13 Ben

A lanky boy with a face full of freckles and a bulbous nose was running towards Dan as he waved his hand."Wait for me, Ian."He said.

Dan was surprised at first but the face of that kid jogged his memories. This was Ben, a friend of Ian or rather the only friend of Ian in the whole school.

Ben arrived in front of Dan, breathing heavily and slapped a palm on Dan's shoulder."I almost got late playing that new game."Ben said as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.

Dan shook his head in disappointment after hearing Ben."Birds of a feather flock together ."

Ben was just like Ian, a nerd except that he was a bit talkative, unlike silent Ian.

"Did you buy that game?" Ben asked Dan excitedly with his hands clasped together.

Dan shook his head and said, "No, I have no money."

Ben's eyes widened and he said, "Weren't you saving up money for that? What happened?"

Dan remembered that meagre savings. It was nearly finished after he visited the inner city.

"I used it somewhere else," Dan said and started walking away. He wasn't here to discuss games with some kid.

"Oh, it's ok. you can save up again." Ben said following behind Dan.

Dan walked into the main building of the school and climbed the stairs. His classroom was supposed to be on the second floor.

Dan arrived at his classroom and by that time he was fed up with Ben's chatter. He was describing the new game in minute details which Dan, even if he was a gamer in his past life, didn't want to hear.

He entered the classroom with Ben still chattering away behind him. The classroom was already filled with students in that same blue and black uniform.

Dan groaned as he felt the eyes of the students land on him. He was praying to the almighty that no one had beef with Ian.

And his prayer worked as no one bothered him while he walked to the back of the class and sat down on an empty bench. Ben too plopped down beside him and put his bag on the table.

He took out some textbooks and turned to Dan, "Oh. I almost forgot. Why didn't you come to school yesterday?"

Dan turned to Ben and almost slapped and then kneed his face. But he held himself back and said, "I had a headache."

"Oh."Ben nodded and turned towards the front of the class as a teacher entered the room. He was an old man named Bryan John but students called him Mr John.

"Good morning class. Take out your textbooks fast. We have no time to waste. Your finals are coming." Zippers opening and books shuffling sound filled the classroom as the old teacher took out his textbook and opened it.

Dan too took out the book and opened it to the bookmark left by Ian.

"Today's lesson is identifying precious fruits." Mr John started his lesson."This will be very important for you in the future. Some of you might become metahumans and go out to explore the wild. But even if you don't become a metahuman then it can still be useful if you decide to join some nursery or farms. So listen carefully."

The lesson dragged on as Mr. John's voice droned over the classroom. Dan was fascinated by the knowledge at first but as time passed, he was starting to get bored.

After all, he had Lang who could just memorize every single bit of information that Dan came across and then provide it to Dan in need. It was wonderful to have an AI inside your head.

The day progressed the same way, Dan got bored by the lesson and during the break between different periods, listened to Ben chatter away nonstop.

And finally came the lunch break. Dan heaved a sigh of relief and stood up.

Ben put away his textbooks and turned to Dan, "What did you bring for lunch today?"

Dan didn't reply and got out of that bench.

He walked out of the classroom fast and started walking towards the library which was supposed to be a couple of classrooms away from Dan's class. Dan wanted to borrow books so that he could get some knowledge on how things worked in this world and most importantly the knowledge about valuable things in this world like those precious fruits.

That knowledge would be important when he finally gets out of the city and goes to explore the wild. That day was still quite far but he was going to prepare early. Early preparation never hurt.

"It should be this room." Dan arrived in front of the library and entered the room.

There was the counter that the librarian sat inside at the front of the room and there was around five row of bookshelves behind that counter.

The library was empty besides the librarian and some students.

But Dan gave no heed to anyone and started browsing through the books. He was in search of an encyclopedia about the plants and animals of this world which he found after some searching in the reference section. But now came the hard.

"Do they let students borrow the books or not?" Ian had never tried to borrow a book from the library so Dan didn't know whether it was allowed or not.

Dan carried the book and walked up to the counter where a middle-aged man was watching a video on his phone while leaning back on his chair.

Dan slammed the book on the counter causing the man to look up at him with a dark face. But Dan didn't give a fuck and just said, "Can I borrow this book?"

The man sat up straight on the chair and glanced at the book," Yes, you can but try not to slam the book, alright? You have to learn to respect the source of your knowledge." He said and grabbed the book. He swiped it through a machine and typed something into a computer in front of him.

A bit later, The man handed the book back to Dan and said," You have to return it a week later or pay a fine of five Zemos for every day of you keeping that book after the first week."

Dan nodded and walked away, his job done in the library.