n

n

n

nDayus stayed in the room for quite a while and after that, he came back with a few slips of paper each.

nHe distributed one for each of them.

n

"The slip given to you has the name of your target.

"

nHe then took out some envelops and passed it over to them.

n

"Your task is to distribute the envelops to your targets. Don't talk anything else with them. Just tell them that it is a favor for the Dean, Noble League and the Student Union. Don't open the envelop and don't try to see its contents by any other means.

nFor now, those are your only instructions and I hope you can follow them to the tee.

"

nThe whole team was confused, but they nodded. This new leader of theirs was pretty eccentric and some of them even started having some doubts. But the promised rewards were pretty high and all of them happened to be in big deficit of coins.

nThey need to pay for their special classes in the hub.

n

"Don't wait. Do it now.

"

nThey left the room and went to their respective targets. These people are someone they don't know, but they just believed that their target might have been someone chosen by another teammate.

nThey went and delivered the envelopes.

nThe targets were of course curious. They opened the envelopes and found four things inside. A spatial ring, a flaming skulls card, a smaller envelope, and a letter. The spatial ring contained a ** load of coins and the letter contained a few instructions. They are to go and place an assignment with the flaming skulls using the card.

nAs for who they should place the hit on, the details were given in the smaller envelope. And they have to do it right away. With no delay. They were given the methods to contact the flaming skulls. However, Dayus really didn't have to do all that.

nBecause almost everyone knew how to do it. In fact some of them even placed a hit before.

nEverything is fine until then.

nThe only weird part is that they shouldn't open the smaller envelopes themselves, they are to deliver it directly to the flaming skulls representative.

nThe targets moved and went to place the hits.

nSam watched this all unfold with amusement. He understood what Dayus is trying to do. He is trying to prevent any form of information leak. The targets that were chosen actually were not in the names given by his teammates. These eleven candidates are completely different from the people chosen by his team. But because he interchanged it, they just assumed they got the name of the target chosen by a different teammate.

nBased on which assignment was messed up, Dayus could identify the information leak. Its not that he is just suspecting them directly. There are many ways for an information leak to happen.

nAnd he is going to check all the boxes to make sure how it was happening.

nFor that, he employed the Noble league. They provided him with additional man power to monitor all of his teammates.

nAs for the little envelopes, there are obviously the names of the targets in there and they are also not part of the names given by the team. They are a completely different set of random people that Dayus picked.

nWith the support of Dean, he is going to send some instructors to warn them of the possible assassination attempt of them.

nThe whole plan was set up based on few assumptions.

nOne if that there is a definite information leak and Dayus wanted to identify that leak first and the second one is based on the first one. Unless the Flaming skulls have a deep enough to network to identify the whole thing was a hoax, they are not going to suspect that all of them are fake and they are going to act on some of them.

nThat means, the ones they don't act on have the information leaks.

nHe is going to use the people given to him by the Noble league to identify the possible cracks and start investigating from there.

nAnd if the information network was indeed that deep, then it would be much easier. Because there are only a few ways that could infiltrate that deep into the Academy region and it wouldn't take long to find that out with simple trial and error.

nSam didn't even have to put much effort to figure this whole thing out. It is pretty straight forward and the moment Dayus started preparing the envelopes and stuff, he understood what he was trying to do. Confirmed it when he saw the actions of the targets.

nThis method would have worked well, if not for the Sam's way of collecting information. In a way even if Dayus assumed that the flaming skulls knew everything that happened in the realm, he still underestimated how well they knew and how deep their actual network is.

nNow that Sam, knew Dayus' plan, he can actually break it very easily.

nAnd the first step in doing that is sending a message.

n

"You are all going to get some flaming skull assignments. Accept them, they are safe and no one is waiting in ambush.

nBut tell them only one thing.

n'Our services are suspended because of the Pocket dimension that's about to open day after tomorrow.' We will resume the operations after that first pocket dimension is over.'

"

nSam got the affimitive answers from everyone.

nTime passed and in a couple of hours, the message Sam left behind, reached Dayus' ears.

n

"FUCK

"

nHe cursed out loud.

n

"For a **ing sell swords, these guys have way too many **ing rules.

" He spat through his teeth and looked at his teammates who were confused.

n

"We cannot do much. Let's just finish the first pocket dimension and then we can continue with the plan. I will talk to the Dean, so don't worry about it and just focus on the pocket dimension for now.

"

nThe next day, things were pretty uneventful. Everyone just pushed everything to the back of their minds and just prepared for the pocket dimension.

nThe first pocket dimension belongs to the god Apollo.

nIt is a fire domain and it takes place for exactly three days. The whole thing is simple. Everyone will be given a star fragment up on entering the pocket dimension. Within the pocket dimension, the fire domain will create several elemental creatures, each will have a star fragment as their core.

nWhen they defeat the elemental creature, the fragment will join the ones they already have. After collecting a certain number of fragments, a 'star' will be created. As the days pass, the creatures will be more difficult to deal with and the fragments will become rarer as some creatures will not be able to gather the fragments together.

nThat is not all.

nThere are some creatures that will carry some memories in their fragments. It could be a cultivation technique, battle technique, a crafting technique, formation blueprint, it could be anything. Only the person who defeats the creature can gain those memories.

nOf course, it wouldn't be a proper competition without the combat between the students.

nOn the third day, they can fight among themselves. The loser will lose all the stars to the winner and by the end of the third day whoever, has the most stars will win.

nIn a way, it is just an elaborate scoring game.

nSam felt like he could have a field day along with his friends, particularly when he found out that this pocket dimension allows people to enter as long as they pay a certain fees and their cultivation level is within the limits, in this case the First grade level.

nSo, all of his friends, including Stone can enter the game.

n

"Let's have some fun.

"

nThat's what Sam said to the rest of his teammates.

nThe day the pocket dimension opened, hundreds of people left the city and entered the forest where the entrance was located. Many elders moved to protect their talented students from the shadows. With the crowd and the whole ruckus, it is very easy to assassinate someone. As soon as the portal opened though, everyone became excited. This year, the whole batch of first graders is highly talented. Everyone improved greatly and they are looking forward to see how they are going to score.

nEven though the first place candidate is going to be the ultimate winner, there are some exciting prizes for everyone that ranked within top twenty four.

nGranted by the yours truly Apollo.

nSam entered the portal and he felt a spatial pull. He landed in a pretty empty barren place. Except for the lava river flowing beside him, there is nothing but rocks and occasional lava puddle for as far as he could see.

nAt that moment, a small stone like thing appeared out of thin air and floated beside him with a faint red glow. It connected with Sam's spiritual sense. Its his star fragment

n

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