"Oh, c'mon. Not again."
Bale was walking through a narrow isle on one of the backyard corridors of the cubehall when he caught sight of three figures seemingly waiting ahead of him. They appeared to not have been waiting for him, but he simply was unlucky to meetup with them this time. He wanted to turn back immediately he saw them, but it seemed too late.
"Oh, Prophet. Too late. We caught you red-handed." One of the figures spoke with a sense of arrogance and intimidation.
The remaining two backed it up with snickers.
"Prophet of soup. Pray tell, what shall an Explorer like you do in a situation like this? We're about to make fun of you and I believe we both enjoy the session."
Paying attention to their awkward display, he couldn't help but think of rushing forward and dealing each of them a bloody punch to the face.
... But then he actually saw himself surging forward in an instant. In that instant, he had appeared in front of them. He could immediately grasp their identity. Blake. Japhet. Liu Zhang. These three buffons. He knew them well. They were well known as some troublemaking gang of cadets in the first-division. Liu Zhang was the most troublemaking of the three. He's commonly known as that in the first-division.
"You being Scouts don't mean you're stronger. In some cases, the weaker ones actually appear to be the stronger ones who choose to spend their strength wisely." Following that statement, Bale didn't even grant them a chance to process what had just happened in that instant. His fist blurred as it punched each face with calculated precision, making sure they each received the strongest hit on the weakest part of their faces.
The next moment, the three Scouts were seen lying on the floor unconscious, drooling in their saliva.
Bale was somewhat surprised by this. He had managed to beat three Scouts in one simple attack! So he's always that strong! But...
But then...
"Bale!"
"Oh boy, seems like Prophet went into a trance, haha."
"Trance?Haha. A hard slap will bring him back. Liu Zhang, zone him out."
Bale was standing in his position, unmoving. He could hear the muffled voices of the boys...the boys... he had just finished serving them their sizes!
'Oh, have I been daydreaming?'
It just came to him that he had been daydreaming!
No wonder it felt so strange and unlike him rushing forward with the grace of a speedster and delivering three powerful punches to his seniors in an instant.
TAP!
Just then, one of the Scouts moved closer to him and tapped him on his shoulder. Obviously, it was Liu Zhang. His weirdly contorted mocking face was hanging before Bale. The other two followed suit by standing by his sides.
"What is it this time? Beat me up? What are you guys now? Some prophet beaters? Don't you know I can predict your doom?" Bale tried some sense of humor amongst them this time, but it seemed not to go down so well, because the guys seemed impervious to the joke.
"Han," One of the Scouts snickered, he looked at Liu Zhang whose hand was still resting on Bale's shoulder.
Then Liu Zhang said, "Bale, has any one ever tried being at least benevolently truthful to you by telling you your jokes were never funny?"
"Like Bale, let's be truthful here. Everyone knows how useless of a being you are. Even Tora your girlfriend–"
"Haa?" Bale was going to be calm with them throughout the whole time but the mention of that last word was going to change situations a bit of things continued that way.
He looked up at the leader of the gang with a fearless expression, his brows furrowed such that half his eyes were shadowed under them.
Whenever caught in helpless situations like this, he had always tried to put them under control, choosing the most peaceful option and most times, shrugging them off with hopeless jokes. That was why he would always try to stay calm and accept all the insults, but an insult to his friend? He's not ready for that. Again, Tora is not his girlf–
"What did you just say?" Bale shot at Liu, looking him directly in the face. Some saliva droplets were sure to smudge on his face. They were that close.
Liu Zhang, who was suddenly startled by his reaction, raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Guess our beloved prophet doesn't want to have his beloved Tora get dragged in the mud alongside him, hehehe."
The other two Scouts followed suit with chuckles.
Bale, his facial expression now showing slight anger because he was trying hard to remain stoic, kept looking.
However, he turned his face down, muttering in a low voice, but loud enough for the Scout cadets to hear him. "You can insult me all you want, but I will not have Tora dragged into this. She's my friend and so I have to be loyal as a friend too."
The daydreaming he had earlier was what he had always wished for, but his body would never always move. He still chose to not be a bad center of attraction, even in a secluded area where the four of them were isolated.
Instead, he focused on suppressing his anger, and watched on.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Looking stuck for a while, Liu Zhang abruptly burst into laughter.
"See? That's it! This is what I'm saying! Guys, isn't it entertaining to have our junior prophet profess his love for his dear friend?"
Blake and Japhet joined in the mockery too.
But then, a new figure appeared at the other end of the narrow isle, the direction which Bale came from.
The three Scouts turned their heads in unison. The figure's face was hidden and so they could not identify him.
"What's going on over there? Some gang bullying meetups?"
Liu Zhang wanted to retort back but Japhet held his hand. "It's an instructor, Liu. Talk and you'll be getting the worst punishment, like you ever had in a while."
Liu shot him a look, but that was not the moment to reply him. "Let's go. We caught some junior cadet hanging lonely in this space, okay?" He said as the three walked forward to defend the accusation. The other two nodded slightly.
"Blake." Liu signaled.
Then Blake spoke up. "Good day instructor, we saw an Explorer cadet hanging alone in this narrow space, so we decided to check him out. It was at the moment you came in on us."
The instructor, whose face was still hidden from light, moved closer to them. He confirmed their statement as he caught sight of a cadet behind the three Scouts.
"Get out."
Without hesitation, the Scouts walked away. Liu Zhang dared to shoot the instructor a brief arrogant look before walking away too.
Leaving Bale alone in the isle, the instructor walked toward him, until he joined him under the pale glow of a wall lamp. It was then that Bale looked up, only to see...
"Huh?" He widened his eyes.
'He trail–'
"What's wrong with your neural comm? Didn't you receive any message? The first batch of Explorers are going on an important mission in twenty sequences. I had to search over for you, until I met you here."
"My neural comm..."
He had not known all this while! His VCI would have received a dangerous damage this time if he missed any mission!