Outrun - Cyberpunk LitRPG

School… Why did I ever agree to this? It was slow, it was monotonous, and I was losing attention faster than ever. And yet, I must suffer on. At least it wasn’t all bad. Whoever was responsible for the flower arrangements changed them over the weekend. An all-new assortment of soothing purple flowers sat around Mr. Jarvis’s room.

I peered around my class as the teacher prattled on about math stuff, my eyes idly noting the dozens of faces. Any one of these students could be the mastermind behind the disappearances- or none at all. It’s funny to think that in almost a week of investigating, none of us had gotten anywhere. Hell, Feras was out of the school entirely.

I was oddly loose and relaxed this morning. Even the constant faint ticks of Insight that usually plagued me at the school were quieter than normal. Guess I was finally getting used to coming here, eh? Regardless, it was quite nice. I had a rather tense weekend all things considered.

My first hour passed as relaxed as could be. Mr. J didn’t even give us homework, which was nice. Monday blues were a real thing, I guess. Even Sean looked a little out of it. It was hard to tell, but instead of making googly eyes at me like usual, his eyes looked half-empty.

Several people ran into each other as they left the door, each looking as tired as the last. Was there some kind of massive party everyone went to last night? They all looked dead on their feet. I waited till they all left before I followed out the door.

As I stepped into the Marketing and Business Management classroom, the first thing I noticed was the flowers had shifted around here too. They were also different from last week, but a lot of them looked like the ones from my last class. Guess they were all in rotation? They must pay their gardener a fortune if he swaps out the flowers every week. I put it out of my mind as I tried to focus on the class.

The teacher yawned loudly as he called attendance, causing half the class to yawn immediately after. I barely managed to stop myself as I watched them giving in to temptation. What suckers to allow a psychological trick to get to them.

Other than that hiccup though, Marketing and Business Management passed rather quickly. Instead of teaching, the teacher spent the entire class talking about our end-of-year project. It was some investing and management competition to see how much our brains soaked up information over the year. The most interesting thing about it was what the teacher called ‘no holds barred’. Basically, anything went, including blackmail and whatnot.

It was a bit jarring hearing about how close summer was considering I just started a week ago, but no one else looked surprised. To be honest, I almost forgot summer breaks were a thing considering it had been so long since I attended a proper school.

I guess it would be an easy out regardless though. Nothing like ‘Meno going home’ to drop the identity and all. Then, I could probably just resurrect it whenever I wanted to… or I’d be better off going with some other identity that would be easier to upkeep.

Class ended before I noticed and I was well on my way to Corporate History. Even the chatty teacher of Corporate History seemed to tone it down a notch today since it was Monday. Not that half of the class was even aware of it considering they were passed out. I also dozed for a minute, but it was just a minute!

It's not like she was talking about anything interesting anyway. Just the alleged interactions between Sentinel and Cwalu back before the continent was hit by the first, and last, Aetherium Bomb and turned into the land of death that we all know and fear today. Apparently, Sentinel was a supporter of Rowbel back before Cestain, and by extension, Destin, devoured them and became the sole rulers of the continent.

Now, if she talked about the fall of Rowbel and all that, then it might’ve been more interesting. Instead, she droned on and on about the trade deals between the country and Sentinel and the successful fights against pirates on their long voyages. Ultimately, the discussion was a pointless brag fest as per usual.

The hour passed as if a dream and the next hour of my day came around: Social Studies. What can I say about it? It actually wasn’t a slog to go through for once. The teacher slurred through attendance and gave a brief speech about how seeing was better than just hearing.

After that, he threw on a movie about the innovation of advertisement over a century. The movie was about two decades old though, so it spent the entire time comparing the groovy advertisements of the 1970s with the third cybernetic uprising of the 2070s. Yeah, the ads were much better in the 1970s. Far groovier.

As for the teacher? He passed out as soon as he hit play. It was just a guess, but the guy looked drunk as he snored loudly at his desk. It was a surprise he was even able to come into work today, let alone teach class. Well, okay, maybe teach was a bit of a strong word for what he was doing…

I spent a while surfing the net on my phone instead of paying attention to the movie. First, I looked through cars for sale, but there weren’t any that were in my price range. That’s fine, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I just needed to go about being in the right situation to 'acquire' one. I would need to be properly prepared though.

The other things I looked up were places for rent, ancient maps of the city, and anything of the like. I was hoping to find an inconspicuous hole in the wall I could use for my stash, but most of the places I found were in bad spots or far too high of rent. Considering I was barely scraping by with my current rent, that wasn’t a good thing.

It was looking to be a rather smooth and easy day, as I stepped into the hall. A student approached me and Torren. She was a jittery gal, practically vibrating on the spot. It was a little weird seeing her so active and everyone else so passive. “Lady Meno? Principalwantstoseeyou!”

“Wha-?” I rubbed my eyes in confusion.

”Sorry. The Princ-i-pal wants to see you.” She sounded it out slowly, almost seeming to force herself still for a moment before her jitters continued like she was some Patchy.

What was this about? Why would the Principal Bously want to see me? I glanced at Torren for a brief moment. He was looking away, oddly entranced by a purple flower in a pot next to the door. To be fair, it was a really, really pretty flower-

“Lady Meno?” The girl asked, bouncing in front of my vision.

“R-right…” What’s up with me today? I knew the nightmares were getting worse, but usually it isn’t this bad? Usually, I could at least focus on the day-to-day activities…

I split off from my guard, heading down the packed halls to Principal Bously’s office. The assistant smiled at me as I stepped into the door. “Oh, Lady Meno! Go on in.”

I flashed what I hoped was a charming smile back to the lady as I headed for the door. “Thank you.”

”Lady Meno! Please, take a seat.” The principal smiled kindly as he motioned to the chairs in front of his desk. He was always so kind. Why did I even think he was a suck-up when we first met?

I took a seat, glancing around the room. It seemed the florist responsible for the rest of the school didn’t skimp out on the principal’s office. There were all kinds of plants scattered about, all in fresh bloom. It was oddly warm in his office though, almost like the AC went out.

“You-“ I yawned loudly, tears springing to my eyes. “S-sorry… you wanted to see me?”

The principal leaned forward, adjusting a fan on his desk to let me have some airflow too. How nice of him. It brought with it the lavender scent of the plants scattered around his desk. “Of course, Lady Meno. I was just thinking about you!”

”You were?” I asked, blinking slowly as my mind tried to figure out if I’d done something wrong. Why would he-

”Oh yes, me and my assistant both… you don’t mind if she comes and joins us, right?” He smiled gently.

”No?” Why would I care about that? Hmm… should I care about that? I blinked. What was I thinking about?

As if she was waiting for me to speak, the assistant stepped into the office, wheeling behind her something on a cart. I couldn’t quite make out what it was, but I was so dang comfy I couldn’t bother to turn my head. I yawned again, my eyes dipping as I blinked sleepiness out of my eyes. I hadn’t slept well in days, but this was a bit-

Principal Bously snapped his fingers, drawing my attention back to him. “Ah, there you are! Thought you fell asleep for a moment.” He chuckled, a full belly laugh. “Do you remember what we were talking about last time?”

”S-security?” I mumbled, letting my head fall back onto the chair. Was it just me, or were the chairs far comfier than the last time? I was even getting a nice cool tingle throughout my body, which helped with the heat in the room. Wait, a cool-

”That’s right! Security! You know, it's kind of funny. Over the weekend, we had a warning about our security…” Principal Bously stood, moving around his desk so he was sitting on the front of it. He reached down, picked up a lime green plant, and placed it in my lap.

I barely managed to grab it, subconsciously holding it steady as my mind drifted to follow the conversation. “W-warning?” I let out another deep yawn as I settled into the chair further. It was getting kind of cold in here, eh? Guess the AC wasn’t broken.

The assistant started to do something beside me, but I was barely conscious of one conversation. I didn’t want to lose track of what we were talking about-

The principal snapped his fingers in front of my face, drawing my attention back to him. “Yes, a warning… you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

”N-no?” Not unless the warning was about three teenagers breaking into the school undercover. How chilling would that be? Chilling… chills…

”Heartbeat spiking.” The assistant murmured to my side for some reason.

The man raised his hands placatingly. “No need to be so tense, my lady. We’re just discussing security like your grandfather wanted us to.”

“Grandfather… wanted…” Aw, that’s right. I was acting as Meno Maeni. How did I forget that? I ran a hand over my forehead, trying to press past all the fog that had taken residence there since this morning.

“Yes, your grandfather… remember him?”

“Heartbeat dropping.” The assistant said.

I yawned again, closing my eyes for just a minute. Why were we talking about heartbeats? Did my grandfather have a heartbeat? No- he’s dead. I remember going to his funeral when I was younger, along with hundreds of other people? Why-

Fingers snapped in front of my face again. “Come on, Lady Meno. This is important. Can you focus on my voice?”

“S-sure.” I blinked, feeling a trembling cool chill through my-

“Heartbeat spiking.”

”You’re about to drop the plant.” The principal pointed at my lap.

I glanced down, my hands slowly going to the edges of the plant’s pot. Weird. I forgot I was even holding it. “T-thanks.”

”Heartbeat steady.”

Principal Bously leaned back, resting his full weight on his desk. “Meno, we’re chooms, right? I’ve helped you out a ton since you first started here, even giving you special treatment to show you all our wonderful security systems, right?”

”Y-yeah?” Choom was a bit of a strong word, but he was a nice enough guy. And he was right, he had shown me special treatment. Did that make us-

”You can be truthful with your chooms then, right? Chooms don’t betray chooms after all.”

He’s right. What kind of choom betrays their chooms? “S-sure.”

The assistant muttered. “Heartbeat steady.”

Principal Bously leaned forward, a cheerful smile etched across his lips. ”Great! Since we’re such great chooms, tell me, who are you really?”