The Author's POV

It was early in the morning, and following what was sent in the email yesterday, I made my way towards the Lock private area.

As I entered the room, the first thing I noticed was three individuals sitting at a round table.

I could instantly feel a deep and oppressive aura emanating from their body.

'Ebonie Wills, Mark Mendez, Perry Crossley...', I muttered underneath my breath as I looked at the three individuals sitting on the round table.

The three strongest students in the academy, and the heads of the three major factions in the Lock.

Calmly walking forward, I joined the small crowd of students that had gathered around them.

None of them dared to sit down with them as they just stood and watched them.

At the moment, a solemn atmosphere shrouded the room.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tapping on the table, a burly individual with short brown hair and green eyes spoke up, disrupting the silence. His voice contained hints of annoyance.

"Let's get this over with. I don't have much time to spare for the likes of this childish gathering."

"Shut up you brute. It's because of people like you that we have to hold these kinds of discussions"

Sitting opposite to him was an elegant youth with bright blue eyes and brown hair.

A look of disgust appeared on his face as he looked at the burly man opposite to him.

"Mark, Perry, can you guys shut up for five minutes?"

Standing up was a beautiful girl with tanned skin, black eyes, and dirt blonde hair.

Glaring at Mark, who was the elegant youth, and Perry who was the burly individual, the tanned girl, Ebonie Wills, walked towards one of the TVs and picked up the remote.

'”Clink!

Turning on the TV, Ebonie pressed a couple of buttons before a large data table appeared on the TV screen.

「Rankings」 - 「Points」

Lock Academy - 986

Theodora Academy - 904

Lutwik Academy - 888

Vellon Academy - 867

SilverWing Academy - 803

Kukz Academy - 745

DeathSigil Academy – 711

Dusk of Dawn Academy - 657

Everlight Academy - 656

PridedHorses Academy - 640

Looking at the TV screen I thought, 'Those numbers seem similar to the ones I wrote in the novel...'

Though I couldn't remember the exact numbers that I wrote in the novel, I remembered that on the first day the Lock did not surpass 1,000 points.

This was a very important piece of information to take note of since it suggested that as of right now the tournament arc was progressing just as it did in the novel.

Not sure how long this would last, but for now I could more or less be able to infer a little bit of what was to come in the future.

"Let's talk about serious matters."

Putting the TV remote down, Ebonie pointed at the scoreboard projected on the TV screen.

"As you can see, as of right now we are overall in the first place."

"Indeed. But I don't think we need to hold a meeting to point this out, no?"

Perry, the burly individual, spoke up as he crossed his large arms. Ebonie nodded her head in response.

"True, but there is a problem"

"What problem?"

"...According to the data, we're slightly behind last year's first-day record."

Ebonie gravely said as she looked at everyone in the room.

was last

said as his eyes

his voice, it was quite apparent

we managed to secure 1033 points on the first

In response, Mark's brows knit

are 47 points behind last

Ebonie nodded her head, and once pointed at the TV screen, "Furthermore, Theodora academy's score is a whole 80 points higher than their last year's score on the

It's only the first

spoke up Perry as his voice

right now we're first. All we have to do is continue to be first. Simple as that. I don't see why

spoke, his face gradually became

was extremely irritated about the fact that he had to wake up this early

down and

breath, Ebonie tried to

believe that we shouldn't overlook this. If there is any chance that we might

wasted

Perry abruptly stood up.

exuded from his body as the

then, I probably wouldn't

me of the orcs I faced

"This is not nons'”"

that this was something important. You're just wasting my time

Perry turned around. Stretching his neck slightly, he made

everyone stepped to the side to make a path

"Wait lis'”"

have to agree

Mark similarly stood up.

sentence he followed Mark out of the room. Behind him, a row of students followed him out of

leaving behind Ebonie and what seemed to be

crawling back to me later

the room,

Why can't

cursed as her fists curled into

'...As expected'

from afar, I secretly

exactly because of this reason that the Lock nearly ended up

Kevin's intervention, the overall

I saw things, the situation was progressing exactly as it did in the

fact, given that things were now no longer in control of the plot, the chances of the Lock losing

although talented, could not

their decisions and their decisions only. It was because of their

"What do you think?"

"Hm?"

my shoulder. Turning around, I

he

wondered as I

do you

from the way I see things,

for a bit,

"You think so too?"

"...yeah"

third

became even more apparent. Portraying this was the

you have a game to be preparing

asked Kevin as I checked today's

better

Kevin waved and left the

I managed to escape

it was that I didn't attract the attention of the three

have to worry about joining the

***

by and it was now Monday. During the past week, I

'”Click!

illuminated by bright lights, a subtle clicking sound resounded across

dummies fell on the ground

"Huuu..."

deep breath, I subtly touched

"This feels weird."

still couldn't get used to my rank getting suppressed. It felt as though I woke up after a few hours of sleep as my body didn't move as fast as

almost missed a couple of dummies that were coming at me

time and barely managed to

'”Beep!

the last dummy fell, a beeping sound resounded across the room, and my score was displayed on the

Time

Smirk.

smirk invertedly appeared on my