Hardcore Fantasy – Chapter 19: The Show Must Go On [II]

"Hum, instructor?" 

"What is it, Elizabeth?" – Evelyn asked with her eyes still on her phone.

"Eh… How are we supposed to catch dimensional bunnies?" – Elizabeth belatedly posed the main question.

"…" – At her question, the others broke free from Evelyn's pace and also turned to look at her, noticing only now that they didn't know how to do what she asked them to.

Evelyn maintained a smile on her face – "You took your time to notice, though you still don't seem to have caught on. To answer your question, I will give you a hint by saying you don't need to really catch them, the rest you need to figure out your selves." 

"Seriously?" – Melody accidentally blurted out. Realizing her blunder, she quickly covered her mouth.

"Dead serious." – Evelyn glanced at the pink-haired woman and her smile widened a little – "Now you need to catch 150." – She looked back at the phone.

The group glared at Melody with unsatisfied expressions but didn't reprimand her beyond that, they knew it was a blunder and she already recognized her mistake.

"Alright, gather here, everyone." – Elizabeth called the group – "It would be better if we came up with something before starting." – She explained her thoughts and asked them for their ideas.

"True." – Lathz agreed – "Miss Evelyn said that we don't need to really catch them… So, maybe mark them?" – She suggested.

"That might work, however, would it count as "catching" them?" – Diana chimed in.

Lathz also had the same doubt but didn't know the answer.

"That's an idea. Any more?" – Elizabeth used her magic to produce an illusion of a dimensional rabbit, floating in the center of the circle they made.

"We could try catching a part of their bodies, like an ear or paw." – Melissa suggested.

Surprisingly, Akihiko opposed the idea and made some hand signals.

"He said that with this number of monsters, even if they are passive, it would be bad if we sent them into a frenzy." – Beatrix translated – "I agree with him." – And also gave her opinion on the idea.

"That is a valid concern…." – Melissa admitted and fell silent, trying to think of a new idea.

"Hum… How about we mark them and take a photo with the marked one?" – Nyza suggested and flinched the moment everyone stared at her at the same time – "Eh… Miss Evelyn only said we need to catch them, not bring them somewhere else, right? This might be what she meant with "not really catch"." – She explained and the stares intensified.

"Nyza…" – Darlan put a hand on her shoulder – "Are you a genius?" – His eyes seemingly shone at her idea.

"Indeed." – Roxanne shared the same opinion.

"…" – Akihiko also nodded.

"That is a good idea, Nyza." – Elizabeth also commented and the illusion of the dimensional bunny changed and now contained a random number with a strange abstract drawing alongside it.

'That's a damn QR code…' – Melody thought while her eyebrow twitched.

"We will use the marking function of our bio-systems and then take a photo with the dimensional bunnies." – Elizabeth declared. Seeing that the others didn't oppose, she then delved into the topic of how to approach one without startling them.

After a few minutes of discussion, they eventually separated themselves into their teams and went to try the decided strategy.

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"Aki, I will mark it." – Elizabeth whispered and tapped her bio-system, which then shot a small particle of light that clashed with the monster and became a drawing with random numbers along with it.

*Squeak*

The bunny's ears twitched and it raised its head from the grass before looking around.

Elizabeth waited for the thing to burrow its head back into the grass before she quickly got up and tapped the bracelet again.

The dimensional bunny raised its head again and turned its head toward the white-haired woman.

As soon as its star-shaped eyes caught the woman's figure, the dimensional rabbit jumped and its form faded into nothingness, leaving behind only some faded afterimages.

Elizabeth's bio-system notified her that the signal of the target previously marked had been lost. However, instead of minding it, she tapped her bracelet and a holographic screen appeared displaying an image.

Her lips arced up when she saw the photo.

The dimensional rabbit startled while looking at the camera, and Akihiko right behind the rabbit with his hand seemingly touching it due to the angle in which the photo had been taken.

"The mark is visible and he seems to be touching the monster… I think this fulfills the requirements." – She observed and turned to her childhood friend – "Aki, I got the photo."

Akihiko nodded at her and waited, he didn't ask about the image since he wouldn't be able to see it anyway.

"Only 100 more to go." – Elizabeth groaned.

And although she couldn't see Akihiko's face due to him wearing a helmet, she knew his face mustn't even have changed.

"Alright, let's just get over with it." – Her eyes shone and both she and Akihiko vanished from their spots.

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"Finally…" – Elizabeth sighed with a tired expression.

It had been a little more than four hours since they started the training, and only now did she and Akihiko finish.

Halfway through their strategy, the rabbits seemed to have become more wary and started to flee at the slightest disturbance, rendering Akihiko's stealth almost useless. Hence, instead of the estimated 2 hours, they took more than double that to accomplish their goal.

"…" – Akihiko turned his face to his childhood friend on the ground and waited for her to recover.

"Let's go back." – After a few minutes of resting, Elizabeth got up by grabbing Akihiko's hand and started to walk back toward Evelyn.

Evelyn herself was casually sitting on a rock while observing the other teams that were having an even harder time than the pair.

"Instructor, we finished the task." – Elizabeth spoke.

Evelyn's eyes then landed on the pair and a mysterious smile appeared on her lips – "Oh, yeah?" – Her tone gave them a bad omen – "Show me."

Still having a bad feeling in her chest, Elizabeth tapped her bio-system and sent the images to Evelyn.

Evelyn also tapped her bio-system and a floating holographic screen appeared above her bracelet.

"…" – As she scrolled down through the images and saw their solution, her smile started to grow the more she scrolled down.

'We didn't finish, did we?' – Elizabeth started to understand the reason for her unease.

"Hahahahahahhaha!" – Evelyn burst out in a fit of laugh when she finished seeing the images.

"…" – Akihiko's face remained unchanged but Elizabeth's twitched, knowing they probably got it all wrong.

"Aha~" – Evelyn eventually managed to stop laughing – "*Sigh* Ah, it's been some time since I've laughed this much." – She commented – "Your solution is indeed creative and technically attends to all the requirements I proposed. I haven't seen examinees do something like this in quite a while." – She pointed at some rocks with her chin – "Take a seat. When the others finish I will explain what happened." – She then went back to observing the other teams.

"…" Elizabeth stared at her for a moment but when she noticed Akihiko taking a seat, she begrudgingly sat down and waited.

As time passed, the afternoon sky started to gain darker colors as the sun was about to set on the horizon.

Only then did all the other teams manage to finish their training.

"I-Instructor…" – Lathz spoke, breathing roughly – "We did it." – She was tired after running around trying to take the photos.

"Hum, I saw it." – Evelyn commented but still patiently went through all their images, even though she saw the whole process.

After seeing all the images, she asked them to take a seat, either on the rocks or on the ground, and she got up.

Walking until she was in front of everyone, Evelyn looked at them with a mischievous and borderline sadistic smile before speaking – "Congratulations to all of you, you failed." 

"Huh!?"

"What!?"

"How!?"

A series of questions were hurled at her but Evelyn didn't bat an eye at them – "Shush, I will now explain how you all failed this training." – She hushed them with her words.

The group quieted down and stared at her with gazes that might bore a hole on someone.

"The reason why you failed is because you went through with it." – She spoke and immediately stunned them all – "The task of "catching dimensional bunnies" isn't something achievable in the current moment, to begin with." – She casually stated.

"What do you mean by that, instructor?" – Roxanne asked what the whole group wanted to know.

"Do you know the saying "good soldiers follow orders"?" – She asked them and after seeing them all nodding, she continued – "Well, that's just absurd to me." – Her eyes glanced at each of them – "Good soldiers deny stupid orders." – She spoke.

"…" – The group remained silent some agreed with her and some didn't, but they waited for her to finish.

"Elizabeth, Melody, Bianca, and Monica didn't have a practical exercise with me yet, so they don't know." – She looked at Akihiko and the others – "Remember what happened at the nest?"

At her words, most of them shivered. The malice from the insects had been long since removed, but some traumas remained.

"That was arguably a stupid order." – She stated – "However, that is the norm and you have to follow it since we don't have any other choice. The really stupid orders aren't those suicidal ones but the nonsensical ones." – Her words practically lit up light bulbs in the heads of some – "Things like "catch dimensional bunnies", for example."

With this, everyone more or less understood what she meant when she said they failed.

"The purpose of this training wasn't to accomplish the task I imposed." – Her small smile widened again – "It was to deny the task."