CH- 77: Infiltration (V).

 Regrettably, the base came into view ahead of Tetsu and Bomic, preventing them from cornering the others. This time, Carl pressed on to increase the pace, as Bomic struggled to pick up on the subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints Carl exclaimed to the world.

 "You can never take a hint, can you?" a familiar female voice greeted the group.

 Tetsu's heart skipped a beat as he recognized the voice and the face. It was Tina, a goddess among geeks. She is both smart and gorgeous beyond compare. Although it might be because she was the only girl amongst the nerd gang, those short curls bouncing on her forehead, the unmatched geek knowledge, and her cosplay Instagram stole every heart in the school, except for Kile and him.

 Kile had a penchant for pursuing unattainable girls, relishing the challenge, only to withdraw once they succumbed, because he was an imbecile. While his best friend Tetsu was even more misguided, surrendering his heart to a fictional character and remaining faithful due to his mother's teachings on loyalty.

 Thanks to the intervention of the show's writers and Kile's meddling, they killed off the character to jolt Tetsu back to reality. Both mothers feared he might never settle down otherwise.

 Sitting atop the geek hierarchy, Tetsu and Kile were each other's sole rivals. There was no conceivable way the geek goddess wouldn't recognize him. Tetsu blinked, realizing the location lacked proper [Divine seals] for reconnaissance, and as the crowd swelled to greet the newcomer, escape without harm to bystanders became a challenging prospect.

 They might assume Tetsu would target the weaker individuals, but their leader should discern his hesitation in mere seconds.

 'Think faster,' Tetsu curses, avoiding Tina at every opportunity. With each new arrival at the welcome party, Tetsu recognizes more faces. 'Just my luck,' he mutters, reluctantly turning towards Tina.

 She holds the most potential for recognizing him, so the gamble has to succeed here first for the others to overlook him. 'Don't let me down,' Tetsu invests a point into luck and taps Tina on her shoulder.

 "Hey, do you happen to know a guy named Kile?" Tetsu asks.

 "Huh!" Tina's cheeks flushed crimson, leaving Tetsu unsure if the question perplexed her or perhaps running a fever.

 "I heard the name of your school. He does attend there, right?" Tetsu probes further.

 The officials close in, inch by inch, keeping a watchful eye on the unfolding conversation. Tetsu activates the [Eye of Providence], establishing a domain of eyes, turning every citizen into his surveillance network to gather crucial information. Most of them register to be level one foot soldiers, with around thirty reaching level two, and eighteen elites achieving level four. Tetsu couldn't decide whether to feel relieved that no higher levels were present or disheartened by the situation he found himself in.

 Switching from one target to another, Tetsu witnesses an odd sight. He follows his hunch and places an [Eye of Providence] on a cadet's forehead, envisioning him as a cyclops.

 The cadet kept fixating on the mountain peak, signaling to their leader above. Thanks to Tetsu's luck, the leader remains oblivious to the first rune, preoccupied with cleaning a sniper rifle. Tetsu removed the eye before the leader peered through the sniper to spot the soldier.

 "Damn sniper!" Tetsu curses under his breath, not having time to dwell on how the leader gained such equipment in such a short time. His expertise lay in middle and close-range combat and defending against multiple level four elites at long range pushed the boundaries of luck.

 "Oh, indeed! Who wouldn't?" Tina's smile tugs Tetsu away from his schemes.

 "I wish he were here. Not that he'd be of much help, but if we unleash him, the others would have fewer creatures to contend with," she chuckles, a bit embraced about the statement. "I heard you're from that elite school. No wonder you're interested in Kile," she remarks instead of prying, a tactic that backfires on Carl's plan.

 Kile wielded such influence, always a reliable resource for Tetsu to exploit. While an enigma to others, in Tetsu's hands, Kile transforms into a dynamic puzzle suited for every challenge he encounters.

 "I came here hoping to locate him. At first, I entertained the notion that the school orchestrated an elaborate prank, but upon realizing that wasn't the case, I was determined to find him. If he's not here, I shall take my leave." Tetsu bows with his fist over his chest, the school's official greeting stance. 'This should help defuse the situation a bit.'

 Tina attempts to replicate the bow but fails, not because of its complexity but because of Tetsu's design. After all, every nerd had practiced and memorized the elite school's bow. Tetsu planned and executed it at the opportune moment, causing Tina to trip. Now she will recount the incident to others, solidifying his background.

 "Please stay." Tina bats her puppy eyes.

 Too bad for her. Tetsu had found a pop star before entering the system, and now she had his heart. Though it still fluttered, his mind remained steadfast, tethered to his mother's promise.

 "Sorry, I have to train, or others will pass me by," Tetsu asserts with a bow.

 "Oof! You elites and your crazy regimen," Tina pouts, prompting a chuckle from Tetsu. "Ever heard of a little thing called rest?

 "Found an overwrite... before all this happened," Tetsu gestures toward the world.

 "That crazy school does have some crazie-ass regimens," they both nod in agreement.

 After Tetsu directed the conversation to prompt others to confirm his background, he reluctantly agreed to stay for a couple of days. He only acquiesced when Tina promised him access to a plethora of knowledge free of charge. For elites, knowledge was a prized commodity, and obtaining it without any cost felt like a triumph in the bargaining battle.

 Tina considered it her triumph against the elite, and Tetsu, while happy to live another day, couldn't help but feel heartbroken that the geek goddess failed to recognize him.

 "Is this lucky or unlucky? Sure as heck doesn't feel like luck to me," Tetsu mutters under his breath. "Why doesn't she remember me?"

— — —<>|*|<>— — —

 Feigning surprise at the interiors, he silently curses his luck, as soon after, another familiar face approaches—this time, the Acolyte who spotted the flying man.

 "Hey, Xania," Tina calls, waving the Acolyte over. "Let me introduce you to our new member."

 Tetsu refrains from allocating another point to the Luck stat and instead switches tactics, using [Info] on her. Like before, she somehow blocks the attempt, offering only snippets of information that add to his memory. Armed with some knowledge already, this time he aims to uncover her weakness. It turns out she is vulnerable to everything—whether physical or magical skills that are offensive.

 'That's a lot of negatives for a few positives,' Tetsu frowns. On the bright side, his gambit works as Xania doesn't take much offense or shout like last time.

 "That's rude," Xania furrows her brows.

 "Neat skill," Tetsu smiles, diverting the topic. "Koel." He extends his hand.

 "Xania," she responds, shaking Tetsu's hand. "How did—"

 "He's from that school," Tina interjects, raising her eyebrows to the ceiling.

 "Does that give you the right to be rude?" Xania questions.

 "Better rude than dead," Tetsu shrugs. "Also, you were the first to counteract my skill."

 "Identify skill doesn't work on me," Xania explains with a shrug.

 "Identify?"

 "The skill you used to look into others," Tina stands on her toes, attempting to meet Tetsu's gaze. "Do you have a different skill?"

 "You could say that," Tetsu scratched his head and looked away.

 "Though the skill doesn't work on you either," Xania's suspicion deepened as she eyed Tetsu. 'Nor has anyone ever broken my skill with such ease—twice!' she thought and kept the comment to herself, wary of revealing sensitive information to a stranger without proper evidence.

 On Earth, unraveling the truth might have taken ages, but because of her skill, Xania could discern lies from truth and a mirage from reality. 'Falsehoods,' she muttered, conjuring a white bubble around Tetsu.

 A lie would destabilize the bubble, while a desire to deceive would burst the bubble. Xania understood her limitations in physical confrontation but relied on her ability to identify and neutralize potential threats before they escalated."

 Xania's gaze remained fixed on the bubble as she posed the question, 'Have you taken any lives up to now?' She didn't concern herself with the abruptness or seeming absurdity of her inquiry; she'd never encountered such a profusion of question marks while using Identify on someone.

 The only information she gleaned was 'Human, Level 04,' a detail that either suggested he lacked any affiliations—a notion she found ludicrous—or possessed a skill to conceal his statistics. Nevertheless, this question served as a potential trap, offering her a foundational understanding to build upon.

— — —<>|*|<>— — —

 Tina's lack of surprise led Tetsu to presume that Xania approached situations with caution as a default stance. Despite the elites he'd marked being in close proximity and his luck stat dipping slightly since encountering her, everything unfolded according to his scheme. With a smile, Tetsu locked eyes with Xania, confident that this maneuver would dispel any doubts cast upon him.

 "Two... who dared cross my path," Tetsu responded nonchalantly, prompting the soldiers to ready themselves until Xania signaled for them to stand down.

 Meanwhile, Tina clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "There's no point in lying to her," she remarked.

 Xania would have rebuked Tina for exposing her secret skill if she hadn't been preoccupied with the bubble, which she found unusually condensed and devoid of any disturbance.

 "Who are you?" Xania asked, her astonishment evident.

 "Do you expect me to reveal all my secrets to a stranger?" Tetsu frowned in response.

 "No way! Is he telling the truth?" Tina interjected, shaking Xania out of her trance.

 The soldiers relaxed, but their uncertainty intensified. Tetsu could tell by the beads of sweat forming around their forehead.

 "How can you be at level four with only two victories?" Xania inquired, while Tina struggled to keep her jaw from dropping open.

 "I suppose it had something to do with their levels," Tetsu replied casually, pretending to ponder the question while covertly analyzing the others.

 'Identify can reveal so much. Why the heck am I stuck with such a measly skill?' Tetsu blinked, taking in everyone's bewildered expressions. Even their leader leaned in, straining to hear from a distance Tetsu couldn't even begin to quantify.

 Not wanting to divulge too much yet, but to test a suspicion, Tetsu decided to throw out a tidbit. "Level five and seven beetles, perhaps?" he suggested, though he honestly couldn't recall their levels and threw out random numbers that came to mind.

 Their leader lost his footing and tumbled from the platform, while the elite soldiers monitoring Tetsu split up. Half rushed to check on their fallen leader, while the rest hastily retreated, unwilling to be the first to confront the potential threat. Some even abandoned the mountain altogether, citing fabricated emergencies as excuses.

 Tetsu hesitated, reluctant to divulge more information. However, in order to test a suspicion, he let slip, 'Level five and seven beetles, I think?' In truth, he had completely forgotten their levels and threw out random numbers.

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