Chapter 56: Consequences
Consequences
Mike’s body was strong, no doubt about it.
Despite his fairly small size, he had no problem exerting force that made no practical sense due to his stature. Not only that, but he was weirdly durable.
Ever since becoming a Lupine, Mike hadn’t ever taken any reasonable damage. Whether it was in his first and consequent fights against Theresa, to the battle he had against the Hologram. Everything he got was just some bruises and external burns. That was about it.
To summarize, Mike’s body was incredibly durable, and the Crimson Ladder style wasn’t wasted on him in the least.
The same couldn’t be said for his energy Pathways.
To be clear, those were unnaturally durable as well, however, unlike his body which had been naturally adapting to the strain Crimson Ladder brought by gradually removing the lid on his true abilities, his Energy Pathways didn’t have the same luxury.
Okay, they did, but Mike more or less screwed himself over.
The Overclocking skill didn’t come out of nowhere, as it had been borne from Mike’s desire to reach that threshold he had been trying to get to when he was practicing the first step. He unconsciously forced his energy to flow through his Pathways at an extreme rate, causing the strain on them to be more than what his body was facing.
Moreover, Energy Pathways aren’t physical constructs, so they are more susceptible to breaking compared to things like muscles.
Hence, when Mike completed the first step, the nicest way to describe his Energy Pathways would be that they looked like they had been overheated to a dangerous degree, and when the strain caught up to him, well...
’Ugh...’ Mike groaned as he slowly, arduously, regained enough control of his body to roll on his back, drool streaming down his chin and tears streaming down his cheeks.
He was covered in sweat, and his skin looked clammy, similar to how someone would look when they broke a bone and the shock hit them hard. His breaths were sharp and uneven, and it was honestly a miracle that he hadn’t lost consciousness.
’F-Fuuuuuck!’ Mike gritted his teeth as he tried to breathe through the pain. It felt like his body was on fire, but it wasn’t a heat any cold shower could cool down as it came from within him, and that was perhaps the worst part of it, as there was nothing he could do about the pain except wait for it to subside.
Thank goodness his passive skill applied to his Energy Pathways, as they started to mend themselves relatively quickly. Otherwise, Mike would have been stationary for a while, to say the least.
After a while, the pain subsided enough for him to think. Despite this, though, his brain was empty as he’d turned off his thoughts to stop himself from thinking about anything unpleasant.
Hence, he just lay there, sweaty and in tattered clothes as he stared at the ceiling of his training room, waiting for the pain to fully subside.
Even with his passive skill, it took over an hour before the pain wasn’t so unbearable anymore, and even then, there was an uncomfortable soreness deep within him that he couldn’t massage or use a cold compress to soothe.
"Never doing that again..." Mike mumbled as he grunted and stood up. He took a few seconds to regain his bearings, then he looked down at himself.
His skin was still red, and his clothes were strained and ripped in many places. That was another set gone.
Mike stood and was immediately hit with a wave of drowsiness, causing him to stumble.
’I really overdid it...’ He thought, his mind slightly muddled by the exhaustion. It seemed like his body needed to sleep to truly recover, and he was in no state of mind to consider doing anything else.
He stumbled out of the room and to his bed where he collapsed, not bothering to take a shower as he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. He did manage to tell himself to wake up around 6, essentially triggering his mental alarm as he couldn’t miss his first class due to his own stupidity.
Unknown to him, though, was going to be a lot of annoyance the following day as his identity had been made known to the school.
***
Smile...
Mike woke up with a start. He was still for a moment before he regained his bearings.
He looked down at himself and felt his body. Then he stood and stretched, jumped, and nodded happily.
’No pain. Nice!’ He grinned and checked his watch. 6:01. He’d woken up on time too.
’Great, more than enough time to-’
GROWL
Mike doubled over a little, a sharp pang of hunger striking him as he grimaced a little.
"... Right after I eat..." He mumbled and slowly made his way towards the kitchen.
After eating an exorbitant amount of food, Mike followed his usual schedule of washing up and heading straight for class. He’d gone around 6:50, so it wasn’t as early as the previous day, but there was more than enough time for him to get to class.
That wasn’t the issue, though.
’Well, this is not very comforting.’ Mike thought as the few students who were awake all stared at him. And none of their gazes were friendly.
He made sure to stare straight and keep his pace brisk to avoid any confrontations, but even then, he could easily guess what had happened.
’They know who I am.’ He realized. Such a thought would be disconcerting to most, knowing that the majority of your classmates didn’t like you because of your background, but Mike....
Didn’t care.
’That’s weird.’ He frowned slightly to himself. Even if he knew this day would come, he’d been expecting some form of annoyance or unhappiness at the thought, but... he genuinely didn’t care about how they saw him.
’Very weird.’ He repeated, but he didn’t stop walking as he soon reached the building for his first class.
When he stepped in, he noticed quite a few more students inside compared to the first time, which was due to him not being as early. But he did notice that Kris was there, cross-legged just like before.
Off to the side, Masha sat on a plastic chair with her eye closed and arms folded. When he entered, he saw her open her eye and spare him a glance, to which he just shrugged and kept walking, his target the boy sitting cross-legged.
However, when he got close, his classmates noticed him, and none of their expressions were pleasant.
He intended to ignore them, but when he got close to Kris, three of them moved to block his path.
"Hey you-"
And he promptly walked around them.
"HEY! Get back here you leech!" This naturally didn’t sit well with the people obstructing him, and one tried to reach for his collar, but Mike deftly avoided their grasp as he reached Kris who instantly opened his eyes when Mike got close.
"Morning." Mike greeted with a smile, ignoring the trio of angry students who were about to reach him.
Kris directed his gaze towards them, and all of them froze. No words needed to be said as the students slowly backed away.
Kris then looked at Mike, his impassive expression holding a trace of curiosity.
"You... aren’t from any family?" He asked slowly, something the other students translated as an accusation, as they believed Mike had kept his lack of background a secret from Kris so that he could use him, hence the label of leech.
However, what Mike sensed was genuine curiosity and understanding.
"Nah. I’m here on scholarship." He shrugged, and Kris blinked.
"So... your parents..."
"Don’t have any." Mike said simply, and Kris stared at him for a moment before Mike felt a strange emotion radiate from him.
Familiarity.
"I see..." Kris simply said, and Mike smiled.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" He asked, and Kris nodded again.
Mike happily sat next to him, and as soon as he did, Kris asked, his voice a touch softer than before.
"Aren’t you... concerned? People like you... aren’t treated well by people like them..." Hearing this, Mike tilted his head before smirking.
"Oh? Are you worried?" He whispered back, but the teasing was unmistakable.
Kris just blinked, and to anyone else, that would have been the only reaction, but Mike saw the slight reddening on his ears and could feel his embarrassment, which only made him chuckle.
"Heh, couldn’t help it. But to answer your question, not really. I expect things will get annoying, but I’m not worried. I more or less expected things to go this way eventually. I was bound to piss off someone anyway." He shrugged. "I came here to learn and get stronger, I can’t be bothered by people who care more about status than improving." Hearing this, Kris’s eyes widened slightly, and Mike felt a trace of awe which quickly turned into determination.
"I don’t mind helping ease the pressure if it comes to that." He said, once more speaking without any pauses.
Mike was surprised, but then he smiled.
"That would be ideal. But don’t do anything that will make your life too difficult. It’s my fight after all." With that, the two of them kept chatting, and eventually, it was 8 on the dot, and Masha stood.
(A/N: They aren’t gay.)