I stare at the door in shock for a few seconds, still processing what my Mentor said.

He knows.

That’s the first thought that comes to mind. The second is that he doesn’t care. The third is that he went and got me tritinate. Fucking tritinate.

Every S-ranked implant out there uses tritinate. Needless to say, tritinate is expensive and a major pain in the ass to get.

The thought of getting my hands on some is enough to make me giddy. Already I’m beginning to start cooking up ideas.

I’m not sure whether I can trust him, but I’m willing to give him a chance. After all, who would give away tritinate to a person that you would screw over?

That’s a bad question, but there’s a point nonetheless. It’s stupid because you can kill him while he’s still in shock. Then take your tritinate back.

AsI head to my dormitory—which is one of the upper branches of this place-I’m so engrossed in my ideas that I can barely keep track of the real world. I don’t even care when people bump into me without apologizing,or when I do the same to others.

I’m brought back to reality when I reach my dorm room’s door. It’s plain grey, but that suits me just fine. Before opening the door, there’s a panel that scans me.

The room is large enough to house four people. It has two beds, a built-in cupboard and wardrobe, a large holo-pad, and even an android butler standing in the corner. The butler looks entirely like a robot though; having a human look-alike and think-alike would creep out a lot of people. So it’s just think-alike. The room has four large windows with a beautiful view of the cosmos. Two are on the ceiling, and the others are on the side of the room facing me. The room is spotless save for the side facing me.

The side of the room close to the door is bare and unoccupied. The other side is much more decorated, albeit with devices used mainly for combat.

Also, there’s a guy and girl on the bed watching a fight scene on the holo. Beside them is a tray of snacks, which have some jelly spheres. They… seem intimate.

They’re both in their teens, like me, but unlike me, they also pack a lot of muscle on their frame. It isn’t hard to guess that they’re Warriors. It isn’t exactly an easy path, but it requires less thinking and more fighting, which suits a lot of people just fine. Not that I judge or anything. I love my path as a Builder, but I’ve come to learn over the years that sometimes people can love their paths just as much as I do mine.

They turn to look at me, briefly surprised.

The boy is the first to speak. “Oh, hey, you must be my roommate right?” His voice is deep.

“Um, yeah, I guess.”

He grins.“Cool. I’m Sid Ryne, but you can call me Dyne. Cuz, you know, I pack”—he raises his hand and pats his bicep—”power.”

I raise my eyebrows, somewhat bemused.

“Sure. I’m Daniel Zyron, but you can call me Dan. Nice to meet you,” I say, raising a hand.

He smiles and gestures to the girl beside him.

“Well, this is my girlfriend, Denise Zechial.”

The girl is nonplussed as she stares at me. I catch myself raising a hand to scratch my neck. Unconscious tick.

I raise a hand somewhat sheepishly.

“Hey,” I say.

She takes a red jelly sphere and bites into it, her eyes never leaving me. Sid chuckles nervously, breaking the tension between us both.

“Right, she’s always like that, so don’t be bothered by her. Anyways, in what path do you specialize? I go down the path of a Warrior, as you can see.” He says, gesturing to the weapons on his side of the room. There’s also some training equipment that I recognize.

“Me? I’m a Builder. I’m not exactly the best, but I sure as hell am good at what I do.” I inject some pride into my voice.

I walk to the empty bed and sit down on it, facing him and his girlfriend.

He grins.

“A Builder, huh? I got this friend of mine who’s also a Builder. He’s a total shut-in, though he’s damn good at what he does too.”

I raise my eyebrows.

“Is that so? Well, I’d like to meet him. If he doesn’t mind, that is.”

“Sure. I’ll ask him tomorrow. Who did you get for your Mentor?” He asks.

“I got Dalton Gyon. You?”

His mouth gapes open.

“Holy shit, dude, that guy is like, one of the best in the school. How in the world did you get his attention? Are you rich or something?”

I shake my head.

“I’m not rich. I think I’m the poorest in this entire damn school. I only managed to get in via the competition last year.”

He blinks.

“The competition? Oh, right. That. Anyway, you must have aced all the tests or something to get his attention.”

I hadn’t really aced all the tests, but I did do pretty well…

(Mini flashback)

I laugh maniacally as my (fake) ship’s railguns completely obliterate the other team’s (fake) base, riding the power high.

A moment later, the simulation ends, with the pod rippling open. I step out and notice the number of eyes on me.

I blink.

“What?”

They all shift their eyes away.

While I hadn’t exactly gone and made universal records, I did manage to get pretty close.

That could be the reason, but I suspect recent events might’ve also played a hand in it. And by recent events, I mean me getting captured by the pirate ship.

I blink as I recall the reason I was caught in the first place.

“What’s wrong?” Dyne says.

I shake my head, and focus on my neural implant, searching for my public record. I’m surprised to see that it reads ‘no charges‘, at the bottom. A moment later, I shrug, thinking that it might be the school’s doing.

The guy stares at me, still confused.

I resist the urge to sigh, and instead just offer a (cut down) version of what happened. When I reach the point of explaining the part where I break out, I notice Denise reevaluating me. I’m not sure whether to be proud or to be insulted that she probably (Definitely) viewed me as weak.

He whistles.

“Damn. You’re even more foolhardy than me. Aren’t you builder types supposed to be all meek and stuff?” He asks.

I chuckle ominously.

“No. If anything, anybody who goes down the Mental paths? They’re the ones you gotta watch out for. You never know what tricks they’ve got up their sleeve.”

I notice that they’re staring at me unimpressed. Due to the surprise of today’s events, my cool rationality is gone and instead replaced by an ordinary teen mindset. And like any teen, I have an ego. Which suffers a blow at their non-believing gazes.

“What? I’m not joking. I can prove it to you.” I say, somewhat defensively.

The guy raises his hands in mock surrender, while the girl narrows her eyes at me.

“Hey, hey, hey, no need for that. We can prove ourselves on the training fields.” He says, mostly for his girlfriend’s benefit.

She calms down, and leans back, once again lazily snacking on the jelly balls.

I blink, surprised at myself.

Looks like I’m only human after all. I think, with a small smile on my face.

The guy frowns and turns to his girlfriend.

“I think you have to go now, it’s getting pretty late.” He says.

She frowns, reluctant, but gives in after a quick kiss. She smiles and waves him goodbye as she leaves.

I feel a surge of loneliness. I push it down.

Dyne he asks me about going to sleep. I refuse, claiming that I’m used to sleeping late.

Which is true, but not the only reason I’m going to stay up late.

I walk to the inbuilt cupboard and open my side of it. My eyes light up as I stare at the contents.

Inside is a football-sized chunk of luminous red metal. Or, in other words, tritinate.