Just like how Reggie was working yesterday to stay by Yvonne’s side, these students cooked and were selling food to others.

“They just sell the food, right? There's no way they have enough time to do this while attending school.”

“No, no. They did everything by themselves. That's how they earn credits and level up their cards.”

“So…now you remember how to get a higher level?”

“Not really… Reggie remembers fragments of what professor said.”

Reggie let Nova go and approached a big board positioned on the left. Since it was attached to the wall, those who had just walked in from outside normally wouldn’t see it. Nova didn't notice until the gorilla showed him.

“What's this?” He asked, glancing over the papers that were pinned onto it. Nova didn't want to read them all but the title of each document gave away that those were Jungle Madness.

“This is the school's dashboard and one of the most important things for a Wonder Phoenix student. It offers special challenges created by the teachers, advertises tournaments, gives us jobs, money, credits and that thing to level up the cards.”

“Is it always this filled?” He moved papers to the side only to find more hidden behind them! “How can you even choose what you wanna do?”

“That's because it's Wednesday. Three days a week we have full activity. That's also the best moment to get what you're looking for. You should know that some Jungle Madness are limited. Once the slots are filled no one else can join.

“Seems fair, but how do you actually find what you want in this mess?”

“It seems chaotic but they are organized: money, materials, favors and sport. There is also the undefined section if you don't know how to classify it.”

“I thought you would challenge someone on spot and make one. What's the difference here?”

“Here people look for opponents instead of bothering everyone. People can also create Jungle Madness tournaments just to watch them and be the judge.”

“...That's a thing?! I mean, it sounds cool to be the judge instead of doing it. What do you do as a judge? I'm getting curious!”

“Reggie knows that the judge balances out the rules, checks that the challengers follow them and identifies whoever breaks them. Cheating is allowed if not spotted but doing that means losing instantly.”

“Cheating here works too? Like if you win and they see you cheating after you win—"

“Yes, a win is a win. It's too late to complain.”

Nova's eyes shined with renewed interest. “This is awesome! I gotta try it!”

“You can't for now…” The gorilla said showing his phone and the card. “These two are necessary for a Jungle Madness. Me thinks Yvonne will call you again when they're ready for you.”

“Like…she'll give me another phone?”

“No!”Reggie laughed, “Yvonne will give you that famous card and a list of people you gotta meet.”

“I need to meet other people? Why?”

The ape’s stomach gurgled loudly. “REGGIE SKIPPED BREAKFAST!” He yelled, embarrassed.

“It's alright! I don't mind. Go get something for yourself and I'll wait here,” he awkwardly replied. “You can tell me more later.”

“Okay! Reggie will take something for you too!”

“No, it's not…necessary.”

Nova blinked in utter disbelief as the gorilla jumped away, landing in the crowd of animals lined up waiting for their turn. He just used him to give himself a reason to do that. He dragged him there because he was the hungry one.

“MOVE ASIDE! ME HUNGRY AND NOVA WANTS TO EAT!”

Reggie created a chain reaction and other animals joined him. The weakest ones had to give up, moving aside for the biggest animals to show off in a fight.

“Oh God…”

He noticed that the closest students stared at him. “Uh… I-I don't know him, I-I swear!” He laughed, walking backwards. “I didn't tell him to do that.”

The panda, focused too much on what was happening in front of him, didn't look behind him and stepped on someone's foot, freaking him out even more.

“AH, I'm sorry!”

“I'm fine, don't worry about it. Why are you panicking?”

“NO! GIVE IT TO ME! REGGIE NEEDS THIS FOR HIS NEW PANDA FRIEND!”

Reggie screams reached them. The student turned around to see but already understood what was going on seeing that Nova was desperately hiding his face.

“I get it.” He grabbed his paw and dragged him away.

“I shouldn't leave him like that…” The panda mumbled back.

“We can stay if you want. You sure you can handle it?”

Nova slowly uncovered his face to glance over to Reggie. Instant regret filled his soul.

“No, no. Okay, you win. Let's move somewhere else as soon as possible.”

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

He was trying so hard to blend in, but his attempts to peacefully visit the school died in less than twenty four hours.

“Everyone will look at you for a good while buddy,” the stranger began. “Your Jungle Madness was awesome and now that a gorilla went on a rampage for you, you need to deal with it.”

“I don’t want this…”

“I feel you. That's what happens when you're the celebrity of the moment.”

“I never liked popularity.”

“We’ve arrived.” The guy stopped in front of a big window that showed the entire courtyard. “Don't look yet. I'll tell you when the commotion is over.”

“Thank you very much for dragging me out of it. I was kind of paralyzed so I couldn't think straight.”

“It's alright. We're classmates! We should help each other, am I right?” He smiled wiggling his ears and tail playfully.

“Classmates?”

The realization hit him like a slap to the face.

A husky with brown eyes wearing a black and yellow hoodie and black trousers. He was around Ryuu's size but his personality was the complete opposite. This guy was extremely chill and easygoing.

“OH YEAH, I REMEMBER YOU NOW!”

“I'm honored to be remembered by such an important figure!” He chuckled, “I'm Arthur, fifteen years old. Nice to meet you Nova.”

“Please don't say that…”

“Come on, it was just an innocent joke. Don't bring yourself down like that.”

“Tell me the truth. What happened isn’t so uncommon to you, is it?”

“It was a Jungle Madness after all. I wasn't as weirded out as you, yes.”

“I'm sorry, could you be more specific?”

“Didn't Ryuu warn you about it? When food is running out the chefs make Jungle Madness for the winners, so instead of them fighting against students the latter will fight over each other to get the prize.”

“So…Reggie yelled because—"

“Intuitive, huh? Yes, he was declaring his entrance in the fight.”

“Jeez, he could've said something about it sooner.”

“From what I heard he's a bodyguard. He must be more inclined to take action and protect others. Not much of a talker or listener.”

Nova peeked out of the window and looked down. The gorilla was still fighting, pushing people back and forth while others laid on the ground, exhausted.

“Wasn't it one-on-one?”

“Nah, it can be as many contenders as you want.”

“What about the phone and card Reggie mentioned before?”

“These are classified as special Jungle Madness so you don't need to do that thing, but you're required to do one specific action to signal to others that you're joining.”

“I see…”

The husky pulled out a small bag out of his hoodie and pulled a donut, “You want one? I bought two. It was for Ryuu but he didn't show up.”

“You two best friends or something?” He asked, reluctantly taking the sweet from his paw.

“We randomly met online while playing a game two years before enrolling here so yeah, we're quite close.”

“I know it's sudden, but could you explain the level system to me? Reggie said he didn't know the details very well.”

“That's because it was recently updated.”

“Updated?”

“Basically every year they add something new to keep things fresh. I honestly really like it. It feels like a game, don't you think? I never thought I would say such things about a school!” He excitedly howled and instantly blushed. “Sorry…when I get excited I can't contain myself.”

“I don't mind! Please tell me what you know.”

“The level system goes from one to five. When you're first auditioned you start anywhere from level one to three. Four and five need to be earned during your school life. Level one is assigned to whoever does a poor job or fails their audition. The school thinks that even if you didn't do your best you still have something in you so they offer you this spot. Everyone in school labels them paid students. They're just lucky individuals who can't do anything and will ruin class performance. Usually there is only one paid student per class.”

“Are they stuck in that level or can they get out?”

“Actually getting out is easy for us but hard for them. The condition to earn a level two card is a display of talent. Show the school that you can do something and it's done, you get your level two.”

“Oh, okay.”

“You following? There is a lot of shit to take in. Maybe you should rent a manual and read it slowly.

“THERE’S A MANUAL?!”

“Yeah, but it's not that big. It should be around fifty, one hundred pages. Depends if the updated version is already out.”

“I thought it was going to be easier but no matter how interesting this is it's getting harder to memorize so many things. I just want to find the answer to what Yvonne told me.”

“What do you mean? Did she ask you to look for something?”

“She said that my mother was troubled by the level system but so far I haven’t found anything weird…”

“Troubled? That's odd. The level system actually makes a student's life easier thanks to the bonuses we earn by leveling up.”

“Reggie mentioned that. Do you think there's something that could make my mom worried?”

“That's the funny part. There is nothing of the sort; it's the other way around. From level two to level five you get discounts that increase as you level up.”

When he finished his explanation everything clicked. Yvonne didn't mention the problem, she mentioned what he could've done to help his mom.

“Arthur! Tell me how much your family pays.”

The dog blinked for the unusual question, “Uh…I think five hundred dollars every month?”

“That's a lot…”

“And I have the level three discount! Paid students gotta give one thousand dollars to the school every month,” he chuckled.

“...ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?!” The panda panicked, clutching his jacket.

“Woah buddy, calm down. Yes, I'm sure, but it's not like you're level one! That Jungle Madness you did ensured you level two or three.”

Nova thought about it but everything would fit only if he were level one. He quickly understood why his mother was so worried. She didn't know if Marvin alone could've sustained all the things they needed. The polar bear had been fiddling with a calculator when he walked in.

“One more question Arthur. Is it possible to level up before the payment in order to reduce it?”

“Yup, absolutely. We pay the first day of each month, so if you need to level up you have around three weeks. Everyone hurried to do that as soon as they knew.”

The panda let him go and exhaled, relieved. He found his priority for the time being.

“I gotta go back to Yvonne then. She knows my level right?”

“I guess she does.”

Nova looked out of the window again. He saw only two animals left and one of them was Reggie, yet the huge crowd of students chanting for the one they wanted to win truly stood out to him. He didn't understand why it was normal now. When he was standing in the cafeteria they looked so puzzled, like it wasn't supposed to happen. Nova started to wonder if he was the problem.

“Am I overthinking this?” He questioned out loud, raising doubt.

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing… Maybe I just need to get used to this place, that's all.”

Arthur said what he's done gained him popularity but he felt like there was something else in the air. Things weren't right and it seemed like a joke after everything he's witnessed so far.

Nova woke up in front of the headmistress’ door after wandering inside his mind. He returned to reality when his brain registered the information that her door was now locked.

“Why is it locked?” The panda muttered as he desperately tried to break through.

“Really? She usually stays in her office when it's break time.” He quickly unlocked his phone. “Maybe there is a Jungle Madness going on where she's the judge?”

A few taps on the smartphone denied his theory. “Okay nevermind, nothing is scheduled for now. Maybe she had something urgent to do?”

Nova slammed on the door with both his fists and head as he realized the reason why she wasn't in her office anymore. “Fuck…it's because I told her about Cody. I can't believe she just left to bring him a vow of silence.”

“Sounds like a leaky case, huh? Guess that is a valid reason to leave the office.”

He didn't like the idea of wasting an entire day. If he really has been assigned to level one he preferred to know ASAP so that he could already start climbing to level three.

“Arthur…”

“Cheer up buddy! You sound so depressed.”