Chapter 123- The Trio

Chapter 123: Chapter 123- The Trio

Chapter 123- The Trio

"Go way back?" Venera squinted her eyes as she looked at Rize with a questioning look on her face. The boy was stunned by the sudden, intense gaze Venera gave him, but he still cleared his throat.

"Yeah, we met ten years ago by sheer coincidence." He said. "She helped me deal with a bunch of idiots."

"It was nothing. They were getting on my nerves anyway." Rose said with a shrug. "But, yeah, I saw him by sheer coincidence around here, and we decided to team up and help each other while he looks for you."

Venera remained silent for a few seconds, which confused Rize a bit. He had never seen Venera behave that way before. If anything, she seemed almost angry, but it didn’t show on her face. If there is one thing that Rize didn’t want to mess with, it was an angry Venera. She was a terrifying being, and nobody would wanna see that side of her.

"I see." She said after a few moments, and then looked at Rize. "That is quite an interesting revelation, Rize. I wasn’t aware of it at all."

Her face was blank, but the stare was more than enough for Rize to know that he was in deep, deep trouble. Gulping quietly, he turned away.

"Let’s go; we will talk later, ok?" He said.

"Oh, we will. We will talk."

’I’m so generationally screwed, it’s not even funny.’ Rize cursed inwardly. The conversation later was bound to be extremely uncomfortable, and he didn’t even know why. What did he even do wrong for her to be angry? Meeting Rose wasn’t that much of an important event anyway.

"Are we perhaps interrupting something, Your Highness?" Fate interjected at that moment with a smile. "It is quite a pleasure to see you again."

Venera gave him a glance. "I see you’re going about your business as usual, Fate."

"Haha, you’re giving me too many flowers." He laughed softly. "I just made a group of friends, and we are working toward one goal together. We aren’t trying to be anything more than that."

"So, you’re not aiming for the top spots?" Venera asked. She already knew the answer to that, but she still wanted to see how he would react.

"Oh, no, no, I’m not really that ambitious. I mean, getting a good spot would be great, but I’m more focused on helping my friends here rather than myself."

Not a single one of the trio believed any of the words he said. After all, the boy lied as much as he breathed, and he did it so convincingly that the rest of the group looked so touched when they heard how he talked about them.

"Anyway, we won’t interrupt your work," Venera said as she started walking, followed by the other two.

Fate watched them silently before he said. "Good luck to you guys. I hope to see you later."

Nobody replied to his good wishes as they descended the stairs silently. When they were finally far enough, Venera stopped and looked at Rize.

"Did he say anything to you?" She asked. "I’ve heard you two talking as I was coming down."

"Well, yeah..." Rize said as he rubbed his head. Then he told her everything that transpired between him and Fate. From the moment he encountered Kaizer to when he handed his badge back. Venera’s expression changed subtly with the story as she heard more and more details.

When he was done, Venera had the same exact look he had when he heard the ridiculous offer.

"100 badges..."

"Yeah, he seems to value his group quite a lot," Rose said. "Maybe he has some loyalty in him that we didn’t know of."

"He doesn’t. It’s almost certainly for some goal he has. But it is definitely quite the hefty price he is paying for it. That means that he sees this goal as something extremely valuable." She said. "But getting 100 badges is still pretty good. It’s good that you took that offer, Rize."

"I really hope it is."

"How much time is left before the end of the exam?"

"Hmm, an hour," Rize said. "We are almost done. People who couldn’t really get badges earlier will struggle now, since everyone seems to be joining teams to make sure they survive the last hour."

As Venera and Rize talked, Rose watched them with a curious eye. "You two."

"Hm?"

The duo looked up at her confusedly.

"You don’t act like a bodyguard and a princess, do you?" She said. "You seem very close."

"..."

"..."

Neither knew what to say at that moment, at that blunt comment. They both knew that they definitely didn’t act like a servant and a princess, since that would’ve been a whole different dynamic. However, at the same time, they had been friends for so long time that they forgot that this was very abnormal behavior for strangers.

"Well... I’ve known Venera for a while, so I guess we didn’t have to keep formalities to make it easier." Rize said.

"I see," Rose said. "You’re really full of surprises, aren’t you?"

"..."

"In any case, what do you two plan to do now? I think I want to collect more badges." She said. "Do you want to join? Three is always better than two."

Rize looked at Venera, and he didn’t even need to ask to understand what she wanted to do. What else would they do other than collect more and more badges until the test was over? Now that they were a team of three, nobody in this entire city could defeat them or mess with them.

The test was almost done, so every single badge could be the difference between one position and another. They had to be quick and efficient.

"The challenge is still ongoing, by the way," Rize said. "I hope you didn’t forget."

"What challenge?" Rose asked.

"Who gets the most badges," Venera replied with an annoyed look.

"Oh, sounds very interesting. Could I join in?"

"I mean, if you want to," Rize said.

With that, the trio left the building and walked into the city, starting their hunt again. However, this time, they were quicker and more aggressive, targeting every single person with badges and easily dealing with them. They didn’t even take a second or two with every target before they moved to the next one.

It was impossible to stop them with their coordination or their immense strength. Even a group of 5 or more was destroyed within seconds, with all the badges taken and nothing left behind. They moved through the streets, chasing everyone they saw.

In a matter of minutes, they gathered dozens and dozens of badges, which they split equally based on contributions. The time kept ticking rapidly as the people grew more nervous and the situation became more frantic.

Those who were afraid of losing or getting bad positions started acting more aggressively and desperately, attacking everything in their way while the rest with good positions tried to hide and wait out the storm.

It was a bizarre sight to witness; sides of the city were raging battlegrounds, and other sides were quiet and eerie, as if they were a haunted city.

Eventually, the time ticked down to 0 and suddenly, a loud bell rang across the dome.