Chapter 98: (1) First Learning
As the rifle's crack signaled the beginning of the test, over a thousand students took off to follow Jack Blades as he began his run. Almost immediately, a surprised murmur rose among the students—and it was loudest among those who had been complaining the most harshly almost a moment ago.
This air of surprise had a simple cause: The students were finding that it was much easier than they'd expected to run, even while carrying heavy gear. After all, they were now modified humans capable of shaping their evolution thanks to the Pip-Boy and Aurora systems. Even without training, they'd already surpassed human limits.
Of course, people will always find an excuse to complain. After those who had been complaining about difficulty realized there was actually little difficulty to be had, they quickly switched to grumbling about the lack of challenge. "What's the point of this?" some grumbled. "I could be going out and leveling up by grinding Zombies instead of this..."
But Jack Blades hadn't asked the students their opinions, nor was he bluffing when he'd warned the students earlier to keep up their paces. Hundreds of small drones hung in the sky overhead, watching unblinkingly to deduct points from anyone who fell behind or quit.
***
After a quarter of an hour, the students' superhuman stamina was beginning to wane. Their bodies weren't yet fully adapted to their new capabilities, and that went double for students carrying Hunter equipment. After all, many weapons weighed over ten kilos, and some weighed ten times that. Even Alexandre had been cautious about running with a load his body wasn't accustomed to, and none of the others had the same experience and caution that he did.
Moreover, many of the students had either been afraid to fall behind or wished to be at the head of the group, and these people were pushing themselves even harder than the others to maintain a faster pace than the rest of the group. Unsurprisingly, this group was burning out even faster than the rest.
Alexandre, for his part, found himself in an interesting position. During the Hunter Exam, he'd discreetly hidden his true potential. The time for that was gone. On the contrary, the most powerful students would be rewarded the best at the academy. And now that he was surrounded by other Hunters, Alexandre wouldn't attract too much attention as an anomaly if he used all of his capabilities—he'd instead, ideally, seem like a prodigy or at least an intelligent and hard worker.
So Alexandre separated from his two new roommates and made his way up through the various staggered layers of the running group. He'd started out well ahead of the stragglers, but now made his way to the front of the main group with ease. He leaned forward and sped past these regular students, heading for Jack Blades far ahead. The teacher was so fast that the gap between him and the students grew with every passing second. At this point, he was over 500 meters from the first student, though still visible to a Hunter's sharp eyesight.