Half an hour later.
Doberman trudged through the forest with empty hands and a blank expression. He looked dazed, as if his mind still couldn't process what had just happened.
—He, a Rear Admiral of Marine Headquarters and a designated overseer for this graduation assessnt, had just been completely robbed of all his chips by a re recruit?
Thirty-seven chips.
Two full days and nights' worth of hard work—gone.
And the worst part?
He couldn't do a damn thing about it.
Fight back? He couldn't win.
Give chase? He couldn't catch up.
All he could do was watch helplessly as Nao finished counting the chips, flashed him a sunny smile, gave a polite "thanks," and casually walked off.
For the first ti, Doberman got a taste of what those poor recruits must've felt when he had robbed them earlier—furious, humiliated… and completely powerless.
He didn't know how long he'd been walking when a familiar figure appeared up ahead.
Doberman looked up.
It was Dalmatian, heading his way—face twisted in the sa vacant, devastated expression. Like soone who'd just lost everything.
Dalmatian froze when he spotted Doberman.
"…Don't tell you…"
"…No way. You too?"
The two n spoke at the sa ti, then fell silent—staring at each other, wide-eyed.
———
Doberman and Dalmatian's humiliation… was just the beginning.
Over the next few hours, they kept bumping into other Commodores from Headquarters—each of them wearing the sa lifeless, empty expression, and each equally robbed clean.
Before long, the number of wide-eyed, speechless victims had climbed from two… to twelve.
All the "examiner" had fallen. Without exception.
"PFFFFTHAHAHAHA! This is too much!"
Back in the white tower's monitoring room, Sentomaru was doubled over in laughter.
"These morons spent two days robbing recruits left and right, and now on the last day, every single chip got stolen back! What a joke! These are supposed to be Rear Admirals and Commodores? What a disgrace—!"
"Sentomaru!"
Dr. Ent glared at him, face burning with embarrassnt.
Can't this guy read the room? Doesn't he realize we've got a room full of Headquarters officers watching right now?!
Zephyr, anwhile, kept his eyes on the screen, watching with growing amusent.
Once Nao made his move, he didn't hold back at all.
With a chuckle low enough only he could hear, Zephyr muttered under his breath:
"They all got stripped bare… So what're you all gonna do now, hmm?"
———
Where there's oppression, there's resistance.
Back in the forest, the twelve robbed Marine officers had finally co to a shared realization.
They'd been played. Used like pawns. Turned into soone else's harvest.
Fury boiled over—and in that mont, a silent consensus was reached:
They'd team up and take the chips back from Nao.
Sure, none of them could beat that monster alone.
But twelve-on-one? There's no way even soone like Nao could take on that many—right?
…Actually, he might be able to.
In that case, forget one-on-one combat—they'd use tactics. Half the group would tie him up and stall for ti, while the others snatched the chips and bailed.
Let's see how he handled that!
Of course, a dozen "examiners" ganging up on a single recruit during a graduation assessnt… sounded beyond pathetic. But given the circumstances, pride could take a backseat.
FWIP!
All twelve Marine officers took off at once, sweeping through the forest like a white storm front, hunting for Nao's trail with murderous intensity.
The sheer noise they made didn't go unnoticed. Dozens of recruits watched in confusion as the blurs of white cloaks shot past.
—Weren't they all split up before, plundering from different directions? Why the hell are they suddenly moving together—and looking like they want to kill soone?!
Unable to resist their curiosity, so of the recruits began trailing behind. They hadn't gone far before the officers abruptly stopped and surrounded a figure in a clearing.
"…Wait, is that—Nao?!"
So sharp-eyed recruits recognized the black-haired boy from a distance.
They looked at one another in shock.
Those guys… are after him?
What the hell did he do to piss off all twelve of them at once?!
"Hey—look at that…"
Soone pointed to the enormous snakeskin bag on Nao's back. His eyes bulged.
"Holy crap. That thing's gotta be holding, like, seven or eight hundred chips!"
"No… I'd say over a thousand," muttered a lanky recruit beside him, mouth twitching. "There's no way one person could collect that many in just three days… Unless—he stole all the officers' chips."
He WHAT?!
The other recruits stared in shock. But judging by the furious, teeth-gritted faces of the marine officers… that might actually be the only logical explanation.
"Twelve-on-one…"
The tall recruit hesitated, then spoke again:
"I know it sounds insane, but I don't think even all of them together can beat a monster like Nao."
"From the way they've positioned themselves, looks like they're planning to split up," said another recruit, adjusting his glasses. "Half of them will keep Nao occupied, while the others—"
BOOM!
A deafening shockwave cut him off. He looked up in alarm—just in ti to see two Commodores flying through the air like broken kites, slamming into the trees dozens of ters away.
BOOM!!
Another explosion. Three more officers—including Doberman himself—were sent hurtling through the forest canopy.
"…."
Silence fell over the crowd of recruits.
They stared, slack-jawed, at the clearing ahead.
Explosions echoed nonstop. Nao's figure darted in and out of the blur of motion, his fists landing like sledgehamrs. Each blow sent multiple officers flying, tearing through their formation like paper.
In just five or six minutes—
There wasn't a single white-cloaked figure left standing.
All twelve officers—two Rear Admirals, ten Commodores—lay scattered across the clearing in a groaning heap, beaten black and blue, clutching their ribs and whining in pain.
And in the center stood Nao—completely unhard.
He even had the ti to stroll around, humming cheerfully, plucking a few extra chips out of the pockets of the fallen.
Satisfied, he slung his massive snakeskin bag over his shoulder and strolled off into the setting sun like it was just another walk in the park.
Gulp.
Dozens of recruits watching from the trees swallowed hard.
They looked at the bag on Nao's back—so full it looked like it weighed a ton. Then they looked at the battered pile of Marine officers lying around him.
And for the first ti… a chilling thought crossed all their minds:
"If we add up all the points we earned in this exam… does it even co close to Nao's score alone?"
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