Eleven's Ghost

Chapter 33: The Ultimate Prank

“Malik… He has long grey hair, right?”

“Yeah…”

Hajar stared at them in shock. “Do you… know him?”

“Wh-Why…?” Shams got scared.

“Well, he’s a big shot. He should be even more important than Ihdaachar. What’s most mysterious about him is that nobody knows his race. We don’t know how he has so much power… He’s… He’s one of the two teachers that teach nano students. The identity of the second teacher is completely unknown…”

“You keep saying he’s a teacher, but I never saw him at school.”

“Well, only the first four grades are taught in that school. There are actually four schools. One for the first four grades. One for the next two. One for deepwater. One for nano. They’re completely separate. Reaching the school where nano grade is being taught is impossible. Those who qualify to study nano are given a key by one of the two teachers. Only the teachers and the students can access that school. Not even the director can enter. It’s a crazy place. Deepwater school is just as crazy, but it’s not as impossible to reach as nano. It’s just a lot of walking.”

“O-Oh… Nano sounds scary.”

“It is!” Hajar sighed.

“But I heard…” Nihiru peeked from his bed. “I heard that Malik and the director don’t get along. In fact, they hate one another. I don’t know what’s happening between them, but there’s a cold war. I also heard that Malik and Ihdaachar have some sort of connection. Back when Ihdaachar was here, he was seen with Malik multiple times. It makes sense since Malik is his teacher, but others say they have some business going on. Who knows, though.”

Shams blinked, curious. “So… This isn’t only a school where people learn how to be performers.”

Hajar laughed. “No way! Not even close! It’s much deeper.”

He laid down on his bed. “I know I bombarded you with a lot of information. Just know that you can’t leave this place before sixty-two years. Ah… There’s one more thing you absolutely need to know.”

“Wh-What is it?”

“If you fail in the intro-grade more than once, you will become an academy slave.”

They gasped. “What is that supposed to mean?!”

Hajar nodded. “In the introductory grade, there are two years. You have the right to fail once. In the elementary grade, you have four years. You have the right to fail twice. In the beginner grade, you have eight years. You have the right to fail four times, and so on and so forth. This pattern only breaks when you reach deepwater. Then, you can only fail thirteen times. In nano, you can only fail twenty-six times. They never said why, and people didn’t ask since very few reach that level.”

He paused, “As for being an academy slave, it means what it means. You see all those who have shops here, those who bake bread and make clothes, those who clean the streets, everyone who isn’t a teacher or a student, basically; all those are slaves. They can no longer have access to courses, and they can no longer go back home. They live here and die here, and then their bodies are thrown in space or bed to local summonings.”

Shams and Yayis stared at Hajar in shock. Nihiru raised his eyebrows. “Uh, even I didn’t know this. As expected of you, Hajar. Ten-on-ten information gathering skills.”

Hajar laughed. “Well, I wasn’t very happy when I learned this information. I didn’t even like the way they’re called. Slaves. Very humiliating. For a place like this that claims it’s the epitome of freedom to label people like that.” He gritted his teeth and punched the desk next to him. “It’s frustrating. What’s more frustrating is that I can’t do anything about it. As I am now, I can’t save anyone. I can’t help anyone.”

He stood up and walked to the window. “What’s worse is that those poor victims have no right to tell people their story. If they are caught doing it, they are instantly killed and disposed of. They must force themselves to be happy in front of the new students. Some of them take shots of happiness. Others can’t stand the rhythm and commit suicide.”

He punched the glass in front of him, and his pink eyes shined. “I will definitely save them. Definitely…! I will save them from this planet of manufactured happiness!”

He turned to Shams, determined. “Ihdaachar was once a slave. Did you know that?”

Shams blinked. “You’re… joking?!”

“No. I heard he had an accident in a mission once, and it nearly cost him his life. It was a few years before he made his custom power. I believe he was an advanced or hardcore grade student at that point. He slept for over forty years, and his body was growing weaker and weaker. The administration didn’t care, and they said he failed his grade. Then, he became a worker in a bakery. As someone who had naturally low happiness level, he nearly got killed and accused of betrayal several times, but he eventually learned it.” Hajar smiled widely. “The hardest language to master. Smiling! What the council didn’t know was that he was working on his custom power meanwhile. One day, he willingly committed suicide and instantly revived in a young body. It was the body of the thirty-year-old version of himself. Then, he disappeared from the common places of the Sirkus planet. Some people said he worked in darker departments, and some others said he became a test subject. Others said he carried on studying, and some say he simply became a super agent. There are many theories. I think he must have finished studying since he’s a nano graduate, but I don’t know how he pulled that off.”

Hajar sat down on the desk and folded his legs. “Here’s the fun part.” He smiled excited. “When he unlocked his custom power, he released all of the slaves that were present on the planet and returned them to their homes. All of them. Everyone here was shocked. There were no more services available, not even people who drive trains and repair things. Ihdaachar had no problem coping since he learned how to rely on himself during his years of being a slave, but everyone else was lost. They couldn’t even wash their clothes. They called that era the primitive era. I call it the hilarious era!” He laughed. “There’s a recording of it. You should see it!”

Shams stared at him with a gaping mouth. “That’s the ultimate prank! How did he pull it off?!”

“I don’t know, but ever since I heard about this incident, Ihdaachar became my number one model!” Hajar clenched his fists, excited. “I will definitely follow in his footsteps and free those poor slaves! This is my goal in life!”

Shams’s gaze softened, staring at him. “Seeing you so fired up gave me so much courage. I’m so greateful that we had this chat.”

He blinked. “Introductory can only fail once… Then, Janne…” He bit his lower lip. “If Janne doesn’t pass this year…”

The door knocked.