"This guy!" Chazz was fuming.
Being ignored twice by Jiang He was the last straw. He wanted nothing more than to crush this "lucky bastard" and see the look of despair on his face the same look he saw on everyone who lost to him.
"I, Chazz Princeton, accept your challenge in the name of my family!" Chazz barked.
Jiang He's lips curled into a smile. He was ready to give Chazz a very warm "welcome."
"What are you all doing here?!"
A melodic female voice cut through the tension. Jiang He turned to see a tall blonde girl standing nearby with her arms crossed, a frown on her face. She wore the blue-and-white uniform of the Obelisk Blue girls' dorm. She had a cold, sophisticated aura the classic "Ice Queen."
"Wow, she's beautiful," Syrus whispered, his eyes wide.
Jiang He recognized her immediately. It was Alexis Rhodes, the elite student he had seen earlier with Zane. Jaden, meanwhile, just looked blankly at her, having no clue who she was.
"Oh, it's you, Alexis. This freshman who lucked his way past Crowler is being a bit too arrogant. I was just about to show him the harsh reality of the dueling world," Chazz said, flipping his hair in a poor attempt to look cool.
"The welcome parties at the dorms are about to start. None of you have time for a duel right now," Alexis said coldly, ignoring Chazz's posturing. She was clearly there to shut the match down.
"Tch. Let's go!" Chazz muttered, clearly unsatisfied. However, he couldn't miss the freshman welcome party. He gestured for his lackeys to follow.
Before he left, he looked back at Jiang He. "If you have the guts, come back here after the welcome party tonight. We'll finish what we started!"
With that, he marched out.
"Don't let people like Chazz provoke you," Alexis said to Jiang He, her tone cautionary. "And whatever you do, don't agree to an ante-duel. The students who come up through the Junior High program aren't easy to deal with."
She wanted to prevent this freshman from being humiliated. Several students had already lost to Chazz and his group, taking it so hard that they eventually dropped out of the academy.
"..." Jiang He felt a bit of a headache.
He knew Alexis meant well, but he really wanted to know: If I punch this 'cool queen' with a tilt-inducing duel, how long will she cry?
He had been so close to those Emotion Points...
Oh well. He could just collect them from Chazz later tonight.
"The Slifer Red welcome party is starting soon. You'll miss it if you're late," Alexis reminded them.
She wanted to see Jiang He's true strength, but she didn't want to see a promising freshman destroyed before his first day was over.
"Right. Thanks for the warning," Jiang He said, waving a hand. He understood her intentions better than Jaden or Syrus did. Besides, he was actually starting to feel hungry. He'd deal with Chazz after he got some food.
"That guy... doesn't look like he has any intention of backing down," Alexis whispered to herself as she watched them walk away.
When Jiang He arrived at the Slifer Red dining hall, he was greeted by a simple, canteen-like setup: rows of long wooden tables and benches. At the front was the faculty table, where a fat brown cat with a "King" marking on its forehead was currently napping.
Each place setting had a simple tray: a bowl of rice, a bowl of curry mapo tofu, a side of tamagoyaki, and a small dish of dried salted fish.
"The gap in food quality is just as big as I remembered," Jiang He sighed. "I bet the other dorms are eating steak and lobster."
He realized he'd have to find a way to improve his diet. The food didn't taste bad in fact, it was surprisingly decent but he knew that the Slifer Red menu consisted of curry mapo tofu and dried fish almost every single day. He couldn't survive on that long-term.
As he chewed on a piece of tamagoyaki, a brilliant idea struck him.
He remembered that Chazz's family the Princeton Group was incredibly wealthy.
Tonight, I won't just be farming Emotion Points. I'll be fleecing a cash cow!
Meanwhile, in the luxury dining hall of the Obelisk Blue boys' dorm, Chazz suddenly shivered and let out a sneeze. He felt a sudden, inexplicable sense of dread.
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