The projector on Julian’s wrist instantly overheated, releasing a wisp of smoke that smelled like burnt ozone, leaving everyone in shock.
Julian jumped back, holding his wrist in shock. "What... what the hell was that?! You did something to my holographic projector!"
"Me? I didn’t do anything. Did anyone see me go near your projector?" Lohan asked, raising his voice slightly as he looked around.
When the students from the Lower Zone saw his gaze, their expressions, which had been those of people watching a hero or gawking at a lunatic, quickly changed to fear, forcing them to look away and pretend they hadn’t seen anything.
Even though they believed Lohan hadn’t done anything wrong, they still didn’t want to get involved and risk losing their careers.
Only one student from the Lower Zone looked at Lohan for a few more seconds, nodding to him while hiding a small satisfied smile at the corner of his mouth.
That student was precisely the boy who exuded the aura of someone with a Rare Elysium Base!
As for the students from the Upper Zone, they just looked at Lohan with scorn, as if watching a clown show.
They knew Julian was wrong, they also believed that Lohan had done nothing wrong, but likewise, they also cared little about the beggar from the Lower Zone, so they just continued to watch the show.
Only a pair of eyes from the Upper Zone looked at it in amazement, feeling a very faint sense that something was wrong the moment Lohan fried Julian’s projector.
Lohan was not intimidated by not receiving anyone’s support, that was completely within his expectations, but this statement was not for these students, but for the cameras that were in the corner of the rooms, recording everything that happened.
Although the students and teachers acted without any consideration for the students from the Lower Zone, the mere fact that the college paid a subsidy for students from that Zone to study for free showed that at least the administration was not totally indifferent to them, so Lohan clung to that.
If Julian did something behind the scenes, there would be nothing the college could do, but being foolish enough to do it in the classroom, with so many witnesses and various recording devices...
So Lohan continued. "Maybe it’s Dr. Aris’ ’Induced Homeostasis’ affecting your cutting-edge technology, Neal." Lohan shrugged, without looking away. "It seems that the air we bring from the Lower Zone doesn’t take too kindly to these things... be careful what you flaunt around here."
Some students from the Lower Zone, who were still listening to the scene from afar, had to cough to hide their laughter. Seeing Julian Neal, an untouchable heir from the Upper Zone, waving his arm to clear the smoke from a piece of equipment that cost more than many of their shacks, was a priceless sight.
Julian clenched his fists, his eyes injected with hatred.
He looked at Isabella, who watched with visible contempt for the loss of control he had shown, and then looked back at Lohan.
The humiliation of having his "superior technology" fail in front of a beggar just as he was showing it off was a humiliation he didn’t know how to process.
"This isn’t over, Hayes. I’m going to find out what you did. And when I do, you’ll beg to go back to the sewer you came from."
He turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, not caring about the next class, with the wrist projector still sputtering pathetically.
Lohan just exhaled the breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding, feeling the Mana calm down in his veins like a river returning to its bed.
"I didn’t cause any of this, Julian, but if you think I’m going to stand by and wait for you to get ready, you’re very much mistaken... now that I know the potential of a Mythic Race, I’m going to show you the result of combining a Mythic Race and a Mythic Class."
Out of the corner of his eye, Lohan noticed that Isabella Vance hadn’t looked away from him, lost in thought.
She knew that cutting-edge technology didn’t break down like that for no reason, and added to the strange familiar feeling she had felt for a fraction of a second before Julian’s projector broke down, she knew it wasn’t a coincidence.
’Could he also...?’ she wondered in surprise.
-xXx-
After Julian left, the students returned to normal, commenting on this minor episode before returning to talking about random things.
Lohan stopped paying attention to this and focused only on himself, feeling the changes that Mana had brought him and how he could make the most of it.
Lohan kept his head down, acting like an ordinary student from the Lower Zone, as if the fight a few seconds ago had nothing to do with him, but his senses were in a state of hyperopia that no ordinary human in that room could comprehend.
His research began quietly, with not even the teacher’s presence in the classroom interrupting him.
He tried to map out how Mana behaved in the solid and restrictive receptacle that was the human body.
In Elysium, like Halon, Mana was like water in an ocean... vast, fluid, and malleable. In the real world, it was more like mercury running through narrow glass tubes. There was physical resistance, friction that heated his internal channels every time he tried to move the energy out of his chest.
"I think my molecular density in this body is my biggest obstacle..." Lohan analyzed, ignoring the buzz around him. "Not only is control over my Mana much worse here, but the recovery of spent Mana is several times slower due to the low concentration of Mana in the air and the high level of atmospheric pollution here..."
He closed his eyes, focusing on the sensation he felt when controlling Mana to fry Julian’s projector. That wasn’t a specific spell, it was just interference.
Lohan realized that, in the real world, his Mana control was still too weak to accomplish such grand things as he did as Halon in Elysium.
But using the advanced vision he received from Halon, he could visualize the frequency of his Mana and a slight oscillation of the holographic signals emitted by the projector, managing to create a short circuit in it.
This was a valuable discovery... in the real world, he wouldn’t need offensive spells so urgently if he could simply shut down the technological world around him.
Considering how advanced the technology was in this world, people’s dependence on these things was at a much higher level than in his previous world.
And with each passing second, he felt as if the connection between Halon and Lohan was becoming clearer.
He realized that level 03 in Elysium had not only increased his strength, but it was as if it had unlocked a connection between them...
Among the students in the upper zone around him, he began to feel the small pulsations coming from these people much more clearly. They were very weak Mana signatures, almost imperceptible at this distance, but still much more noticeable to Lohan, who felt that his detection was more accurate, but also that the energy emanating from these people was more intense today.
"I think this is because they are also passively integrating with their Elysium characters..." he concluded.
The difference between them was that while the others were like unlit lamps accumulating static energy, Lohan felt as if he were the only one there who already knew how to light and control that lamp.
This was both because of his efforts and because of the tips Lisa had given him over the last few days.
During class, no one else bothered Lohan, and he didn’t have the patience to waste time with anyone else, so as soon as class was over, he quickly went to the bus stop to return to Elysium.