Well... My girls were all looking at me with sparkling eyes.

Ok first of all, the place I got trapped in was basically a meat grinder and a target rich environment for me so there was little risk for me and a lot of reward.

Don’t expect me to be really good in any other situation, ok?

Since the lessons only officially start tomorrow to give everyone else time to vacate the station, we returned to our ship for the day.

Fortunately, we would be allowed to leave our ship where it is since we’re now officially students of this Exo-Knight Academy.

After that intense test, I don’t really want to jump right into piloting again so this works for me.

As we were returning to our ship, however, we found an entire group of Mercs blocking the corridor that led to our ship, all of them with their weapons out but held loosely at their sides for now.

"I don’t know how you cheated, bitch... But we won’t say anything if you hand over those bracelets right now," The one in front of the group spat.

The guy had two horns jutting out of his head and even had what looked like a spaded tail snaking out from behind him, which I believe were the results of Gene mods and not him being an alien race.

I blinked at the not so subtle threat that I was just given and eyed the people behind him.

There’s about a dozen of them and none of them seemed to have any problem with what was going on right now, which means none of them were coerced into this.

I frowned, "Are you seriously trying to rob us? In the academy itself?"

He scoffed, "Does it look like we’re here to preach to you or something? Obviously we’re trying to rob you so hurry up and hand it over."

"I don’t understand... They pretty much already knew who the people who passed the test were. Don’t you think they’ll realise that something is off when the original people who passed the test did not show up?"

The guy let out a bark of laughter, "Hahahaha! This is why I like newbies so much! They really are clueless! Ahahaha! Listen here, bitch. Hand your bracelets over or we’re taking them off your corpses!"

"Is that really ok? I’d think that murdering someone in such a place is going to get you into more trouble than it’s worth isn’t it?"

"That’s why I said I like newbies so much. Why do you think that they didn’t just register you as a student directly but only registered the bracelet you’re wearing?"

I gave him an incredulous look, "You’re not seriously suggesting that they are encouraging everyone to fight for it even if they don’t pass the test?"

"Ha! This is part of the test too, idiot! To see if you can protect yourself even without the Exo-Knight! Someone who is only able to fight with an Exo-Knight and not able to fight outside of it doesn’t deserve to have one!"

What the fuck?

Can I just point out again that this is pretty much like getting a driver’s license? This is like saying if you can’t travel without a car, then you don’t deserve to drive.

Dude, this is not that serious...

Mara, are you really sure that this is the best school for us? I really think that the instructor here is just being a chuuni and pretending he’s more important than he really is. Why is he even setting things up like that? Does he want to see people killing each other in his station?

I let out a sigh, "So I take it that this is really a mugging and not just some test by the Academy to see if we deserve to be students?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I’m asking because you threatened our lives which means that you have no problems being killed either, do you?"

He raised the pistol in his hand to point at me, "Bitch, do you even realise the position you are in? Do you really think that you even stand a chance right now?"

I raised my hands, "You got me. You want the bracelet? Here."

I slipped the bracelet off my wrist and everyone was basically looking at the bracelet that I had raised up into the air.

Before that guy could say anything, I threw it up into the air, drawing their attention to the bracelet that flew up above them.

Well, I didn’t even need to give a signal as my girls behind me lowered themselves and took aim with their weapons at the thugs.

The bracelet dropped back down into my palm and the thugs finally realised that our side was now pointing their weapons at them as well.

He opened his mouth, probably trying to shout out a warning to his goons behind him or something but he never got the chance.

My girls opened fire even as I moved to slip the bracelet back on, lighting the corridor up with bullets and gunning a good number of them down before they could even lift their own weapons.

When they did, I stood in front of my girls as the ballistic rounds flew my way, absorbing the damage for them as their shield.

Well... To be more precise, letting Renata eat up the bullets instead.

And the ones that used energy blasters, I let my shield handle them which was enough since there were only a few of them and we should be able to take them out before my shield depletes.

When they finally realised that they were completely outmatched, the remaining ones quickly raised their hands.

"Stop! Stop! We give! We give!"

"It wasn’t our idea! Please!"

"We surrender!!"

I raised my hand and my girls stopped shooting as well, though we kept our weapons pointed at them nevertheless.

I gestured at them, "Drop your weapons and leave... And whatever Credit Chips you have in your pockets right now for trying to screw with us."

The thugs stared at each other, probably hesitating after I told them to empty their pockets.

Hey, they tried to kill us, so they should be prepared to be killed. They also tried to rob us, so of course they should be prepared to be robbed as well!

Seeing that they weren’t complying with my very reasonable request, I pulled out my shotgun and pointed it at them and I guess they got the message that I was absolutely serious about it.

They quickly dropped their weapons before digging into their pockets to drop a few Credit Chips on the ground.

Obviously I wasn’t going to waste time checking if they really dropped everything. This was just meant to be a form of compensation from these idiots for trying this shit on us.

I then gestured for them to leave and they quickly turned around and started running.

But they only managed to run for a few steps before several androids suddenly turned around the corner and blocked their way, forcing them to skid to a stop.

I thought they were going to apprehend them which would mean they were bullshitting about the stealing of the bracelet thing until the android started speaking.

"Warning. Biological waste has been detected. Please do not leave trash behind on the station and take them with you. Failure to comply will lead to your detainment and eventual expiry."

What the fuck?

If I understand correctly... The androids are basically telling these guys to take the corpses of their comrades with them or else the androids will also turn them into corpses themselves.

The fact that they weren’t even addressing the attempted robbery also meant that these thugs were telling the truth about how they wouldn’t care if these guys took the bracelets off of us and joined the academy instead.

Which confused me... The way they spoke basically told me that they were not first timers here and they most likely did this before... So they must have at least stolen some bracelets off of previous attendees before us and used them.

In that case... Why are they still doing this? Shouldn’t they have graduated and gotten their licenses? Why do they still need to steal more of them?

As though reading my mind, Amber leaned over and draped an arm on my shoulder, "They rob the bracelets and sell it back to the other people who failed to pass. They aren’t actually interested in becoming a student here."

I made a face, "What the heck? And the instructor here allows that? Was all that talk about taking the best of the best all just bullshit?"

She shrugged, "You’ll have to ask him about that. But I can bet his reason is going to be something like having the ability to protect yourself and also the resources to buy the bracelet off someone else is also an indication of being the best or something."

...

Is this academy actually alright?