24 Scholarship students *

The other three laughed as Miss Hans fell silent again with a red color on her cheeks.

"Everyone here is a genius at what we do, that's why we were chosen to come to the party," she said with fury in her eyes, "but surely you had something to do with those old men on the committee getting them to give you preferential treatment. We work so hard for a scholarship and someone like you takes the easy way and takes someone else's chance. This is unfair!"

"Someone like me?"

The young woman scoffed, "don't you get it? Didn't you say you were a genius? I'm calling you a bitch."

I could only laugh. Young people's jealousy could lead them to be idiots. It didn't matter how smart they presumed to be.

"You are not afraid?" I asked quietly, and put my beautiful bracelet on my wrist, it was really pretty and it matched my dress. That old man has good taste.

The young woman looked at me sarcastically and furiously at the same time. "About what? About you? Don't make me laugh."

"Of course, you have to be afraid of me and my special relationship with the committee," I looked at her with a sneer. "If I were you, I'd apologize right away, or I can call that person and get you out of here and take away your scholarship... What shall I tell him? Oh I know, you tried to steal my gift, you heard thieves are not accepted in this place… remember? Miss Hans was seen stealing at the Lark family event, someone like that can't be allowed to represent the scholarship students. What will the people say?"

The other three students nodded and whispered. "I hope no one realizes that we are with her, I don't want them to associate her with me."

"Most likely, the assistant from a moment ago reports what happened. Because of someone as idiot as her, they could leave us without a scholarship for the next few years."

"They won't invite us again, what's wrong with giving us pens? They're of good quality, they must be worth a fortune too. But if they take away our scholarship because of that idiot..."

The three other students looked at young Miss Hans with hatred. She deserved it. She shouldn't start a conflict with her new schoolmates if we're all scholarship students.

"The event is just starting, and you're already fighting? This is going to be a really fun year..."

"Senior Jason..." Miss Hans's eyes widened with affection slipping from her eyes.

A tall, blond, bespectacled young man came to the table in a high-quality blue suit. He didn't look like a scholarship student.

"Erika, you're already creating trouble..."

I saw him sigh tiredly as he took a seat right next to me. Miss Hans or Erika, I didn't care what her name was, frowned and pursed her lips.

"It's not that, it's just that... in the foundation, there should be no favorites. We've all worked hard for a scholarship, and she has an improper relationship with someone on the committee."

"How do you know?"

"They gave her a gem and diamond bracelet, isn't that proof enough?"

My grandfather's young spy raised an eyebrow and looked at my bracelet. "It's pretty."

"Do you want it? It must be worth a fortune, I can sell it to you."

The others were speechless. They didn't expect that answer from me. Well, it doesn't matter.

The young man named Jason smiled. "It's special for you, no one would buy it, rather, no one would dare to buy it from you, not even on the black market."

I pursed my lips, I knew that. That old man wouldn't let me sell the gift he himself chose.

"My name is Jason Vern, I'm a junior in the computer science faculty, and I work at Lark Research Institute," he held out his hand. "It will be a pleasure working with you Miss Eva Cote."

"Senior Jason, do you know her?"

"Of course, she is Eva Cote, the computer genius, it was almost a challenge to convince her to join the Empire College with a scholarship, in any other place they would have offered her something equal or better. It is an honor that she is here. The gift was sent personally by the principal of Imperio Colleague."

"Wow, I didn't know I was so famous," I shook his hand. "I think we're going to get along just fine, Mr. Vern."

"I hope so, the principal has his hopes pinned on you for the next Oasis Hackathon. Rumor has it that the last one was wiped out by an unranked newbie, the reputation of the school's hackers fell to rock bottom because of that. A lot of people were angry."

His gaze deepened with a little expression of frustration. I imagine he was one of the participants. I wonder who? Maybe, the one who called himself YellowFace, or VagabondLeader, those were the two strongest after Thunder.

"Storm," I heard Erika say, "it's Storm, right? He's the hacker who won, nobody knows who he is or if he's one of the previous users but with a different name."

"That's impossible," replied another of the students, one with glasses and reddish hair. "One person, one account for life, those are the rules of the Atom forum, no one can change them, Storm was definitely a new user, with no rank."

"That's impossible, surely someone won instead of him. He should have hired a hacker to use his username, how despicable."

"Miss Hans, you really leave me speechless," I replied in surprise, "you always think the worst of every situation. Maybe that's how you would do it, right?"

"You!"

The others laughed, even Jason next to me. "Come on, let's drop this topic, and enjoy the night and the free food. We have the dessert bar on the side, how come you haven't devoured it yet?"

"They're not serving dinner yet, Senior Jason," the other young woman replied sheepishly.

"There are also two more students missing, who shall they be?"

At that moment, as if they had been summoned, a couple of youths led by the attendant arrived.

With blond hair and emerald eyes. With light green eyes and black hair. They looked like models, they were perfect. All eyes were on them, even mine.

They were Thunder and Rose Mills... What is this?