Chapter 57: Too bug

"Hmm, this is totally unexpected," a young boy murmured, clenching his fist and kicking the air. To satisfy his curiosity, he crouched down and scooped up a handful of soil.

"Hmm, even the soil feels the natural." Suddenly, as if an idea hit him, he muttered, "Darkness Displacement." In an instant, he reappeared on a tree branch 20 meters away from where he had been standing.

"The mana consumption is fine," he thought, but then sighed as he looked at himself.

"My body can't handle the stress of tearing through space and all the other resistant factors," he muttered to himself, shaking his head. Then, raising his face and hand pointing to the sky, his eyes glinted, "Let this be the start of my journey."

But his unknown actions and words drew murmurs from the crowd around him.

...

"What is he doing?"

"Not sure."

"Idiot, I was asking if anyone knows."

"Yeah, everyone else is already out hunting monsters."

"Hmm, and he's just standing there..."

"I think he knows he has no chance of winning because of his low rank."

"Considering the rank differences, that's a fair assumption."

"You're all fools if you think that way," someone interjected.

"Oh! Ansh spoke up," said one of the crowds, turning to him. "Why do you have such a high opinion of this kid?"

Ansh smiled faintly. "I've looked into the backgrounds and actions of every participant," he said, focusing on the young man on the screen. "His name is Rahul, and he comes from the Singhania family," Ansh continued. "But after his talent awakening, everything changed. I even collected some secret data on him." He paused, glancing at the audience, then asked, "Do you know what I discovered?"

"Hey bro, tell us what you found out!" someone shouted.

"I'm curious, too."

"I can't wait to see what happens."

"Is it possible for him to change history?"

With that reaction, he didn't hesitate and revealed, "He had peak E-rank skeletons when he was just early F-rank. I don't know how many, but there's a slim chance he could win."

Unfolding his hands, he shrugged his shoulder, "He's going to surprise you, so be prepared."

"Oh my God! I didn't think someone at early E-rank could even win," someone else commented.

"Exactly. The more praise he gets, the more impressive it seems," another person agreed.

"Yeah, I didn't expect him to even search for this kind of information," someone else said.

"But didn't you notice? He teleported. Since when do necromancers have teleportation skills?" someone asked, and everyone turned to look at Ansh.

Ansh just shrugged his shoulder, "I don't know. I have limits on what information I can get. Besides, even if I knew more, I couldn't share it all because some of it might be sensitive."

...

The situation here is also about gauging Rahul's skill, but they're doing it quietly, unlike the audience.

The head of the Verma family couldn't help but glance at the Singhania family's butler, "It seems your young master isn't really as the rumors say," and all the other families also agreed enviously.

"Hmm! That child has quite the potential," even the trio, the organizers, agreed.

The butler just smiled at their reaction, but deep down, he was sweating. There was unconcealed pride.

"Young master, I didn't expect that you had even learned high-level skills," he thought, momentarily forgetting that the necromancer profession couldn't have teleportation skills.

...

"See? Didn't I tell you?" the old man said with a faint smile, his cheek resting on his palm.

"It's unnatural!" the man beside him, Amit Chauhan, replied with a deep frown.

"You'll know eventually. Just don't lose your focus," the old man replied, and there was little worry in his eyes, but that was well concealed.

...

Rahul, who was unaware that his unusual actions had attracted quite a bit of attention at the competition venue, released his skeletons and looked over his legion with some disappointment.

"If only I had managed to fill my skeleton slots," he said to himself. But his expression quickly changed to a smile.

"Let's focus on this competition," he added, lowering his head slightly because he was standing on the branch higher than most skeletons around him on the ground.

There were 20 peak-rank skeletons with stats ranging from early B to mid-D rank. With a satisfied smile, he gave them their orders, saying, "I've got some missions for you."

Kill every monster you encounter.

Hold the monster's nest for 5 minutes.

Don't fight humans unless they attack you. If they do, you can decide how to respond.

Rahul sent a telepathic command: "Don't transform into human form."

The five leaders of the skeleton legion appeared from the skeleton group and knelt in unison. "Master, leave it to us," they said.

Rahul was pleased with their response. He had named them after Hindu mythological demons, except for one. He had made them leaders to make managing the skeletons easier.

"Go ahead," he said, nodding. The skeletons disappeared in groups of five.

Naming these five skeletons almost drained his mana, but upon seeing their grade, he resolved to continue down this path and dubbed each skeleton a demon name.

Glancing around at nothing but trees and bushes, he muttered, "With these skeletons by my side, winning will be a breeze." However, shaking his head, he firmly decided, "But I need real PvP to truly test my abilities." With this determination, he set out on the road to hunt players and monsters.

...

When they saw what was on the screen, their jaws dropped. What did they see? A skeleton that could interact with them!

Soon, the audience was buzzing with excitement. Even the family head and the event organizer got caught up in the whispered chatter.

"What was that?"

"Man! Don't you think that's too bugged to have these mid-rank skeletons?"

"Do you call them skeletons? Wake up! They also have intelligence."

"Yeah. Didn't you see their interaction?"

"I'm shivering."

"I think he was quite hidden."

Cough "I mean, he had incognitoed himself too deeply."

"I'm praying for Ashish."