Air Hero

First pass

“Okay, I will leave the hostage with you. However, none of you shall come near to me. I will put the hostage down and leave.”

“Heh, you’re a smart boy after all. So alright, you can put the hostage down and leave. We won’t stop you.”

Max then put down the dummy hostage on the ground and decided to leave the place as staying around any longer won’t be productive. Instead, he would rather go and find another D-rank robot villain to defeat.

Max still didn’t agree with what the five people in front of them are doing. After all, they are here to become a hero, not a robber. Max also could fight against them, but in the end, he chooses not to do it.

There are several reasons for it. Firstly, as what the man said, it is possible for him to get injured in the process, and it is not something Max wanted to happen.

Secondly, since this is a test, Max is sure that they must have been monitored somehow. If Max managed to defeat the five people, it would then expose his ability that is clearly way above D-rank. Even when defeating the robot villain earlier, Max wasn’t using his full power and held back.

Thirdly, rather than spending his time here, arguing with these five people that he doesn’t know of. He better uses the remaining time to defeat robots to gather points and brought the hostage to another safety area. If this thing is happening in another safety area too, Max already decided that he will just defeat the robot villain without escorting the hostage.

While moving away from that place, Max still put his guard up to make sure that the five people stayed true to their words. After acknowledging that he isn’t being tracked or chased, Max then tried to find his next target.

Max didn’t need to wait for long since there are a lot of villain robots and hostage in the seaside village. He also passed by some people that are defeating their target and carrying the hostage for points. They are somehow wary of him, afraid that Max will take advantage of the situation and go for the last hit.

Because of that, Max only gives them a nod and move away.

“Ah, that one robot and hostage pair isn’t engaged with anyone. I’ll go for it then.”

Max quickly finds his second villain’s robot and goes head-to-head with it.

“Don’t come near, or I will kill her.”

The villain’s robot does exactly the same as the first robot that he encountered. The moment it notices Max’s presence, it immediately goes towards the hostage and threatens Max with it.

“No, you don’t.”

Max pointed his index finger, gathered the air in front of him, and released one of his most practised moves, the wind bullet. The wind bullet itself is now only at the size of a pebble, and not much disturbance from it can be felt on the surrounding air. Previously, when Max first practised the wind bullet, it was at the size of a tennis ball. Right now, the size is more similar to a bullet, and another thing that is different is the efficiency.

Although the wind bullet is smaller in size, its power is more concentrated. Therefore, rather than the destruction type damage upon impact, this is more of a piercing type.

With an upwards flick movement, just like shooting a gun, Max released the wind bullet. Its speed is fast, and it immediately makes a hole in the robot’s head. After receiving the critical hit, the robot immediately stopped moving and fell to the ground.

“Fu! Nice shot.”

If Kalina is here right now, she would be proud of what Max has done. After all, she has been with him since the first day he starts training. The improvement and hard work that he has done is shown perfectly in the wind bullet just now. It is efficient, silent, and deadly.

“Participants 777, plus 1 score for defeating a villain. Total point = 2.”

“Nice. Now I will try to find another safety area to escort the hostage. If it’s also ‘occupied’, then I just need to defeat another eight robots.”

Max picked up the hostage that he has defeated and headed to another safety area, different from the first one where the people ‘borrowed’ his hostage. However, the result is the same. There are already some people waiting in ambush for fat sheep like him.

This time, Max didn’t need to converse for long with these people as he put down the hostage and obediently lend it to them. After that, he left and tried to find another robot to defeat.

As time goes by, the battle around the seaside village gets even more intense. With the reduced number of robots and hostages as time goes by, it also means that it becomes another test of finding the robots and hostages that now go into hiding in a more discreet location.

“I still need to find more points. I think I still need four more. I am only a bit over halfway there.”

Max could have definitely passed the test right now if he could escort the hostage too. But, unfortunately, due to the people camping in the safety area, now it is impossible to get two points per robot and hostage combo as Max could only get one each time.

“Participant 999 have passed the test.”

While Max is still searching around, an announcement was made for everyone to hear. Finally, the first person who will get his hero license from this batch has appeared.

“If I remember correctly, it was Giovanni’s number. Well, given that he has S-rank speed, this is something normal.”

Following after Giovanni, some people also passed the test as the announcement mentioned more numbers. Max isn’t sure about how many people have passed the test, but surely there should be enough robot and hostage for everyone here, right?

While Max is searching for the D-rank villain robot, the C-rank robot that is attracting everyone’s attention is in a battle.