We opened almost a hundred doors that day, and got all sorts of tribute from at least sixty rooms.
Clothes. Pants. Watches. Wristbands. Even caps.
As long as the boys in the room treated us roughly, we would respond in kind.
Even if they didn't, we would insist those with wealthier goods to be generous and share their luxury products with us.
It wasn't the most noble action.
Looking back, I wasn't really proud of what I did back then.
But it was what it was, and I am what I am.
I was a wolf in a massive building full of fat, clucking chicken. Some were even evil chicken.
It was difficult not to take a bite!
Or sixty.
If I only just broke your erroneous impression that I was a hero's hero from my childhood until now, then I have to say you're a fool.
I was a junkyard scrapper in possession of enormous power.
I was no hero.
I've killed people.
I had personal agenda.
Personal peeves.
Personal grudges.
And especially so against bullies.
But I digress.
Anyway, after a hundred rooms, our bags were full, and we decided to go back to our room.
We laughed and joked all the way back, and somehow we failed to realize that the roar of all the fighting had completely subsided, and only a peaceful silence pervaded the atmosphere.
Too peaceful.
We only realized we were screwed when we saw a solemn looking Elder walking down the hallway with two burly teachers walking behind him.
They had walked past our room, and had definitely found it empty because I could see that our room door was open.
"Damn it." Roland Hu swore softly under his breath. "I forgot about the fifteen minute time limit."
"I didn't." Barrick Rui grinned without a care.
"What time limit?" I asked them in a whisper.
"The unofficial time limit the academy would give us to settle the hierarchy issue." Barrick Rui replied.
"Why didn't you remind us?" Roland Hu snapped at him rather frustratedly.
"Why should I? It'll be fun to see what the academy will do to us." Barrick Rui rolled his eyes at Roland Hu.
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom "You…" Roland Hu gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Relax. They allowed the fights to happen. They wouldn't do anything to us." Jack Yang said softly.
"Chill guys. Let me handle it." I said softly to them.
"Well well well. What do we have here? The Champion and his buddies back from socializing with his many fans?" The Elder said with sarcasm dripping in his voice.
I sighed deeply.
A hostile Elder. It won't be pretty.
"Ho! What are those bulging bags you have in your hands? Interesting! Interesting!" The Elder smiled sinisterly at us.
"Good evening Elder, good evening teachers!" We all shouted as soon as we were close enough.
"Good evening boys." The Elder glowered at us. The two burly teachers behind him merely remained silent. One of them, a large female, sneered at us.
"May I ask what the four of you were doing outside your rooms?" The Elder asked even as his eyes stared daggers at us.
At me, specifically.
"We were socializing with the team mates with whom we had won today's victory, Elder!" I shouted shamelessly in reply.
"Socializing?" The Elder scoffed at my brazen lie and pointed at the bulging black bag in my hand. "And what are in those bags?"
"Gifts, Elder! Our team mates were so thankful at what I had done earlier today that they insisted that we take these gifts back with us!" I shouted loudly.
"Hmph! Nonsense!" One of the teachers, a plain looking bespectacled middle aged woman in a boring white dress scoffed at my words.
"No, madam! It is not nonsense at all! In fact, some of them even screamed words such as "TAKE THIS! AND THIS! MY SURNAME WON'T BE HUANG IF I LET YOU WALK OUT OF THIS ROOM THIS WAY!!" I shouted loudly.
Indeed they had screamed words like that.
In a completely different context, of course, but the words were exactly the same.
"Great. A tongue twister." The other teacher sighed deeply. But he did so with a smile.
My mood brightened considerably when I saw his smile.
A friendly!
"This crisis might be resolved far more easily if I have a friendly teacher to bounce my words and schemes against!" I thought happily.
"Open the bags." The Elder demanded in a silky smooth voice that brooked no disobedience.
But I had not managed to outlive thousands of stronger and faster junkyard scrappers, and steer myself out of certain doom by being obedient, even in the face of the scariest adversary.
And so I merely smiled at the Elder and said…
"No."
The Elder's eyes bulged out in shock.
He truly did not expect to be rejected outright!
The smile on the burly male teacher widened even as the frown on the huge and boring looking female teacher deepened.
"You dare defy me?" The Elder hissed and took a threatening step forward, placing himself uncomfortably within my personal space.
"Yes." I replied in an annoyed tone and straightened my shoulders while jutting my chest out. I did not budge from my position and merely stared back fearlessly into his eyes.
"Article seventeen of Student Rights within the National Mecha Pilot Academy. Students have the right of privacy over their personal items, unless during an emergency." Barrick Rui's lazy voice drawled out from beside me.
The Elder whipped his head towards Barrick Rui so quickly that he even took me slightly by surprise.
His eyes glinted dangerously at Barrick Rui.
"Very good. Let us take that article and examine your actions against it. I hope you also memorized that all who are found in breach of said article will receive discipline ranging from mild to harsh, depending on the severity of the breach, to be executed by any member of higher rank after being corroborated by a second person." The Elder sneered at Barrick Rui who merely shrugged as though he didn't have a single care in the world.
I chuckled.
He probably didn't.
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