160 Chapter 160

And in a bid to discourage mediocrity, they had decided to kick it up a notch by introducing three masked 'students' of their own. If Wallice was being honest with herself, she would have definitely encouraged this plan if she had been in the know.

But there was still a great many holes in the plot. Chief among them being; why exactly were they hiding the relevant data? This had never happened before. Had things gotten out of control? Had the masked students disguised at teachers gone too far in the bid to test ordinary high school students? There were just too many questions that needed swift answers.

But first, she had to first determine who the three mysterious students really were. She already suspected that they were probably teachers of the university, but that net was way to wide to look for one fish. She had to start from a much slimmer set. And where better to look than the students who had managed to pass the first test.

And so, more determined than ever, Wallice rushed over to the department of records. That was exactly where she needed to be at that moment. Wallice wished she could teleport herself there immediately. It was actually just a three minute trek away from the administrative block, but to her, it might have as well been three hours.

Exactly one hundred and eighty seconds later, she found herself right where she needed to be.

She wasn't entirely surprised when she saw that some of the lead teachers and their students were clamoring around the lists. Before now, Wallice herself hadn't even bothered to check the candidates who had survived the first round. She hadn't seen the need, to her it was a pointless endeavor that was left to those who hadn't done their assignments beforehand. Know thy enemy and know thyself. This was her mantra.

However, due to the new development, she had been forced to lump herself in with these people. And she was not too excited about it. Wallice looked at the small crowd clustered around the lists pinned on the wall, and wondered how she was going to get through them. Eventually, she took a deep breath and plunged headfirst into the crowd. She waddled through the sea of students and loud mouthed teachers, and finally made her way to the lists.

Wallice had a pretty good idea of the top contending contestants this year. And she assumed that at least fifty percent of them might have made it through. So, when she glazed through the lists looking for any anomalies that would point her in the direction of the masked team, she found one name in particular that wasn't exactly supposed to be there- Zavier Adam. The surname and first name were printed in fine black letters. They stood up there, right next to the elite of the elites. Wallice didn't recognize the person. Who the hell was this?

She repeated the name again in her mind, thinking it would ring any bells- it didn't. This Zavier Adam personality seemed to have barely snuck by. His scores were abysmal, and that was going by the most conservative description. In fact they were bad, really bad. Wallice's original plan had been to look and see if she would find any student or team that had performed extraordinarily, but instead, she had found the exact opposite.

This was weird, most High Schools sent in the best of the very best to be recommended for Caesar University's preliminaries. It was the norm. Not because the schools were classists, but because they simply didn't want any bad student to give their Alma Mata a bad rap. Only the best of the best attended these things. It was hard to see a mediocre student. And it was even harder to see a bad student. But it appeared that this Zavier had defied the odds.

Wallice gaped at Zavier's grades as if she couldn't believe her eyes. How could a student who was so far below average be here? His terrible scores spoke volumes, they screamed that he was in fact a complete loser, they screamed nonchalance, and an indifference that bordered on laziness and ineptitude. Wallice turned around to see if she was the only one who had noticed this, she discovered that this was actually the topic of discussion in most circles around her.

Wallice discovered that a lot of the lead teachers were also here for the same reason she was. They had intended to scope out this mysterious team from the list of students who had made it through. But they had ended up with a full glass of Zavier's shockingly poor results. Wallice hadn't been paying much attention to her environment before now. But if she had, she would have discovered that the air was charged with resentment and bitterness, and one name was in the center of it all- Zavier Adam.

"…never seen such terrible grades before at this University's tryouts! It's truly appalling! "

"He barely survived the first round. But his luck is sure to run out in the next round. He is going to be destroyed."

"I bet he will!"

"But hold on a minute, who is this loser any way? How did he even make it into this tryouts in the first place?"

Finally, Wallice thought. Here was a person with some sense to ask the question she had been dying to know since.

"Who cares? Must be some loser from some dump somehwhere..."

"Actually, I heard he's from the reputable Adam family."

That struck a chord.

"No way, you mean like the actual Adam-Adam family? Like the famous Valarie Adam?!"

"Of course, what other famous Adam family do you know?"

? "Wow! But why is he so dense?! Aren't they supposed to be a family of geniuses or something?!"

"I guess every family has its black sheep. It's quite surprising how far this apple fell from the tree though. A real bloody shame if you ask me."

"Indeed! You know, that actually explains a lot you know!" The student lowered his voice as he dropped his theory; "I think the Adam family got their boy this recommendation through some kind of back door agreement."

"What?!" They small group all chorused together their shock. The narrator, not wanting to get in trouble cautioned them;

"Hey! Keep your voice down!"

The others were much too annoyed to care. They angrily retorted; "Why should we be silent?! Huh?! Why?!"

The resentment was palpable now. It was very much in the air as it was in their minds. They boiled with anger just at the thought of the nepotism had that been carried out right underneath their noses. Of course they were pissed. A lot of them had spent weeks, months on end, and the better part of their childhood (and young adulthood) training to be the best.

Their hard work had paid off, and they were now on the verge of being selected by Caesar University's committee. This was the crowning jewel of their efforts. The prize for their sacrifices, and it was well worth it.

So, hearing now that some low level student had gotten in based on his family's connections alone, that was too much for them. It was like a slap on all their faces. It was like their efforts didn't even matter. It wasn't their fault persay.

Their hard work had conditioned them into being very rigid and unflinching when it came to dues. And unfortunately, their whole was being turned upside down as a result of this thing with the Adam boy.

"Damn! I thought Caesar University was the one place where all that didn't matter..."

"Hey, come on don't talk like that. This could be the action of just one corrupt official in government."

"Hey Lady! Hey!" They snapped their fingers. "Miss?! Are you alright?! Miss!"

It took a moment for Wallice to see that she was the one they were referring to. She had been so lost in the gist that she had abandoned all the stealth involved in eavesdropping, and had been staring at the group of students like they were a live band or something.

Only after did they snap their fingers twice at her did she jerk back to consciousness. It was very awkward. Almost like she had fallen asleep with her eyes wide open and while standing. Wallice didn't feel embarrassed or anything. In fact she felt the exact opposite; she was elated. She had gleaned so much information by simply standing around, and doing nothing but eavesdropping. This had never happened before. She was almost grateful to the student for the information.

Thanks to them, she now knew all she needed to know about the Zavier boy. No wonder his name hadn't struck a chord. There was no way she would have known who he was. Her brain had been conditioned to look for the strongest and the most threatening. There was no way she would have picked up on such a low ranking student.

Wallice almost felt bad for the poor lad. The second round hadn't even begun yet and he had already garnered for himself a very terrible reputation. If he hadn't been having enough difficulties on his own (concerning his results), then he sure would be having a full plate right now. These were supposed to be his future colleagues as a potential freshman, but they already resented him deeply.

Wallice melted out of there quickly. She was done for now.

Thirty six hours later from that very moment, the second round of the tournament began. It was the long anticipated moment.