Finding a residence

A few minutes earlier, a 'kind' senior had decided to help them find lodging and registration for a price.

Fast forward to the present moment and now, the group had been led by the senior into one of the largest burgundy colored buildings around.

Already, they could spot other groups of new students, all led by a senior and everyone was waiting patiently for their turn.

Damien frowned as his mind worked at rapid speeds.

What was going?

First, when they arrived, they had spotted a lot of people moving around below. When Battle Instructor Riley and his people gave them an introduction and left after his 'motivational speech,' no one saw any of the seniors again.

All the students had to wander aimlessly in despair for an hour as they checked building by building, trying to find something or someone to talk to.

Suddenly, saviors turned up in the form of seniors who pretended to be aloof about their plight and later decided to magnanimously help out students for 'only 10 CP.

That was very suspicious to Damien. 

Already, he observed the interactions of those talking to the clerks behind the counters as they got their student IDs. While most were relieved, others who were skeptical like him.

Whatever that CP was, it was more valuable than it looked.

Who knew?

10CP could probably be something which translated into 10,000 or 100,000 credits or something like that.

Damien sincerely hoped that whatever it was, it wouldn't drain his 150,000 credit allowance given to him by his parents.

It may have looked like much but Damien knew that it was actually quite a small sum which wouldn't last him a month. He had to quickly find a way to make money or else he would be in deep waters.

Another thing which caught Damien's eye was how the seniors appeared.

Maybe one or two could have stealth related powers which hid their presence but for all of them to vanish like that, it was way too suspicious.

How had they done it?

Damien spotted Brianna glancing at her wrist comm and it came to him.

The school nano bracelets!

What if the seniors had the nano uniform of their juniors programmed into it including the one fitting for their year?

Didn't it mean then that they could easily switch in and out of the uniform of the new students?

With such a loophole, they could easily blend in with the new students, form groups of their own and act listlessly like the juniors.

No one would even notice!

That was ingenious!

Of course, all these were Damien's speculations. The truth could be far different but Damien's gut was telling him he was on the right track.

Unfortunately, only time would tell how long it took for the new students to know the truth and know how they had been duped and the value of what they had been duped out off.

Till then, it was just going to be wild guesses and speculations.

But very soon, it would be found out.

"It's our turn. Come on, let's go," said Brianna.

Their group moved forward to one of the counters.

Behind it sat a fat man with beady eyes and a moustache. The name tag in front of the counter had the name Saunders on it.

  He grinned at Damien's group. 

Damien felt that the grin looked really insincere.

"Form a line please, so I can attend to you one by one," he said.

The group formed a line with Austin in front and Damien at the last.

The line moved relatively quickly till it was the turn of Damien.

"Name?" the fat man asked.

"Damien Walker," Damien replied.

The holographic image in front of the man flickered to life as his hands moved with wild speed on it. Suddenly he whistled and looked at Damien appreciatively.

"What an impressive mark and even more impressive powers!" the man gushed excitedly in excitement as stray spittle from his pig like lips shot everywhere like bullets from a shotgun.

"Uh thanks," Damien replied.

"You are welcome, my boy!" he said with his still excited expression.

He handed a small chip to Damien. 

Damien took out and looked at it carefully.

"That's the ID card. Hold it near your bracelet," the man explained helpfully.

Damien nodded and did that. The bracelet glowed burgundy and the ID was quickly sucked into it by an invisible force.

"As a new student, you're eligible to receive 100 CP. If your mark exceeds 10 like yours, 10 CP or more will be added, depending on your mark.

Due to you having a mark of 19, 90CP more will be credited into your account. So you have 190 CP.

I'm sure your senior decided to selflessly help you while you were lost and asked for a payment of 10 CP so I've deducted 10 CP from your 190CP to make it 180," said the pudgy man with a smile which did little to convince Damien.

"What's CP if I may ask?" Damien asked.

"You'll find out during your orientation next week," the pudgy man called Saunders said with a sly smile.

Damien nodded.

"Thanks," he said.

"You are welcome! Now move along Damien, you're holding the line," said Saunders.

Damien walked away from the counter and back to the group.

Damien had noticed a faint change in their tour guide. He was somehow feeling happy and his frequent glancing at his school bracelet gave him away.

He had probably received the 10 CP he had ripped off from Saunders, the fat man behind the counter.

This meant that whatever was going on, the school staff were in on it too!

This elevated the status of the CP in Damien's eyes.

What kind of thing was it to even allow teachers and school workers to also take part in playing rip off with the newly arrived students?

Damien was itching to know.

"Right! So you folks wanted to know about residential areas and lodges? Follow me," their tour guide ordered and he sauntered off with a jaunty stride.

Even fools would know that the guy had made a fortune from how he was acting. 

The group exchanged glances but quickly followed behind their overly enthusiastic tour guide.

"Finding a residence or room here is quite easy and simple. Remember some of those buildings you came across the time you were wandering around? Those are residential areas.

That was the back of the school and that's where most of them residential areas are located. Obviously, y'all will have preferences or something.

Here, if you want a personal residence, the price is 150,000 credits minimum.

If it's a residence for two, you'll pay 75,000 credits.

If it's a residence for three, you'll pay 50,000 credits.

If it's a residence for four, you'll pay 37,500 credits.

That's how it generally is.

Each residence has an in built lounge, more than one bedroom and those who buy more expensive residences have many other rooms in their house.

Personally, I recommend that you find a residence for three or four so you can pay less or even split the bill with friends.

That's because you pay for the room monthly.

If you prefer to share rooms with other unknown people, there are residences there that have vacancy because one of the occupants moved out. You'll be able to take that place.

It all depends on your preference.

While the best residences are either for one or two people, like I explained earlier, they are the most expensive. Choose according to your budget or the money you have.

If you don't readily have normal credits, CP are also accepted," the senior explained in detail.

The other four had long decided on the kind of residence they wanted except Damien.

"Sorry man but the four of us budgeted for the person residence. We'll split it in half, two for us boys and two for Mindy and Brianna. You can get a nearby residence so we could see each other regularly, Austin told Damien apologetically.

"No problem. It's fine," Damien replied, waving his hand.

It was pretty much understandable.

While they had been friends for quite a while, it was mere hours ago that they got acquainted with Damien.

Asking them to share a residence would be too much for them.

Also Damien would feel quite uncomfortable even though he related well with them.

It was up to him now to decide on where to go.

As much as Damien badly wanted to get a personal residence for him alone, he didn't want to drain the money his parents had given him.

Even though he could pay in CP which was another tempting decision, Damien decided to hold off using any CP before he found out its value.

For all he knew, those in charge of the residences were part of the rip-off gang.

He would rather play it safe, share a room with two other people then when he made enough credits or enough CP he would then move to an isolated or personal residence.

With this decision in mind, he followed the four who were being helped out in finding a good and affordable residence by the senior. It didn't take long for them to finalize everything and move into their residence.

"You can pay us a visit anytime, Damien!" Brianna said when the four were finally entering their residence. It was a plain white building with two floors and a nice yard.

Quite minimalistic but pretty.

Damien waved at them and hurried after the senior who was waiting impatiently for him.

"Well?"

"Could you recommend a three-person residence with a vacancy?" Damien asked.

"Mm… that's if you don't mind sharing a residence with your seniors," the senior answered.

Damien nodded.

Beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Alright. A few blocks away from here, I know two brothers who are in a residence for three and their roommate moved out a month ago so there's a vacancy. You interested?" he said after a brief period of thinking.

"Yeah," Damien replied.

"Cool. Let's wrap this up then," said the senior, rubbing his palms together with a faraway smile.

Probably daydreaming about how to rip off the next batch of incoming new students, Damien thought inwardly.

The senior led him into one office-like building where Damien had to pay for the residence, receive keys and verify his student information.

Not less than five minutes later, he was standing in front of a not too minimalistic residence. The building was a nice beige shade and looked spacy.

"I guess we're done here," the senior said.

"Yeah. Thanks," Damien replied.

The senior winked at him and walked away leaving Damien standing in front of his new home.

New home huh? Damien thought.

Already he was feeling homesick. 

He looked at the briefcase with his packed meal which his mom had handed to him and smiled.

It was time to head inside his new home and eat!

"Hey! Are you the guy who's moving in?" a loud voice knocked Damien out of his thoughts. 

He looked up and spotted two red haired guys looking at him from a window.

"Yeah!" Damien replied.

"Well what are you standing there for? Come on in and introduce yourself!" one responded.

"Alright," Damien nodded.

With anticipation, he walked into what would be his new home temporarily to meet his new roommates.

How would they be like?

Very soon he would find out.