Entrance exam (3)

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The Orange Zone (Entrance exam of Paragon)

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After getting dropped from the train in mid-air, blue holograms showing the face of a young lady opened up in the locations where the candidates had dropped. A voice rang through the forest, alerting some of the mutants around the candidates.

HELLO MY LITTLE BUNNIES! I AM THE SECOND HEADMASTER OF PARAGON-

GIVE ME THAT! NO ONE ASKED WHO YOU ARE!

The voice changed to that of an adult male.

THE ONLY THING THAT YOU NEED TO DO IN THIS EXAM IS SURVIVE! AS LONG AS YOU DON'T KILL SOMEONE, YOU ARE FREE TO DO ANYTHING YOU WANT!

AND REMEMBER ONE THING... DON'T DIE YOU FUCKING MORONS!

'That was definitely Steve,' I thought.

"I could tell," Ryuk commented.

Many candidates were shocked to see that a higher-up would talk to them in such a way. They never expected that the best academy would treat them like this. Most of these candidates were from the higher echelon, so their expressions were to be expected.

Moving on... The orange zone was a Birchwood forest. It was a dwelling place of orcs and goblins alike, containing some mutants as well. This zone can be cleared with the joint effort of C Ranks or above. Orange zones also have 'alpha mutants', who are much stronger than regular ones. Alpha mutants are most likely those who carry predator genes.

'I don't see anyone from the Major Families, I guess we got dropped off far away from Samuel. He was supposed to be surrounded by them.' I thought.

"Did you not write, where Sylvia dropped?" Ryuk asked.

'...'

"Of course you didn't."

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At a place far away from us

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A group of candidates were forming teams with each other.

A boy with blue eyes and black hair, with a seemingly great physique walked up to Samuel, who was sitting on an orc that he defeated with a lot of effort.

"Hey, do you want to join my team?" The blue-eyed kid asked.

"No thanks, I am looking for someone," Samuel answered.

"If you are searching for the guy with the white lightning, I would say that you give up. Having two speedsters in one team always leads to rivalry, which eventually creates problems for the team." The kid said.

"How did you know?" Samuel asked.

"All the kids from the Major Families are here, with the firstborns being their leaders. If you wanted to join them, you could have asked them already, anyone would let you in after seeing how you took down an orc single-handedly. However, you didn't ask any of them about it, and neither did they ask you back because of their pride, which I think is their loss. You waited for your stomach to heal, indicating that you don't want to join them, because if you did then they would have been ready to help you. Leading me to believe, you want to join the boy with the white lightning." The blue-eyed kid explained.

"..." Samuel was stunned by his explanation. He never thought he would meet such intelligent kids in the entrance exam. Even as a reincarnator he could not match the IQ of a kid. 'Please don't tell me there are others like him at Paragon.'

"I am Roger Silverheart, nice to meet you." Roger put out his hand for a shake.

"Samuel Jefferson, I will be in your care." Samuel shook his hand and joined his team.

From a place very far away from them, a blurred figure kept an eye on them. The blurred figure had glowing purple eyes, and the suit he wore was not visible. His whole body was constantly phasing.

"He didn't mess up the timeline, he altered it in the most perfect way possible. He really is a better version of me." the blurred figure murmured. 'I wonder if he has a way to deal with a demon. John was carrying a lot of food, he should have a lot of salt with him.'

The figure ran away, leaving behind a trail of purple lighting.

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Back to where we are

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I was facing an orc without using my speed and restraining my suit's strength output after a group of orcs ambushed us. This was just a test of my current martial arts. All the ones that I copied were useful in their way.

However, the one that I found would suit me the best was a style that I made by myself. It was a simple style that could deflect and redirect the attacks of the opponent, an excellent defensive technique. It would stall the opponents long enough for me to figure out a way to defeat them with my 'speed thinking'. I named it, water style(I am so bad at naming). It doesn't have any offensive capabilities, I know. Although that is the only flaw it has, I will try to combine it with another technique to fix it. The high-level martial arts are only known by the Silverheart family, I would need to copy it directly by watching them train. Those bastards will never teach their arts to someone who isn't from their lineage.

Rawwwwwrrrr

The orc tried to swing its club towards my head horizontally, I stepped back and bent my back, easily dodging the attack.

The orc looked angry and tired, he had been trying to hit me for ten minutes... But was unable to land a single hit. I would be angry too, if I was him.

At this point, everyone near us thought I was bullying the orc. Poor guy...

The orc threw its club toward me, and as I dodged the hit, it launched itself toward my side to attack me. To think that an orc would throw its weapon, I guess I pushed it to its limits.

I ducked down and swept its legs with my left leg, making it fall to the ground.

Growl

"Sorry big guy, but you gotta die. I wish I could have a training dummy like you... Sigh... It is a pity that Paragon does not accept living dummies." I said as an energy beam shot out from my left arm. To be exact, it shot out from the suit. The suit can extract energy from its user and shoot out energy beams through some parts of the suit. The beams can also be amplified to a certain extent according to the reserve of energy that the user has.

"How was your training session, young master?" John asked, walking towards me.

"Fruitful, how many did you kill?" I asked back.

"One, Slyvia annihilated those other three before I could do anything," John replied.

"I expected as much. Let's move on, we have to at least get the passing score," I exclaimed.