The Extra of The Lunerra

Chapter 44: Volume II - Chapter 10: Start of the Preliminary

"Line up starting from class A!"

In just a few seconds we lined up as we were told. The atmosphere was one of absolute dominance.

"Now, all of you listen to me carefully!"

The speaker was someone who stood out even among the famous professors lined up in front of us.

His brown eyes were quite ordinary, but his long dark green hair gave him a strange air. Nearly two meters tall, he was a professor of mana theorem, one of the academy's candidates for the next rector. He had such an air that he seemed like he could crush us with his words alone.

"Soon you will enter through the gate in the door behind us, and you will step into a completely different world!"

Everyone reflexively turned toward the door. Even though it was no different from any other door in the hall, the knowledge that we were now going to enter it glorified it in the eyes of some.

"Injuries are allowed, except crippling. Other than that, once inside, you will begin with the sound of a bell echoing across the field."

The man paused for breath.

"Each of your training suits is specially made with a counter which advances when you are injured. When it reaches the upper limit, you are disqualified. Of course, if you manage to take your opponent's watch, you automatically disqualify him or her. Your goal is to survive until the last five people are left and, needless to say, you'll get a bonus for every person you eliminate."

It was a very explanatory speech, but there was one thing that stuck in my mind.

What happens if there are no last five for a long period of time? For example, let's say that the last ones are strong and stubborn, so the preliminary are extended for two or even three days... What happens in such a situation?

Well, I know it won't happen but I just started to wonder now…

"We have set the gate so that the moment someone passes through it, that person will be in a certain area, at a certain distance from you. Don't worry, the boundaries of the area have been specifically defined and there will be no creatures inside. Also, since there are six hundred and twenty-five of you, the first few minutes will be a bit chaotic. What I mean is you would better be careful."

The man smiled, then turned and signaled to those waiting outside the door.

The door opened wide, revealing the huge blue gate that had been hiding behind it until now. When this happened, my whole body trembled and I felt dizzy, just like on the stairs back then.

The amount of mana emanating from the gate was so enormous that it threw me off balance for a moment.

"We'll give you about five minutes to regain consciousness, then one by one you'll go through the gate and wait until you hear the bell. Now, let's focus on recovering quickly."

After these words, everyone became even tenser. Even though they were getting used to the heavy mana intensity, they were clearly sweating, their adrenaline levels were rising. I was not much different from them...

"Good, now go quickly through the gate."

With that, the students slowly started to walk towards the gate, first from class A.

They were hesitant at first, but then the line started to flow faster and faster, and finally, it came to us.

When class C, which I was in, approached the gate quickly, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. Then I just let myself go into the gate.

It was actually a strange feeling... A slight warmth, strange but not uncomfortable dizziness, and the extremely strange sensation of feeling as if I were moving and not moving at the same time...

Just when I thought I would get used to it, the feeling suddenly disappeared and a brilliant light enveloped my body. So I shielded my eyes, waited for a while for the light to disappear, and as it happened slowly, I finally pulled my arms back. That's when I realized I was in the trees.

I slowly stood up and started looking around. Interestingly, I could hear the sound of a stream of water coming from nearby.

With the luck I had in my old life, I thought of teleporting to the worst location or something, but at least water should be easy to get...

Although this time I seem to have had good luck, I couldn't find anything else noteworthy except the water source…

The professor told us not to move until we heard the bell and I am surrounded by trees... and I can't observe my surroundings much. It seems that all I can do is just wait.

I waited in this way for about seven minutes, each one tenser than the last, and then the waiting finally came to an end. I heard the sound of a bell, loud enough to ring in my ears, echoing through the forest.

As soon as my ears got used to the sound, I quickly hid somewhere pretty cowardly.

Getting a bonus by eliminating someone? I don't want to eliminate myself by fighting someone. I'm way behind in combat compared to my peers and I don't want to show off some of my skills right away.

So I'll hide first. And if there are people near me, which I'd prefer not to be, then at least I'll have the advantage of a surprise attack.

Now... One of the things I ca-

My thoughts were instantly interrupted.

I squinted my eyes, trying to figure out what the sound was and it didn't take me long to realize it was someone's footsteps.

I was just wondering when my bad luck would show itself… How great!

I leaned over even more than I already was, got deeper into the bushes, and focused completely on the sound.

The footsteps were slow and deliberate. They also sounded as if they were heading toward the sound of water, not me.

I calmed myself down as much as I could and moved slowly toward the sound of footsteps. Then I found a rather ordinary-looking boy in front of a river.

There was no one else around for now, but it was clear that anyone who heard the sound of water would soon be haunting this place.

While I was thinking about this, the boy I was watching bent down to drink from the river.

I took a deep breath, stood up, and took out my sword from my dimensional button. I quickly pocketed the two-dimensional buttons I had taped over it and started to approach the boy.

I don't care about bonuses, yes, but I'm not stupid enough to pass up an opportunity to eliminate an opponent I can see in front of me.

As I slowly approached the boy, I cast a wind spell to create a breeze, which further disguised my footsteps and when I thought I was close enough, I strengthened the breeze to blow in the opposite direction.

The boy looked curiously in the direction the breeze was blowing, the opposite direction to me, and I took the opportunity to rush at him.

I grabbed the boy by the collar and slammed him to the ground. Without letting him react, I pointed my sword at his chest and asked coldly.

"Zero thirteen?"

The boy looked at me with panic and confusion after what I said.

When I saw the look on his face, I sighed and quickly reached for his watch, but the boy realized my purpose and started to struggle.

I placed my sword on his shoulder and pressed down a little, and then something unexpected happened.

The boy suddenly started crying.

"Huh?"

The reason I only stabbed the sword lightly was that I hesitated. It felt weird to injure someone who had nothing to do with me, so I didn't just plunge the sword into his shoulder, but… what is this?

"I- I'm sorry... P- please don't hurt me!"

For a moment I just froze where I was, I didn't really expect him to react like that, I was literally dumbfounded.

After a while, I shook my head from side to side, sighed deeply, and without saying anything I reached for the watch on the boy's arm.

I pulled it off, and as I did so, red lines suddenly appeared on the boy's clothes. The words 'you are disqualified' appeared on his watch.

After that, the boy, along with his watch, which I was holding in my hand, suddenly turned into particles and disappeared.

They probably put the runes that work in low-level dungeons on our clothes... So we don't really have to worry about injuries. Wherever we go after disqualification, there will be quite skilled healers waiting for us.

I remembered the boy's behavior before he turned into particles and I couldn't help but feel bad.

This world... I guess it's a little bit scarier than I thought.

Immediately after this thought passed through my mind, the front of my suit suddenly shimmered, and a rather glaring number '1' appeared on it.

I couldn't help but be momentarily surprised by this, but I quickly regained my composure, quickly drank some water from the river, erased the image of the boy from my mind, and rushed back to the hiding place I had just been hiding in.

I have to do what I have to do. If I stray from the plan I have in mind, there will be trouble.

I made sure no one was around, confirmed that I was in a safe place, and finally turned on my watch.

Even though most of its functions are restricted to preliminary, I can still get information like the 'number of students remaining' through it.

Only four hundred and sixty people left in the first few minutes... It looks like there are some fierce battles going on.

After I turned off the watch, I looked around, again making sure that no one was ambushing me, and this time I reached into my pocket.

I picked up one of the dimensional buttons that I had pulled out of my sword when the preliminary first started, the green one, transferred mana to it, and pulled out what was inside.

What came out of the button was a device the size of a music player from my old world, with only a few buttons and a screen.

When I pressed the buttons, dots suddenly appeared on its closed screen.

The one representing Adrian was blue, while the dots representing Justin and his men were all green.

The day before the preliminary, when I had dinner with Adrian and Julian, I had asked for Adrian's watch, saying that it was out of date and that I wanted to update it. He was happy to give it to me, and so I had placed a transmitter on the watch that was almost impossible to see.

I slowly stood up and, without anyone noticing, started to move toward the blue dot I had seen. I met a few students along the way, but I ignored them, both because I wanted to hide my full power as much as possible and because I didn't believe I could defeat them all.

In this way, when there were about five hundred meters between me and the blue dot, I saw a gathering of green dots. Justin and his men were gathering on my side, about three hundred meters away from Adrian.

I quickly moved toward them, and as I got closer to where they were gathered, the trees were getting denser and my field of vision was getting narrower. I was a bit scared, but I kept going.