Three days later, Theo was inside the class, looking at his lazy-looking teacher with a calm expression.
However, his classmates, males and females, were staring at him and Laust since they were in the same group and seemed to have the capability to finish the assignments.
They simply never thought that Theo would be able to change his situation and somehow mended his relationship with Laust. They didn't know that Laust and Theo had a passive-aggressive relationship. They were neither friend nor foe at the moment.
The guys were filled with envy and admiration. They wanted to be like him, changing from zero to hero. After all, the story that was spread around the school was about him becoming the group leader. If it were any other group, they wouldn't care much, but his team members were among the best.
They even had Alea Eilric in the group, making his performance even brighter.
Some still didn't believe him because Alea might just give him the role to show off, while the rest just carried him all the time.
Meanwhile, the girls had a different thought and started looking at Theo in another light. There was indeed jealousy since they wanted to change positions with him, considering the males in his group were cool and handsome like Laust, Phyrill or Sihan.
He himself was above average. Some even thought about whether they should start to approach Theo to have a relationship with him before he became too big and out of their league.
Unfortunately for them, Theo ignored most of them and just pushed them to the side after a few polite lines. He didn't mean to be aloof, but he was simply sick with how everyone treated him differently once he became one of the top people in this class or even in the school.
He simply knew they had a hidden intention in approaching him, so he didn't want to have anything to do with them and increased his net worth even further.
This had continued for the past three days and Theo even got teased by Phyrill and the others as this was the first time he was in the limelight.
Now that he had grown accustomed to it, he had no problem listening to the teacher while being stared at.
In the past three days, Theo also had gathered information about the small competition. According to the other students, there were already thirty groups who dropped out of the competition. Five among them were found dead, including Sonia's group.
Those retired groups realized that no matter how hard they tried, they would just challenge death itself. Even then, they couldn't even find a speck of hope in finishing the first assignment. After a while, they realized they couldn't compete with Alea and the others, resulting in them dropping out of the competition.
At first, the students were mocking them because they didn't have the guts, but when the assignments were shown to them, they simply shut their mouths, embarrassed.
There was no way they had the skill to achieve the first one, let alone killing three Hero Rank monsters. After that, no one mocked them anymore and simply praised those who were still in the competition.
After a few hours, the bell finally rang and they were soon released from the teacher's lazy lecture, heading home or doing something else in the school.
Theo also planned to go back to the Virtual Simulation Building to train, so he rose from his seat. Luckily, three days had passed and the people's curiosity had decreased as no one stopped him anymore to ask him questions or cheer for him.
He didn't want anything with them anyway, so he quickly left the class and building, only to find another storm was coming.
Suddenly, the school turned into an uproar when they saw an old man walking to the school. He wore a simple white shirt and blue leather pants, looking like an ordinary parent, but the others could still recognize who he was.
The people that were about to leave the school were stunned and made way for him. They looked at him, pointed their fingers at him, and whispered about him.
"Look!"
"That's… Isn't that person the famous Nart Eilric?"
"The one who is known for his eye? Many people he recognized in the past have become great figures right now."
"That's right. He even taught some of them personally."
"Chosen by him is the sure way to success."
"Wait, why is such a person coming to this school?"
"Doesn't he want to see his granddaughter?"
"You don't know anything yet. I have been here for almost three years, never once I saw someone visiting Alea Eilric. I'm afraid he has something important to do."
"Yeah, he must want to do something else."
"Wait, he may find someone interesting in the school."
"I didn't think of that. Yes, since there is a competition going on, he may have found someone participating in it."
"In other words, is there a chance that someone has piqued his interest among the fifty groups?"
The students kept talking about him while Nart simply smiled and didn't reply to them or anything.
However, a young man, surprisingly, stopped before him, trying to impress him. He had blue hair and glasses, politely saying, "Sir, do you need anything from the school? I can guide you to anywhere you want to go in this school. My name is—"
The other students never expected that someone would be so shameless to try bootlicking, but they soon thought why they didn't do it first. After all, it was better to try than staying unnoticed. If you came out there, they would become either an embarrassment or a hero.
Unfortunately for him, the glasses guy turned into the former because Nart didn't let him finish. He simply took a step to the left and ignored him directly before his eyes stumbled upon a young man with an annoyed expression.
When people saw him stopping, they quickly followed his vision and found Theodore Griffith standing at the end of his vision.
Nart smiled and said, "It's been a while. How are you?"
Although he had prepared for it, Theo still felt uncomfortable and said, "It's worse than I expected."
"That's good."
"…"