The Academy's Time Looper-Chapter 43: The Plaza’s Challenge

Outside the dormitory building were hundreds of students, all repping the Aetherhelm academy uniform, with the signature red blazer, the clean white collared shirt, and the black pants.

Contrary to yesterday, the streets were filled with first-years, though all of them were somewhat different.

Some wore serious expressions as they only stared ahead at the large plaza, with their weapons in hand, while others joyfully talked to each other while heading in the opposite direction, where the shopping center was.

As for Athen, he was simply too deep in thought to show any expression as he blankly trudged forward.

Since he couldn’t use his ability today and tomorrow, his attempts wouldn’t really matter, so he could just throw himself at any test without worrying about the cooldown.

However...the problem was Kai’s name.

Reaching the end of the path, Athen was surprised to see that the plaza, previously full of foldable chairs and desks, was now completely empty, with only the stage left in sight.

There were so many students walking around and crowded together that Athen couldn’t even tell if there was a teacher around.

Glancing forward, he saw that there was a huge screen levitating in front of the stage, with the timer right above it.

[Current Artificial Environment Score]

1. Zoe

2. Ren

3. Lily

Seeing all the students staring at the ranking screen where his "name" was displayed, Athen smiled and internally praised Kai.

Instead of just aimlessly walking through the crowd of students, Athen looked for where most of them were concentrated.

Spotting a group of nearly a hundred students gathered in a circle, he immediately began walking forward and pushing his way to the front.

In front of him and in the middle of the circle that the surrounding students formed was a teacher with a distinctive black blazer and black collared shirt.

With a clean pair of round glasses and no tie, the teacher leisurely sat on a chair that was out of place in the empty plaza and stared ahead at a student who seemed to be challenging him.

Placing his elbow on the side of the chair and leaning his head against his hand, the teacher arrogantly announced.

"All you have to do is move my chair...and you earn my approval! Not me, just my chair."

The challenging student, without skipping a beat, immediately charged forward, eliciting a variety of reactions from the crowd.

Some students cheered and laughed, clearly wanting to see him fail, while others simply facepalmed, believing that the student’s failure was imminent.

As the student got closer and closer, the teacher didn’t make a single movement and just continued smirking.

Mid-charge, the student suddenly angled himself downward and threw his arms forward, aiming for the legs of the chair.

And, just when the student was about to grasp the front leg of the chair...it suddenly flew up.

Like a bulldozer, the student continued charging forward, right under the floating chair, and right into the crowd of students ahead. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Like the parting of the Red Sea, the circle of students abruptly split as the challenging student tripped and fell forward in between them.

Then, as the professor raised his right hand, the chair suddenly fell back to the ground, making no noise as its legs collided with the plaza’s concrete ground.

"That’s one minute. Will the next student come up?"

"..."

Taking the moment of silence, Athen turned to his side and whispered to some of the students, who seemed to have been spectating for a while.

"How do the other teachers know he’s on the cooldown now?"

One of the surrounding students, with his leg hovering forward, simply pointed at the student who was trying to get back up.

On the former challenging student’s collared shirt was a massive red "X."

The "X" didn’t seem to be directly on the shirt; it hovered less than a millimeter in front of it, making it impossible to wash or cover-up.

"YOU GOT THIS!"

"LET’S GO!"

As the sounds of countless students cheering returned to Athen’s ears, he quickly glanced back and saw another student standing in front of the sitting teacher.

...

...

...

For the next hour, Athen watched as over fifty students tried and failed the professor’s seemingly simple challenge.

The chair was like its own being.

There seemed to be infinite possible moves it could use to avoid the incoming students.

Just in an hour, Athen witnessed it levitate, shrink, grow bigger, teleport from one place to another, and even just...disappear?

That’s right, for one of the challenges, the chair simply disappeared for the first thirty seconds before reappearing.

And, during all of that, the professor remained completely still while sitting on the chair with a smirk on his face.

He even disappeared, shrunk, and grew bigger when the chair did!

Staying still and observing, Athen tried to discern if there was a way he could cheese the test with his ability.

But, though he did see countless ways, it was impossible to know if it would work.

It all depended on if the chair reacted faster than him.

He could just stop time and reappear behind the chair, but Athen wasn’t sure if the chair could dodge before he got a firm grasp and moved it.

Feeling his empty stomach start to groan, Athen turned around and made his way out of the surrounding students.

Observing from the sidelines wouldn’t help you in this challenge.

Perhaps there was some hidden trick that allowed them to guess the chair’s moves, but Athen was leaving for the time being.

The chair was simply and utterly...unpredictable.

On the edges of the plaza, there were countless restaurants, with some students even sitting outside and eating while observing the plaza.

Making his way to an Italian-themed restaurant, Athen glanced up at the sign, which thankfully read, "Free for First-years!"

Thus, within ten minutes, Athen was sitting on the second floor of the restaurant with a plate of pasta in front of him.

Since it was quite crowded, Athen couldn’t get a seat on the balcony, but he could still see some of the students through the window.

From here alone, he could see two other professors who were testing students with some...interesting methods.