It was somewhat like Izzy had predicted and because of this, there were non-stop challenges going off, even before breakfast had begun. Finally, when they went to eat, Gary had finished his food quickly and gone over to sit with the three.
People always made space for the higher ranks to sit with the lower ranks, but it wasn't the same the other way round.
“Man, do you think you could order me some food?” Ian asked shamelessly. “Don’t get me wrong, the menu for the top 25 is great and all, but pretty much the entire canteen gets a whiff of your steaks, and my meal just can’t compare to that. I would be seriously in your debt, if you could sneak over a single one… even a bite!”
“Don't you think it would taste a lot better if you actually earned one of those steaks by becoming a top ranker? That way, you can eat as many as you like, and won’t have to eat someone’s scraps.” Numba commented. “It doesn’t even have to be steak, you could order whatever you want. Aren’t you getting sick of eating so many of them, Gary?”
The three of them waited for their friend to answer, but he was clearly distracted by something on his mind.
“Hellooo, meat boy!” Izzy called out after a whole minute had passed, waving in front of Gary’s face.
“Hmm? What? No, steak is great. It's super expensive for me outside this place… and it’s meat, which is all I need.” He finally replied, still somewhat absentmindedly. It was a strange answer, but then again the green haired teenager was a strange person to begin with, so none of them pried any deeper into it.
As for what was on Gary’s mind it was the system message he had recently seen.
‘With levelling up, I’ve been on a plateau, but that's okay…the gang isn’t in any trouble or anything, but what I'm more worried about is the next two weeks.
‘I haven't even really figured out what I'm going to do. I mean, with all this food around can I really starve myself? I don't have help like last time…it won’t work, and after what happened with Sty I'm worried my hunger might take over…’
Thinking of Sty, the rank 2 hadn't been challenged at all, and he had completely ignored the Werewolf throughout the day. From what he had learned from Izzy, Sty was part of Apollo's group, so she was worried that once Apollo was gone that Sty might have some plans for Gary, but there had been nothing so far.
When breakfast ended and everyone returned to the main hall, though. Sty had turned around, and looked towards all of them.
‘Damn it…here he goes…is he going to want another beating?’ Gary thought.
Seeing his hand rise, Sty was certainly getting ready to challenge one of them, yet his finger was pointing at the Goat Altered.
“I challenge you to a fight.” Sty said, a smile on his face.
Raised eyebrows were seen from Izzy, Ian, and even a few other students that heard this. The two of them had fought before, so why was Sty going after Numba who had a lower rank than him?
‘Sh*t what is this bug doing?’ Gary thought. ‘Is he trying to get revenge on me by beating Numba? Does Sty want to keep beating him up so he won’t be able to advance?
‘Am I going to have to challenge Sty every day and beat him to the punch, so he can't challenge Numba? Or maybe…wait, couldn't I just give Numba my position on the last day. Get Numba to challenge me, and lose the fight on purpose?’
However, the moment he came up with the idea, Apollo’s advice rang in his head again, telling him that he should try to get through this thing as rank 1. Honestly, Gary thought he wouldn't care about such a thing, it was just a number and either way he would get in the academy, so would there really be that much of a difference if he entered as rank 1 or rank 2?
While worrying, Gary felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry too much about me. You’ve done enough of it. I can't even imagine what someone as strong as you has to worry about.” Numba said. “To be honest, I want to get to the AFA together with you, so I was planning to challenge one of the top rankers later. I just didn’t intend to go for Sty… at least not straight away, but I feel like this is meant to be.
“I’ve trained with you and I know it hasn't been for very long, but I know how strong you are Gary. If I can last even a minute against you, then I have the confidence to crush that stupid bug!”
The fight was on, and the two of them moved towards the arena in the centre of the room. Since it was a rematch and a grudge match, there were those that were quite excited to witness it. The only thing was, most thought it would be the same outcome as last time.
After all, the difference between the two of them was too great, despite the surprisingly high rank of the Goat Altered.
“Look at your smug face.” Sty commented. “Just because you have a strong friend, you think I can’t touch you? He might be strong, but at the end of the day he’s just some Tier-3 gangster who can do nothing to help you against my family!
“However, I don’t need them. In here, I'm going to make good on my promise to let you experience hell! For as long as I’m here, you won’t pass!”
The Fly Altered began to transform. “And once I'm out of this place….we will see just what will happen!”
******
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