When it was almost night, Bloed and Aya arrived at the center of the city.

Unfortunately, they were forced to stop short of their goal.

The reason? The people guarding the place where they need to go.

Five hunters. Five Ranks.

"… Are you sure?" Aya asked with a solemn look.

Bloed nodded with a bitter smile. "I'm sure. Five Ranks are guarding that place. If we tried to continue, we'll surely be caught."

Aya's expression turned solemn. This was bad news.

How were they supposed to pa.s.s through five Ranks without being caught? That was almost impossible.

Bloed was also a bit surprised, but not as much as Aya.

He was already expecting this kind of situation, after all.

Since the start of the hunt, he had suspected the place where they needed to go would be guarded by several Ranks.

… Although even he did not expect five of them.

Bloed observed the scene with Oculus and sighed. The eye in the sky sent him an image of a ruined tower, the place where they needed to reach to pa.s.s this round of selection, and five different Ranks patrolling the surroundings of the tower with wary expressions.

Bloed was sure these Ranks would not hesitate to stop whoever tried to reach the tower.

"… What are we going to do, Bloed?" Aya asked with a concerned look.

"Let me think," Bloed said and started to play with his hair while thinking.

In the end, he could only think of a solution.

"… We need to team up with the other contestants." Bloed sighed and spoke up.

"???"

"… I told you about this before, right?" Bloed continued. "That I suspected the last section of this trial would require to team up with other candidates if we wanted to pa.s.s it. Actually, I thought it would be enough if we formed groups of four or five. But now, I think that five people will not be enough."

Aya fell silent. She was an intelligent girl, so she quickly started to think about the implications of Bloed's words.

"… If there are five Ranks, then not even ten candidates working together will be enough to guarantee everybody's success… If we want to have a good chance of success, as many candidates as possible must work together huh..."

Bloed nodded. "Exactly. The higher the number of candidates working together, the higher our chance of reaching the tower."

After all, if the five Ranks could stop ten candidates from reaching the towers, and fifteen candidates teamed up, then the chance of succeeding would be only 33%.

But if thirty candidates teamed instead, and the Ranks stopped the same ten, then the chances of succeeding would increase to 66%.

"… That is strength in numbers." Bloed said.

Aya nodded. But her expression was not very good.

"… The problem is how to convince the other candidates to work together."

Bloed agreed with her. However, he already had an idea.

"Let me see if I can locate the other candidates first."

With a thought, Oculus scanned the surroundings in search of more candidates.

Some candidates were hidden inside the destroyed buildings, so the process was a bit long. Fortunately, Oculus could divide itself into tens of small insects to search around the ruins without attracting attention.

Due to that, Bloed was confident in finding all the candidates nearby before long.

To Bloed's surprise, the number of candidates he found was higher than he expected. There was a total of 24 candidates in one kilometer around the tower.

Obviously, they had also discovered the situation and they were thinking of ways to break through the Ranks' blockade.

And to Bloed surprise, he found someone very familiar among the candidates.

A beautiful black-haired demon.

Bloed's lips involuntarily curved up in a smile.

"… Bloed?" Aya tilted her head curiously in doubt.

Bloed smiled. "… It's nothing. I just found my friend."

"Your friend?" Aya was startled, but she quickly understood. "Could it be Miss Liu Ying?"

Bloed nodded. "Come on, let's meet her."

Bloed and Aya then moved towards Liu Ying's location.

Bloed was very careful to avoid the places where other candidates were hidden. He did not want to start a conflict with them now.

Soon, they arrived at a semi-destroyed house six hundred meters away from the central tower.

Almost at the same time, the people inside the house moved.

They had detected that Bloed and Aya's arrival.

One second later, a black-haired girl exited the house with an ice-cold face.

But as soon as she saw Bloed, her expression changed.

Without hesitation, the demon rushed towards him with her arms open.

"Bloed!"

Bloed smiled wryly and received her hug. But suddenly, he felt something warm touching his lips.

Bloed froze in the spot, surprised by Liu Ying's unexpected attack. After Liu Ying moved her lips away, she looked at Bloed with a mischievous smile and her eyes twinkled.

"I missed you."

Bloed rolled his eyes. "We have not been separated for even one day..."

Do you think I don't know you are trying to find an excuse to give me that kiss? Bloed sighed to himself.

Liu Ying smiled sheepishly. She then hugged Bloed's arm and looked at the cat girl behind him.

"She is… Javelin's little sister?"

Aya looked at Liu Ying stunned. She then moved her eyes between Bloed and Liu Ying as though trying to guess their relationship.

"Aya?" Bloed coughed softly.

Startled, Aya's reacted and nodded.

"H-h.e.l.lo, Miss Liu Ying."

"h.e.l.lo, Javelin's little sister. I did not expect to see you with Bloed."

"I met her in the way," Bloed explained. "We decided to travel together after that."

"Is it so…? Well, I also have a traveling companion."

As though reacting to Liu Ying's words, a rabbit girl walked out of the ruined house with a bubbly smile.

"Hi, Mister Bloed! Nice to see you again!"

She was Rana, a rabbitkin girl, and the last person that Eve had brought to the hunt.

"h.e.l.lo, Miss Rana." Bloed smiled politely. "Thank you for helping Liu Ying."

"No no, she was the one helping me! Ying Ying is very strong~"

"Ying Ying?" Bloed raised an eyebrow at Liu Ying curiously.

Liu Ying's lips twitched slightly, but instead of explaining, she just sighed.

"Let's go inside first."

...

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