"Okay fine. I'm off then." I quickly turned around and resumed my rapid climb.
"What is he on? He is so strong!" One of the girls in their team exclaimed.
"Yes, so strong!"
"Oh my god, look at that! His arm strength is incredible!"
"He must be cheating. He's probably on high grade steroids."
"There is no way anybody can get away with cheating in this test. He must be a fool if he's cheating."
"What an idiot."
"Yeah, biggest idiot I've ever seen."
I nearly puked blood listening to them suddenly call me an idiot mere seconds after praising me.
Truly, we would be miserable if we lived our lives caring about what other people say about us!
I continued to climb tirelessly.
Apparently, the Wang family was in first place because I didn't meet anybody else for the remainder of my climb.
After a full hour of non-stop climbing I finally reached the peak!
"UWAHHH!!! Finally!!" I stretched my almost-aching limbs and jumped around the beautiful mountain peak energetically.
I looked around and realized that the peak of the mountain was actually a large plateau. Large enough to comfortably fit a few thousand kids, maybe even ten or twenty thousand of them, but definitely nowhere large enough for a hundred thousand.
"Miss Veronica must be somewhere adjusting her eating speed according to the progress of the top few thousand kids." I chuckled out loud.
VOOOOOOOOOOOO... BOOM!
Veronica Wu's exquisite white mecha landed gently around thirty meters away from me.
Her cockpit hatch opened and a drop-dead gorgeous woman in a red tracksuit leapt out of it with great agility. My jaw dropped as I watched her land on the ground lightly.
Agile, nimble and extremely beautiful. What an asset to the world!
Whoosh!
In a blink of an eye, she appeared before me.
She must have executed a movement technique to get to me so quickly.
What a formidable woman!
I've only met her for a few short seconds and already, my heart was already full of praise.
"Hi there kiddo!" Veronica Wu smiled at me brightly and ruffled my hair as though I was just a little boy.
"Hi Miss Veronica!" I replied with an equally bright voice of my own.
"You're too early by over an hour. Do you want to share my lunch with me?" She asked me generously.
"OF COURSE!" I shouted just a tad too enthusiastically.
Junkyard scrappers never reject offers of food if it was from a safe source!
Veronica Wu chuckled and motioned for me to follow her. "Tell me about yourself while I prepare our meal."
"My name is Justin and I am from the White Tiger Hunters." I began.
"You mean the Whitefrost Clan." She said with a laugh.
"Ah yes. Ha ha. I guess it's not so much of a secret. So many people know about it, I wonder why they even bother to tell me to say that I am from the White Tiger Hunters." I remarked ruefully.
"It's still useful to hide your identity from the low and middle class groups. But most of the high class participants were probably briefed on the different secret affiliate organizations of their rivals. You must be a newcomer if you don't know about all this." Veronica said.
"I see. Yes I am new. I just joined the Whitefrost Clan a few days ago." I nodded at her while I watched her quickly set up a picnic for us.
"Come, sit and let's enjoy an early lunch." Veronica told me.
"Thank you very much!" I sat down near her and accepted a wrapped sandwich eagerly.
"The Whitefrost Clan is extremely lucky to have found such a formidable kid like you." Veronica Wu commented.
I was wolfing down the sandwich like a starved peasant, so I couldn't answer her.
"Did they offer you to become a Black Dragon candidate?" Veronica Wu gave me a sly look.
COUGH! COUGH! COUGH!
I began to choke and cough in surprise.
"I'll take that as a yes." She laughed and passed me a bottle of water. "Here, have a drink."
"Thanks!" I sighed after I cleared all the stuff that's stuck on my throat. "How did you know?"
Veronica Wu smiled and tossed me a black token.
I caught it and realized that it looked almost exactly the same as the Gold Whitefrost Family Token which the old man gave me. An ornate "W" adorned both sides of the token.
"You're a Black Dragon!" I gasped.
Veronica Wu nodded.
"Why are you telling me this? Isn't it supposed to be a secret?" I asked.
"There's no one here. My mecha has the most powerful jamming system in place so they won't be able to see or hear us this close to it. I am telling you because I want you in my faction." Veronica Wu said simply.
"Faction?" I asked as I tossed her Black Dragon Token back at her.
She glanced up and looked far into the distance. "You'll know once you finish the entrance test. When that moment comes, remember to pick my faction. Remember not to tell anyone about us."
I nodded and stared at the spot she was staring at.
"Those old fogeys sure respond quickly when something good appears." Veronica Wu said sourly.
Very soon and with surprising speed, a few dots appeared on the horizon and quickly became huge white mechas that landed near us.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Three white mechas.
Three "old fogeys" with white hair came out of the mechas and made their way to us.
"HA HA HA! Another physical freak has arrived!" A big and muscular old man in white pants laughed happily as he scrutinized me from head to toe. He was bare-bodied and had numerous horrible-looking scars all over his body. He was also completely bald, had white mustache and long white beard which made him look rather aged and wise.
If not for his hyper sneaky, cunning and sly-looking eyes of course.
One glance at him and I knew that this "old fogey" is a shameless master of deceit and manipulation!
"I CALL DI-"
SMACK!
The old woman next to him smashed her long staff on his bald head!
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺