Because Kael had suppressed his power during the official scanner test to hide from Draven, the Academy system had assigned him a rank: Class F.
Class F was the bottom of the barrel. The "failures."
Kael walked to his assigned housing: Dormitory 9. It was a crumbling concrete block on the edge of the campus, far from the luxury towers of Class S.
He found Room 304 and pushed the door open. It smelled of rust and antiseptic.
Two people were already inside.
On the bottom bunk sat a girl with stark white hair and pale skin. She wore thick, black leather gloves. She was cleaning a massive, anti-material sniper rifle. She didn't look up.
"Don't touch my stuff. Don't talk to me. If you snore, I will poison your water supply," she said calmly.
On the floor, a giant of a man was doing one-finger pushups. He was at least two meters tall, covered in bandages, with a barcode tattoo on his neck.
"Ignore her," the giant grunted, standing up. "I'm Jax. She's Vira. Welcome to the Garbage Dump."
Kael threw his bag on the empty bed. "I'm Kael. What did you two do to end up in F-Class?"
"I have anger issues," Jax smirked, cracking his knuckles. "My System has a bug called [Madness State]. The Academy thinks I'm a ticking time bomb."
"And I," Vira said, finally looking up with striking, dead-purple eyes, "am a biohazard. My mana is toxic. I can't be in a team because I accidentally kill my teammates."
A Berserker and a Plague Witch, Kael thought. Perfect.
Suddenly, the dorm room door was kicked open.
Three students walked in. They wore the silver badges of Class C.
"Well, well," the leader sneered. He had flames dancing on his fists. "We heard the President took an interest in the new F-Class trash. We came to see if you break easily."
The leader looked at Kael. "On your knees, newbie. Lick my boots, and maybe we won't break your legs."
Kael sighed. He checked his System.
[Enemies Detected: 3]
[Average Level: 3]
[Win Probability (Solo): 94%]
Kael was about to summon his Glitch, but a massive shadow moved in front of him.
"Leave," Jax rumbled.
"Move, you bandaged freak!" The leader threw a fireball directly at Jax's face.
BOOM!
Smoke filled the small room. Kael tensed, ready to fight.
But as the smoke cleared, Jax hadn't moved. His skin had turned a metallic gray color—[Iron Skin]. There wasn't even a scratch on him.
"That tickled," Jax grumbled. He grabbed the leader by the throat and lifted him into the air with one hand.
"Put him down, Jax," Vira said from her bed. She pointed a gloved finger at the other two bullies.
"Wither."
A grey mist shot from her finger. The two bullies screamed as the metal of their leg armor instantly rusted and crumbled to dust. Their skin turned purple and numb.
"My legs! I can't feel my legs!" one screamed.
"Get out," Vira said, returning to cleaning her rifle. "Or the next spell rots your lungs."
Jax threw the leader out into the hallway. The three bullies scrambled away, terrified.
Jax closed the door and looked at Kael. "We hate bullies. You cool with us, Kael?"
Kael smiled. He realized he didn't need to hide everything if he was with these two. They were monsters, rejected by the system, just like him.
"Yeah," Kael said, sitting on his bed. "I think we're going to get along just fine."