593: Teleportation Platforms

Teleportation Platforms

Upon exiting our dorm room, Claire and I immediately ran into the other girls, who had long been waiting in the hallway, apparently.1

"Oh, Big Brother Xuan Kai!" Qing Yue exclaimed. "You're finally here. We were about to knock if you didn't show up yet."

"Huh? Why?" I asked, confused. "There's still 10 minutes before classes start, isn't there?"

"Yeah, but it's best to be a bit early for the first day, no?" Yu An Yan remarked, shrugging as she leaned against the wall. "First impressions are important, after all."

"True," I muttered. "Anyway, let's go. The more time we spend here talking, the less time we have to move."

The girls nodded in agreement, and while some of them glanced at Claire briefly, for the most part, they simply ignored her and talked with me instead, some even going as far as to cling to my arm.

Of course, this wasn't them excluding her or anything. It was simply the 'don't-talk-to-me-or-interact-with-me-in-any-way' vibes she was giving off, and that cold look in her eyes. The night before, unbeknownst to Claire, of course, I had actually sent a text message in the group chat made up of all the girls and I (which, by the way, they for some reason named 'The King's Harem' with a little heart emoji at the end—cheesy as all hell). The message told the other girls to avoid communicating with Claire, since that could potentially get in the way of my plan.

Put simply, for the time being, I wanted myself to be the only person Claire had interaction with. That way, no one else can potentially influence her, and she'll grow attached to me and me alone. That will make it easier for me to change her, little by little. The butler, of course, is an exception, given he's about the only person she truly trusts, and I'm 110% certain the butler will be on my side and support what I'm doing for Claire. 

Just to be sure, though, the day before, I exchanged contact info with him (and Claire as well of course) and messaged him that same night about my plan. He approved of it, and told me he really was the only person she talked to (apart from me, who she kinda is forced to interact with now). I mean, he even showed me a screenshot of her phone's contacts page, which—quite depressingly—only had two contacts. One was the butler's, and the other one was mine. 

I was curious how he managed to get his hands on a screenshot of Claire's phone in current time, but I didn't inquire about it. Probably some kind of remote control and monitoring software to make sure no one from the Vampire Race was tracking Claire down using it. They were still being hunted, after all.

In any case, the girls and I soon arrived at the bottom floor of the dormitory. There, a series of teleportation platforms lay, and they were the main form of transportation between the various sky islands—the Campuses—of the Academy. All a student had to do was scan their student ID (given out yesterday after the ceremony along with the uniforms for the Supports) on the device beside the platform, then navigate through the holographic screen that appears after stepping on.

As an aside, the student IDs didn't particularly reveal anything important, unlike the Mage IDs issued by the IMF. They really only listed the name of the student, their dorm room number, their class (Vanguard Elite, Vanguard Support, or just simply Support), their gender, their birth date, and a photo of themselves.

The girls and I each stepped onto a teleport platform in pairs of Elite and Support, since the mechanisms were made to be used by two people. Of course, one could still use these things alone, but it was quite clear the IMF and administration of the school were greatly emphasizing this whole 'pair' thing. 

After scanning our student IDs, we entered as the cylindrical glass panes blocking them slid open in approval. Claire stood beside me silently as a hologram appeared before us, listing out a few options:

[Where would you like to travel to?]

[Academy Campus]

[Support Campus]

[Recreation Campus]

[Research & Development Campus]

[Administration Campus]

[Library]

[Training Hall]

[Dormitories (YOU ARE HERE)]

[Exterior School Grounds]

There was a variety of options on-screen, but naturally, with no time for detours, I picked the first one—Academy Campus. This was called the 'Main Campus' in the University of Fragment, but for clarity, they renamed it this time around.

Instantly, the glass panes closed around us as the menu closed, and was replaced by a small pop-up:

[Transmitting…]

Very soon, a white light shrouded us, blinding our vision briefly, and we shut our eyes. When we opened them again, we found ourselves looking out the glass pane covering the teleport platforms at a completely different scene—a wide three-story tall building surrounded by other structures of different shapes and sizes. The sky above was bright, light blue, and the sun's warmth appeared to radiate upon the lands of the sky island we were on.

It was good weather indeed for the first official day of attending this new academy. The teleport platforms had transferred us directly to another set of platforms of similar design—they didn't exactly have a name to them, but essentially, they were the 'receiving' platforms. Using a teleport platform to go somewhere would result in being transferred over to one of these platforms, usually somewhere near another set of teleport platforms for that area. 

For instance, here, on either side of the stone path leading to the main entrance of the main academy building, were the teleport platforms for this 'campus'. There were plenty of them due to the sheer amount of people going to be using them, and for aesthetics purposes, they added lush bushes and green plants around to liven up the atmosphere.

I know I've said this time and time again, but they really put a lot of effort into the construction of this place.

And if just the appearances were already this detailed… I can only imagine what the actual lessons will be like. After all, great benefits like this didn't just come for free.

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