As the rifle's crack signaled the beginning of the test, over a thousand students took off to follow Jack Blades as he began his run. Almost immediately, a surprised murmur rose among the students—and it was loudest among those who had been complaining the most harshly almost a moment ago.
This air of surprise had a simple cause: The students were finding that it was much easier than they'd expected to run, even while carrying heavy gear. After all, they were now modified humans capable of shaping their evolution thanks to the Pip-Boy and Aurora systems. Even without training, they'd already surpassed human limits.
Of course, people will always find an excuse to complain. After those who had been complaining about difficulty realized there was actually little difficulty to be had, they quickly switched to grumbling about the lack of challenge. "What's the point of this?" some grumbled. "I could be going out and leveling up by grinding Zombies instead of this…"
But Jack Blades hadn't asked the students their opinions, nor was he bluffing when he'd warned the students earlier to keep up their paces. Hundreds of small drones hung in the sky overhead, watching unblinkingly to deduct points from anyone who fell behind or quit.
***
After a quarter of an hour, the students' superhuman stamina was beginning to wane. Their bodies weren't yet fully adapted to their new capabilities, and that went double for students carrying Hunter equipment. After all, many weapons weighed over ten kilos, and some weighed ten times that. Even Alexandre had been cautious about running with a load his body wasn't accustomed to, and none of the others had the same experience and caution that he did.
Moreover, many of the students had either been afraid to fall behind or wished to be at the head of the group, and these people were pushing themselves even harder than the others to maintain a faster pace than the rest of the group. Unsurprisingly, this group was burning out even faster than the rest.
Alexandre, for his part, found himself in an interesting position. During the Hunter Exam, he'd discreetly hidden his true potential. The time for that was gone. On the contrary, the most powerful students would be rewarded the best at the academy. And now that he was surrounded by other Hunters, Alexandre wouldn't attract too much attention as an anomaly if he used all of his capabilities—he'd instead, ideally, seem like a prodigy or at least an intelligent and hard worker.
So Alexandre separated from his two new roommates and made his way up through the various staggered layers of the running group. He'd started out well ahead of the stragglers, but now made his way to the front of the main group with ease. He leaned forward and sped past these regular students, heading for Jack Blades far ahead. The teacher was so fast that the gap between him and the students grew with every passing second. At this point, he was over 500 meters from the first student, though still visible to a Hunter's sharp eyesight.
But he wouldn't remain so far ahead of everyone forever. Alexandre continued to accelerate. The students at the very front kept looking back over their shoulders to see if they were keeping their leads, and they seemed startled by Alexandre's progress. Several of them tried to trip or shove Alexandre out of the way, but he evaded these attempts with barely any effort. He passed them with ease.
Not only was Alexandre much more experienced in his Hunter body, but his unique traits and abilities also made him quite well-suited to the run. His [Immortal] skill made him immune to pain, so he could push his muscles to an extent that would make even other Hunters cry out in pain. His feet impacted the ground with tremendous power, creating numerous micro-tears in muscle and micro-fractures in his bones. These were so minor that they almost immediately healed, making Alexandre an absolute monster in the race.
"You bastard!" some of the students muttered, filled with envy. They knew the academy rewarded the best and punished the worst. With someone like Alexandre in competition, it would be harder for them to make good lives for themselves in this new school.
Alexandre ignored all of them. He didn't care about any of his fellow students, but only the teacher. Before long, his own lead grew larger and larger, and finally he reached Jack Blades himself.
Interestingly, the teacher didn't react at all to Alexandre's presence. The two of them ran in silence, as though they were merely two joggers who had met by chance on the road in the early morning.
***
After twenty minutes, even the sturdiest of the students were starting to feel seriously tired. Those carrying the heaviest equipment started collapsing to the ground, unable to get back up. Drones up above dipped down to get a better look at them, a warning of the loss of points that was to come.
Alexandre's muscles were growing hotter and hotter. Though he could heal through much of the damage he was causing his body, there were certain biological realities which couldn't be denied—he doubted his healing factor could get rid of lactic acid buildup, for instance. Not to mention all the heat accumulating in his muscles!
Despite wondering if his body was close to needing a rest, Alexandre didn't let up on the pressure. For him, falling back to the rest of the students was out of the question. If he couldn't keep up with Jack Blades, he felt that he might as well just give up his ambitions here and now.
Yet it was also maddening that Jack Blades didn't seem to care about what his running partner was doing. Alexandre wanted to test his new teacher, so he pushed his body to an even greater extent and accelerated further, intending to overtake Jack Blades to see his reaction.
But just as he was about to overtake the teacher, Alexandre lost his balance and stumbled violently to the ground.