They were quickly prepared to flee from that place. Before Zero decides to change his mind, they want to get as far away from him as possible.

“Wait!”

They felt electricity jolting from their bodies when Zero asked them to wait. They thought that Zero had changed his mind and was planning to do something to them.

“Yes Sir! What do you need?”

They asked nervously.

Even if they wanted to escape, they could not in the presence of Zero. They didn’t want to anger Zero and could only comply with his word.

“Have you seen any Ace Academy Students?”

Zero asked.

He didn’t forget what Professor Mia said. Even though Zero was sure of his survival even against tens of participants, he was more than ready to cooperate with other students of Ace Academy in order to increase the chance of winning.

And he was also a bit scared that Professor Mia might scold him if he didn’t help other students of Ace Academy.

“No Sir!”

They all shook their heads.

“Then do you know where the other students are?”

Zero asked another question.

If he depends on himself to find other students, he reckons that he will spend many hours finding none. It was his luck that the Fiay Zaio’s group decided to ambush him or else he would be wandering without knowing where to go.

“Sir, east of here you would encounter many students. There is a big battle being fought there.”

One of them answered immediately.

The place where he was spawned was chaotic where many students were fighting at the same time.

Since he was weak and didn’t have any teammates, he escaped immediately. He was lucky to be able to escape and group up with his other friends.

“Thanks!”

-WHOOSH!

Upon receiving the direction from the student, Zero immediately ran in that direction. He wanted to collect the required amount of tokens as soon as possible.

“I-Is he gone?”

One of them asked nervously.

“Y-Yeah! I think he has left.”

“Whew! I thought I would die!”

They felt relaxed after knowing that Zero had left the area.

“Anyway, who is that monster? How come we didn’t hear anything about him?”

Fiay Zaio asked angrily.

If they had information about Zero, they would never in a million years dare to even think about attacking him. Now that they did, they all lost the tokens they had.

They looked at each other’s faces which were filled with confusion. It was natural that they didn’t know him. Otherwise, they would not have stopped him from ambushing Zero.

“He should be a new student. We should have information about all the participants from the second and third year.”

They all fell silent when they heard this. It was only the first students that they tried to ambush and it turned out to be so strong. They were losing hope of passing the first round of the tournament.

Fiay Zaio shook his head to stop thinking about those negative thoughts.

“We are already lucky to be unscathed after encountering him. Let’s just be more careful from now on and work hard to get the tokens. Even if we don’t pass the first round, we can’t give up. We should live up to our school expectations.”

Fiay Zaio said.

“Yes, even if I don’t pass, we can still let senior Fiay Zaio pass.”

“We may have been unfortunate right now but we definitely can’t give up without doing our best.”

Fiay Zaio managed to break the depressed mood of his friend. They know that the chance of all of them passing was slim in the first place. That chance was almost ‘zero’ after Zero had stolen all their tokens.

However, they still hope to collect enough tokens to let their leader, Fiay Zaio pass.

*SIGH!

Fiay Zaio sighed looking at the sky. Even though his friend’s morale had increased, he was still mortified by what happened.

“Looks like there are only monsters in Ace Academy!”

*****

Zero sprinted through the forest. He ran at a ridiculous speed yet he didn’t meet anyone for the next thirty minutes.

( Did they deceive me? )

Zero thought while soaring through the forest. He was told that there were lots of participants in this direction, but so far he has not seen anyone.

However, he was certain that those students would not dare to deceive him. They should know the consequences of lying to him. Additionally, his request wasn’t that difficult either. They just needed to show him the direction of where other students were.

( Maybe they moved to another place? )

Zero thought of that possibility. If those participants didn’t lie to him then it was the only possibility. They might finish fighting and go to another place to collect more tokens.

[ “Shattering Flower Style: Rose Blossom” ]

A familiar voice entered his ear when Zero was thinking about where other students might be at.

Zero paused. He carefully listened to where the sound was coming from.

He sped up and turned in that direction.

( It would be great if she was fighting with other students.)

Zero smiled as he went in the direction of the sound. It seems that he didn’t need to worry about finding other students.

Even if he only helped Misha, it will be seen as him cooperating with others. He was worried that Professor Mia would scold him if he didn’t help other students.

Then he saw a 5-meter tall gorilla-like monster.

“Rank-D, Mountain Crushing Gorilla!”

It was another Rank-D monster. It was his third time meeting a Rank-D monster even though they were rare.

( Don’t tell me, the place is different from the novel. )

In the novel, it is said that the main character group only encounters one Rank-D in the entire tournament. And here I was meeting with my third.

I doubt I could describe this place as one in which the Rank-D monster rarely appears as the MC does in the novel. For me, encountering a Rank-D monster in this tournament is far more common than meeting with other participants.

( It might just be my bad luck! )

-WHOOSH!

In the place where Mountain Crushing Gorilla was, a girl could be seen wielding her weapon and fighting with the monster.

Misha slashed at the monster that was attacking her. She was able to inflict damage on the monster but it was not lethal. She kept attacking and dodging when the Mountain Crushing Gorilla attacked.

Even though the monster had insane power, it was slow at attacking and Misha took advantage.

[ “Shattering Flower Style: Withered Petal” ]

Making the Mountain Crushing Gorilla distracted by the illusion of petals, Misha struck at his leg.

-ROAR!

The monster angrily went on a rampage and started to destroy its surroundings. Mish avoided the big debris that was coming toward her.

“She has become really strong!”

Misha was much stronger than she was at the start of school. She was ranked among the Top 50 back then at the start of the school but now her strength was enough to make her the Top 10 in the first year. She should be the strongest in her class.

Misha, in the novel, was not that strong. She was barely enough to be qualified to be called an above-average student at Ace Academy. Now, it might be necessary to change it to a talented student at Ace Academy.

Not to mention that she was participating in the tournament as a first-year student on behalf of Ace Academy. If she was in another school, she would be treated as an Ace student.

Judging by power, Mountain Crushing Gorilla was stronger but Misha could beat him with her skill. But it would lead to Misha exhausting her mana and she might even be injured which is dangerous in this place.

“Let’s just help her!”