From Bullets To Billions novel Chapter 669

Chapter 669: The Nobody

The air in the lecture hall curdled the second Sono stepped through the threshold. Max watched with a detached, clinical interest as a collective, repulsive shiver traveled through the rows of desks. It was as if a predator had entered a cage of herbivores; students instinctively jerked their heads away, staring at their notebooks with a desperate intensity, while several in the front row were visibly trembling, the rattling of their pens against the plastic desks providing a rhythmic soundtrack to their terror.

"That’s him," Steve hissed, his voice barely a breath of air. "That’s the monster who broke Eric last night. Max, you don’t understand... Eric couldn’t even touch him."

’Oh... so this is the one,’ Max thought, his gaze narrowing as he appraised the senior. It wasn’t that Max and Eric had been close; they had only exchanged a few functional sentences about the martial arts club. There was no deep-seated anger or thirst for vengeance on Eric’s behalf. Instead, Max felt a cold sense of annoyance. He had genuinely been looking forward to learning a new style of Wushu to pass the time, and now that pursuit was sidelined because this thug had sent his instructor to a hospital bed. It was a minor inconvenience, but in Max’s world, inconveniences were often met with severe corrections.

What surprised him more, however, was the figure following in Sono’s shadow. Sylan, the soccer senior Max had "dealt with" in the privacy of the empty classroom, entered the room with a much more subdued energy. Unlike the boisterous Sono, Sylan looked deeply uncomfortable, his eyes darting around the room and avoiding Max’s general direction. His shoulder was clearly still stiff, a lingering reminder of the "pop" Max had delivered just twenty-four hours prior.

"Alright, look at this. It seems we have quite a few empty seats today. I suppose some of you had a little too much fun at the festivities last night," Sono claimed, his voice booming with a false, jovial warmth. He paced across the front stage like a seasoned performer. "But as I made very clear, that event was a mandatory display of respect for your seniors. Missing it is a direct insult."

Sono stopped pacing and leaned over the professor’s podium, his expression hardening. "Unfortunately, I’ve learned that a certain student ran his mouth a little too much yesterday. He thought he was special, ended up getting a well-deserved beating, and used that as a convenient excuse to skip out on us. So, let’s start the roll call. Jono... Jono!"

The silence in the room was absolute until Steve finally found the courage to speak up from the back.

"He’s... he’s still in the hospital," Steve stuttered, his face pale. "The doctors said he wasn’t well enough to be discharged today, but they might let him out tomorrow morning."

"I see. Well, a doctor’s note is a valid excuse, I suppose," Sono said with a shrug. "As for the next name on my list... Max Smith."

Sono didn’t have to wait for a verbal response. In a coordinated, instinctive movement, nearly every head in the lecture hall turned to look at the back row where Max sat. The freshmen knew exactly who he was; after the incident with Sylan, he had become a lightning rod for the seniors’ attention.

"Now, what do we have here? So, you weren’t well enough to attend our welcoming party last night, yet you managed to drag yourself into a business lecture just fine?" Sono shook his head in mock disappointment, a slow, predatory grin spreading across his face. "Well, I said it before and I meant it: if one of you fails, the entire class is going to have to be punished for that lack of discipline."

Without another word, Sono jumped down from the stage with a thud that echoed through the room. He didn’t head for Max immediately. Instead, he lunged for the first student in the front row. He grabbed the boy by the back of his head and slammed his face down onto the wooden desk, pinning him there with a heavy, crushing force.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify