"W-well... this is our room..."
Ned showed the room.
It was clear that he was quite nervous—very anti-social from the first glance—and was avoiding eye contact.
The ’room’ was pretty nice, but it was actually a little apartment—actually around the same size as Devon and his mother’s apartment back in New Angeles.
A nice little living room with an L-shaped couch.
There was also a large bookshelf facing the couch, but the shelves only framed the outside edges, while the center was an empty rectangular opening.
And inside that rectangular opening was a flat-screen television.
Then, there was a small kitchenette with a refrigerator and everything they would need to cook meals.
However, they also had a cafeteria over here, so it wasn’t necessary to use it, but they could if they wanted to.
And then there was a bathroom with a toilet connected to the shower, and the laundry room was located at the other wing of the Box.
Two bedrooms as well—one was currently being used by Ned—the two bedrooms were right next to each other.
"I-I already took this bedroom, but if you want it, we can always switch. I-I arrived yesterday already, so I’ve already unpacked all of my stuff."
Ned said, and then he nervously fidgeted with his glasses and looked at Devon’s reaction—it seemed fineish.
"That won’t be necessary."
Devon said, and then he carried his suitcase to his bedroom and opened the door and saw a small bed at the corner, a small desk, and a small closet.
There was actually a window—it showed the sea that was surrounding the island—it was an honestly amazing view.
From here, he could already see that the sky was turning dark.
It was as if there was a storm coming and about to rain.
"There are windows here. I couldn’t see any windows from outside. How is that possible?"
Devon asked.
"T-that’s called a two-way design. From outside, they can’t see anything, and it just looks like one big blue box.
"But we, on the other hand, can see outside perfectly—in case some of the reporters try to sneak in and take pictures, they can’t see us."
Ned nudged his glasses and said.
"Cool."
Devon went to the bed, opened the suitcase, and then started folding his clothes nicely on his bed.
But then, with his side glance, he saw Ned peeking inside the room, like he didn’t realize that he was doing something.
"...Is there something else?"
Devon asked.
"Ah, I am sorry!"
Ned apologized, and then he ran inside his bedroom, and Devon just heard the door shut with a quiet click.
’What a strange person.’
Devon thought, and then he pulled out his phone and realized that there was no signal whatsoever.
’This is so that we can’t contact the outside world and expose what we are doing in here? It means I can’t talk to my mother.’
He sighed.
He hoped that they could at least send some letters, as he wanted to know how his mother was doing.
Then.
Devon put his clothes inside the closet, put his headphones, the phone, and the charger on the nightstand, and then put the suitcase on top of the closet.
’It’d be nice to see the time on the watch.’
Devon tapped on the watch’s screen, trying to change anything on it, but nothing happened—it was just his name and the point score in it.
"Hahaha!"
At that moment, he heard some loud laughter from the hallway and curiously walked to the doorway of his room.
In the hallway, he saw a lot of the students mingling with each other and trying to make some friends.
The super social ones especially were standing out with their outgoing personalities and big smiles.
’All expect one.’
Devon looked at the end of the hallway—with the name Nathaniel on the door—it was the only door that was closed.
It didn’t look like he enjoyed the loud noises coming from the hallway.
’Nathaniel’s roommate is someone called... Rexzavian Razzquell... That’s Thug American name, is it not?’
Devon thought.
"You’re Devon, right?"
At that moment, someone talked to him on the other side of the hallway, and Devon looked over—and saw a brown-haired boy staring at him.
"Yes, and you?"
"I am Aaron. It’s cool to meet you."
Aaron, with a smile, shook his hand, and he looked like any normal young man—someone that was easily forgettable.
On his wrist, there was a bronze watch—which wasn’t really surprising—as he felt very uninteresting.
"What do you think about this place?"
Aaron asked.
"Too early to give out any valid judgment yet."
Devon said.
"Haha... Yeah, I am starting to see why you’re Gold-Ranked. Others would’ve said something like, "It’s pretty nice," but not you. You are very analytical and thoughtful in your responses."
Aaron smirked.
"Well, what about you?"
Devon asked.
"Oh, I am digging this place. It’s rad, as fuck. Much better than my parent’s crib, and the views are sick."
Aaron said.
"Could be worse, I guess."
Devon said with a chuckle.
"You’re already starting to have fans, from what I’ve noticed. I was not that into Lords of the Mythic Legends scene, but there are definitely few that are."
Aaron said.
"...Fans, who?"
Devon asked.
Then, Aaron just signaled towards the left with his eyes, and Devon tried to be casual about it and just nonchalantly looked over.
A person was looking at him. A girl with short blond hair. She had bright blue eyes and a runner’s build.
It was easy to consider her attractive.
She noticed Devon staring.
And she immediately looked away—she was not sneaky at all—it was like she was caught red-handed.
"She’s been staring at you for a while. I think that girl is Kate Sinclair. I’ve seen her make some friends and heard her name."
Aaron said.
"Why is she staring at me?"
Devon asked.
He could be considered an attractive young man, but he didn’t have that much confidence in himself to think that she would be interested in him.
"I don’t know. It must do with you being Crossheart, and all. Don’t you have your own fan clubs as well?
"Did you know that there is a church called Church of Crossheart in Innerworld? They’re apparently fanatics of you, worshipping you as their Gaming God."
Aaron said.
"What? Seriously?"
Devon asked with a baffled look.
"You really don’t know how popular you are? I think even that Thomas guy was fangirling over you."
Aaron said.
Devon wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
He had abandoned the alias of Crossheart a long time ago—to him, that was just an old Chapter of his life.
It felt weird that people were still so fixated on it.