Beast-Tamer: Limitless Evolution
Chapter 97: You’ll Be Surprised

Chapter 97: You’ll Be Surprised

You’ll be Surprised

"It’s quite crowded, despite being so early," Sarah mumbled as she watched the people milling about.

The college entrance exam was quite the event and was an entire thing. A public holiday was also declared, meaning that everyone was free to come and watch it if they pleased.

By now, the preparations had been completed, and it was just time for the exam to commence.

The grandstands had been put into place, and the temporary forest had been fully created. The barrier was up and running and there were several other things like a VIP area, a section where food trucks gathered, the parking lot, and the spot where the participants would gather before the exam commenced.

"That just gives us more opportunities to get started. Come on." Sarah turned to her best friend/cameraman, Richard.

The two of them were part of an up-and-coming News Agency called the Tribunal.

They’d been doing their best to gain more influence, from running several Online accounts on popular social media platforms like TokTok which was a place where people made short skits and reels, as well as one called SnapAndChat.

They had a decent social media presence because of this. However, they were still lacking in many areas, and right now, they were trying to build up their physical presence.

When they heard of the entrance examination, they immediately decided to try and make their presence known as they came as early as possible.

The practical part of the exam usually garnered a lot of attention, which is also why it was decided that it would be turned into a public holiday where everyone could watch the examinees participate.

The competition for media agencies like them was also fierce as everyone was always trying to get the latest scoop. Incidents or accidents happening during the exam, examinees who perform exceptionally, or the latest beef between schools and their principals.

The two of them made their way to the part of the parking lot that was reserved for the schools that would be participating to wait, and unsurprisingly, there were already a few news agencies that had gotten there before them, and there were quite a few that were bigger than them as well.

Unlike their two-person team, there were agencies there that were a lot more well off and had better equipment than they did. As such, it was easy to see that getting a good enough scoop to improve their status wouldn’t be easy.

But they knew this as well as everyone else.

The two of them waited for a while, making sure everything was working well, that Sarah looked presentable, and that they were alert.

As they prepared, though, Sarah couldn’t help but inspect the vicinity.

She had a good vantage point to observe everything, and she had to say, the Citadel had gone all out.

The simulated forest was quite large, more than enough to house all the examinees and the beasts they would be facing off against.

There were also the shield generators. They’d been turned on and off a few times, probably to ensure that they were working properly, and speaking of, the building where the control room was located was quite heavily guarded. Which made sense, no one would want the barrier to fall just as a bunch of the kidna— employed beasts were near the edge. Though, there were measures for that as well.

Then there was the commentator area which was a bit off to the west. It was a tall building that had its own Mana screens that allowed the commentators to shift their attention between participants.

Not far off, there was the VIP lounge which had tinted windows. These would be where the higher-ups, high-ranking beast Tamers, and influential individuals who came to watch the practical exam would reside.

Then there was a raised platform that had runes etched into its surface. This would be where the announcer would be, and it was very dramatic, with the aforementioned runes serving various purposes, voice Amplification being one of them.

Speaking of Mana screens, there were several of them floating in the air, allowing the spectators to watch what was happening from multiple points of view.

As for how they were recording what was happening, well, several drones were scattered throughout the simulated forest to record everything that happened. They served no other purpose besides recording what they saw, and the frequency of their changes depended on, unsurprisingly, the control room.

Everything was neatly assembled and looked sturdy despite the event lasting only a bit over a day at most.

Then again, that wasn’t really a bad thing, as half-assing it just because it wouldn’t take that long would speak volumes about how the Citadel as a whole operated.

"The buses are coming." Richard said, snapping Sarah out of her thoughts.

She turned, and indeed, the school buses of the various schools had started to arrive. There wasn’t much time in between their arrivals, but there was enough time to inspect each one, and the differences between them was a bit apparent.

All the buses were pristine, but some were obviously more advanced than others. Some were bigger and looked more like travel buses meant for long distances than buses meant for schools, others looked like your typical school buses.

A common theme, though, was the variety of colors. Each school had its own color scheme. Blues, reds, yellows, purples, whites, golds, etc.

It looked like an entourage of rich people was arriving, but they were, in fact, schools.

As soon as the buses entered the parking lots and the students began disembarking, the media agencies hounded on them like a pack of hungry animals who smelled blood.

Sarah resisted a sigh in her heart. She already knew that going after the higher-ranking schools wouldn’t be possible due to their limited influence. They’d be happy to interview people from schools of decent renown at least.

It’s at that moment she noticed, pretty close to them, a set of buses had arrived, and the emblem of each bus was one she recognized.

A black circle with what looked like a small, yet prominent white spark, and below written in cursive.

Bright Spark Academy.

Sarah’s eyes lit up.

She suspected the reason this was the case was due to how the Academy had fallen off in recent years.

However, she’d heard a rumor that among them, there were quite the promising candidates, and she fully intended to take advantage of that information.

Not to mention, it was common knowledge

"Hey, Richard, come on." She said and started moving towards the buses where students were beginning to disembark. Richard, to his credit, was quick and reacted accordingly as he followed her.

She spotted other news outlets moving their way as they had finally noticed the school, probably only coming after failing to get close to the more prominent schools, but Sarah was faster than them.

She soon reached and picked her first target who was a dark-skinned boy who looked considerably attractive, and by his side hovered a white and blue bird.

He noticed her as soon as she reached him and tilted his head.

"Excuse me, but may I have a moment of your time?"

Osho looked at the enthusiastic woman in front of him who was holding a small microphone to his face and tilted his head. He instantly noticed that she seemed to be from some sort of small-time news industry, judging by the shirt she wore that had ’Tribunal’ boldly printed on its surface. A name he didn’t recognize.

He shrugged.

"Alright." He replied, not particularly against the notion.

"Great, follow me." She beamed and led him off to the side. He was aware of Ellie staring at him but paid it no heed, she was probably just curious as to why he got whisked away so suddenly.

’Who is she?’ Gale asked curiously.

’A News correspondent.’ He answered promptly. Without giving Gale a chance to ask what that was, he directly transferred the information into the bird’s brain via their bond just as the woman turned to him again, and he saw the cameraman get a good angle and give a thumbs up as he started recording.

"Good day everyone!" She said brightly to the camera.

"I’m your correspondent today, Sarah Adeyemi, and I’ll be the one covering the greatly anticipated Practical Portion of the College entrance exam." She said, her eyes bright. She seemed genuinely excited as she spoke.

"Behind me, you can see that the various schools have started arriving with their candidates, and you can tell that the air is charged with nerves and confidence, and luckily, I managed to get one of the students to speak with, and one from the Bright Spark Academy, no less." She finally turned to Osho and asked.

"What’s your name young man?" She asked.

"Osho. Just Osho." He replied and she nodded, not finding the lack of a surname strange.

"So, how are you feeling about this event? Are you confident?" She asked with a smile which Osho reciprocated.

"I feel great. My classmates and I have been preparing intensely for this day, so I can say without a doubt that we will do well." He answered calmly and Sarah nodded, seeming impressed.

"Speaking of, it’s apparent that Bright Spark Academy has been struggling a bit recently. Do you believe that your school can make those allegations nothing more but that? Allegations?" Osho chuckled inwardly.

"I assure you, everyone is in for a surprise."