Game's Extra: Starting With SSS-Ranked 1000-Death Talent-Chapter 75: Start

"My bad," Arnold said, still smiling. "I got too excited, and controlling myself in this clone form isn’t easy. I promise it won’t happen again."

He was apologizing and bowing his head.

Moreover, he genuinely looked like he was feeling guilty, his eyes lowered with remorse.

’Can fool me you piss in shit,’ Noa thought.

But he showed no reaction, sheathing his sword.

Not to mention, he wanted to keep going with the guy, anticipating the trap he was setting.

"We are cool," he said. "As long as you don’t mess up and endanger us."

Arnold nodded.

"Fear not. Even if something happens, I am here to protect you. This is practice, which means this is easier than the real thing. It should teach you how scary the world actually is and how to handle it."

Noa was no longer listening to his yapping.

He chose the path and followed it, cleaning the maze of the monsters.

As for their spawn rate, it was constant, and their extinction was impossible.

How or where they came from, no one really knew.

Reasoning something like Abysses was beyond the knowledge humanity had amassed thus far, and even the game did a poor job of explaining it.

Still, Noa and the squad did their job.

Not only did they kill all the low-level monsters, but they also looted them, collecting bloody orbs.

Noa fought the urge to ask Arthur about the plunder skill.

It was a good opportunity to irk him, but the protagonist would definitely hate and hunt his head, something he could handle but chose not to.

Plunder was a talent he definitely needed and couldn’t just risk losing it.

That’s why Noa would feed him like a cow and squeeze every drop of the milk when Arthur had no use for him.

It was that simple.

Looting wasn’t the only thing they did...

"We need to take this path," Arnold whispered to Noa, who was guiding the way this entire time. "This is the correct route."

Noa lowered his brows, recognizing his plans.

"Sure. You should know more than me," Noa said and didn’t bicker with him, choosing the route the teacher advised him to follow.

No one complained.

"Should we have another celebration after selling the orbs?" Rika shared her passion for eating.

"But exchanging them for academy points should be better, right? We can trade them for high-quality gear," Martha had an opinion of her own.

The stroll continued for a little while.

Each step got Noa closer to the spot Arnold was taking them.

Initially, he wanted to just kill every clone he could find.

Then he would let Dusk end him.

But Noa soon realized that it would put an entire class in danger, and allowing them to die was something Arthur would do.

Not him.

He didn’t want to see Arnold succeed.

Even if it were one student, Noa would save them.

So he yawned.

"I am getting sleepy. Do we need to walk more?" he asked.

"No, no, no. It’s not far," the teacher said, trying to hide how his lips curled into a smile. "We are almost there."

Noa was acting like the potion worked on him.

It had a strong, numbing plant mixture added.

Only the higher-grade inspection could detect it, leaving students at his mercy.

The sedative would work like a drug and dull their mind, along with every other sense.

Arthur yawned as well, playing the same game.

’Now he wants to help me?’ Noa pondered.

Nevertheless, seeing two students who were under the influence, Arnold’s mind was at ease.

After they walked for a couple of more minutes, suddenly, the temperature dropped.

They were still inside the labyrinth, surrounded by the all-too-familiar landscape.

Yet the cold breeze was only the starting point.

It was followed by murmurs, meaning that humans were in close vicinity.

"What is this place?" Ezra asked.

"We need to meet up with others," the teacher answered.

Then he crawled into a small tunnel that went under the brick wall.

"Let’s go," Noa said eagerly. "We have to follow him."

Just like Arnold, he also slithered into the tiny gap.

’I feel like a cave diver,’ he mused.

An entire crawl took him five seconds—each passing moment lowered the temperature and made his breath visible.

The scene he found upon leaving the tunnel was worth the risk.

Dust like ice surged up and down.

It felt like a storm.

Its coldness and majestic beauty captivated the world itself.

Students were under the same spell—their usually talkative nature was nowhere to be seen.

Arnold and his remaining 19 clones stood among them.

The man looked intrigued but was excited at the same time.

"Wow!" Martha exclaimed behind Noa.

Rika, Ezra, and even Arthur had similar reactions.

’I am not surprised. The game paled in comparison,’ Noa said inwardly.

With one eye still on the bluish ice that hung like a sky island, Noa glanced at his classmates, waiting for their drowsiness.

He didn’t have to linger for long.

One by one, students not only yawned and dozed off, but they also lost consciousness and fell to the ground.

Amidst the chaos, when not a single person could explain what was going on, loud laughter reverberated across the field.

"What a bunch of losers!"

Arnold and his clones roared simultaneously, their echoes reaching somewhere deep inside the unseen ice realm.

He looked relieved.

The plan was completed, and students dropped like flies.

All he had to do was watch the spectacle and enjoy the show he put so much effort into.

But alas, something unexpected happened.

A small group of students seemed to be awake.

Three of them looked confused, their faces proving that they had no idea what was happening.

Yet there they were—two young men whose reactions rubbed him the wrong way.

"You!" he shouted at Noa. "I thought you were sleepy."

Noa covered his ears.

And glaring at the man angrily, he felt that something was already summoned.

"I warned you to shut up," he said, the sword glowing with his hatred.

Then, he saw them.