13th Project: Substitute Coder

Chapter 3: A New Face in Town

Ugh, this hurts my head. I ain't waking up and going to school to see nothing peculiar. I was hoping that a Hacker showed up and threw stuff at me. I fought a Malware last week and this fed me with energy to face another strong opponent. But I was only left disappointed.

A droplet of water poured down on my cheeks, followed by another one. In a matter of seconds, a shower of rain almost gave me another cold bath. Good thing I immediately ran inside the hallway of a nearby school building to take shelter. It was getting cold and I even forgot my sweater. What a great day. Insert sarcasm here.

"Hey kid! What are you doing here?!"

My "Coder soul" almost left my body after a voice rang to my ears. Fucking hell. I thought there's gonna be no one strolling around at this time of the day. But damn, I was wrong.

Turning my head towards the direction of that voice, I found a green-haired guy with a newsboy cap and a uniform similar to what our school janitors wear. He clenched his grip onto the mop he was holding, which probably meant he was getting suspicious of me. How do I get out of this?

Simple.

An old classic alibi.

"Uhm. I was searching for my phone that I dropped somewhere here. It's an expensive one and it had a sentimental value to me, that's why I had to trespass just to find it!"

Totally a lie, I know. Well, I hope he bites it-

"Uh-huh? You just realized you dropped your phone then searched for it at this time?" The school janitor raised his eyebrows on me, which made me a bit conscious on my alibi.

"Yeah. I was kinda oblivious over my stuff, which is why I kept forgetting things."

What the hell? Why did he have to test me? Is he getting skeptical of my presence? Can't believe these codes were such a pain in the ass. I got yelled at by Keith and I don't want to repeat it ever again. These people really have a lot of questions on their sleeves.

Wait.

"Hey! I haven't seen you before in this school! Are you a new guy or just someone pretending to work here?" It's my time to retaliate. I'm getting cornered if I don't do anything in this situation.

"I took a night shift as a janitor and I've been working here for a long time. Diligently, okay? Pretending to work here? Of course, you're gonna mistook me as a trespasser like you!"

His furious glare pierced me on my spot. He actually got a point there. Damn. I should've researched everything about this school from the start.

"Woah, calm down, Sir. You don't have to be overly defensive."

"I'm not being defensive. I'm just stating facts. Now get out! I don't care if you're a student here. You're a disrespectful kid!" He yelled out loud. He's gonna beat the shit out of me if I stay any longer.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm going to leave right away." I bowed just to show my sincere apology and turned around.

But before my feet took a step, I voiced out my realization with a smirk on my face.

"By the way, nice codes you got there, Mr. McDoesntExist."

The hallway was surrounded by a yellow barrier in just a split second. That gave my hypothesis the affirmation it needed for my satisfaction.

The janitor I met was a Hacker.

-

Botan's POV

A ring from my phone threw my drowsiness off the room. There's only one reason I'm getting a call and it's job-related. Hope it's nothing related to that "Coder" stuff or whatever it was.