Chapter 13: Shurikens and Smoke Bombs
The men in black simultaneously called out in deep voices, "May the event begin!"
A large majority of the students started running as if their lives depended on it. Pushing and shoving occurred before the beginning line as well as while students ran. Although the expense of grassland was big, enough to fit a few thousand people, it still looked like a huge mob and the floor rumbled loudly. The 'genius' title didn't fit their image at all at this time, and they instead looked like hungry beggars competing for a slice of bread.
Occasionally, a group of people would get into a fight from being shoved. One by one, a large mass fell down and when the person it front of you fell, you would fall as well, causing the person behind you to fall. Some students that didn't fall from being pushed would fall because the grass dragged them down.
The students that were in the front started walking instead because it hadn't yet been half a mile but they were already feeling a heavy weight on their bodies. Xi Lian's group had already luckily decided to jog slowly last night. Although Xi Lian could complete two miles easily, Cheng Tu and Bao Bao wouldn't be able to run quickly without being tired. Soon, only a few people could keep on running as if their lives depended on it. They were either those that didn't have a group to worry about or they had abandoned their group with or without their group's approval. As for the few thousand other students, they jogged when they realized they had better chances that way.
As they jogged, they saw groups fighting against each other. There were group duels, because groups that knew fighting would slow them time and waste time decided to take three points in order to not make their trip to this event a waste.
The blue-ranked student from before was seen defending herself from a group on the sides of the grassland road. The enemy group's motive seemed to be the purple-ranked girl she called her senior since they kept advancing towards her while fighting her teammates. The blue-ranked student's expression worsened when she saw Xi Lian run past.
Earlier, she had mocked her for wasting her time in being here, and now Xi Lian had passed her. She couldn't bury her head in embarrassment either or else the wooden club of her opponent would've hit her.
It was now a mile in the race, and Bao Bao was starting to pant heavily. She shouted, "I can't breathe! Just leave me and win points, I'll catch up later!" She stopped running and started walking while gasping for air.
Xi Lian turned around without stopping and nodded before turning back around. Cheng Tu's condition was deteriorating every second but he persevered. Xi Lian wanted to tell him to stop and take a rest but she couldn't bring herself to do so. Eventually, he decided to stop by the road at the mile and a half point. Knowing her friends couldn't keep up anymore and there was only half a mile left, she started sprinting quickly ahead of everyone. As she ran past people, she ripped up a large rift apart in the middle of the crowd, and the students that realized what she was doing quickly followed behind her hoping they could fit into the empty space before the passage way got filled in again.
Xi Lian who knew this would happen, took the hair clips attached to her head tie wrapped around her wrist, and sent a batch of them flying to the ones trying to take advantage of the passage she created.
'The hair clips turn into shurikens when the fly approximately a meter or so, which should be able to stop them for a few seconds. In that time, the crowd would close up the empty passage way and no one would get the chance to benefit from the passage. Perfect.' Xi Lian thought.
Curses filled the air behind her.
"Who threw these shurikens?"
"I was just about to make it through the rift!"
"Ah! My arm's bleeding, senior help me!"
"I saw it! It was the blue-ranked freshman!"
"She's running ahead! Catch her!"
Xi Lian, who was a few feet ahead of the large army of students, suddenly heard a louder rumbling. When she looked back, she cursed inwardly, 'It was just a few shurikens, why are they all running faster now?'
Speeding up even faster, she caught up with the few students that originally kept running at a fast pace. They were probably students whose skills sets were in the athlete or training section. She threw another batch of shurikens at the few's legs, making some of them trip and swear at her in anger. Not surprisingly though, one of the girls jumped over the two shurikens heading her away, and a boy used a knife to deflect another one, continuing to run as if nothing happened.
Xi Lian grinned when she saw this. She took the lead ahead of everyone else and sent another hair clip behind her, this time grabbing it from her other wrist, and the clip released a smoke bomb. Signs of coughing could be heard, and the sounds of footsteps start declining behind her.
Soon, she ran past the two mile mark and saw a large tent that looked similar to the ones the Mongolians used in the olden days. Men in black were patrolling around, but she was able to enter the tent freely without any restraint. Hundreds of tags were laid down on the tables, and from the rules, she could only choose one. That was the tricky part, how would she be able to choose a tag with a high amount of points when they were all flipped over, and the backs of the tags were all the same? The others would be here any second, and she had to choose one fast.
1 second.
2 seconds.
3 seconds.
No matter how she thought about it, there were no hints or anything she saw that seemed to point out how she should pick a tag. If luck was all it took, then so be it. She hovered her hand over a few cards, moving her hand in different directions and across different tables quickly. When she suddenly heard sounds of quick footsteps, different from the rhythm of the men in black's, she dropped her hand and took the tag under. Shadows hit the entrance of the room, and when she looked up she saw the group of students she hit with a smoke bomb.
They looked at her aggressively, and one of the stockier boys zoomed in towards her, "I'll deal with you later," before turning around and commanding four others, "Check if there's any pattern in choosing a tag."
Xi Lian gently smiled in return and retreated to a corner of the room.
'What jerks, I'll deal with them later,' she thought.
She looked down at the tag in her hand and turned it around.
There was a giant, red number in the middle. Her breath hitched.
80 Points.
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