Chapter 168

Moving forward unhindered by the stares and glares aimed at their backs, the members of MyrkLys ran at full speed through Zone A-3, making their way to the threshold of A-2. As they ran, Brance glanced over his shoulder just in time to see several adults in dark suits arrive at the side of each unconscious boy they had just defeated before healing them with potions and Affinity skills. Seeing this calmed his heart slightly, as even though it was necessary to beat them to such an extent, he was uncomfortable with the idea of doing it on live Tv.

Meanwhile, Cynrik once again stopped before stepping into the increased gravitational pressure. Moving from 2g to 3g may not have affected him and Brance much. Still, he had a sneaky suspicion that the Sanfords pace would slow considerably the closer they got to 4g, as they weren’t as accustomed to being subjected to intense gravity.

[Be ready to toss a heal on the kids; we can’t slow down. The timer shows seven minutes left, not to mention that I am already sensing a handful of pissed-off looks aimed at us, so we can assume there will be some fucktards who wanna stop us here in A-2 and even A-1.] Cynrik’s eyes narrowed as he observed the substantially smaller groupings of people ahead in A-2.

[How many.] Stepping up beside his brother, Brance activated [Mana Sight] and spotted the rising Mana fluctuations from a cluster of teenagers near the edge of the threshold between A-2 and A-1.

[Just those five in A-2, but I’m getting a bad feeling about the pressure im sensing further ahead.] With that said, Cynrik kicked off the ground and sprinted into the perimeter of A-2 with Gabby, Benny, and Brance hot on his heels.

[Tobs, play the Unicorn theme.] Smirking and rising to the challenge, Cynrik’s old habit of wanting background music came back with a vengeance.

-Now playing “Unicorn”- From the Gundam Unicorn OST by Hiroyuki Sawano.-

Closing his eyes and allowing the influential sound of the song’s horn line to wash over him, Cynrik accelerated his footsteps in time with the music, causing his party to struggle a bit to keep up. Then, short on time, he decided to show off a little bit to the audience. Although there were only around 50 children within A-2, a considerable drop-off in attendance compared to Zone B, Cynrik ignored all of them and locked onto the four teenage boys and one girl, standing with their arms crossed, waiting for his approach.

With a sadistic glint in his eye, and flecks of red, black, and green light swirling around his iris, Cynrik stomped the ground, correcting his trajectory, and fired off ten shadow tendrils at the group of five trouble makers.

“[Shadow Sewing].” No sooner did the words leave his mouth did a chorus of piercing screams from ahead of the group ring out, shifting the attention of everyone in the Zone to the poor image of five teenagers impaled a foot off the ground by the Dark Mana tendrils. Witnesses saw it as if hell had opened its gates to eat its enemies, making those with weak hearts tremble in fear.

Cynrik didn’t care what anyone thought and drove forward, propelled by his [Continual Flame]. He darted around from body to body in one fluid motion, delivering BlackFire head kicks to all five. Swiftly defeating them, Cynrik showed no mercy, not even towards the teenage girl, before continuing as if nothing ever happened and dispursing his skills.

[Tsk, was there really a need to be so ruthless, Cyn. It’s pretty clear that they were put up to this by someone in power.] Brance couldn’t help but split off from the group and catch the cute teenage girl, who was in a sorry state and casting his [Minor Heal] on her to ease her pain before placing her on the ground and catching up with the rest of the group.

[There is no time to be friendly, Brancie. Between idle banter and drawn-out fights, we won’t reach our goal in time. So shut that idiotic idealism of yours off. There is no good or evil right now, only potential benefits. However, if we allow them to hold us back, it will affect us in the long run, so I suggest you steel your heart until we get in front of those recruiters, especially if my guess about those three in A-1 is correct.] Cynrik didn’t look back to see his little brother’s reaction, but he could easily assume what kind of expression Brance was wearing.

The biggest obstacle Cynrik felt he would be facing was his own brother’s attitude. The kind and soft-hearted Brance would never be able to do what needed to be done, which was to turn off all emotion and be a ruthless killer when necessary. There would always be a little voice in his head saying, “This isn’t right; where is the justification in this?”.

But this was no fault of his own. In fact, if there was anyone to blame, it was those asshole Deities who placed their Divinity Fragments. The problem was that Cynrik still had no idea how he triggered his battle with Ragnar, and without a surefire way to allow Brance to break free from the grasp of the Divine Curse, he could only grit his teeth and bear with Brance’s “Goodie two-shoes” personality.

‘I just hope my perception of those three ahead is wrong.’ Cynrik thought as he peered into the distance, where the marker saying Zone A-1 hung in the air.

‘If not, then this whole event will be a wash.’ Since the distance was still too far, all Cynrik could do was make assumptions about what he saw in the ambient Mana particles, and what he was seeing was three beings equally as strong as himself and Brance. As much as he hoped these three beings were simply geniuses of their generation, Cynrik couldn’t help but have a nagging feeling that these three were Legacy Charges. How else would they be radiating such powerful Mana waves naturally? In fact, if Cynrik hadn’t taken such painstaking efforts when they were younger, both he and Brance would be in the same natural state, leaking vast amounts of Mana particles from their Codexes. This was a side effect of rapid growth mixed with a body that couldn’t handle the enormous power output.

If their bodies were like an empty cup, it was no different from putting that cup under the faucet inside a sink and allowing the water to fill it until it spilled over. Then, instead of turning off the tap, you let it continuously pour until the sink is full.

If it weren’t for Cynrik having access to [Mana Sight] and [Mana Manipulation], he wouldn’t have even noticed this happening to himself and Brance when they were younger. Thankfully, he had, and when they first went into the HBTC, Cynrik and Brance took the time to learn how to contain their surging Mana flow, reigning it in enough to stop any large leakage unless they wished. The downside to this was that if they didn’t allow it to explode, Cynrik and Brance felt they could only use about 25-30% of their full power. Even so, the limited amount was plenty to deal with most of the challenges they were coming up against.

It only took the party around two minutes to arrive at the area between Zone A-2 and A-1. Unfortunately for the Sanford siblings, unlike last time, Cynrik rushed through the 4g without a second thought and merely glanced at Benny and Gabby, who were already sweating.

With a gravity resistance of 3.5g and a pressure of around 3.9g weighing on their bodies, they could only power through and follow Cynrik. Luckily for them, Brance was right behind them, tossing out healing balls of light every time he saw their Stamina drop below 75%.

Upon stepping foot in Zone A-1, Cynrik did a quick headcount and only saw 15 people. Three of which were the suspected LCs.

[Steer clear of those three; I can’t get a complete readout from my [Inspect].] Although unnecessary, Cynrik pointed out three individuals standing randomly and separately around the 50-meter squared Zone to Brance, who had already picked up on them. Ironically enough, unlike every other Zone, no one seemed to be huddled together. All of the applicants were hiding their Watcets, which was a far cry from lower Zones, where you would find hundreds of applicants showing off their colored wrists with pride.

Slowing to a stop, Cynrik turned to face Gabby and Benny and handed them a small healing potion, which they instantly chugged down, thankfully. His eyes never stopped moving as he did this, bouncing around to each applicant. His quick inspection revealed that everyone in this Zone was already at Tier-1 and a step away from Tier-2; fortunately, aside from the three potential LCs, his [Inspect] skill uncovered everyone else’s stats, allowing him to get an accurate grasp on the situation.

Beside him, Brance was patting Gabby’s head while muttering small words of praise, but his attention was elsewhere.

[For the most part, everyone here has at least one stat at the cap of 300. But from what I see, there aren’t many with more than two. Furthermore, those who have capped a stat rely heavily on Distribution instead of keeping it all even. This has led to an imbalance in their potential and limited them.] Cynrik critiqued.

[Those three, though…they definitely aren’t simple. Only two options are presenting themselves right now. First, they are all stronger than us, which is highly unlikely but still possible. Option two is they have something, be it an outside force or a unique item, stopping my skill from reading anything. I find this to be the most probable cause for all these fucking question marks I am getting.] Cynrik’s eyes stopped on a young teenage girl as he spoke, causing his pupils to constrict, not from fear but from a sense of recognition.

‘Why…why does she seem so familiar.’

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