CHAPTER 51: CLASS 2 SURPRISE

Her dark hair was styled elaborately, swept up in a complex arrangement that probably took significant time and effort to maintain.

On the screens in front of her, she was reviewing footage from the Arena Nexus, specifically, recordings of fights featuring a player with a teddy bear head and the username Papabear.

She’d stumbled across him by chance while browsing through recent matches, looking for interesting content to analyze. The teddy bear head had initially caught her attention, such an absurd, adorable choice for an avatar that it stood out among all the serious, intimidating designs most players chose.

But then she’d actually watched him fight, and her casual interest had transformed into genuine fascination.

His fighting style was unusual. Captivating, even. Those glowing claw projections he could launch at range, the way his skin would suddenly harden into what looked like dragon scales, that incredible burst of speed he could activate to dodge or reposition, none of it matched any common ability set she was familiar with.

And the way he used them wasn’t just powerful, it was creative. Adaptive. He didn’t have a rigid fighting pattern like so many Arena Nexus players who’d drilled specific combos until they became muscle memory. Instead, he seemed to be figuring things out on the fly, experimenting, learning in real-time.

For his first day in the Arena Nexus, and she could tell it was his first day from his match history and the hesitant way he’d started, his performance was remarkable.

The pale young woman made a decision. She began carefully recording clips from Papabear’s matches, the most impressive moments, the most interesting technique applications, the victories that showcased his unusual abilities most clearly.

Then she posted them online.

The academy had its own internal social network where students could share content, discuss classes, post about events, and generally interact. It wasn’t as massive as the global social networks, but within the academy community, it had significant reach.

She uploaded the clips with a simple caption: *"New player with interesting abilities. Anyone know who Papabear is?"*

At first, the posts received little attention. A few views here and there, mostly from people scrolling through their feeds without really engaging. The social network was constantly flooded with content, fight clips, memes, complaints about teachers, party announcements. It took something special to break through the noise.

But gradually, engagement started to build.

Someone watched the clip all the way through instead of scrolling past. They liked it. Then they shared it with a comment about how weird but effective those claw projections looked.

Someone else noticed the post because of that share. They watched, commented about the dragon scale defense, and shared it to their own followers.

Slowly, like a snowball rolling down a hill, the views and reactions began to accumulate.

By the time Jelo and Mira were walking back through the academy corridors, completely unaware of what was happening online, the clips had been watched by twenty people. And all twenty had reacted, some with simple likes, others with more detailed comments.

The comments were starting to form patterns:

*"Who is this Papabear guy? Never seen him before."*

*"Those claw attacks are sick. What ability is that?"*

The pale young woman in brown and gold read through the comments with a slight smile on her ceramic-white face. She’d been right, there was something special about this Papabear character. Something worth paying attention to.

~~~~

The next day, during break time between classes, rumors began circulating through the academy like wildfire. Students gathered in small groups throughout the corridors and common areas, their voices carrying an electric mix of excitement and nervous anticipation.

The source of all the speculation? The Class 2 students had apparently planned some kind of surprise for the Class 1 first-years.

Nobody seemed to know exactly what the surprise was, which only fueled the rumor mill further. Theories ranged from harmless to concerning, and every student seemed to have their own interpretation of what might be coming.

Jelo, Ken, and Atlas found themselves sitting together in one of the common areas during the break, surrounded by the buzzing conversations of their classmates. Ken was leaning forward with interest, clearly engaged with the topic, while Atlas sat with his arms crossed, his expression thoughtful and somewhat suspicious.

"So what do you guys think it is?" Ken asked, his eyes bright with curiosity. "This surprise thing the Class 2 students are planning?"

Atlas considered the question for a moment before responding. "Knowing how this academy operates? It’s probably going to be some kind of showcase. An event where the Class 2 students get to display their superior skills and power, remind us first-years of our place in the hierarchy." His tone carried a note of cynicism. "Everything here is about establishing dominance and reinforcing the pecking order."

Ken shook his head. "I don’t think it’ll be that bad. I’m betting it’s more like a training lesson, you know, a chance for the Class 2 students to pass down knowledge, share what they’ve learned over the past year. Like a mentorship thing." He gestured enthusiastically as he spoke. "Think about it, they were in our position once. They remember how confusing and overwhelming it was. Maybe this is their way of helping us out."

"That’s optimistic," Atlas said dryly. "But this academy doesn’t really do ’helping out’ without some kind of catch or ulterior motive."

"Come on, not everyone here is a complete asshole," Ken protested. "Some people are actually decent. Maybe the Class 2 students want to build bridges instead of walls."

Atlas didn’t look convinced, but he shrugged. "Maybe. I guess we’ll find out soon enough."

Throughout this entire exchange, Jelo remained silent, only half-listening to the conversation. His mind was elsewhere, already planning ahead to the end of the day. He wanted to get back to the Arena Nexus as soon as classes finished, wanted to log in for his daily two hours and continue the training he’d started yesterday.

The fights had been exhilarating, and more importantly, productive. Each match taught him something new about his abilities, revealed weaknesses he needed to address, showed him possibilities he hadn’t considered. The twenty ESS he’d earned from each victory was nice, but the real value was in the safe practice environment where he could experiment without real consequences

He was already thinking about which opponents to challenge today, what techniques he wanted to work on, how he could improve his timing and positioning...

"Jelo? Hey, Jelo!"