17 Complications

As he made his way through, he came across the admission building. A tall, white marble building with no extra decorations, simple yet elegant. Going inside the building that was bustling with people, he came to the reception and asked the lady that was behind the counter,

"Where should I wait for the admission process?"

"Every participant takes a number, and they wait until their number is called. Your number is 462, so you can wait till then," replied the lady with a professional smile.

"Isn't the first test a written examination? Don't all participants get tested together?" asked Michael, a bit confused since his sister didn't inform him of something like this.

"Indeed, that was true, but this year the committee decided to change some things in the examination, and even in the theory test, everyone is examined alone," replied the receptionist, probably for the nth time today.

"Hmm, I see. What number is being examined right now?" inquired Michael.

"It's the 440," replied the receptionist.

"And how long does the test last?" asked Michael again.

"It depends. Many came out in about ten minutes, and others came out after half an hour, so estimate somewhere around twenty minutes for each participant," she replied again, not slightly irritated by the barrage of questions from Michael.

"I see. Thank you," replied Michael with a smile.

"Your welcome," replied the receptionist with her same professional smile.

'26 more participants till my turn. Shit, isn't that around four hours at best and eight at worst? Did they sleep here the day before to catch an early spot in line?' thought Michael, slightly irritated since he'll have to wait many hours. What he probably didn't know was that truly many commoners who wanted to get a chance at getting admitted to the academy did form a line and waited from the day before.

Since he had to spend so many hours, he just decided to stroll around the campus area and familiarize himself with the academy grounds. Even though Liz had already informed him of many things about the academy, he still needed to see them for himself.

***********

A handsome young man can be seen sitting on a bench with a frown on his face while a hundred thoughts are passing through his mind at the same time.

'What the fuck did I just witness? Is this for real?' The handsome young man who's Michael thought to himself.

-A couple of hours ago-

As Michael was walking the academy grounds and occasionally admiring the beautiful buildings and greenery around, he saw, or better, he heard near a more deserted place in the academy, a young man who three other young men were beating. The one who was being beaten was probably a commoner judging from his attire, while the other three had a likely higher status from the nicer clothes they wore, if not low-rank nobles, then indeed wealthy merchants.

"A fucking untalented piece of shit wants to get admitted to the academy?" asked the probable 'boss' of the three while stomping all over the body of the young man who was on the ground.

The young man did not reply to the likely rhetorical question of the beater.

"Not answering, huh? It's better since we don't want to hear your disgusting voice. Just lay there and enjoy the beating," that was the last thing he said before continuing the beating again, this time joined by the other two men. While he was being beaten, the young man on the floor never let a sound escape from his mouth, and this was not an ordinary beating because while they were beating him, they also coated their feet with mana making it even more painful.

When they felt that they had had enough of beating him, they left while saying something on the premise of 'if we see you again, you'll die' and all the usual stuff. Michael was ready to leave the scene unnoticed since he was hidden behind a tall tree making him invisible, and also the fact that he was a higher rank than all the men there they couldn't sense or see him at all.

But as he turned to leave, the young man that was previously lying on the ground with blood plastered all over the place stood up and started talking to... himself?

"Just a little more, and I'll be able to avenge all those years of torment from them," said the young man.

"System," as soon as Michael heard the word system he didn't continue listening to anything else that the young man said and just committed his face to his memory and left even quieter than the way he came.

'What is this? When I died, did I transmigrate into a novel with the cliché trope where the protagonist who is always bullied gets an overpowered system?'

Of course, Michael had read a few novels in his past. Even though it wasn't his hobby he had some friends who read them, so he tried a few, and the usual cliché scenes always appeared.

'But why didn't his system warn him that someone else was in the vicinity? Maybe it isn't as omnipotent as in the novels that I read. Should I have stayed a bit more and listened to the whole conversation? No, no, I don't know if it was a fluke so it isn't worth risking it,' a million thoughts were running through Michael's mind, not knowing what to make of the situation that he was currently in. If he was truly inside a novel, then he didn't know the plot, so he was at a considerable disadvantage. Also, was his transmigration really a stroke of luck, or was it an arranged event?

'I became complacent these two weeks. I should've pondered more about the circumstances of my death and transmigration. The only thing I can do now is to keep tabs on the maybe protagonist and uncover the mysteries behind my whole existence here,' thought Michael while he was walking a little calmer now but still with a frown on his face.

"Sigh, why is everything so complicated?" mutter Michael under his breath while absentmindedly walking away.