Chapter 206: Meticulous Planning
Chapter 204
While the Aspirants were plummeting toward their potential deaths on the inside, the situation on the outside was nothing short of shocking.
One moment, the bulky instructor was shouting at Kai to drop the Aspirant he had hoisted up and was about to deal with.
The next, strange tree trunks rose violently from the earth, swallowing the Aspirants standing around them, including Kai and his entire squad.
Just like that, they were all gone.
As quickly as they had emerged, the moment the sunlight touched their bark, the trunks suddenly burrowed back into the ground, leaving the others who stood in the large clearing area completely safe.
The bulky instructor had his mouth agape at the sight before him.
His mind simply refused to process the impossibility of what had just occurred.
Berg, on the other hand, was grinning like a madman.
It was just a little, a tiny bit more before he would have burst out laughing aloud, but he managed to hold it in, afraid to blow his cover prematurely.
Everything had gone far beyond how he had originally planned it.
From the very beginning of his meticulous planning on how to pay Ray back for the humiliation he had endured—twice—to the final execution, everything had proceeded with terrifying smoothness.
Even extra baggage like Kai had been swept away too.
Berg was in a state of absolute delight, his insides churning with an exhilarating and indescribable joy.
He had known all along the true nature of those strange red flowers that remained stuck to the ground.
After all, just twenty-four hours ago, when the planet was still undergoing its full-day nighttime phase, he had snuck out under the cover of darkness.
He had managed to acquire a map of the planet, which he studied grimly.
He searched through the various sectors and found one that suited his needs perfectly: the orange zone.
Though the military had claimed the planet was only partly explored, they had still charted a considerable distance.
The red zones weren’t just places that they hadn’t explored or knew nothing about; they were also territories they deemed too dangerous to move into—locales where they had probably lost a significant number of men.
During the morning... was it even morning?
Berg couldn’t truly tell, as the planet had been cloaked in shadow for a whole day.
Regardless, he had spent hours poring over the map and mapping out how his schemes would play out.
Soon enough, he had located this specific spot—an orange zone filled with advanced-ranked stone golems.
If nothing else could kill Ray, surely advanced-ranked beasts could, right?
After he was finished mapping out different contingencies in case his primary plans didn’t work out, he headed over to the instructor.
He managed to convince the man why they should take on an orange zone the next day, playing on the instructor’s desire for progress.
It didn’t take long for the man to succumb to the idea.
The first phase was complete, and the Aspirants were taken to an orange zone where they battled powerful stone golems that possessed only a single weak point: their eye!
While fighting, Berg had occasionally glanced back at Ray.
For several minutes, the Aspirant hadn’t moved an inch until a golem finally reached him.
It took the combined effort of both him and his pauper friend before they could take even one down.
"Tch. Pathetic."
From there onward, it was a steady grind between the duo as they took down one beast after another, with Ray incapacitating them long enough for Van to deliver the finishing blow.
However, Berg noticed something peculiar about this arrangement.
In order to cripple an advanced-ranked beast without killing it, one required a high level of precision and skill.
This meant that these beasts weren’t providing enough of a challenge for the Aspirant after all.
Which was why, when he finally found a moment of breathing space, Berg had quickly pulled up the mental map of the planet.
He began poring over it again and again until he successfully mapped out the exact spot where Ray’s execution could take place.
A red zone!
The maps provided by the military had incomplete information, so it took a considerable amount of bribing on Berg’s part before the stall owner finally divulged almost everything he knew about the world, especially concerning the specific red zone they occupied at this very moment.
It was a place that remained largely untouched by typical beasts.
No common creature could survive here, leaving the area empty and silent, decorated only by strange meadows of red and white flowers.
The white flowers were numerous, with only occasional sightings of the crimson variety interspersed here and there.
And that was the core of the plan.
These red flowers were actually lethal beasts in disguise.
However, they remained hidden, unable to emerge unless a certain ritual was completed.
They typically stayed buried deep in the earth while the sun was out, only surfacing when the planet entered its twenty-four-hour cycle of perpetual darkness.
But they could be forced out prematurely.
All it took were drops of blood from any living thing—be it beasts, humans, or anything else.
As long as blood touched their petals, they would stir from the ground.
This was why, when the stone golems became too much for the group to handle, Berg knew the instructor would eventually order a retreat.
And he did!
Which was why the Legacy took it upon himself to lead the group before the instructor could object, claiming he knew a ’shortcut.’ While he had run past the instructor, the legacy quickly and skillfully swiped the man’s map from his pocket before he could notice.
He did this so the man wouldn’t be able to check the coordinates while they traveled an unfamiliar route.
Left with no other choice, the instructor had to trust Berg’s guidance.
His plan had worked perfectly up until they reached the meadow.
Once there, he quickly shuffled more than half of the exploration group to the small clearing where the flowers couldn’t reach, leaving Ray and Van with no choice but to stand within the meadows of blossoms.
Now, he just needed the blood to activate the plants.
At the exact right time, Kai arrived, bleeding—but for some reason, he wasn’t letting a single drop hit the earth.
This was why Berg had subtly probed an Aspirant to attack Ray, knowing Kai wouldn’t stand aside and let it happen.
It worked flawlessly!
The legacy had been beyond furious and was about to do something he would regret when the instructor ordered him to let the Aspirant go.
Angrily, he flung the boy aside; simultaneously, the blood on Kai’s hands splattered into the air and onto the petals.
The moment Berg saw Kai, Ray, and all their friends get swallowed by the creatures that rose from the ground, a massive wave of relief surged through his body.
His plan to get rid of Ray had been a total success!
And he had done it all without ever actually touching the Aspirant himself.
Nobody would ever be able to tie this incident back to him.
Ray would die along with his friends, and it would simply be recorded as an ’accident’ that occurred during the course of a dangerous exploration.
A win-win indeed.
’Hahahahahaha~! Magnificent! Good riddance to bad rubbish. In your next life, I hope you don’t mess with me ever again. Hahahaha... Good job, Berg. Truly, you are smart. Ha....’
The Legacy cackled inwardly.
It was taking every ounce of his willpower not to burst out laughing aloud.
He was absolutely sure of it: Ray would definitely perish from this event.
Soon, the humiliation he had endured in public from the Aspirant would fade from everyone’s minds.
’Now let’s just wait for the instructor to snap out of his shock and cancel this whole expedition. Hahaha....’