Chapter 15 - Punishment Begins "Father, why did you withdraw the agent I sent out to investigate that issue?" The man in a blue business suit paused his steps and questioned as he stood several feet behind the man with the spiky silver hair. "Hmm, is that why you have come here?" The man with the spiky silvery hair questioned with a low tone. "Father my guts tell me we missed something," the man known as Yung said with a convincing look. "You come over to disturb my reading just because of what your guts say?" the father of the man questioned with a threatening tone. "Father it’s no..." Before Yung could complete his statement, his father interrupted him. "You know what my guts say? My guts say you should leave this useless thinking of yours and find something productive to spend your time with..." Yung wanted to retort when his father continued, "My guts also say you should leave my study! You’ve spent too much time here," After his father said that he went back to reading his book. Yung stood behind him with a look of dissatisfaction but he knew his father well. Once he spoke like this, it meant the conversation was over and there was no longer room for argument. "I will excuse myself, father," He bowed slightly and turned around to leave the study. The father didn’t even reply. Only the sound of pages being flipped through broke the silence within the room. Yung walked out of the study and arrived in a brightly lit corridor. The walls had luxurious designs and paintings hung on them. He turned towards the left to walk forward. A male in a black bodysuit with a broad and muscular build was seen coming from the other end. Yung paused his footsteps after noticing this person. The male had half of his face covered with a green mask. He gave a standing bow when he got to the front of Yung. "Young master Yung, I bring reports," The man spoke with a hoarse but slightly deep voice. "I’m listening," Yung gave the go-ahead for him to speak. "Everyone rounded up within the vicinity of that mountain range have been tested and investigated properly... none of them know anything out of the ordinary about what happened to the mountain," The green masked man answered. "Not a single person?" Yung asked. "Those who witnessed it said a star descended upon the mountain and that was it... we used the brain tweak device to confirm this," The green masked man replied again. "Hmm... So the energy surge was just misread? How is that possible when it had the same ratings with that..." Yung suddenly remembered something as he was in the process of speaking. "Wasn’t there a student that you let slip from your fingers?" Yun asked with a glare. "Yes but he was just a kid so I believe he’s inconsequential," The green masked man answered. "Inconsequential? That’s the excuse incompetent fools like yourself come up with after failing a task!" Yung voiced out with a slight look of annoyance. The green masked man was startled by his sudden remark and started apologizing, "I apologize young master Yung... it wasn’t an intention of mine," Yung calmed down and stared at the guard. "Truly just as you have said the fellow is a kid but I don’t like to leave any loopholes, get him and bring him in for an inspection!" Yung commanded. "As you wish, young master," -------------- -5:00a.m Gustav woke up the next morning to see a new notification appear in his line of sight. [New Quest has been issued] "Hmm?" Gustav rubbed his sleepy eyes and checked the contents of the quest. His eyes shone a baffled look as he checked out the information and the rewards attached. After a few seconds, he shrugged his shoulders, "I wonder why it would want me to do this? oh well... it doesn’t matter so long as the rewards are bountiful..." After checking it out completely Gustav stood up and went to prepare for school. In a few minutes, he was ready. At this time, the skies were still dark. Gustav was the first person to leave home since it was still as early as past five. The reason for this was, his punishment would start today. Even though it was still early, the streets and the sidewalks still had people moving from place to place. The streets and roads were brightly lit so moving around when it was dark was no issue. From when Gustav left the house he had changed his skin tone to a dark color. He ran across the walkways with speed causing his uniform to make flapping noises and part of it swole up due to wind entering through spaces. Gustav stopped in front of a small shop. This shop was originally a bakery shop but right now they hadn’t opened. Gustav sighed as he stared at the bungalow-type shop. The shop was built in form of a large pink cake with blue and green stripes. Whenever Gustav was heading to school or returning home he would pass by this shop and the aroma of foods being baked would waft into his nostrils making his mouth water. Gustav had always wanted to come here and try one of their bakes but alas he never had a single penny in hand. "Now that there’s a bit of cash in my possession, I still can’t get access to you," Gustav said in a dejected tone. He would be leaving home to school early from now on thanks to the punishment which means he would not meet the shop opened. He also had no idea about the time he would leave school. Gustav turned around and started heading back to school. In a few minutes, he arrived at school. The school was an empty vast land at this time. No one could be seen coming in or going out. Gustav headed for the gate which was closed up. Immediately he got to it a red ray of light shot out for the top and scanned him from head to toe. After a few seconds, the light turned green and the gate opened up mechanically. Gustav went inside and started running towards the disciplinary committee office. During his travel, Gustav took the time to appreciate the splendid environment around him. He passed by a large soccer pitch. He took time to stare at it for a little while admiring its beauty before he continued forward. Basketball field, volleyball, e.t.c. Echelon Academy had almost everything but Gustav never had the opportunity to visit any one of them. The last place he passed through before getting to the disciplinary committee office was a large hall. This large hall was no smaller than three football pitches joined together. Gustav recognized this place. It was a place he had always wanted to visit. It was the hall where mixed-bloods received training within the school. The mixed blood training hall. The mixed blood had their type of extracurricular activities and coming here to train was a part of it but Gustav had never been able to come here. Since his parents didn’t pay extra fees for him, he wasn’t given access to this place and so many others. Since he only went through a part of the school, he didn’t pass through other structures that mixed-blood had access to like the dueling grounds and techniques library. After a few more minutes Gustav arrived at the disciplinary committee office. He met a teacher there who handed him a timetable of how his punishment was gonna be. After checking it out and receiving the cold instructions and glare of the teacher, Gustav headed towards the school kitchen on the southwest of the school. In a few minutes, he arrived there. "You’re finally here, I hope you are ready to work those hands!" A short stoic man wearing an apron and a white hat spoke with a loud thin voice. This man was the head chef of this kitchen and Gustav was assigned to working with him. On entering the kitchen which was pretty large Gustav could see many cooks. This was the first he was entering a kitchen, he hardly even entered the one in the house, so it was a new experience for him to see large fires, the scent of foods as they were being cooked, e.t.c. Everything was new to him. Gustav swallowed a gulp of saliva, ’Does this mean I might have access to a lot of food now?’ The Chief chef who everyone called boss Danzo gave him simple tasks from the start telling him to put a kettle on the fire. Boss Danzo had been told to make sure Gustav went through heinous tasks but Boss Danzo thought process was, ’Hmph, you all want to ruin my kitchen! I will not let that happen.’ During his first day, Gustav was only tasked with menial chores. Offloading cooking materials, Lifting some heavy equipment needed for one thing or the other, boiling water, e.t.c Boss Danzo watched him perform these tasks as days went by. With time passing he would increase Gustav’s work and start teaching him some easy cooking techniques. ------------------------ ----------------------- At first, when Gustav started these shameful notifications would pop up in his line of sight. He was surprised to find out that any skill he learned manually would be added to his skills and abilities. As days went by boss Danzo noticed that Gustav had the potential for cooking and started teaching him. -"Turn the dough this way!" -"Add the oil!" -"Stir softly!" -"Idiot put out the fire do you wanna burn down my kitchen!" In a blink of an eye, another five days had passed. Gustav’s activities during this time were working in the school kitchen early in the morning and cleaning the school after school hours. The cleaning wasn’t much of a task since they were technological machines and tools that made it very easy. The only challenge was, the school was very large and Gustav was given a large portion of places to clean. The structures he was told to clean were always far apart from one another so he would have to travel all around the school premises just to complete them while also carrying cleaning equipments but what these people didn’t know was, they were giving him the opportunity to complete his daily tasks easily like this which has risen in difficulty in the past few days. He would attend class after spending some hours in the school kitchen. Gustav didn’t need to apologize to Hung Jo because, since that day, Hung Jo didn’t show up in school. Wherever Gustav went some students would give him frightful stares while some would look at him with disgust. The incident in the cafeteria already spread throughout the school. They had justified the incident saying, Gustav used a bloodline enhancement drug to fight against the three. Gustav was now more popular than ever. They discussed him daily but no one dared to approach him. They all feared that he still had more of those drugs and they didn’t want to be on the receiving end like Hung Jo.