Each participant had only ten seconds to enter the barrier, do a disgusting thing towards Alisa, and come back out.
Obviously, with such restrictions, one had to be creative and think of a plan of action beforehand. However, this meant that the first participant didn't have the same advantage as the others, but had the opportunity to surprise with anything.
The main thing was to do something to make the Nightmare Eater happy.
The chubby girl was anxious and unsure of herself, especially considering she had to do something bad to an innocent person.
Alisa stood in front of her, anxiously pressing her hand to her chest. She was prepared that she would have to go through something serious, but she would definitely stay alive, and that was the most important thing.
"What should I do..." The chubby girl mumbled uncertainly, while her time was irrevocably slipping away.
Magnus frowned, "Hey! Do something! Anything that comes to your mind! Otherwise, you'll die!"
[Time remaining: 00:04!]
The chubby girl flinched, closed her eyes since she didn't want to see this, and did what she thought was the most disgusting thing she had ever done.
Her palm came down on Alisa's cheek, with a resounding slap that everyone heard. Alisa's eyes went wide with shock as she held onto her flushed cheek and fell to her knees, her eyes reddening, about to burst out in tears because of the resulting resentment.
"Khe... Khe... Khe..." The Nightmare Eater smirked, "Not bad, at least for the first time. Agh... Though she was ready, her offense and pain were real... What a pleasure..."
The Nightmare Eater took a deep breath, then out of his mouth came several clots of purple mist that were left floating around.
At the same moment, his third eye began to rotate until it stopped with the number '77' instead of a pupil.
'77... Considering that he praised her, that means at most you can get a hundred points, right?' Ethan pondered with a deep gaze, looking at the mist.
Whoosh.
Time ran out, and a red flash crashed into the plump girl, throwing her outside the barrier. From the surprise she fell to the ground, struggling to get up.
"Here." Magnus uttered holding out his hand to her. A flash of red flew past him, searching for its next target.
"Thanks... but I don't deserve this." The chubby girl muttered, looking away.
"There's no need to be ashamed of what you did. You didn't have a choice. However, you've definitely passed that test now." Magnus said calmly.
"Agh... Do you think 77 points will be enough...?" The chubby girl asked uncertainly.
Magnus nodded with serious expression, "Sure. No doubt about it."
Slap.
The second contestant was a short young man who didn't have time to come up with something original, so he just repeated after the chubby girl and slapped Alisa.
"Not original anymore, but still not bad. Khe... Khe... Khe..." The Nightmare Eater uttered, then his third eye began to rotate stopping at '55'.
Only twenty seconds had passed, and people were scared, so the first participants decided to use a proven method. Thus, Alisa received six slaps in the first minute, already struggling to hold back tears.
The Nightmare Eater gave a comment each time, with a sly smile, but here the score was decreasing.
"21! What...! Why so few!" The girl in the short skirt exclaimed irritably.
No one gave her an answer and a red flash knocked her outside the barrier.
The students began to whisper, they urgently needed to come up with a new plan, to do something more humiliating and disgusting than a simple public slap.
However, someone wasn't worried at all, it was Ethan. He had a sly smirk on his face and a predatory look on his face.
Making the choice to go last Ethan was taking a serious risk, at least that's what the others thought, but for him, it was already clear.
'Hehehehe, what should we call it, maybe fear inflation?' Ethan chuckled inwardly, then he glanced at the dark mist hanging in the air, 'Surely everyone is starting to guess that this creepy head is getting bored, but they don't realize what's really going on is different.'
Next, the students moved on to another tactic, physical harm could no longer have the desired effect, so they switched to something deeper - emotional humiliation.
"Bitch, you finally got what you deserved!" A girl with a frown and short pink hair growled at Alisa.
"What...? I didn't do anything..." Alisa muttered in a disbelief.
She was a modest, shy, and kind girl who concentrated on her studies. That was why she was able to make it to A-Class, all to make her parents proud of her, so she didn't understand why she was being scolded.
"Hah, keep thinking like that! In fact, you're a helpless piece of shit who was lucky enough to be born into a rich family!"
Ethan smirked, 'Well, well, we live in Light City, everyone here is from wealthy families, what hypocrisy. However, Alisa is hardly in a state to realize that, she's too innocent.'
"Just a lowlife! I hope you die in the next Trial!" The girl exclaimed, looking at Alisa arrogantly and with pure hatred.
In fact, Nitra, that was the name of the girl with pink hair, had a reason to act like that. Alisa had beaten her in the last test, literally by one point, so if Alisa hadn't been there, Nitra would have been able to get into the A-Class. She just vented all her emotions in the harshest possible way.
Alisa was speechless, tears spilled out of her eyes and all she could do was sob resentfully, trying to take the offense away.
"Kha! Kha! Kha! Very good! You acted naturally and it had an effect! Perfect!" The Nightmare Eater exclaimed happily, relentlessly releasing dark smoke, then he issued a score.
"99 points..." Nitra muttered, then she smiled happily, "Yes! I did it!"
Nitra quickly ran outside the barrier and looked at Ethan with a wide grin, as if to say, 'I'll be first this time!'
Ethan just responded with a nonchalant look, not hiding his disdain.
"Agh... This is going to be a long time coming." Ethan muttered, glancing at the next student entering the barrier.
Trial continued at its own pace, after Nitra many people repeated it after her insulting Alisa, but she quickly got used to it and the Soul Eater became bored.
Then, the students started to come up with new ways, someone even hurt Alisa seriously, however, after seven hundred participants something strange started to happen.
"Twelve points!" The Nightmare Eater exclaimed irritably.
"What... but how... My idea was definitely original..." The young man fell to his knees in disbelief staring at his score. In his hand was a black marker, which he used to draw insulting inscriptions on Alisa's body.
Whoooosh.
A red flash knocked him outside the barrier.
This trend continued, no matter what the students did, no one else could get more than 10 points. The situation was especially bad for students who were selected already after 950 participants.
Their scores ranged from 1 to 10, so it became obvious to everyone that actual success in this Trial depended on luck.
"Damn! If only I could choose which one to go in turn, this wouldn't have happened!" The skinny guy stomped his foot irritably, while nervously nibbling his finger, then he stopped and looked away.
"Wait... He had that opportunity and he did it..." The skinny guy turned around, staring at Ethan in the distance. Several others did the same.
They were all jealous of him, but now... all they could do was mock his mistake.
"Ahahahahahaha! I bet he'll get 0 points!" The skinny guy exclaimed.
Then, after practically three hours, the trial was nearing its end. The penultimate participant was now in the barrier, but all eyes were on Ethan.
The sun which had been shining brightly all day, was gradually heading towards the horizon, partially hiding behind the straight peaks of the academy.
The soft rays from the approaching sunset fell on Ethan, creating a pillar of light exclusively for him as if he were the main character at the end of the show.
'Ah... This is going to be a worthy performance...' Ethan ran a hand over his face, hiding his smirk and replacing it with a serious look.
He put the axe aside and stepped forward confidently, toward the red flash of light that was heading to the last contestant of the Third Trial.