CHAPTER 25

Hirayon felt alarmed as he felt the old man's cold stare. Like any other Familia, the man was wearing a formal suit. He was also slightly older than the other Familia, as he had a head full of white hair and a medium beard. Even though he was sitting, Hirayon was sure that the man was huge and muscled.

'He must be a Prime Oddity. I could feel his presence like Dad's. But there's something different from him. He's dangerous.'

Hirayon tried to act normal, and instead of obviously looking at the following members of Familia, he did it discretely to avoid meeting their gazes.

The child counted the Familia who was present and came up with 17. There were other vacant rooms, so he is assuming that there are more.

'I should be able to see them in the next games. I might even have the opportunity to meet them in person,' he thought and looked at his hologram.

He was already running for about an hour, accumulating his steps to more than ten thousand, and he is planning to keep his current pace to last longer.

Compared to Hirayon's great stamina, a few kids stopped running and were disqualified. Their devices disappeared into thin air, and then their bodies were surrounded by glowing red light. This helped to see who was still continuing on the test.

When the timer hit one hour, Hirayon finally saw his rank and was surprised to know that he was ranked fifth.

'I'm doing great. I just need to keep this up and aim for the first rank.'

Determined, Hirayon continuously ran while other children were slowly getting disqualified.

After another hour, Hirayon's rank reached second. He thought that he would be the first the next time he'd be able to see his rank, but when the third hour finished, he remained in the second.

Hirayon frowned and looked around. He noticed many children were already disqualified, and less than 15 children were still jogging on the device. Out of all of them, Hirayon saw the kid who was running at the same pace as him, and he immediately realized that it was the first rank.

The child was slightly taller than Hirayon but slimmer than the child. He has white hair like an old man's, while his eyes are pitch black and dead, as if they had no life, and emotionless like the robots Hirayon had seen. He also didn't look delicate compared to other children and was rough looking, indicating a hard life he must've lived.

When the child noticed Hirayon's gaze, his lips moved into a smile, but his eyes remained cold, making Hirayon feel odd.

'What's wrong with him?'

"Would you look at that! This batch is really promising. We are now left with 12 children. How long do you think they can last? We don't need to wait longer as we decided to make this more challenging by elevating the device in 4... 3... 2... Go!"

The remaining devices slanted on Tedie's cue, making it harder for the children to run. It felt like they were hiking a mountain, and it didn't help that they were already tired.

Although the slant wasn't too much for Hirayon to handle, it still caused him to have difficulty as he was running at the same slightly fast pace since earlier. He wanted to slow down, but he couldn't afford to do so as he could see that the other child, who he thought ranked first, was still running like the slant was nothing.

Hirayon's brows met as he focused on maintaining his speed. His competitive nature was coming out as he clenched his jaw and ran faster.

Even though he was already sweating, he ignored that and kept on running until it was time to see their ranks again.

When he saw the number, Hirayon bit his lips and looked at the other child with an intense competitive gaze.

He was still ranked second, and he was feeling annoyed as he was sure he was running faster than the other child.

"Four kids remaining! Who will be ranked first? We won't wait for long because, for the next hour, you'll feel like you're running on a hill!"

The devices slanted more, making Hirayon stumble a little, but he managed to balance himself in a second. He was already feeling the exhaustion and muscle ache in his skinny legs, but he ignored it and kept running.

Seeing that the other two remaining exhausted children were running at a slow pace. Hirayon was sure that he would be ranked second. However, to the child, second place wasn't his goal.

With that, Hirayon kept running until only two of them were left.

The other child was also already showing exhaustion, and Hirayon was sure that if he kept it up, he would have a chance to beat the child.

Unfortunately for Hirayon, he overestimated his body's capability. He didn't take into consideration that he just came from a hellish experiment where he had to be injected with multiple substances, causing him to feel excruciating pain.

The side effect of the experiment came at the wrong time, and Hirayon experienced a shock, making him stumble and eventually fall. He was about to immediately go back from running, but he wasn't able to as he felt another shock in his body, making him jolt in pain.

'I knew it was coming, but I was hoping it won't since he has an extraordinary body. Well, seems like he does need a recovery pill to eliminate any possible side effects,' Savio thought as he watched from the bleachers together with other trainers.

"Was that the rumored chief's son?" Ryper, another trainer, asked Savio, who was busy documenting his observation on Hirayon.

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"Yep," Savio answered the person that could be considered his friend.

"How is he?" Ryper asked.

"His body is phenomenal. I can't wait to run more experiments," Savio said with a crazy glint in his eyes.

Ryper shook his head and gave Hirayon a pitiful look, 'I don't know if you got lucky or not for having Savio as your trainer, but you will definitely need good luck.'

"And we finally have the first rank!" Tedie's voice rang inside the arena, waking everyone to see the only remaining child that wasn't surrounded by red light.

When Hirayon heard the host and looked up, he saw that he was surrounded by red light, making him clench his fist in frustration.

"And that concludes our first test! Before we start the second one, here are the rankings," Tedie stated.

The massive hologram in the middle showed the rankings for the first test.

01 ODE152

02 OWS59

03 OAR48

04 OLU94

05 OLN103

06 OFE137

07 OID76

The red light on the children's bodies disappeared. "After a five-minute break, you will receive a recovery pill before we proceed to the second test," Tedie said, then left to approach the VIP rooms.

Still exhausted from running, Hirayon ignored the other children's curious stares and lay on the hard white floor. He closed his eyes to rest, but the blinding lights were making him uncomfortable. He was about to cover his eyes with an arm when the bright lights dimmed, making him open his eyes only to be met with dead black orbs.

"What?" Hirayon asked, still annoyed at the child who ranked first. He knew that it wasn't the child's fault, but he was still frustrated.

"What's your name?" The child asked in a soft tone, unfit to his cold gaze.

"You can see it above," Hirayon said snarkily, pertaining to the rankings.

"Not that. I want to know your real name," the child asked, and Hirayon fell into a thought before answering.

"Hirayon."

"Our names are similar. I'm Hirang," the child introduced himself and plopped down beside Hirayon.

"How long have you been here?" Hirang asked, ignoring Hirayon's weird look when he sat down.

"I don't know. Just a few days maybe," Hirayon answered and was about to ignore the child, but he spoke again.

"I have been here for four months now," Hirang shared, earning Hirayon's curiosity.

"Were you kidnapped as well?" Hirayon asked, as he was sure most of the arena's children were kidnapped.

Still, he asked because FORT685 said he willingly went to the facility, so few kids might be in a similar situation.

"Not really. A man asked me if I wanted to be strong, so I followed him," Hirang confessed.

"That's kidnapping," Hirayon pointed out.

Hirang slightly tilted his head to the left, "You think? But I came on my own will."

"Why would you even do that?" Hirayon asked as he felt like the child was not the same as FORT685, who was starving and desperate to find food.

Hirang gave out another smile that didn't reach his dead eyes. "Because I was weak and helpless."

"You could've trained on your own," Hirayon said, remembering the time when he trained on his own in the forests of Earth Territory.

He was feeling useless as he had watched his mother fight monsters before. That is why he trained by himself, using his water abilities repeatedly until he reached the next phase and gained another ability.

"I couldn't," Hirang said, his smile seemingly different from earlier.

'He looked sad,' Hirayon thought, noticing the small change that other people wouldn't see.

"And why is that?" Hirayon asked, curious as that was the first real emotion that the child showed.

"I wasn't allowed to by my father."

"Hmm," Hirayon said and didn't try to pry more as it looked like Hirang didn't want to explain.

"So you were kidnapped?" Hirang asked after a moment of silence.

"I am."

"Then you must be rich," Hirang guessed, interested in Hirayon's upbringing as he was different from other children who were obviously brought up with care and luxury.

"My father is rich," Hirayon admitted.

"Then you're different," Hirang commented.

Hirayon frowned, "What do you mean?"

Hirang was about to answer when a melody rang inside the arena, and its massive doors opened, revealing two columns of oddities with a tray in their hands. Each tray has a pill and a glass of water.

The servants went to each child, handing out the recovery pills. After that, they all left quickly, and Tedie returned to the platform with a huge grin.

"I have talked to some of the Familia members, and a lot of them are really impressed with their candidates. For those who ranked high, keep doing great, and for those who were not, don't lose hope as there are still a lot of tests to be done, so try to keep up," Tedie said, persuading the children not to give up.

The next test started, and it measured their upper body strength. It was also testing their endurance, as they hung on a moving bar as long as they could.

Then the third test came, where the children had to sort colored pebbles according to their colors. This time, they had limited time and had to sort all the pebbles as fast as possible.

The tests continued going on throughout the day without a break. Thanks to the recovery pills, the children didn't feel hungry, so they were on their top shapes for each test. Still, even though they had a lot of energy for every test, they were all mentally tired because of the pressure that the rankings brought.

The children looked hopefully at the large hologram screen above when everything was finally done.

"Are you ready to see the results?" Tedie asked and looked at the children's expectant eyes.

The rankings for every test were shown to the children at the end of every test, but they still had no idea about the final rankings, which were the average of all of their ranks.

"Here we go!" Tedie shouted, and the hologram above jumbled. The children's names moved up and down the rankings until it stopped, showing the final list with the top 10 glowing in gold light.

Rank Name Award Presents

01 ODE152 - 500 - 5

02 OWS59 - 450 - 5

03 OEM129 - 440 - 4

04 OLC95 - 430 - 5

05 OSU41 - 420 - 3

06 OLU94 - 410 - 1

07 OMA111 - 400 - 5

08 OAR48 - 390 - 3

09 OID76 - 380 - 2

10 OFF134 - 370 - 1

"On the list above, you will see your rank, award points, and, of course, if a Familia had decided to grant you a precious gift," Tedie added while the children were busy finding their own name.

Hirayon looked up to see that his rank was as he expected.

'2nd rank, 450 points, five bonus gifts. The Familia who chose me is quite generous. Is five gifts the maximum?'

"This concludes the day. For those who have ranked high and received gifts, you will find your presents inside your respective rooms. For those who didn't, try harder on our first game. You still have your chance." He said, and the melodic sound rang once again in the arena.

The servants of each child came down, ushering the children outside and back to their rooms.

"Congratulations OWS59," FORT685 greeted with a wide smile.

"Thank you," Hirayon answered with a small smile. He was a little disappointed that he wasn't able to get the first rank, but there are more games to come, and he believes that he will have more chances.

"See you next game," Hirang said with his female servant when he spotted Hirayon and FORT685.

When Hirayon nodded, Hirang and the servant went towards a different gate and exited the arena.

"A friend?" FORT685 asked, pleased that his master had met another child he could talk to.

"Not really, more like a rival," Hirayon said as he glanced at the first rank with Hirang's coded name and 500 award points.

"I think you'll be great friends," FORT685 commented as he watched Hirang and the female servant leave. He knew the servant as he had encountered her before, and she was always assigned to potentially strong children.

"Does each gate leads to a different place?" Hirayon asked, ignoring FORT685's statement.

"Yes, they do. Are you hungry?" FORT answered and asked.

"I am," Hirayon admitted and placed his hand on his stomach. Even though they didn't need to eat because of the pill, they could still get hungry as a side effect after taking so many in a short period of time.

"Alright, I will guide you to your room first, and then I will deliver your food," FORT685 said, ushering Hirayon outside the arena.

While they were making their way out, Hirayon was being watched by an intimidating oddity from the VIP rooms.

"He performed well," the old man commented while eyeing the scrawny child.

R E H I L I Y A