while, he didn't enter her trap.

  'Wait a minute... something's wrong.' She released control of the blood wall.

  The drops of blood, instead of falling to the ground, evaporated as if they had never existed. She still maintained her absolute vigince.

  However, even after waiting a bit longer, Esther still didn't feel any movement.

  'He just wanted to go to the assembly hall from the beginning... Suddenly becoming hostile and then... being so spectacurly deceived by him...'

  Even though he wasn't there, it made her feel even more embarrassed.

  'I should go to the assembly hall too... I have an appointment with the others there already.'

  After taking just a few steps, her arms were roughly grabbed. Esther was pinned against the oak tree right there.

  And a familiar face gradually appeared as the person removed a mask.

  "I fooled you, silly dy, didn't I?" - A smug smile slowly appeared on that ugly and unpleasant face.

  "So... from the beginning, you intended to make me look like a fool!?" Esther struggled while being restrained.

  "You're only realizing that now? Too te."

  "Remove your filthy hands from me right now!"

  Ryoshu immediately let go, and the white-haired girl instinctively sank to her knees.

  "Hey..."

  "What!"

  Ryoshu's patience had never been challenged to this extent, so he found it difficult to completely control his emotions.

  "Shut up and listen... or else."

  "..."

  "Alright... listen. Keep my secret..."

  "Why should I do that?!"

  "Silence! Firstly, because nobody would believe it anyway. For obvious reasons, my dy. A nameless person ranked st in school, not belonging to any family, and moreover, not possessing Mana, yet able to deliver a finishing blow in the css pcement test."

  "But..."

  "And think about it. Only you lose when you reveal the secret. If you need information, I'm the only suitable person for that position. Even if I become a Star student today, they still won't know my true power and will firmly believe I was just lucky. And that's also my intention."

  'He's thought this far ahead? How did he...' - Esther felt persuaded by his words.

  "Whether you tell or not, it won't affect me... but... if you reveal the secret, I'll find it quite troublesome... Since your reputation at school is already top-tier. So it's best if you keep your mouth shut and keep it a secret."

  "Fine. Thanks to you, I'm sure I've made it into the top 10, so I already partly believe in your abilities."

  She couldn't deny the efforts of the ill-mannered person standing before her.

  "Good girl! If you need anything, call me anytime. But don't break our agreement."

  After saying that, he turned and walked away as if nothing had happened. Seeing this, Esther called him back:

  "W-wait!"

  "What else?" - His head turned back just enough to hear what she said.

  'He won't even face me to talk anymore? I'll get revenge on him next time!'

  Despite thinking this, she also restrained herself a bit to focus on her task.

  "You need to give me your phone number or something so I can contact you!"

  Standing thoughtfully for a moment, Ryoshu whispered just loud enough as if afraid someone would hear.

  "Hmm. No need, in a few days the school will open up the school forum along with the account names of all first-year students. At that time, you can message my social media account."

  'This commoner dares to make me find a way to contact him!'

  It was obvious how offended Esther felt. After all, from big to small matters, she had always been spoken to and treated with politeness by others, whether they hated her or not.

  "Well, goodbye. It's about to get te." - He paid no mind and left the rose garden.

  Swish ----0w0----

  After spending ten minutes wandering around looking for the assembly hall, he finally arrived. Entering the spacious assembly hall, Ryoshu was surprised by how simir the room's structure was to a movie theater. The door led to the uppermost row of seats in the room.

  Next, he saw all the members of css A-1 from the script. There were many other supporting characters and of course the main characters including Volkov Katia, Esther White, Charlotte Williams, Takahashi Haruki.

  'They arrived before me.'

  And there was also another main character. But unlike other main characters, he wasn't previously part of Haruki's group of friends. Moreover, because the plot had slightly changed, they only talked and got acquainted with each other for the first time yesterday.

  The full name of that young man was Ryan Jackson, a guy with ginger-red hair, somewhat humorous and crude. Overall, he was quite a stereotypical character, the best friend of the male protagonist in every novel.

  He was sitting and talking with Haruki and occasionally also interacting with the other female members of the group. But since they had just met, the atmosphere around them wasn't particurly lively yet.

  And speaking of novels, there's an interesting fact that is rarely mentioned. That is, the game Rainfall Disorder was adapted from a novel of the same name. But this adaptation was so good that it became even more famous than the original.

  Many people joked that the game had overshadowed the novel itself. The creator of the novel was somewhat dissatisfied and filed a wsuit in court.

  'But I heard it wasn't very successful.' - Ryoshu remembered an article he had read long ago.

  Back to Ryan Jackson, his family background wasn't particurly grand, especially when compared to the three female friends in the group. But in return, his background was simir to Haruki's.

  Both were born not wealthy... but unlike Haruki, who had established his own wealth, Ryan's father became a Baron. The two of them sympathized with each other because they were the only male members in the friend group and had backgrounds that couldn't compare to those of the three girls.

  Ryoshu also sympathized with them because he knew what poverty was like.

  [Account bance: 1 RC]

  He looked at the only money in his bank account and couldn't help but sigh deeply.

  'I really hate being poor...' - His past memories with this thing called "poverty" weren't pleasant at all.

  While sighing, he sensed a bullet-like gaze directed straight at him. Ryoshu kept calm and turned toward the direction he felt was most dangerous.

  'Oh, that arrogant noble girl is looking at me again. Should I tease her a little?' Thinking is doing, Ryoshu smiled at Esther. A smile full of contempt on his rather unpleasant face.

  'Behold, you temperamental girl.'

  Then when Esther realized he was smiling at her, her expression suddenly turned into a natural disaster... in this case, Ryoshu likened it to a volcanic eruption.

  Her face, originally elegant and noble, had now become distorted. Deep wrinkles on her forehead and her eyebrows furrowed fiercely.

  The fire in her eyes bzed, radiating a fury threatening to explode at any moment.

  'Does my face look that bad?!? Is there any need to exaggerate so much? I wonder if she'll stab me in the back?'

  Ryoshu gulped while trying to avoid her killing intent. He chose a seat in the st row, which was also the highest in the room and closest to the door he had just entered through.

  'This way, if anything urgent happens, I can escape in time.'

  A moment ter, the students hurriedly took their seats. The empty seats were quickly filled by that group of people. When the room was full, the opening ceremony began. First, the teachers stood up to speak, followed by the third-year representatives who stood up to welcome the first-year students.

  'In general, a bunch of procedures, typical boring processes of an opening ceremony.' - Ryoshu didn't know what to do except continue scrolling on his watch to see if there was any news.

  'Oh, the system crashed so evaluation isn't possible.' - Ryoshu let out a long sigh while standing to sing the English national anthem. More accurately, he just lip-synced because he didn't know the lyrics to sing.

  'Now I have to learn how to use this damn cheap watch.'

  "Now I would like to announce the results of yesterday's css pcement test."

  A clear and captivating voice suddenly rang out across the school yard. All the students who were sitting and chatting or not paying attention immediately turned to look at the teacher standing on the huge stage. She wore a somewhat revealing red dress that looked very attractive.

  "That's Vivian?!"

  "The youngest 8-star mage in the world?!"

  "I've known she works here for a long time. You guys are clueless."

  The young girl with red hair mixed with a bit of green. Overall, a style that was both youthful and seductive. A girl who, although not from a particurly prominent family background, had undeniable skill and talent.

  "Hello students, you probably don't know who I am, so allow me to introduce myself. I'm Vivian Rufus, an 8-star mage and an A-rank Awakened."

  The clearest evidence was that she was an 8-star mage at the age of 27.

  'This is an achievement not just in the world, you silly kids. It's also in the entire human history of the past few decades.' - Ryoshu also really liked the character Vivian... for two reasons.

  He coughed at his own perverted thoughts and shifted his attention to her words.

  The students below became even more restless. But mostly the first-year students. Perhaps the seniors were already used to the teacher's presence.

  'Mages, aside from the condition of stats about vessels, circles, and cores, also need to be linked with stars. And now Vivian has linked with 8 stars of the... consteltion that the game has never revealed.'

  There are millions of different consteltions, from small to rge. Each gives the Mage different benefits and disadvantages. The number of linked stars will also give the person new techniques and knowledge.

  'That's also why she's rank A but can achieve 8 stars. Because those two things don't have much connection. Even the combat master Takagi Kenzo, although he's rank S, can't even be called a mage.'

  Speak of the devil, and he appears. Teacher Kenzo began to walk onto the stage from behind the curtains. Today he wore a suit that looked more formal and noble than yesterday. He went up to the podium and began speaking into the microphone with a serious tone:

  "Hello, students. Today is the most important day for you all. The day that marks the appearance of the world's number one heroes."