Chapter 805: Impersonation [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]
Asher dismissed the list. After one final preparation, he stepped out of the luxury tent, then with a wave of his hand, it vanished into his system inventory.
’I hope to meet other students today,’ Asher thought to himself as he began to walk through the seemingly endless grand dry canyon.
But the moment he had that thought, a titanic explosion rang out over two kilometres away. Asher’s eyes snapped toward the direction, and a smile couldn’t help but appear on his lips. He had just thought of it, and it had practically dropped into his lap.
He didn’t need to guess that some sort of battle was taking place in that direction. Although he had planned to walk earlier, he immediately abandoned the idea and shot into the sky with a sonic boom as he raced toward the explosion.
Within a couple of seconds, Asher arrived. He didn’t dive headfirst into whatever was happening below. Instead, he simply watched, not bothering to hide his presence.
Below, two students who seemed familiar with each other were battling what appeared to be a Rank 5 Emovira. After a couple of minutes, they ended the battle with smiles on their faces as they checked their wristwatches. Asher didn’t need to guess to know these two were probably third-year students from the same Academy
"Nice abilities," Asher spoke as he remained midair.
The moment he spoke, the two students froze, their eyes snapping upward to see a handsome young boy floating above them and staring down as though they were lower beings. Caution immediately flickered within their gazes as they entered battle stances.
"Who are you?" one of the two, a girl, asked as she held her spear in a combat-ready stance.
Although her question was simple, Asher knew she was asking so she could check the rankings.
Asher remained floating as he spoke. "Asher Wargrave," his tone calm as a smile appeared on his face.
He wanted to see their reaction to his name. After all, how would one react when they turned around and saw the first-ranked participant in the Inter-Empire Competition?
As soon as Asher said those words, the girl and the boy immediately burst out laughing as they dropped their guards as though they had just heard the funniest thing in existence.
Asher arched an eyebrow in confusion, wondering what was happening, but he stayed silent as he watched them. He wasn’t in a rush.
"Sigh... so you’re just another poser and fraud," the boy spoke as he wiped a small tear from the corner of his eye.
"What do you mean?" Asher asked. He could already guess what was happening, but he needed details.
The girl shook her head calmly as she replied, "We’ve met four of your kind already, people posing as the top ranker just so they could scam points out of others without actually fighting," her tone amused.
"And I have to say, we almost fell for it the first time. If we hadn’t agreed to at least put up a fight, we would have been disqualified and our points transferred to the fraud," the boy followed up with a shake of his head.
Asher fell into thought. He had guessed something like this yesterday, but he simply hadn’t thought someone would actually have the same idea and attempt to pull it off.
He couldn’t help but wonder how many people were impersonating him at this moment and were actually getting away with it. He couldn’t help but imagine a scene where someone would meet him and actually impersonate him right in front of him. That would be a funny sight.
’Should I start looking for students from other Empires and eliminate all of them so that only students of Star Academy hold the top fifty?’ Asher played with the idea.
It was tempting and funny at the same time. But after entertaining the thought for a moment, Asher discarded it. Cindralis wasn’t paying him for that.
Asher’s eyes shifted toward the boy and the girl as he spoke, "since you two have given me information, I won’t bully you for your points," he smiled as he said that, about to turn and leave.
The girl simply chuckled as she replied, "Now that you’ve been caught, you’re trying to play it off and fly away. Do you take us for fools?" Her tone turned a bit icy toward the end.
Asher stayed silent before speaking, "it seems the four who impersonated me were too weak," he floated downward, his feet touching the ground. "And since you want to hand over your points to me, I wouldn’t say no to such generous behaviour," he stated calmly as he stared at them.
The boy and the girl looked at each other. Although they didn’t speak, their minds arrived at the exact same conclusion. To them, if the boy before them was a poser and not the real Asher Wargrave, he could have simply flown away when he was exposed. Instead, he had floated down and was ready to fight them.
The more they thought about it, the more logical it seemed that they had encountered the real deal.
’It seems people in this world are smart,’ Asher mused to himself as he noticed the caution and calculation appearing within the boy’s and girl’s eyes, as they prepared to take a step back.
After all, authors back on Earth had a habit of forcing things. Just like these two before him, they had reached the most logical conclusion anyone with two functioning brain cells would make. Which was why he liked this world. People thought things through once in a while, unless pushed to a certain point.
If this were some random novel, both of them would have immediately started fighting him for the most absurd and nonsensical reason imaginable.
As Asher had that thought, the boy spoke with a calm tone as the cautious light within his eyes vanished.
"You may be ranked first, but who knows? You might have simply fallen into a Positive Zone. After all, we both noticed your points were spiking unbelievably fast," the boy stated as he entered a battle stance with his sword.
"There is no other explanation than you finding a Positive Zone purely by chance," the girl stated as she pointed the tip of her spear at Asher.
Asher was rendered speechless as he heard what the two of them had just said. Earlier, he had been praising them for their intelligence and also praising the world itself, only for it all to explode in his face moments later.
’Sigh... it seems those cliche-writing authors were right after all,’ Asher thought with a mental sigh.
But he couldn’t exactly blame them. He was simply so powerful that a few people had concluded he had stumbled into a Positive Zone.
Technically, he only had himself to blame, he was simply too strong.
This was a classic misunderstanding. Just like how Isaac had misunderstood Finch to be some hidden genius without realising the boy had merely stumbled into a Positive Zone, this particular moment was simply the reverse of that misunderstanding.
One side had mistaken luck for strength.
The other side had mistaken strength for luck.
And unfortunately for the two students standing before him, they were about to learn that their deduction was no different from a death wish.
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Thanks for reading and supporting this Author despite his shortcomings.
