Chapter 37: Recognizing The Threat Behind The Shadow
"How much do you know about the cults?" Wiro asked him. Nolan's eyes flashed.
"A little..."
"How much?" Wiro repeated, this time seriously. Nolan gave him a brief summary of all he knew.
"If that's all you know, you know nothing. But it's at least enough to understand your predicament..." Wiro said, and by his tone, Nolan could swear the young man wasn't joking.
He was simply stating cold, hard facts.
"You should know Quinn. He's taken an interest in you since you arrived at the academy, and he hates you, almost with the same passion as a yandere lover..." Wiro said with a grin, but it wasn't funny to Nolan.
"Long story short, Quinn isn't any normal student. He's a prodigy, and one of the most powerful ones.
And he isn't just your normal rodigy either.
He is a dark prodigy with two dark high-grade Descents, one of them being one of the most powerful dark Descents—the Descent of Erebus.
His power is unfathomable, and his background is even more scary. I hear he hails from a powerful dark family and is their favored child."
"This made Quinn accepted into a dark cult known as The Shadow Ones, and eventually, he was made the leader, even though he's definitely not the strongest among them. His potential made him worthy of it."
"So you have an enemy who doesn't just want you dead but is also a prodigy with two high-grade bloodlines, one being the most powerful dark bloodline in the celestial realm, with an untouchable background that makes the majority of students scurry away.
"And, he's also a cult leader of one of the top five dark cults in the entire academy."
"You understand how shitty your luck is now, right?" Wiro said as he ignored Nolan's pale face and drank up the canned juice, delivering a satisfied moan right after.
[I didn't know you were so badly screwed like this. Guess you really are in deep trouble, and almost no one can help you,] the system said to him as Nolan's eyes flashed.
There was an even deeper question that was stinging his mind, and that was...
"Why would such a heavenly prodigy have their eyes on me, a piece of trash? Why want so badly to get rid of a piece of trash?" Nolan mused quietly, but Wiro was still able to hear his question as his eyebrows furrowed.
"I'm not sure too, but my guess is that it's because of Quinn's power," Wiro said with furrowed eyebrows as Nolan's eyes flashed.
"What do you mean?"
"The Shadow Ones are a weird group, really, and the same could be said for all dark descendants."
"The truth is, the ordinary descendants can improve their strength by simply sitting down and absorbing divine essence all day long."
"Sooner or later, they will keep growing and growing, and keep reaching new heights, even if they never moved a single step away from where they sat."
"But the same couldn't be said for a dark prodigy. I heard the strong ones among them will need to fulfill certain conditions to grow."
"Once they fulfilled those certain conditions, their power will explode forth abysmally, far greater than the ordinary descendants."
"With Quinn's bloodline being so high-grade, I'm sure he has some sort of conditions to grow.
"And with how much fancy he has taken to you these long years, then I'm pretty sure, in one way or another, you're helping Quinn fulfill his conditions and making him grow stronger."
"I would guess that he was feeding on your fears or anger or whatever, but now that he wants to suddenly kill you so badly, I think he might have arrived at a critical juncture of his conditions or he doesn't need you any longer."
"So maybe to improve right now, you might have to die for his conditions to finally be completed or he simply finds your existence no longer needed and see no worth in you remaining alive."
"That's the only reason why I think he would gather his entire cult just to hunt you down and make sure you're dead."
"If he wanted to simply kill you for staining his reputation as a liar, then he would have done it himself."
"Calling all his cult members meant your death was a paramount thing to him."
"But this is a just my hypothesis. I could be wrong though..." Wiro said with a shrug as Nolan's eyes flashed.
Wiro's explanation more than made sense to Nolan.
A prodigy wouldn't focus on trash, just like how a lion would ignore a simple ant.
Unless there was a catch or advantage for the prodigy by focusing on the trash.
The talk of conditions and everything made more sense to Nolan.
Quinn was most probably targeting him to fulfill some of his conditions, and he was being used by him as a tool to grow his own strength.
Almost like... a slave!
"Tch, bastards." Nolan said with a murderous expression.
Now he was being reminded of his past life, and that created an intense, deep fiery rage within him, but he soon cooled down.
The enemy had their eyes on him and were looking forward to his death. To top it off, he was weak and the one on the lesser hand. Irrational thinking might just bring him closer to his death faster than ever...
Silence reigned for a while as Nolan began thinking hard, and he soon realized a few things.
First, he was weak and couldn't fight back against his enemies.
Second, he couldn't get seen by them, or he was dead.
Third, he couldn't return back to his dorm room, or he would be visited and then killed.
Fourth, his life was at risk right now, and death was only a single step away from him...
"Shit! Shit! How did I get myself in such a situation in the first place? What should I even do? How long can I remain hidden from them?" Nolan thought of all the ideas cracking in his head, yet he was visibly lost.
There was no visible way he could resolve all his troubles at all, but soon the notification panel flashed before his gaze as Nolan's eyes brightened up.
"Yes!"