Chapter 292 - 292. Blink

Hello ladies and gentlemen. This is your friendly hero, trap master. You know me by my ingenious and innovative trapping methods I use to trap poachers in the wild! Due to my abilities, the kind staff has welcomed me to create and announce for this year's trap race! I have set up an extremely dangerous course to maneuver. Unknown to the participants this course is actually strewn with over a hundred hidden traps. Now, let's bring them to the starting line to hear the rules!" The man with a myriad of tools on his belt hit a button and a large gate opened. 

Seventy participants walked up to the starting line. Those that Laura had recognized hesitantly hung back behind her. They knew at the very least that if they followed her they might get second or third place. 

"Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the trap race. Today you will run through this trap invested course. The goal is simply to get to the farthest point possible. If you can, you should get to the other side! You may use your powers to dodge, break, and even use traps on others. But you can not directly attack another participant. If you do you will be automatically expelled from the premises by our kind referees!" The man gestured to twenty referees with various tools and protective gear. They all saluted in response making the crowd realize they were volunteers from the hero corporation bomb and trap diffusion brigade. 

"I would hate to delay you any longer. I know some want to rush off in to your prison. On your marks! Get set! Get trapped!" There was a loud bang and many of the less experienced participants ran off. 

Before they even knew what hit them, many fell in to trap holes and became stuck in a quicksand like substance. "That's right folks, we just cut the numbers down by twenty in the first minute!' The crowd cheered wildly seeing the newbies lose so quickly. 

Laura on the other hand was holding back. She had learned to slow herself down and was not so stupid to rush in to the unknown and fail. The two boys behind her were looking at her for guidance. 

"You two really want to stick to me for a good ranking huh? What do you guys have riding on this?" Laura wasn't sure what inspired them to join this race too. She had her reasons but wasn't sure why others would. 

"My father said that if I can't show him I can do this like a real future game keeper would, he would make me go in to the family business. I really don't want to go in to marketing." One of the boys was fighting for his future. 

"I plan to bring back some endangered species to safety when I grow up, Us two will work together. I need to prove that I am with investing as my best friend's business partner. I can't just leave him hanging." The other boy wanted to pursue his dreams with his best friend but had been blocked as a bad influence by the others' father. 

"I see." Laura thought for a second. "Then stick with me as close as you can. But I will take first place." The two boys knew that even thinking of keeping up was impossible. But they could watch the path she took and copy it. 

"Understood." The two spoke at the same time like soldiers ready to follow a commander in to battle. 

"Then we will run!" Laura dashed off. She knew that the first set of traps on the flat course was simply pit falls. That was until she saw a wire spring up. Luckily, she had been training her mental and physical synching time and reacted with ease. She hopped and jumped over the wire while also moving over another pitfall trap that she had seen someone else fall in. 

The shouts of contestants ahead of her grew and she saw that there were more wires and sticky green balls being fired at them from the sides of the course. The green dodge balls were coated in a substance used to capture dangerous criminals from a distance. They were only able to be removed by a special chemical only known to law enforcement. 

The participants that had been struck were stuck to the ground, each other, and even to themselves. Laura knew that dodging the wires was the best chance because if she stopped she would be hit by the sticky green dodgeball. 

Her fluid movements began to draw the crowds' attention. They were amazed that she was moving so well and with great speed. Laura quickly overtook most of the participants who had fallen or were trying to carefully move through the wires that could trip them. Laura continued and found that she had completely missed a detail of the course. 

From the starting point, it was impossible to tell there was a slight dip in the course and that there were small trenches of water running through it. This would be nothing if they didn't house jets of water powerful enough to knock someone over like a fire hose. 

Witnessing the power, Laura saw a participant knicked back almost all the way to the start. This put her in to high gear. Laura rushed forward dodging the spouts of water and the participants around her becoming caught in them.

Shen risked a glance back to see that the two boys were following her footsteps exactly, slowly, but exactly. It was impressive and she felt that she was doing more good by letting them watch and learn than by actually standing beside them and pushing them along. She focused on her forward movement to catch the slight shine of another wire at her head level. With a duck, she missed it by a hair and heard the shock and surprise of a contestant near her get zapped. 

"Danm. I can't believe there are zapping wires here." She was reminded of her least favorite obstacle in the camps obstacle course. If she were to proceed here without caution she would fail. Reaffirming her resolve, Laura pushed on. She weaved in and out and under the wires without letting them near her. When she found that some of them moved she was ready for it. 

Laura jumped through the last of them as they crossed each other and was on the other side when a snapping sound caused her to look to the side. A food trap had snapped hear her since she was too close to it. They were so sensitive that just getting near them would trigger them. However, when she started to move carefully a slight fog developed on the ground. It was hiding the signs of traps from her view!

Laura wasn't sure how to deal with this. 'Whatever! I will win anywyays. I will just run!" She became annoyed and decided that she might as well just push herself to the limit of her speed and hope that she was too quick to get caught. It was the only way since she couldn't see the traps in any way. 

Ash Laura sprinted across the grass almost faster than the eye could follow, there were continuous clicks and clangs behind her as the traps were set off. She could clearly feel one starting to move around her leg as she narrowly slipped out of it. She didn't even realize she was the only one this far ahead and that there were less than six participants left.

She didn't stop running at all. Her speed even increased. Laura moved so fast that her feet began to sleeve significant scuff marks on the track that was developed for the trap run. In a few blinks of the eye, she had surpassed even the next two obstacles. There were portions of the track that were supposed to change the height and make the participants jump over them. But Laura was too fast to trigger them. 

The drones that flew out to try and wrap wires around her to stop here couldn't even keep up. She reached the opposite wall and looked for the next trap only to find nothing. The announcer was silent while staring at her with his jaw dropped. 

After the crowds cheering shook him to reality he spoke, "My spectacular trap run course has been demolished by this year's underdog. Yet another student from the previous winners' groups in other tournaments. The first and irrefutable first place goes to nicknamed, well this makes sense if you had blinked you would have missed her clear the course. The winner is nicknamed Blink!" The crow erupted even louder. 

"How unexpected! We have two tying for second place! Nicknamed game savior and game guardian crossed the finish line hand in hand. These two partners followed in our winners' steps and helped each other every step of the way. I can see a bright future here today! I might even offer my mentorship!" The crowd lost it as the trap master moved from his announcing stand to the three at the finish line.