While Others Evolved, I Understood Reality

"Unit One!"

Adam cursed under his breath, knowing he was in deep trouble. He quickly replaced his burnt shirt and sweatpants with another pair.

"What’s going on in there?! You have five seconds to open the door!" came a woman’s voice.

"Coming!"

The alarms had died out at some point between his disoriented state and recovery. It had been one long agonising minute. Luckily for him, his unique physique’s durability came into play.

Adam looked over to his desk as he moved to open the door. He hissed at the sight of the destruction he had caused. Although not severe, his desk and most of the items on it were scorched beyond recognition.

The frontal part of the desk had melted away into blackened and solidified goo. Only the main system that lay to the side of the table had survived. As for the holographic display and input devices, they might as well be classified as non-existent.

Adam opened the door and froze, colour draining from his face. Standing before him was a very annoyed dorm master.

The dorm master was a beautiful older woman wearing sleek rectangular glasses. She glared at Adam and looked past his shoulder.

"What did you do?"

She coldly questioned as she walked past Adam. The four dorm workers she brought along gave Adam questioning looks as they too walked past him into the room.

Loitering about were curious students who had stepped out to see the idiot who had used their abilities indoors. Adam flashed a nervous smile and shut the door. They could take their questions and judgmental looks elsewhere.

The dorm master, Ms Silvia Fang, assessed the damaged area while the others looked around the room. Turning around, the dorm master faced Adam as she pushed her glasses up with her index finger. She threw her hands behind her back and slowly approached Adam.

Adam swallowed as Ms Fang looked him in the eye. The intensity of her gaze made him feel worse than he already did. Unable to bear her gaze, he looked anywhere else besides her eyes.

"What were you thinking?" Ms Fang chided. "You’ve barely set foot into the academy, and you’re already causing problems. Do you have a death wish?"

"I-I’m sorry, ma’am." Adam lowered his head, his hands behind his back. "I got too excited."

"You got too excited?! Have you not been provided a copy of the academy’s rule book?!" The woman raised her voice, her annoyance rising. "What do you think would have happened if that explosion had been too powerful?! Your life may not mean much to you, but there are others in this building; lives that I am in charge of!"

Adam had no words to offer. He could only lower his head in shame. He knew he was in the wrong. There was no sugarcoating it. He knew his experiment could have blown up in his face. And yet...

"It will not happen again, ma’am. I promise." He vowed, still unable to look the dorm master in the eyes.

Adam could not remember the last time he was reprimanded to such an extent. He had clearly been a fool. Too eager to chase success when he should be taking his time.

"Haa..."

Adam heard the woman sigh, urging him to raise his head. The dorm master had momentarily closed her eyes, looking as though she was fed up with everything. She opened her eyes again and asked, "You’re Adam Highstein, aren’t you?"

"Yes, ma’am."

Ms Fang took a long look at him before adding, "Under normal circumstances, you’ll be charged for the damages caused and pay an additional fee for breaking one of the dormitory rules."

Adam listened and did not interrupt. He knew this much, as it was stated in the rule book.

"However..." The dorm master continued. "...I’ll make an exception this one time..."

Before Adam could utter his thanks and appreciation for the pardon, the woman added.

"...for the sake of your master."

Adam paused for a moment. It took a second for him to realise that his status as the disciple of Mr Princeton had saved him.

’Word has already gone around.’

"Thank you, ma’am," Adam replied with a small bow, relieved that things would not be escalated. "I will make sure this never happens again."

"It better not," the woman remarked, gesturing for the workers to exit. "This will be the only warning you’ll get. If it happens again, you’re out."

"I understand."

Ms Fang looked at Adam once more before making her way to the door. She walked past Adam and when she reached the knob, she added, "Replacements will be brought in this morning. Make sure you’re available."

"I’ll be here, ma’am."

The door shut behind the dorm master with a thud. Adam let out a loud sigh as he looked around his room. He was spared any punishment simply because he was Mr Princeton’s disciple.

"His name is already saving my ass." The thought put a small smile on his face.

Taking the vice-principal as his teacher had been a wise choice. But Adam knew it could only do so much. Even so, it was better than nothing.

As for the promise he made to the dorm master, he had every intention of keeping it. There was no point getting on her bad side when he could practice somewhere else.

"Should I inform him?"

He was already on the academy’s radar. He didn’t want to do anything that would give anyone the grounds to expel him or something.

This issue of his might seem insignificant, but it could actually cause his master some trouble. After thinking it through, he decided to inform his master when he saw him.

Adam turned to his destroyed desk to do some clean-up. It would be best to clear the burnt area to make the morning’s replacement job easier. Within a couple of minutes, he had the place cleaned up.

He returned to his bed and lay on his back. The time read 2:40 in the morning. He had spent most of the night studying and experimenting with the creation of plasma. Though the plasma creation had blown up in his face, it had somewhat succeeded.

Bringing up his status, he checked his Knowledge Indexes, seeing a massive jump in several principles across the board. The physical and chemical indexes had seen the most improvement.

A satisfied feeling settled within him as he saw his progress. The feeling was surreal, to say the least. Closing the panel, Adam stared at the ceiling. He was not really exhausted, but with the plans he had for the day, a few hours of sleep would be best.

His eyelids eventually grew heavy, the sweet embrace of sleep claiming him soon after.

A couple of hours later, a sharp knock at his door pulled him out of his sleep. He rubbed a hand over his face as he made his way to the door.

"Oh, you’re here."

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