[u][b][center]Student President Yoshino Tsugumi[/b][/center][/u] Yoshino was able to maintain her smirk long enough for people to react to her demands, eventually filing out to leave the auditorium. To the common outsider, and to anyone who really didn’t know her, it seemed that she walked with an extra bounce of self-sustained victory in her step. Indeed, she was the spitting image of glory as she made her way back behind the stage curtains. How wrong they all were. Finally safe from prying eyes, those goddamn searching eyes, the Student President clenched a hand to her chest and took slow, calming breathes to steady her heart-rate. Were they all deaf or something? Couldn’t they hear how her ribcage pounded with fear against her chest? They were all looking at her so intently; another reason why she had dreaded the speech for today. Their eyes kept roaming over her...she had been lucky and content with staring at the very back wall, intentionally ignoring eye-contact with any of the other students. Damn this irrational fear…damn it all. Luckily, her phobia was a much kept and secure secret from anyone else. In fact, the only one who had ever known was…. “Haruka,” she said flatly to herself, the name of the previous White King sounding alien on her tongue. A wave of emotion immediately hit her like a freight train, and she reached forward to grip onto something for fear of falling back. How ironic it really was. They had shared the same goals, no? They were going to complete those goals together too. And then… “You idiot,” she muttered sadly, her fear now dissolved and enveloped in anguish. “You said you would help me. We finally made up and…you [i]promised[/i] too. And then you…I’ll find your murderer. I’ll avenge you…I’ll carry out both of our goals, Haruka. There’s nothing else I can really do anyway.” Recovering from her short panic attack, the Student President took the time to readjust her glasses and exit the stage from the left. By the time she walked out of the auditorium, the number of students had decreased to the point of there being almost no one present. Good. The less people looked at her, the better. --- [u][b][center]Deep Ground Online[/b][/center][/u] The world of Deep Ground. Amazing that it was still being funded after the events of one month prior. Since that time, Player reports of a masked man observing PvP battles and Dissolution hunts had flourished from across the world, the most prominent of which coming from Purple Crown Academy. Rumors were even noted that one of Deep Ground’s very own Kings encountered the enigmatic being face to face, though it’s hazy to the public which King that was. According to witnesses, the masked man was, aptly so, a masked Avatar who possessed the ability to change his status from [b]Player[/b] to [b]Enemy NPC[/b] with presumably little to no effort. Just who is he anyway? Some kind of meta-troll lurking around the game? An Easter Egg maybe? Or perhaps he was actually the Player Avatar for the original developer for the Deep Ground Program? No one really knew….but no doubt, many Players wanted to find out. As for Faded City, life went on as normal. Except of course, the constant warfare and strife that now became a daily life-style. Not exactly new given the game’s nature, but certainly exaggerated due to the Ebony Stryker’s efforts. Dissolution rates had returned to normal since the Corpse Collector incident, though there were still mild glitches with the servers here and there. Work of the masked man? Who could say for sure?