Where is that freak?

The bespectacled guy's eyes trembled as he watched his blood-soaked fingers. "F-F*ck!" The word subconsciously escaped his mouth.

"Idiots! What are you doing standing there like sitting ducks?! Are you waiting to die?!"

Everyone glanced around when they heard Officer Sander's seemingly angry voice. But they noticed the officer wasn't around. Moreover, the voice seemed to come from a loudspeaker. Maybe it came from the drones that could be seen hovering above them.

In the air, right above them, small drones could be seen spying on them.

Inside the Observation Room, Officer Sander was frowning.

"These newbies think they are here to play. What a bunch of naive ignorants. The academy is not a playground. This is the place where ignorant kids are nurtured to become future elites."

He sighed deeply as he watched the chaotic crowd of cadets. "They don't even know what to do?" He shook his head.

Looking at the flabbergasted crowd of cadets, Garry could not help but sympathize with them. They experienced the same before. But, he knew it was necessary for everyone to learn.

As he was reminiscing about the old days, he heard Officer Sander speak again.

"Although those Mob Bots have enough power to cause fatal injuries, they weren't programmed to kill anyone this time. The best they could do is cause curable injuries to their targets", Officer Sander explained.

"I see. That's a relief, sir", Garry said. Anyway, even without the officer telling him that, he already expected that.

Probably, only the year-1 cadets didn't know about it. He also understood the reason why they didn't let the year-1 cadets know about it. Because if they found out that those Mob Bots weren't deadly, the cadets definitely would not take them seriously. And that would kill the intention for this activity.

"That said, if they are careless an unforeseen accident can occur so it's better if they take this activity seriously."

"Yeah", Garry agreed.

Back to the field, after hearing Officer Sander's voice, they noticed that the muzzles on the mouths of the Mob Bots were glowing brilliantly.

Everyone had a bad feeling about those lights. In the next moment, just as everyone feared, dazzling thin lights suddenly shot like rays of light.

"Geeiii! Those Mob Bots were aiming to kill us!" A scared-looking cadet with parted hair exclaimed in fright.

Who would have thought that these Mob Bots could fire that?!

Funny enough, most of them initially thought that those muzzles were just the product of poor imitation. But it looked like those muzzles were actually for this purpose!

The tension immediately rose when the 20 in total Mob Bots were starting to randomly shoot them with those dangerous rays of light. Everyone was doing their best to get out of their trajectory.

"Naomi!" Rebecca pulled Naomi who froze in the spot. Right after she did that, a ray of light hit the ground where Naomi was supposed to be a split second ago. Slight smoke rose from where the ray of light hit the ground.

They could only imagine a worse possible outcome if that ray of light hit Naomi. Not only Naomi, though. All of them there could only imagine a bitter end for themselves if they were hit by those rays of light.

No one was certain how fatal those lights were. But seeing one of them bleed after being grazed by it, they came to conclude one thing— that those rays of light were not just ordinary lights. They were fatal beams of some sort.

Suddenly; everything became chaotic because the cadets didn't know what to do. The only thing on their mind was to save themselves, and some of them froze in fear.

"Huh?!"

The bespectacled guy's eyes widened in disbelief when he saw the light in the mouth of a Mob Bot in front of him. Without hesitation, it released the light before he could make any move. The light reflected in his spectacles. Behind his spectacles, his eyes widened as he watched the light approaching him in haste. Everything seemed to be in slow motion at that moment. And at that moment, a slideshow of memories in a kaleidoscope pattern flashed in his mind.

Is this what they called the reflection of life in the pits of danger? He thought internally.

His back went cold and he shivered with fear. And because of that, he forgot to think of the right thing to do.

"Watch out!"

Fortunately, before he was hit, a strong arm suddenly grabbed him and pushed him away from the light beam's trajectory. The light beam passed a hair's breadth away from him.

"J-Joe!?" He exclaimed when he saw the person who saved him.

Brittle Joe came to his rescue. He was able to react quickly and was able to save the bespectacled young man within the moment before he was hit.

"Are you okay, professor?"

"P-professor? What?" His glasses slanted slightly upon hearing that.

"Heh!" Brittle Joe just replied with a smug. Then he stood like a tall mountain facing his broad back towards him. Without a second thought, he rushed to the Mob Bot who fired at them. "Go find a safe place and be careful!" Leaving those words, he bolted forward.

In fairness, even though his body was big, his movements were pretty fast.

The Mob Bot also rushes at Joe. It looks like it intends to use its sharp fins against him. But Joe was able to dodge the Mob Bot's attack right on time before the sharp fin hit him. After a successful dodge, Joe punched it to the side. There was a 'metallic thud' at the moment of impact when his fist connected to the side of the Mob Bot.

While sitting on the ground, the bespectacled young man fixed his spectacles. "Is that the attribute of wind?" He muttered while looking at Brittle Joe.

The Mob Bots swirled unsteadily before it regained its balance.

"As I thought, this toy is tough. Heh!" Even after he failed to destroy it, he wasn't disheartened.

"Oh~ it looks like there aren't only lackluster youngsters in this batch. Some of them had better reactions than the rest", Officer Sander smiled while staring at the monitor. Then he scanned the other monitor.

In the next monitor, "Ohhh~" the officer laughed like Santa in a red costume. "This young man is a cunning one", muttered the officer.

In the monitor, William and his cronies were now nearing the foot of the hill. They managed to slip away while everyone was in chaos.

"Just that, he seems to be the type who only cares about himself."

Garry who was next to him suddenly frowned. These people in the top families are mostly like that, he thought. He disliked their selfishness.

"Well, since it's an individual activity, I can't say that he's wrong", Officer Sander added.

"Hehe! Those fools. Let them fight those machines to their heart's content", William grinned. "Our mission is not to defeat them anyway. It's to reach the top of the hill."

"Hahaha! You're right, William!"

William and his two friends agreed with each other.

"Let's go! So that we'll win against the freak", said his other friend.

"Pufft, haha. We don't even need to rush to beat that nuisance. Do you think he has a chance to win? Haha!"

"Haha. You're right. That freak has zero chance!"

The trio then continued moving forward.

Wait— William stopped for a moment. Speaking of that freak, he didn't see him after they sprinted here. Well, that's not his problem though. He probably passed out somewhere at that moment when everyone was running towards here.

Manaless people didn't even have high stamina, to begin with. They were very fragile. Are they even humans? William asked this multiple times since he was a kid.