"Why are you always back so early?"
"I found Earth to be quite boring," Tom Nguyen replied.
"Most people would say otherwise," Zane replied, sitting on the table. Without the internet, many people found the academy quite dull, with the only upside being the large quantity of films and movies available.
"Most of these people have low attention spans, so their opinions don't count," Tom Nguyen said as he set up a game of Remembrance Chess. The Chess Club held an event last week and handed out a few free boards. Since then, Zane and Tom have played a game or two whenever they have a little free time.
"True." Social media has many positive effects on society, as well as many negatives. Zane, in some way, was lucky, as being locked up prevented him from becoming addicted to social media and ruining his attention span. Meanwhile, Tom was an old soul; he had no social media accounts and barely used his TV, watching a documentary once or twice a month, sometimes for years. The only "entertainment app" he used was YouTube, and only for educational content like video essays.
The two focused on the game, and an hour later, Evans waltzed into the room with peppy steps. Zane and Tom sat at the table's corner so they could face each other, and Evans sat next to Tom so he could face Zane too.
"Thank you."
"For what?" Zane asked, eyes still focused on the board.
"For solving James' problem."
"Oh?"
"As soon as my parents knew he was affecting my performance, they agreed to drop the entire training thing. Plus, James' parents now had better options."
"Tutoring?"
"Yes. And now, I'm free."
"Good for you," Zane said. He really didn't want Evans to fall out of the Elite Class, for both personal and business reasons. After all, if that happened, Evans might slowly feel isolated, and more importantly, it might reflect poorly on Zane's evaluation in the tower.
"How about I treat everybody to a meal to celebrate?"
"You don't have to."
"No, I insist." Without waiting for another objection, Evans walked out of the dorm and headed straight to the cafeteria, returning a few minutes later with three plates of magic food. Zane didn't shy away from people's generosity, so he helped himself. Meanwhile, Tom Nguyen became emboldened after seeing Zane's actions.
Midway through the meal, Zane felt something and immediately checked his status: 1.03 Life Energy. "Finally," he thought. After getting used to the meteoric rise of his other attributes, life energy felt a bit underwhelming. Of course, Zane understood it couldn't be helped; after all, he was using the most basic knight breathing method. And since he saw no need to buy a better one, he had to accept the slow growth.
Ding! Dong!
"The girls must be here," Tom Nguyen stated.
"I'll get it."
"No, I'll do it." Zane stood and walked over to the entrance door.
"What does your last text mean? Why can't you give me a straight answer?" Keesha bombarded him as soon as the door opened.
"Let's talk in the hallway," Zane said.
Evelyn frowned. "Did something happen?"
"Did he post my picture online?"
"He didn't, and I erased all the backups."
"Then, why are you acting all mysterious? You had me worry for nothing."
"I found over 300 megabytes of CSAM on your ex —I mean, Liam's computer."
"Beast."
"CSAM? What's that?"
"Child pornography," Evelyn explained.
"Child…wait, you mean he was…"
Zane nodded. "He had a hidden chat with hundreds of people; they distributed photos, videos, and all types of tactics to acquire the material."
"No way," Keesha said immediately, then paused. "No wonder he always said I look young with my hair straightened. insisting I keep it that way. And there is also that time at the cookout; I thought I saw wrong, but he was filming the children. Damn it, I'm going to kill that fucking degenerate."
"Don't do anything rash. Let's get law enforcement involved."
"I already sent the information to the FBI," Zane continued. "If nothing unexpected happens, you'll soon be interrogated. Don't reveal you asked me to hack someone for you. In fact, lend me your phone, and I'll wipe all traces."
Keesha nodded before these words suddenly dawned on her. "Wait, I'm getting interrogated? I haven't done anything wrong."
Evelyn sighed. "They will investigate everyone around him, and as his girlfriend, you can't escape. I'll get you a lawyer. When they contact you, don't say anything and call me."
"Fuck. Why do I have to deal with all this bullshit because he's a piece of shit?"
"You don't have to panic," Zane said. "Knowing how the FBI operates, it will take a while before they respond. In fact, if not for the sheer number of people in that chat, they might have ignored it entirely."
"How could they ignore it? Isn't it their job to deal with these situations?"
"Honey, that's how governmental agencies operate. If the case is not high profile enough, they'll do the bare minimum, or just ignore it."
Keesha exhaled. "I need to sit down."
The three returned to the room to wait. Zane left the rest of his meal as an offering to Anansi. And while he was at it, he also retrieved his new laptop to clean Keesha's phone. Midway through his work, the knights arrived, and Myk, now with a fully grown beard, came with them. Unlike before, their clothes weren't that torn, and they had no bandages. More importantly, Devonte wore an uncontrollable grin.
"Can I use your bathroom?" Myk asked.
"Sure." Zane opened the door for him, and a few minutes later, everybody had gathered at the table. There wasn't enough room for everybody, so Myk pushed the sofa closer to the table and sat on the edge, facing everybody.
"Based on your expression, I'm guessing today was a great hunt," Zane began.
Ahmed nodded. "We made a profit of 500 crystals each."
"Seriously?" Tom Nguyen asked. For four of them, that's 2000 crystals or 2 million US dollars.
"Why such a drastic increase?"
"It's because of him," Devonte said, pointing at Myk.
"Him?"
"What's with that tone?"
"Two of the most time-consuming aspects of hunting are tracking and fighting herds," Ahmed explained. "Myk has a few titles that enhanced his six senses, making him an excellent tracker. More importantly, with his additional defense, we don't fear groups of magical beasts."
"If you guys want a way to track your prey, why not use drones? I used it for my second shifts, and it was quite useful."
The room paused for a moment before Ahmed spoke: "I didn't think of that. But it's a good idea."
Meanwhile, Myk glanced at him, eyes teary. "Are you my friend? Why are you taking my job away?"
"It's a safer approach." Although Zane didn't know much about tracking, he could imagine it was dangerous.
"Aww, I know you love me the most."
Zane ignored him.
"Oh, by the way, Mama made you some knysh, and I brought the sunflower seeds you wanted."
Zane's eyes lit up as he took the Tupperware and the sealed cup. Even though he'd already eaten, he took a bite. Without knowing it, he closed his eyes and savored the taste. "It's just like I remember it. Thanks."
"No problem."
"You guys had such a haul. What do you plan to do with the money?" Tom Nguyen asked.
"Weapon."
"Buy a good weapon."
"A new shield."
Everybody looked at the three of them.
"You have no idea how shitty the low-level enchanted weapons are," Myk scoffed. "Every hunt, I have to replace them two to three times. And if we're doing an E-rank mission, we can expect 5-7 exchanges or repairs."
"Yeah. We could have made a lot more money," Devonte said, nodding.
"They can't be that bad, right?" Zane asked. "Or did the alchemists and enchanters design them to break easily to make more money?"
Ahmed shook his head. "I don't know about that. But the skin and bones of a magic beast are extremely hard, and these weapons break often upon making contact."
"Can't you protect the weapons with mana?" Evans asked.
"We can't project mana for a long period outside our body; so, we can only use it to activate the enchantment."
"That's right. Only battle energy can be projected."
Zane asked while tasting the sunflower seeds. "Do you think a gun would be more effective?"
"For weaker F-rank Beasts, most definitely. But for the more powerful ones or E-rank beasts who have high physical defense, they can only injure and slow them down," Myk replied.
"It's definitely useless against top E-rank beasts. Their defense, speed, reaction time, and danger sense make guns useless. Well, at least the easily accessible ones," Ahmed added. "I'm not too versed in military weapons. So, maybe they have things that could work."
Zane nodded. No matter how powerful the transcendents are, their strength will not eclipse modern military until the 4th ring. Even then, the power gap might not be that vast until the 6th ring.
"By the way, Tom, we brought your undead," Ahmed said.
"Really? What's the damage?"
"It only has a stab wound in the brain."
"Excellent."
"You ordered another undead?" Zane asked.
"Yes. I used the money from the Flame Wolf."
"Can we see it?" Evans asked.
"No. It's going to be a surprise for the upcoming tournament."
"Suit yourself."