Chapter 29
Dawn.
Nearly four hundred trainees stood before an enormous forest covering the northern part of the island.
The test area stretched across almost the entire northern region of Hell Island.
At the entrance...
Instructors handed each trainee a wooden badge about the size of a palm.
"Even if you lose your badge, the test does not end."
An Executioner on the platform repeated the rules.
"Until the final bell sounds, you can always steal one back."
"When the sun sets and the horn sounds, everyone returns here."
"The number of badges in your possession will determine your ranking."
Every hand holding a badge trembled slightly.
Their lives had essentially been assigned a value equal to a thin piece of wood.
Theron quietly looked at the nearly four hundred people ahead of him.
...More survived than I remember.
In his previous life...
The first test had killed nearly one-third of the trainees.
This time...
Only a little over a hundred had disappeared.
It was still hell.
But less deadly than the hell inside Theron's memories.
He did not know whether his own actions had caused the difference.
What mattered now was something else.
I won't move the way you want me to.
Theron looked toward Berton, standing alone at a distance.
The man watched everyone with his usual snake-like eyes.
Perhaps he was already imagining which trainees would die.
Amid the heavy silence...
The forty-two Section Five trainees quietly exchanged looks.
No words were needed.
Ten days of receiving each other's swords...
Ten days of filling each other's weaknesses...
Everything existed inside those gazes.
Along with Theron's final words.
Fight seriously, but don't hurt one another.
Create chances to escape from each other.
And... everyone comes back.
The Section Five trainees tightened their fists.
The eastern sky slowly brightened.
DOOOOOONG!
The opening bell split the dawn.
"UOOOOOOOH!"
The test became chaos the moment it began.
"Aaaaah!"
"Give me your badge!"
Shouts and screams erupted from the forest entrance.
Ten days of accumulated fear and suspicion exploded with the first bell.
Trainees from the same section were already rolling on the ground fighting.
After all...
If this was an individual test...
The easiest prey might be the people they had spent ten days observing.
They knew exactly who was weaker.
Exactly what weaknesses they had.
But inside that chaos...
Section Five did not waver.
No one panicked.
No one froze.
Everything engraved into their bodies during the past ten days began proving its worth.
BOOM!
A large trainee from Section Seven brought his wooden sword down like an axe against Perka's shield.
The old Perka would have absorbed the strike...
Then paused half a beat.
Not anymore.
The moment he received it...
He redirected it.
Then transferred that redirected power into his own sword.
CLACK!
"Ugh!"
The opponent collapsed while clutching his side.
Perka removed two badges from his clothes and grinned.
"Thanks. You helped me warm up."
The confidence would have been unimaginable ten days earlier.
Perka himself understood better than anyone how much had changed.
Elsewhere...
Renil was doing his job.
Three attacks.
One retreat.
Breathe.
The rhythm he had cursed during practice became terrifyingly effective in real combat.
Most opponents exhausted themselves early.
Renil's speed never dropped.
"Haaah... Haaah... What the hell is wrong with your speed...?"
"Sorry."
Renil grinned.
"I haven't even started yet."
Deep inside the forest...
BOOOOM!
Palcoat's wooden sword broke two Section Two weapons at once.
Relax the shoulder.
Concentrate strength only in the last handspan.
Combined with his natural power...
Very few trainees could directly receive the strike.
"M-Monster..."
"Hand over your badges if you don't want to die."
Palcoat collected them.
Valk excitedly shouted from behind.
"Brother! That was amazing! Seriously amazing!"
"...Shut up. Next."
His words were cold.
His lips were not.
In the shadows of these loud fights...
Another form of survival continued.
"Huh? Did something move over there?"
"Probably the wind. Come on. I heard something this way."
Two Section Two trainees passed a bush.
Rodi quietly breathed inside it.
He still possessed only his original badge.
Three hunting groups had passed near him since the test began.
Not one had caught him.
Not getting caught is strength.
Rodi repeated Theron's words like a spell.
He might not win a fight.
But he trusted these legs to survive until sunset.
Meanwhile...
Theron moved alone through the forest.
Shhhh.
His body rode his breath.
Five steps without sound.
This was the first time he had fully used Wandering Wind in a real fight.
Even Theron was surprised by the result.
"W-What? Where did you come from?!"
Opponents could not see him approach.
More accurately...
They saw him too late to react.
His steps killed sound and thinned his presence.
By the time someone understood what they were seeing...
His sword was already within range.
Clack.
A precise strike to the wrist.
