Chapter 303: Confrontation with the Repeater

"Tch, I reached as far as the peak of the mountain but still didn’t see a single hunter," Noah muttered, coming down the mountain, moving through the forest. "Where has everyone gone?"

The repeater was the first one to reach the peak of the mountain. He ignored all the monsters along the way so that his time wouldn’t be wasted and he would appear farthest away from the rest of the group of survivors. He thought that by doing this, a hunter would definitely ambush the obviously alone target.

Forget an ambush; no one even came to scout him.

He ended up spending the past five hours waiting for someone...anyone at the peak. His simple strategy to hunt the hunters had two major flaws. First, the hunters were already aware of his reputation, so they deliberately avoided him. Second, why would any hunter go as far as the mountain’s peak, nearly forty kilometres from the foot of the mountain, to hunt a survivor who didn’t even possess a single forest token?

Although Noah’s talent was at S-Rank, his mind wasn’t gifted enough to analyse these basic flaws. Growing impatient from waiting so long, he finally decided to move down the mountain and find the hunters himself.

He took the opposite path down from the one he had arrived by, in the hope of encountering a hunter. Along the path, the number of trees gradually decreased while the number and size of the bushes increased. A few hundred metres further and even the scarce trees were gone, the land completely covered in towering grass and thorny vines.

"So many bushes!! My luck is truly rotten!" he shouted, shoving both his arms outward.

Snap!

A thorny vine slammed into his face after being stretched by the sudden spread of his arms.

"GAAAA!!!!! Bush after bush after bush!!!" he screamed, drawing his sword. Veins bulged at his forehead as he began cutting down the bushes and vines with rapid swings of his blade.

For the next half an hour, his slashes sent leaves and branches scattering outward. After one last slash, he finally reached the end of this frustrating path.

"Bwahahaha! No more bushes!" he exclaimed, swinging his sword at empty air in celebration.

His hand froze midway as his blue eyes fell upon the two figures holding swords in the distance on the flower field, looking at him silently.

One was that annoying lavender-haired girl who always got under his skin whenever she opened her mouth, and the other...Noah blinked. It was a tall man draped in dark clothes with multiple pockets, wearing a joker face mask.

"What a weirdo," Chloe commented in her usual stoic tone.

"How short-tempered does one have to be to take out their anger on literal bushes?" Vlad clicked his tongue, shaking his head. Obviously, he had changed his voice so Noah couldn’t recognise him.

For a couple of seconds, Noah didn’t answer, processing this ridiculously unusual pair.

"You’re the last person who should be calling anyone a weirdo!" Noah snapped, pointing his sword at Chloe. The tip of his blade shifted to Vlad as he continued, "And what exactly is a hunter doing with a survivor?"

His eyes narrowed at the identity tokens and the forest tokens laid out in the field behind the duo. "Oh, now I get it."

The statement made the duo flinch. Chloe moved in front of the tokens to hide them, as if that could prevent anything now.

’Crap! I forgot to hide the tokens in my hurry. He might guess my identity since Chloe doesn’t talk to anyone else beside me,’ Vlad muttered inwardly, his brows furrowed behind the mask.

"You two are..." Noah’s drawn-out words caused the duo to tighten their grip on their weapons. They were prepared to knock him out to make him think it was just a dream. "Fighting for the tokens!"

"What an idiot—"

"Hahaha, exactly! We are fighting for tokens!" Vlad laughed, cutting off Chloe’s insult mid-sentence and lightly elbowing her.

Vlad pointed his longsword at Noah as he began his theatrical performance. "You must be the reinforcement to back her up. In that case, I will take you down first!"

Noah’s brows twitched, clearly offended by the statement. How dare that joker say that Noah had come to save Chloe?

"I would rather save a dying dog than help her—"

Clash!

Vlad’s sword, still in its scabbard, struck the steel blade, sending jolts through Noah’s arms.

Vlad moved the sword back and was about to swing it again when Noah muttered, "What are you doing in a hunter’s costume...Vlad?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Bwahaha! Who is Vlad?" The joker laughed, swinging the sword again.

"Stop acting," Noah scoffed, already lowering his sword. "No one among the students possesses such monstrous strength except you."

Vlad facepalmed hard, lowering his blade. How could someone be extremely stupid and smart at the same time? Or did Noah’s brain cells only function in combat?

"Well, it was the academy’s decision," Vlad replied with a sigh, lifting his face mask. "According to them, my being a survivor was breaking the balance of the exam." He made that statement in annoyance. If the academy really thought he was too powerful as a fresher, then why wouldn’t they just give him full marks in practical? Wasn’t it unfair for him to have a custom exam unlike the others?

Obviously, he had raised that dispute with the Vice Principal when he received the mail saying he needed to participate as a hunter. Aldric’s answer only annoyed him further.

’We know you’ve grown stronger in raw power. But power alone isn’t what this exam measures. We’re testing your combat, your tactics, and your aura control. That’s why your exam differs from the others. You’re not being treated unfairly. You’re being evaluated against the level you’ve actually reached.’

"Oh right, keep it a secret that I’m a hunter," Vlad stated, turning around. In the disguise of the joker, he had created enough trouble to become the enemy of the entire first-year batch and eight seniors.

He didn’t mind being hated, but he didn’t enjoy it either. Why should he bring unnecessary trouble by revealing his identity? Not to mention that most of these students were spoiled nobles. Since they couldn’t do anything to Vlad inside the boundaries of the academy, the possibility of them targeting his parents was never zero, hence the reason for keeping his identity hidden.

He had only taken a step towards Chloe when the cold blade of Noah’s sword touched his neck from behind.

"Sure, I won’t reveal your identity," Noah said, his voice turning threatening. "But that doesn’t change the fact that you are a hunter and currently my enemy. Give me your Hunter Token."