Reincarnated into a Doomed Novel as an Unknown Extra-Chapter 165: Exam [3]

"Lower your stupid weapon. I'm not here to fight, you know."

"Bitch, do I look stupid enough to believe you?"

I wanted to say yes, he indeed looked stupid. But this wasn't the time for that.

I looked at Zephyr, who was holding his scythe and wearing new crimson armor that Yami had given him, and said:

"Didn't I tell you about this yesterday? Why are you suddenly against the idea of forming a team? Do you know how long Glutton and I searched for you?"

Zephyr looked at the four other students behind me: "Yes, and now I see you with some strangers in this supposed team and all of them have their limbs attached. I know you are good enough to see that something is wrong!"

'So now you've decided to grow a brain?'

I sighed as I looked at my fellow students… who flinched for some reason.

Was my reputation so bad that being friendly with the other students was considered something strange?

'I mean… yeah, I have a reason for gathering them. But still!'

I had to spend a few valuable minutes convincing that bastard to join us. He was still suspecting me, but still followed silently.

From Glutton's side, I saw Liora with some students as well. Among those students were Arthur, Limitless, Nyxis, and the spirit man that I had crushed in the first test.

So now, I only had to find Selene.

'It's almost time. I have to find her quickly.'

•••

'Yeah, that's really strange.'

Yami watched indifferently as Raylin finally found Selene and started hunting monsters with his big team.

And on the other side of the dungeon, Liora was doing the same thing.

"Oh, maybe they're planning to make a team fight!"

"Did these two decide to do that before the exam?"

"Seems like that."

The teachers settled on that theory for now, and even Yami had to accept it.

Why else would two students suddenly start to gather the others like forming two teams?

It was a good idea. That way, the Tier-3 students wouldn't be left behind by the Tier-4 students. They might even have a chance to defeat one of the top students and get higher scores.

'I wonder if I should judge this as a good or bad thing…'

That was Yami's first time as an examiner, so he didn't really know what to do.

Wasn't turning the entire point of the survival exam into a fight between two big teams killing the chances of the other students making their own solo feats?

'We might be wrong… I should keep watching and see.'

*Tzzz*

All of a sudden, Yami and some teachers started to feel a weak vibration beneath them.

'Hmm? Does this dungeon contain earthquakes?'

Yami wondered how a land of crystal could contain earthquakes, but he wasn't an expert regarding this matter.

But as he was about to ignore this, he noticed Butto frowning deeply.

"This isn't normal…"

Yami scratched his head: "Should we stop the exam then?"

Butto's brows furrowed for a brief moment before he replied: "Let's first try to find the source of this earthquake."

Yami nodded as he made his ghosts start searching for anything unusual while the other teachers searched in their own way.

"Wait, the boss isn't moving." One of the teachers pointed at the light screen as he said.

Checking it, the boss was indeed standing silently as if it had frozen.

All of a sudden, another teacher pointed at the two teams: "The students are also doing something strange…"

Yami looked at the screen and through his ghosts' eyes simultaneously, seeing the students doing something strange. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Liora and Raylin led them to stand close to each other. The other students were confused and kept asking questions, but they obeyed eventually.

The next moment, Liora and Raylin took two strange black sphere-like artifacts out of their storage and explained:

"This thing will fill the space between you all. That way, any kind of teleportation will consider you one thing and teleport you together instead of separately."

The students at Raylin's side weren't affected as he was the only student with Space affinity, but the students at Liora's side were different.

'Why does Liora have an artifact like that? And why does she want to use it?' they all thought.

Simultaneously, Yami and the teachers showed confusion as well.

'Why did they both pull this artifact at the same time? Something is definitely wrong.'

Just then, Butto murmured something to himself before saying: "I think I should report this before anything. The situation is becoming really strange."

The teachers nodded in agreement, and secretly, Yami made some of his ghosts stand with the students before Raylin and Liora could use their artifacts.

He didn't know if that would work, but it was worth trying.

'Just what are they planning to do?'

As Butto broke a returning stone to leave the dungeon, Yami returned to eat donuts indifferently while watching the students.

There was nothing he could do, was there?

Raylin and Liora activated their artifacts, but strangely, Raylin didn't include himself in the range of the artifact.

'Strange…'

*Ding! Ding! Ding!*

Suddenly, the students and teachers' bracelets started ringing at the same time.

"Oh, it should be an announ—!"

Everyone's eyes suddenly widened in realization — the bracelets weren't supposed to receive anything inside dungeons.

The dungeons didn't only break the space, but the time itself. If they were ringing, there should be another reason other than receiving something.

The teachers and students tried to open their bracelets to check what was wrong, but they couldn't.

"What the hell is happening?!"

"Sir Butto is taking so long for some reason."

"I think we should seriously stop the exam."

Everyone agreed with that suggestion, but before they could make a move…

*CRACK!*

A loud crack resounded through the entire dungeon.

Everyone looked up at the crystal-like sky, only to see a long line splitting it in half.

Instinctively, Yami turned into his spectral form.

'What is—'

*CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!*

More cracks appeared one after another. Some of them were in the ground and the sky, others were visible in the air as if they were shattering the fabric of space itself.

The students panicked, but Liora and Raylin advised them not to move, while the teachers left the hidden area, rushing toward the students as fast as they could.

The vibrations increased until the entire dungeon trembled and the cracks increased until the people inside could see them wherever they looked.

And before anyone could understand what was happening, their vision turned into darkness.