The Author's POV

'”Bang!

The blaring sound of a table being pounded resounded across the room. Following this, an enraged roar echoed across the room.

"This is bullshit!"

Perry stood up.

"I shouldn't be responsible for our school's lackluster performances!"

"That's not the point"

Sitting next to Perry, Ebonie shouted back. Her voice contained all of the frustration she held back for the past week.

"I've repeatedly warned you about this at the beginning of the week yet none of you listened to me!"

Turning around, Ebonie pointed at the TV screen where the rankings were shown and once again raised her voice.

"Now, look! We're only fifty points ahead of Theodora academy who should've been two hundred points behind according to the initial forecast. Whose fault is it other than yours for this?"

「Rankings」 - 「Points」

Lock Academy - 11,089

Theodora Academy - 11,039

Lutwik Academy - 10,785

Vellon Academy - 10,467

SilverWing Academy - 9,803

Kukz Academy - 9,732

DeathSigil Academy – 9,311

Dusk of Dawn Academy - 8,953

Everlight Academy -8,824

PridedHorses Academy - 8,645

"What the fuc'”"

"Rather than voicing out your complaints, let's talk about the possible solutions to this problem."

Cutting Perry off before he could swear, was Mark. Compared to the first meeting, his face looked a lot more serious. He was no longer treating this as a joke.

He knew just how serious their current predicament was.

"...Right"

Finally, calming down a bit, Ebonie stood up. Biting her lower lip, she looked at everyone that had gathered in the room.

"From what I've gathered, in order for us to win, all we need is four first-years to win their respective games, followed by two by the second years."

Pausing, Ebonie took out a tablet. Tapping on the screen on the tablet, the TV screen behind her changed.

"If they somehow can achieve this, we should be able to widen the gap with Theodora Academy. If we can't achieve that then we have no choice but to..."

Ebonie paused.

"No choice but to...?"

Perry asked as he too seemed to have also calmed down from the previous outburst.

"Win one of the battle royale games..."

"..."

At her words, the room instantly became quiet.

If there was one game that no one could guarantee first place spot, it would be the battle royale game.

The reason was simple.

There was no rule that stated that the other academies couldn't form alliances with one another.

As a result of this rule, every year the Lock and the other larger academies would end up fighting at a numerical disadvantage. Making it much harder for them to win first place.

It was also because of this that the points awarded to the academies upon winning the game were much higher than singular games.

If two academies were neck and neck with each other in terms of points, they'd need to be able to win the battle royale in order to widen the gap.

"That shouldn't be a problem."

The first to speak up was Perry. A faint smile appeared on his lips.

"Since we're already guaranteed first place in our battle royale, we don't really have to worry too much about it."

"That's easier said than done..."

Ebonie replied as she put her tablet down. From the way that she didn't deny Perry's statement, it seemed as though she agreed with him about the fact that the third year will win their battle royale.

Even so, she didn't seem to be completely confident about this.

"Is it? I don't think so. It isn't right if the third years are the ones that carry the whole school up. The first and second years need to hold their weight."

This time it was Mark who started speaking.

Turning around, Mark looked at all of the people that had gathered in the room.

"Listen up you lot! You've heard what she said. Make sure you don't disappoint during the battle royale games..." A threatening aura started exuding from his body. "I hope we don't go down in history as the worst team to have ever appeared in the Lock."

In response to Mark's glare, everyone in the room sheepishly nodded their head.

I also followed their example and nodded my head.

Not that I actually cared about what they were saying. My mind was preoccupied with other matters at the moment.

More specifically, regarding the Monolith situation.

After calling Kevin last night, I decided to meet up with him in his room to discuss more on the matter.

Although I had the book with me, I honestly preferred to just ask Kevin. It wasn't because I was too lazy or anything like that, it was just that the book was far too long for me at the moment.

With it recounting everything that happened to Kevin, the book was filled with endless amounts of jibberish that I couldn't care less about.

'Kevin turned on the valve of his shower and washed his body with the new soap that he had bought yesterday at the convenience store...''”Now why would I want to read this?

Although the book somehow remained the same size, the number of pages it had was scary. It probably numbered in the thousands by now.

Most of it was filled with useless stuff like that. This was why I just chose to directly ask him about what he knew.

Fortunately, living under the same roof had its perks. Within a minute I had already arrived at his room.

After that, I entered his room and started spouting nonstop bullshit about how I had this vision that I couldn't quite make out about the Monolith and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

In short, I managed to get Kevin to spill everything.

Perhaps because he trusted me a lot, or just because he was still immature due to his young age, after a bit of thought Kevin told me everything that he knew regarding the Monolith.

Though there was no concrete evidence, it was enough to convince me that something was definitely going to happen.

This talk pretty much confirmed that my worries weren't for naught.

The Monolith was indeed planning something big.

And to make matters worse, that thing was going to without a doubt implicate me.

That was because from what I had gathered from Kevin, they were planning on doing something big during the battle royale event next week.

'This information is good enough for now.'

Though I wasn't yet sure about what they were planning, this was a good starting point.

I at least knew that I had some time to work with. It was enough time for me to figure something out.

"Alright, thank you all for coming. You are all dismissed"

While I was preoccupied with my thoughts, Ebonie's voice suddenly resounded across the room.

Everyone in the room stood up. I too subconsciously followed the other's example.

Thirty minutes had passed since the beginning of the meeting, and after coming up with a rough plan, Ebonie satisfyingly stood up and dismissed everyone from the meeting.

"It's settled then. If we fail to win to get enough points in the individual matches, we will bet everything on the battle royale. I hope everyone tries their best till then. I will not let the technical staff brief some individuals on their upcoming games. Good luck~"

Grabbing her tablet, Ebonie left the waiting room. Not long after, Mark and Perry also left. Behind them were their usual rows of lackeys.

"Ren, come here"

Just when I was also about to also leave, Melissa called out for me as she sat on a chair in the corner of the room.

"Melissa? What do you need?"

I replied without moving from my spot.

"I said come here, I need to talk to you about your game that is coming up soon."

"Honestly, I'd rather stay as far away from you as possible..."

I shook my head.

Recalling my previous experiences with Melissa, I wanted nothing more than to be as far away from her as possible.

"Oh my, am I that scary?"

Covering her mouth with her hand, Melissa smiled.

"Yes", I replied. "...yes you are."

To make sure that she didn't misunderstand, I repeated this twice.

"Tsk, grow a pair for god's sake. I'm not doing this because I want to."

Clicking her tongue, Melissa was starting to get annoyed.

Although Melissa was enlisted as a contestant for the tournament, she wasn't actually participating in any game.

As Ebonie had stated before, there was a technical team.

The technical team's role was to analyze the student's performances as well as the competitors and come up with a good plan for them.

In this case, Melissa was talking to me because she was part of the technical team. In all likelihood, she wanted to talk to me about my upcoming game.

"Are you coming or not?"

"Alright, I'll stop joking. What do you need?"

Knowing when to push and when to back down, I gave in and moved to where Melissa was.

"Here"

Nonchalantly handing me her tablet, Melissa pointed towards a certain section of the screen.

"What is this?"

I curiously asked.

"This is the time that you need to beat in order to secure first place in the dummy massacre games"

"...and what gives you the confidence that this is the time?"

Taking the tablet, I solemnly looked at the information displayed on it. By the side, Melissa started explaining.

"After analyzing Aerin's game for the past six matches she had, I've made a rough estimate of her final score. Taking into account the worst-case scenario, I've shaven off ten seconds off of her estimated overall score and as a result, come up with this value over here."

Looking at the time Melissa was referring to, I softly muttered.

"...One minute and twenty-eight seconds?"

"Indeed."

Melissa nodded her head and continued.

"If we cross-reference the data from each game, this should be the target score that you should be aiming for when entering the finals. If you can beat this score, there is a high possibility of you getting first place."

Pausing, I felt Melissa's stare directed in my direction. With a soft voice, she asked. "Can you do it?"

"...Hmmm, maybe?"

Scratching the side of my neck, I responded.

If I went all out, then there was a possibility of me beating this score, but I wasn't sure.

Although I had some confidence in beating the score, I wasn't arrogant to the point that I would think that my victory was guaranteed.

Unless I actually won, it was always best to remain a little bit humble.

"Well, I don't care if you can't do it or can do it. I'm just doing my job."

Snatching the tablet off of my hand, Melissa put her hands in her pocket and left. From the looks of it, she didn't want to stay any longer.

"Heee...prickly as always. Do think about my previous advice about drinking hot water"

I of course wasn't going to let her go like that. I needed to have the last word.

"What?"

Melissa's footsteps halted.

Turning around, a sweet smile appeared on her face.

"Right, then how about you try the new potion that I've made?"

"The one that comes with the label from W.V. pharmaceuticals?"

I made a meaningful smile.

The last time Melissa made a potion for me it wasn't even made from her. Just something she got off the market as a replacement.

"...no, the one that I personally poured all of my love into. Trust me. You're going to enjoy it"

"Ha, I'll have to refuse you for now. Maybe next time."

"Tsk. Pussy"

Melissa clicked her tongue as she insulted.

"See you around!"

Pretending to not have heard Melissa's last comment, I directly left the waiting room.

I needed to prepare myself for the upcoming finals.

***

After separating from Ren in the waiting room, Melissa decided to head back to her dorm.

Walking back to her dorm, Melissa's footsteps paused. She then smacked her forehead.

"Right, I forgot to tell Ren that the difficulty of the round was going to be made even harder than before..."

Because of Ren and Aerin's recent performances, the instructors decided to increase the difficulty a little bit to make it more entertaining.

This was one of the things that she was supposed to tell Ren when consulting with him just now.

Of course, this didn't just apply to Ren's game alone. Some of the other game's difficulties were also increased by a fair amount.

"Oh well, doesn't really matter."

After contemplating for a bit, Melissa shrugged her shoulders.

"Won't really make a difference..."

Even if he wasn't told about this news, Ren aiming for a similar time to what she had shown to him before would without a doubt serve as a good motivational factor to perform better.

Well...

In reality, Melissa just wanted to see the dumb look that Ren would make once he realized his time was much slower than he had been aiming for.

Now that was something that she would love to watch. Just the thought made her chuckle.

"huhuhu, can't wait to see your performance."

Melissa's mood brightened.

***

Two days eventually passed and it was finally the day of the dummy massacre finals.

The arena grounds were filled to the brim with spectators, and everywhere around the world, millions of people were tuned in to watch the upcoming finals.

"Huaaa'”!"

Standing in the middle of the arena with my black Lock uniform I could hear the thunderous cheers coming from the spectators above.

It was deafening.

I didn't dislike it though. It sort of reinvigorated me. Pumped me up with energy.

Of course, I didn't show this on my face as I tried my best to suppress all of my emotions and remain level-headed.

Standing next to me, Aerin basked on the cheers as she cooly flicked her platinum hair to the side.

Staring at Aerin, I could feel an air of absolute confidence emanating from her body. It was as though she was saying, 'I'm definitely going to win this'

To that, I smiled.

'”Contestants, please make your way into the rooms.

The announcer's voice echoed across the speakers set up around the arena grounds. The cheers grew even louder.

"Huaaa'”!""Huaaa'”!""Huaaa'”!"

'”Rumble! '”Rumble!

Slowly the large metal doors that led to the match room opened up revealing nothing but darkness.

Turning her head in my direction, Aerin said. "I wish you the best of luck"

"You too"

With a slight smile on my face, I replied back. I then took a deep breath.

"huuu..."

After a couple of seconds, alongside Aerin, I calmly walked into the match room.

Pa.Pa.Pa. Just like before, as soon as I entered the room, the lights of the room lit up. Surrounding me from all sides were what seemed to be a hundred dummies.

"These are a lot more than I had expected..."

Calmly staring at the dummies before me, I scratched the side of the neck.

Compared to what I had I had originally envisioned, there were a lot more dummies than I had originally anticipated.

"So I'm supposed to beat the score of one minute and twenty-eight seconds?"

This looked almost impossible for me at the moment. Getting rid of one hundred dummies within that limited amount of time?

That sounded like an incredibly hard thing to do considering my current abilities.

but...

I wasn't someone that easily gave up like that.

Crack. Crack. Crack. Cracking my fingers, I took a light stance. Closing my eyes slightly, I softly muttered.

"Monarch's indifference."