"Ugh…"Stirring, I blinked and stared at the white ceiling above me. This time I recognized the ceiling – it was the infirmary where I had spent a good chunk of my first year in.
Come to think of it, I hadn"t been in here for a while.
"d.a.m.n it…" I struggled to sit up. Reaching out for my gla.s.ses, which were conveniently placed on a side table, I put them on and glanced around.
"So you"re finally awake."
I almost jumped out of my skin at the disembodied voice. Turning around, I caught sight of Craig Carlson. He grinned at me.
"That was a great battle. We should do that again. One on one." He studied me, his eyes gleaming excitedly. "I"m sure you"ll be summoning a lot more stuff."
"I"ll try not to get cornered again like I did the last time." At that time, I still wasn"t aware of Craig"s cursed technique, but later I found out that the words I jokingly said were literally the solution. There was a restrictive range of Craig"s cursed technique. As long as I hastily backed away the moment he activated it and stayed out of range, it wouldn"t be able to hit me.
"We"ll see about that." Craig smirked. It wasn"t an unfriendly smirk, but an expression that told me that he had found a worthy rival. "How the heck did you lose all your matches last year? Your skills aren"t bad at all."
"I put too much focus on summoning and didn"t train in combat magic at all," I replied wearily. I really didn"t want to be reminded of my stupidity, but such was life. We all did something incredibly stupid and embarra.s.sing at one point or another. Trying to change the subject, I looked around. "Where is everyone? Are we the only ones brought to the infirmary?"
"Yeah," Craig confirmed with a shrug. "None of the others are here. My society just dropped by about fifteen minutes before you woke up."
"…my society lost, didn"t they?" the words that left my mouth were bitter. No one liked to lose. I thought I had gotten used to defeat after that ninety-nine losing streak, but my recent victories had buoyed me back to the very same complacency I warned my teammates about. It seemed that I needed more training.
Craig shrugged indifferently. "It"s best if you hear from your own society."
As if on cue, Dong Fang Yue Chu and the rest tromped in.
"Vice-President, you"re awake!"
"Vice-President Richard, are you all right?"
"Yeah." I tested my limbs, and got out of bed. "Seems like Teacher Cure"s healing spells are as effective as ever. I"m fully healed."
"That"s good to hear." Dong Fang Yue Chu nodded with a smile. I glanced at him, and swept my gaze across the relived expressions of my juniors.
Just…relief. No joy, no delight, no excitement. There was also a sullen weariness that hung over them.
"…did we lose?"
Dong Fang Yue Chu lowered his head. "Yeah. Utter defeat. We maybe took out another of their members, but the rest of us got wiped out. Five defeats to their two."
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"At least none of you are hurt." I studied them. There wasn"t even a scratch on them, though with current technology and magic, the modern human body could heal from a simple scratch or bruise under an hour.
"Hurt?" Stan snorted. "The Crimson Spear Society went easy on us! We were so utterly outmatched that they were practically toying with us! President Dong Fang only beat Howard because he underestimated him, but once the other members realized what a threat he was, they took him out almost instantly!"
"…we lost quite a bit of prestige points this time," w.a.n.g Fei added quietly, unable to meet my gaze.
"It was a complete ma.s.sacre," Stan continued bitterly.
I stared at them in silence for a moment, guilt churning in my chest. This was my fault. I made a promise, told them to leave this to me, and I failed them. I was supposed to beat Crimson Spear Society, but I went and lost consciousness in the first match.
"I"m sorry."
Everyone turned to look at me. I lowered my head.
"It"s all my fault. Even though I told you guys to leave this to me…even though I promised you guys that I"ll handle this, I went and lost the first match. I ended up dragging you guys into this. I was too weak."
"Hey, what are you talking about?" Dong Fang Yue Chu clamped a hand on my shoulder. "You didn"t drag us into anything. If anything, I was the one who dragged you into this mess in the first place!"
"That"s right!" Harvey added. "If anything, it"s our fault for being too weak and dragging you down! At least you and President Dong Fang took down an opponent each! The rest of us couldn"t even do a single thing!"
"Y…yeah. Sorry. I didn"t mean to sound like I"m blaming you, Vice-President." Stan sounded fl.u.s.tered. "I"m more frustrated at myself for being so weak. I have no right to criticize you at all, especially since you"re the one who contributed most to our prestige points and are the strongest among us."
"Even so…it"s my duty as your senior to protect you guys. The protection period is barely over and they"re targeting you."
"So what? We"ve to learn to protect ourselves. We"re not babies. You don"t have to take responsibility for us outside of society matches." Stan glared at me. "Learn to have more faith in us!" he then grimaced. "I mean, yeah, right now we are in no position to ask you to have faith in us, but I swear we"ll definitely grow stronger!"
"We"ll do our best, Vice-President!" w.a.n.g Fei agreed enthusiastically. "We"ll learn from your example and not let you down!"
"That"s right." Dong Fang Yue Chu gave me a stern stare. "Richard, stop shouldering all the burden by yourself. Leave everything to you? You"re not G.o.d. You"re not a hero. You"re not some Mary Sue overpowered protagonist from a Chinese or j.a.panese web novel who can crush every opponent stupid enough to think he can stand in your way. Learn to rely on us more. We"re a team. We"re a society! What"s the point of being part of a society if you try to do everything yourself? Work with us! We should all be aiming to become strong together, not just push everything onto a single person!"
"I think Vice-President is a hero, though!" Harvey, as usual continued to wors.h.i.+p me for some reason, despite my pathetic display earlier. I could only shake my head and smile bitterly.
"You"re right. Sorry about that."
As much as I hated to admit it, everyone was correct. I was too arrogant to think I could handle all of this by myself. There was a reason why I was in a society. No man was an island, and I certainly wasn"t a G.o.d of war or one-man army who could raze the opposition by myself. My teammates and juniors weren"t here for show, either.
This was reality. In a perfect world where everything bent to fulfil my wishes and I could fantasize about being powerful, I probably could breeze through the rest of my school years undefeated and G.o.dlike, stomping all opposition to the dirt while getting praised to high heaven by my juniors, and getting swarmed by an ever-growing harem of girls. Perhaps, for some reason, everyone will treat me as trash and insult me for no reason, no matter how many times I prove myself, only to get slapped in the faces when I proved them wrong over and over again, and start to praise me like the fair-weather crowd that I was. Probably just so I could a.s.suage my gradually inflating ego.
However, as I said, this was reality, so no such thing would conveniently happen to me. I was going to suffer setbacks, I was going to lose more than my fair share of matches, and people weren"t going to bother to praise me or call me trash because they had more important thing to do than to crowd around watching fights. There were so many duels all over campus, there was no reason for them to come watch mine, anyway.
It wasn"t as if I was the almighty All-Mouthy King or something, who could master every single weapon in existence, copy everyone"s technique and beat them at their own specialization. If only such Mary Sue protagonists exist in reality…
Raising my hand, I clenched it into a fist.
"Yeah, let"s grow stronger together."
"…but how?"
Everyone turned to Stan. He shrugged, not at all ashamed by his outburst. Well, it was indeed a valid question.
If we were going to leave the first year students to their own devices, they were going to proceed slowly like all other first year students. That was fine in its own way, for many first-year students faced the same problem. However, a good number of first-year students, particularly those in the great societies like Black Rose Society and Holy Saints Society, or even those in Crimson Spear Society and Thunder Hammer Society did receive a modic.u.m of protection. No second or third year students would carelessly challenge the first-year students in those societies for fear that they would receive retaliation from the latter"s seniors.
This was one of the reason why choosing a good society was so important, and also why so few first-year students were willing to join a new, unknown society like our Ultimate Outcast Society. The amount of protection we offered was meager, especially when I was the only recognized combatant in the society. Worse, prior to my meteoric rise about a month ago, I was ranked dead last after losing ninety-nine matches in a row, so there was still a significant number of students who didn"t take me seriously.
Furthermore, the great societies had more resources for their first-year students. While theoretically everyone underwent the same curriculum (with slight differences, since we could choose our cla.s.ses), those first-year students in the great societies possessed a huge advantage in that they had access to better Divine Devices, more training rooms, and closer guidance from their seniors or specialized teachers who were a.s.signed to the societies as advisors. It was practically a mirror of society – the superrich megcorporations always had an advantage over small, home-owned businesses, with vast resources, great wealth and greater manpower to call upon. It was but a simple matter for the former to crush any compet.i.tion from the latter.
The creation of societies in schools was supposed to educate the students about the harsh reality of life outside the academies, and to prepare us for a cruel, highly compet.i.tive future. Was it fair? Probably not, but that was the whole point. Life wasn"t fair. Reality was cruel. We had to find ways to survive on our own. The talented, strong and rich would only grow more powerful and wealthier, while the poor and weak would get increasingly oppressed.
But this system also served to unearth the rough gems, allowing the hardiest and most tenacious to survive every cruelty reality threw at them, and rise to the top as polished diamonds if they survived and succeeded.
And I had every intention of ensuring my society was among those rough gems. The problem now is how to polish them…
"Are you guys willing to do anything to get stronger?" I asked.
"Yeah!" Harvey immediately replied.
"Of course!" Stan growled determinedly.
"I want to," w.a.n.g Fei said somewhat timidly.
I glanced at Dong Fang Yue Chu, and he nodded resolutely. "I"m not going to drag you guys down any further," he declared fiercely. "I created this society because I have a dream. I"m not going to give up on that dream!"
"Good." I regarded all of them with a guarded expression, and then nodded. "Starting tomorrow onward, make sure your evenings are free. After our usual training in the Rear Building, you"ll follow me."
"What for?" Dong Fang Yue Chu asked, puzzled.
A grin spread across my face. "For a special menu of intensive training."