Chapter 282: Chapter 282- Two Ghosts
The entire hall was submerged in a frenzy. All the contestants started targeting each other with no hesitation. It took exactly three seconds for Talon to hear the sound of two individuals clashing not that far away.
Then, that sound quickly spread across the entire hall like a disease. Fights broke out everywhere he looked. It was as if all these people turned into barbaric monsters the moment they heard the word 'Begin'.
'Wow…' Raising an eyebrow, Talon could only be impressed at how everything shifted this quickly.
"They're really going to do anything just pass, huh?" He muttered. These people were here with the hope of becoming Sky Seekers and making their families happy, he wasn't surprised it ended up this way.
Scanning the area around him, Talon noticed that many fights started and ended quickly while others were still raging. People mainly used their fists rather than their weapons to avoid hurting someone badly. Even the way they fought seemed far more reserved than normal.
'If there was no such rules, this entire place would collapse quickly.' He thought to himself.
"Aren't you going to move?" Acrypha asked.
"Hmm, not yet. I want to see what will happen first." He said.
Talon wasn't worried about achieving the goal of the test. So, instead, he decided to take his time and see if there is anything interesting happening.
'Where is that girl?' That's when he remembered that person from before and quickly looked for her.
It didn't take him long to locate her silhouette. She was moving far away from him at an incredible speed. She almost seemed like a ghost as she cut through contestants without looking back. Nobody seemed to notice her at all. But, eventually, they started feeling the lack of weight on their chest and looked down.
"Huh?! Where is my tag?!!"
"My tag too! It has been stolen!!"
"W-Who did that?!!"
Such cries could be heard everywhere. The tags seemed to vanish out of nowhere and that sent many people into panic. Looking around them, they couldn't see anyone at all. She just vanished from their sight almost immediately.
Talon silently followed her for a while, trying to understand what kind of ability she was using. Because, she clearly was using something that made her disappear in their eyes.
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'Is it some kind of illusion?' He mused. 'Could be, but I can't say for sure yet.'
As he was like that, he suddenly heard a loud yell. Turning around, he saw a young man rushing toward him.
"GIVE ME YOUR TAG, BASTARD!!!"
Talon blinked confusedly for a second. Meanwhile, the man closed the distance between them and punched forward, aiming for Talon's face. The latter simply moved his head to the side, dodging it with ease.
Then, with a simple move, he swiped the contestant's leg, making him fall with a loud thud. Then, he crouched down, took the tag from his shirt, and walked away as if nothing happened at all.
"H-Huh?! Wait there!!"
Hearing that yell, Talon suddenly dashed forward at top speed and vanished from his sight before he could even do anything.
'Well, that was easy. Let's see, should I just steal many tags just to make sure that I don't lose them later on?'
Thinking about it for a moment as he moved, Talon decided to move on with that. He suspected that the people who could collect the most tags would have the best positions later on. After all, what was the point of putting everyone in a single room if each one only needed one tag to pass and there was no more to it?
So, just to make sure he doesn't fall behind, he decided to go the same route the other girl went. With that in mind, Talon quickly went to work. Using 'Dash', he passed through many contestants, and with quick hands, he took multiple tags in a few seconds.
For the next minute or so, he moved across the entire hall and took every possible tag he can. 'These are 12… I can get more.'
Looking around him, he noticed that the girl had already snatched dozens of tags in the time he was looking around. So, with that surge of motivation, he increased his pace even more. He felt like he had a rival he could face even though they weren't even facing each other. Talon liked that kind of motivation as it pushed him beyond his limit in most cases.
With that, the duo dominated the entire place, taking every single tag they could get their hands on. No contestant could even catch them and even those that tried to stop them were thrown to the side as if they were nothing.
"D-Devils!! They're devils!!"
Quickly, people started realizing what was happening and fear struck them. Instead of fighting, many stopped and started protecting their own tags instead. They heard of the ghosts roaming the hall, taking everything without mercy.
Out of nowhere, the entire place was submerged in even more chaos, except it was different this time.
***
"Hm?" In the control room, in a different section of the building, the supervisors noticed the change. The woman looked at the crystal screen in front of her with confusion. "What is happening?"
Everyone suddenly stopped and started taking a defensive stance.
"They stopped…" The other supervisor said in a daze. "Something weird is happening."
Meanwhile, Winsdoor was simply staring at the screen with a stoic expression that showed no emotion. His eyes were following two particular blurry silhouettes with great interest.
'These two…' He thought to himself.
"Give me the list of contestants." He said after a while. When he was handed the paper, he started going through it carefully, searching for the names. Eventually, he found the girl's picture and information.
Reading through her information, his eyes squinted suspiciously.
"Interesting…"
Then, he moved through the list again and found the young man. His information made him look closer as if he didn't understand something. Then, after a while, he closed the list and looked at the screen again.
"These two…" He said as he handed the list to the woman next to him. "Mark them down." He said.
"... Understood." The woman didn't know why he said that but she still did what he asked. After all, Winsdoor knew far more than they did even though they were all supervisors.
"This exam might turn out to be far more interesting than I expected." He said as his eyes flashed with a weird glint. Something inside him told him that he might've come across something really worth looking into.
Whether that was true or not, only time will tell.
***
*Back in the hall*
Almost an hour passed quickly and the entire place was now disturbingly quiet. Nobody dared to move or speak as they knew that they would be the next target.
Talon eventually stopped as he quickly put the tags in his storage. Then, he exhaled a long breath. 'That was a little exhausting. Gathering all these tags is a task!'
If he counted right, he had easily snatched almost 800 tags on his own. Even with his monstrous stamina and speed, it was a tough task to pull off.
'It seems no one realized that I am the one who stole them yet.' He scoffed as he looked around him with a smile.
The contestants around him were panickedly searching for the culprit that stole their tags but failed to find him. He had made sure not to stop even for a moment and let them get a look at his face. He also made sure to cover his tag with his hand so that they wouldn't suspect him.
Usually, this would've been impossible. To trick hundreds of people. But, in this situation, it turned out far easier than he expected. Everyone was on the edge due to the test. So, their ability to focus was hindered greatly.
Most of them can't even see beyond their target and themselves, let alone find someone as fast as Talon. On the other hand, the girl seemed to have done the same thing as she snuck her way into the masses again as if she belonged to them.
"Where are they?! They could've not disappeared!"
"My tag, my goddamn tag! I need to find it before I'm screwed!!"
Talon could hear the cries of anguish everywhere. Some people even started crying as they thought they were done for now that their tags were gone. In reality, he did feel a little bit bad for them. But, he knew that he couldn't simply be merciful, not here.
He also had things to do, and people he had to go back for. He had to protect them. So, if he finds any ounce of opportunity to quicken the progress of this quest, he is going to do exactly that.
No matter what consequences others might face. That was what he believed.
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