Chapter 119- Fakes

Chapter 119: Chapter 119- Fakes

Chapter 119- Fakes

As they finally reached the gates, they stopped and looked around at the faces of the people there. Seeing the gradual increase of fear in their eyes as they got closer and closer to the gates only told them that something really terrifying must’ve happened.

"Hold on," Rize said as he walked to one of the candidates.

"What do you want to do?" Rose asked.

"Just some investigation." He replied as he looked at the boy. He was too occupied with his injury to notice Rize approaching him. However, when the shadow loomed over him, the boy flinched and looked up.

"W-What do you want?!" He asked. "If you think I have my badge, I don’t. It was taken away. Just don’t hit me."

He sounded terrified but also completely demoralized. Rize could tell he had given up on trying to find or take his badge back from whoever snatched it.

"Who took your badge?" Rize asked.

"And why does that matter to you, huh? Ouch... You’re gonna get it back for me?" He asked with a pained look on his face.

"Not my job." Rize shrugged. "But it seems everyone here had a taste of the same medicine. Must’ve been quite the nasty foe."

"You’re saying..." He sighed as he looked around him. "That girl is an utter demon."

"Girl?" Rize frowned when he heard that.

"Yeah, a girl, a damn girl about yay high, and she is a damn monster. A group of 7 attacked her at the same time, and she dealt with them in less than a minute! Do you even understand what that means?!"

"..." Rize looked at him and frowned. ’Well, that sounds familiar. Could it be?’

"Can you describe that girl to me?" Rize asked.

"What does that even-"

"Just describe her to me," Rize said coldly, threatening the boy with his eyes.

"Relax, man. I couldn’t even see her face. She had a hoodie on."

"..." Rize’s eyes widened as his face brightened visibly. ’Venera. I finally found her.’ He thought to himself as he tried to regain his composure. "Where did she go?"

"She walked into the building; I don’t know if she’s still there or not." The boy said.

"Good."

Then, Rize turned around to leave. However, at that moment, he stopped and looked at the boy. "Good luck in the future."

"..." The candidate looked at him, confused, before he smiled bitterly. "I don’t know if there is a future for me, man."

"We all do. What matters is dealing with the hand you’re given." Leaving those words behind, he walked back to Rose.

"I found the person I’m looking for, potentially." He said. "Let’s go in."

"It’s a girl?" She asked, with an eyebrow raised. Her senses were telling her that something was very off about it.

But she didn’t comment as they walked into the building. Inside, it was oddly a lot more animated than the outside. It looked like the people there had seen something quite peculiar, and it got them to react.

"Those bastards..."

"Did you see how he was looking at me?"

"I think that guy at the far front looked so scary... He gave me the chills."

"Beat me! Everyone here is insane!"

The words Rize heard being exchanged only raised his eyebrows more. He felt like they weren’t talking about Venera. Someone else must be in this building too.

As they passed through the rows of candidates, they heard noises coming from the upper floors. Rize looked at his companion and nodded his head, knowing that someone was up there who might be dangerous.

The two ascended to the second floor. There, as they walked in, they saw a group of four individuals fighting against another group. The fight looked completely one-sided and almost bullying.

"What is even happening here..." Rize muttered as he watched the chaos ensue before him.

"They seem to be working together," Rose said.

"Well, they look like they have quite a few badges."

The two looked at each other and, without saying a word, knew what they wanted to do. These were some very good targets. Perhaps even better than anyone they had faced so far.

"Hey, take them from the other side! You, don’t fall behind!"

As the group tried to corner their targets, they moved the furniture and pressed them toward the wall while the trio was panicking.

"You bastards! Don’t get close! We will break your faces!!" One yelled as they grabbed a lamp from the table to use as a weapon. However, the group ignored him as they closed the distance.

Just as they were about to get caught and for the true fight to start, suddenly, two silhouettes appeared behind them, ambushing the four attackers.

"Wha- Ugh!" One kick to the back and the candidate fell to the ground. Then, Rize rushed to the next one, using his flexibility to slide over the table; he tackled the next target down as he tried to resist using his arms.

"Get off me!" The young man yelled as he threw several punches at Rize, only for the latter to dodge them with ease before he punched the boy in the face. The hit made him feel as if the entire world was spinning before he lost consciousness. Rize sighed. ’They’re disappointingly weak. I really miss a challenge.’

He knew that he was very strong and most candidates can’t hold a candle to him, but he still felt disappointed that not a single fight he had so far was even challenging a bit.

With that, he looked down and grabbed the boy’s badge as he got ready to stand up and leave. However, at that moment, he noticed something really weird that made him stop.

"Rose." He said coldly. "Are you done there?"

Rose pushed the last target away as she looked at Rize. "What is it?"

"You will wanna see this." He said with a confused look on his face.

The girl looked at the trio with a strong glare before she walked to him. The boy threw the badge to her.

"Check that."

"Hm?" She didn’t understand what he meant until she looked at the badge itself. That was when she realized it. The badge... wasn’t there... More accurately, it was a fake one. It was made out of normal paper with the names written crudely.

From afar, one would mistake it for a real badge.

"A fake badge..." She muttered. "Why do they have a fake one?"

"I don’t know. This is pretty odd." He said. "I don’t know whether they lost their badge and thought this was a good way to trick the testers or..."

"Or?"

"Someone has their badges hidden in a safe place," Rize said coldly. He could tell the second possibility was more likely. But such an idea was quite intelligent. It also made sense why this group seemed completely unbothered by attacking another group. Another person had their badges, so even if they lost, they wouldn’t get disqualified.

’These idiots definitely didn’t come up with this idea. Someone else did.’ Rize thought to himself as he looked up at the stairs. A sense of coldness crept into his heart.

Whoever it was, he had a hunch he was about to discover it soon.