"Forget about the third method," Lilian said with complete seriousness. "It's something no one has ever been able to complete. But if you're curious, I'll tell you a little about it."
"The third method gives you the highest points and ensures that you become the highest ranker even if you don't kill a single person from this world." As she spoke, the other youngsters grew curious about her words.
Was there really a method that could secure them the highest rank right away? But if even the Professor was saying it was better for them to forget about it, given their abilities, they could only wonder how dangerous that method was.
"The third method simply requires you to..." She stepped forward and looked Elias in the eyes. "...save this world. After seven days, all life forms here will go extinct, even if they survive your onslaught."
"This world will only last for seven days, and after that, I will have to put an end to it. So the third method, for you, is to make sure that this world lasts more than seven days."
"What?" Rey raised his brows, realizing the absurdity of the third method. They had to protect this world from being destroyed at the hands of the Professor? Didn't that mean they had to kill the Professor before the sunrise of the eighth day?
No wonder he had heard his brothers complain about the difficulty of their first class. He had tried asking them for details, but they hadn't given him any. They only told him never to even think about going for the third option if he didn't want to die.
The others also thought that the third option was completely absurd. It was impossible for a student who had just awakened to stop the Queen of Frost.
It seemed as if this option was simply there to mock them, to show them that even if they could destroy thousands of people with their abilities, there were still monsters they couldn't touch without true strength.
"There has only been one person who ever came close to completing the third option in their first class, but even he failed in the end," she said. "So you'd better not waste your time on it unless you want to lose a few limbs."
"The person who came closest to completing the third option... Was it Aliath?" Elias asked, feeling that he finally had an inkling about the reason behind the sourness between Lilian and his eldest brother.
Lilian didn't answer Elias, but her emotions seemed to fluctuate before recovering quickly.
She ignored his question and returned to the main topic. "All of you, press the first button on your watches. It will teleport you to a random location within your domains. If you press the second button, it will show you the map and the boundary of your domains."
She turned around and walked back towards the cliff while the sounds of explosions continued in the distance.
"Your time starts now," she stated, holding her hands behind her back.
Even if she didn't answer him, her silence was enough for Elias to confirm his assumption. This woman was not a classmate of his eldest brother.
Instead, she was the Professor of the Destroyer Class when his eldest brother first joined. It meant she was much older than even his eldest brother.
Although he wanted to know more about her relationship with the Ashborns, he could feel that he wasn't going to get any answers.
The other children also started pressing the first button on their watches, disappearing into nothingness. For them, it was a race against time. They had to get familiar with the domain as soon as they could, before the others could even think about targeting them.
Rey glanced at Elias before pressing his watch and disappeared as well. Only Elias was left behind, watching the distant back of Lilian.
"If you're thinking about attempting the third option right now, then you should remember: you will die the moment you move." Lilian didn't even look back, but her warning was stern.
Around a million spears made from ice materialized all around Elias, as if taunting him to move. A single movement from his feet, and the spears would rain down on him.
Elias looked at the spears, having no doubt that he would die if he moved forward. Even extraction wasn't going to save him when the number of spears was so high.
In the end, he didn't say anything and simply pressed the first button on his watch, disappearing as well.
After all the children were gone, Lilian was the only person left behind. All the spears that she had conjured turned into specks of frost that merged with the atmosphere.
She raised her hand, gently touching her forehead. As her bangs were moved aside by her fingers, a deep scar came to light. No amount of healing in this world had managed to heal the scar she had received.
....
Elias disappeared from the mountain of frost. His body traveled through space, where he felt as if it was being pulled from all directions.
That feeling only lasted for a fraction of a second. He appeared in a different space that was cold, but not as cold as the mountain where he had come from.
The moment he appeared in the room, he immediately started observing his surroundings, especially since the room felt familiar.
It took him a moment to realize that it was the same type of room he had seen on one of the screens. It was an apartment in the building, where a group of men had barged into someone's room to snatch their food.
It was the same apartment where he had seen a man who seemed to have some unique abilities of his own. On that screen, he had seen that man have the time of his life in the apartment that he seemed to have prepared in advance for this apocalypse.
Tuck~ Tuck~
As Elias was preparing to check other rooms of this apartment, he heard a heavy knocking on the door.