Chapter 78

Chapter 78

The Kizen Training Center.

Phewwwwww.

A man was lifting a heavy dumbbell until late in the evening. His upper body and arm muscles expanded and contracted repeatedly as he raised a black dumbbell.

A male student who was making a lame attempt with the dumbbells next to him glanced at him and said,

“H-Hector.”

Clannngggg!

A large barbell fell, and a loud sound resounded from the floor. The student flinched and hunched over slightly.

“Phewww…”

Hector wiped his sweat off with the towel around his neck. The black light that fluttered in the barbell disappeared and returned the barbell to its original, iron form.

“Where are the others?”

“Uh…… Right! They’ve all come together and gathered themselves up nearby in the next building from here.”

“There’s no need to speak at length. Just deliver my words.”

Crack. Crack.

When Hector touched his neck, a bloody sound echoed.

“We’ll definitely hunt down Simon Polentia in this Island Survival Assessment.”

A fire lit up in Hector’s eyes.

Finally, a chance to defeat Simon came. There was no need to wait to be paired up against him in the Duel Evaluation.

“As you all probably realized from the Cyclops assessment, as long as he remains conscious, we can never dominate Class A or achieve the best grades in the class.”

“R-Right.”

“Class A is a class that Kizen’s vice president is in charge of directly. Taking control of this class is more important than anything else.”

The student listening had a bitter grin inside.

Removing political rivals or competitors in Kizen was a natural and frequent occurrence. It was a goal that both factions and allies could understand.

But the way Hector dealt with Simon felt like something more than the removal of a political rival.

The student wondered why Hector was so obsessed with restraining Simon. Maybe there was some kind of ill-fated relationship between the Moore and the Polentia family.

“If you got it, go.”

“Uh, yeah!”

When Hector lifted the huge barbell again, it was dyed black. He was training both physical and jet-black operations at the same time.

“Huufff!”

Sweat dripped down Hector’s body.

He looked full of spite.

* * *

The outskirts of Kizen.

There stood an old, dusty, abandoned building that had been left unattended for years. It looked like it was going to collapse at any moment. Moonlight leaked through a hole in its ceiling, and a flickering light bulb added to the creepy atmosphere.

A male student walked in, picking off cobwebs from his clothes with annoyance. It was none other than Haren Cork, who lost against the Duel Evaluation with Simon.

He looked around as he arrived at the meeting point. It seemed that the person who called him hadn’t arrived yet.

‘I hope this isn’t a waste of time.’

Haren shoved the crumpled letter in his hand into his pocket before closing his eyes and crossing his arms.

‘……Simon Polentia.’

Still, he couldn’t forget what Simon said at the end.

“I don’t know what kind of reason you got for hating me, but… you can never defeat me with such a power when it isn’t yours.”

Clench!

His blood boiled thinking about how Simon talked as though he knew everything.

Simon knew, or guessed to some extent, that he had been operated on by Bahil.

It was dangerous. Haren didn’t know why Simon didn’t bring it up to Kizen and make it an issue, but as long as he knew Haren’s secret, Haren needed to get rid of him quickly.

Haren clenched his fist.

‘This power……’

Although Simon defeated him, his power was true, no matter what.

In the Duel Evaluation last week, he beat a student who was evaluated as superior in every way and got promoted to the middle squad.

Because of this, Haren Cork was recognized by his classmates, and recently he had been hanging out with some popular students.

His self-esteem was going up drastically day by day.

‘But…’

He felt his strength draining away little by little. Bahil said that his power lasted for at most two months.

‘I have to be in Professor Bahil’s favor again, no matter what.’

The only way was to become a direct disciple of Bahil. In order to do that, it was necessary to complete the mission that he failed last time.

This time, I’ll defeat Simon and prove my worth to Bahil.

“I-Is someone there?”

Then, he heard the voice of an unfamiliar female student in the abandoned building. Haren said,

“I’m alone. Who are you?”

“Ah.”

A female student stuck his head out and came in after feeling relieved to see Haren’s uniform.

“Did you also come here with that letter?”

“You too?”

She nodded her head.

“My name is Jessica Cananore, Class H.”

“I’m Haren Cork from Class G. Do you also have a grudge against Simon?”

She slightly avoided Haren’s gaze.

“N-No. I received an apology, so it’s not necessarily a grudge……”

“Then why?”

“Nothing, just……”

Jessica realized a lot of things after the duel with Simon.

She felt like she was dealing with a monster that was far above her, a cut from a different cloth. Looking back on that time, there was a strange sense of inspiration.

She wanted to become like that. She wanted to become stronger.

At that moment, the sound of footsteps clearly echoed throughout the abandoned building.

Clanngg Clanngg

Haren and Jessica looked around nervously and Haren shouted,

“Who’s that?!”

Then, the footsteps stopped. When the two of them were raising the jet-black from their cores in case of emergency.

Whaaaaaaaap.

The moonlight poured down from the ceiling of the abandoned building, making the two frown as they quickly covered their eyes.

Somebody came down from the sky.

They were wearing a black robe that covered their entire body, and a hood was pressed down to the bottom of their head, so you couldn’t tell who they were.

Since they were floating in the air, it was difficult to figure out their physique, age, and gender.

But you could feel a very foreign kind of power. 

“Wh-Who are you……?”

Jessica scanned them over a few times, frightened.

Looks like this was the person who sent the letter.

Instead of answering, they slowly moved their hand.

Flap!

“……!”

Large wings spread out behind their robe. As they slowly lifted the hood with their fingertips, they spoke.

Looking at the figure behind the hood, Haren’s eyes widened.

“Y-You are……!”

* * *

Translator – Ramen

Proofreader – Artethrax

* * *

The day of the Island Survival.

Having a huge event ahead, the Kizen students talked in excitement, faces flushed.

A total of 14 large teleport circles were being prepared, and Class A was stood on one of them.

A huge magic circle was drawn in the center, and small magic circles spread like leaves around it. The students were standing on top of a small magic circle.

“I-I’m a little nervous.”

Said Camibarez as her shoulders shuddered.

“What if I’m the only one who’s split from the group?”

“The location doesn’t matter, Cami. I heard that we’ll be teleported completely at random.”

Said Simon while giving off a kind smile.

“If you’re nervous, wanna swap places with me?”

“N-No! It’s fine!”

“By the way, girls…”

Rick, leaning back into his hands cupped behind his head, asked,

“Are you guys really going to skin monsters and eat them?”

“I-I just ended up practicing fishing. Hehe……”

Said Camibarez with a forced smile. Meilyn also sighed lightly.

“I guess I’ll have to eat monsters or else I’ll become really hungry, as I learned, but I’ll try my best to get as many of the supplies as possible.”

Supplies were one of the features in Island Survival. During the assessment, a large magic circle would occasionally appear in the sky, and exactly 1 minute later, supplies would drop down from the magic circle.

It’s said that the supplies included food and special artifacts that could only be used in the assessment.

Competition was bound to be quite fierce. It could be safe to assume that all the students in the vicinity would be aiming for the supplies.

“Now, please prepare yourselves!”

Then, the servants ran around and spread the word.

“We will now commence teleportation to the island!”

“Please don’t step outside the magic circle!”

The students waited with nervous faces as they brought their legs inside the magic circle.

While Simon was excitedly waiting with his arms crossed, he saw Hector staring at him from afar.

‘I guess I’ll be having a big fight again if I meet him.’

He didn’t know what he did for Hector to always try to get him, but Simon thought that it could be a good way to deal with him, using this as a chance if he had no choice but to go against him someday.

Whirrrr!

Whirr!

Light then came off the magic circles, causing cheers and screams from everywhere to break loose .

“E-Everyone, let’s do our best!”

Exclaimed Camibarez as she screwed her eyes shut.

“Hehe. Everyone, stay safe and I’ll see you all again in Kizen!”

“I told you guys, okay? Don’t die while trying to get to the center of the island! Just avoid getting the lowest points!”

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Meilyn’s voice, nagging till the end, dispersed, and the magic circle’s light became stronger and stronger.

Simon’s vision became blurry, and he felt his legs start to float.

* * *

The world that was full of light for a while began to gradually take shape.

Simon felt the wind tickling his body, his sense of touch returning earlier than his sense of sight. Simon didn’t overdo it and waited for his vision to return, then looked around.

“……Woah.”

He really fell into the middle of the jungle.

Everywhere was green. It was his first time seeing a place with such a thick and dense population of plants.

The plants ranged from tropical ones with large leaves, to indiscriminately growing vines that covered trees. Moreover, the climate was very hot and humid, the air was heavy, and the soil was moist, perhaps from the rain.

“So I have to survive here for four days?”

Simon’s body trembled.

A strange tension rose up through his spine and spread throughout his body before his previously contained emotions burst forth.

“It’s gonna be so fun!!”

With Simon’s shout, some birds got startled and flew away. Pier’s clone hanging on Simon’s school uniform also woke up and looked at Simon.

[Looks like you have arrived. But why are you so excited?]

“Because adventure is calling me.”

[……Crazy bastard. Don’t tell me you forgot our goal.]

Simon grinned.

“Of course I didn’t. We have to find Big Krum, the captain of the giant troops, faster than anyone else, right?”

While saying that, Simon lifted his leg and stepped hard on the ground.

A small squeak came from something as it burst.

“Alright.”

Simon bent down and lifted it up.

[Urk! What’s that nasty thing?!]

Simon replied with a smile,

“It’s my snack for today.”

A large snake with a reticulate pattern drooped down. This got Simon excited and he put the dead snake into his subspace.

“To be able to obtain a snack this easily. We’re starting off well!”

[……Boy, you seem to be a lot more excited than usual.]

“Yeah.”

Simon looked around the surrounding jungle once and smiled.

“After all, this is my stage, no matter what anyone else says.”

A crazy survival expert from Les Hill had entered Kera Island.

——