Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Chapter 157: Choices [I]

The Key of Order, as its name suggested, was a key — one of many enchanted items bound to and found on the Ascent Isles.

Despite their modern architecture, the Ascent Isles were a place of countless mystery and wonder.

The creators of the Apex Academy — the first Grandmasters — left behind numerous secrets and constructed places of unnatural phenomena.

For example, there were many rooms on the Ascent Isles that could move. Like actually move through space.

Their positions change constantly, making it impossible for someone to get inside directly. These were known as Dimensional Chambers.

The only way to enter them was to rush inside the moment someone was exiting.

Another fascinating place was the Hall of Echoes, where you could hear every conversation that had ever taken place on the Ascent Isles, as long as you were a part of them.

The Stairwell of Paradox was one more anomaly. No matter how far you climbed, you'd always end up on the same floor — unless you knew the trick to escape its loop… which was to jump out of the windows.

Then there was the Everwatching Mirror. It reflected not just your image but also glimpses of your past and future selves — although never in the order you might expect.

There were many other such things — like the Slate of Ten Commandments, the Reverse Time Candle, the Bridge That Leads Nowhere, or the Coin of Certain Loss.

But perhaps the strangest of them all was the Scholar's End — a room that did not exist until you realized you were already inside it.

I had never encountered the last one even in the game.

And one particularly intriguing relic was what I had set out to find right now — the Key of Order.

It was a simple bronze key that could be inserted into any door, and if there was no keyhole, one would just magically appear.

When you twisted the key and opened the door, you could exit to any room on the Ascent Isles, as long as you had an image of the desired room in your mind.

Cool, right?

Of course. But there was a problem.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to remember exactly where the damn Key was.

Fuck my goldfish memory. 

I knew Michael had found it in one of the Restricted Vaults in the Archives that was accessible only to an Ace.

He'd been searching for anything that might lead him to the truth about his parents' disappearance.

Logs, documents, research papers — anything that could help him understand the Death-Zone where his parents vanished.

And in one of those Vaults, he found that Key. 

It wasn't a coincidence. Well, not entirely. 

You see, the Key of Order wasn't some one-of-a-kind relic. 

In fact, there were twelve of them.

Three were in the hands of selected faculty members.

The rest belonged to senior Cadets — specifically, those who were part of a secret society known as the Order of Twelve.

The Order was a covert faction within the Academy.

It wasn't very different from a collective in its function, but their goals couldn't be more different.

They didn't waste time on trivial things like enforcing their superiority or discrimination.

Instead, they focused on growing stronger, studying and sharing forbidden knowledge, subtly manipulating academy politics from the shadows, and carrying out the wills of the Grandmasters.

So how do you join them? 

You don't. 

If you have undeniable proof of the Order's existence, then you're either already part of it… or you're someone who was never supposed to know.

Each year, when the third-years graduate, those who had been part of the Order hide their Keys throughout the Ascent Isles.

A freshman who finds a Key is granted the right to know about them, to learn about the Order, and to become one of them. 

And only those in possession of one of the twelve Keys could join, hence the name — Key of Order.

It wasn't just a requirement. It was a necessity. 

Why? 

Because the Order's base of operations was located on Crown Island — a smaller island floating right above the Main Island, directly over the Apex Tower.

Getting there was nearly impossible unless you had some means of teleportation because the island was protected by its own force field bubble, separate from the rest of the Ascent Isles.

Even the Instructors and the Cadet Council weren't allowed there — let alone capable of reaching it.

Well, whatever. None of that mattered to me.

I wasn't going to join the Order. Joining them meant following their rules, and I wasn't the type to do as I was told.

I just needed that Key.

My original plan was to get into every Restricted Vault that even vaguely resembled the one where Michael got the Key in the game and search through them all.

It would've taken time — at least a day or two.

But fortunately, Michael had unknowingly made things easier for me.