Ren got teleported to the second training area for the second test, and the first thing he felt as soon as he arrived was himself being completely drenched.
Dammit… it was raining again.
He groaned under his breath. He had just been relieved that he was finally dry after getting teleported back, and now he had to deal with this all over again. At least, luckily this time, the rain wasn't heavy like before. Ren could see perfectly fine. In fact, when he turned around, he could clearly see the light pillar far away.
Okay… what do I do now?
Ren checked his phone, seeing if he had any messages relating to the second test. There was nothing.
"Well, I guess I'll go look for the puppet then," he muttered to himself.
He turned the opposite way from the light pillar and began walking. The puppets could be anywhere, but when he thought about it, there was no way a civilian puppet was going to be near the light pillar. After all, if there was one near it, then the exam would be so easy to complete. So obviously, that was impossible.
But on the other hand… puppets being further away from the light pillar—that was something Ren believed was possible. There was even a possibility that the further you went, the higher the chances of finding a civilian puppet. Obviously, this was just a guess, so he wouldn't go too crazy and head all the way to the border of the training area he was in.
Ren kept walking, keeping an eye on the area around him. He was in a forest, but it wasn't a thick one. There were only a couple of trees scattered around. The ground was uneven and broken. There wasn't a single smooth spot anywhere to place his foot, and the worst part… was the mud.
Unlike the mud that was in the rain area—which made your foot sink a little, making your shoes all muddy—this was the worst kind of mud. It didn't make your foot sink. No… it was slippery mud.
And combined with the terrain, he constantly had to use his shades to keep himself balanced.
"Shit… this is truly a biased test…"
After all, some of them had it easy. Kai walked through the fire area smoothly. In the canyon, anyone with a flying ability could have passed the Canyon area pretty easily. And now, any power that could help you avoid the terrain like flying would have helped you pass this test pretty easily.
He continued walking until he noticed a small abandoned building. For a moment, he was confused about how a building was built around such terrible terrain, but then he remembered this wasn't an actual place — it was a training area it didn't need to make sense. So he decided to get inside the building and see what was going on.
He slowly moved through the building, keeping his guard up. There was no electricity inside, so it was dark. Only the light from outside was coming in, thankfully through a lot of windows, but even that wasn't very helpful considering the clouds above. Not much light was coming in.
He kept walking through the building until he heard a grunt that made him stop, instantly alert. He heard the sound again a couple more times and started moving toward where it was coming from. He slowly approached a door leading to a room where the sound should be coming from, so he leaned toward the wall and peaked through the doorway.
Inside, he saw a blonde girl trying to lift a piece of the wall that was pinning down a civilian puppet. She was struggling, clearly trying to free it.
Ren stayed on guard. He waited for a moment to see if she was going to call someone for help, but none of that happened. The girl kept trying to free the rescue puppet on her own.
Ren sighed in relief and stepped out of his hiding spot, walking into the room. Since it didn't seem like there was anyone else with her, that meant she wasn't in a team. So They didn't really have to fight they could just team up and take the civilian puppet together.
With that in mind, he approached her slowly. The girl didn't notice him until — cough — Ren faked a cough so he wouldn't startle her.
She turned around.
Ren's eyes widened because he recognized her.
This was the same exact girl that he rescued in the nightclub not that long ago. Not in a million years would he have expected to see her again — not to mention in a place like this.
But the girl didn't pay attention to his frozen expression or his deep thoughts. She immediately got into a fighting stance.
Once he noticed that, he snapped out of it and quickly put his hand forward.
"Wait, hold up. I'm not here to fight. Look, you and I are here alone. We could just team up together."
Hearing that, the girl kept her guard up for a moment, looking left and right, checking if there was really no one else there. After a while, she calmed down a little and lowered her guard — just a bit. She was still wary of him.
"So… who are you?" she asked.
Ren was confused for a second, until he remembered — he was disguised that night. She didn't recognize him because of that.
So he just decided to introduce himself normally this time.
"Hello there, my name is Ren Dover. And you are…?"
"I'm Sophia Grace," she said quickly.
After that, a quiet silence settled between them.
Seeing there was nothing else being said, Ren decided to cut through it.
"So… should we continue with the civilian puppet or—"
Sophia just quietly walked away from the puppet.
"Well, I've been trying for a while to lift this up, so if you can do it, try it," she said while stepping further aside.
Well, I guess she doesn't trust me very well, he thought to himself.
He immediately summoned seven of his shades and used them to lift the piece of the wall. It rose high enough.
Then he summoned his last shade to pull the civilian puppet out safely.
"Well, I guess we can head to the light pillar now," he said, looking toward Sophia.
That's when he saw her face.
She looked absolutely shocked.
For a second, he didn't understand why… until he remembered.
Oh yeah… she did see me use my shades in the nightclub.
Does she recognize me now?
Sophia's shocked expression stayed for a while before she shook her head and quickly grabbed the puppet, lifting it up.
"Yes… we should get going right away," she said, forcing a smile.
She also moved closer to him.
Now that was weird.
She looked shocked when she saw the shades — so she definitely recognized them. She dropped her guard, got closer to him, and seemed… comfortable.
So she definitely knew who he was.
But she wasn't mentioning it.
And that made his thoughts go all over the place.
He just shook his head, trying to focus.
She's probably not bringing it up because the whole thing was terrible… and she doesn't want to revisit it, he told himself.
But he still kept an eye on her — just in case.