Chapter 45: The Most Terrifying Robbery in History—One Person Steals from Everyone

The two people lying on the ground fell into silence upon hearing Liam's voice. They knew he was here to rob them, but this kind of opening line was entirely unexpected.

Robbery? Is there room for negotiation in that?

The student clad in ominous black armor was silently trying to break free from Liam's ice restraints while also stalling for time, speaking up, "Negotiate? What if we say no, that we won't hand them over?"

"That's fine too," Liam replied casually. "But if you refuse, then I'll just take them by force."

The black-armored man was dumbfounded, staring at Liam's calm face, unsure of what kind of mindset could produce such a statement.

Helplessly, he said, "What's the difference?"

"Of course, there's a difference," Liam responded. "One way, I force you, and the other, you give them up willingly. You'd keep a bit more dignity that way."

Black-armored man: ...

He didn't know how to respond. The overpowered madman before him seemed to have a thought process that was hard to follow.

"Alright, brother, stop struggling. I know what you're trying to do." Liam had already noticed the subtle movements of the person in front of him. He stomped his foot, thickening the layer of ice around the man.

That stomp completely subdued the black-armored man, who gave up resisting. As he glanced at the pile of Divine Cores under Liam's lounge chair, he couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth.

Were these all stolen from others? Judging by the number, it seemed he had definitely hit an unbreakable wall.

Casually tossing them on the ground like that...

"Why can't you collect the Divine Cores yourself? Why resort to this?" At that moment, the girl bound by chains, who had remained silent until now, looked up at Liam.

"You have so many here. You must have stolen them from quite a few people, right?"

"Watching from the sidelines while others fight, then taking their spoils—how despicable!"

The girl's resentful gaze locked onto Liam. It had to be said, it took guts to provoke someone when you were bound up like that.

But to her surprise, Liam didn't get angry at all. Instead, he nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, you think so too? I also think it's pretty despicable."

Girl: ???

Liam continued, "But these Divine Cores were all fought for by me personally. You two are the first ones I've encountered, and I probably could've had even more if I kept going..."

"You fought for them yourself?" The girl was stunned. "Then why would you...?"

"Alright, Xiao Yao, that's enough. It's within the rules," the black-armored man cut her off and then tried to bargain with Liam, saying, "Brother, we admit defeat—it's not a matter of skill."

"But taking everything isn't fair, is it? The Divine Cores we have, we earned through teamwork and hunting monsters, not by robbing others."

"We wanted to leave early to avoid conflict with others. We didn't want to be part of this struggle."

"Our ranking was never going to be very high anyway. How about we give you one as a toll fee?"

The black-armored man's face was full of sincerity, as if he were haggling over the price of vegetables.

"I can't do that. It wouldn't be fair to everyone else if I didn't take all of yours," Liam said, sounding troubled.

"Besides, didn't you say your ranking wouldn't be very high with your current number of Divine Cores? Then there's no problem—give them all to me, and I can guarantee your final ranking will be much higher than it is now!"

Without further discussion, Liam flung out his chain, forcibly snatching away the two students' wristbands and extracting the few crystals they had inside.

He didn't even bother storing them, simply tossing the Divine Cores near his lounge chair to mix with the rest of his pile.

"What the—!" The man hadn't expected Liam to be so ruthless, and he panicked.

But Liam had no intention of continuing the conversation. He merely unfroze their bodies, then flung them out of the secret realm with his chain.

...

"This is a massive difference in power levels."

"This kind of one-hit knockout is rare. Those two actually ranked in the upper middle among the students."

"Before, it didn't seem like much when he was just hunting creatures in the secret realm, but now, with this comparison..."

"I reckon I didn't have this kind of strength in my youth."

"Do you even need to guess? Have some shame, Old Yang..."

Outside the secret realm, the judges, who had witnessed the entire fight that ended in less than five seconds, were all in awe, praising Liam's display.

A few moments later, the man and woman stumbled out of the eerie green gate.

Hearing the judges' remarks, they hung their heads in shame.

They knew they had probably become the backdrop to a rising genius.

But to their surprise, no one criticized them. Instead, someone even clapped softly.

"Not bad. We saw your performance; you're both upright kids."

"How about coming to Southern Academy? There's a scholarship available."

"Hey, hey, that's against the rules. No recruiting talk allowed during the test..."

Listening to the kind words instead of the anticipated criticism, the girl's eyes welled up with tears.

She quickly bowed to the vice dean of Southern Academy, who had just made the offer, and said, "Thank you for your appreciation, but with our current points... we're probably dead last. We were..."

The vice dean waved her off, stopping her from continuing.

"We saw everything. Don't worry about it. There's no need to be upset. If you weren't a match for him, just work harder in the future."

"But let me ask you—what do you think of that young man's strength?"

Hearing this question, the black-armored boy forced a bitter smile and replied, "He's strong—so strong that I felt completely helpless."

"Dean, is he really one of our peers? It's starting to feel like he was planted here to test us."

But the vice dean of Southern Academy nodded, confirming Liam's status as a fellow student.

"If you really think he's strong, then why not stick around and watch?"

"You said you thought you'd be dead last?"

"Not necessarily. You might even end up tied for second place."

"Huh?" The two of them were stunned, clearly not understanding what he meant.

The vice dean smiled, not explaining further, and turned his attention back to Liam's test screen.

He knew that what was happening there was the most terrifying robbery in the history of this test—one person robbing everyone!