The path from the dorm entrance ceremony to the dorms was crowded with students returning to their rooms. So, Jin decided to take the route through the small forest by the lake instead of the main road.
He wanted to escape the noise and chatter of people because he was already annoyed and very sleepy, so he thought taking a slightly longer but quieter path was the best option for him.
However, it seemed that no matter which path Jin took, he would find something more annoying. Now, he was surrounded by three members of the royal families.
The three were laughing mockingly at Jin, and one of them looked ready to hit him.
"I'll make sure you remember the name well," Mark laughed with the others.
"Ugh, how annoying," Jin looked at the three while yawning.
"Can't you leave and discuss this later? I'm really sleepy now."
"Hahahaha, in your dreams, you dirty commoner," Mark approached him.
"Should I just run?" Jin thought to himself as he watched the three approach him.
"No, fuck it, I can't run like a rat," Jin scratched his head tiredly.
At that moment, Mark quickly moved to punch Jin hard in the nose. "Take this, you scum!"
"Ouch, goddamn it," Jin started bleeding from his nose after that punch as Mark prepared to hit him again.
Jin blocked the punch with his elbow and then punched Mark hard in the nose with his other hand. "Take this, you bastard!"
"Ugh, you dirty commoner!" Mark kicked Jin in the hip, but Jin blocked it. The other two joined in, and they started exchanging punches.
Jin started to stagger, his vision became blurry, and he took another punch to his leg, causing him to fall to the ground and scream, "Ugh, you bastard!"
"Haha, kick that bug," they took turns kicking him as Jin lay on the ground, trying to defend himself.
Jin's face was covered in blood as Mark grabbed his hair. "See, you bug, this is what happens to someone who talks to me with arrogance, you piece of shit."
Suddenly, Jin lost consciousness and found himself in a dazzling space of Amon...
"Huh, what am I doing here?" He looked around.
"Am I hallucinating? Why am I here?"
Jin touched his head and didn't find a drop of blood on it. "Huh, am I already dead? Wait, am I going to be buried in Amon's tomb too?"
Jin kept looking at himself and then said, "Summon Amon's Guardian."
He tried to summon Amon's Guardian, but for the first time, there was no response. "That's strange."
He scratched his head feeling sleepy. "Should I just sleep here?"
After a few moments, Jin felt a strong headache and body pain and started screaming from the pain.
Then the tomb that was in front of him suddenly disappeared, and he regained consciousness in the real world. "Ugh, my head, what happened?"
Jin looked ahead to find the three royal family members lying on the ground, covered in blood!
He panicked, "What the hell happened here!"
He stood up to try to help Mark and the others quickly, but...
He heard a loud ringing in his ear like a bell:
"Ding! Congratulations, you killed a 'Human,' your stats have increased."
Jin broke out in a cold sweat from fear, "W-What?" At that moment, he heard the voice again.
"Ding! Congratulations, you killed a 'Human,' your stats have increased."
Then the voice came back again.
"Ding! Congratulations, you killed a 'Human,' your stats have increased."
Jin fell to his knees in shock, terrified, then swallowed hard and said, "Summon stats."
[Statistics]
─────────────────────────
*Title: ...
*Rank: Fateless
*Artifacts: 0/1
*Weapons: 0/1
*Summons: 0/1
*Kills: 3 / 500
─────────────────────────
Jin felt intense fear and wanted to flee quickly, but his legs were shaking so badly that he couldn't stand.
"Shit, fuck, fuck, I killed them! My God, what am I going to do?"
Suddenly, Jin felt severe pain in his head and collapsed onto his leg. "My head... what is this headache? Argh!!!"
Jin then heard a ringing in his ear:
"You have exhausted your mana completely. You will enter a recovery state."
"What? Why now—" Jin spat out a lot of blood from his mouth and coughed violently. His vision became extremely blurry, and then he lost consciousness.
Jin woke up the next day to find himself in his room!
"Wait, wait, what ! why am I here?" Jin looked around his room. "What, was it just a dream?"
Then Jin quickly said, "Summon statistics," and looked at the card to see:
Kill Count: 3 / 500
Jin shivered in shock. "It was real. shit, I am doomed! Wait, how am I even here? What the hell happened?"
Then he heard someone knocking on his door. "No... don't tell me it's the police. No, no..."
Jin felt suffocated. "Haha, am I going to die like this?"
"Student Jin, it's time for the second day's ceremony. Please get ready to leave," it was Howell's voice.
Jin was surprised at what Howell said. "Huh, that's it...?"
Jin pressed his head to try to push away his thoughts, then went to the closet to get his clothes. "Where are my clothes? Where the hell are my clothes?"
Jin looked around nervously but finally noticed... he was already wearing his clothes.
"Huh how stupid, I'm already wearing them."
Jin looked at his clothes to see bloodstains on them. "Oh fuck, I'll be exposed like this."
Jin went to the bathroom to quickly clean the blood from his clothes and wash his body with water, then left his room still feeling nervous.
Teacher Howell looked at him strangely. "Student Jin, why are your clothes torn and wet?"
"Ah, ah, I spilled some food on myself and got my clothes dirty, haha."
Howell was annoyed with him and said, "There are extra clothes in the drawer of the wardrobe; go and change quickly; we don't have much time."
Then Howell went to knock on the other rooms adjacent to Jin's.
Jin quickly changed his clothes and left still feeling tense. "It seems no one has discovered anything. That's relatively good."
He was biting his nails and looking around nervously. In truth, Jin wasn't sorry for killing those three because he hated the royal families anyway.
But he was afraid of destroying his dreamy future because of those scum in his eyes.
As Jin walked among the crowds of people heading the same way to the hall designated for the second day's ceremony, he listened to some of their conversations:
"Have you heard what's happening?"
"This is unbelievable. Why is there a chaotic creature in Lucaria!"
"Damn, the security here is terrible."
Many people were grumbling about these things and making similar comments.
"Hah, and there's a chaotic creature inside the academy too. Why does everything cursed happen here?" Jin cursed silently.
Jin was already nervous about being arrested, and now there was another danger: a chaotic creature roaming freely inside the academy, which no one knew anything about.
Everyone arrived at the next hall, an open hall in a large courtyard with a massive stone statue of the same person carved on the city gate in the center.
The walls around the edges were decorated with many beautiful carvings, giving the place an ancient and majestic aura, while the open arena somewhat resembled a coliseum.
At the top of the arena sat Saruman and many other teachers in their chairs, looking down at the students below.
Many individuals with awakened powers were stationed around the courtyard, watching.
The reason for this large number of guards was the widespread concerns about the presence of a chaotic creature inside the academy.
Everyone was grumbling about the recent events until they were interrupted by Saruman's firm and strong voice, "Silence!"
The crowd fell silent and looked at Saruman.
Saruman stared at everyone and said, "As you know, today is the second day of the entrance ceremony."
"You are supposed to pledge your honor as fighters of Lucaria to dedicate your lives to fighting chaos."
"The pledge is the most important and noble act you will perform during your time at the academy."
"But there is a matter of utmost importance that I must tell you about before starting the pledge ceremony."
Saruman's expression became more serious and angry. "Yesterday, we lost three honorable fighters of Lucaria."
"They were not killed anywhere; they died right before our eyes under the protection of the great Lucaria!"
Jin became worried when the matter was mentioned, especially when Saruman said three people. "Damn, damn, I'm surely dead."
Saruman continued, "Our honorable fighters Mark from Manchester, Kaled from Marvin, and Sato from Abrinum—may they all rest in peace!"
Everyone clapped their hands, wishing peace for their fallen comrades, while Jin panicked.
Jin's expression turned grim, and he nearly fainted, gasping from the intense anxiety. "Damn, I'm going to be exposed now."
After a few tense seconds for Jin, Saruman interrupted his thoughts, speaking loudly and firmly to everyone.
"The one who slaughtered our esteemed students was a vile abomination of chaos, now roaming Lucaria. This abomination could possibly be an extremely powerful chaos demon!"
Everyone became tense, knowing that a creature capable of evading the senses of many saints, even the strongest on the continent, was no ordinary being.
Saruman clenched his fist. "Our fighters and dozens of saints are already scouring the entire city of Lucaria in search of this creature, so there is no need to panic."
"Therefore, today's and tomorrow's ceremonies have been postponed, and everyone will return to their rooms until further notice. No one is allowed to leave until this creature is found!" Saruman's voice carried a heavy tone of threat and anger.
Jin was stunned and thought to himself, "What - what, how, huh? Wasn't it me? Wait, what's happening? Am I safe now? Haaaaah!"
Jin felt great relief that he was not a suspect, but he was very puzzled by the conclusion. "How the hell did they conclude that a chaos creature was the killer?"
"Was the killer really a chaos creature? No, no, if it were a creature, my kill stats wouldn't have changed."
Jin bit his fingers as he thought. "Did they just blame a random chaos creature to cover up their failure?"
After several minutes, everyone began returning to their rooms, and Jin heard many exaggerated rumors as he moved with them.
The rumors were extreme, describing the bodies as horribly disfigured, and some even said the bodies were completely destroyed, reduced to mere piles of blood.
Jin couldn't believe what he was hearing, even beginning to doubt himself. "I'm sure their wounds were severe but not as horrific as they are describing now."
"Did something happen to the bodies after I left?" Jin kept thinking and thinking.
"Wait, is there really a chaotic creature in Lucaria?" Jin was filled with thoughts and worry.
After a few minutes, everyone returned to their rooms.
Jin couldn't sleep that night, remaining anxious and deep in thought...
Meanwhile, dozens of saints were already in Lucaria, causing a great stir and spreading rumors throughout the city.
Among them was a team consisting of Leonard, Park, Lamar, and Orosawa, investigating the site where the bodies were found in the forest.
Park, kneeling and examining the ground around him, said, "This does seem like the work of a chaotic creature, but I can't feel any trace of such a creature."
Lamar replied, "I can't feel anything either."
Leonard was sitting on a rock, contemplating the scene before him. "What do you think, Orosawa?"
Orosawa laughed sarcastically. "This isn't the work of a chaotic creature; I'm sure a human did this."
"Are you saying that because you were a notorious killer in the past, or is it just a hunch?"
Orosawa replied, "Although there are many strange and terrifying types of chaotic creatures, I don't think any of them could do this."
"The wounds on the bodies were caused by a sword, not the claws of a chaotic creature."
Lamar spoke while looking at the ground. "Then how do you explain the lack of any blood on the ground? Not to mention the bodies themselves, which didn't have a single drop of blood?"
Orosawa responded, "Is there any chaotic creature capable of using swords besides chaos statues? I believe the missing blood is the work of some awakened ability."
The group had already seen the bodies before searching the forest. The bodies were completely bloodless, dry, and filled with sword wounds.
Leonard, convinced, said, "You're right. It's impossible for there to be chaos statues in Marta, or we would have sensed them already."
Park sighed. "Then how are we supposed to find this killer?"
Lamar answered, "We won't find him, at least not now."
Leonard smiled. "We'll go back and report to Saruman to resume the ceremonies because I'll ask that old woman to look into the memories of others."
Park's body trembled. "Huh? Are you really going to ask for that old woman's help?"
Lamar also shivered and said, "No, Leonard, my dear brother, don't ask that old woman for anything..."
Orosawa was already running away. "fuck you, Leonard..."