Chapter 198: Good News? Bad News? (1/2)

In the middle of a dark room dimly lit by a small desk lamp, mountains upon mountains of messy paperwork on a metal desk and an entire ocean of it on the ground, sat a single man, a mixture, of pure madness and despair on his face, taking a sip from his fifteenth cup of coffee just that day before slamming it back on the table.

*Slurrrrrppppp*

”Ahhhhh,”

*Slam*

It was a tall man standing at a height of 6'6” that seemed no older than 30 yet looked 50 at the same time, his previous jet black hair and beard were now dishevelled and showing a few strands of white growing from the roots, the bags under his eyes had their own bags, causing a black ring around them from a mixture of his extreme stress and lack of sleep. His previously smooth skin now showing small wrinkles and other signs of ageing.

It was none other than general Ryker...

If one would have called him a zombie before he was now a mad, broken empty husk.

He leaned back onto his chair, letting go of his pen that he had been using to file paperwork before yelling a painful cry at the top of his lungs, grabbing a few papers on the ground, shoving them in his face like a pillow.

”AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,”

Then, he leaned even further back onto his chair once more, a mellow smile and chuckle of depression as he began to laugh softly to himself, a few tears running down his face.

”Heh… Heh… Heh…”

He had developed such a method of stress relief during the past week which was so far proving to be rather effective.

20 cups of coffee a day and screaming his heart out did wonders to relieve his now broken mind.

He had the luxury to do such a thing since he knew that his room was fully soundproof, allowing no sound to come in or out, unless it was a knock at the door, something that people were forced to do before entering which meant that he was in complete, secluded privacy just like he wanted, meaning that nobody could see him in such a messed up, sorry state.

Despite knowing that he would no doubt be fired in the coming days, he still had a position and stature to uphold as the pillar of the school, and he did not want to further embarrass himself and sully his already tarnished legacy and reputation.

He had been reprimanded and looked down upon by all his peers in the military, including people of lower standings such as teachers and even students over, and over, and over again, been sent so many death threats from various families that it was almost too much to keep up with, and now, in the blink of an eye, he was about to lose his job…

A job that he was so passionate about and had worked so hard to obtain, so many years of non-stop training and determination to prove himself the best out of all his peers, all of that gone... flushed down the drain for what seemed to him at the time, a simple miscalculation which made him go absolutely crazy.

If anything, most people thought that he had gotten off easy, not being jailed or executed for his actions, only being fired and branded as an outcast. But in that respect they would have been completely wrong, he would have much rather been sent to jail, at least there he would have been safer.

He was going to be thrown out as a disgrace, and a social pariah, no one wanting to house or help him despite his power and previous stature in fear of what would happen, thrust in a world where so many people wanted him dead. He had to be on guard, watch himself at every corner because who knew when an assassin from a family would come to take revenge for their fallen children, pinning the blame onto him.

The only reason he was even still in office was that they could not find a suitable replacement in such a short amount of time, meaning that he could keep his job until then because a general rank in the army was required to have a certain level of strength, if they were any weaker assigning them to the position would have been completely impossible. And, since a school needed to have a general rank to function, they had no choice but to keep him in office until they found a suitable replacement.

After the incident of the student massacre, they had sent various patrol teams to inspect the state of the planet that the exam took place on, planet Xibillvia. They had set an exam there only a few years prior, and they did not find any trouble, only weak beasts that reached to the top of D rank at the most. So. they did not bother checking it again as they were certain of the fact that it would stay relatively the same in that short span of time.

It was a good teamwork exercise due to the fact that the planet was predominantly dark and they would lose points for every student killed. The weaker students would be forced to try their best to adapt and survive in the darkness of the night and the stronger students would be forced to stay alert and watch out for any beast that might have taken out a weaker student, making them lose points. Each member was vital and it helped the high tiers and low tiers coexist.

If they needed help of any sorts, they gave them an emergency button that was quite unneeded on such a planet filled with weak monsters, even though they knew that the leaders possessing the buttons were all prideful and would not use the button under any circumstance in fear of repercussions or even worse, disgracing their family name.