Axel woke up to nothing but white.
At first, everything was blurry. Shapes and light were mixing together, and they refused to make sense. His eyes felt heavy, like they did not want to open, but he forced them to anyway. Slowly, the blur faded and the world became clear.
For a moment, he didn't move. He just stared upward, looking confused.
'Did I die?'
That was the first thought to come to him.
He waited for something that felt like punishment or judgment from hell or something, but instead, all he felt was softness beneath his back. Whatever he was lying on was comfortable.
'Am I in hell?'
He blinked again and turned his head to the side. There was medical equipment sitting near the wall.
That's when he realized that he was in the infirmary.
His mind tried to rewind. Just a few minutes ago, he had been on the ground, bleeding. Barely breathing. Dane Cornwall had stood over him like he was nothing. Axel felt like his life had somewhat ended there.
"What happened?"
He searched his memory, but it felt foggy. The fight was there, but only in pieces.
There was only one clear image.
A tall figure stepping out of the shadows. Ares.
After that, his mind was blank.
Axel swallowed and slowly tried to move. He expected his body to ache the moment he shifted, but nothing happened.
"Weird."
Carefully, he placed his hands on the bed and pushed himself up. His body responded without protest. He sat upright, breathing a little heavier now, more from shock than effort.
He looked down at himself.
His clothes were clean. There was no blood, and his skin was unmarked. It looked like his wounds were already healed, for some reason.
He had been beaten nearly to death. His HP had dropped to one. He remembered that clearly. There was no way he should feel like this.
"Glad to see you're up already," someone at the door said.
The voice pulled Axel's attention away from his thoughts.
He looked toward the door, and a woman stepped inside. Her face was familiar, and it took him only a moment to remember where he had seen her before.
It was Jean.
She was the woman in charge of the testing from the day before. Back then, she had been observant and careful, watching every reaction without saying much. Even during the test, she had hinted at what she could do, though she never said it outright.
Now that he saw her standing here, it was obvious.
She was a regenerator. She was one of the few people to possess a healing factor.
She walked closer to the bed and glanced at the monitor beside him.
"Well, you heal fast," she said. "Faster than I expected."
"What happened? How did I get here?" Axel asked.
"You were brought in by Oval officers," she said.
Axel's confusion showed immediately.
'Oval officers? Weren't they after me before?'
That did not make sense. Just a short while ago, the academy had almost been on lockdown because of him. He had been labeled a threat.
So why wasn't he just thrown back into a cell?
Before he could ask any more questions, the door opened again.
Two people stepped inside.
Ares and Rick.
Ares walked in first, hands in his pockets and a relaxed smile on his face, like he had just come back from a casual stroll. Behind him was Rick.
Rick looked… nervous.
He hovered near the doorway, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. His eyes kept darting toward Axel, like he was afraid Axel might disappear if he looked away for too long.
"You're okay," Rick said quickly. "You're really okay."
"Yeah… looks like it."
Ares grinned. "See? I told you he would wake up soon."
"I'll leave you three alone," Jean said. "Try not to exhaust him."
"You scared people, you know," Ares said lightly. "Mostly him." He pointed toward Rick.
"I thought you were dead," Rick said.
"I almost was," Axel said. "What happened out there?"
"See, when I showed up, you were almost passed out," Ares said. "Mentally, I mean. You were barely holding on."
"You said something before you passed out," Ares continued. "You called the venom guy a REIN agent… whatever that means."
"I did?" Axel asked, blinking.
Ares nodded. "Yep."
Axel frowned deeply. He searched his memory again, but there was nothing. He genuinely couldn't remember saying those words.
"I don't remember saying that," he admitted.
"That's fine, you got your ass kicked. It's normal to forget things. I'm pretty sure venom guy wouldn't be able to tell the tale of how I toyed with him," Ares boasted.
"He's being investigated right now," he added.
"Investigated for what?"
"For a lot of things," Rick said. "Assault, attempted murder, and possibly hacking into the Oval network. They think he's the REIN agent."
"You know he used that computer thingy right after you did, right?" Ares asked.
"Oh, he did? I didn't know…" Axel lied.
"So… my name is clear?"
Rick nodded. "Yeah. Completely."
A strange feeling washed over Axel. Real relief. The kind that loosened something inside him.
He had done it. He had cleared his name.
But as the thought settled, another one followed right after.
Something was still missing.
He might have completed one mission, but there was still an outstanding one left. He checked the system, and as expected…
[Mission Status: Rob a student of 50 CNTs]
[In Progress]
Dane was out of play. He had been arrested. There was no way Axel could rob him. This mission was proving difficult to complete.
---
Not long after, Axel was discharged from the infirmary. Three Oval officers were waiting for him at the door, and they handed him his assets, including his device.
He checked his current balance, and it was a total of ten CNT, which was accurate because he was handed the device yesterday with a five CNT balance. A new day automatically granted him five more, which made it ten.
Together, Ares, Axel, and Rick headed straight to the dorm complex. By now, it was already nighttime, and most of the students were either settled in or about to settle in.
"Time to get some rest!" Ares exclaimed as he jumped into his bed like a little child.
"Yeah, I'm pretty exhausted too. Today was wild," Rick complained.
Axel, on the other hand, had nothing to say. Actually, he had a question for Ares.
"Hey, Ares?" he called out.
"Hm?"
"How exactly did you defeat Dane Cornwall?"
Ares raised a brow. "Who the deuce is Dane Cornwall?"
Axel chuckled. "How did you defeat the venom guy?"
"That's my little secret," Ares sighed as he immediately shut his eyes.
Axel could have pushed, but he didn't. However Ares saved his ass back there, it didn't matter. What mattered was the future.
---
Ares and Rick had gone to sleep. Axel stayed awake, going through his system.
He looked at his EXP and noticed that he still had a long way to go before he could level up again.
[EXP: 20/150]
Robbing someone would give him 50 EXP. It wouldn't get him to level up, but it was a good head start.
Axel could feel himself getting impatient by the minute, until finally, he could no longer take it.
He needed to complete this mission now.
He jumped out of bed and sneaked out of the room. He was going to rob someone. It didn't take long for Axel to find a victim.
Axel looked at his collar tag and saw his power grade: Lumina 2.
He didn't like the idea of doing this, but he had to. Axel even went as far as convincing himself that if a Lumina 2 could even have 50 CNT, it would only mean that he extorted it from weaker students.
And he might be right.
Within a few minutes, the deed was done, and Axel had finally completed his last mission for the day.
[Mission Completed: Rob a student of 50 CNTs]
[Reward Received: 50 EXP]
[EXP: 70/150]
Axel was about to close the system interface when an update message popped up.
[Host has successfully completed the first stage in his path to darkness]
[A bad deed was done]
[+30 EXP]