Chapter 19: Chapter 18
Ridiculously hilarious as it may have sounded for them but not for me, who is dead serious about fighting Allen one-on-one with our flags at stake. I feel actually good like I will be able to pull it off against Allen, who is a six-foot-tall athlete. Compared to Allen, I am a few inches shorter than him and had never played any kind of sport in my life, but I think my oak splitting skill really does help me maintain a tough body.
Splitting oakwood thrice the thickness compared to my body was indeed hard and tiring. You have to maintain a tight grip while precisely aiming in the middle.
The calluses in my hands are starting to disappear, and they might be gone before I realize it.
"Okay, I will accept your challenge, wimp!"
"Ooohhh! Allen's gonna whip the wimp's ass!"
Everyone is having fun mocking me for challenging Allen in a fight. Yes, he is well-built, pretty buffed for a freshman, but I think everyone has their
own weaknesses.
"Hey, give me my flag and two more we have captured!"
Sean handed three flags to Allen, one was red, meaning it was his, and the other two were both green flags.
"Three flags, right?"
I nodded, my eyes locked onto his as I brought out the flags I had so far and pulled them out of my uniform.
"You hold onto them if you want," said Allen with a grin on his face, handing the flags over to me. "Don't go crying to the director's office if I break your nose, okay?"
I held all six flags in my hands while Allen picked up the nursing student on the ground, helping him stand up.
A student can't possibly steal their classmate's flag and make it their count because it comes with a penalty. If you scan your classmate's flag as your count, the fifty account points and one personal point will not be added to your count. Instead, you will be penalized for one thousand account points, and three personal points will be deducted from your score.
However, if the flag you stole from your classmate was captured flag, then you will be penalized and punished depending on how you did it.
That is if you are reported by your classmates, and there is proof of threatening or forcing your classmates on surrendering their flags.
Everything was explained by Prof Denise, leaving no important part of the test unexplained.
As I was silently watching Allen and the nursing students talked, the voice inside my head spoke yet again to me.
[Do you wanna mess Allen real bad?]
He asked hoarsely. His voice was so persuasively tempting that the curiosity killed the cat. I didn't have to answer the voice, for it already knew what my answer to his questions would be before I even speak.
[Wage only the captured flags you have and switch your red flag with Allen's red flag! He will accept it because he thinks you are a coward, a wimp who goes back on his words. That way, when the special exam end, not only he would lose 1000 account points, but he will also lose 3 personal points! Isn't that hella amazing?]
What the voice told me was indeed cunning, I would say, but...
'But I think there is something even better than that, something more cunningly wicked.'
When I thought the voice knew what was going on inside my head, he burst into a burst of mocking laughter.
[How ridiculous! Do you really think that a wimpy guy like you will win against the six-foot-tall Allen, who surely has lots of experience in brawls?! You are stupid! Just do what I told you, so even if you lose, he will still be penalized?]
'Are you not on my side?! You were even encouraging me earlier!'
[Don't get me wrong, Esecleus! Keke, I am neither on Allen's side nor your side! I just want to see everyone suffer. That is why! Does it not excite you? Whenever you see someone give up and crumble, freeze in terror as they suffer! I like to witness everything that makes humans pathetic!]
Just when I thought I earned another friend that could help me, he decided to reveal why he was telling me such things. Convincing me to fight was just so he could see people get hurt. Even I, whose mind is being gaslighted by him, slowly being taken over as he feeds me with depressingly motivating words, was a subject to his amusement.
'What are you? Who are you? Where did you come from?'
[Kekeke, I am disheartened, Esecleus. I am you, sound like you, look exactly like you, yet you don't recognize me! That is quite rude of you, Me! Kekeke! As for where I come from, I have always been inside of you. 'Something' just brought me out to the surface, awoke me from the depths of your shallow mind! I am the complete opposite of you, courageous, clever, brave, I am you, yet I am above you!]
The silence in me was broken when Allen spoke.
"The two of you here will be witnesses to our fight for flags! If one of us got beaten up and run to the school to report a false statement that could lead to punishment of the winner, the two of you will step in, and you two will tell the tale, okay?!"
All they could do was a nod to him and became a witness to a fight when they should be going around the forest, looking for a target to capture some flags.
"The two of you can always run away from here, but the two of you should
be aware that we can always go after your sorry asses."
He was threatening them, planting fear inside their mind as both of his hands gripped tightly on their shoulders, gritting their teeth as they endured the pain.
"The fight won't take long. I bet it will be done in a minute or so!" Robert grinningly said, reassuring the two nursing students.
~
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone