Chapter 20 (Trophy)

"The winner of this competition is Jayden Russell from Empire High School." One of the judges announces and the hall erupts in a round of applause and cheers. 

I stare at the competitors from other schools with a smirk on my face, they are sad about the results of the competition and I can't help but feel excited about it. Their failure has been determined a long time ago. 

I stand up from my chair and walk towards Mr Brown and he hands me a trophy and then a cheque of five hundred thousand dollars as my reward.

"Congratulations, Mr Jayden for winning this Academic competition. As usual, you don't disappoint us." He shake hands with me and gives me the microphone so that I can give some sort of speech that I am not interested in.

I take the microphone and let out a small chuckle.

"I am very grateful to be here and I shouldn't have won this without the help of all of you. Thank you." I bow with a fake smile on my face. "To the other schools that partook in this competition, I want to thank you too, for being here, this is not the end of the road, all of you can make it someday, I believe in that." I hope I sound consoling enough so that no one will think I'm being rude.

 I look at the golden trophy and I begin to think of where to keep it, my trophy cupboard is already filled so there isn't space to put this one in.

I sigh, I guess I have to figure out where I will keep it later.

After taking countless pictures with my school principal and teachers, I left the auditorium and I was not surprised when I saw the hallway crowded with students from my school and maybe other schools.

They begin to clap and praise me as I walk to my classroom. Anytime I win a competition like this my popularity rises and I become the week's talk in my school.

It's fun being very popular in your school; everyone approves of you, whatever you say makes sense and you can hang out with any girl of your choice.

"Can I have your number?" A girl with long brown her approaches me smiling and I nod. I bring out a pen from my pocket write down my number on a piece of paper and give it to her. She takes it, beaming with a smile and she skips away happily. 

"Hey, can I have your number too," another girl meets me and I know that if I stay here any longer I will spend the rest of my day writing my number on pieces of paper. 

My subconscious appears in front of me and I pretend not to notice it. 

"Quite popular huh?" It scoffs and I roll my eyes. I still don't understand what it is truly, it doesn't look like it's alive and doesn't look like an artificial intelligence. Maybe it's kind of a system because from time to time it gives me tasks to accomplish and every time I complete this task I become stronger. No, it isn't just a system, it has the capability of thinking alone and making decisions, it is something very complex, and I can't believe that it is something created by my ability--from my imagination.

"You know that you haven't completed your daily task?" It reminds me and I continue greeting the people that approach me. 

"Whatever," I reply nonchalantly.

"You know that there is a penalty if you don't do all your tasks?" It says grinning and I stand still for a moment.

Penalty? 

I have never skipped a day's task or challenge so I haven't experienced this so-called penalty. Curiosity overwhelms me and I feel the great urge to know what the penalty is if I don't complete a daily challenge or task. 

I grin. Maybe it might be something very interesting, to slay zombies, to fight dimensional wars, to slay monsters or dragons. 

What might it be? I want to know.

"Jayden." Someone calls my name and I turn around to see Skylar standing behind me. My eyes scan her and damn the school uniform she is putting on surely fits her, she is very beautiful, and she looks like a character from a light novel or an anime. But she is dangerous at the same time, her skills and brute strength are something that still amaze me

I'm glad that the make-up and dress she puts on conceal her outlandish look. She had to wear a black host and gloves to cover up her pale white skin. I can just imagine what will happen if they see her true form, it might be catastrophic.

"Skylar," I mutter and then narrow my eyes. I hope she isn't here to fight me. My body stiffens but then I relax when I see that she has no attention to fighting me. 

I am still very alert whenever I am around her, I don't trust her, she nearly killed me on two occasions! 

"You were..." She lowers her head. Why is she acting this strange? "You were amazing back there. Congratulations on winning." 

I scratch my head confused, did she just compliment me? 

I smile.

"It's no big deal." She slowly raises her head and the shiny golden trophy in my hands catches her attention. 

"You want it?" I offer as I see that she is interested in it. "You can have it." I stretch it out to her but she is hesitant to take it.

"Are you sure I can take it?" She is shocked that I am giving it to her all of a sudden, well the trophy isn't that important--I have a lot already--it is the money that is very important. 

"Yeah, sure, you can have it. It's a gift from me to you, for not killing me." I say laughing awkwardly and she takes it from my hand. 

She smiles happily as she examines it and before I can say 'Jack Robinson' she leapt in joy down the hallway. 

My mouth becomes wide open with my jaw touching the floor. I have never seen her this happy, but there isn't anything special about that trophy, it is just made out of metal.

"Who is she?" I ask my subconscious. I feel this weird nostalgic feeling whenever I am around her, maybe it's because of how foggy my mind is that's why I keep thinking I've met her somewhere before.

"You'll find out soon." It replies with a smirk and I roll my eyes.

I enter my classroom and it is empty, no one is here. I stare at the cheque which is in my hands and a smile crawls to my face. Now with this much money, I can start up a movie project. I put the cheque in my school bag and let out a sigh of relief.

The classroom door opens and five boys walk in and from their uniforms, I realise that they are not from my school. 

What are they doing here?

"You're going to pay for what you did to us!" One of them says angrily and I smirk. So they are here to have some sort of revenge for me defeating them in the competition...how unfortunate. 

I begin to laugh and they become puzzled. 

"So that is why all of you are here? Bunch of losers." I comment sarcastically and they become infuriated. 

They come at me and one of them balls his hands into fists and punches me in my face. I stagger backwards and then another kicked me on my leg making me fall on the floor. 

They begin kicking me and punching me while I lie on the floor writhing in pain. I can easily beat all of them in less than a second but I have to stay low and pretend I am weak. Someone might be watching me and if I do anything abnormal they might be suspicious of me. And for the first time in a while let me pretend to be a normal weak person. 

I laugh inwardly. This is so cool, I have the power to wipe this whole school in an instant yet I am allowing five high school boys to beat the shit out of me. 

"Do you know how much this competition meant to me! And you ruined it!" One of them says shouting and I begin screaming in pain and begging them to stop so that they will believe that they are really hurting me. 

After beating me for some minutes I began bleeding from my mouth and nose and my sides hurt.

"That's enough," one of them announces. "We can't kill him, it will be disastrous."

"I think this will do, he must've learned his lesson." They chuckle as they leave the class and I keep on lying on the floor with my head facing the ceiling and my arms spread out wide.

My subconscious appears beside me and it leans on one of the plastic desks. 

"What happened here?" It asks and I sigh.

"I got beaten by a gang of losers." The shame and the excitement are something that I can write home about. I want to experience it again!

"You could have easily fended them off, why didn't you?" It asks me and I raise my hand and stare at it.

Why didn't I retaliate?

I am not the same person I was before, I have inherited tremendous power and I can do whatever I want to do. But come to think of it, it will be a waste for me to use my ability or skills on the likes of them, I prefer honing my battle skills on something better. 

"Can you do me a favour?" I ask it and it bows. 

"Anything for you master." It replies politely and I wonder why sometimes it acts so respectfully. 

"Since normal humans can see you and you're some sort of a system--I don't even know what you are--but can you help me check the vicinity of the school building to know whether someone is stalking me?"

"Sure." It lets out and disappears. Since I encountered some government secret agents in my house yesterday, I have this weird feeling that someone is stalking me, I am not yet sure but I want to confirm it. 

My subconscious reappears.

"Did you see anything?" I inquire, sitting on the floor. 

"Yes. A man in a long brown coat one hundred and fifty meters North away from here looks suspicious and he has binoculars with him which he is using to watch this building carefully." It pauses, "Now I see why you didn't react when you were beaten." 

That will be the school Administration building which is the only building North of here and that is the best place to have a good look at the school.

Tsk. I suspected that they would send someone to keep an eye on me, I knew that it wouldn't be so easy to convince them and clear them off their suspicion list. That means I have to lie low for some time.

I grit my teeth.

I have to make them stop tailing me, but how?

The classroom door opens and my eyebrows furrow, what now again? 

My features lighten when I see Skylar walk into the classroom. She's surprised to see me sit on the floor with my face swollen red.

"What happened to you?" She asks out of concern and I sigh not ready to relate my misfortune to anyone again. 

"It's no problem, I'm fine," I say getting up from the floor, straightening myself and in a blink of an eye Skylar is in front of me.

"Tell me," she demands and I gulp. I tell her everything and her body stiffens and her tiny hands ball into fists. Her hands look tiny at first, but they begin bulging with veins and her teeth grit against each other. 

"Tell me what they look like," she requests angrily and shivers run down my spine.

"It's no problem, Skylar I am fine..." 

"Tell me what they look like," she repeats, with her hands grabbing my shirt and because of the fear that she might beat me to a pulp--I rather get beaten by five students than get beaten by Skylar--I tell her everything she wants to know. 

"That's all I can remember. I swear." I raise my hands in the air in defeat and she lets go of my shirt and she storms out of the classroom.

I sigh. I am glad that she is gone, I feared that this whole building was going to collapse because of her 

Intimidating aura, she is so strong.

I sigh. 

My subconscious is laughing and he doesn't seem worried about the situation, he should be worried! Anyone who knows what Skylar truly is should be worried. 

I facepalm myself and shake my head slowly.

Now all I have to do right now is pray that those High School boys remain alive after having an encounter with her.