"By the way, the name is Apollo. From your character, I doubt you'll ever ask me, so I decided to make the first move," the black-haired boy said, stretching out his hands for a handshake.
"Nyx…" The latter responded without stopping, absorbed in thoughts, making Apollo retract his hands with an awkward smile on his face.
Currently, the students were being led to a massive field that was as huge as four football stadiums combined. Nyx squinted his eyes at the distance, taking note of the cluster of European-shaped castles on the other side of the field.
On the grass, a starting line was drawn, and all the students found themselves huddled in front of the line. Thanks to the massive width of the field, the examiners quickly scattered, distancing themselves from each other. This was an elimination race, after all.
'The closer they were to others, the easier for them to be eliminated,' Nyx noted, but he didn't distance himself like the rest.
Unlike these rookies, he was on the same level as humanity's finest Hero.
Although he could feel that this body wasn't as robust as his real one, he still had his past experiences. Due to fast events, he didn't have time to think about his strange circumstance.
He had accepted the fact that somehow, he had miraculously occupied this body, but what he couldn't get his head around was…
'Why can't I sense any ability? Don't tell me this body is a dud?' Nyx narrowed his eyes, 'From the looks of things, I'm probably 13, so I have passed my awakening… this is bad! What is the point of returning if I don't have any ability? How am I supposed to kill that bastard and rescue… Anna? She has suffered for a hundred years already. I don't want to make her suffer anymore!'
The red-haired boy clenched his fist, and his cold red eyes briefly showed untold emotions, which quickly disappeared without a trace, replaced by a resolved glint.
'Pathetic. Why am I feeling despair? I didn't have any ability in my past life, but I still gave those bastards a headache. I'll just do it all over again!' He thought with determination, but little did he know that the metal bracelet on his wrist was emitting a faint light.
"Naive fools, did you think distancing yourself would save you from me?" said the boy with a thin angular face and spiky yellow hair; he seemed to be older than his age with muscles similar to those hardcore bodybuilders who had spoiled their physique and became fleshy monsters.
"Don't scare them, Yolan," said another with an awful resemblance to the muscular boy. He was also muscular and robust with identical features. His name was Yiran.
With a glance, it was rather easy to discern that these two were twins.
"Who told you guys that we are scared? Who the hell are even you guys?" One boy said clearly annoyed by the brothers' cockiness. "It's not like you're Violet or Ikor for us to be scared of you."
"You!" Yolan pointed at that student. "How dare you speak to me like that?"
"Huff, what a relief, I thought he would have said something cliché like courting death." Apollo whispered to the red-haired boy, who was closely focused on the field; he didn't have time for this kid's charade, after all, he was old enough to be their father.
His goal here was to win this Entrance exam, win that coveted prize, stay under the disguise that he was a Hero, then amass power and followers.
In the past, what Nyx lacked was followers and he subconsciously believed that was the reason for his downfall. He was doing all the work by himself, but starting from here…
'I would corrupt these kids one after the other and turn them into my pawns!' a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. 'Despicable pawns, of course.'
What else gave him motivation to win this exam was the hidden prize usually awarded to the first place, something none of the kids here know.
"Guys, look, is that Ikor and Violet?" Someone from the crowd suddenly pointed out.
"It's truly them! They've finally arrived!" Another chimed in.
Nyx, intrigued because he had been repeatedly hearing these same names over and over, looked towards that direction:
The first person he saw was a tall athletic-looking chap with black hair tied into a ponytail, his features looked a bit feminine, and a kind amiable smile was plastered on his face. He had this look that suggested he would get along fine with everyone.
The second was a pink-haired girl whose beauty was just below Camila White. She had short pink hair and a pair of alluring violet eyes that held a playful and seductive gleam. In contrast to her eyes, she exuded a dangerous aura that wanted to make everyone distance themselves from her and not offend her.
"Sigh, she's hot right? I'll be contented if I can just be her servant so that I can watch those sexy legs up close." Apollo whispered with literally stars in his eyes.
Nyx narrowed his eyes at the pink-haired girl and turned to Apollo.
As if on cue, the black-haired started explaining. "Most people don't know them, but those two are…the children of the only Gold and Black Grade Heroes!"
"Gold and Black Grade Heroes??"
Nyx wasn't familiar with this term. In the past, there weren't any official ranking systems; Heroes and Villains were ranked publicly by their strengths, but from what this kid was saying, it seemed there was now an official ranking system.
"Yes, Violet is the granddaughter of Humanity's only Black Grade Hero, Torrin Blackstar, and Ikor is the Son of Gold Grade Dalton Daze." The boy spoke with enthusiasm in his voice; it was quite obvious from his tone that he admired and looked up to those people.
Dalton didn't ring a bell in Nyx's ear, but…
"Torrin's granddaughter, huh, interesting." He displayed a 'not too' friendly smile as he looked at Violet.
Violet, who was focused on the field, suddenly felt someone looking at her intently. Unlike the other times, where people stared at her with admiration and lust, these eyes were filled with unsophisticated killing intent.
She turned to the direction but found no one there, and the killing intent disappeared like the wind, as if it was never there.
'Strange.' She thought, shifting her gaze to the direction of the vice principal.
"Listen up!" Camila's stern voice rang through the crowd, and everyone was forced to redirect their gazes to her. "Step on the starting line; the exam is about to begin!"