Acht was close to being fed up with Smiley and his stupid jokes but he restrained himself just to avoid unnecessary problems and also unnecessary waste of time and energy.
So, to make him shut up for a moment, he asked him a question.
"Neh, Clown fac-"
"Smiley~"
"What is th-"
"Call me Smiley~ or I will pout…just like this." He then pouted like a small girl and turned around with a 'humph'.
The truth is, because of the mask, no one could see if he was really pouting or not but the truth is that he kept up that stupid front of his.
"Sigh, Smiley, are you one of the contestants?" He asked.
Smiley didn't respond but just made an X sign with his arms and then said.
"DunDun, Wrong~"
"Then, what are you?"
"I'm me~" He threw the cane in the air and caught it again as he laughed loudly.
'I'm not made to handle these types of morons'. Acht felt like sighing as loud as he could but refrained from doing so.
Then, as they were going back and forth like that, someone else entered the room. Their distinct blonde hair and petite frame made them very noticeable and Acht knew the person immediately.
It was Tania, she was still wearing her pajamas that were shredded to pieces now but still intact enough to cover her whole body.
She looked around seemingly in search of something before her eyes fell on Acht. Both of them could see how her dim and stoic expression suddenly lit up and she came quickly to his side.
"Are you ok?" He asked with no particular intent.
"Mm" she nodded as she leaned on the wall by his side. Their shoulders were touching from time to time as they moved their bodies.
"Hmm~ Who is this beautiful princess~ Hooo" Smiley suddenly made a shocked expression as he put his hand on his mouth.
"Don't tell me…She's your girlfriend?" He said with a weirdly serious look.
"No, she's not."
But, Smiley ignored Acht's blunt response and kept on with his small acting performance.
He started dancing and turning as if he was in some theatrical tragedy while mumbling loudly.
"And here I thought we were destined to be together~ How cruel! How sad! My heart is broken into a thousand…no, a million pieces~" His voice was over dramatic and fake to no extent.
Acht watched this and didn't even feel it when his head rested on his palm as he shook it slightly. He was now even more tired than when he was passing through the corridors.
'Maybe this is the hardest test in the hunter exam?' He entertained the idea for a while.
As for Tania, she didn't seem to be looking at Smiley at all, her eyes were mostly looking particularly nowhere but sometimes, they took a small sneak glance at Acht from the side.
Even more, time passed as Acht and Tania watched Smiley go on and on about random nonsense, that was when another person finally came.
It was a muscular man, probably in his 40s. His face was riddled with scars and his fierce eyes made the idea of approaching him disappear.
When he saw the three people inside, he made a scoff and muttered loudly enough for them to hear.
"I thought I was the first one to come. I ended up being beaten by some brats. Ptuh" He spat down on the ground with clear irritation and then walked to the nearest pillar and sat down.
Acht didn't bother with the muscle head and only thought about what he should do in the future and small plans that he needed to execute.
Then, after that man, people started coming inside the hall. They all entered from the same place so Acht wondered how that was possible.
'How did they connect all the tunnels?'
Acht scanned all of them and they were all white souls level 1, 2, or 3 with only a few of them being above that. That made him certain that someone was targeting him. Everything he saw proved that point so he had no doubt now.
"But, who is he?" He muttered as took a glance at Smiley. It could've been Smiley that was targeting him since everything about him was eerie and mysterious.
'I don't have a solid proof. I will leave it at that for now. The culprit will appear sooner or later."
At this point, there were at least 5000 people in the room. It wasn't crowded at all since the hall was extremely crowded but they took a good chunk of the place.
Then, with a loud thud. The whole that kept spitting out new people non-stop started closing. Then, in a few moments, the place where it was turned into a normal wall that resembles the rest of the place.
"It's finally over~" Smiley said out of nowhere.
Then, he started strolling to the other side of the room before standing a few meters away from the end.
"Beautiful ladies and handsome gentlemen~ I'm more than happy to welcome you to the second phase of the hunter exam~"
He then pointed out with his cane as he continued.
" As you can see clearly~ you have made a splendid achievement when you passed the first phase~ congratulations." He then put his hand in his pocket to pull out something.
"Hmm? Huh?" He made confused sounds as he tapped his pockets repeatedly.
"Wait! Where is the confetti?!" He screamed out like a girl.
Then he started frantically searching his body like a maniac.
'Doesn't he remember that he blew it open?'
After searching for a few moments, he made a releasing gasp before scratching his head with a fake awkward look.
"I forgot it, silly me~ Anyway, let's get serious a little bit now."
He then straightened his posture and continued.
"The second test will not be inside….But, outside…To be more exact, in the wilderness~"
His revelation made the people present look at each other in confusion.
"Hahah~ You don't have to look confused…I will explain everything since I'm nice~"
Then, he made a move with his left hand and a small circular object appeared in his hand out of nowhere.
"See this? It's a point calculator~ Believe it or not…Its purpose is to calculate points." He then stood silent for a moment looking at everyone as if he was expecting some kind of reaction. But, no one spoke or laughed.
"Mooo, You are all boring~"
"Anyway, each one of you will get one of these before getting teleported to a huge area prepared solely for the test~ Your sole goal is to kill animals and collect points based on the number of creatures you killed~"
"And when I say 'creatures'...I mean everything…including humans~" He said with a delighted voice.
He then looked around him and savored the expression of the people present. He felt euphoric seeing them show such reactions and different emotions.
"Killing others is allowed? That's brutal."
"Yeah, the hunter association is going crazy. How many people do they want to die?"
"Now, Now…I need to add one more thing~ let's say you killed a contestant and he had a certain number of points. Those points will be transferred to you….So, if you ask me~ Killing each other is more profitable~"
His words invoked even more whispering and even some shouts of anger. No one of the present wanted to get killed and some of them even didn't accept the idea of killing humans altogether. So, the reactions were mostly negative.
Acht wasn't surprised by this. Most of them were naive people that thought becoming hunters was a piece of cake. So, when they saw that their lives were on the line, they could only feel anger and fear seep into their hearts.
But for him, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Kill or be killed was a rule he followed since he was a child. Also, he was almost killed more than once that day so he had a good idea of how things worked in the hunter association.
"There are some corrupted individuals that control the hunter association. And here I was thinking it could be an exception." He shook his head in disappointment and closed his eyes, not bothering with Smiley anymore. But, he still listened to what he was going to say next.
"Stop it please~ I will be sad if you don't like this~ It's a lot of fun…Fighting each other to death, what's more thrilling than that?~ they say that humans feel alive the most when they are near death~ Ahhh~~~~" He hugged himself and shook his body left and right. He looked like a crazy pervert fantasizing about his fetishes.
Everyone just thought of one thing.
'What a sick fuck!'
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