BXBX NOVEL Chapter 43: Charade
He missed her, but she has work to do so he didn't really want to disturb her too much.
He looked at the time and it was 9:50AM. Ten minutes to the given time.
Anthony teleported and arrived at the door leading to the colosseum, pushed it open and entered with steady steps like he owned the place since it was founded.
Though they called it a coliseum, Anthony refused to name it that because it was just as huge as the training hall he used for weapon training with Klaus.
It seems they used space magic to expand it to the extreme, creating more space to accomodate people.
Anthony looked around and saw that many people have gathered.
In the Academy time was always of essence, a second late here could cost you a lot.
So everyone basically arrived before him, he always arrived on time, but his classmates always make it seem like he came late as he is always the last to arrive despite always arriving before the stipulated time.
Bryan looked at Anthony who was still releasing an F- rank and clenched his fist, after Anthony lazed around all six months he thought he finally had a chance and just had to be wary of Tiara now, although he hasn't fought her, he won't underestimate her.
The Dean has taught Bryan a lot of things, not just about training and fighting. But more about the world itself, he taught him things he should know for his level and a step above.
This was Bryan's confidence in ranking 1st in the Written exam Rank.
He once asked the Dean about the reason for the five marks missing in the one thousand mark written exam or clues to it.
But the Dean smiled and said if he could get it, he would, there was no trick, if there a trick it would be to read.
Bryan didn't understand but still read more and more, his brother's death also added to his hatred for demons making him even train harder everyday.
Even his elder brother Heinz, the student council president graduated immediately and went straight for the demons
Bryan was confident that he could at least touch the 995 score and enter the 996 realm if he read like his master told him, but he fell short and was a point away.
Yet, the person he trained hard to surpass simply enjoyed life and surpassed him with minimum effort.
As Bryan was deep in thought a professor with a four star badge on his chest floated down from the skies with a spear hanging on his back with aura resembling a tidal wave about to crush all of them.
Normally Freshmen won't see people of such status in the Academy till their third year, but this was the golden generation.
All of them were freaks, even someone who is considered mediocre right now is a genius in the previous generations and eras.
So none of them would be expelled for not meeting the required mana rank but rather if they tanked their written exams.
"The name's Dame, you green pigs are here to find out who is a greener pig amongst all of you, so if you are the greener pig don't feel too proud or become arrogant" The professor started speaking.
"You lot will be sent to a secret realm that the Academy owns, and as usual you are there for killing monsters and nothing more"
"You will have to survive twenty four hours there while fighting for points"
"Speaking of points, monsters that count as point are from middle D rank upwards, anything lower in rank counts as zero"
Everybody was shocked, this was simply too much, even D- rank monsters counted as zero, they couldn't believe their ears
The Dean and Vice principal did this because even the weakest student here was already peak D rank, and there was simply no need for weak monsters during this monstrous era.
Even if the D rank students were allowed to fight and kill monsters of lower ranks, no matter how they killed, they won't be able to surpass others even if they cleared the entire realm of the monsters.
Some began to murmur amongst themselves while some kept quiet as they didn't even plan on hunting D rank monsters at all.
"Silence" Dame said as his aura flared and stopped the noise
"Now, you are to kill monsters and earn points, you won't be told how much point any beast cost, also you won't be able to see your points or other's points, you are just going to come out twenty four hours later and find out"
"Of course we won't send you to your deaths, as the realm is always cleared by us leaving the highest monster there only at the SSS+ rank, so no need to worry"
The students were stunned, 'what did he mean no need to worry, some of us can't kill C rank monsters and you are saying there are SSS+ monsters'
Then Dame waved his hand and 800 blue balls appeared and moved to each student and floated in front of them
"This is a 'life ball' as the inventor calls it, well such a stupid name, it is used to teleport to any location already engraved on it and it's a one time item" Dame said with a smile
"I'm sure most of you know the difference between this and your Academy wrist watch that teleported you during the entrance exams, as this can move you even if you are in another space like the secret realm without distance limitations while the wrist watch has a distance limitations and can't move across realm"
"So basically this is a life saving artifact that the rich use but this is better, all you have to do is think of teleporting and you would be teleported to the location engraved on it, this spot as already been engraved, it doesn't require mana at all"
"So when you meet your deaths you can simply run away, even if you are at death's door, we have the best healer here already"
"For those who use the 'life ball' your points will be halved upon your arrival, while those who survive the entire twenty four hours would get the artifact for free as a reward for surviving there"
"Then you erase the already engraved location and engrave your own, remember it's a one time use thing, also for those of you who would like to study the 'life ball' then mass produce it, you are welcome to try as others who tried before you may still be trying from the death realm"
As soon as Dame said this, the Spear on his back vibrated and everyone felt a chill down their spine, they all knew what he meant.
Anyone who tried to replicate it would cease to exist forever.
"As a compensation for sending you to a place with SSS rank monsters even if you won't encounter it unless you actively seek death, all monster corpse you bring back will be converted to Academy points" Dame said
Everyone became happy, points were too hard get, they had to work their asses off for it, now it's falling like a pie for them.
Some already planned to just hunt for corpses and leave the ranking exam as they always could challenge someone later on for the rank they want
"As you already know, no killing or giving fatal crippling blows are allowed, you get ranking points by killing the monsters yourself and Academy points by bring corpse, so even if a student at the C rank brings back corpse at the A rank, we won't care if you killed it or not, just that you brought it back, robbing other students of corpses are allowed"
"And I don't need to tell you this but you know that no potions are allowed right"
"You can only walk in with your weapon and space rings and that's all, you can see the time count down on your watch, the watch has been updated also to count your scores and send it back in real time and you will automatically be brought out of the secret realm when the time is up"
"The secret realm has many monsters nest, so be careful you green pigs, the realm teleports everyone to random places and you would hardly meet each other, so don't die as the Academy won't compensate your families, we won't be watching you at all, so do as you please" Dame said with a smirk.
Anthony shook his head at these rules.
These old men were truly scheming, the ginger gets spicier the older it gets.
They made the corpse for point rule and asking of no questions particularly for him, so that he could bring back whatever he could and they could gauge his strength, it seems they found out he has more than he shows but they don't know what he has or the depth of what he has.
Even if they didn't ask any questions, the marks on the beast and monster body will giveaway how it died, comparing that and the person that brought the corpse was the only answer they need, so there was no need to ask anything at all.
Besides Anthony was already rich, he didn't need these points, even if he became broke and needed points, he could just go back and bet again and become a millionaire again.
The rule of also not seeing your point or anyone's until you come out to know your final ranking was to make people go all out due to fear of the unknown.
To make them continue hunting and keeping the corpse, and they couldn't stop because for all they know, they could be in the last, or the second place just needing one point to climb to first place, so why stop at all.
This was another rule to make Anthony show some cards he had.
Also they said they won't be watching was a lie, there was no way they would send their students of a golden generation at that to a secret realm without supervising them for twenty four hours.
This was another way to make Anthony move freely without hiding.
Though they monitored them in the boran forest during the entrance exam using nanobots that had cameras and speakers that were so small and hard to see, but Anthony saw them and so did others who had good eye sight.
But now saying they won't be watching was a total lie, they simply won't be watching with cameras but with another thing entirely that won't be detectable for people of their realm.
They simply hide all these ploy by planting a benefit Infront by using the artifact that even rich kids and family don't have and with the Academy points.
The entire exam rule is a charade, made just for Anthony to show some card so they could see for themselves, all this planning because he scored a perfect score during the written exam.
Anthony knew it was because of the perfect score in the written exam but that won't stop him from getting a perfect score next time
If Anthony didn't have the passive skill "scheming mind" he would have 100% sure fallen for this pit, he truly thanked the skill, he was a normal person in his past life, there was no way he could find out about any of this schemes, this is why Anthony wished for the "scheming mind" skill, it was truly dangerous to trust old men in any fantasy.
He would show them what they wanted to see, just not himself but his subordinate.
"They should be enough for them to enjoy as a show won't it" Anthony said to himself.
Now the stage for his subordinate debut has been set, all he has to do was just watch