Chapter 3

    “I only let you win, so don't act proud of yourself. It’s nothing to be proud of. It was sheer luck,” said the man as he turned his head for a split second, an angry expression flashing across his face. 

     “Admit that you love pain and love getting your ass whooped by a girl,” said Kaeya as she laughed at him. 

   “I admit nothing; you got some nerves, girl, for saying that with a straight face,” said the man as he got in front of her face.

   “The little dog has the guts to stand up to his master,” said Kaeya as she squeezed his face and pinched the side of his cheek. 

   “I’m no one's dog. Get that straight in your head, and you being 2nd rank is a fluke,” said the man as he kicked her in the stomach. 

        “My, aren't we selfish? Get yourself to the nurse, or I might have fun kicking your ass in there so you don't bother me all day,” said Kaeya as she walked off. 

     “You don't even know my name, and you call yourself 2nd rank, and you can't remember the top 100 ranks,” said the man. 

   “Your name isn't relevant. Will remembering it get me anywhere? No, and if it makes you feel better, why don't you tell me your name?" said Kaeya as she stopped briefly to hear him out. 

    “My name is Apophis Typheus,” he looked at her angrily.

    “Watch your back the next time we meet,” said Apophis as he glared at her. 

   She rolled her eyes at him. “I heard you out. Now, if you excuse me, I have a class to attend,” said Kaeya as she left.

        He got annoyed and went to the nurse’s office to get rid of his headache. 

      “Wow, I didn't think you would hear him out for once, and he has good grades but lacks a good personality,” said Daemon as he closed his book.

   “He’s hopeless and useless and has no manners. Him being here was sheer luck,” said Kaeya as they went to class.

    “He thinks he can beat me; I won't be losing to him any time soon,” said Kaeya as she focused on her assignments. 

    “Let him think what he wants. At the end of the day he is a sore loser. What matters most now is our studies,” said Daemon as he worked on his assignment. 

    The day went by as fast as it started, and they all headed to the club. 

      “Now, can I have everyone's attention? This meeting is about how we plan for the future of a new society, but it’s going to take a lot of work,” said Daemon as he took a deep breath. 

     “Since all of us are from different countries, it would be better if you all would govern your own area, but all of you will keep in contact with me. I will be the main one ruling, and you guys are my equal to the end of our lives,” said Daemon.

   “That sounds fair, but are you sure no one will get in your way?" asked Sylvie as she raised her hand. 

  “With all of your help, I’ll be able to handle that,” said Daemon as he acknowledged her question. 

  “What if the governments get in your way? How will you handle them?" asked Ambrose. 

   “That's a good question to ask. I made some designs for androids, which will help us protect children from abuse, among other things,” said Daemon. 

     “That's all good, but what if they go haywire? What do you plan to do about it?” said Kaeya. 

    “Cousin, I have a plan. It’s called looking into their coding and making no errors, and they will be tested many times before being shown to the world,” said Daemon. 

   “I can help you make the androids, but what do you want them to do?" asked Ji-Hu as he gave him a curious look. 

  “To protect the innocents and the children who did no wrong and to fight against anyone that goes against me,” said Daemon. 

  “Seems easy to do,” said Ji-Hu as he began to make the program on his laptop. 

  “I will also be helping you with this since we have to make them so they don't turn against us,” said Daemon. 

       “Won’t it be challenging to control people because they're not the easiest to deal with,” said Karmaria as she calmly looked at Daemon. 

      “The only way to show them who's boss is to take the head of the president they look up to, and we take their precious light source,” said Daemon.

     “This is an amazing plan, but we have to time it perfectly, or it won’t work,” said Thiên hà as she looked at everyone. 

    “If you don't act soon, the world might fall apart because of the idiot president we have,” said Sterene. 

   “We can't act as if we can walk up to their faces and say, ‘Hey, we're going to take your position and kick them out just like that,” said Azura. 

    “Hey, why is no one asking? What if someone takes your place and kills you?" said Chien.

      “I’m not letting anyone take it or kill me for it, and any dimwit that does will have a hard time controlling people,” said Daemon.

      “The future is uncertain, but we won't know unless we try to save it,” said Clover. 

    “What else do we need to know to improve?" asked Anong as she wrote down everything that was being said.  

     “All of you will relax; we’ll discuss things later. We have a lot to do, and we have to write what the club does; we would rather not get disbanded for not explaining what our club does,” said Daemon. 

    “We have to hide the fact that we are using this club to rearrange this world, so we should tell them this is a history club, and it’s not lying. We are studying the past and different parts of the world,” said Kaeya. 

    “Sounds fine, but that would mean extra work for all of us?” Sylvie said.

       “Yes, but it won't be the end of the world. Now, back to coding since we didn't get to finish talking about it,” said Ji-Hu. 

     “The androids will have to be guarded. They have a mind of their own but were not foolish enough to let them rampage like monsters,” said Jaw-Long. 

    “We will work on the androids and coding,” said Daemon as he quickly drew the design and devised a plan.

     “Whoa, that's some planning you came up with, and you did the android's design,” said Azura as she glanced at the design. 

   “Azura, since you’re good with clothing, I want to leave you in charge of giving them a unique design for them to wear,” said Daemon. 

    “Leave that up to me then; I will show you the sketches of the design I came up with,” said Azura. 

      “What else will today's meeting be about?" said Kaeya as she laid her face on the table.

     “Not that much. It’s all about coordinating our plans, but I need you to pick up some tools I left in my locker. It will be heavy, so be sure to ask someone here to help you,” said Daemon. 

     “More of your heavy lifting, great. Can someone help me with this?" asked Kaeya. 

    “I’ll help you out on that,” said Chien as he walked with her to the locker. 

    “We all have our parts to do, so move along, and thanks,” said Daemon as he continued to work on the plans along with Jaw-Long and Ji-Hu. 

   “This must be the locker, and he said this is the code,” said Kaeya as she opened the locker and saw how big the machine was. 

      “He needs to choose his words carefully; this machine weighs a ton,” said Kaeya as she tried to carry it out independently before asking for help. 

    “I’ll go get the hand truck dollies. It might be impossible to carry it back to the clubroom without breaking our backs, and our club is upstairs on the 3rd floor,” said Chien. 

    “Not trying to complain here, but he needs to select the right person for the job,” said Kaeya as she gently placed it on the ground.

    He came back with a hand truck dolly. “I’ll help you lift it on, and you can carry the wires and small laptops; I will push this back, so you don't have to do that much,” said Chien. 

   “How nice of you, Chien, that you would help me out,” said Kaeya as she gathered the remaining things. They headed to the elevator.

     “We're back, so how's the planning going?” asked Kaeya as she and Chien placed the stuff down. 

    “It’s going well. I think by tomorrow, we’ll be able to build them. We just don’t know how to do the skins yet, but it won't be long until we find out how to replicate them just like ours. They will have all different sorts of skins, so there will be no discrimination,” said Daemon exhaling. 

   “Oh, that will be astonishing to see,” said Chien as he looked at the designs. 

    “Will they be able to move around, or do you have a small prototype to show us?” asked Kaeya. 

    “Oh, we did make a small one,” said Daemon as he took the cloth off the small android. 

  “This one looks cute, doesn't it?" said Ji-Hu.

   “We made this little one here to help us to see if anything goes wrong when we make a bigger one,” said Jaw-Long. 

     “So cute; what's the name you guys plan to give it?” said Thiên hà. 

    “We haven't thought that far yet, and thanks for suggesting that,” said Ji-Hu as he looked at all the programs they placed in the little android. 

   “It’s your call; you should be the one to name it, Daemon,” said Jaw-Long looking over at him.

   Daemon held the little android in his hand and tried to find a name to fit it. 

   “Artemis is a good name, what do you all think?” Daemon looked at everyone. 

 “It’s a great name!” They all agreed at the same time. 

   “Now, let’s set up the equipment since Kaeya and Chien have brought it back,” said Jaw-Long as he separated the wires. 

  “How on earth did you fit this machine in there, and when did you place it there?" said Kaeya as she stared at him. 

       “You don't have to stare at me hard; I’ll tell you. It’s simple: I secretly came here at night and placed it in my locker, which was already big,” said Daemon. 

     “The second part sounds about right, but the first one seems like a joke,” said Kaeya as she looked at the machine. 

     “Fine, you got me. I told the school that it was a project, and they said it was fine to bring it here,” said Daemon. 

    “Now that sounds better than that joke you told me,” said Kaeya as she walked away to study since she had to help Daemon. 

     “Let's see what else Artemis can do?" asked Ji-Hu as he gathered everything to test Artemis' intelligence. 

    “What do we teach him first?” Jaw-Long glanced at the things on the table. 

   “Let’s start with basic things like math, reading, and understanding others' feelings just by hearing them out and responding to them with honest options,” said Daemon as he grabbed the math problem and placed it in front of Artemis. 

    “Try solving it,” said Ji-Hu as he gave him the pencil. 

     Artemis picked up the pencil, solved each math problem individually, and finished in 5 minutes. 

    “Wow, what a record! Let's see what grade we will give you for this,” said Jaw-Long as he looked at the answers and handed them to Ji-Hu to examine. 

   “Now that's impressive, but he needs to learn more before we even think of making more like him,” said Daemon as he looked at the sheet of paper. 

     They gave Artemis his score, which was 100 percent. He got excited and jumped on their shoulder, showing them his gratitude. 

     “Aw, Artemis, there's no need to thank us. You answered the questions right; now, onto the next thing on the list,” said Daemon. 

     “Hey everyone, I finished the report. So I’m heading out to give this to them,” said Kaeya as she left.

   They thanked her and went back to their studies. 

   “Well, if it isn’t rank 2, Kaeya is walking in the hall instead of studying for our big exams. I will soon win your spot,” said Apophis as he appeared beside her.

   “Oh, I’m here on important matters, and as for studying, I finished a while back, and I won’t be losing that spot any time soon,” said Kaeya as she glared at him. 

    “We will see how long that rank is yours,” said Apophis as he walked away, grinning. 

     “How troublesome, but I got to give them this before their office hours end,” said Kaeya as she rushed off. 

    “Here is our report from the club,” said Kaeya as she handed the reports to the office lady. 

   She checked over it, nodded, and told Kaeya they had to submit a monthly report about club activities. 

  Kaeya understood and headed back to the clubroom and informed them about the reports.

 They all agreed that they would take turns doing the reports. 

    “It seems that Artemis understands others' feelings but still needs work; this is major progress that will lead us closer to our goal,” said Daemon. 

        “Tomorrow, we will start building our first big android, and Artemis will guide them and teach them what to do,” said Jaw-Long. 

       “Everyone in the club is dismissed. See you all tomorrow,” said Kaeya as she waved goodbye to them. 

      “Now, let’s clean up and head out ourselves,” said Daemon as he dusted the shelves. Kaeya cleaned up the books and placed them away. 

     “All done. Are you ready to leave now?" asked Kaeya as she washed her hands.

    “I'm done; you're the slow poke here,” said Daemon as he started laughing. 

   “Watch it; you can’t keep joking around. Let’s go since we're both done,” said Kaeya as she walked to the door.

 “It’s a joke; don’t take it seriously,” Daemon said as they walked home. 

     “Tomorrow will be a busy day, and we're having exams,” said Kaeya as she exhaled.

    “You studied hard, didn't you? So don’t feel so down. I heard from that low-life Apophis that he would steal your second-place title,” Daemon said as he crossed his arms and leaned on the wall.

    “He wishes, but ultimately, he’s a sore loser, and why isn't he challenging your number one rank?" said Kaeya as she crossed her arms

   Daemon couldn't help but daydream about the amazing things they could accomplish once they had resolved all their obligations of finishing school.