"That’s Pinfrey. The school’s Poisoner."

"He has a poison ability that he uses to prank every new student."

"The poison lets you lose control of your bowels and you end up either farting loudly and uncontrollably, earning the hatred of everyone here."

"Or in the worst case, you poo on yourself, earning the mockery of everyone."

The boy whispered to him.

"Trying to fight him is also a mistake. For one, he’s strong and secondly, there’s a rule in the cafeteria that inducing a fight will lead to a deduction of 100 points."

"Pinfrey knows that, so he waits for a newcomer to buy food, bringing their total points to less than 100, and then poisons their food."

The hatred in the young man’s words was clear as White’s eyes furrowed on Pinfrey.

He was a lanky green-haired guy, with an ugly sunken-in face.

He had a crooked smile on his face, one that easily revealed to anyone that he was up to no good.

[Ignore him.]

The system flashed.

[You’ll need to be locked up in a tank filled with this green mist poison for at least a week before you feel any pain from your bowels, talk less of losing control.]

[This tiny mist won’t do a thing.]

The system said, and White truly did confirm it. He moved.

Looking away from Pinfrey, he turned to look around the cafeteria.

The person he was looking for, he couldn’t find, but he did find a person that could help, and White rose up, walking towards her.

It was a pink-haired girl, stuffing down a pizza-like food down her throat.

Morgaine raised her head up, one cheek stuffed full. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The sudden sight of White made her cheeks redden in disbelief and embarrassment. Still, she forced out a,

"What!?"

"I need 15 Points, Morgaine."

White said as Morgaine paused before snickering.

"Brokie!"

She mocked, though still brought her runic watch close to him, and White watched a notification flash.

"You have been rewarded 100 points from Morgaine Pinckasa."

"Thanks. Will repay soon."

"It’s fine. Don’t bother."

Morgaine said with a shrug, and White stepped away, returning back to his seat.

Before the shocked gaze of the boy and Pinfrey, who had kept eyes on the horned guy.

Both watched as White downed the entire bowl meant to be poisoned.

"Ehhh, is he stupid? He still ate the food even when he knew your poison was in it."

Another student sitting by Pinfrey said, snickering, but then they watched as White rose up to his feet and walked towards them.

"Hey, there’s no—"

BAAANG!

A heavy explosion, and the boy sitting by Pinfrey’s side disappeared.

The wall three meters to the side had a hole blown through it as his body disappeared into the distance.

White drew out his seat, right opposite Pinfrey.

"Firstly,"

He began.

"Your lame poison doesn’t work on me."

"Secondly, I don’t mind losing 100 points to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget."

White said.

Pinfrey sensed the change in the air and he shifted back, but then the world became a blur right after, and what he felt next was a hotness on his face before he was knocked out.

GASPS

Gasps escaped the lips of the students eating as they watched White drag Pinfrey’s head forward with speed, dipping it into his sizzling food, and nailing him onto the ground with so much force, a crater appeared with Pinfrey’s body hanging upside down in it, while his face made continuous sizzling sounds as the food he had ordered burned at his bloody face.

White grabbed a handkerchief from the side, cleaning his fingers that had been stained by a drop of soup before he threw it onto Pinfrey in the crater, then walked out of the cafeteria unhurriedly.

"The poison didn’t work on him."

The boy who had exposed things to White mused in disbelief as he turned from Pinfrey, whose head remained nailed to the ground, while White’s back slowly disappeared into the distance.

"He... He did this for me?"

---

{You have been recognized to have caused chaos in the Cafeteria.}

{You have been deducted 100 points as punishment.}

The runic watch flashed and White swiped it away.

"And here I thought I could spend some days in the academy laying low."

"Seems like I’ve gotta take some challenges to get me some points."

As much as Morgaine had asked him to forget about the points she lent him, White didn’t exactly like owing a favour to someone, neither did he feel comfortable surviving on the points she had given to him.

What if he gets into another one of these shitty positions next time?

He moved to his device and onto his Ranking stats in hopes of finding someone he could challenge, but what he saw made him pause.

"They’ve already begun issuing challenges."

Right now there were a total of 14 challenges that had been issued at White, even though he was only Rank 301.

An idea popped into his head, and he paused, turning to look at the ranks of those who had challenged him.

The lowest of them was ranked 105, revealing one thing.

These were most likely challenges from people who felt he was undeserving of Nova.

"Idiots."

White mused and he clicked on accept to the four highest-ranking challengers amongst the list, Number 24, 31, 17 and 14 to be exact.

Still, he didn’t want much of an uproar like the last time, so he spaced out the fights to different days instead of taking them all at once.

With that done, he immediately turned to the earlier notification that the system had issued him, one that led to his skirmish with Pinfrey in the first place, and there, he found it:

[System Ingrained Skills]

[Skill Name: Awakening Soul Copy!]

[Type: Primordial]

[Skill Level: 2]

[Description: Activating this skill and making contact with an Awakened individual allows the Host to replicate their Awakening Soul and store it within the system.]

[New Level Effects:]

Restriction Removed: Targets no longer need to be Newly Awakened. Any Awakened soul may now be copied through contact.

Active Awakening Slots: 5!