Julian Neal didn’t like being ignored, but he accepted it coming from Isabella Vance, since he knew how heavy her surname was.
But being ignored because someone he considered part of the disposable furniture of the Lower Zone was attracting the attention of the person he wanted to win over, Isabella Vance, who rarely deigned to look at anyone, dedicating just a second of attention to Lohan was the trigger for his inflated ego.
He got up and walked over to Lohan’s place, stopping arrogantly beside his table.
"You’re very brave today, Hayes. Is that the effect of the pathetic ’help’ you gave the girl yesterday?" Julian said, tapping his knuckles on Lohan’s desk. "I thought that after telling lies in Dr. Aris’ class, you would have the decency to disappear. Has the air of the slums finally fried what was left of your brain?"
Lohan was genuinely surprised, but he didn’t look up right away.
He was busy feeling the Mana circulating through his arm when Julian approached. The sensation was warm and alive, very different from the slightly cold fluidity he felt in Slime’s body.
But this interruption annoyed him.
’Damn, I don’t get in anyone’s way in class, I just want time to pass as quickly as possible so I can go home and play Elysium, but why can’t these people just study in peace?
’Does this guy really have nothing better to do?’ Lohan thought, letting out an audible sigh of irritation.
If it were the old Lohan in his place, he would just bow his head and let Julian humiliate him as much as he wanted, as long as it ensured his safety for a little while longer.
But the current Lohan was getting fed up with these spoiled people from the upper class.
In such an unequal society, rich people got richer and poor people got constantly poorer, and generations upon generations of rich people living in comfort, luxury, and hearing since childhood how superior they were, made most of these children feel special, entitled to step on and humiliate the "poor beggars" of the Lower Zone.
Coming from a world where society, though imperfect, still gave anyone the opportunity for social advancement... a place where even he, a physically disabled man, had earned doctorates while studying from his hospital bed, being treated this way by a boy of no quality was even more humiliating.
Resisting his body’s urge to bow his head and let Julian do as he pleased, Lohan kept his spine straight for the first time.
"The air in the Lower Zone is toxic, Julian. Everyone knows that, even you..." Lohan replied, finally raising his eyes and staring at the boy. "The difference is that some of us are aware of it, and others, like you, just use your great-great-grandfather’s money to buy filters that hide reality. But filters don’t help with your own mediocrity, do they?"
Julian’s face changed from a mocking smile to a mask of restrained anger. In the Upper Zone, insults were veiled and full of etiquette, even people from the most powerful families limited themselves to maintaining decorum, especially in public like this.
Hearing the raw, direct truth from a "stinker" from the Lower Zone was like being hit with a thermal shock.
"You’re talking a lot for someone who depends on government handouts to keep from starving." Julian hissed with disgust, leaning forward while covering his nose in feigned disgust, even though Lohan didn’t actually exude the stench Julian constantly cited. "You know what’s funny? I’ve been looking at your records and noticed that your performance is only average... I can get someone like you kicked out of this college with a text message if I decide you’re a problem."
Lohan felt the anger inside him grow.
This was the same kind of threat he heard from the administrators of the hospitals he stayed in in the other world when he questioned the negligence of the treatment he received. But this time, Lohan wasn’t an invalid in a bed.
Julian gestured dismissively, causing the wrist projector on his right arm to glow. A sophisticated hologram floated between them, displaying the class schedule and Lohan’s data with a clarity that no cheap equipment from the Lower Zone like Lohan’s could reproduce.
Seeing Julian’s pride in using such mundane things to prove his superiority, Lohan had an idea.
He surreptitiously reached under the table.
He didn’t need to touch Julian’s arm; with the [Artificial Harmonizer] and Halon’s muscle memory, the Mana he had trained in the real world now obeyed basic control.
With the absorption of Biomass, he had already realized that Julian only had an Uncommon Base, something that gave him a great sense of pride, but that still had a huge difference between the evolutions that a Mythic class like Lohan’s gave.
"You talk about your power to make me disappear, Julian, but your power is all external.
Take away those toys, take away your father’s surname, and what’s left is just a scared boy who can’t even keep his own image standing," Lohan said quietly, but with the same seriousness and anger he used when dealing with complacent doctors in the other world, making Julian hesitate.
Not only had no one but his father ever had the courage to speak to him like this, he never imagined that a worm from the Lower Zone would have such audacity!
Without anyone noticing, Lohan sent a tiny pulse of Mana, tuned to cause harmonic interference in Julian’s pulse projector.
He didn’t try to cause an explosion or anything flashy, but only tried to control an energetic "prick" directly into the semiconductor circuits of that device.
In the next second, Julian’s hologram emitted a crackling sound, causing the previously clear image to begin glitching violently, turning a sickly green before collapsing into a cloud of blurry sparks.
The projector on Julian’s wrist instantly overheated, releasing a wisp of smoke that smelled like burnt ozone, leaving everyone in shock.
///NunuNote///
Please, read the Author’s Tought down here!
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