Just like Sam predicted, the rumor of him beating the ** out of every senior during the first class spread like wild fire.

In fact, the speed of the news would put actual wild fires to shame. But the news mostly stayed within the gambler's academy. Except for the select few like Pearl not a lot of people knew about this situation. The student albeit a bit gossipy didn't want the prestige of their academy to be dragged down the drain.

So, they kept it within the walls.

That evening, all the seniors are gathered in the infirmary. Sam's handiwork left every single one of them with extremely compound and complicated fractures. The healers had to set the bones and the fragments in order before they could heal them and the treatment is going on stages.

One of the elders visited the infirmary and looked at the seniors coldly.

His sweeping glance stopped at Crow who is blushing in shame. The shame and the guilt are obvious on his face.

"Good, at least you know some shame.

"

The elder sneered through gritted teeth.

Crow didn't say anything. He just watched in silence.

"Hazing is one thing, but getting your asses handed to you by a junior, that too on a first day? What is wrong with all of you?

"

"We weren't able to fight back properly because of the restrictions in the Gym.

"

One of the seniors said in a light voice, almost like a whisper. But that didn't escape the keen ears of the elder.

"You should be ashamed to give that as an excuse, even to yourself. He is a junior with one cultivation level behind you. Most of you are pure warriors, while he is a warrior mage. Shouldn't you guys have the obvious advantage in this? Shouldn't your bodies be more trained than him?

"

Crow closed his eyes for a brief second and remembered the ghastly body of Sam. Riddled with scars everywhere. The scars of stabs, slashes, cuts and blunt weapons, he could see traces of all of them. A thought popped into his mind.

'There is no way our bodies went through more training than his.'

He is sure of it. But he didn't dare to say that out loud in front of the elder.

"Everyone of you suffered injuries that are very new to even the healers in the academy. They have an idea on how to treat you, but it will take some time.

Reflect on what you have done while recuperating. As for your punishment, you all owe twenty thousand gold coins to the academy. You can either pay the money directly, accomplish missions and compensate with academic credits.

"

He left immediately and didn't even bother to acknowledge the shock and the pain on the faces of the seniors. As for the juniors, who are also in the infirmary, he didn't bother to visit them. He is afraid that he might not be able to control his anger when he confronts them and might even beat the crap out of them.

What were they thinking getting involved in such a fight on their first day.

Of course, there is one freshman that he still has to talk to.

By the time he went to his office, Sam is already waiting there.

"So, you are the new fire cracker that is causing too much noise in the recent days.

"

Sam looked at him without answering.

"You are the very first recommended candidate the academy has accepted. That itself is a blemish on the academy's reputation of its impartiality. On top of that, you have a quarrel with every other academy within the region.

Now, the whole realm thinks that you causing all that trouble is orchestrated by the academy. Sooner or later the rest of the students are going to take the brunt of it.

One would have thought that you would try to make friends with the students to resist that and whoever did that would have turned out foolish, because you just beat the crap out of your peers and seniors alike.

What the hell is wrong with you?

"

Sam didn't answer. He went into a deep thought as if he is really thinking what is wrong with himself.

The elder looked at him with a blank expression. The question was rhetoric, but Sam's expression stumped him.

"Honestly, I just couldn't help myself.

"

"What?

"

"Now that I look back, I realize I could have handled it in a much simpler way. But I just couldn't help myself. I just felt like doing it in such a high profile way. Even beating the seniors today, I never bothered to stop and think if I am going overboard.

"

The elder didn't know what to say for a second. He didn't expect such a reply from Sam. It almost felt like Sam is really explaining his problem to him and he felt lost for a second. He quickly regained his composure and spoke.

"Why is that?

" He asked calmly.

Sam hummed a bit and said.

"Because I don't give a flying **. That is why.

"

Elder's expression changed. He understood what happened and his face turned red in anger. He pointed his finger at Sam and was about to yell. But Sam interrupted.

"I don't know why I am being questioned here, the seniors are the ones who started it. I am sure you have some recording device installed in the gym. You can check. They made the first move and I properly followed the rules.

They even ganged up on me, a freshman, what do you expect me to do? Take it lying down? Not gonna happen.

If you have a problem with me, kick me out of the school. I don't give a **.

"

With that Sam stood up and left.

The classes for the rest of the day are cancelled because of what Sam did and this works well for him. Because his about execute his next big thing.

That night, Sam and White are still the hot topic among the people of the region. Everyone in the city are talking about it. And while they are in the middle of that discussion, the subject of some of the old rumors attracted their attention.

The hub building that was outside the city and at the edge of the forest. There are some light pillars around the hub and they all started glowing at the same time. There are some light instruments placed on the walls of the hub at various spots and all of them glowed at the same time.

Hub looked like it is in the spot light all of a sudden and it indeed is.

It is attractive and turned a lot of eyeballs towards that direction.

But that is not all, the next thing that happened because of the hub called for more attention even from the people who didn't bother with it in the first place.

A stream of lights shot out of the large castle like building and they flew in different directions. Dozens of lights, big and small are moving at a fast pace.

But they are not exactly lights, instead they are metallic bird puppets that are in the size of ordinary birds. Some of them looked like pigeons, some looked like crows, some like parrots, there are many birds and each kind is of a different size.

They all flew towards the city and the pigeons are the first to land.

Every citizen who has a cultivation level of a Divine Plane cultivator started getting a pigeon. The puppets hovered in front of them gently and in that night time, the puppets are glowing with a warm golden light and from close up they could see how this glow is coming.

The outlines of each and every part of the bird is highlighted, they could clearly see the feather patterns, the eyes, the gaps between the feathers, the wings, talons and the beaks, all of them being highlighted by the golden glow.

They looked mesmerizingly beautiful.

The cultivators extended their hands and the pigeons landed on them gently and the next moment two things happened. A metallic band fell off of the neck of the bird and its beak opened up as a small glowing scroll slid out of it.

The cultivators caught the band and the scroll.

They were stunned to read the contents.

"Hello, my fellow resident of the Academic realm,

I am Joker. The owner of the hub; A brand-new establishment that is glowing right outside the city. Hub has been created to be an effective center of activity for this region.

It is a place where you can do business, train, hang out with your friends, make new friends, entertain yourself, eat new cuisines, exchange pointers, and much more.

This is the place that offers everything a cultivator might need. Tomorrow is its grand opening and I hope you can visit.

Tomorrow is its grand opening and every service of ours will be on a massive discounted price.

As a welcoming gift, I am offering the puppet that you have with you right now. I am sure you will like it.

See you tomorrow.

-Joker.

"

The letter fascinated every one of their recipients, more than that the puppets fascinated them.

As soon as they were done with the letter, the golden glow disappeared from both the scroll and the puppet and a piece of information popped into their minds.

It is the connection the puppets established with them.