Capítulo 9: Veteran Killer [2]
It didn't take her long to come to a conclusion. Zain didn't move during Time Stop but before she used it.
'He was staring in my direction in Time Stop. To do that, he had to predict where I would go. But how?'
Alice had seen a fair share of metahumans with Foresight Talent. None of them could predict how she would move after stopping Time.
Her eyes glowed purple again.
When she noticed that Zain wasn't moving, a sigh escaped her lips.
"It must have been a fluke."
What happened earlier could be described as good luck on Zain's part and her being oversensitive after meeting Mr. Walker who could move in Time Stop.
"That almost scared me," Alice smirked.
She was going to make Zain pay. Double. For getting on her nerves twice.
"It's cracking time!" She launched her kick for Zain's nuts.
Her shin hit Zain's crotch. A feeling of hitting a metal wall came, and her leg bent in the wrong direction.
"AHHHHHHH"
…
Zain POV
I stared at Alice, who was rolling in tears and snot.
'Tsk, tsk, I don't know why you targeted me but serves you right.'
Alice broke her leg after hitting the strengthened groin guard that I was wearing. It was among the equipment that we could get at the entrance of the training ground.
Normally, students would wear similar protective gear for a duel.
I took it when I saw Alice being dragged to the class.
Knowing her personality, I knew she would attack a student like the feral cat she was.
I wished that the victim wouldn't be me, but just in case, I wore the groin guard.
Alice had a habit of hitting where it hurt. She was a sadist by nature.
In the game, a newbie discovered Alice after a few years of the game's release.
Alice would leave the Academy before Ezio gained 'Eye of Solaris' skill.
It was why we never found that she had a 5-star Talent [Time Lord] and Astral Weaver Class until years later.
Astral Weaver was the strongest Class out of the five main classes.
These metahumans made contracts with interdimensional eldritch entities and derived powers from them.
The only downside of the Astral Weaver Class was that awakening it depended on luck. Less than 0.1% metahumans were Astral Weaver.
Alice's overpowered class coupled with equally overpowered Talent made her unbeatable.
The game balance between players broke with her appearance. Newbies could now defeat veteran players without breaking a sweat.
Alice was crowned as the [Veteran Killer].
We, the veterans, researched day and night to find a way to defeat Alice. Our dignity as senior players, who conquered near-impossible bosses, was on the line.
Eventually, we noticed an insignificant detail we had overlooked.
We controlled the protagonist directly.
But not the other characters.
If a character had a habit of calling out their attack's name, the player couldn't stop the character from doing that.
Our control over other characters was superficial. Unlike how it was with the protagonist.
We just had to understand Alice's habits. Defeating her became easy after that.
Alice's first attack would always come from the left side. If she was confident in her victory, her first attack would be a close-range melee.
She had a fiery personality. But that was just a cover for her true persona.
If she was agitated, she would attack without thinking twice. In that case, she would fail to notice the surroundings' details and fall to simple traps.
I knew about Alice more than herself.
It took a few minutes for the commotion to end.
Alice was taken to the infirmary and the next classes for today were canceled.
No one saw what occurred during the Time Stop, including me. They thought it was a conflict between two low-ranked students and ignored us.
The initial hype that Alice built as a spatial ability user also disappeared.
In their eyes, she couldn't control her abilities. It was natural for her to rank low even if she had a good ability.
I continued probing Sean and concluded that he didn't know about Doll's plan.
It wasn't a problem. I had other ways to find the villains and corrupted officials in the Academy.
I said goodbye to Sean and packed my stuff.
It was time I started on my Quest.
The first thing I had to do was to disable or take over the planet-wide surveillance of the Stellar Academy.
If I didn't, I would be exposed moments after committing a crime.
I was about to leave the class when Rosella blocked my path.
"Mr. Walker is calling for you." She took me to Mr. Walker's office and left.
I knocked a few times.
"You can enter."
The office was the same as in my memories. It was sparse, with only a table, a whiteboard, a few sofas and a coffee machine.
"You don't need to worry about the incident with Alice. Her leg should heal in a day or two with the healers we have at the academy." Mr. Walker turned to me. "Coffee?"
"Yes, please."
I took the cup and settled on a sofa. The coffee tasted a bit strong, to my joy.
"Mr. Walker, have I done something I shouldn't have?"
"Why do you think so?"
"I'm the only one who was called to the professor's office. Any student would worry about that."
I had an idea as to why Mr. Walker had called me. But I didn't show it on my face.
He sat behind the table and leaned forward. "How did you do that?"
"Do what, Mr. Walker?"
Both of us knew what he meant, but I acted oblivious.
Despite my rude answer, Mr. Walker wasn't angry. If he was, he didn't show it.
"How did you predict Alice's attacks?" He asked curiously. This would've been the first time something like this happened.
"Would you believe me if I said it was my talent?"
Mr. Walker nodded, causing me to chuckle.
"I want to say that I did it with my skills. But it was just a fluke. I wore the groin guard because I thought that something like this might happen."
"Something… like this?"
"Don't you know how it goes? A young master would beat the lowest ranked student on the first day to show their dominance."
I explained the cliche where the protagonist would save the bullied student, antagonize the young master, and their first clash would serve as the motivation for the protagonist to grow stronger.
Mr. Walker's eyes were filled with confusion as I continued.
"I thought that if someone targeted me, it would be better to have at least the bare minimum protective gear."
"Why would someone beat you on the first day… nevermind, forget I said that." Mr. Walker was befuddled.
He massaged his brows and sighed.
"So, you are saying everything was a coincidence?"
"Yes, I don't even know what kind of Talent Alice has."
Mr. Walker stared at me for a few seconds, trying to figure out if I was lying.
Unfortunately for him, I had the best poker face.
No, wait, should it be a poker smile?
"Okay, you can leave." Mr. Walker sighed again and let me go.
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