Chapter 396: Stabbed

"How much longer do we need to hold this beast wave here?" Vanessa asked, panting.

Even though they had been doing their best to stop the Rank 7 beast, the difference in power was still obvious. The only thing they could do was stop its attack, not its enormous momentum.

Other instructors started getting pushed back by the beasts, so they had to retreat soon.

Supervisor Jacob gritted his teeth. "Not yet. I tell you this because you have come to fight with us, but there are spies among the instructors. We have to hold out until they reveal themselves. In fact, I’m much more worried about the instructors from your country and the ones from Granda. Where the hell are they? I can’t afford to have them attack the students."

Vanessa was dumbfounded. "So, you are actually waiting for that..."

"What?" Supervisor Jacob frowned.

"You don’t have to worry about them anymore. I have handled all of them."

"Handled... what?!" Supervisor Jacob was startled.

...

Twenty minutes ago.

After splitting the group into two, Vanessa intended to lead the bigger group, which chose to focus on protecting the students, to the front.

Before leaving, Vanessa raised one finger. "Oi. I will need you to go north immediately."

"Head Instructor Vanessa?" The one who led the other group was startled by the instruction.

"Do you think I haven’t done anything this whole time? Gloria Schaff. I’ve found her. She is hiding in the forest in the north. You need to capture her. This will increase our prestige, yes? Capture her first, then deal with the rest later. Understood?"

The instructor was confused, but capturing Gloria was indeed a big prestige. If they captured Gloria, they could get even higher positions after this.

At the same time, Vanessa didn’t intend to stop them from whatever they were doing. She just wanted to deal with one problem and turn a blind eye to the rest. If they didn’t do this one thing, Vanessa might ruin everything.

So, the instructors nodded with serious expressions.

"Understood."

Both of them went their separate ways, but Vanessa took a deliberate route that allowed her to intercept the instructors from Granda, who were trying to help out.

"Head Instructor Vanessa?!"

"Head Instructor Adam! We are in an emergency situation right now. I know you want to protect your own students, but how about earning a few more achievements?" Vanessa smirked.

"Hoh?"

"I happened to find a group of suspicious people heading north. Just think about it, the beast movement came so suddenly."

"You mean a group is responsible for all this chaos?"

"I’m not sure about that yet, but there is indeed a group of people heading north. There’s supposed to be nothing over there, so why would they go there?"

Head Instructor Adam looked down, contemplating.

"Besides, don’t you think it’s a good time to search the entire area of the survival competition? You may have had conflicts before, but if you choose to help the students who have a hard time running away, don’t you think you can get some recognition not just from your country, but also from the world?"

Head Instructor Adam was startled. "Why don’t you do it yourself?"

"I want to do it, but Dermania is the host. We will have to hold the front line if we want to maintain our prestige. This is basically my job, so I have no choice but to leave it to someone else. You just happen to be the one I can find right now."

"!!!" Head Instructor Adam was shocked. He considered her offer for a few seconds before agreeing. "All right. We will take care of it then."

"Very good. If you don’t believe me, you can come with me to the front line, you know?" Vanessa smiled.

"Head Instructor Jacob and Head Instructor Callahan are already over there. Maybe Head Instructor Tevez is there too. So, if you also head there, there will be a need for a top powerhouse to protect the students. I’ll take care of it."

"All right then." Vanessa nodded. "I wish you luck."

"You too."

In the end, both of them split up.

Supervisor Jacob was dumbfounded. "This..."

Vanessa simply said while looking away, "I don’t need useless people. As soon as they don’t listen to me, I don’t need them anymore. Besides, it’s true that something has been biting my feet after I became the head instructor. It’s best to get rid of them all at once."

Vanessa didn’t admit it, but she also knew that not all of them were spies. Some were just following Head Instructor Ryan or other people.

However, it wouldn’t be her fault if they ended up dead after getting misunderstood. At the very least, these people would die, and no one would question her decision.

No one knew what she was talking about with Head Instructor Adam. So, no one could actually blame her for this mishap.

In the end, her position after this incident would solidify further so that no one could shake her off again. She was already annoyed by the fact that they could force her to become a head instructor after what happened to Head Instructor Ryan.

...

What no one expected was the fact that there was one more person who was as crazy as Vanessa.

No, some people should have expected it, but because he had never shown himself once in this competition, they had forgotten about him.

In the plain field a few kilometers northwest of the student’s battlefield, a group of people were rushing toward the students.

This group consisted of 20 people with two of whom had Rank 6 strength.

However, the two Rank 6 humans abruptly stopped.

"!!!" The others hurriedly stopped, not understanding their actions. However, these two were the strongest among them, so they might have felt something the rest couldn’t feel just yet.

"Oh, my. Your senses are quite sharp." A light-hearted voice echoed out of nowhere.

They suddenly noticed something. A man and a woman came out from behind a car.

The man was Rank 6 while the woman was one rank below him.

The man simply smiled.

Seeing only one Rank 6 human in front of them, they felt relieved. To think they would be wary of just one Rank 6 human.

The ones stopping them were none other than Chief Adjudicator Arnie and Jennifer.

"We don’t have to fear them. There are only two of them."

"Yeah." Arnie smiled. "Well, it’s not the first time I’ve fought so many people at once."

"!!!" Suddenly, one of them recognized him and shouted, "That... That man... Is he Chief Adjudicator Arnie? He is a devil! I heard he stormed the Iposon Gang by himself."

"Iposon Gang? The organization boasted of having two Rank 6 humans and many high-level powerhouses?"

"I remember that news. It was said that the government had dealt with the Iposon Gang, but what happened was different than reported. It was destroyed by a single man! That man over there."

"Oh my. I knew there were a few rats who escaped from that place." Arnie smiled. "I guess you are one of them."

"We need to fight him at the same time. If not, we might lose!"

"Is it really the truth? You sure you’re not exaggerating it?"

"I was there to witness everything!"

They were dumbfounded. They never thought the man in front of them had such caliber. If they underestimated him, they would really be the ones paying the price.

The man was shivering. He still remembered the scene where he saw Arnie while trembling in fear. Everything was surrounded by fire as Arnie walked over many corpses, killing anyone who was still standing. He was full of injuries himself, but he acted as if he couldn’t feel anything and would simply continue until everyone was dead.

Arnie smiled and said, "Well, I’m not here to talk about old days with you. I guess for an operation at this scale, you definitely have a handler who will actively monitor your movements. Maybe... the Director himself."

"!!!" They suddenly realized one thing. The fact that Arnie was able to stand in their way meant he had seen through everything.

How much did Arnie know?

Suddenly, one man came forward after hearing something on the radio. He whispered the words to one of the Rank 6 humans.

In the end, that person took out his radio and let Arnie hear it.

"Chief Adjudicator Arnie. It’s an honor to have the famous hunting dog of the government chasing after me."

"Hahaha." Arnie let out a hollow laugh. "You must be the Director. I would say that you are one of the most troublesome opponents I have had in the last decade."

"Thank you for the compliment. I’m more impressed that you can even figure everything out. To think you would even find out about our hidden attack."

"Not at all. I couldn’t figure out your plan. I just believe that after failing so many times, you definitely want to take matters into your own hands. In that case, I just have to figure out where you will be coming from. After seeing the smaller beast wave coming from the opposite direction, I knew you would be here to hit them from behind."

"Rather than helping the students, you choose to hunt me down? What would people think about this?"

"I do my job. Hunting bastards like you. Besides, there’s no telling whether that beast wave is enough to kill all the students." Arnie smiled.

"That confidence of yours... it makes me want to break you like a toy."

"You can try with your own hands directly."

"I’m not that foolish, Chief Adjudicator Arnie."

"Well, we will see about that. Do you really think that these guys are enough to stop me?"

"I’ve heard of your reputation. That’s why I can say I’m not sure if they’re enough. That’s why I have a contingency plan."

"Conting—" Arnie suddenly widened his eyes as he looked down, finding a spear piercing his heart. He turned his head around to see the person who had stabbed him. "Jennifer..."