34 Chapter 34: Recommendation exams (III)

Ten minutes later, Present Mic screamed,"LET THE TEST BEGIN!

The moment those words sounded, everyone began to observe each other warily. Most did it in a team of four or five. After all, the higher the number, the less chance of success there will be. No one wanted to be the first to score a point and become a target of everyone.

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<Shoto POV>

Todoroki Shoto observed everything that was happening without moving. He seriously thought about all the instructions that were given by Present Mic. One sore point disturbed him very much.

This test would give birth to many betrayals and backstabbing. The one who reaches the top won't necessarily be the one who put the most effort into it, but rather the one who backstabbed the most. But, would the top hero school in Japan accept such students? If so, Shoto would be utterly disappointed. The only 'heroes' to graduate from this batch would only look for fame and manipulation. Different from his father, yet so similar. Only the latter was much sinister than his father, whom he absolutely despised.

But his answer was a definite 'no'. Present Mic said they 'could', not that they 'should'. In society, a hero 'can' do evil. No. Anyone, even someone without a quirk can do evil if he wishes to do so. But it didn't mean that they 'should' do evil.

This means that even though those who attack each other may get more points, there should be a system in place to make those with bad actions fail to reach top 4.

Another sore point was the substitute zero-pointer. For some reason, he felt a bit anticipated at fighting it? It shouldn't be any different from a normal zero-pointer, so he would be able to crush it with ease. Yet, he felt anticipation?

His expressionless face slowly morphed a small smile which he himself didn't even realise.

'Only weaklings and unconfident idiots would group themselves in a bunch of backstabbers. When you have absolute power, you would be able to crush everything and anything in your way.' He thought to himself before rushing off to secure the first point while everyone else just continued their staring showdown.

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<Normal POV>

Shoto started rushing towards the first robot available while everyone was staring and trying to intimidate at each other. Shoto didn't care about their measly power and strength. He was confident that he would be able to secure the top 4 place by himself.

Not even 15 seconds had passed when a one-pointer had locked Shoto as a target.

{TARGET LOCKED! PREPARE FOR TERMINATION!}

"Get out of my way." Without even pausing his run, he instantly froze the robot into a giant popsicle, and after he ran past it, the robot crumbled into pieces.

As he continued running, he started turning the ground into ice. His quirk allowed him to work better in a more suited environment which, in this case, means ice. As soon as the ground around him froze and the temperature in the air chilled, his overall capabilities became 10% higher.

He ran around the huge area, dodging falling debris above him left and right while freezing everything in his sight without discrimination.

The other participants didn't stay idle either. As soon as they saw Shoto dash, everyone followed him. Nobody wanted to lose on the possible points.

After a half of the duration has passed, the frequency of robots appearing has dropped.

'So the real test begins now...' Shoto thought as he paid attention to his surroundings. Even though he was strong, it didn't hurt to keep his guard up for any potential traps. And not so long after, his thoughts were proven to be correct.

A screen suddenly appeared and three pictures were shown. Shoto, a black haired girl which had an interesting ponytail, and a green haired girl. Present Mic's voice sounded once again and reached everyone,"THOSE THREE ARE THE BESTS OF THE BESTS. THEY ARE THE TOP THREE. BUUUUT! THERE'S STILL 14 MINUTES BEFORE THE END OF THE TEST! I HOPE YOU GUYS SURVIVE!"

Once Present Mic said those words, Shoto could feel that the already subtle atmosphere became more explosive. He could see the eyes of the examinee shining as they looked at him like he was their prey. His face remained emotionless.

Why would he need to show any emotions? And prey? He may be far from the level of his father, as much as he wanted to deny, but here, with all these examinees? He wasn't a prey. He was the hunter. He was the top.

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Present Mic observed the situation from far away as he sat on a building. He really didn't understand those guys. They were supposed to be smart and composed. So why did they all rush towards the one at the top? Or did they think that his ice was weak? He then looked at the person next to him and sighed, pitying the fate of the examinees.

Beside him was Shido who also looked down on all of their situation. He had a huge smile on his face. "It's my turn to have fun! Zaphkiel! Zadkiel!"

A huge rabbit-like giant suddenly appeared at the edge of the area while an ancient clock appeared behind him. Aiming the musket at the number VIII, he murmured,"Het." A smoke of black wisp floated from the number into his musket, which he subsequently pointed at Yoshinon in his giant form.

BANG!

A gunshot rang out, and all of a sudden, another copy of the giant rabbit-like monster appeared before the first one returned back to his original size.

"Awww...too bad I can't personally freeze those people. My clone, go freeze them for me, will ya?" Yoshinon appeared on Shido's shoulder before he ordered his clone. His clone just grinned a feral grin as his eye shone a red light, before hopping towards where the examinees were duking it out.

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Cannon Fodder (CF) A watched with caution as ten spikes slowly formed out of ground, surrounding the one who currently had the highest points. The fact that he already had twice as many points as the second place was damning, but now, it seemed that his abilities were the real deal.

He blinked. He just blinked, then, the spike that was originally surrounding the boy suddenly grew outwards, aiming at him. In an instant, the spike just stopped right in front of this forehead.

It was so close to piercing his head that a drop of blood flowed down from his forehead. His legs turned jelly in an instant and he fell on his butt. But even then, the ice that was originally on the ground froze both his legs, arms and butt, all the way to his waist. He couldn't move a single inch no matter how hard he tried. His brain couldn't understand what exactly had happened. Everything was happening simply too fast.

One moment he was facing this guy, and the next moment, half his body was frozen. He was shocked stiff, and he couldn't think properly. All of a sudden, the ground rumbled, and the ice around him shattered before he felt no weight under his feet.

'Am I flying?'

The sensation of a rope coiling around him and pulling back away brought him to reality. It was a boy who had shattered the ice encasing him, and another girl who used the rope, both members of his group had saved him.

Once he was away and nicely protected, he found back a little bit of his courage. He stood up and looked at the guy who stood up high in the sky, with both fear and anger.

He crossed eyes with another teammate who simply nodded before screaming,"Do you have no shame? Launching a sneak attack is too low! How can you call yourself a future hero?"

He just needed to buy a little bit of time.

The boy just remained emotionless and replied with disinterest,"So grouping and attacking someone just to satisfy your need is how a hero should act? You're just like my father, utter garbage!"

CF A, his group and the few groups that were also watching the show blushed hard in shame.

"Also, sneak attack? Seriously? You guys are really stupid."

CF A nearly spat his blood in anger. He never lost so much face. Still, as if it wasn't enough, that boy just placed his left hand in his pocket.

Still, a few seconds later, a smirk settled on his face. It should have been long enough now.

The moment he smirked, the guy who crossed his eyes with him previously pointed his index towards their target and said,"BEAM!"

The quirk required a large amount of time to be used, but the result was outstanding.

They watched this with trepidation as the beam hit their target. For a short amount of time, the world became white.

BOOOM!

They closed their eyes and turned their backs. CF A though, even with his eyes closed, began to gloat as he laughed heartily,"Ahaha, sucks to be you! This discussion was all a ploy to buy time!"

While the others weren't as direct, they still wore a smile of satisfaction. Still, the smiles didn't last long because of an emotionless voice that sounded in their ears.

"You guys are truly weak. I gave you time to prepare and you still fail."

They didn't know what was happening, but they knew it couldn't be anything great for them. As they thought, after the beam stopped being fired and the blinding light faded, the guy was completely unharmed. A large circular shield of ice large enough to cover the entire width of a street appeared in front of him.

"Weak...time to end this far-"

"Help!"

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