Strongest Superhuman System - Chapter 300

Chapter 300: Patrick Grey
“We have an order for three burgers and four drinks! Bring the special around and don’t forget that table three made an order as well! Where is everyone? Oh, Arit, you’re finally here, grab an apron and go back to help Mario!”

A woman was shouting out orders from behind a counter as she smiled at some customers waiting for their food. Once the woman saw Arit, she told her to go to the back and Arit nodded as she dropped her bag in the employee locker and went to grab her apron. She tied it behind her as she made her way to the back and greeted the man standing in front of the grill.

“Hey, Mario. Florence seems really pissed today.”

“Bah! The woman keeps screaming like witch! Acting like it will make the grill faster! If she wants more food, she should buy more grills! This single grill is a travesty for a chef!”

Mario was a short, chubby Mexican man with some tattoos on his arm and a teardrop tattoo under his left eye. He had a toothpick in his mouth that he rolled around with his tongue as if it were a cigar, and he had an intense look in his eyes as he watched the burgers sizzling on the grill.

Arit chuckled at what Mario said and went to start working on the fries. She noticed eyes on her back and turned around to see Mario looking at her weirdly. She raised a brow and asked him what the matter was.

Mario chuckled knowingly.

“Nothing, you just seem different today! You have been smiling like an idiot and your skin is glowing like sun. My madam used to have the same look when I gave her a good spanking! Can tell you had a very good night!”

Arit blushed at Mario’s bluntness and waved him away.

“Stop saying nonsense.”

Mario chuckled again as he turned some of the burgers on the grill.

“I envy you, Arit. Youth is a time to enjoy good moments with loved ones. I can tell you are using it to its fullest. I was a fool as a youth and made many mistakes that made me lose a lot of time with my madam, and now that I am getting life on track, she is no longer with me. She has moved on due to my foolishness. Do not make the same mistakes I made, Arit. Hold tight to your lover and never betray the love you have for him. That is the true meaning of life and love.”

Arit gained a small smile on her face when she heard Mario talk, but before she could say anything back, the voice of Florence from the front counter echoed through the kitchen again.

“Where are those three burgers I asked for!? Mario, don’t let me catch you slackingin there again! Bring the burgers out now!”

“Okay! Okay! Just wait, you witch! Arit, help me with the grill, I need to package fries and burgers before the witch tries to cast a spell on me!”

Mario quickly started to wrap the burgers into the packaging and Arit hurried to take his place at the grill as he left to hand them to Florence. Mario cussed under his breath as he came back and went to grab the fries for the customers.

—

The Federation of America went through a lot of drastic changes ever since the Armageddon Anima attacked four years ago, but the largest change that it went through was the introduction of a letter-based city system that was used to designate all the cities in the federation.

Mark and Arit lived in City A. This was the second largest city in America, only dwarfed by the much larger City S that was the main headquarters for the Superhuman Association.

But when it came down to education and learning, there was only one city in the federation that could claim to have the highest academic index amongst all the other cities. This city was City D. City D housed more than ten universities and twenty high schools, all of which were some of the best in the entire country.

And in such an academically gifted city like City D, there was always a lot of competition between the schools to see which of them was the very best. Every school there held a lot of pride in their students and they wanted to show that their students were the best in the country, so they would regularly have a nationwide competition twice every year that was used to determine the very best school in the country.

It was called the Academics Championship.

It didn’t matter what your course of choice was, neither did it matter what year you were in university or high school, the competition was open to everyone and the only things that would be tested were arithmetic, linguistic, and general knowledge. The students that were entered into this competition ranged from high school students to finalists in universities who believed they possessed the most knowledge out of all the students, and the winner of the competition would not only bring fame to their school, but to themselves. They would be seen as a legend among students and they would be considered the very best in everything academically related.

Every year, more than ten thousand students would enter the competition. They were all there fighting to bring fame and glory to themselves and everyone supporting them.

But all that changed three years ago, when Patrick Grey entered the academic scene for the first time.

As a child, Patrick’s family had always known he was special. He did not cry when other children cried, he did not laugh when other children laughed. There was always a cold detachment in his eyes that showed he was analyzing everything around him like a robot. Cold and unfeeling.

Patrick’s parents were terrified of him. They were so scared of him that they did not want to send him to regular school like other children because they were afraid of how different he was. They home-schooled him for a long time, and they sent Patrick’s sister away from home and made her study in a boarding school so she wouldn’t interact with him much. Patrick was always alone and it wasn’t until he was old enough to go to middle school that Patrick met Mark.

Patrick’s parents ran a paint shop for automobiles and Patrick was taken along when they went to make a deal with the Vanitas company. Patrick was made to stay in the waiting room and that was where he met Mark for the first time.

Even as a child, Mark was very blunt and his blunt attitude did not mix well with Patrick’s rude attitude. There were a lot of glares and shouting between the two children when they met for the first time since they couldn’t see eye to eye on many matters. But as time went on and they kept seeing each other after Patrick’s parents got the contract to supply a portion of the paint for Vanitas Motors, they eventually realized that they had a lot more in common than they initially thought. They became friends.