Bab 38: Delivrance

The test alarm sounded as sweet as an angel's trumpet to the candidates who were still running in fear for their lives. "Finally!" one of them wept, falling to the ground in a mix of exhaustion and sheer relief.

Within the next few minutes, the closest candidates started appearing from the closest edge of Hunter Island's great forest. Most were injured and covered in blood—though many of these injuries had come not from students but from running into trees, crashing through thorn bushes, and falling against sharp rocks.

The candidates who had been caught by students, after all, were mostly too injured to be the first ones to return.

But even among the healthiest of the candidates, their faces were haggard and emotionless. Plenty of them had slept well the previous night, but it had simply not been enough to make up for the harrowing stress of the previous few days. Once these Mice had then been hunted like animals they were named after, they'd simply been unable to cope with the mental and physical stress any longer.

The Hunter Cats also sauntered out of the forest, generally in pretty good moods. They'd been in perfectly good physical and mental condition, after all, and had been in the role of the tormenter instead of the tormented.

As the Hunters showed themselves, there was a lot of murmuring resentment from the candidates. It was difficult to look at the people who'd been trying to ruin your life for the last hour and a half and not have some vile thoughts toward them, after all!

Cats and Mice alike spent the next half hour returning to the starting area. At that point, all those who had qualified at their tasks had returned, so an announcement blared over the loudspeaker for everyone to gather for an official speech.

Everyone obeyed, crowding around the announcement podium. The atmosphere was still until General Pantherson mounted the stand, pulled the microphone toward his mouth, and began to speak. "There we go! Everyone's here. I'd personally like to congratulate all the candidates who have successfully completed this third round of testing. Admirable job, all of you. Now all that's left is to sign some paperwork." He chuckled. "Such a tiny, insignificant thing to stick on the end of such a nightmare, eh?"

His expression became serious. "Now, before I explain the details, I must offer you one last chance to turn back. Over the last few days, you've experienced just a taste of what awaits you over the next three years of training at Hunter Academy. Some of you have witnessed the power of some of our students as they hunted you down. Keep in mind that these students, these monsters who could tear a dozen of you limb from limb without breaking a sweat, are the lowest of the low at Hunter Academy—this was their last chance not to be expelled, remember!"

General Pantherson paused for a moment to sweep a glare over the crowd, letting his words sink in. "To be just an average student here, you'll need to be better than the students you were just running from like the little Mice you are. You think you're up to that? Of everyone who enters Hunter Academy today, only ten percent will still be with us in three years' time."

His face twisted into a smarmy grin. "Now, it takes quite a lot of taxpayer money to educate idiotic worms who are just going to drop out anyway! To cut some of our losses, we're offering a tax-free $5,000 payment to anyone who chooses to leave now. Just raise your hand, go to the faculty member who signals you, and hand over your watch so someone with more of a spine can wear it next year."

He fell silent, a silence that went unbroken for nearly a minute.

Then one cringing young woman raised her hand.

She was quickly followed by another young man.

Then there were ten. Then dozens.

Then a hundred.

It might have seemed insane to an outsider that someone who made it through all these events would turn their back on the life of a Hunter just for a sum of money, but the truth was that many of the candidates had applied out of desperation, only doing it for the chance at riches someday in the future.

In the end, this was a simple choice for many students: Either they continue to suffer and take risks for three years, perhaps even being expelled for poor performance, and only then have the chance at fame and fortune if they proved to be a talented Hunter… or they take the equivalent of five months' wages right here and go back to their normal lives.

So by the time all was said and done, over 250 half-dead students stumbled and staggered their ways toward the faculty and handed in their watches before leaving Hunter Island, never to return.

Though it had cost Hunter Academy over a century's worth of wages for the average person, General Pantherson had been telling the truth—this was an immense savings compared to the cost of training people who would likely drop out in a few months' time.

And with the quitters gone, those who remained were a wholly different crowd. General Pantherson saw in front of him a group of serious, stoney-faced challengers, people who truly believed themselves ready to face whatever lay before them.

The general leaned close to the microphone and said, "Congratulations to those of you who stayed. My colleague will take it from here."