Endric knelt on the floor with an expression of pain written all over his face. His vision was blurry and he could smell a metallic liquid running down his nostrils as he stared at the back of a person getting further and further away in his line of sight.
'H-ow… whe-re did he ge-t su-ch in-sane stren-gth fro-m,' Endric felt drowsy from receiving a slap from Gustav.
He could see about three Gustav's walking towards the door while issuing a warning that he couldn't hear properly due to the ringing in his left ear caused by the stinging slap.
Gustav opened the door walked out after voicing out his earlier words.
His mother was still seated for many seconds before she remembered that her beloved son was still laying on the floor at the other end of the living room.
She quickly stood up and ran to Endric.
She had tears in her eyes as she saw Endric kneeling on the floor with blood oozing out of his nose and his left eye swollen.
"Oh, End-ric ar-e you.." She squatted and tried helping him up but Endric pushed her away and forcibly stood up.
"Don't touch me!" He had a look of humiliation on his face as he walked towards his room.
Their mother who fell on her butt after Endric pushed her away gritted her teeth with a crazed expression. She couldn't wrap her head around what just happened even after some time had passed.
"That trash dares to touch my precious boy…" She muttered with a look of craziness.
—
In a few minutes, Gustav had gotten back to his newly rented apartment.
He stood inside his apartment with a smile on his face.
He didn't feel choked or uncomfortable in this new environment in any way. When he was staying with his parents he was always in the room he was given, but even with that, the environment was choking. Even when he hardly saw the family he stayed with and yet the environment was still very inconvenient for him.
But now, that was no longer the case. He felt he would finally be able to create nice memories in a place he could truly call home.
Gustav walked into his room and changed into pajamas after placing his clothes in his new closet.
He calculated his expenses for the day and noted that he had around one hundred and fifty thousand rad left.
It was an amount that could last him an entire year but after listening to miss Aimee's speech in the dojo the other day, Gustav had decided to accumulate wealth before joining the MBO since it might be needed.
The only problem was how to go about it.
The goal he had in mind for the week now was to make extensive research on the best way to use his abilities to make some cash.
He could do things his parents couldn't do since both of them never surpassed the Zulu rank and he believed that with his current strength he should be among the strongest Zulu ranked in the city right now.
It was getting late but Gustav wasn't in the mood to sleep yet, he walked towards the living room and went to his reading table.
Gustav sat on the chair placed in front and tapped twice on the glass-like circular board.
Trrooiinn!
A holographic projection of a keyboard and a virtual screen appeared above the glass-like board.
This was a modern age computer. It could be taken anywhere since it was very portable. It could also decrease to a pocket-size.
Gustav had only made use of one in the school so he wasn't as experienced as others in using the web but he had decided to learn.
"Connect to nearest hotspot… yes," Gustav muttered out these words before tapping his index finger on the yes button that appeared in the air.
–
Three days later Gustav was starting to get used to living in this new environment.
He had been heading to school with Angy for the past three days.
He had met Angy parents and they were the nice type just as he expected since their daughter was the same.
Her father was a pure slarkov. Angy got her horns from him while her mother was a pure human. It was hard to find pure humans and Slarkovs these days so Gustav was surprised. Angy parents also happened to work in a laboratory close to the heart of Plankton city. She had a junior brother who was around the same age as Endric, surprisingly he had the opposite of Endric's character and was even a shy type.
Gustav had met some other neighbors during this time. Most were pretty neutral with their attitude towards him. This made Gustav feel like he was in a different world entirely.
'Does this mean that poor people are the nicest…? If that's the case… Why are my parents the opposite?' Gustav could never wrap his head around this and sometimes when he thought about it he would develop a headache so he just decided to stop thinking about how the world works and focus on his own.
Gustav had continued his training with miss Aimee in Gami Dojo. Gustav feat had already traveled across the three floors of the Dojo. Whenever he bumped into any one of his age mates practicing there, they would have a look of reverence.
More of them had approached him to be his friend but Gustav still accepted no friendships.
Internally he felt this situation wasn't good. No one was coming to look for his trouble how was he going to receive future compensations.
But Gustav also knew that it was only a matter of time before that happened because he had noticed that some of them still had looks of dissatisfaction when they saw him.
He knew it was only a matter of time before one of those proud kids would come to challenge him again and Gustav had sworn in his heart that this time, he would receive a larger compensation than he collected from Masuba.
Gustav had been researching for Jobs he could do to amass more money for the past few days and he had found several on the internet.
The only problem was, most of them were full-time works and it was impossible for him to drop out of school right now.
It was eight p.m right now.
Gustav laid on his bed like a log of wood and sighed.
"Only the virtual reality combat looks plausible but it would take a long time for me to build enough reputation for others to pay for a challenge," Gustav muttered.
He truly felt he might remain a poor bastard and not get enough money before the MBO entrance test took place.
At this time only a bit over three months were left.
Gustav sighed again, "Such short timing, I should have started this earlier," He lamented.
While Gustav was still thinking of ways out he suddenly felt the hair on his skin rise.
"Uh, what's th…" Before he could complete his statement a loud sound was heard.
Bang!
It sounded like a collapsing building.
"Kiiaarrrrhhh!"
A loud heart-wrenching scream rang out across the building causing Gustav to immediately jump up from his bed.
Swoovv!
Gustav immediately ran out of his room and straight outside his apartment.
Chatter! Chatter!
He wasn't the only one who heard the noise, the neighbors also heard. Several of them could be seen moving towards the source of the noise.
"Kyyyarrhh!"
Another scream rang out again causing the hair on Gustav's skin to rise again.
'What in the world is that?' He wondered internally as he ran towards the stairs.
Due to the number of people on the small spaced stairs, the movement was slow.
He could see Angy climbing down at a fast pace from his location.
They were about six to seven people before him and her.
Gustav turned back around and ran into the passageway.
In a few seconds, he arrived at the door that led to the balcony.
He wasted no time in pushing it open.
Gustav walked in at a fast pace and moved toward the edge of the balcony which was twenty feet away.
He stood before the edge and looked down at the ground from this height. He could sense that the disturbance was coming from the ground floor because he could see people moving towards the apartment there.
Gustav breathed in before jumping several feet forward.
