Chapter 147: Familiar People

Alex quickly detected several more humans hiding nearby, many of whom were arguing about whether they should come out and whether doing so would put them in danger.

Their main concern appeared to be the safety of ’Roan’, which was likely the unconscious man’s name.

Alex needed only a few seconds to analyze the situation while keeping part of his attention on the sky above them, because three dead Wild Orcs meant that a spear could arrive at any moment.

The two people standing in front of Alex were clearly aware of it as well, because the blonde man quickly glanced toward the sky before turning back to him.

"W-We need to move! We can explain everything later, but the spear might come at any moment!" the blonde man said, his voice filled with urgency.

"Roan wasn’t trying to attack you! I’m sorry, he was just..." The woman bit her lips and struggled to continue, but Alex remained silent and began preparing a powerful mana bullet instead.

The young man and woman immediately noticed the change. They flinched as they felt the sheer heat coming from the fire element mana cable, which was becoming so powerful that neither of them dared to make another movement.

Alex continued concentrating until the fire bullet was complete, and waited. Nothing happened. No spear descended from the sky, and after waiting for a moment, Alex’s brows creased slightly because this confirmed the theory that had already begun forming in his mind, and witnessed.

There was more than one person killing the Wild Orcs.

The Wild Orc leader didn’t know who was killing its people, so whenever enough Wild Orcs died, it kept launching spears at the suspected enemy.

After Tina and the others killed the Level 11 Wild Orc, the leader’s latest spear was blocked.

The place where Tina and the others killed that Wild Orc was close to the place where Roan had killed three Wild Orcs. Because of this, the leader could have mistakenly believed that Roan was the one who killed the Level 11 Wild Orc. That’s why it didn’t launch a spear this time.

The leader knew that someone—Alex, at Jaelo Supermart, then again later—was capable of stopping the spears, so it had no reason to launch another one this time.

That also explained why the spear had arrived after the death of Level 11 Wild Orc, because at that time, the Wild Orc leader must have thought Roan was responsible for killing that Wild Orc, meaning Roan could kill them but could not stop the spears.

’Maybe the Wild Orc leader didn’t plan to fire spear at me, after realizing someone at my location can stop the spears. It sent the Wild Orcs after me instead, but this Roan guy probably ended up in their path and fought them,’ Alex concluded.

"Noah! Eve!" Robert suddenly called out as he stepped forward from Alex’s group and looked toward the young man and woman standing in front of Alex.

Alex glanced at Robert while keeping the fire bullet ready. "You know them?"

Robert nodded, his expression complicated as he looked at the two people. "They are from our college. You must have heard of the ace of the badminton team; that’s Eve, while Noah was the head of the cultural committee this year, so that would mean ’he’ is..."

Robert’s eyes moved toward the unconscious man lying beside the car, where Alex’s mana sword was still resting near his neck. "He is Roan Ackley."

Alex was surprised. He did not remember Noah or Eve at all. He had always been bad at remembering people, and he had likely not interacted with them much, as even his Advanced Battle Instinct Spell gave him no useful memory when he looked at them, which suggested that they had never really crossed paths.

Roan Ackley was different.

Roan was handsome, popular, and well known throughout their college, with a reputation for being friendly with almost everyone. He also came from a wealthy business family, but that was not why Alex remembered him so clearly.

Roan had secured an internship at one of the five major firms during his first year and had already secured a job there during his second year, putting him far ahead of most of the other students. As someone whose goal had simply been to obtain a decent job after graduation, Alex had naturally paid attention to Roan, who was the closest example of success to him.

Alex looked back at the unconscious man lying on the ground. The Roan he remembered had always been well groomed, with a smile on his face and a neat appearance, while the person in front of him had a haggard expression, sunken cheeks, a thin body, and countless injuries covering him.

He looked as though he had gone through something extremely difficult.

Even so, Alex did not relax his guard. These people might have been from his college, but Roan had tried to kill him only moments ago, and knowing his name did not change that fact.

"What is happening?" Alex asked Eve and Noah.

"Alex—"

"Not now, Robert," Alex said, cutting him off before he could continue.

Robert fell silent, and his expression became even more complicated. He seemed to understand why Alex was acting this way, so he did not argue and simply watched the situation unfold.

Eve tried to speak next, but the words that came out were barely understandable. She seemed to be in too much shock to properly explain anything, so Noah stepped forward and spoke in her place.

"We can explain everything, but can we first get Roan healed?" Noah asked.

"No."

The answer came immediately, and even Alex was inwardly surprised by how ruthless he sounded. Only now was he beginning to understand how terrifying the Advanced Battle Instinct Spell could be, because it seemed to nearly separate his emotions from his decisions and leave behind only efficiency.

Noah took a breath before continuing. "Roan was fighting the Wild Orcs, and he barely managed to kill them. He was probably barely conscious by the time he saw you and somehow mistook you for an enemy, so I’m sorry about what he did, but please let us heal him."

..

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