In the middle of a room, Seth was suddenly woken up by the sound of his ID card vibrating as it displayed a notification.
[Congratulations Participant!
You have reached the 10k points mark
You will be extracted shortly
Please standby…]
'The extraction,' he thought weakly. A little pool of blood could be seen around him.
For the past few days, Seth had been running around the city searching for thirios. He had hunted a lot of class C and D thirios and even three more class B ones.
He didn't have any problems when taking down class C and D thirios except for maybe a couple of scratches, however, he had to put his life on the line every time he fought against the class B ones. As a result, several parts of his body were bandaged and dry blood could be seen all over him.
However, one injury stood up from the rest. On his right leg, he had a bandage with fresh blood on it, a sign that the wound under it was still bleeding. That injury was also the reason why Seth was currently limping.
The day before the extraction, just after Seth had killed the last thirio to reach the point mark and was searching for a location to stay the night until the extraction time, he encountered an immense creature. It looked quite like an alien, had white skin, its head looked like a viperfish's, and even when walking on all fours it was still 2 meters tall. Its legs were also very long and thin, it also had a long thin tail that ended in a sharp spike, and two tentacles coming out of its back that unfurled like the petals of a flower at its tips, revealing tens of tiny sharp teeth.
HISS!
Both mouths hissed at Seth as the thirio felt its presence, and for a moment, Seth froze in place as he shivered. The thirio took advantage of that moment and quickly pierced Seth's leg with its tail. The injury was deep, almost enough to come out from the other side of Seth's leg, yet, the pain brought Seth back to his senses. He quickly grabbed his katana and took a defensive stance, however, the thirio's attacks were faster than he could have imagined and each attack ended up injuring him all over his body. At that moment he realized he was in front of a class A thirio and that he had no chance of defeating it. His only option was to escape.
After what seemed like an eternity of running, Seth was finally able to lose the thirio and hid in the room where he had just woken up. Still, the encounter with the class A thirio had severely injured him.
After seeing the message from the ID Card Seth fell asleep again.
******
Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…
Seth woke up confused in the middle of what looked like a hospital room. Some other participants could also be seen in the same room as him, though, they were connected to life support devices, unlike Seth.
"Oh good you are awake," said a nurse who noticed Seth was awake.
"How much time was I asleep?" Seth asked.
"Almost two days and a half."
"What about the second phase?"
"The first phase ends tomorrow morning, after that the participants are given a day off before the next phase starts. I thought you had been told that before the start of the first phase."
'Good, I didn't miss it,' Seth thought with relief as he tried to get up from the bed.
"Hey wait, you can't leave yet," said the nurse as he pushed him to lie down again.
"Huh? Why?"
"You still haven't completely recovered from your injuries. Don't worry, if the second phase starts before you've completely healed you'll still be allowed to leave… as long you are qualified."
"What do you mean? I qualified."
"Anyway, that doesn't matter, for now, you have to stay here," the nurse said as she covered Seth with the blanket before leaving.
'What does she mean if I qualify? I got to the 10k points mark. What's happening?'
******
"Delta, what's the meaning of this?" said Miss Leywin in an irritated tone as he entered an office. However, as she entered he saw that another man was present in the room and had been talking with Delta. Without even having to channel his ability, the man still exuded a feeling of danger many times more powerful than Miss Leywin. She immediately recognized who this was.
"Executioner Ryker, I didn't know you would be visiting," said Miss Leywin while bowing her head. The man had black hair and was wearing a black and white tactical uniform different from Miss Leywin's and Delta's, as well as a black and white mask that covered most of his face, leaving visible his eyes, which were of different colors, one light blue and the other golden. This was HSA's most powerful esper and the number one executioner of the Black Guard.
Ryker turned to look at Miss Leywin and she felt as if his eyes could see right through her. She felt a shiver run down her spine, though on the outside she didn't show any reaction at all.
"I am monitoring all the locations of the tournament as you should already know. Sunrise City just happened to be the next one on the list. However, when I got here your second in command informed me of an interesting situation," Ryker said in a cold tone. "There's a problem with a non-awakened esper whose qualifying circumstances seem to be controversial."
'What's he talking about?' Miss Leywin couldn't help but feel confused by the statement of Ryker, though she knew it had something to do with Delta.
"As I was telling Executioner Ryker, when the non-awakened participant was extracted he was bleeding to death. If he was left in the test area for some more hours he would most certainly end up dying of blood loss since he had no way to treat his serious injuries. Thus, even though he got to the point mark, since this was a survival test, I cannot directly qualify him."
'Delta you filthy snake,' Miss Leywin thought.
"What do you think of this, Leywin?" asked Ryker in a cold tone.