Chapter 98: Foolhardy?

Translator: Double_L Editor: Tehrn

“Sure.” Martyrus then turned toward the candidates of both academies and said, “Students, please check on your map. The territory of Zergs that you’re required to pass through is right there, and your goal will be at the top of the mountain. This is an individual match, so all of you are not allowed to help out or attack the others. The match starts now!”

Martyrus was very confident with the average qualities of his students, which was why he decided to prohibit helping out as well since they were not allowed to fight each other; he obviously did that because he knew there was a huge difference of level amongst Ayrlarng’s participants.

He would win this round for sure.

“Check! Check!”

The twenty candidates had entered the virtual scenario.

Meanwhile, some reporters had arrived, but Samantha and Martyrus had them waiting outside instead since they only needed to know the final outcome.

Students of Bernabeu were allowed to stay in the arena, but they were not allowed to scream and shout as it might affect their guests from Ayrlarng; however, they could watch the matches through the monitor in the arena.

Soon as the twenty participants were dispatched randomly across the map, the Survival Assessment began!

Wang Tong shook his head as he checked his equipment and blamed the stingy system for only giving him a Direction Tracker and a sword. Anyhow, Wang Tong felt comfortable as he saw the towering trees and lush greenery around him. The environment looked like Norton even though the floral and botanical characteristics were different and the gravity was smaller; somehow, it gave him a homecoming feeling.

The mission was clear and simple: reach the designated goal as soon as possible in order to earn more time advantages.

Candidates of Ayrlarng and Bernabeu sprung into action as soon as the match began. It seemed like everyone had no problem with determining directions, all of them began to charge as they infused themselves with GN Force. As of that moment, every second counted.

Students of Bernabeu who were watching in the arena couldn’t hold back and began to cheer. As the host of the tournament, Martyrus apologized to Samantha. Since he was also the principal of Bernabeu, he couldn’t forbid his own students to stay and watch, so he only allowed a few representatives from each class to enter the arena. Nevertheless, a few students from all classes were more than enough to fill up the seats around the arena.

Students enjoyed fights and battles a lot. Moreover, there were so many things that were not to be missed this time. For instance: Ma Xiaoru, the successor of Tactics of the Enchantress, Wang Ben, the son of General Hu Ben, and most importantly, they would be able to witness the legendary upperclassman Apache, the one who single-handedly crushed the aces of Yalden and humiliated them while he was only a freshman. Apache was back after disappearing for more than a year, rumor has it that he was sent to train somewhere special. Since Ayrlarng had aces like Ma Xiaoru, Martyrus had no choice but to summon back the secret weapon who was able to terrorize S-Rank academies.

Ma Xiaoru was the fastest amongst fellow candidates as she unleashed her true strength of her renowned Tactics of the Enchantress, and she managed to create a huge gap with everyone else in terms of speed.

However, getting through a level-A Zergs’ territory wasn’t an easy matter. In a nutshell, even if both academies had sent out their best elites, it would be considered an outstanding performance if half of the participants were able to survive and reach the goal. Unlike normal races, the danger would escalate as one’s speed increased, not to mention, Zergs were very aggressive against intruders.

The shortest route was the middle route, but it contained the largest threat; it would be safer to take the periphery routes, but it would take a longer time to reach. As expected, strong ones like Ma Xiaoru and Wang Ben would definitely pick the middle route.

Candidates from Bernabeu chose to travel the periphery routes instead, their objective was to reach the designated goal; however, they were not worried about the time because the amount of students reaching the goal was the first consideration for deciding the winner.

“I see your students are brave, Principal Samantha,” Martyrus said as he saw that Carl also picked the middle route aside from Ma Xiaoru and Wang Ben.

Samantha was speechless, Carl was the weakest amongst candidates of Ayrlarng, yet he chose the hardest challenge, it was totally suicidal.

Samantha didn’t mention any strategy before the match began, she didn’t like restraining people, so she chose to let her students have it their ways. Samantha believed everyone had their own expertise, and only themselves would know what the right thing to do was… even though sometimes, their choice would give her a headache.

Clearly, the candidates of Bernabeu were well prepared, everyone was proceeding with caution since teamwork was prohibited. However, the level-A difficulty was more than a challenge to the students of military academies, normally, difficulties for training purpose would only be set to level-D or level-C, but this match was a battle of elites. Obviously, the difficulty would be set higher in order to make it more challenging and competitive.

Yet, there were two students who appeared to be loafing around!

Both Martyrus and Samantha somehow got embarrassed as they saw what happened. Wang Tong looked like he was having a stroll in the woods, while the other student of Bernabeu with an unshaven face was walking toward the goal sluggishly. There was no way the two of them could make it to the finish line before the end of the day.

Apparently Martyrus had been having a hard time with the defiant Apache; however, they managed to strike a deal before the tournament, Martyrus had agreed to let Apache do things in his way as long as the outcome was good. Martyrus was eager to see that kid’s improvements after all this time, Apache would be their best hope if Bernabeu was going to challenge Capth in the future.

Meanwhile, Apache was mumbling words as he walked: “Thirty-four… Thirty-Five...”

On the other hand, Wang Tong was busy touching and observing things, like he was enjoying the flowers and trees in the forest. The principals of both academies were deeply embarrassed by their performances, but there was nothing they could do.

Ma Xiaoru was leading as she had already slain tens of Zergs. Wang Ben was slow, yet he also managed to subdue quite an amount of Zergs as he advanced; nevertheless, people began to wonder if he was going to punch his way toward the goal.

Hu Yangxuan who was very good with speed was seen dashing across the map. Apparently, the boy genius had calculated the fastest route by making detours and avoiding as many Zergs as possible since he had no intentions to fight them.

The three aces of Ayrlarng were strong indeed; however, Ma Xiaoru and Wang Ben were closely followed by two students of Bernabeu, one of them being the decent looking Cao Yi. Cao Yi might look sluggish, but he would become ferocious as he sprung into action like a mini version of the Scythe Zergs, yet he was also avoiding Zergs to save up his energy for the upcoming rounds, he knew he would be doomed later if he was completely drained in this round. It made him wonder why the candidates of Ayrlarng were not able to understand something simple like that.

Martyrus knew he was going to win, but in the meantime, he was pretty disappointed; he was expecting that Samantha had chosen a few smart ones, but somehow they all appeared to be foolhardy.

The ones leading in front were closely followed by the secondary aces of Bernabeu, and it seemed like their levels were much higher than Ayrlarng’s candidates. Aside from the strong ones, the other candidates of Ayrlarng were too slow; especially Rumi who got lost in the woods, apparently she wasn’t very good with her directions even though she was given a Direction Tracker. Anyhow, Samantha never expected her to reach the goal.