Chapter 242: We’re Leaving Man Take Care! [Part 2]
They didn’t know what happened to that poor snake afterwards, but they did know that they could hear noises coming from that area even after they had moved far, far away.
After they went through the swamp forest, Cillin’s team encountered a desert and a grassland. The strange species in these lands caused a lot more troubles to the examinees who were attempting to pass through the area as compared to the previous term students. Most of them were simply watching them the sidelines and occasionally chuckled at their misery. Therefore, the local overlords (animals) were the ones they should pay more attention to.
Just as they were about leave the desert, Cillin’s team saw a variant of an armadillo biting its tail, curling itself into a ball and rolling down a sandstone while mumbling unclearly, “Run, run!”
It didn’t take long before a large scorpion burst out of the sandstone and crawled towards their direction, driving Cillin’s team into a mad sprint yet again. The gray cat wanted to fight the scorpion, but Cillin had grabbed it by the nape and stuffed it between his armpit mid flight. There was no need to provoke unnecessary trouble.
The marathon was definitely useful in testing a person’s specific set of abilities. For example Walley was incredibly drought resistant, and Libero and Ironhead were much tougher than Teita because they were mixed bloods. In fact, they had to take turns carrying Teita on their backs for most of their journey through the desert.
Cillin noticed that the few examinees they ran into didn’t fare much better than them. Some of them even cut a sorry figure and looked downright ragged. After all, not everyone had the privilege to be escorted by overlords like King Kong and Boa.
When the marathon was finally over, every examinee thought the same thing in their heads: One, thank goodness it was over and two, thank goodness the planet wasn’t as big as the planet where AF1’s actual campus was.
Some people left after the additional test was over. These people had all quit of their own volition; so far AF1’s instructors hadn’t put them through a large scale elimination. They didn’t even eliminate the examinees who fell behind during the marathon because two-fifths of the test’s focus were on the result, and three-fifths were on the process.
Everyone thought that they would get a rest period after the marathon was over, but unfortunately they were notified that they would be sent to the next test zone immediately once eighty percent of the examinees arrived at the finish line. Those who finished the marathon early fared better because they had a bit of time to recuperate themselves while they waited for those who lagged behind to catch up. Cillin’s team was one of those lucky teams because less than thirty percent of the examinees were present when they reached the finish line. However, some of the examinees who made it through last had to literally crawl up their transports while panting heavily.
According to Teita, the cooperative test was next after the three-plus-one test. At first, they thought that they would be forming teams among the remaining examinees but as it turned out reality was different from their expectations.
There were less than seven hundred people left to participate in the cooperative test. When the transports landed at the destination and Cillin’s group got off the plane, they discovered that they were at a wide outdoor training ground. It was obvious that this was an assembly spot and not where the test was going to be undertaken. A lot of people were warming up at the training ground by the time they showed up.
A voice resounded from the training ground before Cillin could even discuss with the others about the cooperative test. “Cillin! It really is you, my different-mum different-dad blood related brother!”
Do you even hear yourself… your language teacher would kill themselves on a piece of tofu if they heard this.
The guy shouting on top of his lungs was of course the idiot prince, Bel. He was also accompanied by his good friend Gen Xingming. Cillin had a bad premonition when he noted the wretched smiles on their faces.
The excited Bel ignored the odd gazes the crowd was showering him with and gave Cillin a big hug. He then slapped him fiercely on the shoulder before saying, “We were just talking about you before you showed up. You really are my brother!”
“Cillin, it’s so nice to see you here! We didn’t think you’d be among this group of examinees!” Gen Xingming also looked unbelievably excited.
A new guy ran over after Bel and Gen Xingming. Cillin could guess from what Bel told him some time ago that this new guy was Ulaganuo, the poor prince of Snowstorm Wendyska Family who was unfortunate enough to draw the short straw and be thrown into the military for retraining by his father.
“So… what’s going on?” Cillin swatted Bel’s hands away before asking.
Bel still didn’t give his an answer as he looked at the gray cat cheerfully. “Wheeze, I miss you so much!”
The gray cat kept a stiff face and ignored him from on top of Cillin’s shoulders. It thought: he say he misses me, but he doesn’t even have a fish biscuit to prove it.
“Wheeze, I’ll treat you to a full fish course and freshly baked fish biscuits at AF3’s restaurant once this test is over, okay!” Bel added.
The gray cat smiled widely. “I’m so happy to see you all too!”
Walley and the others: “...” Holy shit that is so fake!
Someone at the training ground complained when they saw Bel chatting with Cillin. “You know someone from over there, Bel!? That’s unfair!”
“Is that jealousy I hear? Too bad I don’t give a shit! If you’re really good you would’ve known a friend yourself!” Bel retorted with a pleased look on his face: Look at me, I know an examinee who’s guaranteed to enter AF1 or AF2 and he’s also my different-mum different-dad blood related brother!
“Eh? Why’s there a child here?” Ulaganuo looked behind Cillin and saw Teita standing with Libero and the others not far away.
Bel and Gen Xingming turned to look after the heard him. “Oh, hehe. We just noticed.”
Teita was annoyed. You shouldn’t look down on my height!
“Say, who is this kid? Do you know him?” Bel asked Cillin. Kids at Teita’s age normally went through a different set of tests. That was why not many people in their tens were participating in the tryouts.
“Oh, his name is Teita. There’s also Libero, Walley and Ironhead. All five of us share the same hostel,” Cillin said.
“Teita? This name sounds a little familiar for some reason… Ah! You’re that old oyster’s -”
Gen Xingming kicked him over before he could finish his words. Then, he smiled at Cillin’s team and said, “Ignore him, for whatever reason he couldn’t stop spouting nonsense as of alte!”