CHAPTER 79: CHAPTER 78: PUNISHMENT

The group wasn’t alarmed yet because they knew Zaen couldn’t do much harm to Gloo unless he found his ’heart’.

After all, in his gooey state, nothing anyone did would cause lasting damage.

As if to prove them right, Gloo absorbed some of the molten iron to force Zaen’s sword out and healed completely.

Before Gloo could fight back, Zaen buried his hand in his gooey flesh. Everyone expected the same to happen again. Instead, Gloo lost all the feeling in his body...

Zaen had injected him with something!

"What? You didn’t think I’d have some surprises of my own?" Zaen whispered.

He knew the others would have taken his words lightly about killing Gloo. But he had already informed them about his intentions. If they failed to react, then it was on them, not him.

Gloo was reduced to a useless puddle all thanks to Zaen’s shop items. He had a feeling his father had added items to counter all the abilities and anomalies he was aware of.

That’s why he could get so many things from the fortune wheel just when he ’needed’ them and the rest could be found in the shop.

As for Gloo... well, he could only stare at Zaen as he got closer. A moment later, his hand shot out once again. Gloo trembled in pain but couldn’t move, all because of the neurotoxin Zaen had paralyzed him with.

"So this is your heart," Zaen mumbled as his fingers clenched around something soft and warm.

He gave the thing a gentle squeeze, and Gloo’s eyes shot straight into his imaginary skull.

The heart wasn’t like anything one would expect. The texture was smooth like that of a water balloon, and it responded to his gentle squeeze just like it. It was difficult to break it, but it easily deformed under the smallest pressure.

As Zaen increased the pressure, incomprehensible gurgles erupted from his mouth. Even his body shape changed erratically, responding to the squeezes.

With all his remaining strength, Gloo tried grabbing Zaen’s feet to trip him into the molten iron, only to get stabbed again.

"It’s been fun, but I guess this is the end."

One more squeeze. That’s all Gloo’s life was worth.

However, a voice interrupted him before he could do that.

"That’s enough."

In an instant, his perception picked up six black silhouettes around him. At that moment, Zaen understood that the black silhouette meant... killing intent. It seemed the seniors did not like it when someone toyed around with one of their own.

Zaen’s fingers were still wrapped around the heart. He could’ve squeezed. He could’ve finished it right there. The greed for rewards was real, but he quickly shut it down.

Every masked figure had already drawn their weapons. While he got lucky against Gloo, facing the rest of them would lead to one conclusion: death.

If he so much as twitched the wrong way, six attacks would converge on his spine, throat, or skull before he blinked.

Gloo stared at Zaen with a smug expression, but behind that expression, there was a hint of fear and even admiration.

Zaen clicked his tongue... then retrieved his hand from Gloo’s body. While the squad left to check on Gloo, Zaen casually walked back to his teammates, but not before throwing a jab at the ’seniors’.

"You know..." he said. "If you planned on interrupting, you could’ve done it earlier and saved me all the trouble. Also, you might want this."

Zaen tossed Gloo’s mask at them. He had won, but he didn’t want it to be publicized. The first reason was simple. The academy would let him ’win’, since the training was important. So it was better to give up while he was ahead.

The second reason was more selfish. He wanted to train at the academy and hopefully learn more about his parents and maybe even find them someday.

"Not like I won’t get rewarded for this."

***

Half an hour later, on the training ground.

"Failures," Rhino yelled over the defeated crowd. "None of you could even last a limit against your seniors. Is this the talent you were boasting about before?"

No one said a word, their heads hung low.

"You were indecisive, chaotic, and running around without a clue of what to do! I don’t even want to imagine how a bunch of morons like yourselves survived the introductory round."

Rhino kept cursing them, suspiciously avoiding to look at Zaen’s line.

"Now that you have failed to prove your strength, you must adhere to the instructors as if their word is the word of God. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!"

"From now on, you’ll only eat the special food prepared for you by our generous canteen management."

The fallen faces immediately lit up. Given the salaries given to the agents, the students expected there to be a feast. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of feast they had in mind.

Before them was a mountain of bread, rice, and... strange fleshy things. Oh, and water in the form of a small bottle that barely stored ten sips.

"The flesh... it isn’t what I think it is, right?" Ben commented, covering his nose.

If the texture of the flesh didn’t give away its identity, the foul, rotting smell definitely did.

Anomaly flesh... they really expect us to eat that?

Zaen being blind turned into a blessing for a short while. Because of the static texture, he didn’t have to see the gore that made others drop their sanity.

"In the first round, it’ll be the only source of food for you," Rhino explained. "It’s better if you get used to it now rather than dying from starvation in the actual game."

Before the students could protest, Rhino pointed at the bread, rice, and water.

"You won’t get these things in the round. I wanted you to only live on fresh... rotten flesh, but the higher-ups insisted on handing out rice, bread, and water to wash down the pungent aftertaste."

Despite knowing what the next round would entail, no one dared to take a step inside for food. They couldn’t bring themselves to eat such a thing, and who could have blamed them?

Unfortunately, neither the academy nor the instructors were fucking around.

"I’ll see you in the ground in fifteen minutes," Rhino left after giving them the deadline.

The training was going to be much more difficult than before. It would completely drain their energy, and food was the only source to get that energy back.

Taking a deep breath, Zaen and a few others grabbed plates and loaded them with anything they could. Most of them thought they’d just pick rice and bread, conveniently leaving the flesh chunks behind.

Unfortunately, that bullshit wouldn’t fly there.

As soon as someone tried taking off with just bread and rice, the kitchen staff yanked them back, replacing everything on their plates with flesh chunks as punishment.

No one dared to pull the same stunt again, but eating it was another story. Soon, the entire hall was filled with gagging sounds. Some of them couldn’t handle the taste and puked it all out.

And yet, they kept pushing and eating whatever they could.

***

Several hours later...

"I... am... beat," Ben complained, slipping under the covers.

Everyone was drained after continuous physical exercises for nearly ten hours. True to his codename, Rhino had behaved like a raging rhino with them. Zaen couldn’t even remember how many people had their bones broken right then and there.

"Good night," Zaen said and had barely touched the bed when Ben sat right up, glaring at him. "Do you need something?"

"The ring. I can take it off for you," Ben commented.

"Sure," Zaen replied, extending his hand towards Ben, but the latter just scoffed and turned his back on him.

"You don’t deserve it," he grumbled. "That blind sister of mine—"

"You should be careful while talking about blind individuals. You got your ass handed to you by one."

"EEK!"

Ben exclaimed, burying himself in the safety of his blanket. Soon, the loud noise of his snores echoed throughout the room.

But instead of going to sleep, Zaen was about to complete another [task] when there was a knock on his window. He got up to check, only for Eira to jump in and settle herself on his bed.

"Director—?"

"Hmm?"

"Senior sister... can I help you with something?"

Eira pretended to think for a moment before nodding. There was, in fact, one thing he could help with.

Technically, it shouldn’t have been one of his concerns, but the management wanted to test his abilities in combat. Actual combat where one’s life could be taken by the other.

And to do that, they ’accidentally’ released a few anomalies that were heading right towards the dorms.

"So, let me get this straight, I’m being punished for ’defeating’ Gloo?" Zaen asked.

"I’d prefer the term evaluation over punishment," Eira replied, preparing to jump out the window. "Oh, and don’t tell anyone that I warned you about it."

"Like anyone’s going to believe me either way."