Freak

"Freak, where do you think you're going?" A sharp voice reached my ears as I paved my way through the crowded corridor.

"Did I allow you to leave?!" The same voice, even angrier than before, resounded from behind me, much closer than before.

I did a mental equivalent of a groan and turned around to look at him.

'What a loser.'

"Normie, I am not done with you yet!" Someone else called out from the front all of a sudden.

The other students around me moved aside faster than I could blink and I looked up with a premonition as I heard my nickname.

Five students were standing less than five meters in front of me, their chests puffed out and their eyes shooting death glares at me. They looked like classic school bullies, classical idiots, who would grow up in life to become nothing more than mere pickpocketers.

Their uniforms were unkempt, some buttons were missing, and their hair looked like someone had poured several buckets of paint on their brickheads.

They even got tattoos at the tender age of 14.

Well, it weren't really tattoos, but stigmas, and everyone had one of those…well, almost everyone.

But whatever, all of that didn't really matter to me, either way.

I was only a little annoyed to see them staring at me.

The way they looked down at me as if I was not worth dirt under their soles…It really pissed me off.

One of the thugs, a green-haired student with a lean figure stepped forward. His smile told me that nothing good or intelligent was about to come out of his mouth.

"Our boss received a system mission. Don't think too much about it and lend him your arm! It will only hurt a little bit."

"...mission?" I asked, squinting my eyes.

My head turned back and there I saw him, Rail Landal, the leader of the bullies, the most annoying student in the entire academy, and my classmates.

He was also the student with the biggest stigma on his arm, which was why the academy swept all his misdeeds under the rug. After all, they reasoned that his bullying was 'forced' due to the missions granted by the system.

I was pretty sure that he was just a petty bully who would not leave a single chance to beat the shit out of me and everyone else, whose existence annoyed him if he could get away with it, either way. But even if that was the case, it was not as if the academy cared too much.

They just wanted to use Rail Landal as their perfect candidate, the product they painstakingly created, or so they announced, to demand more resources from the government.

Everything he did was excused. Well…maybe not murder, but I was not sure about that if I were to be honest.

"I just need to break your arm. The infirmary is nearby, so don't be shy and come to me!" Rail Landal said calmly while motioning me to come closer.

Rail Landal was almost 180 centimeters in height and his body was oddly muscular for a fourteen-year-old boy. He had black hair and dark eyes. His complexion was pretty fair and he could easily become a model if they were still in the old age.

Unfortunately, his appearance was just above average in the current era, which was also one of the many things that irked Rail.

"How about you look for someone else? I really don't feel like it today," I retorted, feeling weary and exhausted from yesterday night.

"Do you even know how hard it is to find a Normi nowadays? I know that my God is a sadist, but I never expected him to actually ask me to break the arm of a Normi. He really loves to see desperation through my eyes!"

I looked at Rail Landal and threw a glance to the side to observe the corridor where not a single fellow student could be seen.

'These rats are really fast once they smell trouble…'

"If you want to curse someone, curse the Gods for ignoring your prayers. Not everyone can receive their Blessings!" Rail Landal's mask of calmness slipped away as he shouted out loud. His smile grew wider as the black stigma on his arm began to glow lightly. Dark fog emerged from the stigma, which caused Rail and the bullies behind me to start laughing mockingly.

"Even my Blessing is making fun of you…You really are unlucky. Not only are you a nobody, but you are also a talentless nobody, who will never be able to get a system!" Rail drawled, making his underlings cackle like hyenas.

Usually, I would feign a pained expression and act as if I was traumatized because no God chose to bless me, but not today.

We had graduated today and my time in the academy was over. I didn't have to keep enduring this pathetic bullying of his idiotic peers who thought highly of themselves just because they possessed unique stigmas.

If someone had a stigma that was larger than that of others, which was the case for Rail Landal, one was said to have great potential.

The same saying was applicable if one was blessed by one of the influential Higher Gods whose Blessing was equivalent to a free ticket to receive a scholarship to the best Universities or invitations to promising Clans.

They would receive the best tutelage and resources. It was only obvious that there were some fools who would be blinded by the praises they received because of the Blessing they had received.

But I didn't really care about all of that. I was fine without the System which every Blessed received through their stigma.

I didn't have to play the fool anymore. It was over, my time in the Academy had come to an end…finally!

"You're right, I will never receive a blessing…" I agreed.

"So you finally acknowledge that you're trash. That's a good start… now give me your arm, Normi!"

"...but who cares…" I added.

Rail Landal looked at me, his steps slowed down and the corners of his lips twitched as I looked him straight in the eye. Something in my gaze made him hesitate.

"I must have hit your head too often. You finally turned insa–..." He began but I cut him again.

"...I don't need a System to wipe the floor with your face!"