Chapter 62: Long And Hard

"Oh shit! I actually got online!"

"...What?"

Once again, Gary's voice echoed throughout the entire Shaved Ice store, raising his newly acquired smartphone in the air as he jumped up and down his seat.

"Get off our fucking chair or I will cut your feet off, Dragon Monarch."

"...Why so mean?" Gary immediately tapped his phone and stopped recording as soon as the word of the waiter-slash-cashier, Charlotte, reached his ears, "I was Live in YouView, my subscribers would think I am being manhandled in the Academy."

"You'll be handled alright if you don't stop screaming like a monkey," the tone of Charlotte's voice becoming colder and colder by the second, "I don't even know why--"

"Can I order another cup of Mango Graham, cashier Charlotte?"

"It'll be ready for you in a few minutes."

And with that, Charlotte once again returned behind the counter with a huge smile plastered on her face, her short hair bobbing even with a small hat pinned on top of it.

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"Wait… how can you access your old YouView?" And after Charlotte was gone, Hannah quickly snatched Gary's phone away from his hands,

"Dragon Monarch... Productions?" Hannah then blinked a couple of times as she stared at the contents of Gary's phone, "...320 videos?"

"Bruh," Gary then breathed out as he pulled his phone back, "It's the account logged in on it when I opened the app."

"Did they just give you your old account because it's still technically your superhero name?" Silvie joined in on the conversation, squinting her eyes as she tried to sneak a look on Gary's phone, "But… what about your old videos?"

"Here he is," Tomoe, who was quietly sitting on the side, suddenly presented her phone to the others, with Gary's channel on the screen, "It's all just videos of him with a napkin covering his face and doing some obscene things."

"Those are training montages!"

"You have 320 videos… but only 30 subscribers?" Hannah whispered, "Look, you just lost a sub!"

"What!?" Gary immediately checked on his phone, only for him to completely drop on the ground as he confirmed the truth in Hannah's words.

"How… how could this be?" Gary's wails once again reverberated throughout the entire shop. It was a good thing that they were the only patrons, if not, then someone might have already thrown him a cup or two.

Of course, they were probably the reason why the shop did not have any other patron other than themselves in the first place.

"W… wait, it returned to 30!" Gary then immediately sat up as he fixed his cape and mask, "I need to go live again, live! I'm going to introduce you guys!"

"What!? Why would you even-- Hello there," Hannah was about to kick Gary on the face, but as soon as Gary tapped the record button, her voice quickly changed as she waved at the camera, "Nuclear Baby here, I hope you also support my channel."

"What!? Why are you self-promoting so suddenly!?" Gary immediately removed the camera away from Hannah. However, as soon as he saw his subscriber count once again increasing by 1, he then pointed the camera towards Silvie.

"And let me introduce you guys to the Academy's number 1 student closest to becoming the next Mega Woman-- Mega Girl!"

"N… no!" Silvie quickly buried her face on the table, waving her hands and shooing away Gary.

"Mega Woman does not shy away from the cameras, Mega Girl."

And as soon as Silvie heard Riley's passing words, she slowly removed her face from the table and awkwardly waved at the camera, "I… I'm not planning on using my YouView channel, but you can follow me in FaceLog, Mega Girl. I don't have anything posted there yet, but--"

"Why are you also promoting your own social media!?" Gary bellowed before removing the camera and turning it towards Tomoe, who was now wearing a pair of shades instead of a helmet, "And this is Dark--"

"Please get that thing away from my face."

"...Right," Gary winced, "And now, to introduce you to my best friend--"

"I'm not your best friend, G-- Dragon Monarch."

"My best friend, Riley Ross!" Gary then stood up on the table as he showed Riley in his entirety, "What's that? You thought we weren't allowed to say our real names in public? Well, you don't have to worry… Riley Ross is his superhero name! Go, introduce yourself, my super white friend."

"...That sounds sort of racist," Hannah whispered as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Does it? I think it is just appropriate?" Silvie blinked a couple of times in confusion.

"..." With the camera in front of him, Riley stood up and took off his glasses,

"Riley Ross," he then said, "Telekinetic."

"..."

"..."

"..."

And after staring at the camera for a few seconds, he once again wore his sunglasses and sat back down.

"..."

"Well then!" Gary then placed the camera on the table so that it could capture him in full view as he stepped back. Afterward, as soon as he was sure that his frame was captured from top to bottom, he placed his hand on his face, partly covering his eyes as his silhouette was almost in an S-shape,

"And those, my viewers, are my friends in the Academy. Stay tuned for more--"

"Here's your Mango Graham!"

"Ah! My phone!"

And before Gary could finish his outro, Charlotte pushed his phone off the table and replaced it with Riley's order.

"Just call me if you need another cup, guys!" Charlotte then let out a small giggle as she returned to the counter; not before kicking away Gary's phone that was on the floor.

"N… no! MEGAN, close YouView! Stop recording!"

[Forcing YouView to Stop. Do you need anything else?]

And as soon as Gary said that, MEGAN, the phone's Artificial Intelligence, instantly terminated the app.

"D… damn it, now my subs will go down again!" Gary then quickly checked his phone and once again opened his YouView app… only to see his subs now at 42.

"H… holy fucking shit! Guys, look! Look! It increased by more than ten in just a few minutes!"

"Congrats?" Hannah muttered before showing her phone to Gary, "My channel just gained 120 subs."

"...What? But you don't even have any videos yet!"

"I guess my self-promotion worked?"

"That's…" Gary could not help but slightly take a few steps back as he saw the smirk on Hannah's face, "That's not fair! What about you, Silv!?"

"...Around there as well."

"What!? Bro, what about you!?"

"I wouldn't know, Gary," Riley said as he grabbed his spoon from his pocket, "I didn't take a phone."

"...What? Why!?"

"I have no use for it."

"What do you--"

"300 subscribers," Tomoe, who has been keeping quiet on the side, once again turned her phone to the others, this time, it was Riley Ross's empty channel on it, "Riley already has 300 subscribers."

"What… why?" Gary's knees once again met with the floor, "How…

...How is this even fair!?"

***

"Is this what you wanted to happen, Prophet?"

Inside a room filled with nothing but holograms of different websites, social media accounts, and also a view of the screen of some of the student's phones, the headmaster of Mega Academy quietly stood.

And even with all the images and videos displayed around him, Prophet had his eyes closed. It was only when Whiteking suddenly emerged from the shadows of the room did his eyes open.

"The government, as well as all the headmasters from different countries, decided this, Bernard," Prophet muttered quietly as he looked at Whiteking.

"Did they?" Whiteking replied as he scanned each of the holograms, "To my knowledge that it was you who suggested it."

"Do I even need to ask how you have that information?" Prophet chuckled. He then waved his hand, removing all the holograms in the room. Light then seeped inside as the curtains covering the room from the outside world slowly opened, revealing Prophet's office-- which did not really have any unique features other than being filled with books.

"Even if I suggested it, it was the world government that decided to follow through with it."

"Of course they would follow your advice..." Whiteking muttered as he took a seat on a couch, "...It's hard arguing with someone who can see the future."

"I can't see the future, I can only predict it from the patterns, bits and pieces and rarely accurate; and they change each second--"

"Sure, keep telling yourself that," Whiteking let out a scoff, "But I suppose it makes sense; with this, you will have more patterns to put into the equation. But is it really worth it to risk the privacy of the children?"

"I don't know, old friend."

"...What? You did all of this and you're going to tell me you have no idea what the fuck you're doing? Tell me, old friend… what are you seeing now?"

"Darkday."

"...Darkday?"

"Darkday is not Dark Millenium's leader."

"Well, that much is obvious, isn't it?" Whiteking chuckled, his tone containing a bit of sneer, "If it was Darkday, then we wouldn't even have any students right now."

"Have I told you that I can not see Darkday in any of my… visions?" Prophet then took a seat on his chair.

"...Does that mean that he is gone for good?"

"No. What I mean is I have never been able to see him, not now, not before, not even once," Prophet mentioned, "That is why I am certain that he is not the leader of Dark Millenium, but nonetheless, they are dangerous and need to be hunted down."

"An evil leaves, another takes its place. What else is new?" Whiteking let out a sigh as he stood up, "I don't know why you went with this route, but the Academy is slowly turning into a circus with all the children uploading all sorts of videos. We were supposed to keep them hidden, Prophet."

"A good thing such technology didn't exist back in our time, right?" Prophet chuckled, "If not, the world would have probably seen all the stupid things I have done when I was young."

"You still haven't answered my initial question. What are you truly planning?"

"Well…

...What do you think?"

***

"Hannah! You're in our class!"

The next day, the Academy has finally almost returned to its normal state; with the classes starting again, albeit softly. There were still students who kept to themselves in their rooms, but a lot fewer compared to yesterday.

A lot of students have still not been able to recover from what had happened, but they had no choice-- life goes on in the Academy.

"Y… yes, I guess since Riley is here, they decided to just throw me with him."

As for the remaining students of the class of 1-F, they were distributed in different classes. A lot of the students of Class 1-V stared at Hannah as soon as she walked in the room and started prancing around excitedly with Silvie. Especially the male students, as they were focused on Hannah's bountiful buttocks.

Some of them would have probably already approached her… if not for the existence of Riley Ross.

"Alright, settle down!"

Hannah quickly took a seat beside Silvie as soon as the metal door slid open. Her eyebrows, however, also quickly furrowed as soon as she saw Scarlet Mage walking to the stage.

Scarlet Mage… Is that still her superhero name? After all, her hair was now suddenly a luscious silver color.

"Tch, what's with that?" Hannah then muttered.

"None of us know… It changed after the incident in Toronto."

"Quiet down, we have a lot more better things to discuss today other than my hair!" Katherine also returned Hannah's glare before facing the other students, "I know a lot of things have changed around here, but it doesn't mean we're going to lose track of ourselves. As you may know, a month or so from now, students from other Mega Academies will be visiting our school."

And as soon as Katherine's words reached the students' ears, they all released gasps of excitement.

"We expect all of you to be on your best behavior, as well as your strongest since there will be tournaments, competitions, and whatnots during the festival."

"Yes!"

"We will destroy them!"

"...I said you need to be on your best behavior," Katherine then let out a short but deep sigh, "But that is exactly the other thing we need to discuss today. As you may also know, the school is building a Student Council and anyone is free to apply for the open positions there. There is, however, one more department that is being built…

...A Police force."

"...Isn't that the Academy's job?"

"Some of you may not be aware of it, but there has been rampant discrimination and fights going around the Academy lately because of the existence of the Potential Villain list," Katherine gestured to the students to calm down,

"And since there are thousands of you, the Academy staff would never be enough to cover everyone; and with the Festival coming, we can't have students fighting each other. However, unlike the Student Council, getting into the Student Police force is not by application, but by recommendation. And so, after a very long and hard decision…

...I recommended Riley Ross for one of the positions."