Chapter 20 – Competition (1)

Kieran soon joined Ryan, who was already accompanied by Cassandra. Arriving near them, an unpleasant voice reached his ears.

"Listen to me, trash, if you slow me down in this competition, I’ll make you pay dearly, do you understand?"

"..."

What welcomed Kieran was the sight of his brother being belittled by Casandra.

"Answer me when I speak trash."

Cassandra suddenly got angry, raising her hand. She was about to hit Ryan when Kieran appeared behind her, grabbing her wrist.

"What is...?"

Surprised, she quickly turned around, facing Kieran.

"What do you think you're..."

Suddenly a shiver ran through her whole body when she saw Kieran's cold eyes staring at her. She couldn't complete the words she wanted to say.

"I was going to ask you that same question."

"Ge... Get off me."

Kieran slowly loosened his grip, letting Cassandra go. He moved closer to Ryan.

"How are you?"

"I didn't ask for your help," Ryan whispered.

A slight smile appeared on Kieran's face.

"We are on the same team. It's normal if I help you."

Cassandra looked at the two in a daze.

'It's true... This trash's brother is a double awakened. I forgot he was in our class since he hadn't appeared in a while.'

Cassandra slowly approached the two before beginning to speak.

"My name is Cassandra. Let's try to work together to earn points."

Kieran only glanced at her before turning his attention back to teacher Marsk.

"Tsk."

Seeing that Kieran was not interested in her, Cassandra turned around, looking in the direction of teacher Marsk.

After a few minutes, teacher Marsk spoke again.

"Good, the competition will start in five minutes."

At the end of his words, a countdown appeared in everyone's view.

"Once the countdown ends, you will all be sent in teams to a random location on the map, so be careful where you land."

The countdown begins to tick, and the students' anxiety increases with each passing second.

Finally, five minutes passed quickly, and the same message appeared in front of everyone before their bodies disappeared from the plain.

"START!!!"

Kieran and the other two were sent to the middle of a forest when a message appeared in front of them.

[Remaining time: 1:23:59:59
Team list:
Kieran Arvost
Ryan Arvost
Cassandra Ashblight
Individual collected point: 0 ]

Kieran looked at his body before trying to activate his aurora collar, and like outside the virtual machine, there was no problem accessing his objects.

The virtual machine scans a person's body, crystal tree, and aurora collar data to reproduce a perfect simulation of reality. Even pain, fatigue, thirst, and hunger were perfectly reproduced inside. The only things that weren't replicated were the water and food Kieran had stored in his aurora collar.

'The teachers must have made sure that all water and food was taken away from us so that we had to find them ourselves.'

He looked at Ryan and Cassandra, who had appeared close to each other.

"Let's not waste time. Let's go."

"Wait, Kieran!"

Ryan's voice stopped him in his steps.

"We should try to know our team's abilities to better prepare for fighting against crystal beasts."

"Knowing what a trash like you is capable of won't help us," Cassandra said coldly.

Ryan bowed his head in humiliation, clenching his teeth so tight that they threatened to break.

Kieran begins to lose patience with her when he sees a shadow move quickly in Cassandra's direction.

Seeing him looking behind her, Cassandra turned to see a thick bramble rapidly approaching her head.

Without hesitation, she stepped back, grabbing Ryan, who was standing next to her, and throwing him toward the bramble.

Not having time to understand what was happening, Ryan could only see a shadow enter his sight.

Raising his arms quickly in front of him, a transparent cubic barrier formed around his body.

*crack*

The sound of breaking glass resounded in the forest when the bramble came into contact with the barrier. Suddenly many cracks appeared on the surface before it exploded into thin particles.

Ryan fell to the ground from the explosion of his barrier, the thick bramble spinning through the air and leaving a deep wound on his shoulder.

"Argh!!!"

Ryan screamed in pain, holding his shoulder.

"Tsk, at least you can be useful as a meat shield."

As Cassandra looked at Ryan on the ground with disdain, she felt a chill go down her spine.

Just having time to turn around, a pair of claws grabbed her by the throat, lifting her into the air.

What entered Cassandra's sight was Kieran watching her with cold eyes as his right hand transformed into a pair of claws.

"Arhh..."

A hoarse sound came from her throat when she tried to pronounce a word. She grabbed Kieran’s hand with both hands when a red light surged from each of them, igniting the fur on his arm.

He only glanced at his burning fur before looking back into Cassandra's eyes one last time.

*crack*

The sound of bones breaking was heard, and Cassandra's body fell to the ground lifeless. The next moment her body that was on the ground disappeared into light particles and Cassandra's name on the team window turned gray.

Kieran, who was staring blankly at where Cassandra's body was a moment ago, woke up when he saw another bramble coming towards Ryan.

Without wasting a second, he grabbed his brother by the arm before dodging the bramble.

"Are you okay ?"

"I... I'm fine. Where's Cassandra?"

Kieran could see that his brother was suffering from the wound on his shoulder.

"She was eliminated. Stay there. I'll be back."

"Eliminated? Wait, where are you going?!"

Kieran's body had already disappeared into the forest before Ryan could finish his words. The sound of a howling beast was heard far away, then the silence returned.

Ryan looked in the direction he had heard the beast howl when he saw his brother walking towards him, dragging the corpse of a beast behind him.

The beast looked like a panther covered with brambles and bark, its tail looked exactly like the thick bramble that had attacked him a moment before.

"It's a wood panther. How did you manage to kill it so quickly?"

"She's just a young wood panther. She was only at the early stage of the Iron rank."

"Only at the early stage?"

"Can you move?"

Ryan got up slowly, but the wound on his shoulder was hurting him.

"We're going to have to move. The wood panther's noise when it died could attract other beasts."

"Give me a second."

A knife appeared in Ryan's hand as he approached the wood panther.

"What are you doing? It's a virtual world. There won't be any crystal core inside."

"You don't listen to the lessons. The blood from the wood panthers has healing effects, even if my wound doesn’t go away, the bleeding will at least stop."

Kieran was momentarily surprised as he watched his brother slice off the torso of the wood panther before plunging his two hands inside to collect green blood, which he spread on his shoulder wound.

As Ryan had said, the blood of a wood panther had a great healing effect. After only a few seconds, the wound stopped bleeding. He took out several small containers from his aurora collar before filling them with the blood of the wood panther.

"We can go. I should be better in a while."

"Okay, I'll carry you from here. Get on my back," Kieran said, transforming into a giant wolf.

Ryan hesitated.

"What are you doing? Get on!"

"Al... Alright."

"Hold on tight."

Kieran stretched his body, propelling himself forward, their two figures quickly disappearing inside the forest.

***

A red message appeared in front of Cassandra's face.

[You have been eliminated.
Individual collected point: 0
Current Ranking: 21,975th]

With the sound of the notification, Cassandra's capsule opened, letting the light from the virtual capsule's room blind her for a moment.

She stood there for a few seconds, stunned by the situation, before exploding angrily.

"That bastard!!! How dare he eliminate me!!!"

She slammed the capsule hard, trying to unleash all her frustration on it.

"This fucker!!!"