Chapter 12: Races

Rewen walked to the main gate of the academy with Denny. The heat today was very lukewarm so Rewen was rather enjoying the weather. Along the way, many glanced at him. Some secretly, some blatantly. Rewen was fully prepared for this kind of situation. In fact, he even prepared some strong words in the worst-case scenario. 

Denny sharply stared at him. "Listen. If they bother you, give me a call."

Rewen slightly nodded. "It's okay."

Denny moved to her class while Rewen stood there enjoying the surroundings. Looking at the classic cherry blossom tree, he felt peaceful when suddenly, a hand tapped on his shoulder. "Yo! Got some time?"

Turning back, he found an unfamiliar guy smiling at him. Rewen had no idea who he was but can guess his intentions. "Yes, what can I do for you?"

"Just an interview. I was currently streaming when I saw you so this idea of an interview came to my mind. Want to join?" Hearing this, one would think that this guy is polite and not forceful at all but he isn't as the camera in his hand was already pointing towards Rewen. 

Rewen didn't pay much heed to it. Today, he is prepared for everything. He prepared for all the deadly situations before his sleep. He gave a friendly laugh. "Honestly, I never expected my popularity to get such a rise."

"Indeed. Overnight, you went from an average guy to a person known by four million! How do you feel about this?"

"Yeah, it's good." Rewen finished his sentence when he noticed that the other guy had no plans to ask another question. "Um, next question?"

"Oh, sorry. I just thought you had more to say… anyways, what did you think when you said to the instructor that if you do this, you would become the Strongest Man on Earth?"

"It was supposed to be an unfunny joke. Apparently, I was wrong."

"Wait a second, you joked?"

"You don't really believe that I was serious, right?"

"It's just… you are making this all up. Besides, you don't even know why your theory wouldn't work. If you know now, it only means you have researched."

"Does it take a genius to figure this out? Okay, man. I understand where you are coming from. Yesterday, everyone was laughing and making fun of my supposed ignorance. Now that I said it was a joke and apparently made people laugh, you just couldn't let go of your superiority complex you developed while laughing at me thinking it makes you smarter. Think about it. It isn't that hard to figure it out."

With that said, Rewen drifted off towards his classroom. Almost everyone's eyes fell on him as he entered the classroom. Zaplin came up to him and laughed. "Dude, you have become a celebrity now."

Rewen gave a helpless smile. "I wish to find the bast*rd who filmed me."

Another guy came up to him. "It should be Devin from the 5th Class."

After chatting with them for a few minutes, he sat on his seat. His seat was near the window and the classroom was on the third floor so he was quite pleased viewing the scenery from above. After a moment, he felt a bit bored and noticed the person sitting beside him. 'Time bomb.' He said in his mind. 

Regarding this "Fallen Devil", Rewen wasn't sure how to deal with her. He was confident that her background was monstrous and that her identity isn't a threat to mankind. He liked to think that she was rather protected by the higher-ups. 

"Hey." He reached out to her. 

She merely glanced at him with a single eye. 

"Did you come to this academy for me?"

Her eyebrows twitched but didn't say anything. "..."

"It's okay." He wanted to throw a light joke but he knew that it wouldn't end well. 

"... one of the reasons."

"I see. So what do you want to do with me?"

"I want to stay beside you."

"Does it have to do with the condition you were in that night?" Rewen tried not to misunderstand. 

"Yes. You are a smart person."

[Favoritibility +1]

"Err, yes. Wait, why are you good to me today?"

"Do you prefer me to not?"

"No. No. No. It's all cool. Good day!" He nodded his head vigorously and turned his head as if they were parting after a small talk. 'System, what is my current favorability with her?'

[Current favorability: -6]

'Oh well. I guess smacking her butt boosted my negative favorability. It feels a bit weird though. It's as if there are triggers set in her brain and if I accidentally triggered the trigger, she would suddenly increase her liking towards me.'

"Rewen."

He heard a familiar voice. It was Zelic. She had a deep frown on her face. He replied. "Ah, good morning."

"It's a bad one, I'm afraid. Why did you not tell you had interference-" Not letting her complete her question, he grabbed her wrist and brought his face closer to her ears. 

"Woah, calm down. No need to let anyone know. Let's talk about this later, okay?"

"Not okay."

"Okay."

"Not."

After a few minutes, he finally managed to calm her down. Pouting, she went back to her seat. Soon, the subject teacher for History came and started talking about the very first topic of the first-year syllabus - Races! 

"Pure humans became the most primitive and ancient races of the Earth after the apocalypse. 500 years in the post-apocalyptic period and the population of pure humans were already starting to slow down. Rather than pure humans, variant humans became more and more prominent over the years. Why did this happen? Because pure humans didn't evolve with the changes. They still had the lifespan of a century. They don't have any bloodline abilities. Not a single noticeable advantage. In fact, the only reason we call them 'ancient' and not 'useless' is because they were our ancestors."

The rant made by the elderly woman made Rewen feel a bit annoyed. 

"Talking about variant humans, till date, there are countless. Making a rough estimate, it shouldn't be lower than 2500. Most of these variant humans only have bloodline impurity. For example, the 'Seekers' are also variant humans with a bloodline impurity of 6.7% approximately. But always remember, if a race's bloodline impurity goes beyond 50%, the race doesn't count as variant humans. Questions?"

A girl asked from the middle seat. "What is the bloodline impurity for pure humans?"

"Such a dumb question. Pure humans don't have bloodline impurity. Just as the name suggests, it is pure."

Rewen's brain experienced another sudden shock. 'Why? Why me? Damn… it should be because I transmigrated in this world with my pure human body.'

"In our Eastern Dream Kingdom, starting from local inhabitants to government officials are mostly FRY-76 - variant humans with bloodline impurity of about 1.87%. I know, the name's not the best but there are over 2500 variant humans. It seems like the Thirteen Continents Union's officials found it troublesome to be creative."

'Agreed. They aren't the most creative people.' Thinking of the continents and empires' names, he felt the massive urge to facepalm. 

"I could go on and on about races all day but let's not stray too far away from the syllabus. What you do have to learn in the first year is specifically about your race, FRY-76. You have to learn about its origins, groups, places it inhabits and many more things. I'd say it is mildly interesting."

Rewen would beg to argue that the next forty minutes were not interesting at all. Whenever he was on the verge of falling asleep, he slapped his cheek to remain awake.