Capsules (1)

After walking a few blocks, we arrive at a local teleporter… LOCAL TELEPORTER… they could sell a few of these things and improve the slums by 3 fold. But, it's to be expected as these families are greedy and only think of themselves.

"*sigh* I'm not even surprised anymore," I sigh as we both step onto the teleporter.

VWOOM

My vision distorts before arriving at a teleporter near the back of the school.

"Do you want to take the same path or not?" Mia asks me.

"I don't mind… we can take whatever,"

"Alright then, let's take the same way then," Mia shrugs as we step off the teleporter.

There were only a few pompous kids around, but they weren't paying much attention to us, so we were able to get into school without any rumors… not that I minded, but all the people coming up to me would be annoying.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you in the afternoon," Mia says before we walk in the opposite direction down the hall.

Somehow, I got more attention than before with my new haircut. I honestly thought it would've made me stand out less… but it ended up doing the exact opposite.

The occasional eyes with lewd intent made my skin crawl, but I managed to hold myself back from walking over to them and punching them right in the gut.

After walking into my first class period, I, of course, drew the entire class's attention…

"Annoying," I mutter to myself.

Just as class was about to start, a boy about 5'10, with ruffled black hair, arrogant red eyes, slim body, and pale skin, walked up to me. I already knew what was to come, so I started to sift through all the different excuses I could give.

"Hello Lucy, my name is Alexander Bloodriver. Would you like to go on a date after school… I'll make sure to treat you right," The boy says with a glowing smile.

His arrogant eyes suddenly turned warm, with his facial expression following after it. There wasn't even lewd intent behind his arrogant eyes from before… but he was definitely a snake.

Just judging from his posture, squinted eyes, and pale skin… he looked as if betraying or manipulation was as easy as breathing air. But, I might be entirely wrong as I'm still worrying too deeply about things.

"Sorry, dude, I don't think she wants to date right now," I hear a girl's voice come from beside me.

Shifting my eyes slightly, I saw Nell standing right next to me while sticking her arm in between us.

The expression of the young master in front of me slightly faltered as he realized Nell's identity.

Huh, isn't she like fourth in line for the inheritance? How many children are in line for inheritance… I felt like 5 was already pushing it, but it seems it goes even further. Do the families really expect their children to die that easily?

"Well, that is up to Miss Lucy. You have no right to budge in… Nell," Alexander says, slightly opening his eyes.

It seemed he wanted to take advantage of this slight moment of power which Nell couldn't refute against. Even though Nell wasn't having any of it, she could only let me decide… even though she already knew what my answer was going to be.

"Well, Miss Lucy, would you like to go on a date with me. Not only will I let you feel a world of pleasure and wonder, but I can also give you some power within New York that will greatly help you out," Alexander says, reaching out his hand for a handshake.

Gross… why is it so sweaty.

"Nah, I'm good," I say, slightly pushing Alexander's hand out of the way.

Some kids let out a clearly fake and forced gasp that made everybody in the room sweat slightly.

"Now, now guys and girls, if she doesn't want to date me, that's fine. It's completely her choice," Alexander says, opening his slimy mouth and eyes.

Ah, it seems I fell into his trap…

I tap into pseudo-hivemind while glancing at Nell before scanning the room.

'Where is he on the inheritance?' I ask mentally.

'He's right below me, fifth in line… The power given between fifth, fourth, and third is basically the same, so he's pretty influential within school… and it seems you just fell into his trap. If you want to, we can work to kill him together. He's been really annoying as of lately,' Nell responds.

'What are you guys talking about?' I hear Astra's voice say over the pseudo-hivemind.

'Lucy fell into the asshole's trap, want to kill him. If we invite him to one of our mansions and say we have a life or death duel… then jump him, we can easily get rid of him,' Nell mentally says.

'Ah, Alexander… Ummmm… Sure, I don't mind. But are we just going to let the judge watch us jump him?' Astra asks.

'We can make the judge Joseph, you know, the one whos extremely loyal to me. He won't even let out a peep if I give the order,' Nell says.

'I guess we can do that… alright, let's do it this afternoon. No point in waiting as I also have nothing to do. Wait, does anybody have anything to do?' Astra asks.

'Nope,'

'Nope,'

'Alright, we'll meet at Nell's house after school. Lucy, I'll send you the address through messages,'

'Sure,' I mentally say before focusing slightly and shutting off the pseudo-hivemind.

I soon regained my focus for the entire class and saw that class had even started. And the stares from before were only made up of glares now.

His plan is pretty obvious. Bad rumors start to spread about me, causing it to get under my skin. I lash out, trying to tell everybody that the rumors are false, but everybody proceeds to think it's true.

Then after the rumors and bad-mouthing get under my skin, I'll do something stupid to try and prove the rumor wrong, creating a new rumor that is truer than the other.

Then I will either realize Alexander was the one who set this up, so I'll come running to him, begging for him to make the rumors stop, or Alexander will come to me and give me an offer that will pull me out of the ditch... but obviously, that offer is going to be completely one-sided.

"Geez, these young masters and mistresses are too smart," I mutter to myself as I lean back in my chair.

…

"Alright, the government has finally given permission for most public schools to use the latest dungeon running capsule, so we'll be heading to the newly built gym where the capsules are," My gym teacher says as we waited in front of the first gym.

Dungeon running capsules are an invention that basically links your body and brain to a virtual world, allowing you to raid virtual dungeons. You can choose what power you want, how many people are with you, what weapon you want, what monster you want to face, and how strong your physical stats are.

Dungeon running capsules, huh? They aren't that popular anymore as most families would like their children to experience real and life-threatening danger…

Wait, is that why they have so many people for an inheritance?

Mia stood right next to me, but we didn't meet eyes, even as our hands accidentally brushed against each other.

After a few minutes of walking around the first gym-like colosseum, we arrived at a pure white facility with grand gates. Just looking at the new gym instantly made everyone think one thing…

Yeah, our gym is old…

As we all walked into the gym, we were met with a white reception room with a white and gray desk and a few receptionists behind it.

Our teacher walked up to them and instantly started to fill out the information for what type of training we would do today.

"All students, we'll be doing some custom training with a few presets, but at the end of class, we'll have a final round against an Abyss Dragon where you can choose whatever power level you want, as long it doesn't pass your current level," The teacher says as we all nod for confirmation.

You don't really need to say that last part, as you can't set your power to something higher than your IRL power unless you modified the capsule.