“Hahaha! Tech energy infusion is so amazing!” Pushing the gas pedal as much as he could, Sen could feel much more clearly than Aven how the energy reinforcing the car had nearly transformed it into a race car.

“Hehe, if I knew all the ins and outs of an internal combustion engine, we’d have probably appeared on the news as the greatest roadhog of the year,” not feeling like his father was being reckless, the only passenger enthusiastically talked about what he had done as if nothing was wrong.

The two people inside the car had already seen a panel indicating they were approaching the Ludra exit, so they had unanimously decided to do a sprint to celebrate it. Close to 4 hours of travel had this effect on their similar mind.

When they finally reached the exit, the rest happened much more quickly. From exiting the highway to putting on the GPS, then from successfully arriving at the entrance portal of the Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering to being allowed to pass…

“Is that where you’re going to live?” Sen asked as he parked the car in an available space near the entrance of a big boxy red building.

“Probably?” Aven didn’t confirm directly, “It looks like the picture, and the big R4 should mean it's the same R4 residential building I should be living in from now on.”

“Then let’s unload!” Switching off the car, his father acted without any hesitation and got out to start unloading the trunk.

As for Aven, he fetched his phone, found the email containing the password for the R4 residential building, and went to the door of the building.

‘9-7-2-4.’

With a green led turning on, a slight electrical noise emanated from the door. Trying to push it open, the modern-looking glass double doors easily split, allowing him to step into an empty entrance hall.

‘I wonder… Would they have put me with normal students? But if not, then with whom?’

Holding in his curiosity, he backtracked and used a conveniently placed door block to keep the entrance open while he went to help his father by taking one of his suitcases.

“Looks like a perfectly respectable residential building,” upon entering, his father commented on the atmosphere given by the entrance hall.

It wasn’t anything shocking, just a few potted plants here and there to add some green, a wood-like white and red background, and random decoration that seemed mechanical in nature but that seemingly had no use to them.

“If a top-rated military academy doesn’t have enough funding to maintain and build a residential building like this one, why would they be considered top-rated?” As if he had become a tour guide, Aven praised the entire school off of the simple decoration of this entrance hall.

“Hehe, you’re already becoming cheeky, aren’t you?” Good-naturedly following, the father and son duo found an elevator and directly called it.

“3rd floor, 34th unit…” Reminding himself of his allocated unit aloud, he pressed the 3rd-floor button, and 30 seconds later, the door opened with no one having called for it while they were on it.

“And now I’m sure that’s not a residential building for students, look at that, such good taste,” as the duo passed by a carefully maintained corridor full of shiny trinkets on their way to the 34th unit, his father commented.

“I saw a lot of interviews talking about the early life of natural super, and while great power comes with great responsibility, it also comes with great comfort. I’m sure no matter what I choose the result would have been similar,” spreading a bit of what he learned during the last few days, Aven ultimately fixed his eyes on a certain door, “That’s my door right there.”

Taking the key he had received at the entrance portal at the same time as instructions for other things to do and where to do them, he unlocked his imminent short to medium-term living unit.

The room was dark, but when he pressed a light switch conveniently placed near the entrance it lit up, unveiling a large room with no bed in it, meaning it was the living room.

Taking off his shoes, he started by opening the closed shutters and letting fresh spring air flow through the room that smelled of nothing.

His father had already proactively entered another room and the same sound of shutters being opened reached him, so he decided to open the remaining 2 doors. One led to the toilet, and the second led to the bathroom, large enough for anything if not for taking a bath.

Similarly opening the shutters in the bathroom, the whole residential unit was now explored and the only thing remaining for him to do was leisurely settling in.

Taking the two suitcases, he brought them to what he supposed to be the dinner table and put them on top of it before opening them and starting to think about the best possible organization layout.

While he was projecting himself into the future, Sen began looking everywhere around the unit, from inside the ventilation ducts to the grooves of the drawers. Half an hour later, he rubbed his hands with a smile on his face, as if he had confirmed something that had bothered him.

“Your unit is as clean as a baby’s cheeks. Either that or it’s much above my competencies and some microphone and camera are integrated directly into the walls,” displaying some of the unusual experience he got as a war reporter, he allowed Aven to feel safe in his new short to medium-term foreseeable home.

“Thanks, dad,” not putting more importance on this spy check than on where he should put his dishwashing liquid, he offhandedly thanked him and put the bottle in his hand at the bottom of one of his kitchen furniture…

And it fitted just right both in his mind and in the kitchen itself, “Perfect,” so he moved on. His stroke of perfectionism inherited from his mother's side wasn’t even close to over.

When the White started to set, the time came for his father to return home, so the two prepared a meal with what Aven had brought and then returned to the car. There, he retrieved his bike, and nothing else but bidding each other goodbye remained.

“Do whatever you want, we can’t support you financially for what a super would need, but we can support you emotionally,” Sen still showed his attitude as a pseudo-veteran who had seen too many things as he advised his son.

“If I’m a subject to an assassination attempt, then I’ll be sure to call you first. If I’m subject to love at first sight though, I’ll call mom,” taking the two extremes of emotional support he could imagine, Aven turned the situation slightly into ridicule.

“Your mom? For matters of love?!” His father reacted melodramatically at that, “She’s not a man! At least she was not when I last checked! How can a woman like her understand the sweet agony of testosterone-boosted love?!”

“Okay, then I’ll make a group call and tell you two at the same time when I’m struck by sweet love,” he relented sarcastically.

“Yeah, just do that. This way I can archive everything you say and use them in the future when you achieve world domination and I become a grand elder of your personal council,” taking the sarcasm even further with an inside joke, the two continued exchanging banters until they finally truly bid goodbye.

Looking on as his father’s car kept getting farther and farther, Aven thought back to the extremely permissive contract he had signed with the military.

‘If I want, I can leave. Even if I spend 3 years here, I can leave. And I can keep pushing back my enlistment into the military for as long as I want.’

After parking his bike somewhere safe from potential rain, he returned to his unit which could clearly be called an apartment all things considered. Observing his alarm battery to know when his next energy cycle had to be done, he saw that the next one was planned for half an hour later.

‘30 minutes? What can I do in 30 minutes~ It’s too late to start something like visiting the administration or exploring the campus. And that’s not enough time for comfortably exploring the always open library too.’

On a tangent, he brought up his status to verify if his faction had changed now that he had received his student badge.

Aven Amias

Faction: None

Energy Grade: 1

Energy Cultivation: 14/100

Energy Affinity: Tech

Physical Talents: None

Energy Talents: Basic Tech Energy Affinity, Basic Energy Sense

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit

Universal Talents: Unawakened Fairy Ancestry

‘At this point, I would bet on an integration delay… Is it something like a few days? A week? Surely not a month, right?’

Worrying for nothing, he headed towards the big desk present in the living room and sat on the high-budget chair that came with it as he opened his notepad, which he had obviously brought with him, to his planned faction integration plan.

‘Maybe it’s for the best. If I can’t start gaining faction contribution points from today or tomorrow onwards, then it’ll give me time to map the campus and learn more about all the opportunities where I can contribute.’

“My few years spent studying journalism will not be useless!” Exclaiming suddenly, Aven pushed his notepad away and went to lay on the big couch surely used to watch the big TV.

Navigating through all the public TV channels, he eventually found his happiness in the presence of the Conglomerate-sponsored internationally known streaming service: Spread.

‘Well, now I’m sure to not run out of documentaries to watch in the short-term.’

Being satisfied with the little things, being in a military academy and having free access to a streaming service was a fusion enough to make his day.

Finding titles he had already watched, he pursued the same line and found more familiar titles he had already put on his watching list back home. As even after thinking for a moment, he still couldn’t find something better to do, he ended up pressing the play button.

And 30 minutes later, he started cycling his energy while immersing himself in the feeling of energy cultivation.

With an expected energy cycle time of 140 minutes, he didn’t even consider leaving his room anymore for the rest of the day. Today wasn’t even his first day here, it was his zeroth one, so why should he push himself?

…

“Here are your two uniforms, they’re ready to use,” a woman wearing the symbolic and easily recognizable Eland’s white military uniform, one adorned with the national symbol of a pure white fairy surrounded by a rainbow circle, handed Aven his two uniforms in packaged form.

“Thank you, madam,” thanking her, he took and put them in his backpack as the woman went to fetch more things to give him.

The administrative center of EMATE was conveniently located at the center of the campus, at the crossroad of everything. Be it from the residential area, the class area, the hangar area, or the library area, the most convenient path to move between them all was to pass through this place.

After waking up an hour ago, Aven had only taken 5 minutes to arrive at this place using his bike. The excitement of finally starting his first day at EMATE had kept him from returning to sleep after he did one energy cycle, so he took the occasion to start his day early.

“Here is your personal network account information,” returning from somewhere, the woman handed him a piece of paper, “Your password will automatically reset once you connect for the first time, so make sure to not miss it or you’ll have to come back here to get your new password.”

“I’ll make sure to do that,” keeping his social smile on, he answered enthusiastically and put the piece of paper in his backpack after confirming what it was.

“That’s all I had to hand you. To know all the class schedules, use the VLE, the Virtual Learning Environment. With your authority access you can check every year, even special class, and attend unannounced without any problems,” detailing something he had read before on a mail explaining his status as a super specially admitted student, the woman made sure he had understood his special status and how to best use it.

“You don’t need to worry about me madam, my situation is a bit unique and I know it, but thanks anyway,” thanking her again for the umpteenth time, Aven would have asked her questions if he had anything needing to be clarified in mind. But he didn't…

“Then have a nice stay at EMATE, and you can always come back here to ask your questions or to see if something can be arranged if you have special circumstances,” professionally ending the conversation after understanding that the person before her didn’t need help for now, Aven then proceeded to leave after thanking her again.

‘Now, the library.’

Exiting the administrative building that looked like it was made entirely out of concrete and red brick, he found a sign that indicated the library and jumped on his bike as he made his way to his next objective.

A few minutes of riding with an energy-infused bike and his grade 1 super’s body allowed him to arrive at the by-far coolest building he had seen until now on the campus.

From afar and from close alike, the library looked like a gigantic mirror box reflecting the spring blue sky onto the ground.

The flow of students entering and leaving was much more important than Aven had seen until now, but even if this flow could be considered big according to his standard, it was completely smooth and everyone could enter or leave through a large 3-sided hall.

Parking his bicycle without even locking it, he joined the flow and didn’t attract any attention by wearing casual clothes. The library was a place where anyone could enter as long as they showed their student badge, their clothes didn’t enter into consideration.

Entering through a glass door that just couldn't close due to people passing through too frequently, the first thing he saw was a large row of tens of gates. Reaching one of those gates, he showed his badge to the automatic scanner and was authorized to pass, truly entering the library proper.

Unlike what the exterior appearance suggested, the interior was not a completely see-through space illuminated fully by the natural light from the White. There were large windows all around, yes, but those were all cut by footbridges passing before them.

Ignoring the first study part of the library where hundreds of massive wooden tables were being used by various serious-looking students who had all passed an extremely hard entry test to enter this academy, Aven entered the first-floor books part…

And skipped it directly in favor of climbing the stairs leading up.

‘I most probably can’t read the gibberish of an advanced engineering book yet… But will I even need to? If I go full ultimate student and volunteer mode~ Hehehe!’

Arriving on the 2nd floor, he looked down at the hundreds of wooden tables, and then in front where a computer room was located.

‘Doesn’t look full…’

Believing in his sight, he went around and used the same footbridges that blocked large windows to reach the other side and enter a half-filled computer room.

‘Perfect.’

Not dwelling on selecting the most perfect place, he put down his backpack and took out the paper containing his personal network account information.

Using them to access the computer, he was asked for a new password which he filled with the one he had used for lots of other accounts online.

Following that, the desktop finally appeared, and there were a lot of unfamiliar icons on it. Modelisation, patent register, online library, simulation, all those applications could be used with one click with the only condition being knowing how to use them.

‘If I didn’t have my innate ability… I would be so lost on how to get started.'

Internally admitting to not knowing anything about all those applications, he reminded himself of what his situation was for now.

‘I have nothing, no engineering foundation, even my math and common knowledge about what engineering is all about are sub-par at best. And for the latter, I don't think a few days of watching documentaries are enough to bring me where I need to be.’

Getting out of his realist stroke after a moment, his mind’s gears started turning as took out his phone and opened a photo of his notepad.

‘First is class schedule optimization. For when I finally become a part of EMATE for my innate ability.’

Having based his plan around gathering FCP, Aven had used the only reference he had: The quests available from when he belonged to MIC Serenis University, to create his most ideal plan.

With a small sample of 6 quests and having not tried even one of them, he had decided to put all the chances on his side and realistically split the 6 potential contribution points sources.

‘This one isn’t hard in theory. The only problem will be if attending classes will count for the participating quest. Let’s hope so because if it does, then I’ll be able to both reduce the knowledge prices and gain FCP.’

Connecting to the virtual learning environment, he ignored all the years superior to the first one. Even the first year should be enough to strain him from what he had understood about the level of this military academy created to educate military engineers.

‘I can…. Work with that.’

The different faculties all had their own schedule, that was to be expected, and as expected of a top-rated academy, all their schedules were filled to the brim. From theoretical courses to practical ones, Aven could pretty much find anything general at any hour except for a few faculty-exclusive courses.

‘Let’s hope the participating quest rewards more contribution points than the volunteering one…’