After sitting a while longer with my sister, evening had well and truly set in; so I went into my room — the room I could only see on weekends and evenings off — and stretched out on my bed. Anyone who wanted could stay in the dorms, but as I said, I love this home a little. The next morning I got up before the sky had even lightened. Elisa, dozing in the kitchen, poured me tea; Master Ren was still reading. As I went out the door all he said behind me was, "May your road be open." Ahead of me was a long period, and inside me was still that familiar laziness — not yet knowing how long that could last.
Thanks to my new achievement in the rankings, my scholarship had been raised from 2,000 Tark a month to 2,200 Tark. Considering that an average bottle of water in the city costs 2 Tark, this money was more than enough for someone like me whose only concern was living comfortably.
Along with my new title, I moved into the fourth-rank student room on the top floor of the dormitory building. The moment I stepped through the door, that smell of cleanliness and luxury greeted me. A giant bed, a private training corner, a special filter system that strained out the smoky air outside. I didn't have much in the way of belongings anyway; I tossed the single bag in my hand aside and stretched out on the bed, drifting into a short nap while waiting for class time to come.
When the bell rang I got up reluctantly and walked to Class A, the Elites' Class. At Academy there were forty sections at every class level, and thirty students in every section. Normally students were distributed at random, but the top thirty of each level — the elites — were gathered specially in Class A.
When I pushed open the heavy oak door of the classroom and entered, every gaze turned to me. I ran my eye over the front rows.
Alex was there; 184 centimeters tall, blond hair, looking straight at me with that arrogant posture of his. I walked over and greeted him. Right beside him sat Elena, the school's second place — a girl around 167 centimeters, brown hair falling to her shoulders, striking with her bright green eyes. The Diamond badge gleamed on her chest. The moment she saw me she waved cheerfully.
"Good morning, Kai! I see you've got that sleepy scowl on again," she said in a chirping voice.
Elena was one of the rare people at school I could get along with. She had such a sincere character that even someone as cold as me could lower his walls while talking to her.
"Good morning, Elena," I murmured.
To Elena's left stood Dexler, the school's third place. Coming from the Hexbarg family, one of the city's four most established families, Dexler — everyone called him Dex for short — was a charismatic young man, 190 centimeters tall, with silver hair and silver eyes. The Emerald badge on his chest gave off a cold light. He was quiet and calm, never bullied anyone, never put his elite pride on display. He gave me a slight nod, and I answered the same way.
As my eyes moved through the classroom, they crossed with a short, brown-haired boy standing behind Alex. This was Peter. He was glaring at me with anger because I had taken from him the fourth place that should have been his and pushed him to fifth, thereby depriving him of the privileges of being a Sapphire. Since he was Alex's closest friend, that hatred was doubled. Ignoring his glare, I moved to one of the back rows.
The moment I set down my bag, Ms. Laura entered the classroom and the Modern History and Chi Theory class began.
When she stepped into the room at eighty-one years old, her face full of wrinkles and her walk slightly stooped, the air changed all at once. With the sensational Chi Theorem paper she had published the previous year, she had suddenly landed at the center of the country's agenda and received offer after offer from universities. Even Neopolis Academy had been forced to spend a fortune to add this brilliant old woman to its staff. She was giving her first lesson at the school today, and her first stop had been the Elites' Class.
She threw a weary look at the class over the top of her glasses. "Silence," she said, her voice cutting through the whispers in the room like a knife. "The lesson we will cover today is Modern History and Chi Theorem. We will begin by going back to that dark era in which the known history of Chi began, to the Great War Era a thousand years ago. To the era in which humanity came to the threshold of annihilation before the Anomalies, in which all the races united and used Chi as a weapon for the first time, by primitive methods. The nine great cities you live in today were also built upon the ashes of that war."
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She drew a complex diagram on the board symbolizing the flow of Chi, then turned back to the class.
"So, who can tell me? What was the most critical event, occurring exactly five hundred years after this war a thousand years ago, that laid the foundation of the order we use today?"
A hand went up in the front rows. Peter stood up, chest puffed out, driven by the ambition to prove himself to the teacher. After glancing at me once, he spoke:
"Five hundred years ago the System Panels were established, Ms. Laura! Thanks to this, humanity saved Chi from disasters and uncontrolled use and succeeded in measuring potential limits, stats, and development paths down to the millimeter; and besides that, in measuring one's opponent and in evaluating anomalies and conveying that to the individual."
"Well done," Ms. Laura said in a sour voice. "And after the System was opened, what kind of momentum did humanity's Chi development gain?"
After giving the answer, Peter didn't sit down. Without pulling his gaze off me, he added in a tone the whole class could hear:
"Development reached such a point that some people, without expending any effort at all, can install themselves as high as fourth place purely thanks to the potential ceilings they were lucky enough to be born with. Including, of course, stealing the place of those who deserve it."
The class burst out laughing. Even Elena put her hand over her mouth, and a faint smile appeared on Dex's lips. Peter sat down proudly and looked at me.
As for me, I smiled. What he'd said struck me as funny too; I didn't hate Peter, so I looked back at the board. But this lack of reaction must have irritated him even more, because the smile fell off his face. Ms. Laura struck the desk twice and sank the class back into silence. "The difference between humanity before and after the System was not only an increase in power, but a radical transformation in social structure as well," she continued. "Before the System was established, power depended entirely on coincidence and luck. The only way to measure who was how strong was to turn a blind eye while you killed each other. When people went to war they didn't know what they were facing; what kind of anomaly stood before them, what needed to be done, what its weak points were — all of it was written only in books, and of course not everyone had it memorized."
A slight shiver went around the classroom. Ms. Laura continued: "The System removed that uncertainty. Some see this as a liberation — no one is swinging their fists in the dark anymore. Others see it as a new cage; and don't forget, a cage first gives the one inside it security, and collects the price later. There's also this: to everyone who can pass two thousand points, the System grants a personalized ability. This ability is shaped according to each person's own nature; even if it doesn't give everyone abnormal powers, there are people it benefits considerably. Mine, for instance, is a tremendous memory." She paused a moment and adjusted her glasses. "Of course, two thousand is not a number any of you in this class can make sense of at your age."
After the class ended, we moved on to mealtime. In Academy's enormous dining hall, class differences were felt most clearly. The VIP dining area reserved specially for badge-holding students — that is, the top nine — was on the highest platform of the hall. Silk-covered tables, high-energy Chi dishes prepared by private chefs, unlimited resources. The school administration made this distinction deliberately, to encourage students to work harder.
Of the remaining four people, only Eleanor was here; eighth place, with the Quartz badge. She was a very shy girl, a little small in build, but with a mind that left even me behind when it came to intelligence. Last time she had told me she wanted to devote herself to Chi engineering and continue on that road.
Dex sat quietly at the head of the table. With a potential score of 3,125 he was the highest of the generation; every one of his attributes was nearly equal to the others, he had a flawless balance.
Right beside him was me, with a potential of 3,105. My intelligence and my potential ceiling in control were higher than anyone's, but because of my indifference my total score was low. If you asked me, taking the useful attributes as the basis, I was in first place; but unfortunately the school and the System also looked at attributes like leadership and Adaptability.
Alex was across from me. He was in first place and his score had shot up to 284, but his total potential was 3,056 — that is, however much he achieved with resources right now, his ceiling was lower than ours. Maybe if I never made any effort at all, and he lived every day of his like hell, he could pass me by a few points.