The Genius Evolution Store

While Auric was reading his note, Lindwurm suddenly came to warn him. ”Auric, someone is standing outside the door.”

”!!!” Auric hurriedly turned around, looking at the door. There was indeed someone. That person was hiding his presence, but his energy signature remained visible to his eyes.

Meanwhile, the three girls were already sleeping in their respective beds, so he was probably the only person among the students who had yet to fall asleep.

’I don’t like this. Who is it?’ Auric asked.

Lindwurm was flying outside to check the situation. When he came out, the shocking part wasn’t the person who was waiting outside the door. Instead, it was the fact that other instructors seemed to be standing outside the other doors as well.

All of them were wearing earphones as if they were waiting for orders.

”Ehm. This is not looking good. I think they’re going to bust open this door. Is this some kind of curfew or something?”

’If it’s a curfew, they’re going to knock politely, and they won’t do it at this hour. It doesn’t seem like they’re planning to do something good at a time like this.’ Auric narrowed his eyes. ’I don’t like this.’

”Oh, you’re right. It looks like they’re planning something. I’m listening to their conversation right now. Something like raiding the dorm and forcing you to run away so that you maintain your awareness even in here because that might happen in the ETP.”

Auric’s expression became serious. ’I doubt they’re going for an assassination, especially in a program like that, but I don’t think it’s going to be good either. Lindwurm, do you mind adding something else?’

”What is it?” Lindwurm asked.

’Use the store authority to make this part of the room invisible. Do you think it’s possible?’

”No, but I might be able to make it look like the room was empty. As long as the instructor doesn’t come too far into the room, he won’t realize.”

Auric thought for a moment before saying, ’In that case, make it so that they think the windows are open.’

”Ah. You want them to think that we’ve escaped?”

’Yep. This way, they won’t bother to enter. Besides, the number of instructors is simply too low compared to the number of students. Each professor has to take care of two rooms.’

”You’re right. In that case...”

...

The instructors standing outside looked at each other.

”All right. Everyone, are you ready?” Supervisor Jacob smiled. ”We will disturb their sleep and force them to run away. Give them three minutes to escape. Force them to go out the windows. If we capture them, they’re going to double their workload tomorrow.”

Once he gave the clear instruction, Supervisor Jacob activated the alarm.

The high-pitched alarm rang inside the building.

”!!!” A lot of people woke up almost instantly, but they were disturbed by the instructors who opened their rooms using the spare key. They slammed the doors open and shouted, ”All right, you kids. We’re going to catch you. You have three minutes to escape! Anyone who gets captured will need to train twice as hard tomorrow!”

The students panicked. Those who were still asleep couldn’t help but wake up as well.

There was only one room that looked peaceful. It was Auric’s room.

When the instructor opened the room, he was startled by the sudden breeze. He raised his head and saw that the windows were already open. At the same time, there was a paper attached to a thread, hanging in front of the door so that it would be the first thing the instructor saw.

”You took too much time to start the prank!”

Of course, it was Auric’s instruction to give this message. This way, the instructor would have no doubt that they had escaped.

”What?” The instructor was dumbfounded. From a single glance, it looked like the room was empty because they had run off. The beds were a mess, but it was understandable because they had to escape.

”This...” The instructor scratched the back of his head and walked out of the room. He looked left and right as the other instructors also came out since they had finished the job.

”Hey, guys. You might want to see this.” The instructor pointed toward the room.

”What’s wrong?” The two instructors next to him were curious and took a peek, seeing the same message.

”What? Whose room is this?”

”Room 106. It is Auric Elfe’s room.”

”Wait. Isn’t his teacher...”

They couldn’t help but look at Maya in the distance.

”Instructor Maya!”

”Ya?” Maya halted her steps.

”You can’t do this, you know? Giving tips to your students like this isn’t fair to the other students.”

”I didn’t.” Maya frowned. ”What are you talking about?”

”This.” The instructor pointed to the room, gesturing for her to check it.

When Maya saw the message, she couldn’t help but laugh. ”Hahaha. I think you guys underestimate my students too much. What he senses is not your presence, but your magical energy, you know? We were waiting for instructions earlier, so he must have sensed you guys and noticed something was wrong.”

”...” The three instructors looked at her with dumbfounded expressions.

”Well, if you have no other questions, I have to check the second room. You guys should do the same and start chasing after the students. The three minutes are almost up!” Maya waved her hand and walked back.

They looked at each other before nodding. ”She’s right. If they’re cheating in any way, we can handle it later. For now, let’s continue with the original task.”

”Yeah.” The three instructors split up and continued to their second room, but because of the delay, the students in those rooms had already woken up and run away as well.

Without hesitation, they rushed outside as it was time to chase after the students.

”Sometimes, the safest place is the most dangerous spot.” Supervisor Jacob muttered as he released his energy to scan the entire building. ”No presence. I guess all the students and instructors have gone. I should wait in that booth to list all the students they catch.”

Supervisor Jacob stretched his body while walking away.

Little did he know, Auric was still in his room. As Lindwurm had done before, the store authority erased their presences and energy signatures. In addition, their sounds wouldn’t get transmitted.

While the others were running away, Auric was the only one who managed to avoid the instructors’ raid.

Auric glanced at the three girls who were still sleeping peacefully, and a small smile appeared on his face. ’I guess I shall sleep soon. Thanks, Lindwurm.’

”No problem.”

’By the way, if the instructors are going to play dirty like this, we need to set up some rendezvous points. There’s no way this trick is going to work the second time. I will tell the girls about this raid in the morning.

’We will also set up a new store in a spot they least expect. Considering we only have three minutes, it should be fine, right? We will just set up a new bed over there. What we need is a good night’s sleep.

’They’re probably going to make us lose focus and force us in a situation where we get pressure from everything around us. That’s why I want this training camp to go as smoothly as possible. I still need to study for the test, after all.’

”If this is the arrangement to protect the students, can’t we do the same thing normally? It will be beneficial for you and your team,” asked Lindwurm.

’Rather than that, before the training program begins, let’s set up a few small stores for rendezvous points. They can be used as temporary safe houses. I want one of them to be big enough to accommodate a hundred... No, maybe two to three hundred people.’

Lindwurm widened his eyes. ”Are you preparing for the worst-case scenario? Those terrorists are going to attack again, aren’t they?”

’There’s no telling whether they won’t. I have to take precautions. At least I have enough money for now.’

”Fair enough. We will do it your way,” Lindwurm agreed. He knew Auric was the type of person who prepared for everything so that he didn’t have to rely on luck when it came to his life.

This time, he was quite lucky because he was still awake because he had been studying.

Auric yawned, ’I guess it’s time to sleep.’

...

While Auric’s team was sleeping peacefully in their room, the other students weren’t so lucky.

One student was hiding behind a tree, her heart beating rapidly. ’You can’t see me. You can’t see me. I don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t afford the double training.’

Another student was hiding on top of the tree. ’This should be enough, right? They won’t find me up here, right?’

Another student had gone to hide in a different building.

Unfortunately for them, the instructors found all of them.

”Hey, kid!”

”Hello!”

”Noooo!”

”Stop it!”

The instructors were calling them in loud voices, but their voices clearly revealed how happy they were. Everyone could hear how much fun they were having.

At the same time, the students were screaming in despair as they had no other choice but to accept their fate after being caught by the teachers.

Some of them wanted to cry as they had never thought they would have to suffer like this in the training camp.

Once the sun started to rise, half of the students had been captured. In fact, the teachers only intended to capture half of the students while scaring the rest.

What the students didn’t realize was that the teachers already knew their hiding locations, but they kept searching while calling their names, making it look like they hadn’t found them yet.

As a result, those students had a hard time falling asleep.

”Are you still alive?”

”No, I’m tired and sleepy!”

The students who finally returned to the field without being able to get another wink of sleep.

Some students who saw the expressions of those survivors couldn’t help but think they weren’t so unlucky after all.

”You’ve been captured as well, Alan?”

”Yeah. Can you believe this? We will be going through hell today.”

”Oh shit. What are we going to do with this?”

”Help me, please!”

”I want to cry!”

The teachers couldn’t help but smile secretly, knowing that their plan last night was successful.

Supervisor Jacob muttered, ”Sadly, I can’t do anything about this. We have to prepare them for even the worst-case scenario.”

To everyone’s surprise, Auric came out of the building with the other three girls.

It was precisely because they had a good night’s sleep as well as the fact that the rest of the students looked terrible that the three girls’ faces looked glowing.

”Huh? How did they...” Supervisor Jacob pointed at them dumbfoundedly.

”Supervisor, did they return? You didn’t capture them?” The instructor next to him asked, demanding an explanation.

”No. I didn’t feel their presence the entire time. I didn’t even notice they had returned to the dorm... No, wait. Did they even leave the dorm in the first place?”

”They did...”

”There was even a message about it.”

The instructors were confused, considering Auric and his team were supposed to be the only ones who had escaped before the raid commenced.

Yet, for some reason, they had come out of the building.

Vera was even stretching her arms while walking. ”Mhmm. What are we going to do today? I’m ready.”

Katarina frowned and pointed to the other students. ”Hmm? What’s going on with these guys? Some of them haven’t even changed out of their pajamas, and they look horrible.”

Auric just smiled.

On the other hand, the students definitely couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

”What the hell? How did they get out of that building?”

”Did they never leave in the first place?”

”No way. Were they spared?”

”The teachers seemed to be confused too.”

”They didn’t seem to have done anything last night. They don’t look tired at all.”

”What the hell? Did they escape and sleep somewhere else last night? Was that some kind of privilege or something?”

”I don’t know, man, but they’re kinda suspicious. I mean, just look at their faces. Those girls are practically glowing.”

”Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

”I am so fucking jealous right now that I feel like killing Auric, no matter the consequences.”

”I know, right?”

”So... They had a fou—”