The Master of Cards Chapter 5: Divide in the Class

In the morning jog, Alex told old man Ren about what happened when he tried to find his inner world. The old man didn't react much. "Don't try to search for the source energy for now, just focus on sensing your inner world until I tell you."

Alex nodded. Now a month of running had improved his stamina by a bit and he could keep up with the old man. The food given by the old man was not normal, Alex had felt like there was something weird about the food.

"Old man, I feel like there is something special about the food you bring. What exactly is it?" Alex asked.

"Hm? Nothing particular, it is high nutrition food. It is specifically prepared using some technology and dietician's analysis."

"Isn't that expensive?" Alex asked. The old man was so considerate to him?

"Your mother is paying for the food." The old man replied nonchalantly.

Alex shook his head and continued running.

Later, Alex made his way to school. When he entered class he found that Luke was looked excited and many people in class were surrounding him as well.

Alex looked at Luke, but was seemingly ignored. Alex shook his head as he heard the murmurs.

"Luke, you formed the seed already? You really are a genius!" One of the students said.

"Luke, you've got to give us some good advice. I'm also about to absorb the special energy, do you have any pointers?" Josh said.

Alex remembered his life back on normal earth. Luke was his best friend and the two were always hanging out. But in this world, already a split had occured in the classroom.

Those who had their own secret training formula had their own clique. Luke had become the leader of the clique of those who could sense energy and those who had found their inner world. While those who had failed at even this, including Alex had been left by the wayside.

Over the past weeks, Luke had been slowly drifting away from Alex and had formed a new group of friends.

Alex ignored this and browsed through the internet using the holographic console. At this moment, he heard someone comment.

"A joker formed the hint of a seed and the flock have begun entertaining him as a genius." Richard, the class representative commented with snark to another girl who was from a carded family.

Luke immediately looked at Richard with anger, as did the other 'commoners'. Luke commented back. "Some people cheat their way to secrets and then think they are above others. If they were on the same starting line could they have the same arrogance?"

Immediately a girl from the carded family clique retorted directly. "You are just a frog in the well. Unlike you, we don't have to satisfy our ego by dressing up our simple matters as some huge achievements."

Luke was enraged. "You... all you are doing is using the fact that your family had carded members. Is there even any achievement of your own?"

Richard looked at Luke and shouted. "Shut up! A fool like you, who hasn't even formed the base card yet, but just a hint of the seed and dare to call yourself a genius?" Richard's hand then glowed and a green colored card appeared in his hand. "The four of us have all formed our basic cards and working towards forming the first card, yet we don't dare call ourselves a genius. You are nothing but a fart who has barely found the hint of the seed!"

When Luke saw Richard display a card he was shocked into silence. At that moment Alex spoke up. "Okay let us bury these matters, let us not have hostility build up among classmates. Richard, you are the class representative after all."

Richard looked at Alex and was about to sneer, but he saw Alex looking at him with sincerity and also felt it was pointless to openly create such a division among classmates and so nodded in acknowledgement.

However, Luke suddenly stood up and looked at Alex as if he was insulted by his intervention. "Alex, who gave you the right to speak? A talentless guy like you can act like he has a face?"

When Alex heard that he was dumbfounded. Cards, he thought, had really destroyed a crucial behavior that used to be a part of his own world, civility and kinship.

"Luke, is there a need to behave in such a poisonous manner? I simply intervened as a member of the class. This has nothing to do with talent." Alex shook his head.

Luke sneered. "Just mind your business. A failure like you doesn't need to worry about the rest of the class." At this point Luke was clearly using Alex as an outlet to vent his frustration with Richard.

Alex couldn't believe Luke's behavior. "Is this the corruption of the heart brought about by power?" He wondered and made a mental note to never fall into hubris like his friend.

Outside the class, Tutor Kim, who had been hearing the conversation shook his head. He was disappointed by both Luke and Richard's behaviors. After all, he had been through this process and knew this was an inevitability in most high schools.

However, he felt Richard could still be molded, seeing that he had acknowledged his responsibility and backed down at Alex's request. Luke, he felt was a potentially poor influence on the class. Just a momentary sense of progress brought about such a deep hubris within him.

He made a mental note of the situation before he made his way into the class and began his lecture about the quality of the seed.

Chapter end