Vorden went over to his desk and grabbed a book. He chucked it towards Peter, hitting the wall next to him before falling to the ground.
"The next one is going for your face if you don't leave!" Vorden replied.
Tsukuru continued to give Peter the dark look.
Quinn let out a sigh.
"Peter, just go," he replied.
When Quinn spoke those words, it finally hit Peter. There would be no redemption for him. No matter what he said or did. They had made up their minds. He was no longer their friend.
Peter opened the door and closed it behind him.
Back in the room, Tsukuru took in a few deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down.
"Whatever," he muttered, causing the two to glance towards him. "I'm going to bed."
Normally, he would usually spend ten minutes playing on his handheld gaming console to complete his System's Daily Quest. However, he was too angry to do that right now. When he was this angry, the only thing he could really do was go to sleep and hope that he had calmed down by the time he woke back up.
As Quinn and Vorden watched Tsukuru get into his bed, Quinn let out a sigh, causing Vorden to turn to him. It had been a stressful last few days. Seeing Vorden looking at him, Quinn put on a smile.
"We should probably get to bed, too," he replied.
Vorden put on a gentle smile and nodded.
***
Outside the dorm room, Peter looked around. He had nowhere to go. It was nighttime, and the curfew was already in effect. That meant that he couldn't go outside, and that all of the other parts of the school would be closed down by now. With nowhere to go and no one to rely on, Peter stayed in the dorm room hallway. He curled into a ball on the ground and cried himself to sleep.
***
Night came and passed over the base.
Right on cue, the trumpeting alarm blared through every room in the student dormitory.
Tsukuru groaned and muttered incoherently as he rose on his bed. Looking over, he saw his newest Summon, his Metal Slime Spawn, sitting on his desk. Seeing how small it was, he figured that there'd be no problem with just keeping it out like a full-time pet.
Slowly, Quinn's eyes fluttered open. He let out a yawn as he rose out of bed. As he did, a System message popped up in front of him.
[Daily Quest 2 has been completed. 5 Exp has been awarded. Exp: 5/100.]
However, hearing it made Quinn's eye twitch. It was no longer heard in the computerized, monotone voice of the System. It was heard in the annoying voice of the blonde-haired man.
'Yeah, that's just what I want to hear FIRST THING IN THE MORNING…' Quinn thought.
It was then that Quinn heard a creak. Looking over, he saw Tsukuru getting out of bed and heading towards the bathroom. Like usual, he was the first one into the shower. A few minutes later, Tsukuru emerged from the door. Like usual, he had his military blazer unzipped. And also, like usual, he had a rather strange SHIRT on.
The shirt was completely black; however, it also had an image in the center of the shirt. In the image, the upper body of a teenage girl is shown, drawn in the same "anime-style" as Tsukuru's Summons. She was cut off at the waist, with only her upper body visible, and had a look of pure anger on her face. The girl had long, curly blonde hair. However, it was glowing bright yellow and looked like roaring flames. Additionally, her eyes were a piercing red, making her look like a Vampire. She had an orange neck wrap around her neck, and wore a short-sleeve tan jacket. The top few buttons of the jacket were undone, giving it the appearance of a "plunging neck" shirt. Underneath, she wore a low-cut yellow shirt.
The girl had her right arm down to her side, while her left arm was extended out to her side, as if she were punching something. She had a fingerless black glove covering her hand down to her forearm, and wore a metal, gold bracer on her arm. There was a row of small, red cylinders lining her wrist. There were shards of light-blue ice flying outwards from her fist, as if she had just punched an ice sculpture.
There was text in a yellow font at both the top and the bottom of the image. On top, it read "I don't have fucking 'Anger Issues'!", and at the bottom, it read "I have an ISSUE with fucking STUPID PEOPLE making me ANGRY!".
Seeing the shirt, Quinn could help but think how it fit Tsukuru perfectly.
Like every other morning, after Tsukuru got out, he was followed by Vorden and then Quinn.
As Tsukuru draped his jacket over his back, the Metal Slime Spawn jumped onto Tsukuru's shoulder. Tsukuru winced from the sudden weight now on his shoulder. It was like balancing a twenty-pound circular weight on his shoulder.
'Note to self,' Tsukuru thought. 'Make a satchel for the Metal Slime Spawn.'
Quinn went over to his cupboard and pulled out the "box" containing the twenty Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Daggers Tsukuru had given him before the incident in the Assembly Hall. He still hadn't gotten around to selling them yet. But, since he was going to be selling all the Beast Crystals he got on the Red Portal Planet anyway, he might as well sell these while he's at it.
Quinn poked the shadow being cast by the cupboard. As he did, it began to ripple and spasm. A moment later, it swirled like a whirlpool. A System message popped up in front of Quinn.
[Skill Shadow Space has been activated.]
Quinn slowly placed the "box" into the Shadow Space. Once the "box" had completely vanished from sight, Quinn deactivated the Skill. The shadow of the cupboard returned to normal.
Just as the group was about to leave, they heard a commotion from outside. They all looked at one another, their eyebrows raised in confusion. As they reached the door, Vorden pulled it open.
Outside, they could see a group of students gathered outside their DOOR. And they were circling something.
"What happened to him?" a boy asked.
"Hey, look," another boy replied, pointing to the ground. "The floor is wet underneath."
Another boy scoffed.
"Did he cry himself to sleep outside?" he asked. "I thought I heard somethinglast night."
One of the boys in the group then knelt down to Peter and grabbed him by the hair, lifting him up and waking Peter.
"So it was you that woke me up in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!" He yelled. Before doing anything, he glanced at Peter's wristwatch.
Seeing this, Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
The boy noticed that Peter was only a Level 1, while the boy himself was a Level 2. Now knowing that Peter was weaker than him, he took the chance to show everyone that he wasn't at the bottom of the food chain.
"If you're going to stay here like a dog, then you need to learn to shut up!"
He raised his arm, preparing to slap Peter.
Peter was already defeated at this point. He didn't care about what happened to him. What was the point of fighting back when he would only get hurt more? The only people who had bothered to help him, he had almost killed. This was what Peter wanted. To be punished for his actions.
However, before the boy's hand could touch Peter, a metal sphere shot out like a rocket. It hit the boy square in the face.
The boy stumbled back, and he felt as though he had just been struck by a cannonball. The "metal sphere" dropped down to the floor, sounding like a falling weight as it did so.
The boy grit hit teeth and snapped his head towards Peter.
"Why you!" he roared, and clenched his hand into a fist. He wrenched his fist back before throwing it back out, aimed square at Peter's face.
But just as the first was about to reach Peter, he felt something grab his wrist. Before he could even turn his head, he saw a fist coming towards his face.
The force of the punch was so powerful that the sound of his jaw cracking could be heard. Instantly, the boy passed out. He collapsed to the ground.
As Peter looked up through his watery eyes, he saw Quinn standing there. A look of anger on his face.
"Don't think that I did that for you," Quinn replied without looking back. "If anyone was treating another person like that, I would have done the same!"