Chapter 5: Cafeteria Scuffle
.....
His room was not a room. It was a concrete box that was located at the far end of the Mo estate's basement, right next to the humming cooling pipes of the house's central core. There were no windows. Neither were there any beds. There was not a desk for his schoolwork.
In the corner of the room lay a pile of worn-out clothes, smelling of dust and old sweat. And In the center of the floor, there was a single thin, and gray sheet that served as his bed.
Creak... groan...
Seven sat down on the sheet, his body felt like it was made of lead. He slowly peeled off his torn uniform, the fabric sticking to the wet blood on his back from his mother's whip.
"Nnngh... hiss..."
He looked over his shoulder at the long, and red welt left by his mother's whip. It was angry and swollen, a physical mark of her "Gravity Field" reinforced strike. He blew on the wound, the cool air providing a tiny second of relief.
"It's nothing," Seven thought to himself, his jaw tightening. "Compared to the fire of that bomb back on earth... compared to the feeling of a God stripping my soul bare of talent... this is just a scratch. But the heart... the heart is getting tired of being a punching bag."
He closed his eyes and summoned the global system screen.
[Name: Mo Seven
Spiritual Points: None
Divine Essence: No God]
The words stared back at him. NO GOD. It was the name of the Zenith's divine essence. It was a legend. And A myth. And now, it was sitting quietly in his status window like a silent ghost.
"How do I turn you on?" Seven whispered. He stood up in the dark room, trying to mimic Kaelen Vance. He stood tall, then thrust out his hand, and imagined a wave of power crushing the walls.
"Stop!" he commanded the air.
Silence.
"Freeze! Break! Silence!"
Nothing seems to have happened. Not even a spark. He tried all his best to focus his mind, while trying to feel a "pull" in his gut like the textbooks described, but there was only emptiness. He felt like a man who was holding a master key to a vault, but he didn't know where the keyhole was.
Sigh.
Eventually after many unsuccessful tries, his exhaustion won. He collapsed onto the thin sheet, with heavy eyes. "Maybe it was a glitch in the global system. Or Maybe the Zenith just gave me a 'status title' to mess with me." He drifted into a deep, and dreamless sleep, while the hum of the pipes lulled him into unconsciousness.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The sound of his com-brace alarm. Seven bolted upright. The sun hadn't even reached the basement vents yet. But He was late.
He scrambled up to take a shower and find his clothes, but his school uniform was a ruin of blood and holes. He had no choice. He pulled on a pair of faded black cargo pants and a worn-out hoodie that was two sizes bigger than him. He looked more like a street urchin, not a student of a prestigious Academy. He had decided to try if he could enter the spirit dimension to confirm his divine essence was real.
He ran down to the driveway, there he found a sleek, and floating silver limo that was idling. The engine made a soft, and expensive whirr.
His dear mother, Mo Lin, was standing there, while looking elegant in a silk business suit. His younger brother, Mo Ren, was already in the back seat.
"Mother! Wait!" Seven panted, while running up to the car. "Please, the school is right next to the portal station. Can I get a ride? I'm already late because of waking up late..."
Mo Lin didn't even turn her head. She adjusted her diamond earring, while her voice sounded like a frozen lake. "This car is for students of the Mo family. You are a Null. You have legs, don't you? Use them. I won't have the neighbors see a boy dressed like a beggar climbing out of my expensive vehicle."
"But mom. it's ten miles away!" Seven argued.
"Then you should have started running twenty minutes ago," she said coldly. "And don't call me mom".
SLAM.
The limo door shut. The limo glided away, while leaving Seven in a cloud of ionized exhaust.
"Right," Seven muttered to himself, his hands balling into fists. "Walk. Because walking builds 'character,' right? You hateful Gods must be laughing your heads off right now."
He began to run.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
He ran through the futuristic streets of Hope City. While running He ran past the massive statues of Yin Zhe, the hero who brought tech to the cultivators. He ran past the military checkpoints where the soldiers that were in powered Warframe suits stood guard like metal giants. By the time he reached the academy gates, his hoodie was now soaked with sweat and his lungs felt like they were filled with broken glass.
Pant... wheeze...
He ran through the school gate and hall. He slipped into the classroom just as the teacher, a stern and well shaped woman with a [Mental Link] divine essence, was beginning the lecture.
"Mo Seven. Late. Again," she said, without even looking up from her holographic tablet. "Better Sit down before I dock your credit points."
Seven quickly ducked his head and moved toward his seat.
"Hey, look! The 'Hero' has arrived!" a voice hissed from behind.
It was Kaito. Kaito Johnson. He was sitting with his two lackeys. Ryu, a boy with [Stone Skin] divine essence, and Mako, who could [Vibrate] objects. Kaito's nose was wrapped in a high-tech medical bandage from where Seven had broken it yesterday.
"Did the Zenith give you a ride home in his golden ship, huh? Trash?" Kaito mocked, his voice a low whisper that the teacher ignored. "Or did he suddenly realize that you were a mistake and dump you in the sewer?"
Ryu and Mako both snickered. "He looks like he slept in the sewer. Look at those clothes. Hey Seven, did your parents finally throw you out with the rest of the garbage?"
Seven quietly ignored them, while staring straight at the holographic board. He knew why the teacher didn't stop them. Kaito was a Johnson. The Johnson Group owned half the Lynite factories on the planet and had other factories on other planets. Lynite the strongest material to mankind. One word from the Johnson's and the teacher would be out on the street.
.....
Lunchtime came in like a slow-motion execution.
Seven hadn't eaten breakfast. His stomach felt like a hollow, and aching void. He headed for the cafeteria, specifically the "Public Aid" section where the school provided free, basic meals for low-income students.
He had managed to get a tray. On it was a glass of lukewarm water and a block of gray "Proteinuria" pudding. It tasted like wet cardboard, but it was calories. It was his survival.
Clack.
He sat down at a lonely table in the corner. He had just picked up his spoon when a shadow fell over his tray.
Kaito, Ryu, and Mako all stood there, while looking down at his pathetic meal.
"Is that what you eat, Seven?" Kaito laughed, while his high-tech bandaged nose twitched. "No wonder you're so weak. Even my dog wouldn't touch that gray slop."
Seven took a few bites of the pudding while kaito spoke, he swallowed it slowly, and looked up. "At least I don't need my daddy to buy me a new nose every time I get into a fight, Kaito."
The cafeteria suddenly went dead silent. Everyone turned to see what was going on.
Kaito's face had now turned a violent shade of purple. "You... you think because the Zenith saved you, you're suddenly a big man? You're a Null! a glitch! And You're a stain on the Mo family!"
"And you're a bully who's scared of a guy with no power," Seven retorted back, while standing up. "If I'm so beneath you, why are you always following me around? Obsessed much?"
"That's it!" Ryu, the short temper boy with [Stone Skin] divine essence, roared.
Ryu lunged across the table. His fist turned a dull, and matte gray, becoming as hard as granite. He swung his heavy, stone fist at Seven's head.
Seven reacted instinctively, using the same technique he had used on kaito the last time. The [Tiger-Crane] style his grandpa had taught him. He deflected the stone fist, by punching the fist to the side with good timing and tried to land a counter-strike on Ryu's neck.
THWACK.
It was like hitting a brick wall. Cuz the rock on his fist had moved to his neck. Seven's hand instantly went numb.
"My turn!" Mako shouted. While touching the table, the entire surface began to vibrate at a high frequency. BUZZZZZZZ!
The glass of lukewarm water shattered. The pudding almost fell off the table. Seven was thrown off balance by the intense vibrations, his feet slipping on the slick floor.
Kaito stepped in, his hands glowing with a fierce orange fiery light. "Eat this, Trash!"
[FLAME BURST]
Kaito didn't punch. He unleashed a round wave of heat directly into Seven's chest.
"AGH!" Seven was blown backward, while skidding across the cafeteria floor. He crashed into a row of chairs, and his hoodies were smoking from the heat.
The students around them didn't help. They just watched, some were even filming with their com-braces, some laughing.
Seven tried to push himself back up, but Ryu was already there. The stone-skinned divine essence boy grabbed Seven by the throat and lifted him off the ground, pinning him against a pillar. evidence of his high number of spirit points gotten from spirit creatures.
"You're nothing," Ryu hissed, his fingers are like cold, hard rocks crushing against Seven's windpipe.
Kaito walked up, while looking at Seven with pure malice. He reached out and knocked Seven's remaining tray off the table, the gray pudding splattering onto the floor.
"Oops," Kaito grinned. "Looks like you're going hungry today, Hero."
They dropped him. And Seven hit the floor on his knees, while gasping for air, his hands clutching his bruised throat.
Cough... wheeze...
He looked at the splattered remains of his only meal for the day. He looked at the floor. He felt the eyes of the entire school cafeteria on him. the eyes of the world looking down at the "Trash."
"I hate this," Seven thought, a single tear of pure, white-hot rage stinging his eye. "I hate this damn world. I hate the Mo family. I hate the Johnsons. But most of all... I hate the Gods who put me here to be humiliated for their fucking entertainment."
He stayed on his knees, with his head bowed, his fingers digging into the linoleum floor until his knuckles turned white.
"Is this all I am? A punching bag for the elite?"