"But the mission is not over; tomorroill duct a sed incursion." The captain expined. "Bring glory to the h Army!"

  The salute was the signal many cadets o uand that they were finally dismissed. Oliver threw himself into his ti. It barely fit one person, but at least it was thermally insuted and had a small mattress. His body begged him to sleep, and he didn’t want to resist that call.

  However, to his misfortune, he wouldn’t have silehe area where the tents were set up had bee a massive event.

  It wasn’t every day that recruits from both battalions visited a new p and participated in battles together, especially while sharing the same type of food. So, the entire space had bee a rge festivity.

  Boys and girls split into small groups to chat while they ate the rations provided by the NEA. Although each group had different is, the main topic everyone was discussing was the rankings.

  | Ranking| 1 - William Forester [First Battalion - 13th Group] - 59 Kills| 2 - Gregory Torres [First Battalion - 1st Group] - 55 Kills| 3 - Amanda Romanov [First Battalion - 12th Group] - 52 Kills|

  "Wow! Did you see William in battle? The one in the first pce." one of the girls said.

  "No, damn. I was in a different group," one of the boys replied.

  "It's impressive. He moves like a ghost. It was incredible. He almost took out all the Crabits by himself," the girl tinued while describing the boy as a superhero.

  "Imagine when he bees a Ranger. He'll quickly bee a star," anirl ented.

  The top positions hadn’t ged, but they were pulling away quickly. With only one more day to close the gap, mahe results were already set in stone. But there was another subject that was drawing attention.

  "Hey... did you guys notice who's in 25th pce?" a boy in anroup asked.

  "25th? Not yet. I was just looking at the top ranks... no way I’ll ever reaething like that," a boy replied sadly. "What's so special about 25th?"

  While Oliver was sleeping, the cadets, especially those from the first battalion, began notig a student high in the rankings. Even more surprising, this student wasn’t well-known and beloo the sed battalion. Being a Nameless was the cherry on top.

  || 25 - Oliver (Nameless) [Sed Battalion - 14th Group] - 13 Kills|

  This was a surprise and a reason to celebrate for the sed battalion students.

  "Who is Oliver? Does anyone know him?" one of the students from the Sed Battalion asked.

  "I think it's that short kid with dark hair who looks Asian. Why?" one of the girls replied.

  "Haven’t you seen the ranking? He’s the highest-ranking student from the sed battalion." the boy expined.

  Oliver's fame began to spread, especially as more students checked and followed the rankings.

  "Ah! But it’s only 25th. It’s not that high." In anroup, one of the First Batallion kids spoke.

  "What did you expect? It’s far off, but several desdants from noble Houses are ranked below him." Before they could tinue belittling Oliver’s results, a boy pointed out an essential piece of information. If they kept downpying the significe of 25th pce, they would insult several cadets from prestigious Houses who hadn’t even reached 25th.

  Several groups began looking for Oliver. Some wao know how he trained, what his Ranger on was, and if he had a girlfriend. roups wao figure out how he was cheating and what trick he was using.

  And finally, some wao celebrate. It wasn’t every day that such a surprise happened. But while they searched the settlement, no one imagined he might already be asleep in his tent.

  None of the boys who knew Oliver were particurly close to him. It was difficult to get to know him, especially sihey had different css schedules.

  In one of the groups from the Sed Battalion, a few boys were talking, trying to analyze how Oliver had achieved his result.

  "...Does anyone remember what his on was?" one of the boys asked.

  "As far as I recall, it was an Energy Pistol." Another boy replied.

  "An Energy Pistol… it’s terrible against the Crabits. So he must be using some Boon for bat." The first boy spoke. "Does anyone remember what his Boon was?"

  "He said he didn’t know," Damian replied.

  Damian was on the first night at the Academy when they were all still getting to know each other. He suggested sharing their information about Boons and Glitches. The only fw in his pn was not anticipating that someone from the Sed Battalion would try to hide their information.

  Though Damian tried to keep the versation lively, he was furious inside, so much so that he felt as if his skin was burning. He came from the Great House Nemo, and it was already a shame that he had ended up in the sed battalion. Now, there was a nameless student ranked higher than him.

  He wouldn't have been humiliated like this if his on wasn’t so terrible against the Crabits. Having a whip matched well with his Boon, which allowed him to unicate with monsters and even domihem, but in a chaotic battle, it became useless. To make matters worse, one of the disgusting creatures had mao injure him.

  "How someo know their own Boon?!"

  "Maybe he never used an Artificial Armor."

  "But how did he get good enough to keep up with the First Battalion?"

  "Ah! I don’t know." The versation stalled. Uionally, the boys began to look at the stars—the sky was pletely different from Earth.

  The settlement was rge, but it was one of the few human strus on this p, allowing them to perfectly see the stars and ps above.

  "Tomorrow, we’ll find out what it is," Damian procimed.

  The other cadets looked at him, fused.

  "What do you mean?"

  "There are many iudents who ’t tihey’ll likely bihe groups, so we’ll see him and all the Top Rankers." Damian expined.

  Slowly, the boys returo looking at the stars. Perhaps that was the feeling of looking at those at the top of the rankings—they seemed so far away.

  But their shine could reach them.

  Many stayed up te talking and celebrating without ao set a curfew for the cadets. When Oliver finally woke up, there wasn’t a siudent standing. Even though the night had been lively, the boy had slept almost peacefully. After his experieh the Academy’s dormitory and the battles from the previous day, he could’ve slept anywhere.

  Now fully awake, he felt two things. First, how unfortable the mattress was—it was so thin that he could feel the grouh him. The sed thing was how filthy he felt. Although his hygiene wasn’t always the best, as An often pointed out, he had reached his limit.

  His uniform was full of holes, and his boots were covered in mud. Not to mention his hair and face, still covered in Crabit’s blood.

  Luckily, he found some supplies ihe tent—a sed uniform and some rations to st until the incursion. Now, all he o do was find where the bathrooms were to himself up.

  As he left the tent, he finally had time to explore the camp. Now, with some daylight, he could finally grasp the scale of the expedition. Thousands of tents were set up for the recruits, to the point that it was difficult to look in any dire without seeing them.

  However, after walking for a while, he eventually found some marked paths that led back to the tents and several important buildings.

  Oliver had to walk along the trails for some time before finding an area with bathrooms and showers. Since he had woken up so early, he didn’t enter any other cadets and could shower peacefully. His biggest shock was the amount of dirt that fell from his hair and the red water that ran down as he washed the dried blood from his skin.

  During this time, he reflected on his weaknesses and how he could adapt. He didn’t have a power up his sleeve. But maybe he could use the power he already had.

  After finishing his shower, he began preparing himself. He dressed in the new uniform, put on his boots, and ate the rations. At the same time, he pondered whether his [Insight] ability would work on a Ranger Armeed item.

  'Maybe I don’t o use it on a human item,' Oliver thought. 'I could try using it on the Energy Pistol and focus on abs only the knowledge of how to use the on. Would that work?'

  He could see three possible outes: he might use the ability to analyze the entire Armor, which might be too much for his powers and could kill him. He might analyze the pistol and learn something to help him fight the Crabits. Or, his st option—it might be pletely useless.

  This wasn’t his only idea, but undoubtedly the most risky.

  "Huff," he exhaled deeply, preparing himself for another day.

  "Priiii!"

  "Wake up, cadets! The sed incursion will start in 30 minutes!"

  GCLopes