Transcendent Gene
Chapter 206: Entering The Academy [2]

Chapter 206: Entering The Academy [2]

The circus...was not there.

The First Institute couldn’t be underestimated. They certainly hadn’t experienced this specific situation in the past, but they’d been forced to go through many trials and tribulations to become one of Arcadia’s biggest Sequencing Academies.

When dangerous situations happened, it was rare for the institute to respond in such a way that drew media attention. After all, the Headmaster was already a strange man.

He was allowed to stay in his position because the institute was created to raise soldiers who would protect humanity. His methods worked even if they could be considered cruel by some.

One of such methods sparked from his tendency to allow students to face dangers so they could grow.

He didn’t like pulling students out of real-life scenarios just because they were young and new to Sequencing. In his mind, if they did not learn early, then they’d never learn at all.

Gio and Neriah’s situation was even more unique than usual. Usually, if something happened, it was in an area supervised by a faculty member who could help if the students got too close to death.

Gio and Neriah disappeared entirely. The investigations of the abyss they fell into led nowhere. The most they were able to find was that there was short-distance teleportation technology hidden in the ground nearby.

A confrontation with Nightreign would mean nothing. Their speciality was long-distance teleportation. Short-distance variants were being produced by several companies and could be purchased freely, albeit at a very high price and only if one could obtain permission for the installation process.

This teleporter was clearly installed illegally. On top of that, it was an ancient model with no identification that broke down after the final teleportation, losing any of the data it previously held.

There was no way to find where the students had gone without launching a full-scale investigation, and launching a full-scale investigation would do more harm than good.

Their response was carried out silently without making anyone aware that there was a problem.

Firstly, Neriah and Gio were both "disqualified" from the entrance ceremony. Their battle was a perfect cover-up. It was said that they fought hard enough to break their student barriers at the same time and got expelled from the forest together.

With the pretense that they were resting somewhere in the academy, there was no need to do anything more to explain their disappearance, at least while the entrance ceremony was ongoing.

When the teleportation device was extracted and taken to the school, the abyss also disappeared, replaced by a deep trench filled with dirt and mud.

The Illusion Frame was removed, and the destroyed environment was left to serve as proof of the battle that took down two of the top contenders of the entrance ceremony.

Meanwhile, a very covert search effort was launched in the vicinity of Celestelle. After one day of investigation, a team was able to learn of the relative radius the teleporter could reach. Within that 500-kilometer range, several teachers spread out and looked for any signs of human activity.

And two days later, it was one of those teachers who found the two students running wildly towards the city.

Whooooosh!

The forest whipped around them. There was a grin on Gio’s face as he looked to the person who was running at his side.

"I’m going ahead! Try to catch up!"

"Don’t you da–"

Bang!

Neriah’s voice was left in the distance.

Gio’s feet lit up with virtual blue light as he turned into a speeding bullet. He zipped through the trees, just barely avoiding a few impacts as he embraced the feeling of the winds whipping against his face.

They’d been racing on and off to keep themselves entertained. It was also a great way for Gio to get used to the new strengths of [Virtual Manifestation].

It’d be a completely unfair race if Neriah were still as she was before. She wouldn’t have been able to keep up with him at all if he were using his Sequence.

Yet, when he said he was going to speed up...

He looked back at where he left her. She was no longer there.

Booom!

His eyes widened. His head snapped forward and he planted his feet in the ground, abruptly shifting his momentum sideways.

As he stumbled to a stop, he glared in the direction of the dust cloud that suddenly spawned in front of him.

"Really? Right there?"

"You’re the one who decided to leave me behind."

Gio rolled his eyes as Neriah’s face became visible. He had a feeling that his personality was rubbing off on her, because she wasn’t the type to do this before.

"You’ve become more bold ever since you got that new Sequence. You don’t even know how to use it yet and you’re pulling stuff like this."

"I don’t need to know how to use it to do this kind of thing. It’s just brute force."

She grinned and pointed to the ground below her.

"I know you want to try it."

Gio rolled his eyes. It wasn’t something he’d be incapable of for very long, but he did admit that it looked very entertaining.

"Just one time before we get back on the road. I know you can land accurately, so you can’t say it was because of that."

Realistically, she’d only done it so she could show off her new Sequence. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen her move the way she just did, after all. Her new Sequence was precisely the reason she could keep up with his speed.

But speed was not the strong suit of that power.

As she said herself, she just found a way to brute-force it.

"Right here is good enough, yeah?"

"Yes. There should be fine."

Gio approached and stood close to Neriah, bending his knees as if he was bracing himself for impact.

"Ready?" She asked, her palms facing the ground and leaking a subtle golden-yellow energy.

"Yeah. Let’s do it."

All she needed was the signal. In an instant, her energy slammed into the ground. The earth rumbled fiercely, and in the next moment...

Boom!

A cylindrical section of the ground around them rose up, shooting them into the sky like pinballs.

"Hahahaha!"

Gio laughed as they flew through the sky. He looked at the forest below from the peak of their arc, enjoying the view before his body slammed towards the surface again.

Whoosh!

A virtual blue arm rose from the ground below, its hand transforming into a cushion that he and Neriah landed on.

She wasn’t the only one who could do fun things with her new powers.

The distance they made wasn’t small at all. Neriah’s new ability allowed her to control the earth like a more constrained version of Alice’s ability, but her first thought was to use it to fly.

Gio shook his head as he lowered them back onto flat ground.

"We’ve been playing around too much. We’ll be late if we keep delaying like this," he said.

Neriah shrugged as she responded.

"It’s nobody’s fault but VNIR. You can’t expect me to not experiment with new abilities. Otherwise, how will I win our duel?"

"Right, the duel..."

Gio smiled wryly. She had become more expressive, sure, but Neriah was still the same person. She didn’t suddenly forget who she was. Merely, the journey to her goals could now be expedited.

It was when Gio and Neriah were conversing like that and preparing to start traveling again that it happened.

All of a sudden, an aura approached them. It didn’t seem immediately hostile, but it was much, much stronger than them.

They both drew their swords, their eyes cold and trained on the sky. Neriah was in front while Gio stood slightly behind her, prepared to provide her with cover the moment she decided to rush the potential enemy.

A human appeared in the sky, levitating freely without issue.

She spotted two people flying in the distance, leading her to trace them, but they were no longer in the air. Her eyes went to the ground instead, where she sensed two small auras facing her with hostility...

"Oh...!"

A small gasp came from her mouth before she covered it with slightly widened eyes.

"There you are, the two of you!"

If her naive appearance wasn’t enough, then the relief in her voice was.

She was not a foe, but a friend.

With her, the three hours left to Celestelle would be cut down to no more than twenty minutes.

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