46 Moving To Dorm

Not surprisngly, Daniel felt a little suspicious when there were that many people 'welcoming' him even before his first day of school.

Seeing this, David gave a light smile and said, "I was a little curious since we don't get many transfer students the come here right in the middle of the school term, so I thought someone important must have come for the academy to make an exception for you."

Hearing such a logical excuse from David, Daniel naturally felt less cautious. However, there is still a lingering feeling within his heart, telling him intuitively that something is wrong.

Unfortunately, Daniel did not manage to figure out a reason for such a feeling even after thry left Parking Lot A, making Daniel place his feelings to the back of his mind for now.

Since the people who surrounded David just now, except for the admissions officer and David, were staff members that worked at the control center, they simply went back to their working stations when Daniel was about to leave, feeling disappointed that their much-needed break were cut short.

David accompanied the admissions officer and Daniel as they travelled towards the dormitory building to retrieve the latter's keycard. The reason that David tagged along, as he said with his own words, was that it will be much better for a current student to take a newbie around the place due to their lack in age difference and common topics. With that said, none within the group rejected David's self-introduction into Daniel's group.

After taking the maglev train back to the main interchange station at the bottom of the valley, Daniel and co. walked out of the station to find many students waving or greeting David, daying in a respectful tone, "Good day, Student Council President," or something similar in style. Raising an eyebrow, Daniel looked toward David as they walked towards the dorm, feeling intriqued from coming face to face with the latter's popularity.

Noticing such a gaze from Daniel, the admissions officer directly took up the mantle from David and gave a thorough explanation.

"David here won the gold medal for last year's quadrennial Isthmian Games, winning first place in the singles one-one battle category in the lightweight mech section. Furthermore, as captain of EUMA'S lightweight mech squad division, he brought his team to first place on the group categories as well!"

The admissions officer looked quite proud even though he himself wasn't the one winning in the games. David himself did not look as enthusaistic as the former when he heard the admissions officer brag about his previous accomplishments.

"I simply won because many of the powerhouses from the other schools did not participate last year, since they're training for this year's Nemean Games instead." David spoke in a humble manner, giving Daniel an apologetic smile for the admissions officer's audacious behavior. "As you know, if you get into the qualifiers of the Nemean Games, the government will naturally allocate a spot for you to enter into the quartenniel Pythian Games fought against the Martians. Most of our best fighters thus are more interested in participating in that than what looks to be a game amongsts ourselves. After all, there's much more glory in winning against a Martian than another Terran."

Daniel nodded, acknowledging David's explanation, which is much more useful than the admissions officer's.

Since the Pythian Games are usually held once every four years, most humans living within the Solar System will tune in and cheer for their countries at their favorite events. Though, in recent times, from semi-finals onwards, all contestants are usually either Terrans or Martians, safe for a few Lunarians that would join and collaborate with a Terran or Martian team from here and there.

Since every student in the EUMA must register in an annual games event as part of their final evaluations, it seems that Daniel will become one of the contestants at the Nemean Games as well. Though, Daniel doubt he will even be able to pass the Top 500, when facing against the best of the best of the entire planet.

By the time David has finished explaining about his 'exploits', the three of them have just arrived before the Student Center located in between the several dormitory buildings that serve as a help center for all of the residents' needs.

Passing through the entrance of the center, Daniel found many parcels of different sizes being carried by automatic delivery drones currently lining up before a security scanner before being sent upwards via the maintenance shaft towards their various destinations.

Comparatively, the human area of the center is much sparcer with only a few people lingering about, looking as though they were waiting for someone. When the three of them arrived at the help desk, they found that there were no one lining up at all.

"Is the help desk usually this empty?" Daniel could not help but ask as the three of them waited for a staff to come out after ringing the bell.

"Well, yeah." David shrugged nonchalantly. "Nowadays, people are either too busy or too lazy to come all the way down from their rooms to ask their questions, so they usually just DM or video chat with the staff if they had any problems instead of coming all the way down here just to line up and wait."

After thinking for a bit, Daniel thought that it is indeed quite inefficient compared to connecting to the staff through the Minerva System.

"So the help desk is now usually reserved for prospective students who needed to get their DNA verified before their room keys get imprinted to their wrists." David continued to explain with a smile.

It is at that time that someone finally came out from behind a staff-only door. The man looked to be about the same age as David, who seemed to have gotten this as a part-time job while being a student.

"How may I help you?" The man asked, looking slightly irritated as though the three of them had just disturbed the man from doing something important.

The admissions officer, looking quite disgruntled by the staff's behavior, walked up to him and said, "Daniel here is looking to check himself in as a new student of EUMA. He will be starting school next week so chop chop."

"A new student? ... Now?" The man widened his eyes before scrutinizing Daniel in detail. Finally, he scratched the back of his head while muttering, "Please wait a moment," before heading back into the staff room again.

"Tch." The admissions officer clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Meanwhile, David moved close to Daniel amd whispered next to his ear with a cheeky smile, "The man mjst have thought he struck gold for being allocated a job where he can do nothing for most of the school year while still being allocated minimum pay. Though, from the look of the admissions officer, it seems that his days as a staff member here is numbered."

Daniel isn't one to gossip around for no reason so he simply nodded his head without saying anything.

After a while, the staff member finally came back with a DNA scanner and a holographic tablet before gesturing for Daniel to head towards him. It was only then that the admissions officer backed off, letting the staff member heave a sigh of relief.

After placing the scanner on Daniel's wrist, he felt a slight prickly feeling before a notification instantly popped up within his head.

Minerva instantly gave Daniel the prompt, which led to him saying goodbye to the man at the help desk before heading off again with David and the admissions officer out of the Student Center and towards the adjacent D Building.

At this time, Daniel suddenly heard the loud sound of thunder coming from right above him. Looking up, he found many grey clouds congregating around the area and looked to be pouring cats and dogs. Curiously, not even a drop of rain water managed to land on the school grounds.

"Does the EUMA have its own shield generator?" Daniel asked with his interest peaked again.

"Yes, since the government is afraid of the Martians sending spy drones down here to steal some of our classified information, we have a force field surrounding the entirety of the academy at all times. That's also why the temperature here is at SATP all year round." David remarked to Daniel's question.

"Though, many students would often get bored from the lack of seasons within the academy and would go outside just to experience the snow once or twice in the winter. I personally quite like the cherry blossom trees that were imported here from the Far East quite awhile ago that will bloom in the spring every year. It's also the best place to go on a date at that time." David gave another hearty chuckle.

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