Chapter 142- Lies

Chapter 142: Chapter 142- Lies

Chapter 142- Lies

After that, Rize sat down to talk to Venera. "It’s really odd that the culprit isn’t a major enemy but rather a random candidate." She said. "The way they snuck beyond our recognition... Is a bit worrying."

Rize already knew that, as this wasn’t some sort of coincidence. The fact that the boy was able to somehow sneak in that weapon not once, but twice meant that he knew what he was doing and he was very good. At the same time, that told him that this was very much a planned thing and not some sort of revenge.

’But why would he want to do that to random candidates?’ Rize frowned. He remembered what the boy yelled back at him when he said that he had nowhere to run. ’He said that I don’t get it. What does he mean by that? Is he talking about his motive for that attack?’

There were too many questions in Rize’s head for him to know what was happening. However, what truly made him question everything was simply the individual himself... He was talented and clearly good since he was in the top 1000. But he wasn’t anything outstanding for him to pull off such a thing.

It just didn’t make sense at all to him. But at the same time, he was the one who caught the boy red-handed; how could that not be the case?

’I’m just overthinking things since everything is mysterious or complicated.’ He thought to himself. ’I just did what I needed to do, and things are solved now... Well, at least I hope so.’

"What do you think will happen to that boy now?" Rize asked Venera.

"I truly don’t know. I’m certain he could definitely be convicted and jailed for this crime or worse." Venera said. "He knew what he was doing when he dared to attack candidates within academy grounds. He will face some heavy consequences."

Just as Venera finished that sentence, the two suddenly received a notification on their watches.

[Alert, Please gather in the main hall for an important announcement.]

The notification made a loud ringing noise to catch their attention, and it kept popping up every few moments.

"Well, I guess they were done with it very quickly," Rize said. "He still had the weapon, so it wasn’t that hard to figure out that he was indeed the culprit."

The only question left was whether he was working alone or had people who helped him with his crime.

’Ereze could probably extract that information out of him with ease. So, that is why it didn’t take them a few minutes to figure out everything that happened.’

"We should go and see what they will say," Venera said as she stood up. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I’m fine." Rize nodded. Even though he was still feeling a type of way about what he just did, realizing that Venera didn’t change how she looked at him after what happened, it eased that on him a lot.

However, he was certain that he would never let that kind of anger consume him again. He could control it and learn from it, just like how he learned from many other mistakes he committed in the past.

With that, the two left the room and walked to the main hall, where they already found a big group of candidates waiting, confused and curious. They heard of the chase and the possible culprit being caught, so they felt a bit at ease.

As more and more candidates arrived at the scene, the crowd grew larger and more packed. Then, a few minutes later, Ereze appeared before them in the same fashion that they had grown accustomed to.

"Our apologies for this sudden announcement when you are trying to focus on the test." He said. "We truly feel regretful of the current events, as many of you are already aware. The attacker has been, however, captured, and he will face the appropriate punishment for hurting other candidates, potentially causing their death, and disrupting the course of the test." He said. "We shall compensate the injured ones with more time to finish the test when they’re fully recovered, and as for all of you, you will get an extra 6 hours to finish the test. That should hopefully help with this abnormal situation."

"Woah, we get an extra 6 hours? That’s perfect!"

"I’m not complaining either..."

"But, damn, how did all of that happen? I’m so shocked."

The reactions were naturally positive to the announcement. Why would they say no to more time to finish the test in time? It just didn’t make any sense.

However, even with that positive reaction, there were naturally some questions. One of them slowly raised their hand.

"Yes?"

"Um, how was this person able to bring poison to the candidate city? Didn’t we all get checked properly before coming in?"

"He had the weapon concealed within his body. He had it in his stomach, and then he vomited it out." The man said.

"Ew."

"What?"

"He swallowed it?"

"That’s so disgusting..."

"Why would he even go that far for this? So creepy."

Even with how absurd that sounded, almost everyone believed that. Almost everyone except for a few who noticed a big flaw in what Ereze said.

Rize looked at Venera without uttering a single word when he realized that she also noticed the problem.

’He swallowed it?’ Rize frowned. ’Those scanners scan the body from the inside and out since they use Essence to do that. There is no way they didn’t notice that he had something in his stomach if he truly used that method.’

Rize stared at Ereze silently as he squinted his eyes, realizing what that meant. ’Is Ereze lying?’ He asked himself.

He couldn’t tell from the man’s expression, as he was able to easily hide his thoughts without even trying. ’There is no way he doesn’t know how that boy got that weapon, so whatever the real reason for it, he probably decided to hide it from the masses. This keeps going deeper and deeper.’

Rize felt a headache just thinking about this rabbit hole. Why is a simple attack like this growing so out of proportion so rapidly?

"Any more questions?" Ereze asked.

"Are there other possible culprits, sir?" Another asked.

"No, we confirmed that he is the only one responsible for this, and there isn’t anyone else involved in any way, shape, or form."

That made many sigh in relief as they could finally put this behind them and focus on finishing the test. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise, giving them more time and a better chance at finishing the test.

"Feel free to head back to your work, and good luck."

With that, Ereze disappeared, leaving the crowd in silence as they started scattering away. The topic was still very hot, so nobody stopped talking about it even after leaving. Rize and Venera also walked away, but their expressions were far from pleased.

"It seems something is happening in the background that we aren’t aware of," Rize said. "Something very bad."

"Do you think they’re hiding something, Rize?"

"After what he said? I’m certain that they are. I don’t know what it is, but it’s bad enough for them to decide that we don’t deserve to know it. They know most of the candidates are stupid and would eat anything they feed them, but this... This is a whole different matter."

Venera pursed her lips and nodded. "Tomorrow we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

She felt unease unlike anything she had felt before coming here, and she didn’t want to wait and see where that unease came from.

If it was indeed true, then the longer they stayed, the more in danger they would be. After all, what happened earlier was proof of that. Venera was very much an enticing target, and had Rize not reacted in time, she would’ve been poisoned.

***

With that, the first night of the first day arrived and left as rapidly. Everyone headed back to their quarters to sleep, with some deciding to stay up late to talk about the test or even go back to the classroom to continue working on it. However, even those eventually felt exhausted and returned to their rooms to rest.

Venera and Rize decided to sleep early and wake up very early so that they could finish before everyone else and leave.

By the time the sun rose, the two left their rooms and went back to the class to finish their work. After a rather decent night of sleep, their focus was high and with the stakes of what could happen in their mind, they worked even faster than before.

By the first two hours, they were done with two subjects as they stormed through the rest. Rize was so focused that he didn’t even notice people staring at him while he moved from one page to the other.

Thousands of calculations were happening in his head rapidly.