I Became the Genius of the Gigant Academy - Chapter 34:

The cadets boarded the Gigant under the guidance of Karl and his assistants. In the first class, many cadets couldn’t even operate the gigant properly, but now they could do it easily.

Cueng!

“Good, we’re done!”

Karl said as the last of the cadets got up and stood on their feet.

“Abel! Turn around!”

At those words, Abel skillfully maneuvered his craft to turn around. Karl pointed to Abel’s gigant and said.

“That blue plate behind you is the tail!”

There was a blue metal plate attached to the back of Abel’s gigant, Lupus. It wasn’t really just a simple metal plate, but rather an artifact of some sorts, specially developed for training purposes.

“If you put your hand on it, it will automatically be transferred to your own gigant! And if you still have the tail till the end of the time limit, you win!”

As Karl said, it was an artifact that could be transferred to one’s own gigant simply by touching it. It wasn’t necessarily used for only tail catching, but for all sorts of similar exercises.

“Abel, Daniel, and May, you’re the three with the tails, and you three are to move to the location I’ve marked!”

“Alright!”

Abel saw a position marked on the floor not far away and walked over to it. The other seven stayed behind. Karl went over a few rules, then added a last-minute caution.

“Oh, and you’ll be eliminated if you touch the barrier. So try as much as possible not to move to the outskirts!”

“Okay.”

Hearing everyone answer in unison, Karl moved to the safety zone with the other assistants, and shortly after, he called out in a loud voice.

“Start!”

Bang!

A loud bang rang out at the same time as the start signal. Three of the seven Cadets were running forward at the same time. Among them, the one that stood out the most was the one with a red sun emblem, controlled by a boy named Kalian.

“Spread to both sides at the same time!”

As if having planned it, Kalian gave orders to the other two in a shrill voice. The two running on either side of Kalian spread out to the left and right. They hadn’t coordinated their movements, but it was still elaborate.

‘Not bad.’ 

Abel thought as he watched them. Kalian was pretty good. In terms of overall skill, there wasn’t much difference from Daniel, and in fact, he’s only one notch behind the special class.

‘The two guys on either side of him are in the mid-tier level.’

In many ways, it was a decent show-off for being rushed. But it wasn’t intimidating. If they were quite intimidating in the first place, Abel wouldn’t have had time to think about them this leisurely.

Thud!

Abel waited for them to close in before abruptly launching himself forward to the right in surprise.

“Huh?”

His opponent ducked as if he hadn’t expected him to charge at him, then swung his fist a bit too late.

Whoosh!

But his fist brushed through thin air. That was to be expected. This was because there was a big difference in level. Normally, a group of three suddenly charging in unison would be intimidating, which was what Kalian was aiming for. However, Abel didn’t care. He just casually rushed through the weakest part and broke the encirclement in an instant.

Koorong! 

Thud!

Then, May took advantage of Abel’s distraction and slipped out of the encirclement with ease. Daniel was the last one standing. Abel turned his head to see Daniel standing tall.

‘Everyone is moving slowly.’

It wasn’t just the three cadets in front that were aiming for the tail, there were four more, and a cadet had taken advantage of the distraction when all the attention was focused on the three cadets who ran forward and sprung into action. The problem was the opponent was Abel.

Thump! 

Abel deliberately flung himself to his side, making a loud noise. His opponent tried to reach out with his arm, but it only cut through thin air.

“Chet!”

Abel heard a tongue-clicking sound, which made him smirk at the sound. With a reaction like that, it was clear his opponent still thought there was a chance. Abel was going to dispel that notion once and for all because what he wanted was to be invincible, not just a little better.

“Attack at once!”

Someone shouted, lunging for Abel. As if on cue, two others rushed toward him. Perhaps taking a cue from earlier, they spread their arms wide from the start

‘You’re going to try and catch me first.’ 

Daniel and May were thankfully relaxed. Abel knew this, but rather than thinking it was unfair, he gladly accepted it. There was no reason to hate it when they gave him a stage to show off his skills, and he couldn’t resist.

Whoosh! 

Infamous Scans

Abel was the first to leap high into the air. Then, as if in unison, those who rushed to surround him threw their hands up. Inside their heads, they must have realized that this was their chance. It’s much harder to dodge in midair. However, that’s just for generalizations.

Phew-!

With a burst of air, Abel’s gigant was pushed through. With the blessing of the wind, he could dodge in midair for as long as he wanted. Of course, that wasn’t the end of it, as the cadets were relentless in their pursuit, and Abel found a different way to evade them each time.

Sometimes he used the Sage’s Crown to slip past the four of them and other times he used the Shadow Staff to disperse them altogether. One would think that the situation would change over time with so many people clinging to one person, but it didn’t.

“Whoa, whoa.”

“Hmph.”

The cadets were exhausted that they were panting so hard the sound could be heard outside their gigant.

“Everyone is at a low level.”

“Well, at that level, it’s not too bad,”

Abel was leisurely having a conversation with Lupus. At this point, the other cadets were beginning to have doubts about attacking Abel. They hadn’t touched his gigant in nearly ten minutes, so they had a reason to be. They soon turned their backs on Abel and headed toward Daniel and May as if they had reached an agreement.

“Looks like they finally gave up…”

[I guess so.]

Abel watched Lupus make his way back with his arms crossed. Daniel and May, who had been relatively leisurely guarding their tails, were pushed back as the other cadets joined them.

Of the two, Daniel seemed to be in more trouble. May is naturally quick on her feet and has a good sense of combat, so she handled them well. On the other hand, Daniel was not exceptional except for his stamina, so when the others set up a perimeter and narrowed it down, they began to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Kwaaang-!

Boom!

There were series of erupted noises.

“Hmph. ”

Abel continued to watch, and one cadet still stood out. It was none other than Kalian, the one who had lunged at Abel at the beginning.

‘He had red hair and was from a knight family.’ 

Abel recalled Kalian’s information. He remembered him because he wasn’t entirely unimportant in the game. He wasn’t in the main cast, but he was one of the extras.

‘He’s a pretty good spearman, but his impatient personality prevents him from using the skill to its full potential. He still needs to improve at operating a gigant.’

Although this may seem more of a downside than an upside, he was much better than the other cadets. As far as Abel was concerned, if he could improve his skill in operating a gigant, he could compete with the other cadets in the special class.

[What a failure of strategy.]

Just then, Lupus spoke up. And Abel asked

“Strategy?”

[Yes. That Daniel fellow over there, there’s nothing exceptional about him except for his stamina, and now is the time for him to shine.]

“That’s true.”

It’s already been over ten minutes since the chase began, and most of the cadets have spent close to ten minutes trying to catch Abel somehow, which means they were running out of energy.

[His stamina is probably the same as before.]

“I think so too, I’m sure Daniel must have moved pretty hard, but his movements didn’t look much different from the beginning, which is not surprising given his monstrous stamina.”

Physical and mental strength are deeply involved in gigant operations, and Daniel was unrivaled in both areas in his first year. On the other hand, the situation would have been different if Daniel had been intensively targeted from the beginning because his physical skills and gigant operation were not that good. As Lupus said, it was a failure of strategy.

[The failure to recognize the difference in level between you and your gigant. They’re all terrible.]

Abel smirked at the remark. In Lupus’s eyes, Abel was barely hovering above the passing line, so it was only natural that his assessment of others would be harsh. And so the situation was going smoothly for those who originally had the tails. And when the appointed time had passed.

“Now, that’s enough!”

Karl shouted in a shrill voice. Those who had been attacking Daniel with their full strength halted. Karl continued to speak through his voice amplification artifact.

“Good work, everyone. As I said before, I will reward the three of you who successfully defend your tails.”

Abel nodded in satisfaction but was puzzled. Unlike usual, the quest completion window didn’t immediately pop up. Meanwhile, Karl continued.

“The seven of you should head to the outskirts first!”

It was now that Abel realized that Karl had other ideas.

As expected, Karl smirked and spoke in a loud voice.

“And the other three, I’ll give you two options!”

“What is it?”

The sincere Daniel answered Karl’s question with a question. In response, Karl held up a finger.

“First options. You get the reward I mentioned at the beginning, and you take a rest. It’s a very simple choice.”

He then held up a second finger and continued.

“The second option is to play another round of tail catching and get a better reward. It doesn’t matter which option you choose, so pick the one you want!”

“If it’s tail catching, will it be the same thing we did earlier?”

This time it was Abel who asked the question. Because no matter how much you look at Karl, he always seems to have a plan. Karl simply replied.

“Of course not, because this time you’re not starting with the tail, but instead, you’ll end up stealing it!”

“From whom?”

Abel continued to ask, and Karl muttered to himself in a low voice.

“This is why I don’t like quick-witted cadets…”

Of course, Abel didn’t hear that and asked back

“What?”

“It’s nothing. It’s your senior who’s going to be the role of the tail this time. They helped me out once before.”

At those words, Abel immediately thought of Claire. And just as Abel expected, Claire, who had been waiting for Karl’s beckoning, walked over.

‘Wouldn’t it be nice if I get a better reward?’  

Abel thought to himself when he saw Claire. Claire is not an ordinary senior but one of the geniuses in the 3rd year. The last time she was caught off guard and only had to make one move to make it work, but she’s pretty good at tail catching

It was a different area. As seen earlier from Abel’s seven cadets, the difference in skill was clearly revealed. Of course, Abel’s answer was predetermined from the start.

“I will do it.”

The more complicated the challenge is, the rewards will be much sweeter when he succeeds.

[To be continued.]