An alarm rang in a sunny morning. Rein who’s still in bed, wakes up. But still feeling hazy, then he looks to a calendar hanging on the other side of the room. A red marker had circled today’s date with ‘Avatar Burst Intro’ written under it. “Reeeein! If you already wash up, come down, breakfast is ready!,” Called someone from first story. “Yeah, Mom!,” Rein answers.
Rein’s body moves reflexively, took a bath, put on his uniform, and put his books to his bag. When he comes down, his mother is reading a model magazine. A typical ordinary mom? Not even close. Rein’s mom is a supermodel in Europe, She is always seen at the magazine. She’s often being the main model at Haute Couture. But now, She’s on her holiday and will be staying with Rein for the time being.
“Thanks for the food, Mom. I’ll be going okay.” Rein said while putting his dishes in the sink. “You’ve made some friends right?,” His mom asks. “ *sigh* Yeah, pretty much.” His mom put away her magazine and walks to Rein. “Be good at school, okay?,” and she hugs Rein. Rein nodded, “Bye, Mom.”
“Morning, Rein. Today is a good day, isn’t it?,” Ryuuji greets when Rein walks out his gate. “A good day indeed, finally the moment we’ve been waiting for. Let’s just hope nothing goes wrong today,” Rein said . “Can you at least smile? Show that you felt happy?,” Rein looks at Ryuuji with a straight face. “You know it’s already a permanent look on my face,” Ryuuji then goes behind Rein and pull Rein’s cheeks upward, makes him a smile. “Do you know that smiling uses less muscle than pouting?,” Rein rolled his eyes. “Please stop it, Ryuuji. Don’t make me flicks you again,” Ryuuji quickly let go his hand. Ryuuji won't stop there, he then searching for somethings that might interest Rein. And the topic came as fast as Ryuuji expected.
“Oh, look Rein it’s Shirayuki! C’mon let’s greet her!,” Ryuuji changes the topic and pulls Rein.”Hey! Don’t pull me around, Ryuuji!,” Rein tries to let go his hand from Ryuuji's grip.
When they are approaching Shirayuki, a Limo suddenly pass through. Rein saw a girl in the back seat, looking very elegant. Somehow she managed a smile while passing through and somehow Rein felt that the smile was meant for him. But as always, why should he care?
“Wow… Rein, is that limo going to our school? Who might be the one on it?,” Ryuuji amazed. Well Rein is actually pretty amazed too, but he only raises his shoulders.
Shirayuki saw them when Ryuuji waves his hand while still pulling Rein. Ryuuji always knows how to start an interesting conversation. Rein is just listening and adding something when Ryuuji misses a thing. Both of them are completing each other. Rein is lacking on socialization, but ace in almost everything. Ryuuji is good with living things, but not as smart as Rein. “Hey, Shirayuki. Do you know who rides limo to school?,” Ryuuji asks. “It’s the student council president, Veena. She’s extremely rich, smart, and of course beautiful. On her first year in Galaxy High, she was crowned as the School Queen. Beating her upperclass women. Well, everyone’s dream is to be her,” Shirayuki said. “Who do you think will be this year Queen?,” Ryuuji teased.
“Let’s change the question, Ryuuji. Cause we already knew the ans—.“
“And who might it be, Rein?,” Shirayuki cuts him, also showing a super deathly-looking smile. Rein just realizes, he stepped on a land mine. “It will be… You! If you can beat her of course!,” Ryuuji hold his laugh and gives a thumbs up to Rein. Then Shira smiles, showing that she is pretty much satisfied of Rein’s answer. Rein let out a sigh and they finally get a calm situation until they arrived.
“Students, today is the day you’ve been waiting for! The introduction of a system that absolutely will make you wanted to get the highest score in the exam! Avatar Burst!,” The students clapped, except Rein who’s too lazy to do that. The teacher brings only one console, so they’ll do it in turns. “I’ll demonstrate how to use it and after that the first absent will try it,” The teacher said. Some of the students cheers and the others disappointed.
“This is the Secondary Console, how to use it? First, wear it on your arm. Second, take out your ID and swipes it to the console,” Then an avatar came out. The color is green. “Because this activity already permitted, you don’t have to say ‘Avatar ID’ and ‘your avatar name’. But, if it’s an unofficial battle between you guys, you must say the word okay?,” She warned. “Okay, now it’s your turn!.”
‘My absent is 9… This will take a while,’ Rein sighs. Then he looks at Ryuuji, “Ryuuji, be patient. It’s still a long way to go,” Rein grins because he knows Ryuuji’s absent is at 20 more less. “Oh shut up, Rein.” Ryuuji exclaimed.
The first and second avatars have basic colors, Red and Blue. Then the third avatar has Yellow color. “This will be a good example, this one is an uncommon color. It’s time for you to learn the Color Classification. In Avatar Burst, there are 5 class of colors. The Basic Colors; RGB. The Semi Color; Purple, Yellow, Cyan, etc. The Pure Color; Gold and Silver. The Light Color; Black and White. And finally the strongest of all, The Intermediate Color; Rainbow. The Basic Colors, RGB has the base power of each class. Red is ATK, Green is SPD, and Blue is DEF. Having a Semi Color like Yellow, means you’re balanced at 2 things. ATK and SPD, but low on DEF.” She explains, “Every avatar has it’s own name, under it’s name there is the HP Gauge Bar. Your HP depends on your IQ + 50% of your last test result. For now it is based from your IQ + 50% of your matriculation result. Every one week before a periodic test begins, your HP will be reseted. If the results lower than the last test, it’s maximum HP limit won’t decrease. If it’s higher, the maximum HP limit will increase. So do your best to get higher score. Later you’ll be explained about Avatar Burst details. For now, let’s continue testing the Console.”
Rein looks at the window, doesn’t care about the student who tests the console. His mind still thinking about Thanatos. Last night, he dreamed a boy who never studies and always playing games right after he arrives at his room. He turned his computer and opened a secret folder, that folder contains a lot of online games. From Adventure to FPS.
He clicks on one of those games, the one named Chaos and Order. It's a RPG online game that is popular these days. The game is about 2 faction "Order" and "Chaos" who had the same goal, Rule the Myths. <<Myths>> is a world that contains all sort of mystic creatures, adventure, and Gods. From Egypt, Greece, Rome, until India. Every world have their own special items and enemies.
He logs in with “Alpha_Thanatos” as his username. Then the screen shows his avatar. It wears pure black equipments, from his armor to his dual-sword, it also wears a black glasses. Which is Alpha’s trademark.
He then teleported to a dungeon and there he met a group of guilds, which are waiting for him.
“Guys! Alpha is here!,” someone shouted and the attention suddenly focused at Alpha.
“Yeah I’m here, c’mon let’s not waste any time,” Alpha said coldly while walking to the entrance of the dungeon. “Wait, Alpha.” one of the guild leader called. “Our objective here is to defeat the <<Boss>>. We must make an agreement about the share of—“
“The Drop? Here’s the deal, You rent my service right? I don’t need any money nor items. I just want to get the scythe dropped by the <<Boss>>. Other small fry sub-bosses, I’ll take care of it. I’ll give every cent of money I earned here to you to share it. Anymore question?”
“The Scythe? You mean the <<Kronos’s Time Cutter>>? It’s a legendary item! You can’t just take it for your self!,” One of the guild member shouts and the other starts whispering.
Alpha grins, “Think you can defeat this dungeon without my help? I bet every small-fry monster will kill 1 of you, every sub-boss will kill 5 of you, and the last boss will annihilate all of you. So… would you like to try it?,” Alpha looks at the crowd and no one responses. ‘Coward’ he whispers and starts walking to the entrance.
When he steps his foot in the cave, a window opens. He chooses <<Party Raid>> and registers 4 Guilds and 1 Solo. Then they all sucked into white lights and teleported in to the dungeon.
After a few meters, 5 monsters spawned. Alpha who walks in front of them stops. “Guild leaders! Come here!,” then 4 of them went forward. “You guys are pros right? Now try to kill 5 of this beast. They’re weak spot is it’s belly. Show these guys how to handle them.” 4 of them nodded and then they’re start attacking.
When they finished, their HP had decreased 60%. “Fun right? Now imagine if your guild members who handle them and we still got 3 more floors to clear. the next monsters, you guys will handle it, if an alpha appears or it’s a sub-boss I’ll handle it.” Alpha said and starts to walk again.
The Raid went out smoothly, the sub-boss and other strong monster destroyed by Alpha easily. The boy who controlled Alpha, smiles when they finally arrive at the <<Boss>> chamber.
When they enter the chamber, blue torches around the chamber suddenly burning and the light shows them a Titan. Kronos.
Alpha quickly orders the guilds into their formations. Kronos has 5 bars of HP and huge amount of Mana. It’s main weapon is a scythe. That Scythe has 2 blades, each placed on top and bottom of a Stygian iron stick. What makes it scary is the aura and the color, Darkness and Blood. A scythe which Alpha dreamt of. Then Alpha ran really fast towards Kronos, leading the guilds to attacks. The first attack wave dealt 3/4 of the first bar, Kronos’s attack pattern still doesn’t changes. It just swings his scythe around and almost didn’t deal meaningful damage to them. They attacked for another 5 waves and the party started to think that Alpha has tricked them, when he said it’ll be a hard dungeon. But it was all cleared after Kronos’s HP reaches it’s last bar. It’s eyes turns to red and it’s attack pattern changes drastically. It uses it’s large amount of mana, to slows the time down. That makes only a high AGI based character can moves like a normal character could.
Alpha never predicted such thing before, he thought it is only a myth that Kronos can slows down the time. Thanks to his high level, Alpha ables to move around quiet freely. But not to the other members who focusing their stats at STR or DEF. He saw how they brutally slaughtered by Kronos and it’s Scythe.
After a few tries of using combo to Kronos, Alpha realizes. It’s mana is decreasing over time and now it has used 1/2 of it’s mana. ‘That’s it!’, Alpha thought. “All AGI based character! Do not attack him! But try to dodge his attacks for 10 minutes!”, Alpha shouts. Only a few of them listens to Alpha and others stubbornly attacking or cowardly running away.
When Kronos’s Mana depleted, Alpha attacks with all his might. Using a maximum twin-sword combo <<Kaiser’s Slash>>. The boy’s left hand dances so fast on his keyboard and the right hand clicks the mouse mercilessly. As Alpha moves quickly, The party members stares at him, amazed.
Then Alpha dealt his last strike and Kronos breaks into fragments. The party members gained a lot of money and some of them even got rare items. Alpha just stands there, couldn’t believe his eyes. A window opened in the monitor, showed that the <<Kronos’s Time Cutter>> is now in his inventory.
“Hey Alpha! Do you get what you wanted?,” A guild leader asks him. “Yes, here’s the money I got. See you later,” Alpha said while pressing ‘Log Out’ button. After that, Rein transported to a white room where Thanatos appeared again. “That is my power and you are the one who created me.” He grins.
“NUMBER NINE! WHO’S NUMBER NINE!,” The teacher in front shouted. “Rein! HEY!,” Ryuuji shakes him. “Eh… What?,” Rein said as he wakes up from his delusions. “It’s your turn!,” Ryuuji said. Rein stands up quickly and the whole class look at him. A cold air suddenly breezes on his back, he can't handles many attention. ‘They are… ugly animals! Yeah, that’s why they look at me!,’ Rein thought to eliminate his tensions. Rein forcing himself to walk calmly and take the Secondary Console emotionless.
He wears the console, take out his ID, and swipe it. At the first five seconds nothing happened, then the lamps start beeping and finally fully turned off. Unlike other avatar who appeared simultaneously out of pixels, a Grim Reaper like avatar rose from the shadows.
With black framed glasses hanging on it’s nose and a grin decorates it’s face, Handsome is a word that can explain it. Wearing a black robe with hood and a simple teenager outfit, black t-shirt and jeans. On it’s back a pair of ravens wings folded and also a black sword with devilish black fire. The black sword isn’t it’s primary weapon, because it wields a somehow familiar Scythe. With two blades on each side, it is similar to the <<Kronos’s Time Cutter>>.
<<Black Thanatos>> printed on top of it’s tremendous 495 HP. The enthusiasm once the students had, feels like being sucked into the avatar. And changed into a terrifying aura, radiated by it.
Rein himself couldn’t help but keep on staring to Thanatos, He couldn’t believe his eyes or even the reality. ‘Is this a coincidence? But… It can’t be…,’ Rein thought.
The teacher gulps, her confidence drained to zero. “Students, this is an example of a super rare avatar color, Light Color. Black has all the basic color specialty, means that it has high STR, AGI, and DEF. Ummm… Rare, Super Rare, and Saint avatars have their own special ability. But, this is my first time seeing a black one… so…” Her once firm voice, becomes squeaks.
Realizing he attracts too much attention, Rein quickly turns the Secondary Console off and Black Thanatos vaporized into pixels and the lamps turned on again. Rein tries his best to walk calmly to his seat, while the whole class still staring at him. Ryuuji is also looking at him, but his face showed amazement, not like others who look at Rein with jealous, angry, hatred, towards Rein.
Rein gives Ryuuji a light smile, while walking pass him. After he took his seat, Ryuuji immediately turn backwards facing Rein. "How can you- Is that even possible to get such score when you finished the first?," Ryuuji asks curiously. 'How I hate curiosity very very much,' Rein shouts in his head. "Why should I know Ryuuji? Maybe their correction machine got error and gave me a high IQ and matriculation score," Rein gave him a wry smile.
Ryuuji went silence for a while, "Impossible", "Agreed." Ryuuji laughs and Rein smiles a little while the other students around them look at them weirdly.
When the Secondary Console testing continues, the mood of the class had changed. They also having fun, but there’s also rivalry spirits born inside their hearts. Some of them even looking down towards the students that get a small HP. Because small HP means they got an average IQ and average score.
Finally it's Ryuuji's turns. He swipes his ID card excitedly and a scarlet avatar came out. It's name is <<Scarlet Flare>> a pyromancer. It's face looks identical to Ryuuji's mischievous face. With a scarlet robe completed with a matching witch hat plus a scary looking staff. Looks pretty normal, but Ryuuji looks very happy.
"Nice avatar, Ryuuji. I like it's staff, maybe it'll be a range-type since it uses fire elemental," Rein said to avoid talking about his avatar. "Thanks, Rein! But... Your avatar totally out of my league, you know?," Ryuuji said seriously. 'Failed!,' Rein thought while he grins, "That means your goal is to be on my par and simply defeated <<Black Thanatos>>" "Don't be sarcastic, okay?." Rein raises his shoulders and take out his novel.'Thanatos could you at least give me a little bit of peace? Stop taking a lot of attention will you?,' he thought while opening his novel
After they tested the Secondary Console, the lessons continue with some groans and a bored face.
The lunch time rings, Rein and Ryuuji walked down the hall to the canteen. As they walked, everyone around them whispers, some of them look at Rein with annoyed look. Maybe in their eyes Rein is just a super annoying parasite who had super abilities which makes him more and more annoying.
But there's a group who were laughing together and there's Shirayuki in the group. Rein tries to keep his cool, just by looking at her makes his temperature raises.
Then Shirayuki notices that she's being watched by someone and she looks around, her gaze met Rein's gaze. Rein quickly looks away and Ryuuji realizes something. Then he also look at Shirayuki and smiles. Shirayuki replies his smile while thinking why Rein is avoiding her sight. 'Could it be because of yesterday?' She then remembers how embarrassing it was and started to blush.
"Why are you blushing?," Charlotte suddenly asked as she was watching Shirayuki. "No, I'm not! What are you imagining?," Shirayuki barged. "Hmm...," Charlotte then looks around. "Who is the last boy you saw?," Charlotte asks calmly. "Eeeh! I wasn't not looking at anyone!," Shira tries to cover it. "Hmm... Well forget it, I'll search it later... I'll totally will find out who it is," Charlotte said seriously. Shirayuki can only gives a wry laugh.
Rein took a seat that has the widest outside view. He eats his food calmly without any word, but a person beside him always talks and never runs out of topic. From the Clue they found until a group of girls that keep looking at Rein then whispers at each other. Ryuuji told Rein that he has to take some actions, but Rein said that he's too lazy for that.
When he puts his tray at it's place, he heard 2 boys talking about their avatars and suddenly one of them said, "In my class, there's a girl who gets a Pure color avatar! Her avatar looks like an angel! It's really awesome!."
Rein's actions froze. 'Another Pure Color user? and White? and their reaction 180 degrees better than how my classmates react towards mine... That is one lucky girl,' Rein thought while walking away.
Ryuuji was talking to his new friends at one of the table, when Rein is about to call him. Rein realizes, he doesn't want to take him away from socializing so he just go back to the class by himself. On his way, he suddenly interested to go to the clubroom to solve the second clue. So he changes his direction to the B building of Galaxy Academy.
He finally arrived in front of the clubroom door, then he remembers that the key is with Shira. Rein let out a sigh, 'So i'm just wasting my time?'. When he's about to go back to his class, There's a shout inside the room and the door suddenly open. Rein reflexively hide in the dark corner, behind a plant. Mr. Takayama came out of the room with angry face, "You must never tell those kids about the Lab! It's confidential!," he shouts again. "Don't worry Mr. Takayama... I've encrypted these clue, only the smartest kid with IQ more than 150 can solve it alone." Mr. Takayama went back to the room. "You must know something, Idiot. One of the club member named Alpha Rein has IQ above 170, he holds the record of the fastest who can finishes the matriculation test and only got 5 wrong answers. And other club mate named Shirayuki, her IQ is 163 and she only got 6 wrong answers. Now, are you sure those clues won't be solved?," Rein peeks into the room and see Mr. Takayama holding some guy's collar.
"Well that means, this secret has to be inherited to them. Those guys won't tell anyone about it." Before mr. Takayama ask "Why" he already put his index finger in front of his mouth, telling Mr. Takayama to listen. "Why? Because first, they'll got an advantage when it comes to knowledge about Avarust and second, they're idiots if they tell other students about it. I'm 99% sure they'll think this is a heritage the upperclassmen left them. So if you understand, please release my coat collar. It's bothering me and the coat." Mr. Takayama let out a deep sighed. "Very well then, but if you mess up... I won't give you another chance," he said as he turns around and left the room. Rein get back to his hideout, behind a plant.
"That should keep the old guy out for a while. Now... Alpha Rein? It's impolite to eavesdrop, you know? Please... come inside," the guy in lab coat said with a calm voice.
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