Zero to Hero (Prequel/prototype)

Chapter 39. Debut

Yawning as he rolled out of his bed crammed into a small room with two other double bunk beds where there was barely enough space between the beds for him to get around.

"Man, I wish they would throw out those two other beds so I can have more room." Ken murmured to himself while heading for the bathroom for a quick shower to get refreshed.

As he was getting dressed, Ken heard Lovetta calling for him and opened the door to greet the girls.

"Did you wake up by yourself today?" Lovetta asked, impressed to see Ken was already awake.

"Big day today! Getting kinda nervous."

"No way you would get nervous with me cheering for you!"

"Genesis, how can you wake up this early when you aren't even going to participate in the tournament but can't put in a single minute of effort into studying so you don't drop out next year."

"Stop pressuring me to study!"

"I will break up with you if you don't pass next year."

"YOU WHAT!"

"Please don't scream Genesis. It's still early and people in the other rooms might still be sleeping." Indra added quietly.

"I'm just joking! Let's get going before you wake the whole floor up!"

After two whole years of studying and training, on the second day of the tournament, Ken will finally make his official debut.

With the final exam over, once again, none of the students from the class of 2000 failed and all 1022 will be moving on to the third year. While it's true no one has failed yet, the pressure is now on for Genesis and many of the students.

With around half of the students still not at advanced level, they will only have 2 more chances to pass or face expulsion and based on what Ken learned from the older students, the drop out rate spikes from this point onward as advanced level is no longer something most people could pass without putting in some serious work.

While school seems to get harder and harder for most, the more Ken learned and understood, the easier everything got and after two years of studying, Ken managed to pass advanced level on every subject with ease and had now surpassed his private tutor.

When they first started school, Alice was in the top 5 for her overall ranking but after two years of not doing any studying and only focusing on helping Ken, her original entrance score had now dropped her out of the top 100.

On the other hand, Ken had leap frogged all the way up to overall rank 88 from his exponential growth rate and to see his name on the top 25 for both elemental and physical practical scores shocked most of the class.

Even though his studying had gone extremely well and his growth much faster than even he could expect, the situation with Clare had only gotten even worse.

Not long after the party, Alice confronted Clare and the two got heated after Alice called Clare a drama queen and the two hadn't talked since and Clare had only gotten more solitary.

While she did nothing but studying and training the entire semester, it seemed like Clare had hit somewhat of a plateau and while she maintained her ranked one overall score, Lovetta's lead over her grew larger on the physical enhancements while Luke had almost caught up in both his elemental and physical performance.

"Wish me luck Genesis! Hopefully I reach at least day two if they give me some favorable matchups in the bracket."

"Good luck Ken! Show the world how strong you are!"