Julian Asher.

In one of the top-tier Dorms, one male student is sweating profusely in his sleep.

Suddenly, he jolts up from his bed and starts gasping heavily.

*GASP!* *SIGH!*

'I'm still having nightmares about that place...', Julian thought.

His navy blue hair is drenched in sweat and his navy blue eyes are almost at the verge of tears. Not of sorrow, but of agony.

He had originally been just an average swordsman. Not too strong to be recognized by the masses, but not weak either. He was selected to give the entrance exam of Nexus academy. He had been so happy that day... But when he got to the academy, instead of giving the entrance exam, he was thrown into the other world.

He had spent the last 10 years of his life constantly fighting and slaughtering demons and monsters. He had changed from how he originally was.

Through the ten years, his mind went through tremendous torment. His dreams were shattered. His ego was twisted beyond recognition. His face had been distorted with scars. He couldn't live for the ten years. He had to survive. Not being able to find proper food, proper shelter to sleep in, constantly worrying about the demons... He had become tired of it all.

But he still wanted to live. He was still afraid of death. Afraid of dying a dog's death in a world that wouldn't even remember his name or even his face.

After the sixth year, he had given up his humanity. He had been killing and slaughtering demons for six straight years, so even against his better nature, he started to enjoy it. He didn't have any other choice but to enjoy it. If he didn't enjoy it, he would have gone insane from the pain and loneliness.

'But that is now all in the past...', he thinks as he walks towards the bathroom.

'*Sigh... I just want to forget about that hellhole... I just wish that it had been one long dream...'

It was Saturday, so he didn't have any classes. Normally, he would be practicing swordsmanship, but today he had other plans.

His new friends had invited him to a group study session, and looking at his written test scores... he needed it.

He sighed and put on his school uniform and left his dorm to go to the library.

The Nexus Academy's library was probably the largest library in the whole world. It had books from all over the world, and about all topics. It was a reservoir of data. All of the books were scanned and saved in servers and each server had 3 backup ones, each backup in a different location on a separate isolated network. This was to ensure the safety of the knowledge. If the other races, which by the way do exist in this world, like the elves or the dwarves, and most importantly the demons, get the knowledge stored in the library's files, it would spell disaster for the world.

For example, if humanity's strongest weapon, which became even stronger with the emergence of magic, the Atomic Bomb, were to be leaked to the other races, humanity would lose almost all of its power on their own planet.

Yes, the atomic bomb is still one of the strongest weapons in the entire planet. The other races also have special weapons to keep other's powers in check.

...

Julian reached his destination within 15 minutes of walking. The halls and the corridors within the school premises were extremely fascinating to Julian.

He walked into the library and started looking for his friends. The library was absolutely massive. It's called a library, but it doesn't really have many books. Instead, there were shelves and shelves of tablets, in which you could browse a virtual library and read any book you wanted.

He eventually found his friends, sitting around a round table of sorts and studying diligently.

Sophia was the first one to notice Julian.

"Hey, Julian! Over here!", she said while waving her hand in the air.

"Keep quiet!", said a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, muscular, handsome-looking boy who was sitting next to Sophia.

This asshole was Curtis. In the future, he will be slain by Julian because Curtis had sold his soul to a demon for greater power.

Sophia paid Curtis no attention and swiftly slid her chair towards the chair in which Julian would sit.

There was another person sitting on another chair, opposite Curtis. She had off-white hair and eyes as red as blood. The first time Julian had seen her, he got scared because she reminded him of the Vampires he fought in the other world. The girl with a cold but focused look on her face was Evangeline.

Julian didn't quite get to talk to Evangeline properly yet. All he knew was that Evangeline was a childhood friend of Sophia.

"Hey Sophia, hey Curtis... hey Evangeline...", He hesitated mentioning Evangeline, but he decided to say it after all, as it would be impolite otherwise.

"You're 5 minutes late!", said Sophia.

"Haha... Apologies...", Julian said while looking down at the floor.

"Again, you're being weird! Why are suddenly so formal now? I'm your friend, right?", Sophia pouted.

"Oh, yeah... haha... It's just that I had a bad dream last night, that's all...", Julain replied with a fake and shaky smile plastered on his face.

"Hmm. It's fine. Sit down, now. We need to study."

They studied for 2 hours straight, without a break. Julian was bored out of his mind.

*YAAAAWWWNNN* Julian yawned.

"*Sigh... Let's take a break now... I'm tired...", Julian said while putting his head down on the table.

"Hmm... okay, if you say so. We HAVE been studying quite a lot...", Sophia said.

"Y'know, you should be really thankful that a girl like me is teaching a nutjob like you!", Sophia said mockingly.

"Oh, come on! What's with the insult?", Julian asked.

"hehe... just kidding!", Sophia giggled at her successful attempt at teasing Julian.

"Shut up, you two. I'm still studying. And Sophia, you really shouldn't slack off like this. You couldn't even get the 1st place in the written test this time...", Curtis, the eternal asshole, ruined the mood.

But he was correct, though. Sophia genuinely hadn't even imagined that some other random person would overtake her in the written test.

"Aww, but you did even worse than me, though!", Sophia said in a mocking tone. This time she wasn't seeking to tease Curtis, but she genuinely meant to mock him.

"Oh, shut up! You know I am better at practical exams!", Curtis retaliated.

"Oh? but our Julian here beat you in even that!", Sophia continued her mocking.

"Urrrrgggghhh! Fine! I get it! I'm still not good enough for you!", Curtis said while slamming his tablet to the table.

"Eww! What?!", Sophia made an exaggerated facial expression of disgust.

"But it is true that none of us were expecting a total random to overtake all of us in the written exams...", this time, Evangeline spoke up. Everyone suddenly jumped from their seats in surprise, because Evangeline doesn't usually talk at all.

"Yeah...", said Sophia.

"I saw him. He really did finish the exam within 50 minutes. Almost 20 minutes faster than me...", Evangeline continued.

"Wait, seriously?! You saw him? what was he like?", Sophia now got curious, and Curtis and Julian were also a bit interested at this.

Everyone turned their attention towards Evangeline.

Evangeline's expression changed from stoic to a slight frown.

"He was playing Metro Surfers on his phone... and he didn't even use earbuds...", Evangeline said with a disappointed look.

Everyone kept staring at her, and then all of them said in unison, "Hah?".