The coin hunt begins
Sarah used to witness their cruel deeds, initially,she did nothing to stop them, plagued by her own internal struggles.
It was not until the day they went too far and brazenly attempted to make him blind by brutally removing his eye.
Luckily, she happened to be around the corner that day and was able to step in just in time, her intervention a crucial turning point.
But unfortunately, even then, it wasn't early enough, and they had still managed to destroy one of his eyes, leaving him permanently impaired. But now, somehow, miraculously, he had changed.
Not just the color of his hair, but his eyes which had formerly been impaired were now both functional, seemingly restored, and he was trying to make a new start, to rebuild his life.
Yet, Keal's group was still obsessively fixated on him, their hatred unwavering, which wasn't fair to Sarah, she felt a deep sense of injustice.
'I won't let them hurt you, not this time. I will do everything in my power to stop them,' Sarah thought, her fists clenching, a fierce determination hardening her resolve.
'I wouldn't be like them; I won't be like my sisters,' she thought, a tear tracing a path down her cheek, reflecting an unspoken pain and a deep will to be different,... to be better.
After Fai had entered the hall, some other students followed,students who had made it through the first stage , their faces a mix of relief and exhaustion.
With them were the military personnel, who did with these students the very same thing they had done with Fai: handing them a single piece of golden coin and telling them to wait patiently for further instructions.
After some time had passed, around thirty minutes, the bald man could be seen re-entering the hall, and with him, a smaller number of military personnel—around six men in total, their presence still commanding attention.
Standing in front of the assembled students, the bald man's eyes meticulously scanned the remaining crowd.
He could see that their numbers had notably dropped.
Initially, there were approximately two thousand students who began the assessment, but now he observed that there were about a thousand and a half, meaning around five hundred students had failed the first, deceptively simple, stage.
'It looks like this time there are a lot of strong ones,' he mused inwardly, a glint in his eye.
'Well, I guess in this stage we will truly know if they were genuinely strong, or if they were just lucky in the first round.'
He thought, his gaze momentarily glancing in Fai's direction.
He was still , utterly confounded, by Fai's performance, the sheer inexplicable power of his hit.
Also, the fact that Fai had even slipped during his performance didn't help his comprehension at all.
it only went to show how much stronger the hit would have been if he hadn't stumbled, if he had unleashed his full force.
Yet, he was still unable to fully believe it.
Fai had literally broken a long-standing record that had been held for years, a feat deemed impossible for a human.
Fai, standing confidently within the group of students, could distinctly feel the bald man's intense gaze fixed upon him.
He could also feel the immense, almost palpable, pressure that was being directed at him, a silent weight of scrutiny.
"Is it me, or someone seems to have a crush on you?" Johnson whispered from the side, a playful smirk on his face, as he, too, noticed the bald man's unwavering attention on Fai.
"Are you crazy? Why would you say something like that? Eww, gross!" Fai retorted, his voice a low, horrified whisper, which only made Johnson let out a small, suppressed chuckle.
"But still, you know what I mean right? He's been looking at you for some time now. I think you definitely caught his attention, buddy."
"Yeah, I noticed," Fai replied, his eyes still on the bald man, a flicker of apprehension in their depths.
"What did you do to grab his attention like that?" Johnson pressed, genuinely curious.
"I'm not really sure," Fai replied, his voice barely audible, "I think it's my performance."
But that wasn't the only reason for his apprehension. A chilling fear gnawed at him: perhaps the bald man had somehow discovered his deepest secret.
'Did he notice that I have a system? Or is it something else entirely, something even more... ?' Fai asked himself, a cascade of questions for which he had no answers.
"Oh, yeah, come to think of it," Johnson said, his voice rising slightly, "you are the only one who made it through as a human. I think that's more than enough of a reason to have the bald man 'crush' on you!".
Johnson joked, a wide, easy grin spreading across his face. Soon, though, the man had shifted his gaze, his attention now sweeping over the entire group, and he began to speak, his voice once again resonating with authority.
"Firstly, I think it's only proper that I congratulate each and every one of you for making it to the second stage," the bald man declared, his words formal yet impactful.
"This is where serious things are about to begin. Right now, you are about to begin the second stage, and trust me,"
he emphasized, his gaze briefly flashing towards Fai, "this stage will not be as easy as the first." His subtle glance seemed to carry a hidden meaning, an acknowledgment of Fai's unique situation.
"I'm sure each and every one of you have been given this," the bald man said, as he raised his hand, showcasing a single, gleaming golden coin held between his fingers.
"This is your ticket to the next stage," he stated, the coin glinting in the light.
"Right now, as you all can see, we are surrounded by huge walls of earth, formidable barriers.
You are strictly not to climb over these walls. All you are to do is to follow the designated route that will lead you to the other side of these walls; there, we will be patiently waiting for you."
As the man spoke, the military personnel with him could be seen making some sets of precise, synchronized Martial arts movements .
" There they go, dancing again " Johnson said, close to Fai.
And as they did, the wall at the very back of the hall they were in could be seen slowly,majestically moving down, descending into the ground.
In its place, numerous distinct routes and winding paths could now be clearly seen, stretching into the distance.
The students finally began to fully understand what the bald man was instructing them to do, the scope of the challenge before them becoming apparent.
"You have forty-eight hours to make it to the other side," he announced.
"And like I said before, this golden coin is your ticket. To make it to the next phase, you need a total of five of these coins.
To acquire them, you must use any means necessary. Here, there are only two absolute rules: do not scale over the walls, and do not kill." He paused, his gaze sweeping over each student, ensuring his words sank in.
"Anyone who does not follow these rules will not only be disqualified immediately, but they also will be punished severely."
He concluded, "Good luck, and let the strongest win!" With that chilling declaration, the bald man and his men purposefully walked out of the hall, their figures receding into the distance, and the entrance swiftly closed behind them, sealing the students inside.
Just like that, the second stage of the assessment had officially begun.
The assessment was meticulously divided into four stages.The first, a test of raw physical strength, was already complete.
The students were now about to embark on the second, far more demanding stage.
During the first stage, the students were simply asked to hit a metallic punching bag and achieve a hit point of above thirty.
Now, for the second stage of the assessment, the students were required to make it to the other side of the massive earth wall maze , and they were to do so within a strict time limit of forty-eight hours.
Additionally, they were instructed to emerge from the challenge with a total of five golden coins, meaning they were expected to acquire four additional coins from other participants.
And, just as the rule explicitly stated, they were free to use force to obtain these coins, but under no circumstances were they allowed to kill.
The Hunt was officially a go....