Crimson-Eye

As he watched the show unfold, Kael noticed that the man was flirting with one of the girls and even succeeded at making her face blush. This scene didn't escape from everyone's eyes. As a result, a lot of the guys started to leave their line and began approaching the girl's crowd, to test their luck.

He then glanced at his roommates and saw that they didn't place much interest in the commotion. Tanaka, as always, looks pale and stands lazily. His body is so thin that Kael feels that a brush of wind is enough to knock him out. Galagar, on the other hand with his tower-like body keeps darting his eyes around.

A gap repeatedly appears on his mouth, attempting to communicate, but Kael didn't let him talk as he knows once he opens his mouth, he wouldn't stop chatting.

When he moved his eyes to the girl's crowd once more out of curiosity, he spotted Maya's figure blended awkwardly into the crowd. She's no less different from the last time he saw her. She still lowers her head most of the time and only talks a few words to her friends. As if sensing his stare/glare, Maya suddenly lifts her head and grasps/sees Kael's action.

Caught red-handed, Kael remained speechless for an instant before starting to clumsily waving his hand. However, in the next few moments, he becomes astounded when he sees her smirking. It's not the first time he witnessed this side of her. Yesterday, he also experienced a different trait from her that is completely beyond her original nature. When he finally regains his senses, he notices that Maya has already retracted her look and continued to lower her head.

"Dual personality?" Kael muttered in doubt. He immediately shrieked that thought off upon learning that they've arrived at the indoor court.

Upon entering the building, Kael realized that the registration booths no longer existed. At the present/at the moment, the place seems to be quite clean and vast.

The crowd was then divided into two by gender and was led by the staff members at where they can see a large number of bleachers facing each other.

At the center of the court, you can see a newly created podium. After settling down in their respective seats, a middle-aged man with a deep gaze emerged from backstage. His hair is combed neatly, and his dark-suit that emphasized his body well. He has a tall posture, but not as tall as Galagar. Nevertheless, if both were placed together, Galagar would pale in comparison. When his crimson-eyes began to sharply scan the court, all students felt their breath hitched, while their knees start to tremble in fear. The chattering noises immediately stopped, it was replaced with a tranquil situation where you could only hear the echoing loud footsteps that belonged to the man.

As he ascended on the podium, the man opened his mouth and said with a deep voice, "I'm the principal of Bintang Academy, Agares."

Even without a microphone, his voice still lingers vividly on everyone's ears.

"I'm not good at constructing words for the opening ceremony. Hence, I could only say that I personally welcome all of you."

His speech was supposed to be warm and deserved laughter. But on this occasion, Agares's emotionless tone didn't help much in creating that situation. Most students even began to shudder. He then says another few words before ending his speech. As he turned his body around, a man with a face slightly younger than him quickly went to beside him and clapped, "What are you doing, guys? Let's clap for the beautiful speech done by our principal."

Not knowing what to do, Kael and the rest followed the man's order and started to clap their hands even though Agares's speech was awful.

Accompanied by the thunderous claps, Agares made his way toward backstage once again. However, before Agares completely disappear from their sight. Kael, who remained quiet this entire time, suddenly mumbled softly, "Appraisal."

In that instant, a pair of transparent glasses abruptly manifested themselves from thin air and was automatically equipped in Kael's eyes. He already tried this skill on both Galagar and Tanaka. The result was to his satisfaction to know each of their levels by inspecting their badges.

The glasses are abstract and blurry at the same time as if they were not part of this world. Strangely enough, nobody noticed that phenomenon.

Focusing his eyes at Agares's badge, Kael scrunches his eyebrows, narrowing his eyes, before speaking, "Inspect."

Agares, who was initially walking steadily, abruptly halted his movement. From his eyes, you can see a red-light flickering intensely. Brilliant red lights then start to gush out of his eyes, creating a crimson eye projectile that is hovering over his body, overhanging the area similar to the eye of God.

All the students instantly felt pressured and naked under the crimson-eye influence.

[Skill Denied]

[Target level is too high]

[Target resistance is too high]

Before Kael initiated the annulment command, the eyeglasses dissipated on their own. The next second, he found himself being stared directly by the crimson-eye projectile. Like a hunter hunting their prey, crimson-eye as the hunter fixed its gaze on Kael, whereas Kael as the prey became nervous each time passed. His heart starts thumping loudly. But he knew he couldn't let himself act fishy.

Suppressing his fear, Kael feigned his calmness and acted like he was oppressed as well, but not too much to raise suspicion.

Luckily, the crimson-eye didn't dwell on his body for a long time and withdrew its gaze after a few seconds.

"T-that was scary as hell." Kael hears Galagar complain in a shaky voice.

Even the always composed and silent Tanaka couldn't help but comment in agreement, "Y-yeah."

Kael didn't join in their conversation as he was still adjusting his furious heartbeat. His breath is unstable, and beads of perspiration already drenched his shirt. Earlier, he was on the assumption he was dead beneath the crimson-eye stare.

"Are you okay?" Kael hears Galagar ask him.

Gulping his saliva, Kael stiffly replied, "Y-yeah. I was just momentarily stunned."

Galagar exhaled a breath, "Who wouldn't? The majority of us seem to be petrified as well."

Crossing his leg, Kael pinched the space between his eyebrows and began recollecting his thought. He dares to do that deed due to his belief in how omnipotent the system is. But his calculation turns out to be wrong since Agares managed to see through his trick and detect the skill.

Maybe the glasses also sense that Kael was in a dangerous position and immediately vanish to prevent Kael's action from being captured.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Kael patted his chest gently, 'It looks like the system also shares the same tier as Agares. Perhaps, around Tier 3 to Tier 0.'

[Noted]

[The system would save all-important phrase automatically on the Notes tab]

[Host can also write notes manually by opening the tab with a sheer of thought]