Soon, both Ryuk and Quinn appeared at the exit, with Ryuk holding his clothes in a small pack bag he had picked up in another area of the store.
"Well, goodbye, Satisfya..." Quinn said, waving at the lady as they both exited.
When Ryuk looked at the girl at the corner of his eyes, just as he expected, she didn’t even raise her head to look at Quinn, keeping her focus on the book.
Once more, Quinn felt a little embarrassed, while Ryuk simply thought:
’Dumb kid.’
He saw no reason to greet pompous people who couldn’t even be bothered to raise their heads no matter how much goodwill was shown to them. He had easily identified her personality at first glance and had quickly learned to ignore her.
But it seemed Quinn couldn’t break his habit so easily.
Still, Ryuk didn’t say much to the kid. It wasn’t really his problem. If Quinn wanted to go around bowing and kissing everyone’s ass, it wasn’t Ryuk’s concern.
The last thing Ryuk would allow, however, was for that habit to rub off on him or for him to be peer-pressured into doing the same thing.
Soon, the two of them arrived back in their dorm room. Ryuk quickly noticed something peculiar about the room arrangements on their way.
Somehow, he could sense that the Apex energy in room number 1 had a higher concentration, and as the room numbers descended, the concentration lessened—until room 0.
There was no room 60.
The arrangement started from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, down to 58, and then 0!
Since Ryuk was staying in room 0, the Apex energy concentration was extremely low—almost non-existent.
’Now the fight for rankings makes more sense…’ Ryuk thought to himself.
He now understood why the students fought each other fiercely to improve their rankings. One reason was that their rankings not only determined the number of points they received daily but also their dorm room position.
For a cultivator, one of the most basic yet incredibly important resources was the Apex energy present in the air.
The higher the concentration of Apex energy in the air, the better!
With the concentration increasing by the rank of one’s dorm room, it made absolute sense for students to fight for spots—at least to get into higher-concentrated Apex energy rooms and, therefore, more access to Apex energy, directly improving their strength.
’Seems like sooner or later, I’ll have no choice but to offer a challenge…’ Ryuk thought.
He knew well if he wanted to improve at a faster speed, then being in the most lowest concentrated room wasn’t the best of choices.
He would have to move to higher concentrated dorm rooms which will mean challenging the room owners, those were were higher ranked than him.
Both of them soon arrived before room 0 and entered.
Now that he had new pairs of clothes, Ryuk simply placed them within his wardrobes, but even though he had gotten new clothes, it didn’t mean he would throw away the ones Old Jack had given him. He kept them within his wardrobe. He might not wear them, but he also wouldn’t throw them away.
Now that he was in the room, there wasn’t much else to do.
At least, that was what he thought until his stomach began rumbling loudly from hunger.
’I haven’t eaten in close to two days now...’ Ryuk thought.
The last thing he had eaten was the stale bread and coffee that Old Jack had given him before he moved from Grade E.
Looking to the side, he found Quinn wearing his glasses while seated at the table, reading some books.
Slowly, Ryuk moved away from the wardrobe and headed to the exit.
"Going somewhere?" Quinn asked, stopping Ryuk, who rolled his eyes.
"Isn’t that obvious?"
"Well, I’ll advise you to be careful and don’t get into fights with anyone."
"Better to earn people’s appreciation than their ire, you know?" Quinn said as Ryuk nodded.
"Of course..."
He said before shutting the door, the sound of his footsteps disappearing into the distance.
Quinn looked at the door where Ryuk had left for a few seconds before turning back to his book.
Yet he found himself unable to read a single word on the page, his attention constantly drifting back to Ryuk’s earlier words. One word especially hit him the most:
A fucking walking apology.
’He’s one of the coolest people, and he’s the first to treat me so well in this place. Yet somehow, even though I easily brush off others negative words and didn’t lose my composure, his words somehow sting so badly!’
’Could my peace-over-chaos thinking process be wrong? Could it be what is limiting me and stopping me from rising?’
Quinn thought as he stared blankly at the ceiling before suddenly grabbing his golden hair, pulling wildly, feeling extreme frustration. The book he was reading unconsciously dropped to the ground.
Trying to pick it back up, Quinn’s hand moved towards the book but stopped when his eyes glanced over the title:
How to Easily Please Others.
Slowly, his hand withdrew from the book in shock, his fingers digging into his hair as he remembered Ryuk’s words.
"She wouldn’t give a damn still, so why try to please her and flatter her when she won’t give a shit whether you live or die?"
"If they won’t give a damn and don’t care if I live or die, then why should I go around trying to please them?" Quinn unknowingly questioned aloud, his voice tinged with deep anger as he kicked the book away, sending it flying towards the window.
’Damn it! Could he be right!?’
’No, there is no way. There is no way he is right?’
’It only makes sense for me not to challenge anybody nor seek to improve my position. I don’t want to hurt them. They deserved their spot as one of the top ten. It’s only right for me to please them...’
’But why? Why?’
’Why is the thought of that so nauseating after his words...’
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A/N:
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In and Out_SnowySmoos.