Registration room, Nest lecture building.
All of a sudden, as soon as registration began, instead of registering on the forum, almost everyone in the room got up and bolted out.
Some jumped out the window like it was nothing, this includes a certain silver haired rebel.
"?!"
In the end, the classroom was basically empty, and including Do-Hyeok, only three people remained in the class.
—
"Not a chance."
"Thats just how things are at this school, beginning with registration."
"They must use their tactics of survival and seize the opportunity before anyone else."
"Because in the end…"
Only the strong will survive.
—
Do-Hyeok ran over to the window.
"What the hell?! Who just jumps out of a two storey building over a class registration?"
"Where are they even going?" asked suchan.
'No clue but I'm not wasting time here.'
And at that, Do-Hyeok hopped out the window.
"?! Hey!" Suchan was shocked. This guy was as clueless as him, why is he just jumping without a second thought?!
'I'll just follow Dohwa, clearly she's done this before.'
Do-Hyeok thought differently however.
Once he landed he burst straight for the direction he saw her go. The more time he wasted the less of a chance to register.
'I'm not letting this chance go to waste…!'
—
Suchan stood there conflicted. Now what?
"What the hell is going on…"
"Hey… aren't you the transfer student?"
Suchan heard a voice from behind him, turning around he saw a very small person, if he didn't see the college jersey he had on Suchan would have mistaken him for a kid.
He had an incredibly childlike face as well as the insectile features of a honeybee.
"I guess no one had the time to explain it to you…"
"...?"
"If you want, I can explain the registration process to you."
—
Registration at Nest is different from other colleges.
The Professors would hide somewhere in the mountain behind the lecture building, and you have to find them in order to register for a course.
The professors hand out usb drives to the first 16 people who find them and you plug it into the laptop in the classroom you started from in order to register.
—
Dohwa Cheon was on her way to find Professor Ji, and not very discreetly…
"OUTTA THE WAY!"
Dohwa barrelled through all the other students, leaving a trail of bodies on the ground as she ran (they're not dead don't worry… i think.).
Eventually, as she ran, she saw a big flag in the mountain with the word 'Nest' on it, these were the flags where each professor was located.
"Finally…"
As she approached the flag she saw a man sitting at the site. It was professor Jun Ji.
"...Dohwa, you're one of the first."
"Hell yeah!"
"And it looks like you've brought a friend."
"Hell yea- wait huh?"
Dohwa turned around and looked into the woods of the mountain.
At first she saw nothing, but upon closer inspection she saw a black-brown haired young man with a crazy almost monstrous looking smile running straight toward her!
And he was still accelerating!
—
A little while ago, in the forest.
Do-Hyeok was running toward the mountains, following the body trail Dohwa made on the way.
But then he really looked around and noticed everyone was fighting one way or another.
'Is it that serious? Are there maybe a limited number of spots for each course?'
After making the deduction, Do-Hyeok began to panic.
'Then I gotta MOVE.'
Do-Hyeok picked up the pace.
'FASTER.'
Saharan silver ant (Cataglyphis bombycina)
the fastest ant in the world,
'EVEN FASTER!'
capable of running at 855 millimetres per second.
Do-Hyeok began running faster than he ever could before,
It covers 108 times its own body length every second.
He felt as if he could outrun a sports car!
If scaled to human size, this speed would be roughly 360–450 mph.
Do-Hyeok's current running speed: 300 mph.
The world blurred.
At the speed he was moving, Do-Hyeok could barely register anything.
The Saharan silver ant has a "high-geared" nervous system.
But slowly…
They can accelerate from a standstill to their top speed almost instantaneously.
He began to adjust…
This is necessary because they often have to dash out of their burrows, grab a carcass, and return before they overheat.
And once he was finally able to glance at his surroundings somewhat…
A tree!
'oh shit oh shit oh shit!'
At his speed, there was no way he could stop before the tree turned him into Do-Hyeok juice, right?
'I'm so cooked.' Do-Hyeok thought.
'Dammit TURN!'
And somehow, disregarding all physics, the tree left his line of sight.
'...wait what?'
His body instinctively stopped on a dime and turned, then accelerated in a single burst almost instantaneously!
If seen by the human eye, this would have appeared to be a physically impossible feat. So how?
'Oh right. It's because I'm no longer human.'
Saharan silver ants are able to stop or change direction even while moving at its top speed. What Do-Hyeok is experiencing right now defies physics.
'If that's the case I can accelerate even faster right?'
A manic smile began to appear on Do-Hyeok's face, this is way riskier than a slot machine!
"HEHAHAHAHAH! FASTER!!!"
And then Do-Hyeok channeled his strength into spurting off the ground.
The sound of breaking the wind barrier was deafening.
BOOM-!
Do-Hyeok's current speed: 516 mph
It was said earlier that if the saharan silver ants speed is applied to a human body they could reach speeds up to 460 mph.
But that was just a theoretical estimate.
Do-Hyeok weaved through the forest effortlessly, he was so fast everything behind him was attacked by a vicious wind.
Continuing to follow the trail, he began to see the trees start to clear and a big flag with the word 'Nest' on it.
'That's probably where Dohwa went…'
As he approached he saw a streak of silver-cyan hair. And as the silhouette became clearer. It was Dohwa. Not only that but she had quite the shocked look on her face, led by a look of slight fear.
'Why does she look so scared? Oh right, splat.'
If he collided with her at that speed she'd cease to exist.
'...should i tease her a little?'
Do-Hyeok picked up the speed moving even faster moving even closer each second.
He was moving too close and too fast to dodge, Dohwa moved to guard, closing her eyes.
Professor Ji began moving in to help, but even he couldn't move fast enough.
Both of them prepared for the inevitable impact, bracing themselves.
But instead…
'Huh?'
Nothing.
No sound of impact.
Just silence,
And then…
FWOOSH~
A strong cold force whistled over the area.
"...?"
Dohwa looked up cautiously while slightly lowering her guard.
Flick-!
Then she felt a sting on her forehead, it was Do-Hyeok!
"???"
"Pft-!"
Do-Hyeok tried to hold in his laughter, Her face screamed confusion.
But that rare sight only lasted a second.
Dohwa was pissed. She raised her fist.
"Hey asshole."
"Hm- Ack!"
Headshot!
—
After this little scuffle, the two walked up to professor Ji.
"You're that old man from earlier…!"
"Dumbass, that's the professor."
Professor Ji looked at the two and gave a small smirk.
"You've got balls, kid, and here I thought you were just a timid brat. Here, you deserve one of these."
After saying what he wanted to say, Professor Ji threw a red usb over to Do-Hyeok.
"The hell is this for?"
"Did no one tell you about the registration process?"
Professor Ji asked Do-Hyeok questioningly, then turned to Dohwa with a stern expression.
"Dohwa…"
Feeling a disturbance in the air Dohwa flinched,
"uhh… oops?"
Dohwa put her hand at the back of her head and had an expression that read "we all make mistakes".
That earned Dohwa a chop to the head.
"Kh…!"
After delivering the chop, professor Ji turned to Do-Hyeok and explained the registration process.
…
"So I just gotta bring this usb back to the classroom and fill out the form?"
"Pretty much."
Do-Hyeok understood the situation now, all he has to do is get back to the class.
"Alright then sir, I look forward to learning from you this semester. I'll leave first."
"Hm."
And with that Do-Hyeok turned and,
Boom!
He zoomed off, leaving nothing but kicked up dust and indented footprints in the ground.
—
"Damn. For an ant that bastard's fast."
Dohwa spoke first, shock still a little prevalent on her face but barely noticeable.
"Must be the saharan silver ant, his speed can't be explained any other way."
Professor Ji was impressed. It seemed he was wrong about him,
'I look forward to teaching that kid.'
After this, Professor Ji gave Dohwa a usb and left the site.
He had one usb left, but something told him to hold onto it for a little while.
—-
Suchan on the other hand was having a hard time,
After the honeybee told him about the registration process, Suchan took off straight away.
Luckily, he managed to get a usb for the course he wanted, barely managing to get the last one.
Then came the hard part, he was being hunted.
Some people, instead of racing to get usb's waited to take them from those who got them.
It was a real battlefield, people were being chased, hunted, caught.
Suchan managed to hide away from them thanks to the honeybee from before…
…but that was foolish.
The honeybee betrayed him, injected him with a paralysing venom.
But suchan powered through it and went after the usb.
He managed to knock out the bee using his compound vision, however getting the usb back was short lived.
It fell into the hands of some other insect-human and Suchcan couldn't fight the venom anymore.
And right there, he collapsed.
A few hours later he woke up to a voice.
"...pathetic, get up."
It was professor Jun Ji.
—
END OF CHAPTER
A/N: Ant go brrr🐜🐜🐜