1.4. Genders

"You know what you need to do if you want to avoid this in the future."

My father was driving me to school. Lia seated at the backseat, in dreamland. Lia was 2 years younger than me, 13.

"I know."

Yes. I know it very well.

There's no way to avoid this. My grades aren't the problem. I can get straight As and conflict will still happen within the family.

I've experienced it in my previous life, so there's no question in denying my claims. I was the punching bag for my mother to vent.

I now know at least that I don't need to blame myself because of someone else's attitude.

"Don't say you know. Prove to me with your results," my father said, thumping on the car dashboard.

"Alright."

"Don't lie to me again this time, alright?"

Just like the father in my past life. So desperate in wishing her wife wouldn't get angry. How funny. Brainwashing kids to think that they are responsible for the family conflict.

My father parked at the usual spot. I woke Lia up. We took our bags and headed to the school gate.

I waved my father goodbye, his car left.

I looked around. It's your typical private school. Nothing too futuristic about the architecture. Doubting sci-fi? Just you wait, I haven't shown you what this world has to offer.

I tapped the side of my glasses twice to activate the AR.

A loading circle appeared before the world came to life with vivid lights, digital sign boards and directions marks drawn on the floor.

There was a Electromagnetic Light Rail Transit, ELRT transit nearby that linked this school to practically every region of Alska.

And, this country, by the way,

Is angel territory.

There were also numerous advertisements pasted on the walls of various buildings. An AR blimp counter in the sky showing the current number of infected and deaths.

Deaths outnumbered the approximated infected count by approximately 5 times. The mortality rate is absurd.

That didn't mean the nanomachine causing vampirism wasn't contagious. WHO declared it to be a pandemic even though there were less than 1000 cases in the entire world, currently. That's how serious this issue was.

I pity the MC of this story. And just for your reference, I'll term the villain as MC, and the heroine as the heroine. Not to be confused with heroin.

Lia walked ahead of me and had already entered through the gate.

I guess xe's angry with me. I'll leave xe be for now, xe'll calm down in time. I sighed.

I need to review the materials for the upcoming exams first.

"How about the baking club?" I muttered to no one.

The <Cookie Cult> story revolves around the baking club. It's where the vampire virus will begin spreading. Odd right? I knew Novelle had a knack for making things confusing. I just can't believe it's working against my favor right now.

I glanced at the AR school logo floating on screen. I didn't design the logo, so this is the first time I'm seeing the real thing.

Amidst the small gathering of students crowding the gate, I made my way in.

Lights and warning screens popped up on my glasses. AIs were disabled in school grounds. Saint High is strict when it comes to these things.

I checked the amount of currency I had loaded, a few bucks. Probably enough for a bowl of noodles at the cafeteria later.

"Morning."

I greeted Ares when I made it to class.

"Yo, morning. What's up? You're looking spirited today?" slightly chubby guy, bubbly hair. He's a ball of fluff. This is Ares. He isn't my friend, he's my classmate.

"I just came to an epiphany."

"Epipha what? That's some high-fi word you're using there. What epipha?"

"You know, the usual."

"Don't tell me.. you won yourself a sick NFT?!"

"What? No."

"You said you joined the stream didn't you?"

"I did but.." Avner Cross didn't get picked by that V-tuber in the end. He got the short end of the stick.

"That's too bad.. too bad," Ares patted my back.

"It's cool."

"Sure is.."

I looked around class. One important thing to note here is how everyone, and I mean, absolutely everyone is wearing glasses.

It has become as prevalent as the smartphone. Except that the smartphone industry is on the brink of death, from what Novelle told me.

A few of my close homies– not my homies, came to talk to me. I gave them a light few words and they left after learning that I didn't win yesterday's NFT giveaway.

I sat down at my seat and waved my fingers, rapid movements reanimated the purple-red lights. The words appeared again.

{AVNER CROSS_ DEMON_OF_THE_234TH_REINCARNATION}

{Class Operative: FRIGATE}

{WARNING: PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE NEAREST DEMON ASSOCIATION TO ATONE FOR YOUR SINS}

{Karma: -4}

What exactly does this mean? I've only heard Novelle hint about an angel-demon war without really understanding how it all plays out in the story.

A system function is a good cheat, but if I can't use it, what's the point? I'm locked out from usage. Maybe I need to go to this so-called demon association to get it activated?

The risks of doing so are– would it outweigh the risks?

I need to recall. There must be more info I could use here.

I pulled up the photo gallery and searched for today's class time table. First period, science. Don't we have a presentation today?

I pulled up another tab. There were quite a number of notifications on TalkMS. My group members are Julien, Brunette, and Cailly. All three of them are elves.

It seems I played no part in the creation of the presentation material. The three have decided to ignore me and went on to create everything themselves. What a good student you are Avner. Can you die for me?

What should I do about this? I don't remember Avner being such a slacker. Isn't he one of the four character routes? A guy who always made the temperature of the class drop by a few degrees celsius?

Wasn't there this part in the first volume where it hinted that a divorce happened? What happened to my family in the story anyways? Avner played a part in it didn't he? With that kind of crappy attitude.

Crazy. I need to do something about this.

No, hold on. Let's not pull the cart before the horse. I better make it up to my group members first. I'm familiar with the presentation topic of photosynthesis. Might need to read up on photolysis and the Kreb cycle to recall bits that I've forgotten.

I glanced around class. The students were either holding conversations with one another, playing games, or using SNS. You could see them swiping the UIs floating in front of them, which I find to be an amazing feature.

I took off my glasses. All the fancy AR disappears and I'm left seeing burly people waving their hands in empty air. It's a funny sight. Though, I can't possibly not wear these glasses because Avner has short-sightedness. Not too serious, but it's to a degree where I can't see the white board.

The teachers do use the white boards occasionally.

"Morning, Julien, Brunette, sorry about not contributing anything for the presentation. Is there anything I can do to make up for it?"

Julien was an elf with short, curly dull blue hair. Xe's eyes were the same colour, and xe had more of a male orientation. Brunette was brunette. Xe's eyes were also brunette, female orientation.

"Excuse me?" Julien looked like hirs eyes were going to pop.

"We've already done everything, it's too late," Brunette harumped.

"I'm sorry."

"What's over is over," Julien dragged the presentation file and opened the screen, "Is it alright if I gave you this simple part then?"

"I can."

"Thank you."

"Don't mess it up," Brunette warned.

"I'll do my best."

It's a part talking about why chloroplast is green. It's got one line of explanation on.

It contains chlorophyll.

TBH, this is such a weird feeling. What happened to the molecular equation of photosynthesis? How about oxidation and reduction? Dark reaction? Photolysis?