Chapter 15: A Bad Apple
Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Tehrn
Simon led Wang Tong to a room about a dozen feet away from the girl’s dormitory and quickly disappeared. This place used to be a grocery store and later was converted into a bedroom for a concierge who quit his job due to labor disputes with the school which, fortunately for Wang Tong, was then available for him to stay in.
After Wang Tong had scanned the furnished room, he found out to his surprise, that this room was more than what he had expected; it even came with a standalone bathroom.
Wang Tong threw his body onto the bed out of happiness, “Ha ha, Mr. Wannabe, this is going to be our new home! You aren’t still mad at me, aren’t you?” Wang Tong was in a pleasant mood after securing his accommodations.
“Huff… you are so mean! I only wanted you to play that game for me, was that too much? Do you know how hard it was for me to lose all of my memories, why are you making this more difficult? Have you already forgotten who taught you the Tactics of the Blade? And who had advised you on your battles with the Zergs?” Still disgruntled with the fact that Wang Tong had refused to play the game, Mr. Wannabe poured out his discontent and assaulted Wang Tong with a plethora of questions in a harsh tone.
“Fine, fine, you win. I will play the game for you tonight, okay? But only one round. Now, leave me alone, I have other things to see to, I can’t be distracted.”
“Ha ha, that’s more like it! I will help you in your fight; you know fighting against humans is an entirely different story than fighting the Zergs,” Mr. Wannabe was elated by Wang Tong’s compromise. Wang Tong watched him as he was dazzled by a colorful halo radiating out of Mr. Wannabe. “Perhaps he was not a wannabe after all,” Wang Tong thought to himself as he felt a flow of energy carried by the light.
However, that thought quickly fled his mind as soon as he remembered Mr. Wannabe’s true bearing: a mean and arrogant bumpkin. As for his advice on the battlefield, it was more like him trying to tease out Wang Tong’s rage, in other words, Wang Tong had learned to fight on his own through countless hard battles with different kind of Zergs rather than learning it from Mr. Wannabe.
“Wang Tong, the principal wants you in her office,” a boy wearing a student union’s armband huffed and puffed his way to Wang Tong’s dorm room and delivered the message.
“The principal? Why would someone so high up want to see me?” Wang Tong moved his body out of his comfortable bed and went straight towards the Principal’s office, as he did not dare to doddle.
Principal Samantha had been working on a pile of paperwork, burying her face deeply within the large pile. One might be surprised to find out her young age of twenty-three considering her high position at the Class-A Institute; however, it was not entirely because of her family background but also thanks to her superhuman talent as she was an expert in eighteen different fields. She had never been mind opened, but neither was she worried because she always believed that practicing tactics dulled one’s mind and senses. As the direct descendant of Galbert and heir of the DREAM Corporation, she had set her expectations high after hearing the glorious past of her ancestors while growing up.
Samantha had not graduated from Ayrlarng; instead, she had graduated with an honors degree from Capth. Ayrlarng was merely a testing ground for her ambitions as she was determined to bring it back to its former glory.
The reason behind her quick ascension to the title of principal at this young age was not only her intimate ties with the Li family but also thanks to the funding she had brought with her, totaling one billion credits. The smell of the money had quickly turned negative “nays” into welcoming praise. That being said, there were still quite a few teachers waiting to see her failure due to her lack of experience, after all, no one had heard that money alone would be able to save the reputation of a school.
Not until Samantha started her first day as Principal, had she begun to realize that the school’s condition was even grimmer than it had appeared. Not only was the school equipment outdated, but it also lacked good teachers and brilliant students.
After pinpointing the areas where she could focus on improving, she started purchasing newer equipment while hiring more responsible teachers. However, Samantha was well aware that advanced equipment and good teachers did not guarantee good students, to achieve that, she would also need to improve the quality of the students that they admitted, and expel the bad apples. Over the course of a few months, Samantha had been developing a plan that would do precisely that.
Even with a good plan up her sleeve, she could not help but get frustrated after seeing what she had seen today- a student dressed in ragged clothes who was wandering around the campus instead of focusing on his studies. She soon learned his name and looked up his high school grades which only confirmed her belief that this student was a bad apple. She decided that she had to meet with this student and give him a warning.
To be fair, it was hard for Wang Tong to have good grades in high school because Old Fart’s persistent supervision of his tactics practice had taken most of his time after school. Despite his low grades, Wang Tong was still admitted to Ayrlarng not entirely because of the slack administration of the school but also thanks to the recommendation letter from the Confederation; even Samantha could not revoke his student status, which was a fact that had really started to bother her.
“Come in,” Samantha furrowed her forehead as she heard knocking on the door.
Wang Tong walked into the Principal’s office, only to see a young and gorgeous fellow classmate. He asked, “Hi fellow sister, have you seen the principal?”
Wang Tong watched her as she laughed at the, albeit unintentional, compliment, Wang Tong’s question seemed to have melted her anger away. In her smile, Wang Tong thought she looked drop dead gorgeous.
“I am the Principal, Samantha, sit, I only have a few quick questions.”
Despite his thick skin, Wang Tong still felt a bit embarrassed, he sat down following her gesture and said, “You are so young.”
“Thank you, Wang Tong. I want to ask you why you have chosen our school?” Samantha asked in a tone of slight indignation as she had believed that this bad apple had come to screw up her great plan of restoring the school’s reputation.
“It’s close to home…” Wang Tong said as he scratched his head, but immediately, from the corner of his eye, he sensed that Samantha’s face had turned stern, he waved his hands and changed his answer, “Just kidding, I always liked Ayrlarng ever since I was little, I want to be a useful resource to the Confederation, I want to fight for the humans and kill every Zergs! “
Samantha looked at him with a cold face, thanks to which she had earned the nickname of “Cold Hearted Beauty”. To some school workers, she was not only a beauty but also cold hearted because she had never hesitated when she had to fire employees who were not pulling their weight.
Wang Tong had been used to getting cold shoulders and cold hearted stares from the “wonderful” people around him; therefore he wasn’t scared by Samantha’s look. Instead, his mind had drifted itself to focusing on Samantha’s body — her lush curves and huge bosom, all fit for a sexy movie actress instead of a stern principal.
“Okay, that will be it, you can leave now.” Samantha gestured the way out inattentively as she had already occupied herself with the paperwork, burying herself in the pile again.
Wang Tong left the office feeling unsure of what to make of this meeting, it seemed like he had failed to affect the principal with his great personality and positive attitude in the same way that he had affected Mr. Simon.
However, the outcome of this meeting was clear to Samantha as it had once again confirmed her suspicion that Wang Tong was a bad apple. For the sake of the school, Samantha made up her mind to remove Wang Tong as she crossed his name out on a name list.
Samantha was about to roll out a student ranking system which would help to eliminate the students like Wang Tong who were not up to snuff, despite his referral letter from the Confederation.
Unknown to Wang Tong, he had already been labeled a bad apple by the gorgeous looking young principal. He wouldn’t care about it even if he learned her intentions then. Wang Tong only lived his own life, never caring about what others might think about him.
With a place to stay, he had finally gained a peace of mind. He started to look around the campus and paid specific attention to its terrain and building layout, such as useful covers in the time of conflict. This was another habit he had adopted while he was fighting with the Zergs, ironically, Zergs had this habit as well.
