How To Survive A Calamity-Chapter 258: Singularity

[A/N: DING! DING! DING! NEW CHAPTER ALERT!!!! yes, Carrot lives! (ps:: See Author's Note at the end of chapter for some information]

"What do you know about Alice?" I leaned slightly over the table and cut right to the chase before Xavier's antics could go on any longer.

"Alice...?" Xavier muttered a little vaguely, staring at me with unexpected surprise in his slanted eyes. He paused for a beat, something akin to calculative malice flickering through his gaze.

"The 10th Ranked?"

"Yes. She." I nodded simply, before slowly adding,

"I want to know what type of person she is. Traits, personality, favourite colour—stuff like that." I shrugged.

Xavier continued to gaze at me, amused. He seemed baffled, the edge of his lips curling slightly. Then his grin turned wider, and Xavier leaned provocatively over the table.

"Well, well. Who would have thought, the famous Victor Bright asking about a girl's likes. Hold on, could this be considered stalking?" he mused teasingly.

I felt an exasperated sigh rise from the depths of my guts, but I forcefully restrained it. I guess I expected something like this.

"Stalking, no. Profiling is more like it," I quipped dryly.

"What?"

Xavier blinked and leaned back, visibly confused now. It felt nice to watch.

I continued smugly. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Alice Al'Rowen is one of the Ten Rankers, yet she's also one of the hardest to learn about or read." I laid the bait.

Xavier was quiet for a beat before biting.

"Could it be you're profiling the top ten cadets now, Vic?" Xavier insinuated, and I smiled smugly again.

"Your words, not mine."

That was bullshit.

Obviously, I couldn't tell Xavier about my interaction with Alice, and given the suspicious nature of this person, I had to mask my true intentions under a facade.

This way, not only had I done so, I had made Xavier himself come to the conclusion that I might be interested in the Top Rankers, not just Alice. Rather than outright telling him, I deceived him into thinking so with a little misdirection.

"You only just ranked up, and now you're already aiming for the top ten spots in the First Year," Xavier said with half a sigh mixed in awe as he laughed.

I shrugged, playing along with my bullshit.

"Wouldn't now be the best time? With all the momentum and all?" I said.

"You would think so."

Xavier leaned backwards against his seat as he said so strangely. But before I could get him to elaborate, he continued.

"So if what you say about going for the top ten is true, and you want to profile Alice, then why come to me? I mean, given that I'm also a Top Ranker, don't you think I could take this as a provocative challenge?" That knowing smile on Xavier's face was unceasing.

Even as his slanted eyes were narrow and closed, it felt like I could feel his eerie gaze sweep over me.

I withheld the urge to cringe while schooling my expression expertly. Before replying, I first signalled for a waiter and placed an order:

One strawberry milkshake.

Finally, I turned back to Xavier, meeting him without a visible change in my expression.

"You were going to find out sooner or later anyway."

"Yes, yes. I guess that's obvious."

Xavier nodded, not at all sounding like I had just openly declared and challenged him for his position.

I needed to learn a bit more about Alice, and the first person I turned to was Xavier. There was a reason for that.

Xavier Locke and Alice Al'Rowen were from Class C, but just like Ceres and Deandra of Class A, they were both Top Rankers. In other words, they were both Alpha dogs. Two heads, and two captains to a ship. I had already heard rumours about there being some friction and division in Class C.

In summary, it was friction between two primary factions of the class: those in support of Xavier, and those behind Alice. And what better way to source information than from a rival?

"Given your intent for asking, I'm guessing you'll just go find out about Alice from elsewhere if I don't provide you with anything useful. So there's no point for me to withhold anything. Not that I was planning to anyway," Xavier leaned comfortably.

Then he began while I listened attentively.

"You're right, Alice Al'Rowen is an odd one. A special case, even, amongst the Top Ten," he said.

I twirled my milkshake then stopped, raising a brow.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"By now, you probably know better than others how one's Ranking assessment is heavily based on their individual talent and potential as an Awakened..." he said, paused deliberately, then slowly continued with an iffy smile.

"This is something I 'heard,' but Alice's Talent Assessment, while not bad on its own, isn't spectacular enough to bring her into the Top Ten. Top 30 at best, if I had to say myself."

As soon as I heard this, I wasn't sure what to think. I wasn't certain what the 7th Ranked Cadet was implying.

I frowned in confusion at his words.

"Elaborate," I said.

Xavier smiled wider.

"I'm saying our dear Rank 10, when it comes to direct combat power and skills, isn't all that. Ironically, as she's the 10th Ranked, she's also the weakest among the Top 10."

I knew a Cadet's Ranking was heavily dependent on their initial Talent Assessment. Of course, there were other factors, like academic abilities, intelligence, skills, and more, but a major part of it all boiled down to the future potential as an Asset to the Academy, and to the whole world itself.

I was the best example. I was evaluated with a Null talent and slapped with the Bottom Rank.

So for Xavier to say Alice's Talent Assessment wasn't enough to put her in the Number 10 spot didn't make a lot of sense to me. In fact, it didn't even make sense how Xavier sounded so certain of this, despite allegedly 'hearing' of it from somewhere.

"Pfft..."

While I was deeply contemplating the meaning of all this, Xavier burst a small laugh.

"I know what you're thinking. But there's a very good reason why, despite her potential on paper, Aegis shows a lot of favour to Alice Al'Rowen — enough so, she enjoys privileges slightly different from the rest of us Nine," he hinted.

I held his gaze for a second. At this point, I was hanging on to every one of his words.

I knew I came to him to find out more about Alice, but it suddenly felt like I was going to learn a lot more than I could imagine.

Xavier leaned forward over the table again. All of a sudden there was a change in his demeanor. The easy-going smile on his face vanished. Sunlight poured in from the window, the strands of his parted yellow hair catching its radiance.

"It's because of an ability of hers," he said.

"An ability?" I quoted.

Xavier nodded.

He raised a finger and pointed at his face.

"Alice possesses an extraordinary ability. A Stigma called the [Eyes of the Sage] or [Heaven's Gaze]."

My eyes widened subtly, and every thought I had in my head froze at that moment. Xavier was still talking, but to me it was like all sounds had ceased from the world.

The only thing I could hear was the sound of my drumming heartbeat in my chest.

"Did you say, Stigma?" I cut in quietly while Xavier was going on.

He paused and looked at me strangely.

"Yeah. It's rare, but Alice Awakened a Stigma not long after she Awakened as well. And not just any Stigma."

He leaned backwards again and smiled. Tilting his head at me and studying my expression, Xavier crossed his legs underneath the table and continued.

"Vic, you're familiar with the word 'Legacy,' aren't you? Well, Alice possesses something called a 'Legacy Stigma.' And the difference of her Eyes of Heaven is what makes her so special and unique compared to any other Awakened."

"While her individual ability and talent may not be extraordinary or anything, the nature of her Stigma bridges all the gaps infinitely," he explained.

"Put it this way: Alice as a person has a decent Talent Evaluation that could put her somewhere around the top 30 cadets. But the potential of her Awakened Stigma itself is unmatched."

"Hmm. If I had to use a reference or example, it's kind of like you."

"What? Me?" I blurted. I was greatly distracted by my thoughts to keep up with what Xavier was saying.

"At the beginning, your talent assessment was evaluated as 'Null' or nonexistent. As in, there was no other talent assessment on a similar wavelength to yours in the database throughout known history."

"Alice's Stigma is smothered like that."

At this point, Xavier was losing me. My brain was literally failing to process all the information efficiently enough, but he wasn't even finished yet.

"It is infinitely rare right now, but Alice Al'Rowen is what is classified by Awakened standards as a [Singularity]."