Parallel Memory

Four more days had passed and Zero was still not at Ace Academy.

"Where did Zero go? Even with his privilege, I don't think that he would be absent for so long."

"Do you think something happened to him?"

"Haha, who can mess with him? Unless they want to face Professor Mia directly."

"True, she is Zero's mentor after all."

"What mentor! Did you not hear the rumor about those two? If the rumor is true then whoever messes with Zero will certainly face Professor Mia's wrath."

The classmate naturally felt something was off since Zero had been absent for more than 10 days.

With Zero's fame in the Ace Academy, many would notice his absence. Though they didn't think that he was in any kind of danger with Professor Mia's backing.

"However, I heard that he died in the Gate."

One of them said,

"Gate? The same one as Professor Mia or a different one?"

One of them curiously asked. The dead part might be fake but getting trapped in the Gate may be true. The number of gates has been increasing day by day. It would not be weird for Zero to get trapped in that.

However, the students there know that the Gate below Rank-C is not capable of ending Zero's life. At least with his power, he could survive until reinforcements arrive.

The problem was the high-ranking Gate. And the recent High-Ranking Gate was none other than the one Professor Mia conquered.

"The same one."

"Really? Then, he should be as good as dead."

Sigh. They didn't know whether the rumor was true or not but judging by the fact that Zero was missing they could only believe it.

The second strongest in the Ace Academy dead? That was a big blow to their line of participants for the tournament.

"Why didn't the school say anything?"

They wondered. With Ace Academy ability, it was easy to know the status of one of their students. They would have already known whether Zero was alive or dead.

If he was dead, then choosing another participant should be natural. The Ace Academy would start another selection process for choosing the replacement.

They all thought about possible things that could happen, not knowing that the Head Teacher had already got the information about Zero from Professor Mia.

Since Professor Mia already told him that Zero was injured, he had already taken that statement as Zero being alive. So, Ace Academy professors were not worried about losing their participants for the tournament.

The students were all gossiping with each other. Topic about Professor Mia being most talked about. They were also eager to welcome their homeroom teacher who had been ascended to Rank-S.

For many of them, Rank-S was their lifetime goal. Something they will strive for all their lives. They could only respect and envy Professor Mia for reaching it at such a young age.

-CRICCK!

Amid the noisy class, Zero opened the door and entered the class.

The whole class turned silent and looked at Zero.

It had been 10 days since the last time they saw Zero, and he casually turned up now.

-THUD! -THUD!

He casually walked up to his seat, not paying any attention to those curious stares. It wasn't like this was his first time that so many people stared at him.

"See? He is not dead. I told you Ace Academy would not hide the information if he was dead."

Sylvia told Lisa.

"I already know."

Lisa blushed. She was reminded of her embarrassing outburst. But even so she was relieved to see Zero back.

While the two of them were talking happily, Hiro was fixated on Zero.

Hiro felt tense while looking at Zero.

He could sense that Zero strength had actually jumped several times higher than what it was two weeks ago. He could not actually gauge his strength with his skill 'Wild Sense'.

Wild sense, a Rank-A skill. Though it has no other function other than to sense others' strength, it was more than enough to avoid potential danger.

According to the user's strength, one could gauge opponents' strength. It does not show other persons rank or status but it was more useful than knowing them.

Stat and rank were after all just one of the factors that determined ones' strength. With Wild sense though, you could actually know whether you can beat the other person or not.

However, the skill was only useful for those who were Rank-A and below. It would be useless after that but before reaching that rank, it was a life saving skill.

The danger level is represented by colors. The colors were white, green, blue, yellow, orange, red and black with White being easy and black being impossible.

Using Wild Sense on Lisanna at the selection turns red, indicating a very tough opponent for Hiro.

Lisanna getting red means that it would be very difficult for Hiro to win against her. However, Zero was black.

Black means an opponent that is almost impossible for Hiro to win. Professor Mia and the Head Teacher were all in the black category.

It means that Zero had a strength that was unreadable by the current Hiro. He has used Wild Sense on Zero before and it was red similar to Lisanna. He didn't expect it to turn black in just two weeks.

( What did you do? )

Hiro thought.

With the system, it was all a matter of hard work for him to become stronger faster than anyone else. He thought he might be able to close the gap between him and Zero, only being left behind.

The gap between them only increased even though he had increased his rank and was stronger than he was at the selection. The danger level of Lisanna has decreased to orange which means that he has closed the distance between him and Lisanna.

But the distance between him and Zero had actually increased rather than decreased. To the point that even Lisanna could not defeat Zero.

While Hiro was getting all tense, Zion was just staring at Zero. He has long lost his interest in things other than his own strength.

He even stopped having his lackey follow him.

-THUD! -THUD!

Zero walked to his seat as usual and sat in his chair. He looked around to see everyone staring at him.

( What? Did you all turn stupid, looking at me with a black expression. )

Zero thought while feeling awkward with all the stares on him. He was gone for two months, well two weeks for others and they all turned stupid.

They were just wondering what the second strongest member of their Academy had done during the two weeks he was gone.

Ignoring their stare like usual, Zero began looking around.

"Who are you looking for?"

A voice interrupted him.

"Who?"

"You forgot me after only two weeks?"

"Sylvia!"

"Hehe…"

Zero turned to see Sylvia making a sly expression.

"Who are you searching for?"

Sylvia asked curiously.

"No one."

"I for sure thought that you would be searching for Lisa after not seeing her for so many days. Did you not miss her after so long?"

Sylvia said.

"..."

Zero became silent for a second. Though he would like to deny that, it was not entirely false. He was after all looking for the main characters which include Lisa as well.

"Maybe you were looking for me. Hehe…"

"Like Hell!"

Zero knew that Sylvia was teasing him. In addition, Zero could not refute it because it was all the result of his own actions.

( Who told me to follow that nonsense script? I don't know when I can clear my name. )

Zero thought. Due to his acting like a love sick bastard during the first week of school, he has been misunderstood on more than one occasion.

Professor Mia and Sylvia were prime examples of how others looked at him. It was impossible for him to dispel the rumor that he chased a girl despite being among the Top-3 strongest students.

"Thought so!"

Sylvia said, not caring about his comment.

"Anyway, where were you all this time? Our princess here was worried about you all this time."

Sylvia grinned. Princess obviously referred to Lisa.

"Well, I was busy with some personal problems."

Zero answered. Ignoring the sentence about Lisa. He didn't think that Sylvia was telling the truth and was just teasing him.

With his knowledge of the main characters, how would he not know about Lisa? Lisa, a girl who was friendly to everyone but always maintained a wall that prevented others from getting too close to her.

There was no way that same Lisa would particularly care for him. As a classmate, maybe she might be worried but not more than that.

"Personal Problem? Were you trapped in the Gate? Was it from that?"

Sylvia asked.

"Yes, I was taken to the Holy Church to be healed. I had to stay there for quite some time."

Zero replied. Not entirely true but not false either. He was healed in a day and was staying there because Professor Mia asked him. Though he didn't want to explain all those complicated things.

"Holy Church? Was the injury that serious? Is it all right now?"

Syliva asked. She became worried when she heard the reason for Zero's absence. She didn't know that Zero was injured to the point of needing to go to the Church.

"It's okay. I have fully recovered."

Zero chatted with Sylvia for some time. Sylvia was the only one from the main character group that Zero actually talked to.

He had been getting the latest information about Ace Academy and about the event surrounding the Main Character from Sylvia.

She would also tease Zero from time to time with Lisa, to which Zero could only endure.