QT: Against My Will-Chapter 416
416 7.40 – Their Systems – War Of The Wickeds
The wide hallways were bustling with students running around in a rush to find a teammate, stress and fear evident in their eyes. They only had a few hours left before ‘IT’ started!
Today was the beginning of a school event, which would showcase the talents of the most promising youths in the world. Nobody knew when it would start, they only knew it would happen twice a year! Barely four months had passed since the last one! Give them a breather already!
The event would occur in the training school stadium. During this short time of preparation, the school would send out invitations to the outside world, welcoming anyone who would want to witness the event with their own eyes.
Sponsors with honoured backgrounds would already have their seats prepared within the VIP rooms, stationed around the stadium; one could only see a black screen from the outside. Whether these important people would appear on such short notice, nobody knew.
The opening ceremony would start with the top students from the:
-> S (elite) class (TOP 25 people)
-> A class (50 people) 𝐟𝙧ee𝔀e𝐛𝓃𝐨𝚟𝑒𝗹.c𝗼𝚖
-> B class (100 people)
-> C class (200 people)
.....
-> D class (500 people)
-> E class (1000 people)
By the time it was the students from the F class’s turn (2000 people), barely anyone would remain to watch the event.
The stage for the participants was built like a tropical jungle. Their situation would be recorded and broadcast on the huge screens above the stadium and around the campus. The participant’s only objective would be to survive through all the dangers lurking within the jungle and collect as many objectives as possible within twelve hours.
However one would do in the test would decide if they could further advance in the classes and increase their chances of getting recruited by the LAD or opposite, drop in the class ranks. This was a highly competitive school, which focused mainly on teamwork.
The students could be free to create a team of 50-70 people with any student they wanted; they could also ask the school to assign them a random team, but there could only be two students from the elite class. It was to train the student’s quick decision in creating a relatively large team and adaptability to a new group.
The snake system which was currently occupying Nathaniel Hauxley’s body opened the curtains of his office, blinking emotionlessly at the ruckus below. Kuro was only supposed to defend this world’s network from Riley and Victor, play the daily roulette with Baby Shiro, and nothing else.
Kuro: [Is hubby coming to save me?]
Baby Shiro: [I don’t know yet.]
There was not a single person waiting before the student council cabinet. People started to recruit students from the top classes around the school, yet nobody asked Nathaniel Hauxley. The opposite, they seemed to be avoiding him.
Baby Shiro controlled Ezikiel’s body to swiftly avoid the upcoming fist directed at it. Jumping over a fallen body, it ran towards the restroom once it got a response from its creator.
Baby Shiro: [Ziek ordered us to get 49 people to join Nathaniel’s team, and maintain Nathaniel Hauxley’s previous record. ]
Baby Shiro’s initial mission was to strengthen Ezikiel’s body physically, not to deal with keeping Nathaniel Hauxley’s male lead image.
It was the first time Xuan Mu let it take charge of such a large-scale, public operation.
A few moments later, a little levitating shark swam out of the restrooms towards Nathaniel’s direction, waving its fins at the approaching snake. They would have to exchange their positions because Kuro didn’t carry any offensive abilities.
Kuro: [What is hubby’s previous record?]
Baby Shiro: [Five minutes.]
Kuro: [...]
Kuro: [Will you be able to keep it?]
Baby Shiro: [Yes.]
Xuan Mu wanted to make sure nobody would steal his first spot. That was not the hard part though. Nobody in Nathaniel’s previous team got an opportunity to impress the judges.
All the people in his team dropped straight into an F rank. In the student’s eyes, Nathaniel Hauxley was a greedy, heartless freak. He got full points for keeping his team safe, which was perfect for a real situation but not for the school tournament.
Baby Shiro walked out of the student council room to ask the school to assign him to a team.
XiaoPu: [Nobody will join our team that easily.]
Baby Shiro: [ How do you know? ] 𝐟𝓇ℯ𝐞𝚠𝚎𝒃𝑛𝒐ѵe𝚕.co𝚖
XiaoPu: [Host snatched most of the candidates for herself before Silvia LeClére’s ordeal.]
When Bing Shi threw her gold at the students, she selected a few individuals for Silvia’s future team. She then sent XiaoPu out to supervise the process, making sure Silvia LeClére would get back into the elite class.
XiaoPu might be hella clumsy in most aspects, but Bing Shi noticed a few things when working with this baby system. He was a great actor with a nimble tongue and had a keen eye to see through a person’s mask. Such things would definitely come in handy if she wanted to turn XiaoPu into a manipulative system.
Nathaniel Hauxley paused for a while, processing the fact that it was no longer conversing with just Kuro.
A tiny version of XiaoPu flew out of Nathaniel Hauxley’s head, or more precisely out of the little shark.
Baby Shiro: [Yo, XiaoPu, don’t go too far. I haven’t recovered all of your data yet.]
Kuro: [Yo, XiaoPu. Did you come to save us?]
XiaoPu sat on Nathaniel’s shoulders, letting Baby Shiro recover the rest of his data.
XiaoPu: [Kuro, don’t talk like our Host and Baby Shiro at the same time. It’s creepy. Show me what you’ve learned so far.]
Kuro: [??, sorry.]
Ezikiel began to bawl his eyes within the toilet cubicle out of nowhere, his thoughts escaped his mouth in a silent whimper, “Wuwuwu, why nobody likes me?” Covering his face with his palms, Kuro tried to copy the previous Ezikiel or did it?
Baby Shiro: [Because you act like a self-pitying little pushover. Slap your face and stop crying, then go out to find Silvia LeClére.]
Ezikiel slapped both of his cheeks to stop his meltdown.
XiaoPu: [...]
Those who were familiar with XiaoPu’s crying would almost mistake Kuro’s crying as his instead of the previous Ezikiel, and Baby Shiro’s commanding tone as his ex-host.
XiaoPu: [Baby Shiro, don’t think I can’t hear you giving hints to Kuro!]
No longer getting any hints, Ezikiel’s expression became more and more numb, causing XiaoPu to shake his head like a dissatisfied teacher. As the saying went, like mother like daughter, this was a definition of like system like host.
The school ended up in a bit of a predicament too. It seemed like nobody would sign to be in a random team unless Nathaniel finished his ordeal first.