Marcus and Giuseppe sit on a bench.
Or at least, one of them could be considered to be sitting.
Giuseppe was sitting in quite possibly the strangest position.
His back was resting on where one was supposed to sit, and his legs were dangling off the backrest of the bench.
A ridiculous amount of holographic screens were sprawled out randomly in front of him, all upside down like him.
Somehow, Giuseppe was able to navigate through the numerous tabs masterfully.
Marcus looked at him like he was a lunatic—much like the surrounding students, but they both ignored them.
"I don't understand how the fuck you know where everything is with that many tabs. You must have over 100, I can't navigate through more than ten.
"If your memory was this good, why the hell are your grades so shit?" Marcus asks, with an incredulous look on his face.
"It's less about memory and more about familiarity. Besides, these are perfectly organized, I couldn't mix them up even if I tried," Giuseppe responded, while scrolling through multiple screens.
'That's supposed to be organized?' Marcus was about to speak, but decides it's not worth the effort.
"Anywa-Ooh…" Giuseppe was about to say something, but then paused as he read something on one of his screens. He then broke into a fit of chuckles, which then turned into full blown laughter.
"What's so funny?" Marcus raised a brow in confusion.
"Haha! You remember that creepy priest you told me about? Turns out he was a 'beta-tester' if you know what I mean. He just got arrested,"
"No fucking way! Let me see," Giuseppe sends him the link to the article, when Marcus reads it his mouth turns into a wide 'O'
"I KNEW THAT FUCKER WAS A NONCE!" Marcus screamed out, before joining Giuseppe in a fit of laughter.
They both earned weird looks, but neither of them cared.
"What is happening?" Arthur asks Tandav, who could not answer.
"I have no clue," He responded.
Marcus turns to the two of them with a look that says, 'when did you two get here?'
Giuseppe looks at the two of them, but then notices that something or rather, someone is missing.
"Where is my Danny boy?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.
""No clue,"" The two respond simultaneously.
"Did you look in the library?" Marcus asks.
"That was literally the first place we looked," Tandav responds with a shrug of his shoulders.
Giuseppe rolls off the bench and stands up, dusting himself off.
"Well then, let's go," He says while marching in the direction that the two came from.
"Where are we going?" Tandav asks with a raised brow.
"To the library! Onwards!" Giuseppe responded with an order.
"But we jus-" Arthur was about to interject but a look from Marcus stopped him.
'There is no point, trust me,'
'We literally just looked there, why don't we just call Daniel?'
'It won't matter what we say, if Giuseppe wants to go to the library—he will. Even if he knows Dan isn't there,'
'But why? He doesn't even read? Actually, do you think he even knows how to read?'
'I don't even know, man,'
'I will message Dan discreetly while we are on our way there,'
'Good idea,'
'Agreed,'
The three communicate telepathically with just their eyes and hand movements, while Giuseppe continues his stride to the library.
"Onwards, men! There is fuckery to be done!" He shouts, oblivious to the conversation behind him.
***
A beautiful young woman sat lazily on her desk in the main library.
She had long, curly blonde hair, vibrant emerald green eyes that were half-lidded in tiredness, and round glasses that gave her a scholarly air.
She wore a thick, oversized wool blanket as a coat hiding her outfit.
Her name is Evangelina Joule, and she holds the prestigious position of student assistant librarian at Glory Academy.
A student's first year at Glory Academy is spent learning all about Warcraft Online—ranks, quests, stat grades, skills, etc. Students also prepare their bodies with specialised training, such as physical conditioning, combat practice, and the like.
However, on January 1st, New Year's Day, first-year students immediately become second-years and are permitted to join Warcraft Online's tutorial ground. This is where all of their training will be applied and tested.
As a third-year student, Evangelina is considered a prodigy even among prodigies, having already reached Low D-Rank. However, that strength would only become relevant in the real world upon reaching A-Rank.
Despite that, she has been under an intense amount of stress recently.
That stress had a name.
Giuseppe Castellano
The menace among the first-years, an animal in human clothing. He has many titles and an equal amount of animosity for him among the students and staff alike.
For some odd reason that no sane human mind could comprehend, poor Evangelina had been a target for Giuseppe's bullying since the moment he entered this school.
And so, when the library doors swung open and that accursed voice entered her ears.
She hid.
She ducked under her desk with a speed that even the principal would find astonishing.
"Dannnyyyyy~!!!! Where the fuck are you?! You better not make me late!" His voice turned from welcoming and friendly to angered with a swiftness that only a bipolar lunatic like him could muster.
Evangelina saw a large shadow perch over her desk, one that she prayed was her older sister Samantha, the newly appointed Senior Librarian.
Unbeknownst to her, Samantha was hiding in her study. She ducked under her desk even faster than Evangelina after she heard Giuseppe's shout.
"Hey AJ~, you wouldn't happen to have seen Danny would ya~?" Giuseppe's upside-down smiling face could be seen as he looked under the blonde third-year's desk, with psychopathic precision.
AJ, a bizarre nickname that Giuseppe gave Evangelina since the moment he first saw her.
For some reason, he seemed to think her name was not Evangelina Joule, but Ava Joe.
Despite her attempts to correct him, her pleas were ignored. It even seemed to convince him further that her name was really Ava Joe. And that she was hiding her identity from him for some reason.
"N-no, sir! I haven't seen him!" Evangelina responded frantically, her face drenched in sweat.
'Please leave me alone!' She internally cried out.
The rest of Giuseppe's group finally entered the library from the large silver doors.
It was only at this time Giuseppe finally took a good look around the library.
The Grand Library of Glory Academy.
It was a vast, cathedral-like structure of steel, glass and marble. It stood as the ultimate repository of knowledge for human history. Gone are the towering bookshelves of ancient times—replaced instead by holographic archives, suspended data scrolls, and crystalline Data Chip repositories.
The central chamber is an immense, circular space where rows of sleek, metallic podiums rise from the ground, each housing thousands of Data Chips—tiny, shimmering cubes capable of storing entire libraries' worth of information.
At a mere touch, they project holographic texts, interactive 3D models and recorded lectures by famous historians and experts.
Multiple levitating platforms called navigators float around the library in an orderly manner.
The ceiling, a massive dome, constantly shifting, reflecting star maps, historical timelines, or real-time data streams from Warcraft Online.
Giuseppe looked a little amazed by the sight.
The teasing voice of Marcus enters his ears.
"What's wrong, you look like you have never been here before,"
"Give him a break, does he look like he knows how to read," Tandav interjects, coming to his 'defence.'
"OI! Of course, I have never been here before, I have never had a reason to! Besides…" Giuseppe says annoyedly, trailing off at the end of his sentence.
'This is the first time that Patch-brain has ever been late and it's the day before D-day..,' He thinks, his mind wandering for the reasons the most studious one among them would be late.
"You do realise we can't hear your internal monologue, right?" Arthur deadpans at Giuseppe.
"I'm here," Daniel's calm voice could be heard as he stood on one of the many navigators.
The group looks up at the nerd.
Daniel is the shortest of the group, standing at around 5'9. His short, light brown hair is slightly tousled, framing a pair of dark green eyes that hold a quiet intelligence behind large, round black glasses. His scrawny frame, clad in a baggy dark blue long-sleeve shirt and well-fitted black trousers, only adds to his bookish appearance.
The loose fabric drapes over his narrow shoulders, giving him a slightly frail yet studious look, as if he belongs more among stacks of research than in this chaotic group of obvious fighters.
But none of them seem to care about that as they welcome him as if he were just like them.
Giuseppe turns robotically towards 'AJ', like a doll from a horror movie.
"Did you lie to me, AJ? I think I distinctly remember you saying something about ma' Danny boy not bein' here, hmmmm~?" Giuseppe says with an exaggerated accent, getting all up in Evangelina's face, flaring his nostrils.
"I-i-I…" Her mind reeled, she couldn't come up with an answer that would pacify Giuseppe, not that there was one.
"She didn't see me come in. When I arrived, she wasn't even here," Daniel says, saving Evangelina.
"Since we found Daniel, we should hurry up and get going. We are already late," Marcus adds.
"Hmm…You're right," Giuseppe relents with a sigh.
In Evangelina's vision, pairs of wings sprout from the backs of her saviours.
'Are they angels?'
The group leaves soon after, striding out of the library with vigour.
Evangelina leans back into her chair, releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding and finally allowing her beating heart to calm itself.
Samantha's blonde head pops out of her office after the group is sufficiently far away, her face is drenched in sweat equal to her younger sister's.
Evangelina looked in horror at her older sister, who is a powerful High C-Rank player, who can even tap into The Human Force for 3 seconds—equally as scared as her of a mere first-year.
'How dare you call yourself a senior!' She cried out internally.
___
A/N: :)