"She still doesn’t want to see you!"

The words, delivered with a sharp finality, stung more than the incident that happened a few days ago to John.

A handful of days had passed since that bloody afternoon that had nearly cost John and his friends their lives. From a purely fair standpoint, John had returned with Ricky as a victor.

They had repelled the combined might of Mark and Zockair, survived a high-stakes scheme, and, most importantly, John had secured the Instant Dungeon core, a prize of immeasurable strategic value.

Yet, as he walked the familiar halls of the department, it didn’t feel like a victory. Aside from the Instant Dungeon he acquired, everything else was falling apart.

The most glaring issue was the toxic cloud of nasty rumours that had choked the academy grounds while John was away fighting for his life. In his absence, wild stories had taken root like harmful weeds.

Older students, many of them seventh-year, had spread twisted and fabricated tales of the conflict. By the time John returned, he was no longer a rising talent or a mysterious prodigy. In the eyes of the masses, he was a dangerous liability, a bringer of chaos, or worse, a traitor.

Many believed these lies outright, their fear of the unknown overriding their curiosity. Others, more sceptical but equally cautious, simply didn’t want anything to do with him. To be seen with John was to invite scrutiny from the faculty and the wrath of the student elites.

On his second day back, John attempted to resume his recruitment efforts, hoping to bolster the ranks of his burgeoning force. He was met with a wall of cold shoulders.

Even though the Headmaster and several influential teachers had officially cleared his reputation, the damage to his social credit was done. Students would see him coming and immediately veer off into side hallways or suddenly become intensely fascinated by their textbooks. It was a coordinated shunning.

It felt like someone was meticulously fanning the flames from the shadows. Naturally, John’s first suspicion fell on Mark, but the reality was more petty. The true architect of this social isolation was Galbert, the seventh-year class president and leader of the Formal Team.

Galbert was a man of long memories and a fragile ego. He had never forgotten the way John had spoken to him, disregarding his status and authority. More importantly, he hadn’t forgotten the order from his club teacher to keep John under heavy pressure.

Galbert had leveraged every ounce of his prestige to keep the pressure on John, ensuring that not a single student, aside from Ben, would dare sign up for John’s club.

Galbert was playing a dangerous game; he was waiting for his teacher’s signal to initiate a formal Club War, at which point he intended to crush John’s group once and for all under the weight of official academy regulations.

For the first time since coming to the future, John faced the reality of a failed quest. He had set out to build a force, and he had come empty-handed. Thanks to that, the system said there wouldn’t be any issued quests for the time being, until John pulled something big to offset the scales.

It was a bitter pill to swallow, yet in the grand hierarchy of his problems, the lack of recruits and the failure of his quest were actually the least of his worries.

There was the headache of the Headmaster.

Ever since John had revealed the truth about the events in the pocket trial, the old man had become obsessed. He summoned John to his office almost daily. At first, the meetings were born of genuine curiosity and a need for more information.

However, they quickly devolved into gruelling marathons of interrogation and circular debate. John found himself growing increasingly annoyed by the sheer volume of useless questions the old man posed.

The primary point of debate was the fundamental nature of their world. The Headmaster lived his entire life under the belief that machines were the selfless saviours of humanity, working tirelessly to clean the Earth of pollution and restore the ecosystem.

He could not wrap his head around the idea of the machines’ betrayal. To him, the concept of a machine turning on humans was like suggesting the air itself had decided to stop supporting life.

Another point of friction was the origin of the new weapons John showed samples of to the Headmaster. According to the information provided to John by Goven and Blakar, merchants were supposed to appear around newly established zones to facilitate trade.

However, due to the suffocating siege enforced by the Demon fleet, John’s zone had never enjoyed the luxury of a wandering merchant.

John knew that if he wanted to equip an army, he couldn’t rely solely on his own arsenal. He would eventually have to venture outside, facing the immense risks of a sneaky attempt to bypass the Demon blockade and find these elusive traders. But then came the issue of currency: Mana gemstones.

He had initially thought himself wealthy. Between the operational mines in his zone and the loot he had scavenged from fallen Dragons and Demons, he figured he could buy whatever he needed.

But when he heard of the sample prices for common gadgets like defensive towers and walls, he sucked in a cold breath of air. The prices weren’t just high; they were astronomical if a mass purchase was considered.

He realised with a sinking heart that he didn’t have nearly enough, not even close to satisfying the baseline requirements to arm up a human detachment sent to one pocket trial this way.

He decided his only path forward was patience. He would let the Krogers and Bulltors work the mines until they had amassed a mountain of gemstones, at least to satisfy the needs of his early human armies he would send to clear the trials.

The Headmaster debated that they didn’t need the merchants; they could easily manufacture these weapons in the academy and the respective families belonging to John’s inner circle. And yet John didn’t agree with that.

First of all, he didn’t have the blueprints. Even if he did, these weapons needed Mana Gemstones to operate, something the world didn’t know of. Lastly, he wouldn’t trust sharing these secrets if he even found a way to solve all these obstacles, and would rather monopolise the production for himself.

In an attempt to satisfy the Headmaster’s relentless questioning about the Merchants and the Demons, John finally reached his breaking point. To prove he wasn’t exaggerating the threat of the Demons or the complexity of the new world’s weapons production, he actually brought the captured Demon, Zingy, from his zone directly to the Headmaster’s office.

Seeing and speaking to a living, breathing, and very hostile entity from beyond their world finally gave the old man the shock he needed. Luckily, the sheer volume of new information Zingy provided was enough to keep the Headmaster occupied, finally leaving John alone to breathe.

The reprieve was solidified when Nikolas informed John about a grand summit. The heads of all the major academies, including the Grandmaster and various Military Department Headmasters and teachers, were gathering to arrange the upcoming inter-academy competition.

This required the Headmaster and Nikolas to leave the campus for several days. But first, the Headmaster had to go and meet with the Grandmaster of the academy, to arrange their plans for the trip and the meeting.

This brought John more peace. And yet, this was the window his enemies were looking for to start their grand move against his club.