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Chapter 146 - Code Breaker [5]

"hmm...am I perhaps interrupting?"

As light yellow particles flew in the air, I stared at Arnold and Amanda in the distance. Soon my eyes interlocked with Amanda's.

Noticing her situation, my brows slightly furrowed. The situation was a lot worse than I had imagined...According to my prediction, considering her skills, she should've been evenly matched against her opponents...yet why was she on the ground on the verge of losing?

Waking up from his stupor, staring at me, John flusteredly said as his mind raced.

"Y-ou, who are you?"

What's going on?

...how did he make it all the way here from the center of the map?

According to his calculations, it would've taken ten minutes to make it from there to here from the center of the map with a decent movement art...yet, not even five minutes after they ambushed Arnold's group, and reinforcements had already come?

What was going on?

Ignoring John who was currently flustered, Amanda's eyes interlocked with mine. Thereafter, without me needing to say anything, Amanda capitalized on the moment when John was distracted due to my appearance and quickly moved her head away from the tip of his spear and quickly dashed towards where her bow was located.

"You, where do you think you're going!" ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

Noticing Amanda's action, recollecting himself and glaring at her, John quickly raised his spear and prepared to thrust it at her exposed back.

-Kacha!

Hearing the sound of the air being split due to the spear thrust, Amanda didn't stop moving. She knew that Ren had her back...and she wasn't wrong.

-Swooosh!

Just as the spear was about to stab her right in the back, pointing in her direction from the opposite building, a translucent yellow ring quickly headed in her direction and directly stopped right before the tip of the spear.

-Clank!

A shockwave swept the surroundings as the ring came in contact with the tip of the spear. Debris and dust flew everywhere as a consequence of the impact.

Not long after, as the ring and the spear were locked in a stalemate, the ring slowly lost its luster and the spear soon broke through it...however, it was already too late.

Picking up her bow, Amanda quickly turned around. With an arrow materializing in her hand, without hesitation, she quickly pulled the string of her bow until it touched her lips before releasing it.

-Swooooosh!

Like a shooting star, the arrow coursed through the air as it hurtled in John's direction at an unimaginable speed. It was so fast that a blue line could be seen tracing the path of where the arrow traveled.

"Shit!"

Opening his eyes wide, John tried his best to evade the arrow, however, it was already too late.

Brushing past the body of the spear, the arrow quickly pierced through John's right chest area.

Thereafter, John found himself helplessly thrown all the way to the other side of the building as his body crashed against one of the walls.

Baaam—!

"Khhhhaaaa..."

As his back crashed against the wall, John couldn't help but groan out loud as spit escaped from his mouth.

His mind blanked for a couple of seconds.

"khhh..."

A couple of seconds after John collided against the wall, as his mind regained some clarity, he heard the sound of soft footsteps headed towards his direction.

-Step! -Step!

Walking in John's direction as she coldly looked at him, Amanda's brows were tightly knit. She wasn't happy.

...although she had won. That didn't change the fact that she had still lost moments before. Staring at Ren standing on the opposite building to hers, Amanda didn't say anything.

Had he not come on time, she would've already lost. But that wasn't what made her bitter...no, what made her bitter was the fact that everything went according to Ren's plan and yet she still lost.

She had been warned beforehand of such a situation happening.

He had specifically told her that she would be attacked first and that at least two people were going to attack her...she knew, and yet her arrogance led to her downfall.

Ren had told her to just stall for time...yet she did the opposite. She thought that she could win, but it seems like she was wrong...she was still too naive.

Staring at John who was right before her, Amanda's feet paused.

...she still had a lot to learn.

"I-mpossible!"

Snapping Amanda out of her thoughts, was John's angry yet bitter voice.

With his arms down, John weakly looked up towards Amanda. Thereafter, shifting his head to the right, John found a tangible blue arrow puncturing his body, right where his heart was.

Shortly after, to his sadness and bitterness, John found his body slowly turn into yellow particles.

"Cough..."

As he watched his body turn into particles, coughing a couple of times, John couldn't help but softly mutter in a bitter tone.

"Cough...cough...I-mpossible! Ho-w could I have lost?...Everything went according to my plan, it should've been perfect, yet why am I losing? W-hat...happened?"

His plan should've been perfect.

...he was so close to beating Amanda and from there winning the whole game. He was going to be hailed as a hero right after this...he could've already imagined his whole class looking at him in reverence once he returned triumphantly.

Yet...just when his dream was about to come into fruition, appearing out of nowhere and foiling everything was the youth standing in the opposite building.

Turning his head to the right, with jet black hair and deep-blue eyes, the youth in the opposite building was currently aiding Arnold who with the help of his strange rings that stopped his spear attack previously, managed to close the distance with his team member. The bow user.

...Seeing this, John knew that they had lost.

With one last struggle, staring at the youth who had jet black hair and blue eyes, John raised his voice as he weakly shouted

"T-ell me, how did you make it here this quick?"

He had to know.

He wanted to know how he was defeated.

...his plan should've been perfect, yet at the very last moment, he lost. Just where did he miscalculate?

Hearing John's voice, turning my attention back towards him, I looked at him strangely.

"Haven't you ever heard of something called a movement art?"

...well, that was only part of the reason as to why I managed to aid Amanda and the rest quickly.

Although yes, my movement art was indeed the reason as to why I made it here this fast, it wasn't the most critical point.

Since I had predicted the opponent's decision beforehand, just when we spawned in this map, I had already told Amanda and the others the area in which they were to move.

Like this, I didn't need to go to the trouble of looking for them on this enormous map as I already had an idea of which area they were going to be in.

Moreover, as they were fighting, all I needed to do was head in the direction of where the sound of them fighting was coming from to get an accurate location of where they were. This allowed me to save a lot of time.

...Though I really do have to say, our opponents weren't half bad. Although they had moved according to my wishes, I didn't expect them to be this strong.

I was genuinely impressed.

"You-"

Unsatisfied with the answer, John was about to rebuke, but just as he was about to speak up, his body suddenly turned into light particles before a blue text appeared in front of his eyes.

[You have died]

Thereafter, as John's body disappeared what replaced it was a white card that emanated a golden hue.

-Swooosh!

Subsequently, bending over and picking up the card, after a brief glance, Amanda flicked her wrist and threw the card in my direction.

"Thanks"

Catching the card, I quickly looked through the contents of the card. Shortly after, turning on my watch, I called Zack who should've been waiting near the pillar.

"Hey Zack, are you there?"

After a short pause, Zack responded

[Yeah, I'm currently standing in front of the pillar, do you have the code?]

"Yup, it's 2041689"

[2041689?]

"Yup"

[Alright, I'm putting it in]

-Click!

After telling Zack the code, turning off the call, I quickly glanced at the time.

05M : 36S

"Five minutes to spare..."

Not bad.

Just in the nick of time. Had I come a little bit later, this would've ended in a draw.

Smiling, I quickly tapped on the screen of my watch and called Jin. Since I didn't get notified of his death, he should still be fine no?

...

On the opposite side of where Ren was located, in the easter area, feeling his watch vibrate, Jin heard Ren's voice coming out from the speaker of his watch.

[Jin how is the situation going for you?]

"Huuu..."

Exhaling, Jin stared at the ground beneath him where two bodies slowly turned into particles. Raising his wrist near his mouth, he coldly said.

"Done"

After a short pause, Ren's voice could be heard echoing from the speaker of his watch.

[Alright, good job. We are done on our side too]

"mh"

-Click!

Turning off his watch and staring at the post-apocalyptic world before him, after a couple of seconds, Jin slowly saw it crumble before his eyes. Thereafter a blue text appeared in front of him.

[Congratulations, your team has successfully inserted the code - You win]

Staring at the blue text for a couple of seconds, clenching his teeth a curse escaped from his mouth.

"Shit..."

Although he won, Jin wasn't happy.

In fact, he felt repulsed by the blue text before him.

...this just didn't feel right to him. Before, whenever he won he felt thrilled. Beating his opponents alone with his absolute strength felt thrilling to him.

'Alone...'

Yes, he had always done things alone before.

...he had always crushed his opponents through brute strength and by himself. Why did he suddenly change? Since when had he started working with others?

Why couldn't he just directly crush his opponents like before instead of resorting to some petty strategy or scheme?

Clenching onto his clothes tightly, Jin gnashed his teeth.

What was this feeling he was experiencing?

"...how disgusting"

Chapter 147 - After The Tryouts [1]

-Fuuuuaaa

As the top of the capsule opened and steam slowly rose in the air, I steadily stood up and stretched my neck. Frowning slightly, I couldn't help but think to myself.

'...Did I perhaps overdo it?'

Interlocking my fingers and raising my hands in the air as I stretched my body to increase the blood circulation, I looked back at the game that we had just played.

Although we won, I wasn't happy.

This game once again shed light on the things that I had to work on.

....Yes, everything went according to how I predicted it would go. At least on how the opposite team behaved...not so much on my side.

Turning my head around and briefly glancing at Amanda who had her head held down, I softly said to her.

"You did good"

Raising her head slightly and staring at me, Amanda weakly nodded her head and got out of the capsule. Subsequently, she walked towards the exit of the VR grounds.

Staring at Amanda's back, sighing inwardly, I didn't say anything else. It was evident that she held herself accountable for almost losing.

In reality, it was my fault.

It was me.

I had made a couple of miscalculations in my plans.

...although I didn't place much hope in Amanda beating two guys, I didn't expect her to downright almost lose. The plan was for her to hold them back...I thought that she could've accomplished such a task considering her strength...but I was wrong.

Perhaps I was too confident in her...or perhaps I was too inexperienced. In the end, the plan had almost failed.

Looking back at it now, there were a lot of things that I had not taken into consideration when coming up with the strategy. Things such as the opposing team strength, teammate mentality, the synergy between members, the synergy between opposite team members, opposing team composition, and so on...

I had neglected a lot of factors.

...in the end, there was still a lot of room for me to improve as a person before I could confidently be able to strategize or scheme without any loopholes in my thinking.

Still, I wasn't discouraged. This served as a good lesson for future plans and strategies. It was a good reference point for me in the future when I planned on coming up with similar strategies and plans.

The more mistakes I made, the more I learned. It was just who I was.

...I wasn't born perfect.

Just like most humans, I was prone to failure...it was normal. It was what made me human.

However, it was also from those failures that I learned to grow and improve.

Mistakes were fine.

...As long as the mistakes I made weren't the same mistakes that I had made before, it meant I was growing...and only when I no longer repeated any of my previous mistakes as well as made any new mistakes that I knew that I had finally matured.

"Huaaam..."

Yawning out loud, I took a step out of the capsule. As I did, I swore to myself.

'Next time, I won't make the same mistake again. Next time...I'll make sure to thoroughly crush my opponent with the lowest possible percentage of failure"

...

Inside a private room made out of glass that overlooked the arena grounds below, multiple screens displaying different battles could be seen inside of the room.

Standing behind the screens, a group of around ten adults were currently intently staring at the screens before them with different emotions displayed on their faces.

"How did he do that?"

"Did you see that?"

"Check him out, this isn't bad"

The instructors present were each selected beforehand by the academy to assess the students and determine who was qualified for participating in the tournament.

...obviously, in order to remove any bias, the instructors present in the room all came from different departments and didn't teach any of the first years.

If one looked closely, although there were multiple screens before them, everyone's attention was currently gathered towards one specific monitor. More specifically, towards a certain youth displayed on the monitor.

From time to time, with every second they spent watching the youth, some of the instructors couldn't help themselves as they excitedly whispered to the person next to them. Their voices carried a myriad of emotions, from disbelief to shock, surprise, envy, and much much more.

Everyone was stunned.

"...how is that even possible?"

"He is amazing!"

"To think that not only his rank is high, but his proficiency in his arts too..."

"When I was his age back then I wasn't even close to his level"

Every single one of the instructors present couldn't take their eyes off of the youth on the screen as he battled against three opponents at the same time. Each time the youth hacked or slashed his sword, an instructor would let out an involuntary gasp of amazement.

"Amazing..."

"Such high proficiency"

"What an unbelievable talent!"

In between each sword strike, the youth's sword would fluently link with his next move revealing no gap in his swordsmanship.

His every sword strike was both gentle and overbearing, and each time his sword clashed against one of his opponents they would stumble a couple of steps back with a look of disbelief on their faces.

To the instructors, more than this being a battle, it looked more like a performance to them.

...his swordsmanship was simply too good. ƒrēewebnovel.com

The youth on the monitor was Kevin Voss, and if there was one thing that every one of the instructors present in the room understood from watching him fight was that he had put an endless amount of blood sweat, and tears into polishing his swordsmanship up to this point.

Regardless of how talented someone was unless they practiced hard, they were never going to have such refined and polished swordsmanship. Moreover, from the way he was fighting it was evident that he was very experienced in combat.

"What a truly talented youth"

Standing at the forefront of the instructors present in the room, a rather old yet imposing man stood with his hands behind his back. His deep and hazy eyes would alternate between different screens at the same time until finally, his eyes focused on two particular screens.

One displaying Kevin fighting...and another one that was currently focused on a handsome youth with blonde hair wielding two daggers. One in each hand.

The blonde youth was currently fighting against two students, and similarly to Kevin, he was dominating his opponents.

However, unlike Kevin who was suppressing his opponents through his amazing sword technique, the blonde youth had a completely different fighting style. His figure would constantly melt within the shadows and reappear behind his opponents at lightning-fast speeds that made it hard for them to fight back. It was almost a one-sided beat down.

...his speed was something that most of the people present in the room took notice of. Just the way he moved in between opponents made some of the instructors present show similar reactions to Kevin.

He was brilliant.

"Hm?"

While watching the monitor displaying the blonde youth fighting against two opponents, the scenario suddenly changed and the old man's eyes were immediately attracted towards a certain youth displayed on the screen.

"Who is he?"

Turning around and pointing towards the second monitor, the old man, Charles Mandengrove, one of the main people in charge of assessing whether students had the qualifications to enter the tournament or not, looked towards his left where a young man with a grey suit stood.

Without beating around the bush, pointing towards the monitor, Charles once again asked.

"Tell me who that youth is"

Glancing at Charles, the assistant leaned closer and carefully asked.

"Who?"

"That youth on screen 9"

Without looking at the monitor and remembering which group was being displayed on monitor 9, the assistant instinctively responded.

"That is Jin Horton sir"

Shaking his head and pointing towards the monitor, Charles's deep voice faintly echoed into the assistant's ears.

"No, not that youth. The youth with black hair and blue eyes that is on the screen right now"

Taken aback and staring at monitor nine where a youth with black hair and blue eyes stood, the assistant made an awkward smile as he turned on his tablet. Thereafter, after a couple of seconds, he soon found a picture that matched that of the youth on the screen and slowly said.

"Student rank 197, Ren Dover"

Staring at Ren, Charle's attention was drawn towards the strange rings that he controlled. Out of curiosity, he asked.

"What art is he practicing?"

Tapping once again on the tablet in his hands, and scrolling through a large number of data, after a couple of minutes, the assistant spoke.

"Cross-referencing with the Lock database, the student seems to be using [Ring of vindication] and [Drifting steps]. Both three-star manuals."

"According to the data, ring of vindication although rated three stars in terms of defense can be argued to be a four-star. However, because of the lack of offensive abilities and by how hard it is to practice, it was rated to be three stars. Regarding drifting steps, it is a fairly decent movement art that isn't suited for combat but rather traveling at fast speeds."

Frowning slightly, stroking his short gray beard, Charles faintly nodded his head in understanding as he softly muttered to himself.

"Ring of vindication and drifting steps?Three star...mhh, I guess it makes sense now. What's the student talent assessment?"

Hearing this part of the question, with an awkward smile on his face, the assistant softly said.

"Talent assessment D rank"

Hearing the 'D rank' talent assessment, Charles deeply stared at the monitor for a couple of seconds before he stopped speaking.

Thereafter, a couple of seconds after receiving word of the youth's talent, one word escaped from his mouth as he stared at the youth on the screen.

"...pity"

Charles truly did feel like it was a pity.

Although the youth wasn't as outstanding as some of the other youths he had seen on the screen, his appearance alone shifted the balance of the situation...from the way he first took out one of the opponents by surprise to then distracting another one and covering for his teammate...it truly was a pity that he was only ever going to achieve D rank in his life.

He was without a doubt talented. Having seen many youths' in his stay at the Lock, Charles was sure about his judgment...however, in the end, such youth would forever be forgotten due to the insurmountable wall known as talent...a true pity.

Inwardly sighing to himself and staring at his assistant next to him, after pondering for a couple of seconds, Charles softly said.

"Still, place his name in the name of students who passed the tryouts. Though his talent is bad, that doesn't really matter in the first year. He should be decent enough for the rookie games"

"Understood"

Faintly nodding his head, without questioning Charles decision, the assistant tapped on the profile of the student and dragged it towards one of the folders that said 'eligible'