The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 13: The Main Actor

A boy with ocean-blue pupils, resembling that of a tranquil and still puddle, and overgrown pitch-black hair simply smiled and continued devouring his breakfast plate, paying no mind to the barrage of questions being asked of him.

Smiling, Ren Zhu glanced backward as a white-haired boy with golden pupils approached him, followed by two or three cronies.

Pausing at the table where students crowded around Ren, Leon clicked his tongue and arrogantly said, looking down at Ren.

"*tsk* All you did was stumble upon a dungeon."

Instantly, everyone’s minds clicked as they recalled the news headlines of The Quorum’s clearing of an S-rank dungeon.

"That was you!?"

"You found a dungeon!? How was it!?"

"Were you in the raid!?"

"You’re part of The Qourum!? How did you join!?"

"Can you get me a recommendation!?"

Clicking his tongue even louder, Leon left, his eyes momentarily pausing on Lily’s isolated figure in the corner of the dining hall, and found an empty table with his goons.

Finally, using the moment of Ren’s diversion of attention, I entered the dining hall and got a plate.

Like a devil on my shoulder, the butterfly effect still haunted me.

What if Ren notices you eating breakfast and realizes there’s something wrong with you, and he gets distracted, not becoming as powerful as he did in the novel and therefore losing to the Dreg God, dooming the whole world!?

"...what am I even thinking?"

Not even bothering, I simply marked one of many excited students in the room, feeling my mind quiet down as an overwhelming sense of excitement overtook me.

Was this really how Anubis intended for his gift to be used? For me to manipulate my emotions?

Well, who cared? He was dead!

Unmarking the student after a few seconds, I dug into the savory bacon and soft scrambled eggs on my plate, savoring the taste of freshly cooked food.

A few moments later, I was forced to glance upward as a loud voice echoed from Ren’s table.

"Don’t think you’ll get away with stealing my rank! I swear I’ll get it back!"

After practically screaming that at Ren, Carissa bitterly stormed off to the buffet of breakfast food, tugging on the drawstrings of her grey hoodie.

At that moment, as Carissa vanished though, Ren’s face...was blank, as if he had just seen a zombie, with his previous tranquility nowhere to be seen, a drop of water sending ripples through his puddle-like pupils.

Because he had seen a zombie, from his point of view.

In his previous life, he had watched Carissa die right before him. But now, here she was, alive and well.

Drly coughing, I immediatly looked down, but inevitably, a sharp gaze soon landed on my head.

Rapidly finishing up the remainder of my food, I left the dining hall and entered the bustling streets of the Sunken Pearl.

The academy was essentially its own city, with a series of large stone paths connecting the entire area through various terrains like forests, plains, and even a lake.

Taking a right on the stone path and joining a crowd of students walking forward, I entered the Academy’s main street, where four massive square-shaped buildings were lined up, all connecting in the air through skywalks.

Entering the building with a massive "1," I glanced at my new smartwatch, which had been left in my dorm room alongside the academy uniforms, and sighed upon seeing my advisor.

[Hyori Sooyung]

Easily finding the classroom, I slid open the door, immediatly finding myself in a university lecture-like room with rows of elevated seats lined up before a stage and a massive whiteboard.

As I stepped inside, I spotted a single student with long blonde hair and dazzling light-blue eyes already in the first row, scribbling away in a notebook.

While Lily was a gifted mechanical genius, able to create groundbreaking inventions and utilize them to gain more power, Evangel was an academic wiz, always scoring at the top of the class on theory exams.

Finally looking up from her notebook, Evangel glanced upward, making eye contact with me, and tilted her head with an expression that said, "What?"

Awkwardly, I looked away and asked.

"Are you braindumping?"

Before my exams in high school, I would always scribble down everything I could remember about the subject from the top of my head, just to solidify the knowledge in my head.

Nodding her head, Evangel emotionlessly flipped through her almost-filled notebook, revealing tens of pages of neatly written notes.

"Everything from middle school."

"...ah."

If only I had such a work ethic...

As I nodded my head, she turned back to her notebook and continued rapidly scribbling away, as if she were writing a timed paper.

Finding a seat in the second row, with a window to my left and an empty seat to my right, I rested my head on the desk and yawned.

...

...

...

Over the next ten minutes, various familiar faces, including Carissa, Lily, Ren, Haerin, and Leon, filled the classroom, clear social circles already forming.

The front row included Carissa, Ren, Evangel, and Haerin in that order, while Leon and his followers sat in the third row.

Finally, the empty seat beside me was filled.

"Move your head. You can stop pretending to sleep, now."

Tilting my head upward, I didn’t dare respond and scooted my chair until it was practically touching the window.

At that moment, though, Ren scanned the classroom, perhaps fond memories of his past flooding his mind.

Feeling a sharp and vengeful gaze locked onto me, I awkwardly shifted my head and turned to the side, pretending not to notice.

"Seriously, how am I supposed to live in this world with him watching my every move!?"