Ch.2020 – Trust Me and Follow Along

<20 – Trust Me and Follow Me>

“Before we begin the exam, I will open the detection equipment to track your positions and evaluate your performance. Everyone, please take out your tickets and place them on your wrists.”

The tickets began to squirm and take shape, then hardened like metal rings and wrapped around our wrists.

“This is the Ticket Watch that will assist in your evaluation. The Ticket Watch sends a rescue signal to the nearest judge when the wearer sustains fatal injuries that prevent them from continuing the exam.”

Of course, if you rely solely on that, you might end up dead.

It said it sends a rescue signal, but that doesn’t mean it will save my life.

Moreover, this watch has a blind spot.

What if the wrist or arm wearing the watch gets cut off?

Then you could die without anyone knowing, and they might not even recover your body.

“Therefore, participants should pay close attention to their own safety, and if you determine that continuing the exam is too difficult, please declare ‘Forfeit’ immediately.”

“Since you all are participating with at least a Gold Ticket, even if you forfeit or fail this advanced exam, you can still take the basic exam.”

“Similarly, Platinum Ticket holders can take the intermediate final exam in exchange for losing their Platinum privileges.”

Wow, that’s crazy.

There was such a rescue measure?

Honestly, I’m surprised.

There were often characters who popped up in lower classes even after failing exams, which made me wonder what was going on. I didn’t know there was such a mechanism.

As someone who always passed the advanced exams with superior specs and veteran knowledge, this was a feature I never knew about.

‘Now that it’s reality, they’re strangely kind with information.’

Monk Myungho announced the final precautions.

“This exam is ultimately to identify advanced students for Gift Academy. Combat between participants is permitted, but if deaths occur, the responsible examinee will receive severe penalty points.”

“If excessive killing is detected, the examiner may arbitrarily revoke your qualification to take the exam, and you will not be able to retake it for up to three years.”

These are actually really obvious statements.

Don’t put children in washing machines.

Don’t feed chocolate to dogs.

Don’t iron your thighs.

These are all meaningless warnings.

But the sentiment in this game is closer to America than Korea.

The reason for regulations that seem ridiculous is because they all actually happened before.

‘In playthroughs during the war generation, things happen that this monk couldn’t even imagine.’

Fortunately, looking at the participants, this doesn’t seem to be such a harsh generation.

When war breaks out, certain main and supporting characters don’t appear in the academy entrance exam.

Since the Northern Grand Duchess is here, there’s no “Early Demon Invasion” regional event, and since Sing, the swordsman from the Eastern Empire, is participating, there’s no “Eastern Empire Invasion” regional event either.

I’ve confirmed the western key NPCs, so there’s no “Western Civil War,” and I’ve seen the southern key NPCs, so there’s no “South Sea Pirate King’s Attack” either. It’s a clean playthrough on all sides.

“Now I will begin the first gate.”

In short, it’s a playthrough without any main character disadvantages.

I just need to do well myself.

* *

<First Gate Stone Tower Building Event>

Build as many stone towers as possible!

Time limit: 6 hours.

Building towers isn’t difficult, but keeping them standing until the end of the exam is another matter.

Whether you protect your tower, destroy others’ towers, or secretly build towers in hiding, how you approach the exam is up to you!

Challenge the first gate in your own way.

I think the entrance exam is a test of humanity.

There are people in the world who enjoy seeing others fail more than succeeding themselves.

It’s difficult and hard to do well yourself.

Because you have to put in effort.

It’s easy to ruin others.

Because you can easily destroy with just violence.

The role of law is to protect those who work diligently from such violence, but unfortunately, the entrance exam site is extraterritorial.

It’s not protected by any country’s laws.

In other words, it’s perfect for trolls to run wild.

“It’s Northern Grand Duchess Irene!”

“That arrogant woman rejected our faction’s invitation, didn’t she?”

“Let’s teach her a lesson.”

Named NPCs usually have many enemies.

Northern Grand Duchess Irene is especially so because of her cold nature and haughty attitude.

Troublemakers quickly appeared, throwing stones at the stone tower Irene was building to interfere.

Clack

Clack clack

“Huh?”

“What?”

“The, the stones froze in mid-air?”

Son Ocheon, the monkey beastkin, exclaimed “Oh” in admiration.

I pulled at his trouser leg.

“What are you standing there for? We need to run away quickly.”

“You’re as timid as your nickname suggests. Aren’t you curious? About the skills of possibly the strongest person among this year’s applicants.”

“You mean the New Generation Top 3.”

Giselle pretended to know.

“Northern Grand Duchess Irene, who experienced war with northern tribes since childhood. Holy Knight Jaydas, famous in the three western countries. Hector, son of the renowned southern general Heather.”

“Are they stronger than me?”

“I don’t know how skilled Son Ocheon is, but neither would be easy to deal with.”

Ah, whatever.

I said.

“Hmm? Is it getting colder?”

“Oh, look at the sky! Look at the sky!”

Giselle finally noticed something strange.

The dew on the trees had frozen into icicles.

The icicles broke off and became ice spikes, which lined up and pointed their sharp edges at those who had attacked her stone wall.

“Run away!”

“Ahhh, we didn’t attack you!”

“Don’t come this way, you lunatics!”

Unfortunately for those who had provoked Irene, they collapsed bleeding one after another from the attack of ice spikes they couldn’t possibly all avoid.

Those who managed to hide in the crowd barely escaped injury, but the people caught up in the commotion weren’t going to let it slide.

“You crazy bastard, what do you think you’re doing!”

“We almost got disqualified too!”

Competition only works when levels are matched. Before the Northern Grand Duchess, an active military mage, everyone was afraid and desperate not to catch her eye.

The young masters and misses who didn’t understand the difference in level and acted arrogantly mostly got eliminated either by ice spikes or by attacks from others who were almost disqualified because of them.

“That’s damn cold.”

“Wait, you blocked it with your body?”

Son Ocheon, true to his nature as a brutish monkey beastkin, blocked most of the spikes with his spear, but one spike he couldn’t block, he just took with his body.

While others were worried about getting pierced or having their wounds freeze and become necrotic, he only had a thin layer of frost on his skin.

His toughness alone is truly admirable.

“What’s that cloak?”

“It’s a marvel of civilization. It’s optimized to block cold attribute attacks, also called a frost cloak.”

“Wait, you’re taking the exam with equipment advantage?”

“There’s no rule saying you can’t rely on equipment.”

“That’s so unfair.”

As Giselle and Son Ocheon bickered, they looked around.

“Where did the little mouse go?”

“Miss Oknodie. Are you there?”

“I’m here.”

I poked my head out at the voices calling for me.

[You avoided the area attack by hiding under tree roots.]

[Hiding experience +3]

[Swift Movement experience +1]

As I crawled out from under the tree roots at their call, I received incredulous looks.

“What are you, some kind of mole person?”

“My goodness. You were right next to us until the ice started flying. When did you hide under there? Your hiding skills are truly remarkable.”

“It’s thanks to my usual practice.”

All that diligent hiding here and there has paid off.

As expected, the hiding skill is top-tier value.

If you develop it, it never betrays you.

“…Usual practice?”

“I often hide here and there in preparation for times like this.”

“What kind of times are you referring to?”

“Why ask such an obvious question? Like when being bombarded by magic, or chased by killers?”

“So you’re saying that at your age, barely ten if that, you’ve built up experience hiding from killers and magical bombardments in your daily life?”

“Hey, I’m not ten years old! If you knew my real age, you’d be shocked.”

Originally, I was over twenty.

My words were so unbelievable that Giselle just opened and closed her mouth before finally pressing her forehead with her hand.

“I have so many things I want to say to that butler and maid.”

“Why?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s leave before we get attacked for no reason.”

Irene looked around with cold eyes, as if daring anyone to try something.

No one wanted to catch her attention.

‘Tsk. I’ll have to give up on that challenge quest.’

By the way, at the top of the stone tower Irene builds, there’s a 100% chance of a stat stone appearing.

It’s a rare guaranteed stat stone, but unless you have a northern-related starting position, you can’t even approach it.

It would be insane to loiter around one of the New Generation Top 3 who could sweep away dozens of examinees alone without even knowing them.

“This area is occupied by our Western Mercenary Alliance. Leave if you don’t want to get hurt.”

“We have no intention of accepting country bumpkins who haven’t made a name as noble families into our Noble Alliance. Just move along.”

Other areas around were also occupied by people who had been driven away by Irene.

At least the majority alliances warn you with words, but the minority of strong individuals don’t even give warnings.

“Isn’t a blockhead also a stone? Is it? Isn’t it?”

“Ahhh, he’s crazy!”

“Don’t run away, just stay still.”

A lunatic trying to use normal people as tower materials.

“If I knock everyone down, there won’t be anyone to interfere.”

“Please! We’re not interested in you!”

An aggressive spearman who charges at every examinee nearby.

One savage person after another is running wild.

“Is it really necessary to climb up the mountain? That’s so humiliating. The grouped ones look easy, and I want to fight the ones who are alone.”

Son Ocheon seemed uncomfortable with the idea of climbing the mountain.

It was already impressive that someone so aggressive, who even picked a fight with Senior Examiner Michael, had held back this far.

He also fled from Northern Grand Duchess Irene’s area attack with an “Ah, this is too much” look, but he seemed to feel his pride was hurt when facing the others.

“Trust me and follow me. Most of the stones available at the foot of the mountain are just pebbles.”

Strong individuals and large groups who relied on their strength or numbers had settled at the base of the rocky mountain, while weaker individuals or smaller groups had climbed up.

However, climbing the mountain isn’t necessarily always a disadvantage.

“Don’t underestimate the advanced exam. If it were just about guarding a spot and building stone towers anywhere, would they make that the academy entrance exam?”

This event.

There’s a huge surprise event hidden that first-time NPC players wouldn’t know about.

‘It was five hours later, right?’

Stone tower building event on a rocky mountain.

Here, one hour before the end of the exam, an avalanche occurs.