A World Web

(Noah's Pov)

The plot is going off the rails way faster than before. That much I understood after our classes ended.

The teachers started teaching stuff they weren't supposed to teach in the first semester.

They had already started with the basics of Mana/Aura strengthening, their personalized instructors were already making them fight against artificial monsters of higher ranks than them.

The only teachers still teaching courses like they were supposed to in the novel are those theory teachers, subjects related to laws and stuff about dungeons, about different species, history, and culture.

By the end of the day, the main cast looked ready to die, even Aqua and Alyssa were tired.

...Yeah, they were simply tired.

Way better than others.

What happened to me?

I ended up picking a fight with the instructor.

All the personalized instructors were instructors who were selected based on a student's class, affinity, and all the crap.

And I don't have any.

So, they came up with a simple solution. They assigned me an instructor who is a Swordmaster since I had used a sword during the duel.

And I, like any sane person, went directly to Regis and asked if the reward offer was still up.

He sighed and questioned me about what I wanted and I simply told him to give me the pass for not attending the classes and simply take the exams.

In other words, fuck the instructors and classes.

I mean, I got the complete course in my pendrive given by Enyo.

Why would I bother learning from some no-names?

Wouldn't make sense.

Regis had granted me the wish but in turn, had asked to ace the exams which I can of course do without a problem.

Let's be honest, it was a win-win for both of us. It was clear the students in the class didn't need me to be around them for a good while, my proposition helped others. 

I believe myself to be very understanding of others.

... I will just beat their asses once again next month.

Ahem ahem.

Anyway, the point is, now I am exempted from all the classes and I have a personalized training hall of my own.

I have got maids and butlers who would come running to me when I asked them to and would provide me with the world-class chef's food.

All in all, I have achieved it.

I can live like a shut-in.

Truly, my first worthy accomplishment since coming to this world.

As for the therapist stuff, I have got the green flag.

To begin with, it wasn't my first time going to one, and at some point, I had learned to deal with them.

Anyway, the point is, I no longer have to see other people's faces.

The bliss and comfort that I was feeling was absolutely indescribable.

And so, in a good mood, I watched the butterflies fly around me.

Well, there were only ten small butterflies.

Anyway, I watched the butterflies as they flew around this huge ass room. 

It's one thing about the training room but I need to turn this room into a small box. 'Tis too big a room.

Thinking about a little renovation for my room, I looked at the butterfly that flew too high hit the ceiling, and then burst and disappeared.

Yes, you heard it right.

At first, it burst into small shimmering particles that slowly disappeared or more like they simply assimilated along the energies that revolve around us, basically the atmosphere.

"I need to work more on it..."

I mumbled as I made the observation.

You see, these aren't your normal butterflies.

These are butterflies that I made.

I used mana and aura to give it a body, eyes, wings, and proboscis which is just a fancy word for the tongue. It was a delicate process but you see, these eyes, wings, and tongue were dead. They simply existed but weren't functioning, like a dead body.

So, I proceeded to the next stage, an even more delicate process. I used both soul energy and the myst to give it the senses to see with its eyes, flap its wings, and fly into the air, taste buds for the tongue, and ...made it so it can follow orders instead of me having to keep my concentration to control them.

I used all my components of the World's Power and was able to create a small link with it.

When the butterfly burst I felt that link dying.

Where am I going with all this?

Well, you see the process not only helps me with harmonizing my components with each other and increasing my proficiencies but by creating these little creatures, creatures that would be functioning, and then by spreading them across the entirety of the world I will have the entire world under my watch.

I will have a far more efficient means than the system.

The situation that occurred when I was in the third dungeon wouldn't happen again.

I would love to call myself a genius but ...we are facing some issues.

You see, it keeps on continuously consuming my energies to keep itself sustained. The amount it consumes isn't a lot, honestly, it's not much.

But if I wanted to create a web, a net, or whatever you want to call it for the world, I would need a lot of butterflies like this and all of them would be consuming my energies and that would be costly.

I need to find another way, a way for it to sustain itself without consuming my energies or components, whichever word fancies you.

I do have a thought though, if I can make it sustain itself by using the assimilated energies in the atmosphere that had be wonderful though the question is, how the fuck am I supposed to do it?

And this wasn't the only problem, upon coming in contact with anything my butterfly bodies which are made by me harmonizing my components, get disturbed and then, well assimilate with the atmosphere.

Not only that, the link between it and me is very weak, so small that I probably wouldn't realize a thing about it if I didn't keep my focus.

And once the butterfly flows a bit too far away from me, the link between us dies and it disappears.

I watched another butterfly of mine burst when I entered the kitchen.

Why is my kitchen so far away, I need a bit of remodeling.

This entire building was AI-equipped with high tech, if I asked it to change the room's or floor's layout, it would in a matter of seconds without disrupting the other floors.

Not gonna lie, I am fucking gonna copy the entire mechanism before going back to my world and then sell the blueprints to someone and get a load of money to live the rest of my life.

Back on the topic, the thing is, it's still not perfect and many of the problems would need a raise in my proficiency to be resolved, like me not being able to share senses with my butterflies and other shit.

The day is still far away when the world will be under my watch and I will know about every happening.

And then my system will be of basically not much use.

I will rid of it th-

Hm?

The phone that I keep on silent started to light up, since I had put it in front of me, it caught my eye.

Picking up the phone, I looked at the incoming call of Julianna.

I pressed what they call a red button and then opened up the chat app and then proceeded to text

[??]

[...Did you fucking just cut my call and proceeded with texting me?]

She called again and I repeated the process.

Did I ever fail to say that I hate calls?

And what's with all this?

I thought I had finally managed to cut all my human contact successfully.

And then the message came.

[Where the hell are you? I mean, where am I supposed to give you your dinner? I didn't find you during lunch either.]

...

Oh, I had failed to tell her that she was no longer needed. I have acquired what you call a world's class chef.

And so, I began typing.

[I have no longer any need of your meals. Thank you very much for everything till now]

Yup, looks good.

With that, I was about to press the send button but then stopped just before doing it.

I was reminded of something someone had once told me.

It's a cheesy thing to hear but you see, the truth is, it's only cheesy for those who are fortunate, it sounds stupid only for them. For people like me, us, a normal homecooked meal made by a person we know is more luxurious than any meal by a stranger, even if the stranger happens to be a world-class chef.

I recalled the crystal clear sapphire-colored eyes that had looked straight into mine yesterday.

I didn't care about the words that I no longer even remember who had told me.

And I certainly didn't care enough about Julianna.

But even so...

I rewrote the text and pressed send.

------------------------------------------------------------------

(Third Person Pov)

She stopped and stared in amazement.

The 21-floor high building seemed to be spread across an acre or so.

The name of the building was α- 100.

"So this is where they are now...we sure live in different worlds"

Julianna muttered under her breath feeling a little jealous, okay, that was a lie, she was fucking jealous.

Everyone knew who the students of the special class were but no one had seen them in the dormitory for the entirety of the day.

But now, Julianna knows, they simply moved to a new block entirely.

First-year students lived in the Y and Z blocks.

After the first month had ended, the restrictions related to visiting other blocks had been lifted and so, now Julianna was in the A-block.

Actually, the truth was, that the entire A-block felt like a different world compared to other blocks.

Julianna had felt like a country bumpkin when she entered the A-block.

Before coming to the α-100 building, she had decided to do a little tour.

She went around to see things and ...every place was costly.

The facilities in the A-block were just different, they were filled with professionals.

Every facility, from an eating place to a haircut shop, to a simple convenience store had professionals working in there.

Even bread from the convenience store was worth a 20 AP, a 20 fucking AP! It only had 6 slices in the packet!

Julianna had pulled herself back from the tour and decided to just visit Noah and give him the dinner.

However, she did wonder if he actually needed her dinner at this point. 

"Then again, he didn't say anything about canceling the subscription to my cooking... and I am glad"

The setting helps Julianna a lot. In return for cooking, she gets the ingredients for her own cooking which saves her the AP.

So she felt happy that the current arrangement still continued.

The guard on the gate asked her to pass through the metallic gate and she did.

"Alright. You do have permission to enter the 21st floor, here take this."

 The guard handed Julianna an ID card.

"Permission...?" Julianna naturally found herself confused by the ID card she was given and the words of the guard.

"Right. We can't allow you in the building if you don't have prior permission from the resident of the building and you will need this ID card to enter the floor. In your case, this ID will allow you to enter the 21st floor. The ID is a one-time use."

The guard calmly explained to her.

Julianna blinked her eyes several times as she thought

So, we aren't worth much protection?

Julianna couldn't help but compare the situation with real life. When it came to protecting a normal person and a person with a high profile, it was clear who gets more priority and better treatment.

She felt a bit unfair but the world always worked like this. What she didn't know was the incident that had taken place in the academy.

Well, in her defense, no student knew about it except for Lucy and Noah.

With a sigh, she finally entered the building and spotted the lift which seemed to be closing, she quickly ran to the lift and pressed the button before it left.

She felt the eyes of the man in a black suit on her.

...At that moment, she felt a bit embarrassed.

This is a high-class place, don't act like a dumbass, me! You could have just waited for it to come down!

The doors of the lift started to open up and Julianna really felt each second, the man wasn't even looking at her but she felt she needed to get away.

Embarrassment is one hell of a thing.

The doors opened and then she saw it.

An expression that you can tell is cursing you.

An expression that she was familiar with, she could almost hear the words being cursed at her Which fucker stopped it!

In front of Julianna was a lift with four people in it.

One had silver hair and amber eyes, he was glaring at her and the other was a girl with cerulean blue color hair and slate-grey eyes, who seemed to be frowning her eyes. 

"Julianna..?"

It was Allen was uttered her name, he was sitting in the lift. His back leaning on the lift and legs sprawled, his eyes looked dead.

In the other corner of the lift was Elinalise, the always full-of-energy girl who looked completely wasted.

Julianna felt happy to meet someone she knew.

Ignoring the two gazes of displeasure, she spoke up.

"Hi," She waved a little and entered the lift.

"Must be here for Noah" Allen said 

At those words, Julianna could swear she had felt the other two flinch a little.

Julianna simply gave a nod and pressed the button for the 21st floor.

The gazes she felt disappeared with the closing of the lift

She didn't know why, but the boy and the girl seemed to be averting their eyes from her.

"Yup... but what's with you?" Julianna asked curious.

"We....are just tired from our ...classes and then there are those duels too"

"Ah, right"

Julianna said in realization since Noah had won against the entirety of the class all on his own, it led others to think it would be easy to win against these students and so, once the classes for the day ended, they have been challenging the special class students to a duel

Of course, no one had managed to win against the special class students.

"I don't think, it was hard for you to win. So, why do you look this wasted?"

Julianna had gone to see the match a few times too.

She had seen it, the matches ended within minutes with the special class students winning.

The thing she noticed though, the students from special class went directly for the kill.

They made it clear, they weren't playing around.

Allen looked up at her.

"We are special class students ...and we live in A-block while for the duel we have to come to your block. The thing is, we were told not to use the transport to travel. We have to travel by our legs and if we are late for the appointed time of the duel, we automatically lose, so we had to run and we are told to not use potions."

Julianna could feel the horrors in Allen's voice.

Ding!

The ring sounded and the lift stopped at the 6th floor. Allen slowly stood up and then carried Elinalise on his back and left the lift.

It was Elinalize who brought Allen back by carrying him mid-way, when he had tired himself out completely and now it was his turn.

After a while, on their floors, the white-haired boy and the cerulean blue-colored girl had also left.

These guys weren't walking out of the lift, they were crawling...

At that moment, she felt ...pity for the students from the special class and glad she wasn't part of it.