Sterling Crest Academy didn't smell like a school. It smelled like expensive cologne, leather car seats, and the subtle, metallic tang of a place where consequences went to die.
Evander "Evan" de Clarivon adjusted his glasses, the thick lenses sliding down the bridge of his nose for the third time that morning.
He looked at the massive gold-leafed gates and sighed. He was wearing a beige cardigan that made him look like a moth, carrying a leather briefcase that had seen better decades.
Focus, Evan. New life. New career. Just be a normal, kind, inspiring teacher. No more "Ghost" work, he whispered to himself.
'Jackpot,' he had thought when he saw the salary offer. Now, looking at the "student" Ferraris parked in the lot, he felt a familiar itch at the base of his skull
"Yo, check it out. Is that the new history teacher or a walking potato?"
A group of Grade 11 boys was loitering by the lockers. The mid-tier bullies. The ones who lived for "hazing" new staff.
Ah. Of course. Every school has these.
The leader, a boy with a messy perm and a gold chain, stepped into Evan's path. He took a long, obnoxious pull from a high-end vape and exhaled a thick cloud of minty smoke directly into Evan's face.
Evan coughed, waving his hand to clear the air.
"Excuse me, Mr..." He glanced at the boy's ID. "Mr. Reyes. There's a no-smoking policy within fifty meters of the—"
"Policy?" The boy laughed, his friends joining in. "The principal is my uncle's golf buddy. Policies are for poor people, Teach."
Evan smiled—that patient, gentle, "Green Flag" smile.
"I see." Paused. "Well, your uncle might be interested to know that mint vapor actually clings to polyester uniforms. It's quite hard to get out."
The boys blinked.
They expected him to tremble, not offer laundry advice.
"What a weirdo," Reyes muttered, bumping Evan's shoulder as he walked past. "Hey, Teach! Don't cry on your first day, ha!"
Evan sighed, heading toward Class 3-B.
It's okay. They're just energetic. I can handle this.
But then, as he stepped into the classroom, something flickered.
[System Initialization: 99%...]
Evan froze. A translucent, blue hologram was floating right in front of his nose.
"Wait," Evan whispered.
He blinked hard.
The screen stayed. He swiped his hand through it, but his fingers passed right through the light.
"Is this... a migraine? Am I dehydrated?"
He turned to a girl sitting in the front row who was busy painting her nails.
"Excuse me, Miss? Do you see a... a glowing rectangle right here? In the air?"
The girl looked up, looked at the empty air in front of Evan, and then looked at him like he was a bug. "Are you high, Sir?"
"What? No! It's right here!" Evan began poking at the air, his face pale. "It has writing on it. It says... Authority? Does that mean anything to you?"
The class erupted in laughter.
"Yo! The new teacher is a crackhead!" a boy shouted from the back. "They really couldn't find anyone else, so they hired someone with a screw loose!"
"Maybe it's a ghost!" another laughed. "He's seeing the ghost of the last teacher we bullied out of here!"
Evan's face went red. He felt like a total fool.
Great. First day and they think I've lost my mind. Maybe the stress of the interview was too much.
He ignored the blue screen, assuming it was a hallucination, and walked toward his desk.
Thwack!
A crumpled ball of paper hit the back of his head. Evan stopped. He didn't get angry; he just felt a bit sad. He turned around to say something kind about respect—
—and that's when he saw it.
A heavy, oak chair was flying through the air, launched by a laughing student in the back.
It was aimed directly at Evan's face.
The world suddenly turned gray.
The students' laughter froze mid-air. The dust motes in the sunlight stopped moving. The chair was suspended just inches from Evan's glasses.
Even the hum of the fluorescent lights went silent.
[Initialization Complete.]
[The Educator Dominion System is now Active.]
[Emergency Protocol: Student 'Markus Lee' has attempted physical assault.]
[Conditional Reward Registered: Skill – 'Absolute Silence'.]
"N-No way," Evan whispered, staring at the frozen chair.
He reached out and touched the leg of the floating furniture.
It was solid.
"This... this is real?"
He looked at the hologram again.
It wasn't a hallucination. It was a Gradebook of the Gods.
[Quest: Your first lesson. Make them sit down.]
[Time remaining in 'Frozen State': 10 seconds.]
Evan looked at the frozen, mocking faces of his students.
His 'Sleeping Dragon' instincts, suppressed for so long, finally gave a tiny, dangerous spark.
He didn't move the chair. He just adjusted his glasses, stepped two inches to the left, and waited for the clock to hit zero.
3... 2... 1...
[Time Resume.]
The chair whistled past Evan's ear, smashing into the chalkboard with a thunderous CRASH.
The classroom went silent, not out of respect, but out of shock that the "weirdo" teacher didn't even flinch.
Evan didn't look at the broken chair.
He looked at the boy who threw it, his polite smile now carrying a very different, very cold energy.
"Markus, was it?" Evan asked softly. "That was a very poor trajectory. We'll discuss your physics grade after I've finished my lecture. Now..."
He tapped the hologram that only he could see.
"Everyone. Sit."