Chapter 489 Let’s make a bet, let’s bet…
Nighttime.
This night is destined to keep many people awake. Although for many candidates, staying up for two consecutive nights doesn’t seem like a big deal, enduring all night during the joint examination… that is definitely unbearable.
First, there is the fire ignited by Luxien, which has already become uncontrollable under the night wind. By morning, it’s unclear how far its effects will spread.
Additionally, the group of candidates following Luxien has split up and scattered.
After all, this joint examination is not a collective action; it’s merely encouraged to team up and cooperate. When individual expectations cannot be met, they tend to go solo, and no matter how much Luxien has, the resources she occupies are limited, just a handful. The scoring from a single resource point is only sufficient for distribution among a small group.
Saying they have split up sounds nice, yet at most this group maintains communication through their phones.
The reason for such communication hasn’t broken off is quite practical; they can call for help when encountering danger and timely gather information and intelligence about their surroundings.
But the most steadfast supporters around Luxien remain loyal because they are a community of interests.
On the other side, Ninglan Qiuyue is in a similar situation, facing the joint forces of the Sea Tribe, Beast Academy, and Aphhemia Academy, they can only temporarily avoid confrontation.
These elf-beasts have also made fruitless night raids; although they didn’t find a single person, they have inherited this territory.
However, the monsters in this area have already been cleaned out. With no points available for scoring, they can only continue to push outward.
The occupation of resource points also requires them to slowly find by themselves. If they want to find a position quickly through luck, it depends on how capable their accompanying teaching assistant is.
At this moment, several teaching assistants from our Witch Academy separated again. After all, gathering together didn’t hold much practical significance. After exchanging information, they dispersed; who doesn’t have their own little thoughts?
Including me. I am very curious about the current situation at the Wizard Academy. The situation at the Wizard Academy is quite unique, even among the three top colleges.
From my understanding of this academy, the first point is that the Wizard Academy claims to be the orthodox extraordinary academy of humanity. This statement is not incorrect, as other extraordinary academies more or less center around race-based power systems, which appear quite complicated.
Next is the atmosphere within the Wizard Academy. The high-pressure environment inside can be overwhelming, even for Luxien.
In the Wizard Academy, the Wizard Tower established by extraordinary wizards is the true place for knowledge dissemination, but not every student entering the Wizard Academy has the eligibility to enter the Wizard Tower for study.
The competition within the academy is intense because the grasping and usage of extraordinary power by wizard apprentices fundamentally rely on mental power and extraordinary materials. Even magical weapons are not something everyone in the Wizard Academy possesses.
Those wizards without power do not even qualify to participate in this joint examination.
Under such a premise and environment, the candidates of the Wizard Academy can truly team up according to the rules, or they can also be lone wolves. They hardly have the possibility of crowding together, even back during the dream realm exchange competition; it was based on the premise of having the Wizard Tower as a stronghold, but did they really cooperate? That is doubtful.
Even the Child of Fortune isn’t treated specially in the Wizard Academy. Only those who pursue strength and cling to others will have a special relationship with those blessed with fortune, such as being a little brother or such.
This situation is evident from how easily the Wizard Academy abandoned Luxien.
Look at the Witch Academy; aside from having seized Luxien, the Child of Fortune from the Wizard Academy, which other Child of Fortune from the three top academies has been lured to the Witch Academy?
None… Even if there are, it’s apparent from the current situation why the academy abandoned her.
At present, the atmosphere at the Wizard Academy is comparatively loose regarding fortune, but that doesn’t mean the people of the Wizard Academy are easy to deal with.
As long as someone encounters a student from the Wizard Academy, they are generally quite capable at fighting, yet because of this, they do not have the ability for large-scale personnel changes.
Everyone has their own little thoughts, naturally leading to no major overall planning. Additionally, I’ve noticed that students at the Wizard Academy navigate from the island to the main island entirely based on their own abilities.
Collective consciousness?
Helping the weak?
Nonexistent.
Moreover, at this stage, many students from the Wizard Academy have thoughts about the high ground on the main island.
Tan Han and her companions are likely to encounter students from the Wizard Academy there.
As for the nature of their interaction… it’s hard to say.
At this point, after wandering around the other side of the main island and finding nothing of significant value, I returned to the Witch Academy side.
I am naturally not surprised by the current situation of dispersed forces in the Witch Academy. Personally, I subjectively dislike cumbersome group actions.
This idea stems from my disagreement with the notion that “many hands make light work,” which also dilutes the influence of truly capable individuals.
Although I may not propose any constructive suggestions, I also dislike others interfering in my business unless they can persuade me.
In the dark night, many people from the Witch Academy chose to rest for the night, especially the team led by Tan Han, who, after two days and nights of high energy consumption, will naturally choose to recover.
Moreover, there have been casualties along the way, and although Tan Han hopes that none of her people were hurt, that is simply impossible.
She also cannot explain to everyone that they are not in the real world; the so-called d*ath isn’t true d*ath, and she can only use the resurrection spell from the Witch Academy to reassure those girls traumatized by d*ath.
Not just d*ath, but also injuries—healing spells are incredibly demanding; they are very delicate matters, and even the consumption of flesh healing magic begins at two or three figures.
Even with the help of alchemical potions for recovery, injuries are entirely unavoidable.
If wounds cannot heal quickly, they become a burden, so those who are heavily injured are basically using alchemical potions from the resource supplies for recovery at resource points or withdrawing themselves. After all, not every young girl can withstand the pain of extensive external injuries, such as severed limbs or disfigurement.
They perceive it as not worth it for an examination.
At this moment, in the rest area where Tan Han is located, which happens to be at a newly occupied resource point, a girl silently put down her phone, walked past a few girls while quietly greeting them, and then gradually walked into the darkness.
She didn’t stop until she reached a place where nearly no one could be seen.
“Shouldn’t have kept you waiting long? How’s your injury?”
“Just some minor wounds, sorry to call you out so late.” The girl held an alchemical potion that was almost half used; this healing potion works quite well for light injuries.
“I didn’t sleep either, did I?” The girl stepped closer to squat side by side with her. “Who can sleep with all this going on…”
“Then… let’s chat for a bit… I really… really feel a lot of pressure… every time I see Sister Tan Han, I…”
“I understand…” The girl reached out, comforting her; in this moment, they seemed like two girls commiserating with each other.
They didn’t say anything further, and after maintaining this state for a long time, one finally broke the silence.
“What should we do? Just like this… we took that person’s spellbook; she definitely won’t let us go.”
“She won’t… she won’t…”
“I heard a senior say, teaching assistants, if a teaching assistant wants someone to completely disappear from the Witch Academy, it’s incredibly easy… I really… really don’t want to d*e…”
“I will get those spellbooks back. After this joint examination ends, I’ll go apologize and return them…”
“Is that okay?”
“I don’t know… but we can’t just wait until they come to us…” As she spoke, the girl took out a storage card, this card had previously contained all of Tan Han’s spellbooks, but now… it was empty.
Not a single one left.
She had given them all away…
The public opinion on the academy’s forums has completely spiraled out of her control. Once the news about the other party becoming a teaching assistant spread… that’s when she finally knows to be afraid.
Recalling all that she had done, she came to realize that the clown from beginning to end was herself.
It was her arrogance that buried her future and also dragged many others down; perhaps her ignorance even undermined Sister Tan Han’s plans.
If we speak of earlier, she was merely the first to cling to Sister Tan Han’s leg, her intentions were simple—just to reap benefits.
After all, Sister Tan Han is the Child of Fortune!
She would surely soar in the future, and as the first to be her “best friend,” even if she achieved little later, her relationship with Sister Tan Han would mean she would have nothing to worry about.
But now… the developments have far exceeded her expectations.
And what facilitated all this… was merely her usual choices, the only difference being that this time her greed has brought her demise.
Before any of this unfolded, she never thought her actions were wrong, because she had always acted this way before, so she believed everything would settle down. Sister Tan Han, as the most lauded Child of Fortune in the Witch Academy for new students, would suppress everything, especially since the other party was merely a shortsighted person who didn’t even care about being the Child of Fortune. They were fundamentally unqualified to achieve the strongest in this world.
However, now… reality forces her to acknowledge the truth. The matters at hand are about their lives and deaths, and they too have abandoned their blind faith in the so-called Child of Fortune; they don’t want to become cannon fodder on this road.
Thus, d*ath truly teaches a lot. It can even lead emotional people to rationally reflect, allowing shortsighted individuals to contemplate the future, letting those ignorant realize their foolishness, and compelling stubborn people to admit their mistakes.
But foolish people have another quality: they scare themselves with their shallow knowledge.
“Why is no one speaking? Do you feel like you’ve said your last words?”
The sudden voice startled them, but the startled scream was blocked by a soundproofing spell.
In the pitch-black environment, they saw a figure not far away that was enough to instill terror.
Fear filled their entire awareness, and keywords like last words deeply stimulated their nerves.
“Just joking, I happened to run into you, discussing others behind their backs isn’t very polite, you know?” I leaned against a thick tree, looking at the two girls with a hint of mockery in my eyes.
Even in the pitch-dark night, they seemed to sense my expression, one of contempt for them.
Originally, I didn’t intend to pay them any mind, but who told them to suddenly mention me?
Some matters shouldn’t just be left hanging; resolving them sooner rather than later saves trouble, and besides… that Excessive Consumption Spellbook they possess might play a key role at some point.
I admit that even if Tan Han loses her Excessive Consumption Spellbook, her strength remains formidable, but without the Ancient Relic Ice Transformation Spell, her combat strength ceiling will definitely not be the same as before.
“I’m sorry… it’s my fault… N-no… Teaching Assistant Yang… I was wrong before, I know my mistake… I’ll return the spellbooks to you… yes, I…”
“You should call me Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, or Teacher Xiao Han~ What are you doing? Bribing the inspection teacher? That won’t work; I’m a law-abiding good teaching assistant and won’t leverage this situation for personal gain.”
Seeing the other party directly pull out the spellbooks from within her, the once coveted Excessive Consumption Spellbook, now felt like the hottest item in the world she was desperate to get rid of.
But no matter how hard she tried to return it, she couldn’t bring herself to do so…
“I didn’t… I… I just want to return it to its rightful owner…”
At this moment, the girl was nearly crying. Looking at the other party’s refusal to take it, fear filled her mind; this wasn’t just a spellbook, it was her hope for survival!
“Since you chose to take it back then, it’s yours. People must take responsibility for their past choices; there aren’t many things in this world you can regret. Keep your ridiculous little thoughts to yourself; it’s just an Excessive Consumption Spellbook, why would I care?” As I spoke, the Earth Vein Identification Technique had already checked the information of the two girls in front of me, and I knew their thoughts.
Would I forgive them?
If it were earlier… I definitely wouldn’t have forgiven them.
And now… why would I forgive her?
Some individuals won’t grow without suffering some hardship. Without experiencing pain that reaches their core, they would never understand that the world does not revolve around them, not even a little hint of luck.
They are destined to be stepping stones in this script; once they take the spellbook from my hand, they would inevitably bear the weight of fortune.
Though I don’t know what the final outcome of this script will bring, surely their existence will impact Tan Han in some way.
But beneath it all, I still have some suspicions; it’s highly probable it relates to those supporters, right?
Perhaps it’s about completely shedding these bl**d-sucking followers disguised as supporters, or merely a drag.
It could also be an opportunity to filter and purify her supporters.
Of course, I lean toward Tan Han awakening her awareness and understanding. Doesn’t she see through these supporters?
I don’t think so; even if she’s blinded by the situation, she wouldn’t fail to distinguish the basics. She needs an external force to push her to “cut off the hand that feeds,” completely clearing away some people.
Naturally, I wouldn’t mind teaching Tan Han to recognize… actually, her self-awareness is of little significance.
“Let’s make a bet; let’s bet… what will be Sister Tan Han’s reaction when you use the Ancient Relic Ice Transformation Spell in front of her? I bet she will be very angry and disappointed, and her anger will lead her to question why you did that… If I win, I might even let Tan Han punish you for me, and I’ll enjoy the spectacle of you entertaining me, the girls from the Witch Academy, and even the students and teachers from other academies, just consider it the cost of your actions.”
“Now… it’s your choice. At what time, in what place, and how will you use it in front of Sister Tan Han, so as to avoid the situation I just mentioned? This is all up to the only option you have.”
“Come on, you cannot refuse this bet because it is no longer just a bet for you; it is something you will inevitably face. Once it’s over, barring unexpected circumstances… we will have no further ties. How does that sound? This bet is quite tempting, right? Hehe~”
“W-wait!” The girl was completely stunned, not even having time to react; everything was far beyond her expectations, but she reached out only to grasp at empty space, that figure vanished like an illusion before her eyes.
