"Damn…"
There was no room for running as the attack that was bound to fall on them would cover a large area and take out multiple students at once. Forget about the student who dashed away, he had no hope of escaping as the attack was already inbound.
WHOOOSH!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
From above, Alex watched as his spear throw caused a massive explosion once again. And as he watched the shockwave and explosion destroy the landscape, he let out a tired breath.
'That's the last one I can pull out today.' There was no way he could do anyone of this power throw. As such, he could only rely on his combat abilities to survive till the end.
'Hopefully, the remaining students aren't that many.' He thought silently, his eyes watching the commotion.
The generated gust was slowing down his descent and he could also see others rush out from the dust cloud. Those were the fortunate ones who were not too close to the range of the explosion. Alex then glanced at his badge and noticed the number jump exponentially before settling on 895,2735.
A few seconds later, Alex landed in the huge crater, still under the cover of the dust and went to retrieve his spear.
'Let's get a bit of rest first.'
With a focused thought, Alex tapped into his ability to manipulate light, bending the very photons his body emitted. He created a complex optical illusion, warping the perception of anyone who gazed at him. By precisely controlling the light waves around him, Alex altered how they interacted with the eyes of his observers.
As vision depended on the reflection of light off objects into the eye, Alex's mastery allowed him to rewrite this process. He could appear as a blurred silhouette, a faint shimmer in the air. And to those less sensitive to light manipulations, he could vanish, cloaked in invisibility born not of shadows but pure, skilful manipulation of light itself.
This was one of the tricks he learned in his free time by researching everything about light and how people see things. Alex had implemented this trick to appear invisible to anyone who saw him. As such, it would be hard to see him if one wasn't paying attention.
Alex then ran in a random direction. Naturally, if someone was close enough, they could detect the anomaly. But they won't remain long enough to question why.
...…
"Looks like he's already capable of pulling this off. Impressive yet again." One of the instructors complimented the actions of Alex in distorting light.
What Alex had pulled off was not something anyone could just do. It required years of practice and intelligence. However, this could be minimized if the person was a dark-sclera human as they had the ability to see the entire light spectrum.
But as impressive as it was, it was also easily seen through. Anyone capable of seeing the whole spectrum was sensitive to light and any anomalies could be easily detected. That was why it wasn't a common use of the light ability.
But it was useful in certain situations, like the battle royale. Because everything was taking place in the VR world, all those who had the ability to see the electromagnetic spectrum were not able to do so. It was not a limitation of the VR world, but just a limitation put into the simulation for the competition.
"Despite his low mana level, it is a fact that he is talented. You don't become the most famous first year without some ability to back it up." Another commented.
Most of these instructors knew nothing much about Alex except what was known publicly. The being himself preferred to remain low-key. This made it difficult to actually gauge his level of intellect and resourcefulness.
Because of this ignorance, they were not aware that Alex's learning ability increased exponentially. That was why after a few months of combat training, he could go toe-to-toe with others who had been training since their childhood.
"At least he had reduced the number of remaining students to…" the instructor glanced at the numbers showing on the screen and completed, "… 6,678 students. That's by far the largest eliminations someone has accumulated."
The instructors nodded in acknowledgement as they watched Alex find a relatively secluded spot to rest from the eyes of the others.
'With this, you've more the secured your spot.' Instructor Horvey thought with a small smile as he watched Alex take a break. Because no one could see him, he could almost certainly hide till the end of the battle royale.
With a simple skill, Alex had rendered what everyone expected to be a tough fight for him into a wait-ill-completion. No one had expected Alex to have mastered that ability, and because he reserved most of his 'mana', he had more than enough to hold on until the last 5000 students.
...
"So this was what Alex was talking about when he said he had a plan to survive. I didn't think he would literally just hide in plain sight." Julia said, looking at Ross who also glanced her way.
Even they weren't in the know. Alex had kept this from them. Of course, it wasn't that much of a big deal. Well, not everyone saw it that way…
"What else hasn't he told us?" She suddenly added, her expression morphing into that of curiosity with furrowed brows.
"I don't know. But is it that necessary to know?" Ross inquired, not finding anything wrong with that. You couldn't possibly know everything about a person unless you were the obsessive kind.
"I guess not…" Julia replied in a low tone, understanding that she was getting mad over nothing. Of course, her past actions of learning everything about Alex spoke volumes of her personality, well, when Alex was involved of course, otherwise, she couldn't care less.
"But that doesn't mean he gets to play around with others." She added fervently. Ross could only show a stiff smile, understanding that the 'others' Julia meant referred to Abigail Reed. That girl was in trouble, and she didn't even know it. The more time Ross spent with Julia, the more he saw her dark side, especially when it revolved around Alex.
"Yeah, he has some explaining to do…" he added to show his 'support' for Julia. Obviously, he found the entire situation absurd, but since it wasn't his ass on fire, anything was a go.
"Mm…" Julia nodded happily that Ross was seeing things from her perspective.