Yelena elegantly made her way to the podium after entering the classroom.
Standing there in front of everyone, she swept a cold gaze across the faces of the people present.
"There are eleven Cadets absent today," she commented.
"...."
When roll call was taking place, we were made aware of eleven absent cadets. But it's impressive how quickly she counted the heads present here in such a short time.
"Yes, they were probably exhausted from the VR war!"
From the front, a black-haired guy with sharp red eyes raised his hand and replied.
Yes, it was the Huge Ass guy.
"Tsk," Yelena clicked her tongue. "You first-years have no idea how tough being a soldier is these days. If that little Mock War exhausted you, then you will never survive the real thing!"
To be fair, those eleven absent cadets were not to blame here. In fact, many of the cadets present here right now had color drained from their faces too.
Again, it's not their fault.
Even though the pain factor was reduced to 80% in the VR world, getting stabbed, slashed, or pierced was still painful.
Think about the people who died there.
They really experienced death. That agony of suffering and dying must've inflicted severe trauma on them.
And from the look on her face, Yelena also understood this. She heaved a deep sigh before she began speaking again.
"Ahh. Well, I guess it's understandable. Some instructors did warn me that a virtual mock war could be too much for you all." She admitted.
"Fine," then suddenly, Yelena clapped her hands together as if she had gotten an amazing idea. "Originally, I was only going to reward you guys with Merit Points according to your contribution rankings in the war, but now I'll add something else to the rewards too."
Kent's face was suddenly filled with dread as he muttered, "No, no, no..." from his seat right beside me.
It was at this moment he knew… he had fucked up.
"Haaa." Amelia sighed sympathetically from behind us and said, "I warned you."
As for me, I patted Kent's back to offer some comfort, acting as if the reason for his misery wasn't me to begin with.
Meanwhile, Yelena continued. "So along with the Merit Points, I'll also reward your class with a three-day long trip. Consider this a short vacation and release that mental strain."
-"A trip?"
-"So… we won't have to go through Instructor Matterhorn's class? We don't have to go through combat arts class for three days?!"
-"A vacation?! Finally!"
-"But where will we go? Oh, Runehart City maybe?! Kyaa!"
Needless to say, everyone's mood quickly got better as soon as Yelena mentioned a vacation.
"Marry me, Yelena!"
"Dude, what the fuck?"
"Ahh, right. I forgot she is your sister."
And while everyone was excited about the trip, Kent was yelling at Yelena to marry him.
This guy….
"Where will you get to go, you ask? The one who topped the contribution ranking chart will decide that." Yelena turned to Nero as she said that.
"...."
"...."
"....."
Suddenly, the whole class fell silent and all eyes turned to Nero, who quietly sat by the window.
Judging by the fact that no one was sitting within five seats of him, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that he was currently being shunned by everyone.
It was to be expected.
After all, he did display a godlike Gift during the Mock War.
And not to mention, the last explosion that he used to kill Alberto also killed many of our own allies.
That means many of the people he killed in the Virtual World were currently present here.
These people would obviously try to maintain a safe distance from him.
Many were still traumatic, while some were angry, and others just felt jealousy or inferiority toward him.
Anyway, the bottom line is: Nero Dekrauf has become a social outcast. And thank heavens for that.
I mean, what happened wasn't good and it wasn't something I wanted.
However, if not for him taking all the attention, all of those emotions from all these people would have been directed toward me.
I mean, I did manage to do some near-impossible things myself in the Mock War, if I say so myself.
I became the head strategist, I led us to victory by demolishing Class 1-C-8's battlefield tactics, and I found the existence of two traitors within our ranks.
There's also the fact that I defeated Quinn in a duel. Of course, it's a good thing that this fact is not public yet.
And also, Grace falsely accused me of assaulting her. Although I've been proven innocent, it's good that no one is paying attention to this matter either.
Oh, yeah, talking about Grace, let me tell you one thing. She has become an outcast too.
Normal cadets are avoiding her because she tried to sabotage our class.
Noble Cadets who are part of Young Elites have been forbidden to interact with her by Kai.
Ella isn't talking to her because Grace lied to her.
And although my reputation isn't that good, the fact that she tried to frame me for something I haven't done isn't being taken lightly by the court of public opinion.
She is miserable already.
I stole a glance at her and saw baggy black patches under her sleepless eyes, her once beautiful blond hair disheveled, unkempt clothes, and bruised cheeks– everything clearly indicating that her condition wasn't good.
Yet, I relished it with a smile. It's just the first day. I hope she won't break too early.
-"But why him?"
-"Sure, he ended the war, but he also killed many of our own soldiers! According to the rules of real wars, that's a crime, no?"
-"Aurghh, I don't like him. I never liked him."
"Look," Yelena rolled her eyes. "I don't care whether you like him or not, but the right to decide this class trip's destination remains with him."
At the commotion, Nero merely let out a sigh and stood up. "I really don't care. You can let Anastasia, who was second in the contribution rankings, decide–"
Tring—!
Just when Nero was about to refuse his right to choose the trip's destination, his smart bracelet rang.
It was a text notification.
Frowning, he decided to ignore it and continued speaking.
"As I was saying, you can let Anastasia, who came second–"
Tring—!!
But before he could finish, another text notification rang.
Still deciding to ignore it, he continued again.
"You can let Anastasia, who came second in the contribution–"
Tring—!
"...In the contribution rankings–"
Tring—!! Tring—!!
"...Decide where we–"
TRING—!!! TRING—!!!
TRING—!!! TRING—!!!
"Tsk!!"
Finally, after his smart bracelet kept ringing with text notifications, Nero clicked his tongue in annoyance and opened up the messaging app.
"..."
Only after scrolling through tens of spam messages did he turn around and give a long look in my direction.
–".....?"
All the eyes in the class moved between Nero and me, clearly confused as to what was going on.
"Haaa." Nero sighed again and turned to Yelena before hesitantly declaring, "I guess… we're going to Silveserine."
