Spoiling the market

... In that instant he had calculated that the best chance for survival was to charge into Z and take him out before he could deal any damage, but alas it was too late, as he charged forward his movement had slowed down.

It was as if he was wading through a swamp, his footsteps slowed as his spear swiped across Z's face leaving a cut, the pieces of 8 flew directly into his body, some hitting his vitals others hitting his knees making the king fall onto the ground knee first. 

With a look of discontent, the King looked up at Z in a kneeling position as Z grabbed his head before slitting his throat and securing the 10 points. 

The audiences off stage went wild, it had been an exciting match through and through and there was finally someone who had managed to defeat the King. All that is left is to pick up the stragglers. 

"Holy crap, that was exciting!"

"What's his manifest again? That was incredible."

"I'm confused, does he have a strength augment or psychic abilities?"

Odrunn smiled at Vero while giving him a look that said 'that's my boss. Isn't he amazing'

Vero just chuckled heartily as he looked at the result of the fight. Ashli and Arlene were surprised by the outcome of the fight as well, they were still waiting for their turn, so they were thinking of using Z's strategy for the fight. 

After all that, it was easy for Z, all he had to do was to take out the remainder of the stragglers that were scattered about, without the AI. The soldiers were like sitting ducks with no way to get into a formation at all, just letting Z kill them off easily. 

Without the king Z let loose a bit and launched a full-on assault with the pieces of 8 floating behind his back, every time a piece of 8 would be launched it would take a life, reaping all the soldiers like wheat. 

---

"This is so bad, someone managed to defeat the AI! What kind of rubbish is this!?"

The chief examiner shouted as he looked at the examiner who was in charge. 

"Erm, boss, at least if it happens once the AI would adapt to it and change its style in the future. So subsequently there will be no chance of something like this happening once again."

---

Z left the stage after the trial, he had a perfect score and decimated everything there, he was welcomed by the cheers of the crowd as well as Odrunn and Vero who came out to greet him. 

"Good job! That was really impressive! I'd reckon if you took the vanguard trials you'd have gotten way further than the both of us. Haha" 

"The basis of the vanguard trials seem entirely different, even if I could participate there isn't much indication that would show that I could get through it easily." 

Z replied as he cracked his neck. 

"Hahaha! It's good to be humble Zero, but seeing how you decimated the offence trial, I doubt anything else would be much of an issue for you." 

"Boss! there's something on your cheek" 

Odrunn pointed out, as Z touched his cheek using his finger, as he looked as his finger he saw blood and he felt a bit of a sting on his cheek. 

"It's just a cut, must have grazed it somehow." 

Z smiled, as the trio walked back to the seating areas. 

What followed was just more disappointment, the AI after collating information really didn't allow mistakes like this to happen once again, the routes were all sealed and the patrols were increased along with the number of soldiers. 

The batches that followed after all cursed and swear at the changes that had occurred, Ashli and Arlene were those affected, with Arlene continuously cursing and swearing at how "That Zero spoilt it for the rest of us" or "If I get my hands on that Zero!"

Eventually, the trials drew to a close, the number of students eliminated were close to 70% as there were many students, they had to cut down on the number of participants on the exams. 

While the students were rejoicing about their entry to the exams, some were grieving at this lost opportunity. 

---

In the control room, there had been a fervent discussion about the exams, the examiner in charge was interested in making use of the AI for the final exams. 

"I think it makes a lot of sense for us to use the AI for the exams but at the same time, you must make sure that the data from this trial is wiped, you don't ever want this to see the light of day otherwise it will reflect extremely badly on us." 

"Yes, boss! I'll delete it right now!"

The examiner gave a wry smile as he performed a series of operations. 

Another examiner raised his hands fervently as he started to question the viability of the whole AI and the whole issue. 

"I don't think it is a good idea to use the AI, I understand that it has deep learning and can come up with the perfect answers reliably, but can the students really go up against such a monster? It feels quite counterproductive to do this and the students would mostly get demoralised. Plus I'm not getting a good vibe from the whole thing." 

"Don't worry so much, we have everything under control, even if the students get demoralised, the school will find a way to let them regain their confidence, they don't have to defeat the AI, all they have to do is to pass the exams! isn't that it? At most, we can just be more liberal when it comes to their scoring and voila. It's all done! Look, we have a couple more days left to finalise the entire sequence, I'd rather we focus on how the exams will be run than to focus on this instead." 

The chief examiner led the conversation away from the usage of the AI and towards the exams instead.