Chapter 7: Rules and Rooms

The four of them enjoyed banquet to the fullest. Zen was completely busy stuffing his mouth with the top quality meat and dishes he never heard about.

After the banquet, the freshmen were all gathered and guided towards the living area.

"Don't make any noise. Don't wander anywhere for now. And don't annoy me. If you have any question raise your hand and ask." A middle aged woman who was apparently a staff member, spoke with annoyed tone.

"I will tell you guys about the rules. Follow them like your life depends on it. The disciplinary committee is not forgiving."

She then started to iterate all the rules. Most of them were the rules one has to follow generally, but there were a few which Zen took a note of specifically.

1) Whatever your discipline, you will have to learn martial arts and participate in challenges.

2) The senior years CANNOT challenge the junior years until the junior challenges them first.

3) If any evidence of bullying is found, the parties responsible will be subjected to severe punishments.

4) Don't bother flaunting your family status as almost all the staff here are from overseas, which is a strict requirement.

5) The families of the students here are all protected by federation.

7) During the challenges, killing or wounding fatally is not allowed.

Zen was pretty satisfied with the rules. He didn't miss the word play that said that the bullies will be punished IF EVIDENCE is found. But he knew that institute cannot handle matters of prominent nobles lightly.

"The rooms are already allocated. Elite living area is on the right and for the rest on the left. You can check your room number on the reception. The first class students will get individual rooms while starting from second class, students will have to share their rooms. Don't forget to take the cellphones from the reception. That cellphone will be your lifeline here. From your ID to your credits and all the communications will also be made through that phone."

After saying this, the lady left immediately.

"Brother!!!! Are we gonna live here? Really? Really??"

"Don't be so excited. You are literally bouncing" Zen chuckled.

"You guys are in for a treat. It is said that the living in the elite living area is the dream of every student in the world."

"Well, let's go. I really want to see the rooms."

The four of them entered the elite building. The elite building was as beautiful as it can be. The residential area was in a circular shape. The centre consisted of a gym and a dining area. The hallway was completely lit with white lights. The walls were filled with displays showing the achievements of alumni.

As they were passing through the hallway, the Students who were residing already were looking at the newcomers with a curious gaze. They wanted to judge the new students before engaging with them. At the end, they stopped at the reception in the center of the building. There they a saw a tall man with bulky muscles and chocolaty skin.

"I will distribute your phones now. Keep in mind, this phone is free of cost and you should keep it as safe as possible. If you lose it or break it, then the cost of the new phone is 80% of your credits. You will see your room number, your rank, you match record and rest of the details in you phone."

Soon Zen & co got the phones. The phone was completely black with a big screen. The phone consisted of all the information about the student as well as about the academy. Inside the student portal, one can check his rank and the credits. The information on the classes were also available inside the portal. One can also see the challenges they have completed. This whole network was administrated by ZERO. ZERO was an AI bought to Earth using intergalactic trade a few hundred years ago.

"Woah! ZERO is way more amazing than I thought. It can help with various tasks and can even judge the matches from every angle between students." Tanya said while tinkering with her phone.

In the current time, AI was considered as the biggest resource in the universe. A good AI can assist governing an institute or a country, while a top-of-the line AI can look over the whole universe to assist with the law and order. ZERO was centrally used by the federation to assist with the regulations and communication in all its labs, offices and institutes. No other institute or family was allowed to use ZERO and could only use AI developed in the Earth.

"I know, right? Now imagine, since ZERO is a bottom of the barrel AI with only 2048 bit processor and only 300 trillion neuron units. It also needs a few seconds to make acute judgements which are not always reliable as it still uses old GPU architectures. Also, its optimization algorithm still uses iteration and converges to suboptimal...." Zen stopped and looked up only to be met with multiple deadpan expressions.

"Ahem. Yes ZERO is amazing."

""Hahaha"" Everyone laughed after seeing his expressions,

"Aww! I didn't know you were such a nerd Zen." Tanya teased him with a smile.

"Shut up! I am not a nerd."

"Yes Yes, brother is not a nerd. He only spends hours reading a book and only watches national discovery channel on TV. Let's go now, I want to check out my room."

"NO! I also watch History channel and watch scifi anime and movies...." Zen's voice was barely audible in the end.

"Lessgooooo!" The three of them started walking while leaving Zen in his nerdy world.

Dreamy! That was the only word that could describe the rooms. Zen was standing in the middle of the room. Well, not a room but it was basically a suite. There was a large living room with sofa set and a big screen. The walls were beautifully decorated with what looked like a medieval European designs. There were two other doors, one of which was the way to the bedroom and other was for the kitchen. The bedroom had a big king sized bed in the middle and a big table with a computer in one corner. One side of the room was taken completely by a wooden bookshelf. The books for the courses for this year were already on the shelf.

The bathroom was attached with the room. It had a big bathtub and a glass enclosed shower area. As soon as he saw the bathtub, he messaged Anna, Tanya and Mike and jumped inside the tub.

"Haahhhh! This is really the best. But this is all a facade. One can easily drown into comfort and pleasure here and loose all of it suddenly. I must never forget my why I am here." Zen thought while thinking about the future.