Chapter 244
Thor!? (3)
IAM could hear the loud silence banging in his ears like a drum. The air felt thick with disbelief. Slowly, he glanced up and saw the expressions frozen on the faces around him.
All three of them were trembling like leaves caught in a storm, their mouths were slightly open, with eyes wide and disbelieving. The way they stared at IAM—like he had suddenly transformed into a pig wearing a pink tutu, covered in tattoos of stagnant water and twerking furiously on a pile of fragile eggshells—was enough to make anyone uncomfortable.
They looked utterly defeated by reality.
Reuel's jaw moved up and down like a broken puppet, a stuttering mess spilling from his mouth. "A… A-a… A… Th-tho… Thor… THOR!?"
The name left him in a wheezing gasp before he let out a strangled shout and dramatically fell backwards off his chair, hitting the ground with a loud clatter, his limbs were sprawled, and his eyes were still wide in disbelief.
"Out of all the names you could've said…" Henry leaned back slowly, staring at IAM like he was seeing him for the first time. "That's probably the last one I ever would've guessed in a million years."
Yohan spoke up next, his voice quiet and tentative. "How… how did you get to know the Thor?"
Reuel scrambled back onto his feet and staggered forward, grabbing IAM by the shoulders like he might vanish if he didn't hold on. His eyes were wide, almost manic.
"No way. You're talking about THE Thor? As in Thor—Thor?! The one who's part of that elite task unit that works directly with the government?"
Henry swallowed. "As in… the same Thor who led 800,000 ascenders against 1.2 million and still managed to hold out until reinforcements arrived? And by the time they got there… the battle was already turning?"
Yohan also added, voice laced with disbelief, "Thor… the one who massively contributed during that coordinated assault—the one meant to collapse the entire Middle Sector of Hope. But he helped turned the tide and saved like… eighty million people?"
The room fell into another stunned silence. The three of them looked at IAM as though he'd just told them he was best friends with the president. Their eyes were wide with disbelief, with mouths slightly ajar, as if trying to process the sheer weight of the name he'd just dropped.
They kept going, one after the other, piling on more and more unbelievable accomplishments. It was almost like they were trying to convince themselves it was even possible.
IAM finally raised a hand, exasperated. "Okay, okay, guys! I get it. Yes—it's that Thor. Are you happy now?"
He slouched a little, dragging a hand down his face. Truth be told, he had learned about Thor's reputation a while ago—how respected and well-known he was, how widely admired. Online, the man's name popped up constantly, like a legend walking among mortals. But seeing it now, in real life—seeing the sheer awe in his friends' faces—it struck IAM in a different way.
To him, Thor wasn't some untouchable hero. He was just Thor. A guy who sometimes complained too much, made dry jokes that didn't always land, and occasionally forgot simple things and said dumb things when he was tired. He was a friend, someone who happened to have ties with the government, sure—but still just a guy.
Now, watching his dormmates react like this, IAM realized just how differently the world saw him. It was almost surreal.
Reuel finally asked a more important question, his eyes still wide and sparkling with awe. "Wait, how do you even get to meet Thor? Is it possible for me to meet him too?! Imagine having connections to the Thor… I'd be untouchable. You couldn't tell me anything!"
IAM gave him a dry glance, his expression unreadable. "No… I don't think he'd want to meet you. He might crash out."
Reuel blinked, confused. "Crash out? What does that even mean—?"
But before he could keep talking, Yohan cut in more seriously, leaning forward slightly. "No, really. How did you meet him?"
IAM was quiet for a few moments, thinking. He weighed the pros and cons of what he could say. It was a complicated story, and not all of it needed to be laid bare. So, he decided to go with a version of the truth — filtered, but not dishonest.
"Even though I survived…" he began slowly, "I didn't come out of it unharmed. I was in a really bad position. Life-threatening, actually. I was close to dying. If it wasn't for a last-minute intervention… I probably wouldn't be here."
He glanced down at the table before continuing. "They kept me alive while transporting me to the higher sector. The journey itself wasn't easy. I had a lot of close calls."
He took a breath, his eyes narrowing slightly as he remembered. "That's where I met Thor. He was working as a representative under the government, and he visited me while I was recovering — mostly to gather information, since I was the only survivor. But somehow… we just ended up talking more. And I guess, we hit it off from there."
A wave of understanding passed through them as the pieces finally clicked together. The room grew quieter, not out of awkwardness, but out of a shared sense of clarity. The once-surreal claims now felt realistic in IAM's calm but serious explanation.
"So that's how it is..." Henry muttered, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he leaned back in his chair.
Yohan gave IAM a knowing look, nodding faintly, like he finally understood something that had been sitting just out of reach.
Reuel, of course, broke the moment with his usual flair. He grinned wide and pointed at IAM. "Pfft—now there's no way you can deny it! Or say I'm talking nonsense. I knew it! The vibe I got from day one was right. Interesting things do happen around you. You're like a walking magnet for connections and chaos!"
IAM let out a soft groan, rubbing his forehead as if trying to massage away the headache forming behind his eyes. He opened his mouth, ready to deliver his usual rebuttal—that Reuel was being ridiculous, that it wasn't like that at all.
But then... mid-sentence, he stopped.
His lips hung open slightly, and his breath caught. Something was wrong.
A cold, invisible shiver crawled up his spine, and a creeping sense of dread began to unfurl deep in his chest—slow at first, like ink bleeding into water, then blooming with a terrifying intensity.
The lightness in the room seemed to flicker. And for just a moment, everything felt... off.