Jake Mel Flazer wasn’t a major character in the game.
Only he and Samael had made it into Apex Academy out of all the people from their old high school group.
Because of this, and the fact that they were childhood friends, the two of them were always seen together.
Whenever Samael appeared on screen, Jake was right there behind him, smirking and snickering at people like a perfect sidekick to a third-rate villain.
But he never did much to progress the plot.
Despite possessing one of the strongest combat-based Origin Cards, he wasn’t even good at fighting.
He was more of a nuisance than a real threat. His only role in the story was to be a comic relief.
And after Samael’s death, he vanished from the story altogether. His screen time became non-existent.
My guess was that he died during the Class Excursion arc or maybe in the Ascent’s Invasion, since those two events had the highest death tolls.
But in truth, it didn’t matter.
His fate in the game was irrelevant.
What mattered was what would happen in this reality.
“So?” Jake’s impatient voice interrupted my thoughts. “How do you plan to screw that bastard?”
I nodded, my smile deepening.
My “plan” was simple.
I told him that we’d go find Michael, but we wouldn’t attack immediately.
We’d let him battle the other Cadets first. We’d let him exhaust himself, drain his Essence. And when the moment was right, we’d strike with utmost precision.
A basic strategy of attrition. Simple, but no less effective.
“But what if he attacks us first?” Jake asked, sounding more concerned than he would’ve liked to admit.
I shrugged, gesturing toward Juliana beside me. “We’ll just have to sacrifice her, then.”
The white-haired girl shot me a slightly startled look but remained silent.
Jake, however, turned to her as if he hadn’t been checking her out the moment he got here.
He surveyed her from head to toe with a lecherous glint in his eyes, a twisted smile growing across his pig-like face as he licked his lips.
Juliana rarely showed emotion, and even when she did, it was always subtle and restrained. Like she was always detached from the world, cold and callous.
But at that moment, under Jake’s gaze, she seemed ready to retch.
With a look of utter disgust, she took a half-step back from him and moved behind me, which only seemed to amuse Jake even more.
Arghh, I groaned inwardly. Even I felt shivers running down my spine. And I wasn’t even his visual target.
Juliana was used to receiving passionate gazes from all sorts of people, but there was something about Jake that always creeped her out like all the other living girls in the world.
“Yes, yes, that sounds good,” he nodded, turning back to me. “So, shall we go looking for him?”
“Not together,” I shook my head. “Let’s split up. We’ll cover more ground that way, and god knows this place is enormous.”
It really was.
Jake opened his mouth to retort.
Perhaps even he, as stupid as he was, felt a twinge of fear at the thought of searching for Michael alone.
Besides, groups were already forming among people here.
No one knew what this year’s evaluation exam was going to be — since each year was different from the last— but everyone understood one thing:
Apes together stron–
I mean, working together offered a better chance of success.
How naive.
Before Jake could speak up, I continued, “I’ll call you if I find him first. You do the same.”
My tone was soft yet firm, leaving no room for further debate as I put a wireless earbud in my ear.
Jake hesitated at first, but eventually nodded and brought out his own wireless device.
I smiled again. “Good. That reminds me, I don’t have any Acquire Cards. Mind lending me one or two? Something that can help me in a fight.”
“Ahh,” Jake scratched the back of his head, his reluctance was evident.
Acquire Cards were expensive, even for nobles.
In fact, most nobles could only purchase up to fourteen to fifteen Cards before exhausting a significant chunk of their family’s resources.
But I knew Jake had more than that – around twenty, if I had to guess.
How? Because I had given him a few Cards from my clan’s vault. I had shared them with everyone in our group, after all. Yes, I was generous.
So, Jake had no choice but to comply. I wasn’t taking anything from him. I was merely asking him to return what was already mine.
Well, technically, my clan’s.
“Sure, man,” he said, his smile strained as he produced two Cards from his Soul Arsenal. “Take these – one Skill and one Spell Card.”
“Hmm. I would have preferred an Item Card, too. But this is great. Thanks, Jay. You’re a real friend, you know that?” I beamed, accepting the Cards from him.
He grinned, flustered by my praise as I equipped the Cards in my Arsenal. They disintegrated into swirling particles of light, merging with my body, entering my soul.
Then, remembering something, I clapped my hands together.
“Oh, and one last thing. Can you spare me some Credits? Say, around fifty thousand?”
•••
After parting ways with my “best friend” under the pretense of searching for Michael, I wandered through the soon-to-be battlefield.
My pace was casual, my thoughts far from it.
Juliana followed a few steps behind, her gaze boring into the back of my head like a needle.
I sighed. “Stop staring at me.”
She didn’t.
Of course, she didn’t.
“What is it, Juli?” I reigned, already knowing what was on her mind.
“Do you not want to acquaint yourself with him anymore?” her voice carried its usual disinterest, but there was a hint of curiosity underneath.
I raised an eyebrow. “Why would you say that?”
“You know why,” she drew out the words in that slow, deliberate way of hers. “You clearly have no intention of going after Michael again, do you?”
I chuckled softly. Perceptive as always.
“You’re right,” I admitted. “He’s an idiot. And someone once said, it’s better to have an intelligent enemy than a foolish ally.”
Juliana stayed silent for a few breaths. Then, “Did you just try to pass off your own quote as some kind of ancient wisdom?”
“Wh-What?” I gasped. “No! It’s an actual saying! Maybe I mixed up a few words, but it is a saying.”
She nodded. “Sure, sure. I just don’t recall hearing it anywhere.”
“Tsk,” I clicked my tongue, steering the conversation back. “Anyway, I don’t need someone who’s more of a hindrance than a help. I’ll take from him whatever he’s worth, then discard him.”
Her silence lingered longer this time.
I understood why.
That was an unusual thing for me to say. She knew me well enough to expect trouble, but not this level of calculation.
For most of my life, I’d cherished the few friends I had – mainly because I never had many growing up.
Sure, I was aware most of them weren’t drawn to me, but to what I had: my status, my wealth, the advantages of being close to a high-noble like me.
But I never really cared. So what if they were shallow? So what if they were snobby entitled brats?
That’s how things worked in the real world.
Every relationship was a transaction. Give and take.
Even friendships.
Especially friendships.
The idea of genuine bonds is overrated and way too romanticized.
And yet, I liked my friends.
Okay, maybe not them but the idea of friends, of being around people who liked me, feeling as if I was wanted, even if it was not real.
So, not in a hundred years, she would’ve imagined me casually talking about “discarding” a friend, like they were a spent tool.
But that’s exactly what friends are, aren’t they?
I learned that in my previous life.
Every relationship, even parental, is indeed a transaction.
Love, in its purest form, might be unconditional, but friendships? Never.
People make friends for selfish reasons — to build connections, to share burdens, to fill the void of human interaction.
The reasons could vary, but it’s always an exchange. You give something, you get something.
Maybe it’s a cold outlook. Maybe it’s cynical.
But — and sue me for sounding edgy — it’s the truth.
So no, I wasn’t being heartless. I’d given Jake plenty of things – money, Cards, VIP passes to clubs most elites would kill to get into, the finest booze money could buy, luxury cars on birthdays, and so much more.
I’d been generous for years. Now it was his turn. Time for him to pay his share, to settle the debt.
I was a Theosbane, after all.
We were known for settling debts.
“Forgive me, Young Master, but may I ask something, if it’s not out of line?”
I gave a brief glance over my shoulder. “What?”
Her voice was careful when she spoke.
“Why are you not going after Michael? It’s not like you to let go of a grudge. Especially one you’ve been so fixated on. Can you really not beat him in a fight?”
I huffed. My pride wouldn’t let me admit the truth, but deep down, I knew it.
Juliana hadn’t been there when Michael fought me and my group in that back alley behind our school.
She’d only arrived in time to see the end — the part where the protagonist planted a solid blow to my gut, sending me tumbling back as I fell and hit my head on a rock.
If she had been there to witness the entire fight, saw how he took down more than ten Awakened with nothing but his bare hands, no other Cards to assist him, she wouldn’t be asking such a question.
“Everyone in our group at least broke a limb, fractured bones, or suffered some kind of blunt trauma,” I listed in an even tone. “I was in a coma for a day. We were strong — all on the brink of breaking through [C-rank]. You’ve seen me fight. You know what it takes to bring me down. But none of it mattered.”
I turned to meet her gaze.
“No,” I admitted. “I don’t think I can defeat him in a one-on-one fight.”
…Not right now, at least.
But I had an idea of how to surpass him.
Juliana seemed to ponder my words for a few moments before asking, “So, what would you do if you really had to fight him today?”
I shrugged. It didn’t happen in the game.
Michael and Samael didn’t cross paths until the start of the first term, when Samael — being the fool he was — challenged him to a rematch and lost in front of everyone.
But that didn’t mean the story couldn’t change.
Today, I was gunning for the top spot, to start the term as Ace of the first-years. It wasn’t impossible that I might end up face-to-face with Michael.
“If that happens, I’ll rely on you,” I had a shameless grin on my face. “You can throw your admirers at him to give me time to escape.”
Juliana looked at me dubiously. “I don’t know what you mean.”
I chuckled. “Oh, come now, Juli. You think I don’t know what you’re up to? You must really take me for a fool.”
Everyone in the dorm was already wrapped around her finger. She had that effect on people.
They gravitated toward her like the tides to the moon, drawn by some quiet gravity they couldn’t quite explain, despite knowing they might never actually get to her.
But this time, it wasn’t unintentional.
She’d deliberately made connections with every new Cadet back at our dorm. And for one simple reason.
She planned to use them today.
As I said, no one knew what the exam would be, but they knew sticking together would help.
That was also one of the reasons why Juliana wanted to live in the dorms on Alaron Street.
Only the rich and powerful elites could afford lodging there, and she had been planning to make use of them.
Unfortunately for her, I had cut the strings before she could make her puppets dance.
I dragged her with me to Zephyros.
So, she had to settle for manipulating the commoners.
Juliana turned her gaze away. She didn’t need to answer. What she willed was irrelevant – only what I did.
Her puppets were mine, just as she was.
•••
It took just over an hour for all the new Cadets to step through the Teleporter and gather in the coliseum.
The instructors and faculty asked us to form neat, orderly lines, and we obeyed without a word.
Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for — dreading, even.
The evaluation exam was about to begin.
We stood in tense silence as the giant video boards on the grandstands all around the arena flickered to life all at once.
A video began playing, either broadcast live or pre-recorded. On the screen was a young woman, strikingly beautiful.
Her long silver hair shimmered like trails of moonlight on a dusky night, and her crimson eyes seemed to glow with an otherworldly, almost hypnotic allure.
She sat behind an elegant desk in a tastefully furnished office. The only thing on the desk was a golden plaque that read: Ace.
A hush fell over the coliseum. Every breath seemed to catch in her presence. This was her — the Ace of the third-years.
The Cadet Council president. One of the strongest Awakened in the entire Academy.
She leaned back in her chair leisurely and narrowed her eyes. There was an aura of authority around her, as if power and command were as natural to her as breathing.
When she spoke, her voice was like velvet draped over steel — soft to the ear, but resolutely sharp — echoing from large speakers around the arena.
“Good morning, Cadets. I’m Vereshia Morrigan, the Ace of third-years. And I welcome you all to the 385th annual Entrance Evaluation Exam of our prestigious Apex Academy.”