40 Confusion

Highland College

The reputed college is known to have the best teaching standards and Stronghold 34's highest enrollment rate. Although there are other schools and institutes in the city, the difference lies because Highland College is distinguished for being largely dedicated to abilities users students.

There is no difference between abilities users and ordinary students here, and they all study in the same departments, and lead a school life the same. Nevertheless, the college has centers specialized in training and qualifying abilities users according to well-studied programs, so they can develop their abilities perfectly. Just like the colleges of medicine, engineering and science education....

Although Rash started studying here a month and few ago, he doesn't know much about the college and used to spend most of his time in the class, avoiding troubles. He has a terrible reputation here that came with him from middle school, added to it his delinquent appearance!

The morning sun shone its golden ray on his black hair. The boy stood in front of the enormous gray gate with the name of the college on it.

He entered the familiar yet unfamiliar school grounds, with two paths lined with large old trees and the air-filled with the scent of grass. On top of that was a row of new red-tiled buildings, with loudspeakers broadcasting soft music and groups of students carrying their schoolbags indulging in chatter as they headed to class...

"Look... look... the delinquent boy over there... he's back. I thought he wouldn't come back here, didn't he commit a big crime recently?" A boy with a shocked face paused at his sight and spoke to his friends.

His friend replied when he spotted Rash walking alone, "The trash is here again... I wonder what he's going to do today..."

"Doesn't he seems a little different today? And his outfit also seems new," Some of those who noticed the difference felt strange.

Rash listened keenly to the gossip around him and heard some things he wanted to forget while wandering to the C-Class door.

He did not waste his time with whispers and glances around him, due to the spread of his image in the advertisement and the river incident video, so his appearance made him the subject of discussions and rumors among the students.

The moment he got to class, a strange silence fell over the room and immediately afterwards came the crazy bombing of tables and chairs and whistles of violations.

Everyone was trying to stir up trouble.

To be clear, he was a clown to these students whenever they got bored.

And the boy never disappointed them in changing the atmosphere.

He knows he is still weak at the moment, but this time he is different from the previous one. He walked in solemn steps toward his seat at the back of the row, indifferent to looking at anyone. Until he sat up straight in his seat.

"Oh... The new celebrity ~ I missed you dearly��" Steve couldn't hold his nerve when seeing him again with a big smile on his face. He did not forget what happened last time, and the scandal is still haunting him till today.

Rash didn't bother turning towards him, yet in an instant he activated [telekinesis and chaos] to make the chair-foot of Steve deform. Because he can use his skill without activating his energy like everyone else does, no one will ever find out what happened.

Steve was unprepared when he lost his balance and fell to the ground with both legs up like some wh*re. He did not understand what happened to him all of a sudden.

Some of the colleagues who were not compatible with Steve burst out laughing at him, which made his face dark. However, most of them didn't do it to his face, "hahaha… clown…" Nevertheless, Augustine Clarke did not hide his laughter and rather did not mind making fun of him either. They both belong to different groups and are in constant conflict.

'This is just the beginning, I'll give you a lot in the future.' Rash declared in himself he neither laughed nor stared. His face is the same all the time. And he did not forget to return the chair to its condition.

"Ptui... what bad luck... after all, the Trash is here today, that's being expected." Steve got up from the ground and adjusted his chair again. With gritted teeth, he said.

Since he cannot respond to the other's jarring, he only finds Rash to fart his anger.

Bang

Still, he fell again to the ground in the same way as before, which made him mocked by many more this time. What an embarrassment.

"Clank…" Falling the same way again, even without everyone laughing, is a shame in and of itself. Not to mention amid many of student.

The only person different from the rest put his hand under the stairs and took his schoolbag from there. The last time he left it in the classroom and was never worried about losing it, rather many people do the same thing and not as if anyone would take the fancy of his old schoolbag. Rash did not take the books out of it but stored them directly in his Inventory.

He wanted to try reading books from his Inventory. As long as he can enrol his consciousness there, that would help him a lot. And it will save him the troubles of the exams.

At that moment, the class-president rose from his place and cleared his throat, and said with uncertain gazes on his face, "Student Rash... Wouldn't you greet us after the long absence?" He is a resolute and hard-working student named Terry Davis. From the first day, he was chosen for the position based on his high mental and physical capabilities.

Rash gave him a "Want Something?" look. He remained silent. It's clear that everyone here despises his presence, anyway.

The tall and good-looking boy, of height 1.86 meters, headed towards Rash and politely extended his hand, causing Rash to flinch at him with stupor on his face, "Here... I am glad to see you well and sorry for what happened in the past... I didn't know you well before and had an unpleasant view toward you, so I was biased against you... which is wrong. But I heard what you did, and I am proud to have someone as brave as you here. So do you want to accept my apology?"

Davis's actions surprised not only Rash, but everyone as well. This is because they are used to treating Rash badly.

"Hey... Davis, are you serious? If you befriend him, you may be in trouble as well. Don't forget that the team is particularly interested in reputation aspect and they may fire you because of that." Said the vice president of the class. She's the person closest to Davis, and everyone knows that she has special feelings for him. Hearing what he had said to Rash, she feared it would tarnish Davis's reputation.

As for the students here, many of them depend greatly on their excellent reputation.

Because abilities users rely heavily on private teams, everyone usually joins a club or team. There they can develop themselves to their fullest, with many senior year's students, and they can learn from them or get help in many ways.

These clubs and teams have their own rules, and they care to bring up their members according to their needs. If you are a genius person, you may be able to paint a prosperous future or become a famous person in the field. Just as star-making companies do, such as actors, singers and players....

For this reason, Steve and Clark are at each other. They belonged to different groups, and there was great rivalry between them.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing…" Davis did not turn to her and did not drop his hand, waiting for Rash to shake hands with him.

Rash looked continuously at Davis's hand without moving. He was thinking, "Is this ok... but what if it's just a prank?" Although this classmate hadn't directly hindered him in the past, he saw everything under his eyes and didn't lift a finger. On the contrary, Rash is sure he once saw him laughing at his misfortune.

This time Rash noticed that he seemed a little different, though he can't say how exactly.

In the end, Rash refused to shake hands with the young man, closed his eyes, and pretended to be asleep. His behavior angered many in the class, and they started mocking him as usual, but Davis was very calm.

As if the class president expected it, he just smiled and sighed, "If you change your mind in the future, I will be happy to be buddies with you again." Then he returned to his place with a sad look.

Rash found it strange and didn't understand what he meant with "again".

If someone asked Davis why he did that, he probably wouldn't find an answer.

Originally many of them do not know exactly why they are behaving like this towards Rash, but sometimes, and once they see him, he is like a magnet that attracts them to bully him.

Davis was no different either, but last week something happened that changed his outlook on things.

When Davis was asked about the situation of the student named Rash from the administration several days ago and how he was spending his time among his colleagues, they believe he is being bullied. His mind stopped and his tongue did not utter a single word.

How could Rash say that?

Are they not friends? Who is loyal to each other, especially the two of them? They were the best of friends.

The relationship between them is over two friends, it can be described as a brotherhood. But now he felt betrayed, and after he was worried about him in the past few days and tried to contact him several times.

When he tried to inquire more about the situation, the representative showed him some pictures in which Rash appeared in a fight with some of his colleagues. He was in one picture as well, yet he never remembers this happening.

No... there's something strange, the person in the picture, isn't that a Trash? ... but who is Trash again?

At that moment... he felt as if he had woken up from a dream and felt that there was a cloud over his eyes.

He went back to the register to confirm again. There are twenty-five students in each class. When he counted them in the record, he found them twenty-five, but when he counted them in his head, there were twenty-six?

Two completely different people, Rash and Trash. But they are also exactly the same.

There he felt his mind almost exploding, and he noticed some strange things.

He set out to ask his classmates about the situation, and everyone gave him nearly the same answers. What baffled him was that they did not realize the contradictions in their speech at all.

For example, he had an accident in the past, when he and his little brother were attacked by a monster. At that time, he was young and got terrified when seeing the monster, and because he is faster than his brother, he ran away and left him behind, only for his brother to die there.

This incident is still hunting him till now and still has regret in his heart toward it.

However, only three people in the class know about the story, he, Rash and Mary. Even though he knew Rash for less than a month, he found him somehow, like his younger brother, and they become good friend.

When he asked Mary about the third person who knows the story, she answered clearly that he was Rash. He demanded her to lead him to his seat, and although she did not understand very well why; she led him to the chair where Rash usually sits, "I just wonder why he likes to sit far away in this place... he's really weirdo, isn't it..." Mary even was smiling happily when she mentioned him.

On the other hand, when he asked her about the boy Trash, and asked her to lead him to his sitting place, she got very upset about the matter and did not even want to approach his chair. Davis insisted only to finally she led him to a chair in the class, with features of anger clearly on her face.

But she led him to Rash's seat again. Davis said nothing and asked her, "Are you sure..." She nodded her head firmly. There is only one seat a bad person like him can have.

If the same thing had not happened to Davis, he would have thought Mary had completely lost her mind, or she was just dumb.

How could she not notice she was contradicting herself, two different people sitting in the same seat?

The problem is that none of them noticed that there is something strange about it.

That's why Davis got up and shook hands with Rash and apologized for what happened, because he noticed the changes taking place and how everyone treated him when he entered the class. When Rash refused to shake his hand, he expected it too. After all what happened, how could he forget what they did to him so easily?

He mentioned nothing, though. Because he realized that all of them were under some kind of hypnosis or manipulation. A skill capable of doing all of this could not be simple, and the one who casts it must be a strong expert.

But why are they targeting a little normal boy like Rash?