Volume 1 - CH 30

Five minutes later, the consciousness of all ATWL candidates was transported out of the examination area. Those who had been killed in the test all began to wake up, quickly removed their simulation glasses, and walked out of the small telephone booth-like room following the large group that had gathered in the open area where they had previously waited in. They waited for the examiners to announce their results, star ratings and finish with concluding remarks.

For a while, pheromones of different scents filled the air. All colors of team uniforms crowded the playground. Some teams regretted their decisions and cursed, while others cried on each other’s shoulders.

Lu Yan squatted in the corner with his ears drooping. His face buried in his palms and sobbed at Bi Lanxing angrily, “It’s just an exam. I’ll die if I die. Why do you have to show the real grade? My father will scold me to death! They won’t say it, but they’d think it’s my fault that your grade is exposed here.. Both of our fathers will think that I’m just a silly rabbit. He’ll definitely regret having only me. Wuwuwuwu…”

“Don’t cry. It’s alright.” Bi Lanxing squatted down on one knee and held up Lu Yan’s face and helped him wipe his tears, “I’m not protecting you. This is for the honor of the team. Our whole team survived, we could gain another star.”

“Oh.” Lu Yan felt a little better after hearing it. He sniffed and blew his nose into the tissue Bi Lanxing handed over to him. His nose flushed, and a few drops of big tears hung on his eyelashes.

When Bai Chunian woke up, he was lying in the corner of the small room. His mind was blank for a moment, then he held his chest. The feeling of being pierced in the heart just now felt so real. His heartbeat really stopped. And after the short period of intense pain, the gap left was filled with a sense of emptiness and loss.

He removed the contact lenses, rubbed his dry eyes, and suddenly remembered something. He pursed his lips tightly and pushed open the door, hurriedly searching through the few small rooms in front of him. He finally found a still unconscious Rimbaud in the small room diagonally in front of him.

Releasing soothing pheromones, Bai Chunian bowed down to pick Rimbaud up, and as he did so, he saw a few small, shiny parts scattered in the corner—a black pearl with blue polarization and a few scales with blue fluorescence.

When he came to realize it, Bai Chunian then rummaged through the chest pocket of his team uniform. The pearls and scales he’d carefully folded into a paper bag during the exam were just simulated images. All these little things actually landed on the floor of Rimbaud’s room.

He tucked the pearls and scales properly into his pocket, carried Rimbaud, and found a staff member, to ask where the washroom was. He went in with the merman in his arms and locked the door, picked up a clean rag, and wiped the washbasin twice. After that, he put Rimbaud in and opened a row of faucets, letting the cold water wash over him.

Rimbaud had been out of the water for nearly 48 hours. The moisturizing bandages on his body were almost dry. His pale skin had become rough and dry. Meanwhile, his fluffy and soft blond hair hung on his cheeks, creating an image of a weak and well-behaved omega.

The cold water moistened the merman’s body, rejuvenating his dull-colored fishtail. The cold blue scales swayed slightly with the water flow.

Rimbaud half-opened his eyes drowsily, raised his hand in a daze, touched the stream of water on his body, slowly got up, and took a gulp of water from the faucet.

Bai Chunian leaned over the washbasin. Cheeks resting on his hand, he gently stroked Rimbaud’s hair, “You’ve worked hard… I’ll take you to the Alliance Medical Department first.”

Rimbaud drank his fill of water, blinked at Bai Chunian, pointed at the tap, and asked, “Gu?”

“…” Bai Chunian slipped on his feet and climbed up to hold Rimbaud’s face and observe, “Regressed?”

In retrospect, in the exam, Rimbaud was forcibly catalyzed to maturity because of the Accelerant drug. That was only a holographic system simulation. In the real world, Rimbaud’s growth phase remained unchanged.

Rimbaud waited for a long time without receiving Bai Chunian’s answer, so he simply saw it as approval, bit off the faucet, and chewed.

The water from the pipe sprayed wildly, giving Bai Chunian an unexpected bath. Rimbaud raised the tip of his tail. Charging until he was full of electricity, an electric spark burst out at the mouth of the water pipe, and the nozzle was welded shut in one fell swoop.

Rimbaud glanced back at Bai Chunian, raised the tip of his tail, and gently wiped the water on his face. He spat the remnants of the faucet from his mouth into Bai Chunian’s palm and piled it up with the tip of his tail into the shape of a heart.

Bai Chunian was in a complicated mood, holding Rimbaud’s heart in one hand and in his other hand was the black suitcase with Rimbaud sitting on it. They went to the open space to meet the other members of his team. Lu Yan blew his nose and blew away the metal scrap heart in Bai Chunian’s hand.

They waited in the open space for a long time. The examiners didn’t seem to have the intention to speak. Some of the candidates became restless and noisy.

The noisiest team was the Shrill Winds Rise Team.

The Shrill Winds Rise team was a family team from the bounty hunters “Greyhound Family.” Every year, they selected four juniors of their age to take the ATWL exam. Those who could achieve good results would have their reputation and status raised in the family and thus, be regarded as important.

However, the only difference from previous years was that, this time, a greyhound omega was mixed in with the team.

The Shrill Winds Rise team made such a fuss that the surrounding teams unconsciously gave up an open space for these young masters to make a big show of themselves. Everyone was happy to see the big family’s jokes.

The only omega in the team curled up on the ground holding his head, cutting a sorry figure. The three greyhound alphas beat, kicked, and insulted him.

Xiao Xun bent his body to protect his vitals. His expression was indifferent, as if he had long been used to such unreasonable bullying and insults. He endured everything without saying a word.

The team’s alpha captain fiercely kicked Xiao Xun’s waist. He crouched down, grabbed his hair, and forced Xiao Xun to look up, “You’re very out of the limelight, fourth in points, full mission, eleven heads, you’ll get at least a seven-star this time.”

His head was forced to raise, Xiao Xun pursed his thin lips in defense, “I was too far away, I really couldn’t save you.”

“How dare you say that? Do we alphas need your help?! How do you rack your gun? Can you take all of us on?” 

The commotion attracted Bai Chunian’s eyes. Bi Lanxing saw his confusion and quietly explained, “Hired hunters worship power, so the alphas in the family are always superior. Moreover, the Greyhound family strives for pure bloodline. The alphas in the family can only marry a greyhound omega from another family branch. So the omegas in this family are treated as outsiders.”

“Oh,” Bai Chunian touched his chin and squatted down to observe Xiao Xun getting beaten. Their eyes met for a moment. Bai Chu Nian gave an “I’ll help you if you beg” look, but Xiao Xun turned his head away.

The greyhound alphas poured all their anger from being eliminated early on Xiao Xun. The alpha captain sneered, raised his foot, and stepped on Xiao Xun’s slender right index finger, “Don’t play sniper in the future if you’re not even good with guns.”

Xiao Xun’s rebellious eyes finally cracked. His trembling voice an evidence to how panicked and fearful he was, “Da ge, don’t…”

Bai Chunian took away Lu Yan’s tactical dagger from his belt and flicked it lightly. The blade slammed to the side of the greyhound alpha’s shoe, caught a hold of his foot that was about to crush Xiao Xun’s finger, “What’s the matter? It’s okay for brothers to fight, but it’s no fun once it gets real. I’m the one who killed your team, why don’t you come after us.”

The greyhound alpha snorted, rolled up his sleeves, and walked towards Bai Chunian, “I don’t dare? Boy, do you know who my father is?” The remaining two greyhound alphas also left Xiao Xun, who was still lying on the ground, and rolled up their sleeves as they surrounded Bai Chunian.

Rimbaud narrowed his eyes and observed their actions. He tilted up the tip of his tail and began to gather electricity.

Seeing that the commotion was about to turn into a, Bi Lanxing stepped forward to grab the greyhound alpha who was about to make a move. He pointed at Lu Yan intentionally or unintentionally, and whispered, “Brother, give some face, his father’s surname is Lu.”

“Laozi doesn’t care who he is!” The greyhound alpha was unclear at first. The moment he realized after a few seconds, he suddenly choked. His brash expression unconsciously tensed up quite a bit and he looked up and down in disbelief at Lu Yan who was crouching in the corner with his rabbit ears drooping.

“Fine, right now you’ve got a backer, but just wait!” The greyhound alpha glared at Bai Chunian and turned to walk away with the remaining two team members, kicking Xiao Xun out of reluctance as he passed him by, “I’ll see who else would want to outside of our team”

Bai Chunian walked over, pulled out the dagger on the ground, crouched in front of the greyhound omega, scratched out a series of numbers with the tip of the knife, and raised his lips revealing half of his tiger’s tooth, “Us the top three team value talents the most. If you’re interested, call this number.”

Xiao Xun struggled to sit up on his knees. His body was covered in bruises. His eyelashes drooped as he said coldly, “You can beat me now if you want.”

“No, I appreciate your tactics, it’s disgusting enough.” Bai Chunian doodled on the ground with the tip of his knife and asked casually, “Can I ask you a question?”

“…” 

Bai Chunian, “You’re such a good sniper, why do you carry a rifle?”

Greyhound, “Snipers can’t fight in close quarters, and no one will save me if the enemy gets close.”

Bai Chunian burst out laughing, “To be honest, you’re indeed terrible at melee combat. You couldn’t fight back at all when I got close behind you.”

“Just carry the big sniper from now on,” Bai Chunian said as he scraped two lines under the number carved into the ground. A few seconds later, he scraped off all the traces again, stood up and shook off the dirt, then dragged Rimbaud’s suitcase with him.

A few staff members scurried past the entrance to the examination hall, each with an ashen expression, and one even nearly bumped into the suitcase Bai Chunian was dragging.

Bai Chunian lowered his head and asked, “What happened?”

“Exam tampering…” The staff member was incoherent. He shook his head in panic, tried his best to calm down, and while pretended to stay composed, “It’s fine. Candidates should not wander around. Go back to the empty field and wait for the results.”

The results of this exam were more delayed than all previous exams. There were many noises in the broadcast, and it dragged on for half an hour. Only after the candidates on the field began to get impatient did they finally announce the results on the huge sky projection.

The first place team was unfortunately taken by Casually Playing Team. Bai Chunian beat his chest in shame.

According to the rules, when a four-person team passed the test without anyone dying, it would be regarded as a full pass, and all the team members would be added one star. In the final additional exam, they killed Experimental Subject No. 1513 and gained three stars. Therefore, Lu Yan had 12 stars, Bi Lanxing had 9, Bai Chunian 10, and Rimbaud 11 stars. The Casually Playing Team gained 42 stars in total and set the highest total team score in the ATWL history. All the other candidates had their jaws dropped.

The ATWL star rating would be engraved on the certificate, adding a touch of glory to the profile. The weight of this achievement was very important to most organizations.

The Ghost Hunting Team was second. He Suowei just shrugged after hearing the announcement and planned to go back to train his team. The He family brothers were still immersed in their tragic death and couldn’t extricate themselves, hugging and crying on each other’s shoulders. Husky didn’t care much about the results and rushed to add WeChat with the little omegas from Any Alphas Here. Of course, he also tried to ask Rimbaud, but he obviously didn’t understand and sprayed him with water.

Unexpectedly, Any Alphas Here got into the top three. The three little omegas cheered and hugged each other as they took selfies with their report card on the sky projection. Captain Du Mo looked at Bai Chunian, clicked his lighter and lit a thin cigarette between his lips, quietly walked behind the flower bed and exhaled the smoke, pushed the police number that revealed his pocket inward.

The Shrill Winds Rise Team survived to fourth place depended on only one player, but several alphas in the team had long since left the scene in frustration. Xiao Xun stood in the shadows alone with his backpack. After hearing the results, he stood alone for a while, and then quickly left.

They only announced the results of the top 30. The teams ranked in the top 30 were considered to have passed the exam. Some people were happy and others were worried. The teams who failed were comforting each other.

The candidates gathered at the entrance of the examination hall and were about to disperse, but, suddenly, someone shouted, “The examination is over, why don’t you open the door?”

Bai Chunian raised his head, took advantage of his height to look around the crowd, and frowned slightly. Rimbaud curled up on the suitcase, and quietly reached out and touched the back of Bai Chunian’s hand.

Over the city, the roar of propellers disturbed the quiet morning. Several black helicopters came from the north.

The helicopter painted with striking red 109 Research Institute red triangle logo had four light machine guns protruding from it, all aimed at the towed Rimbaud behind Bai Chunian.

The helicopter carried heavily-armed arrest officers. Although they were ordered to try to capture the target alive, no one dared to take the risk of capturing the extremely dangerous experimental subject, so they contacted the Headquarters as fast as they could, “We found the lost Experimental Subject Electro-optic Manta Ray. No aggression was detected. Requesting instructions from superiors for next action.”

The Headquarters of the 109 Institute said, “Immediate recovery.”

Rimbaud arched his back, his fishtail gradually turned red, and several spikes pricked up from the scarlet dorsal fin. He stared fiercely at the helicopter in the sky.

The officer’s face changed and he contacted the Headquarters again, “We detected strong hostility from Electro-optic Manta Ray, requesting for immediate reinforcements!”

Candidates who had nothing to do with the fierce aggressive recovery task were frightened and started to scatter, leaving only four people in the center of the clearing.

Bi Lanxing and Lu Yan didn’t back away either. Lu Yan was extremely confused about the current situation. Bi Lanxing seemed to be mentally prepared, or at least not so panicked on the surface.

Bai Chunian put one hand in his trouser pocket and dragged the suitcase with the other, looked up at the arrest officers on the helicopter, and laughed to himself, “You don’t seriously expect that two bomb squads could get us back, right?”

The fragrant brandy pheromone emanated from Bai Chunian’s glands. The first people to be oppressed by this force were the closest Lu Yan and Bi Lanxing. Bi Lanxing gritted his teeth and pressed his swollen and painful glands. Bai Chunian’s oppressive force this time was far more than the J1 level.

Nevertheless, the differentiation ability about to be unleashed was interrupted by a calm car horn.

A Phantom[1] was parked outside the venue.

The logo of the car was an exclusive customized flying eagle. Anyone with a discerning eye could recognize who was driving it at glance.

Plenty of the candidates could recognize the car and wanted to pull out their phones to take a video but they were too afraid to do so.

The arrest officer on the helicopter noticed the Phantom. His face stiffened, and he whispered to the Headquarters that the situation had changed.

“Oh!” Lu Yan pricked up his ears and tiptoed to the Phantom’s car window, “My dad seems to have bought me some cupcakes today.”