CHAPTER 102: THE SKIMMING

Hmph! Gracie skimmed through her space ring, pulling out two level nine crystals.

She looked towards Tyler nervously.

Tyler threw a crystal, which added the count to three.

"Here," Harry pushed the ring towards Gracie, taking the crystal in exchange.

Everyone’s eyes were sparkling seeing the space ring. Gracie wore it on the other hand.

Realistically, no space was enough to have—everyone would love a bigger space ring.

Even Harry, who had a hundred times larger space ring, realized it. If he didn’t have beast space where he put all the corpses, his ring would have almost filled in the previous month.

He was using beast space as a dumping ground and let Wolfie eat them so it could improve cultivation.

"Want to say something?" Gracie looked towards a short, handsome guy.

It was Theron. She felt that he wanted to say something.

In the beginning, she was able to tell major emotions like sadness, happiness, anxiousness, fear, and such basic emotions that were easy to distinguish.

But now, after so many conversations, she was able to pinpoint most of the emotions. Currently, she could feel how Theron was in a hurry to speak.

Theron clicked his tongue. "Olivia, why don’t you show him a nice room to live in?"

It was an indication that Theron wanted to talk in private.

Gracie didn’t say anything. Since Harry wanted to keep another identity, she also wouldn’t show any affiliation to him.

Harry stood up and left the house after saying goodbye.

As he left the house, Olivia, walking ahead of him, was blabbering.

"You should be considerate in front of them; they are the leaders here. So think twice before using them..." As she continued and heard no response from Harry, she looked behind.

But she didn’t find anyone.

"This guy," she palmed her head in frustration.

Harry was back in the house, the active skill of his mask being used.

The active skill had restored, which meant more than ten hours had passed since the last usage.

"There are three around us. We have to be ahead of everyone. If they meet hands and attack, then we will be in a tough position."

Harry heard half of the conversation. Theron was talking about something.

It reminded Harry of those two guys talking about other settlements. It gave Harry a feeling that there was something wrong, but he wanted to be sure, so he kept quiet.

"That’s news. Why would they attack each other?" Sylas asked curiously.

"Because we don’t know exactly what the qualifications are, if you know what I mean?"

Theron tried to imply, shrugging his shoulders.

"If we want to pass, we should be ready for the attacks. Instead, I say we should take the first-mover advantage," Gareth, the tall guy, supported Theron.

"I disagree. We can have a nice stronghold, and defending is always easier than attacking," Theron argued.

Things were still elusive. Harry could not be sure if it was their natural response or they were implying it to fasten the process.

Almost 60,000 students were still alive, and now the speed at which students were dying had reduced by a lot.

Initially, everyone was in an uncomfortable position, and some of them had faced fearsome beasts that led to the deaths of many students in the early stages.

But once students got accustomed to the environment, gravity, and formed groups to fight back, the casualties had reduced.

If things continued at the same pace, then most probably the number would never dwindle.

Which was opposite to what the academy wanted. It was the reason the students sent by the academy were preparing to start a group fight amongst settlements.

Things were indicating that one of these two was a fake student. The only thing stopping Harry was Gracie.

How could they avoid Gracie’s emotion reading?

"Let them come, we will crush them," said Sylas, laughing.

Funny enough, barely a minute had passed since talking, and the focus had shifted from should they fight or not to whether to defend or attack.

Harry could see how good the person was at manipulation. Similar techniques should have been used in every settlement, manipulating everyone.

"Okay, prepare for the fight. Consolidate resources and students with fighting elements," Gracie ordered.

Sylas left the house as he heard her order.

Gracie looked towards Theron and Gareth as if asking, "Do I need to say it again?"

Seeing her gaze, both left the room one after another.

As both left, Harry came out of the shadows, removing his mask.

Tyler came and hugged Harry.

"How have you been?" Tyler asked.

"Nothing much, just ran from a level nine human then stumbled upon a level nine beast," Harry said, patting Tyler on the back.

"Haha, I believe you," Tyler laughed back.

Then Harry looked towards Gracie, spreading his arms.

But instead of hugging, she pointed towards his face. "What’s with your face, you still hiding?" asked Gracie.

Harry touched his face. He was sure he removed the mask, but then what was wrong with his face?

"Something wrong with my face?" Harry was confused.

"Don’t know, it looks similar to the face that you had with the mask. It’s... like your real and fake face mixed," Gracie laughed.

"Oh shit," meant the other drawback of his mask had impacted.

He just hoped it wasn’t a permanent change and, with time, it would revert back.

Harry sat down in the chair comfortably.

"Okay, forget that. I have some news for you," said Harry. The seriousness in his voice forced Gracie and Tyler to listen carefully.

"If you heard the rumour that the remaining ten thousand will pass..." Harry paused, seeing his friends nodding, and continued.

"It’s most likely true. But the origin of the information is most important. There are some fake students amongst us guiding this exam to its results.

We were just puppets till now. Slowly, they are turning everyone against each other so that the ten thousand number could be achieved as fast as it can be.

Currently, their plan is to stir a fight between settlements." Harry looked towards his friends, who had shocked expressions on their faces.

"Does that mean..." Tyler stopped, realizing something.

"Yep, I am ninety percent sure one of those three guys was a fake student. Or who could say, maybe two or all three?"

Gracie grabbed her head. She couldn’t believe it. Those three guys were with her from the start of the test.

"So it was all planning. The academy... how could they do it?" The information had broken all their expectations.

All beliefs they had crumbled beneath the reality.

Were they really nothing, just some pawns in the scheming of powerful people?

The realization dawned upon them. Harry had already gone through all these thoughts, but to him, the information unfolded slowly, one after another.

But to Gracie and Tyler, who were living believing just the opposite, it felt like being stabbed in the back.