2/5
...
Two minutes later, Leto landed in a deserted alley of Academy City, and Bloed, Liu Ying, and Aya jumped off it.
"Leto's flight mode is as useful as always. A shame we can't use it for longer." Liu Ying said with a bit of pity in her eyes.
Bloed smiled wryly. Technically, they could use it for around half an hour, but after that, Leto would be out of energy, and Bloed wanted to avoid it.
After all, Leto's flight mode was a trump card that could help them in an unexpected situation.
"Where are we?" Aya asked.
"We are in the east zone of the city, around twenty kilometers away from the plaza," Bloed replied. "We are safe here, at least for a while. I don't think the students can find us easily."
Aya and Liu Ying nodded. Certainly, it was unlikely that the other students could find them.
Most likely, nobody would find them until the end of the game.
After all, although the battlefield for the game was the entire city, most students would probably remain close to the plaza.
"Then, we did not need to do anything else?" Liu Ying tilted her head speechless. It was much easier than she thought.
Bloed nodded. Actually, it was one of the reasons he agreed so easily to Eve's proposal.
Even if they participated in the game, it did not mean they needed to fight. They just needed to hide from the other students until one of the teams was defeated.
Didn't the headmistress say she would reward them if they survived until the end? Well, he was going to get that reward while doing nothing.
He was not planning to play at the rhythm of that woman.
"Let's see if she dares to mess with us again after this." Bloed put on an evil smirk.
"… So sly." Aya stared at Bloed with an expression of admiration. For some reason, her cheeks turned red.
Liu Ying was completely speechless. She could only sigh that girls in love found everything about their beloveds great.
'... She is already hopeless.'
… Well, she also found the current Bloed very charming, so she was not much better.
"However, this is a good opportunity." Bloed suddenly muttered to himself. "Yes. With so many people fighting in the city at the same time, I can collect a lot of data."
"Bloed?"
"Girls, follow me. Let's find a place to observe the game!"
By Bloed's suggestion, the group went to a nearby park and sat down on the grass as though they were in a picnic. Bloed then took out Oculus from his storage device and ordered it to turn into tens of dragonflies.
"Go. Help me to recollect data."
Immediately, the metallic dragonflies flew towards different parts of the city. Following Bloed's order, the dragonflies found the students battling through the city and started to record their battles.
They focused on the stronger students. The dragonflies recorded their movements, their flow of mana, and how their bodies and mana cooperated with each other to achieve different effects.
All of that had the purpose to perfect one of Bloed's abilities.
Battle-Prediction.
When Bloed reached B-Grade, he added two things to his arsenal. One of them was Oculus, and the other was a new ability for his eyes.
He installed a program in his eyes that used his calculation zone plus the data he had collected through his battles to help him to predict the actions of his enemies during battle.
However, this ability was not perfect yet.
Although Bloed's eyes could predict the movements of the body pretty accurately, he had trouble predicting the flow and effects of mana.
Due to that, Bloed's prediction ability had been unable to show its true strength until now.
However, this was a good opportunity to change that.
With so many students fighting at the same time, Bloed could collect a great amount of data about their flow of mana and the effects it had on their movements.
Of course, Bloed did not expect to perfect his predictive abilities in one go. But at the very least, he could make them much stronger.
Moreover, Bloed could not help but consider something.
If he managed to collect the data about how each student in Academy City used mana, would it be enough to perfect his predictive abilities?
Just the idea made Bloed's excited.
When Liu Ying and Aya heard Bloed's explanation, they were speechless. Even in the current situation, he was still in the mood for research.
However, they were already used to this side of Bloed.
Plus, research was not Bloed's only goal when he released the dragonflies.
One of the dragonflies remained in the park. It then projected a giant screen on the air, showing the different battles going through the city.
In other words, Bloed and the girls were watching a live stream of the game.
"… Somehow, I feel a bit bad for some reason." Liu Ying said with an awkward smile.
Thinking about it, while the other students were busy beating each other, they were seated on the grass, relaxing calmly as they watched their battles.
Liu Ying did not think about that for long, though.
Instead, she sat down beside Bloed, hugged his arm, and started to watch the battles with him.
Aya looked at Liu Ying with an expression of envy. She then seemed to make up her mind and sat down beside Bloed timidly.
However, she did not dare to hug Bloed's arm as Liu Ying. Instead, she just pinched his shirt shyly.
That was enough to make her blush deeply.
Bloed and Liu Ying did not know whether to laugh or to cry.
Just like that, a strange scene appeared in Academy City.
In the middle of a game that involved almost the entire city, a group of three was seated on the grass enjoying the battles relaxedly.
Bloed would have been happy if the game came at an end like that, without them needing to fight.
However, it seemed that there was someone that was not happy with that.
Because half an hour later, an exasperated voice reverberated through the city.
"Hello, students. I have an announcement to do. Due to the inability of the students to locate the holders of the golden invitations, I decided to help them a little bit.
"From now onwards, a golden light will appear on the location of the golden invitation's holders every five minutes. If you want to defeat them and get the reward, just follow the light! Good luck!"
Immediately after the voice disappeared, a ray of golden light appeared over Bloed and the others' heads, showing their location to the entire city.
Bloed cheek twitched irritatedly.
"… That bothersome woman…"