The examination went underway after the instructor had laid out the rules. The participants were led towards their individual rooms where they were prompted to use a Vortex Container.
After logging himself in, Luon found himself inside a temple, it was shattered and filled with vegetation as he could only assume it was a temple from the engravings on the walls and ceremonial altar.
Luon looked around and found no viable resources to make a weapon out of, besides the stones on the ground there was only moss. He merely picked up a sizeable rock that was shaped like a brick and decided to set out with it. As he couldn’t find anything right away, Luon found it was better to have something than nothing.
Luon assumed that the way that spawn points that the other contestants teleported were randomized at fixed distances once they logged themselves. The real question was, how far was he from another contestant? That question didn’t last that long as another contestant appeared before his eyes within the next minute.
They bumped into each around a corner and were both taken by surprise. The way they met with each other was similar to being in a romantic love comedy series where one would meet their fated one around the corner. Only this time rather than being an encounter that may lead to a possible relationship between the two it was more like an encounter between enemies. Immediately after the two pulled out their weapons and attacked each other.
Luon took his stone and threw it towards his opponent who pointed his rifle at Luon. However, being physically unfit the man took too long to react and Luon’s attack which had effectively stunned his head to the point where he could see stars. Slightly conscious the man pressed the trigger spraying bullets in a multitude of directions. In response, Luon ducked behind some debris to take cover.
‘Fortune favors idiots,’ Luon thought as much when he looked at his opponent when the attack stopped. Luon found out that the opponent he just encountered had killed himself from shooting aimlessly.
Although he was tempted to run up and loot his body, Luon was afraid that the noise the man made would have attracted the attention of others. After circulating around for a bit to ensure that the coast was clear, he slowly approached the body and assured that his opponent was dead before he started to go through the man’s belongings.
‘What a lucky guy,’ Luon thought. Luon found more ammunition for the rifle and a small dagger. It was much better than what he started out with.
Luon’s combat level was slightly higher than the average participant at the Novera Corporation Examination since he had a combat specialization. Not only that but by being one of the most recent generations that were born from being incubated in Vortex Containers, he was naturally more fit for combat.
Luon scoured the surroundings to the point where he explored the entire building. He managed to find several piles of scraps of electronics and ferried them into the center of the temple. With the trash he started to construct a few basic tools for him to work with and by using his BMPU, he then checked on their quality.
Once he finished crafting some necessary tools he created several little devices with sensor modules, miniature speakers, and a basic processing board to alarm him of intruders when they come nearby. This wouldn’t have been accomplishable without the BMPU which all contestants were allowed to bring in as it allowed them to access the wide range of general appliances and blueprints as well as pre-developed programs for basic applications.
After creating those sensors, Luon crafted more useful tools that may prove themselves to be helpful.
Luon pocketed the newly crafted devices into a sizeable makeshift bag he crafted from the clothes of the man he had eliminated and left the building. During the time he took to construct several tools he found that although the corpse would disappear after a certain amount of time, he was still able to keep the clothes as they weren’t registered for deletion.
Luon left the temple and found himself to be in a dark jungle, compared to the insides of the temple it was less welcoming. Luon felt like something would pop out of nowhere at any given time.
Giving a light sigh, Luon braved through the darkness and managed to find traces of battle, after using his deductive ability he managed to find some tracks. Actually, anyone could have seen these footprints as they were so bright and concise as if the person wanted someone to follow them.
Luon silently evaluated the footprint and concluded that the person who imprinted it was taller than him and may not possibly be human, in fact, it looked like the person who made this footprint may have been a robot.
Luon carefully followed the prints and eventually found at a campsite, in the middle of it, was a robed figure who merely sat there.
Luon was quite suspicious at the scene, he was just following the trail of the robot only to find a robed figure next to a fire. Luon hesitated whether or not to attack, he suspected that this may be a trap laid out for him as the layout was practically screaming out so.
Fortunately, he was prepared for such an occasion, after laying out the miniature sensors to keep watch for other opponents, he pointed his rifle at the person and fired. The first shot made the robed figure explode as it was rigged a series of magic engravings to do so.
As he predicted the person that he had eliminated was actually a robot, this revelations caused Luon to hide with a nearby tree. At this moment a series of alarms were triggered as they came multiple different directions.
‘Are they are working with each other?’ Luon thought as he realized that it was too much of a coincidence to face all these people at the same time.
Regardless, with a rifle in his hand, he felt like he needed to take the initiative, especially while in the dark. Luon placed the bag of goods he had in an obscure corner before taking out a circular tube and attached it on the rifle. It was one of the mechanisms he made to avoid making too much noise and attracting other opponents.
‘10 Explosive rounds and several normal magazines,’ Luon thought as he evaluated his weaponry. Engraving an array on a bullet takes time, Luon had only made 10 because he felt he didn’t need that many.
After completing his preparations, Luon went to the alarm that he situated closest to him and found his target. Before he attacked, Luon carefully looked around quickly and found nothing amiss, he took a shot at him, and the man fell down like a ragdoll that had just lost its strings. Luon repeated this steps a few more times until one of them found Luon killing one of their teammates and yelled, “He’s over here! Over here!”
Luon quickly retreated and managed to lose the man by traversing pass the complicated terrain. He wasn’t moving aimlessly Luon had memorized the surroundings when he laid out the trap and mentally simulated their movements. However, that trick could only work for the first few minutes. Once the alarms were destroyed, it was difficult to tell how many more opponents were there. The man that spotted him was one of those additions.
While Luon traverses the darkness like a shark seekings its prey, a group of men was gathered, one of these individuals was the person who had spotted Luon.
“So you’re telling me you found him, but you couldn’t tell who it was and which direction he went to?” said one of them.
The lad, who was out of breath from chasing after Luon, enthusiastically exclaimed, “Yes! I couldn’t tell who it was, but they are armed with a rifle attached with a silencer, and they are really athletic.”
“Useless idiot, we need to know who it is or else we’re wasting our time here!” exclaimed another man.
“Now, now, don’t blame him for this. It was difficult to see after all.” said another newcomer, only his words held more weight behind them since they came from an influential figure.
“Okay so it was hard to see, but do you at least know if it was the target or not?” said one of the men who was still a little dissatisfied.
“I don’t think so…” the person who met Luon quieted down as thought long and hard about it.
“Regardless or not it was the target, I want you guys to bring their head to me. If it’s the target, Shizuka Ichihara, tell the others over the voice chat. We have to eliminate her at all cost.”
“Yes,” their entire group exclaimed, they ran into different directions only this time they were paired.
“Do you think it will work?” One of the men stayed behind and asked their leader.
“It has to work, we need to stop Shizuka’s ascension within Novera Corporation otherwise we aren’t able to achieve our goals. Go quickly get this job done, the sooner, the better,” said the leader.
“Yes our great leader,” said the man as he ran off.
“… it’s temporary leader,” said the man as he looked off at a distance, this man was the son of the temporary leader of Novera Corporation, Nizer Farad from the Farad family.
“It should be around here,” muttered Luon. Luon determined the weakest point to break out of the encirclement was this spot. If his opponent were a like-minded person who understood the geography, then he would be in big trouble.
After making a few steps he had suddenly realized something, ‘Ah crud, I left all the materials under the tree…’
Luon had utterly forgotten about the good he had hidden, Luon really wanted to get it back as he didn’t want to search and dismantle products for the materials he needed severely as well as take time to recraft everything.
Luon backtracked the way to the tree only to find it was being looted by three men. Enraged with no time to lose, he sprayed his rifle into the three of them, and to finish it off he shot 2 explosion bullets. But the attack had attracted the attention of the other pursuers.
Luon gathered his belonging without forgetting to loot the bodies and quickly made his way out of the encirclement. Now and then had to engage in quick exchanges with his opponent but the result was either a quick victory or a forced retreat…
When Luon reached the exit point, an arrow flew right beside his eye.
He turned and saw a few archers loading their arrow and attacking him. To avoid the sticky situation he used his dark mana to make him blend into the darkness. After losing sight of Luon, they began to attack at random, but he was already long gone.
After breaking out of the restricted area, Luon turned and twisted many bushes and trees leaving nearly no change to the environment. As if he was ghost he only needed to tap the ground with his feet before traveling several meters.
Luon who traveled quite far from where he was attacked from stopped to catch his breath. To maintain that much speed for so long was an arduous task to do despite his body enhancements.
As he let his guard down Luon felt a cold chill behind his back, “Don’t move.”
The voice appeared familiar to him as he slowly turned his head to meet Shizuka’s eyes which were wavering whether or not to kill him.
