Days passed by slowly. The relationship between Ethan and Alice stayed the same, while Stephan and Violet got closer. Now that Stephan had settled the issue with Rosalyn, he made bolder moves on Violet and eventually asked her to be his. Violet had shyly agreed.
Ethan was aware of the progress in the relationship between Violet and Stephan and felt a little ache and sting in his heart. However, he also realised that everything would feel alright whenever he was with Alice. Although the little ache and nagging in his heart remained, he was at peace with it at the same time. It simply felt right to be around Alice.
Leah had lost the hold she had on Violet but she continued to follow Violet on her 'patrols' to save people who are being bullied. Violet's reputation continued to soar among the oppressed and plummet among the strong. Nobody asked about Alice. They also stopped trying to find Alice anymore.
Half a year passed like that and the final examinations arrived.
Their results came with a ranking for each subject and an overall performance. Everyone passed the subject examinations with flying colours, even Alice. However, everyone else did so well that Alice's good results still fell behind and looked above average at best. Even Ethan was surprised that Alice would only do averagely for all the hard work she had put in. He had personally witnessed everything she did after all.
[I knew you made a few mistakes but... to cost you to fall behind others by so much? That's insane. How does this happen?]
BaoBao lamented. There was only a minuscule probability of this happening according to his calculations but it happened./To be honest, I can't explain it either. It's kind of amazing in it's own way./
[You should just let me tell you the answers next time so that we can find out if it's a world hack.]
/Good idea./
News about the ability examination arrived and everyone got excited.
The ruthless school that did not care if students survived or died had ruthless tests as well. The final examination they had to pass to graduate was a month long survival task in the wild. Their performance will be graded based on the state they are in when they come out of the forest. If they come out in pristine condition, they performed the best. To pass, they only needed to survive the wild and against the schemes of others. If they died, they failed.
The period of the test always varied over the years and would only be told a week before the departure date. Students who managed to steal the information would have more time to prepare in advance. Going to the site to scout and lay traps were also allowed. There were no rules nor boundaries. It was a deadly examination.
Violet wanted the group to meet up and strategise for the upcoming examination. Ethan relayed that message to Alice but Alice did not give a reply. BaoBao had given her a warning when she received news of the examination. [Alice, this examination is the final crucial development.]
/...Understood./ Alice had mentally prepared herself for what was to come.
When it was time for the group to meet during lunch the next day, Alice did not turn up. The group wanted to find her at her room but Ethan stood up first and told Violet that he would get Alice here for her.
"You know where she is?"
"I'm just guessing. Instead of having everyone go around finding her, let me do it." He sped off using his ability as a boost. Seeing that, everyone was convinced that it was more efficient to leave the search for Alice to him.
Ethan went to find Alice at their usual spot. The moment he arrived, Alice informed him, "I didn't say that I would attend."
"It was not exactly a question." Ethan said softly.
"I'll fight you if you drag me."
Ethan felt like her resistance this time was really strong so he did not force it. Instead, he asked her, "Are you worried about something?"
Alice ignored him.
"Leah?" Ethan did not give up.
Alice continued to ignore him.
"That you're the weakest among us?"
Alice still ignored him.
"You're worried about relying on us, aren't you?"
Alice finished up her sandwich and cleaned up to start studying.
"Alice. I know how much you desire to be strong. I've witnessed all your hard work. You may be the weakest among us but you're no longer weak. You can stand your own ground."
When she continued to ignore him, he covered her hand that she was using to write with his. She looked up to look at him dead in the eye. "Stop bothering me." Alice said coldly.
He held her intense gaze and stood his ground. "You know Violet will choose to tail you anyway. It's no different in the end. We'll be together as a group."
"Leave." Alice stayed firm in her decision.
Ethan retrieved his hand that was covering hers, then brushed the back of his four fingers against her cheek. "I'll respect your decision then." He left to relay Alice's answer to the rest.
BaoBao appeared with an expression of surprise on his face. "That worked."
Alice shrugged. "What matters is that I managed to not group with them."
"But he has a point, Violet would tail you anyway."
"Doesn't matter, this means that they won't have a fixed route isn't it?"
BaoBao cocked his head in confusion.
"Do you really think Leah is so kind hearted to do nothing after what happened at the Christmas event?"
BaoBao looked as if he understood something then shook his head.
"Leah would probably be a bother for the remaining days." Alice sighed.
During the subsequent days, Leah had indeed started to become friendly with her in class again. It was like back to the old days when Leah was trying to get in her good graces. Other than that, everything else remained the same. Ethan never asked her about grouping together again either.
On the day of departure, before they boarded the carriages, Leah was walking beside Alice. She pretended it was as such due to their classes being beside each other. Talents and Blessings had better carriages and were further up ahead in the line of carriages.
Leah finally asked Alice of her plans. "Alice, so what are you planning to do to survive the forest?"
Alice ignored her.
"Violet's concerned, you know."
Alice still ignored her.
"...Actually, why don't you come around anymore? Did you fall out with them?"
Alice's attention was finally grabbed. /Perhaps I can get something out of her./
Alice pretended to be spacing out and staring off into a distance when she was actually looking at Ethan. She knew where to find him because she had BaoBao watch everyone relevant from the Christmas party.
Ethan felt an intense stare on him and frowned. He turned to the direction that he felt the intense gaze was coming from and made eye contact with Alice. Surprise filled his eyes. This was the first time she looked at him so intensely. It made his heart beat faster.
Alice then opened her mouth to talk slowly, masked as laziness. "You're right... I fell out with them." When she saw how Ethan frowned slightly, she knew that he was listening. /How clever to use the wind to carry my voice over./
"Do you hate them then?" Leah asked.
Alice confirmed that he was listening since his eyebrows locked tighter together. She cast her eyes down and looked to be deep in thought. Then she tilted her head and looked at Leah in a lazy way, "Actually, I do. Especially that Violet. I hate how she always thinks she's all good and kind. Helping people even when they don't want to be helped. Not giving people what they really want, only doing whatever she wants. What a bother."
"I agree with you! Who does she think she is?" Leah was getting a little excited but remembered to keep her volume low. "Do you want to cause some trouble for her then?"
"How?" Alice raised an eyebrow.
"Tell me the route you're going to take in the forest."
"How will that help?"
"Ambush." Leah smiled evilly.
"Won't that be bad? It's my route." Alice said this as if Leah was really stupid.
Leah frowned and thought Alice was the one who was lacking in intelligence. "I'll tell you where we will set up the ambush and traps. You'll easily avoid it then."
"What makes you trustworthy? How do I know you're not against me instead?"
"Because I hate Violet too."
"So?"
"The enemy of an enemy is a friend."
Alice looked contemplative then asked Leah, "Why do you hate her then?"
"Same reason as you."
"When you decide to tell me the truth, then I will consider trusting you." Alice began to walk off but Leah panicked and grabbed onto her sleeve. Alice turned her head to look back at her.
"You remember what happened during the Christmas event, don't you? She betrayed my trust. She was supposed to support me." Leah said that with hurt and anger shown on her face.
"She's right though. What can she do to Ethan? She can't force his feelings. I don't like working with dumb willful people."
Leah looked at Alice who seemed to be looking down on her. Leah's face turned red. "...I didn't ask her to make Ethan fall for me. Even a simple nudge from her would be fine. Even if she told him to maybe give it a thought or something, I'd be happy. But she did not do a thing!" There was venom and hate in Leah's eyes.
/As if you'd really be satisfied with that./ "...Alright, I'll work with you." Alice smiled cordially. Leah's face brightened as her hopes and mood was raised up high.
[She really can be quite spiteful.] BaoBao shivered as he thought to himself. He knew that she was planning to do the same thing she did in the previous world.
"However, you mentioned an ambush. You obviously can't pull that off by yourself. Who else is involved?"
"They also dislike Violet so all will be fine."
"Hmm... I don't know if they're trustworthy. I trust my judgement."
Leah became frantic again. It was so hard to get Alice to respond and agree and time was running out. It was soon their turn to board the carriages. "Since you trust me, and I trust them, you can trust them by extension, can't you?"
Alice dragged out the silence until it looked like Leah was going purple in the face then she relented. "Alright. Tell me the details of the ambush then. Also, tell me how many people are involved. Specific identities would increase your credibility."
Leah let out an audible sigh of relief then decided to reveal the identities of the people she deemed was fine to sacrifice to pull Alice in. Alice's route was crucial information for their plan to work better.
Ethan's face darkened as he found out the number of people involved in this scheme. Although Leah only revealed a few people who were already known to be against Violet, he could guess that everyone who ever stood against Violet was probably involved. The problem was that the total number of those people was still only a subset of the number of people Leah mentioned.
/There are others I don't know of./ Ethan concluded gravely.
Alice purposely dragged out her silence again. "Sounds credible..."
Leah waited. They were inching closer to the carriages by the minute.
"The plan is realistic too... It would work."
Leah ran out of time, it was their turn next. "Your route? It would only work if we know your route!"
Alice suddenly looked full of innocence and blinked a few times. "I have no route. I didn't have the resources to go scouting before today. Did I not mention already? Dear me."
Leah's hopes were dashed mercilessly.
"If it helps, I will stick to heading North." Alice shrugged then entered her carriage. Leah was stunned. Her classmates behind her had to nudge her forward and into the carriage.
Ethan nodded to Stephan to show that they could move off now. He shared a private carriage with Violet and Stephan. This would be safer as it lowered the probability of having their carriage rigged.
As Ethan was worried about others having the same idea as him to use the wind to eavesdrop on people's conversations, he communicated with the other two through writing. After relaying everything he knew, they began discussing their next course of action.
Stephan - "Let's just kill her the moment she arrives."
Ethan - "That'll alert all the involved parties and we won't know who's involved."
Stephan - "Didn't you say it was likely everyone who stood against Violet before? Just kill off anyone who doesn't agree with her."
Ethan - "That's too risky. We'll have to stay on guard the whole time if we alert the rest then we'll be the ones to get worn out first."
Violet - "Then we walk into their trap and attack when they do?"
Ethan - "No. We'll attack just before that."
Stephan and Violet nodded their heads in unison. Violet used her fire to burn their note to ashes.
Meanwhile in Alice's carriage, she pretended to take a nap to avoid interacting with the other 3 people in the carriage. /BaoBao, the results of our game will be revealed soon. Guessed what's the scenario like yet?/
[Yeah! I'm sure I got it right this time!]
BaoBao said confidently.Multiple carriages had already gathered at the entrance to the North forest when the carriages that Leah and Alice were in reached the destination. Alice immediately headed to the side of the crowd to leave the sea of people while Leah wondered seemingly aimlessly around the crowd. It took quite awhile before each of them found what they wanted. Alice jumped up onto a low tree branch to take a breather. Leah had the expression as if she finally found their rendezvous point with the other three. "Sorry for taking so long! There are just so many people." Leah apologised then peeked at Ethan only to see that he was paying attention to anything else besides her. "Nothing to worry about. They still have not signaled the start of the exam." Violet reassured her with a small smile. "But they would anytime now." Stephan said without hiding his irritation. Leah lightly bit her lower lip. Just a few seconds after Stephan talked, a loud explo
Sky blue lightning rained on everyone. Fire raged all over. Water slicers covered any remaining area. The opponents defended once more. Earth walls and stone pillars were raised, rocks flew, water barriers were raised, water slicers and bullets flew, plants raged and flower petals became as sharp as daggers, and many more. Explosions filled the air, along with the snaps of traps getting activated. The people who had to dodge attacks landed in areas that Alice had predicted. They ended up blown up or captured in spiked nets or pierced or maimed. Alice witnessed all the chaos around her while she got carried by the water bubble. It flew her around the perimeter of the battlefield and skillfully dodged any stray attacks that flew towards her. By then, she realised that she was not caught in a water ball but a literal bubble, with air inside. She could breathe. There was only one person who would do this to her. After the trio had dodged the flurry of carel
"Hey, hey, please tell me at least one of you two have some trump card I don't know of!" Stephan whispered through gritted teeth. He had his hands full trying to occupy the Blessings as much as he could while Ethan and Violet dealth with the remaining Talents. However, it was much easier said than done. Violet was agitated and it made her slip up more than once. Ethan was equally distracted. Half his attention was on Alice. He was ready to risk his life and rush to her aid, but an unknown force kept him rooted to this side, causing him great distress.As a result, the trio got covered in bruises and cuts. "We have to figure out something quick! Alice needs us!" Violet cried. Alice had started fighting on her end. Ethan remained silent, his lips drawn into a firm line, and his mind going into overdrive to come up with a move on the spot. A deep laughter sounded, interrupting Ethan's thoughts. The familiar deep voice mocked, "What's the matter? Losing your
BaoBao warned Alice of the attacks from above, instantly calculated probabilities and rates, then concluded that Violet would not escaped unscathed even with Ethan's protection and Violet's fire ability. Alice chose to accept death, then threw Violet back using her water ability. Ethan witnessed Alice's death with wide disbelieving eyes. Numerous icicles and spears impaled her. Parts of her were cut off by swords. Tears had already begun to flow before his brain has registered her death. His heart wrenched as the gory sight consumed his mind. It somehow felt like a painfully familiar scene. His voice that felt stuck in his throat, gradually came out as strangled moans, before he yelled out loud in agony. His eyes became blood shot red, and power surged from his body. It broke him free of the force that had been controlling his body. He roughly pushed Violet off of him and scrambled to Alice's mangled body. He ran through and broke any spears and weapons that
"Luna? ...Luna? Are you okay?" Luna kept her eyes closed and her face was slightly pale. The pain of dying had been intense this time round and she felt that it was truly quite a horrifying way to die. She'd rather bleed out like she did in her original world and in the previous world. "...Luna?" BaoBao was slightly worried. /I'm fine. Just... give me a while./ BaoBao kept quiet and let Luna rest. He knew how weary she must be feeling since she still talked to him telepathically. Luna drifted off to sleep. Around 2 hours later, she woke up to find herself in darkness. She was momentarily confused until she remembered that she had died. BaoBao appeared by her side the moment he knew that she was awake. "Luna? Feeling better?" Luna nodded. "How did this world go?" "You avoided forging a friendship with Violet and the others where the original soul was completely dependent on them. You avoided being the on
Luna woke up feeling incredibly weak. Her lips were dry. Her throat was parched. Her stomach hurt and growled at the same time. She laid crumpled on her side near a big tree. The surroundings were vibrantly green and warm sun rays filtered through the dense canopy. /Am I.../ Her stomach growled and hurt at the same time again. /Actually dying from starvation?/ Yet another sharp pain coursed through her through her stomach. /When was the last time this person ate...?/ With that, BaoBao quickly transferred all of the original soul's memories into her. The original soul was born as a white rabbit shapeshifter in a peaceful and quiet village filled with herbivores. She was named BaiXue due to her snow white fur. They have low fighting capabilities but excelled in escaping, especially when they were in their animal forms. The original soul had 4 other siblings, half of them were also rabbit shapeshifters, while the other ha
[FenFang is approaching.] BaoBao informed BaiXue. /At this time? If they were predestined to meet and FenFang was the one who nursed the original soul... I can already see how this would pan out and disrupt her revenge plans./ BaiXue frowned. /No wonder this original soul needed help./ She looked in the direction that FenFang would be coming from. Perhaps she could learn something new from FenFang that the book did not contain. So, she stayed where she was. After a short while, a young elegant beauty emerged from the plants. Her long luscious creamy white hair and sky blue robes swayed gently in the refreshing breeze. Her deep dark brown eyes immediately locked on to BaiXue. Even in her rush towards BaiXue, she looked as glamourous as ever. "What happened? How are you?" Her voice sounded like clear gentle bells. BaiXue looked at her flatly. "...Food." Her voice was weak, and she panted, as if talking itself took a lot ou
Over the next few weeks, BaiXue followed the foxes for them to show her the ropes, before she would be allowed to act on her own. They showed her the locations of various villages and the fastest routes to take. They also put her through self-defense training, but it was minimal and far below her personal standards. BaiXue was slightly taken aback by the area that was under their radar. The foxes knew of villages in the entire forest, all the way out to the coast. The nearer ones took them less than a day to reach. The furthest ones tooks days for them to reach. Still, there was no sign of the female lead's village. BaiXue wondered if it laid beyond the mountain that was on the other end of this forest. They had never tried to cross the mountains before, even though it was around FenFang's dwelling. The mountain was treacherous to cross and had stronger people living on it. The foxes did not want to take the risk for FenFang. BaiXue realised that the original s