8 Alex
The first class of the day was Physics. It wasn't a subject he liked a lot but it was something he was supposed to be good at if he wanted to become a good engineer. With that belief, Andrey was able to get an above-average proficiency in Physics.
His other subjects included Chemistry, Maths, English and History. These were the basic subjects that all students were supposed to be taught. However, if a student was interested they could opt for a few more additional subjects in the managerial field or they could exchange Maths with Biology if they had decided to go in the medical field.
The students were divided into different sections based on their chosen subjects. As a result, all the students in Andrey's class had the same subjects as him.
Andrey wasn't quite interested in the class as he liked to study at his own pace. After seeing the topic that the teacher was teaching he made a mental note to do it after school before getting busy in his thoughts.
As he was surfing the waves of random thoughts in his mind he was thinking about the need to enhance his Time Rewind activation reflex. He felt the need to do this because now looking back on things, he felt that he wasted quite a lot of seconds because of how chaotic his mind became when he saw Lisa's face being splashed with scalding hot coffee yesterday.
It was the same when he had prevented the ball from hitting her face. He had only vaguely felt the need to improve on this area yesterday but that was before he realized about the state of humanity.
Now that he was somewhat aware of the dangers that he would be facing in the future the need to enhance the usage of his powers was felt even more.
This would help in saving not only his but also the lives of the people with whom he would be working in the future provided he got selected at the Warrior Academy.
Even though the normal rate of selection in the Academy was 5% of the total young adults (17-19 years) population that would be applying for the academy Andrey felt unreasonably confident in being able to clear it.
The reason for this was not his powers but the fact that his father was also a middle-class warrior back then. This gave him a sense of confidence and what further solidified this confidence was his father's words, "Since you're my son you would be able to clear it,"
However unreasonable this confidence that had no basis seemed to other people it was not so for Andrey, to him it felt like he had been rebuffed with confidence in himself just after hearing those words from his father.
With that the intention of honing his ability was decided, Andrey started paying close attention to the teacher's words as he explained the theoretical concepts relating to that particular topic and whenever the teacher asked the students for an answer Andrey would hear the answer from a sincere student and depending upon whether he would be able to use the ten-second window to gain an advantage of the situation he would use his power and answer the question in the student's place.
After Andrey had done this three to four times he started getting weird gazes from all his classmates. Earlier he wasn't very proactive in the classroom so his sudden proactiveness to answer the questions was sure to attract several gazes. He didn't mind it and continued to answer even more questions.
By the end of the class among the loads of gazes directed towards Andrey there was also a particular gaze whose owner felt quite bitter at heart. It was the gaze of Alex. All the questions that the teacher had asked previously were the ones he knew the answer to and was even about to answer but every time he was beaten up by Andrey.
If it was once or twice then he wouldn't have felt so stifled but this had happened almost all the times he had tried to answer a question which gave rise to his current bitter feelings towards Andrey.
Unbeknownst to Alex, all the answers to the questions that Andrey had answered were exactly verbatim of his answers which Andrey had skillfully stolen with his Time Rewind powers.
While Alex was lost in his bitter thoughts Andrey was being bugged by Jacob.
"What the hell happened with you?!" Jacob pinched his hand and then tried to pinch Andrey as well to check whether it was a dream or not.
After successfully deflecting Jacob's attempt to pinch him Andrey responded with the bullshit he just made on the spot, " Since I've caught up with that 1000-episode-long anime life has become quite meaningless...so I'm immersing myself in studying to fill the void that has been created within me,"
"....do you take me for a fool? Tell me the truth!" Jacob said as he tried to knock Andrey's head as Andrey tried to shield it with his hands.
"Argh...When did I even lie?" Andrey said while protecting his head from Jacob's rampant attacks.
"Fine! Don't tell me..." Jacob sighed in defeat.
"How can you guys be so carefree and enjoy yourselves...here I can't stop myself from thinking about what type of aptitude test the people coming from the Academy will be taking! I have no clue how to prepare for it," Jenny whined in a frustrated manner.
"Well, we'll come to know soon," Jacob said as a matter of fact
"When?" Jenny asked thinking that Jacob knew something.
"During the day of the selection of course, when else?" Jacob answered with a chuckle.
Needless to say, Jenny was quite annoyed by the answer and slapped Jacob on his shoulder to express her annoyance.
Jacob continued to chuckle as Jenny's thin palms were unable to deal any damage to his body which was armoured by muscles built after consistently going to the gym for the past two years.
Seeing the two of them acting so intimate in front of him Andrey was not surprised. The two had already known each other for a few months now and according to Andrey, it would take another month at most before the two of them would officially become a couple.
While Jacob and Jenny were busy bickering with each other Andrey saw a figure moving towards him. He soon stopped in front of Andrey and said, "Andrey, Can I talk with you for a minute?"
Andrey couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows as this was his first time speaking with Alex. 'Did he catch onto something?' Andrey thought thinking back to how he had stolen all of the answers from Alex's mouth but soon shook those thoughts out of his head as he nodded towards him and the two of them moved out of the class.
Since the physics teacher was a bit generous today he had left them ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time so Alex and Andrey didn't mind going out of the classroom.
"So, what is it that you want to tell me?" Andrey asked. He felt a bit tensed in his heart as he had no clue as to what Alex needed from him.
"Compete with me in the next internal exams!" Alex said in a very direct manner.
"Huh...What? Why? Aren't you always first in rank?" Andrey voiced out his confusion.
"You might have fooled others but after what happened today all the dots have connected," Alex said while staring right into Andrey's eyes.
"What dots?... Can't you make sense for just a second?" Andrey said as he was starting to get annoyed by Alex's incomprehensible statements.
"Heh...Andrew Williamson, the boy who has always come between the fifth and the tenth rank be it the internals or the semester exams. I've been observing you since last year and felt like something was odd with you..." Alex said and continued,
"...Despite the difficulty of tests that came your name always appeared between the fifth and the tenth rank while all the other names changed several times. After watching you today my hypothesis was finally confirmed." Alex said with excitement.
"What hypothesis?" Andrey asked. By now he had almost labelled Alex as 'crazy' in his mind.
"That you're just acting to be a sheep while being a wolf and that is the reason why I want you to compete with me in the next internal exam. I want to prove to myself that even if you tried your best you still won't be able to defeat me," Alex carried on.
"There's something really wrong with you..." Andrey commented.
"Do you agree or not?" Alex asked once again.
"What if I don't? What will you do then?" Andrey tested the waters.
"Nothing, I'll just keep on asking you till you finally agree. I don't know how to give up, and therefore I never will," Alex said with a fire burning in his eyes.
"You got yourself a deal," Andrey immediately shook his hand and agreed to his request as he didn't want to be further pestered by this nutcase in the future and immediately rushed back into the class soon after.
