楼上的上瘾女士

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"What arrogance" said a Silva man to Hal\'s words as the broadcast was now focused on him and his words.

Many sneaked looks to the Empress and she was frowning.

A sign many took to mean she was not a fan of Hal\'s words.

Maybe he was not disrespecting the Academy directly, (even though some would argue that he was) he was still demeaning the fact that he was even allowed to participate.

As though he considered himself bigger than the Academy as a whole.

"This is the kind of dreg the Doxon family is now producing? Could the Doxon family perhaps believe they are greater than the Royal Academy?" continued the Silva man.

The Antonov brothers (the sons of Anton Antonov, Emily\'s father) looked from the Silva man to Kirill Doxon who the Silva man\'s words were directed to and frowned.

With Dimitri stroking his beard.

Kirill was silent for a few seconds and even Isabella wondered if he was about to explode in anger but the Doxon man merely smiled, 

"Don\'t misunderstand my grandson. He surely meant no disrespect. Also while the Royal Academy is indeed prestigious, it is not compulsory for anyone to attend.

Anyone other than the Imperial family I mean.

My dear daughter and my idiot sons never attended.

My grandsons, Hal excluded, of course, are never likely to attend.

Even if my idiot sons and immature crybaby grandsons are useless and mediocre, will you actually understate my daughter\'s accomplishment?"

The Silva man frowned and made to open his mouth to retort. Most likely to call Kirill back to the matter at hand and stop him from digressing too far but the Doxon patron quickly interrupted, 

"As for Hal, he has never once been in the tutelage of a Doxon. He has lived his whole life away from the family and he has achieved much.

He is a young man not yet in his thirties and is participating in the Royal Academy entrance exam that is unofficially reserved for members of the young generation who are, at the very least, Cosmic phenomenon experts.

\'Arrogant\' his words might be, but you cannot discount his talent."

There was a brief pause before Kirill added, 

"That said, if he has somehow offended the Empress and the Royal Academy as a whole, I apologize on his behalf" he said with his words oozing with respect and \'genuine\' appreciation for his talented grandson.

If only Hal could see this scene of his grandfather\'s false show of affection.

It is almost certain he would call the old man out.

The Empress shook her head, still unsmiling,

"No need to apologize" she said.

Elsa soon raised the device to her mouth and broadcasted her voice all about the coliseum while it was transmitted to the rundown district, 

"Twenty minutes are up!"

...

The Rundown city...

While Adeline still looked at Hal in anger, the tense situation between them had cooled off already before Elsa\'s words were transmitted to them.

At that point, Valerie had gone over to her group to showcase late-stage Cosmic phenomenon realm cultivation so that she would be allowed to join

"Twenty minutes are up! I trust you have all formed your groups and linked your devices. For those of you who have not, your devices will be linked randomly. You will not be added to already formed groups but will make up your own separate group.

As soon as Elsa said this, the ones who were groupless, either due to no one letting them join it or they thought they were too good for any of the groups quickly realized a problem.

Since the grouping was random, they were likely to be nowhere close to their group mates.

They were on their own and ripe for the picking for already organized groups.

"Oh, hell no" said one ungrouped fellow in Hal\'s area who quickly noticed after consulting his device which also acted as a tracker of sorts for all those within a group, that none of his group mates was nearby and decided to make a break for it before the exam officially started.

The tracking part of the device was to help them to find each other and help the group leader to rally them.

*Bzzzrrrr*

Almost as soon as the young man made to move, the device on his hand released a pulsing shock that froze him in place.

His eyes were widened in pain and his mouth was open wide even though no sound came out.

He keeled over soon after.

"No one is allowed to move while I am speaking. You will remain exactly where you are as it will be your position upon commencement of the Exams.

Now for the rules, as of now, there are Seventy-seven groups formed. 

Thirty groups have ten members, Nineteen have eight members, Twelve groups have seven members while Eighteen groups have five members.

All make up the Six hundred and sixteen participants taking the Royal Academy entrance exams this year.

Only ten groups of the seventy-seven formed will pass the first stage of the Entrance exams.

You are not allowed to kill or maim, I want that to be very clear.

You only have to incapacitate your opponents to be unable to continue.

Once again, every skill, knowledge, ability artifact... Anything you can use to win is all allowed.

Now... Begin!"

If Hal had thought there would be a moment of respite before the battle broke out, he was very wrong.

Almost as soon as Elsa said to begin, someone already sent a blast of cosmic attack at the incapacitated man on the ground, you know, the one who attempted to get away as soon as he could.

*Boom* 

With that attack alone, with the target unable to defend himself, the seventy-seven teams were cut down to Seventy-six. 

The participants got a chance to see what would happen once their devices go red which was for a portable teleportation circle ingrained within the devices to activate and take the defeated ones out of the rundown district.

Almost as soon as the young man was teleported away, Hal\'s instincts tingled and he instantly defended himself with Cosmic energy imbued with barely a hint of cosmic aurora but it was more than enough to deflect the attack tossed at him by none other than Valerie.

"I\'m going to defeat you. I\'m going to prove to you that you don\'t own me... No one does" Valerie said with a frown as she began to summon a four-circle ring of a four-grade skill.

As she did, she took the time to look at Melinda, 

"It\'s such a shame that you are in the same group as he is" she told the golden-eyed lady while Hal told the rest of his group not to interfere.

Adeline frowned as though she disliked taking orders from him but she understood Hal and Valerie looked to have some unfinished business.

That said, she was ready to interfere if needed.

But she was not needed...

The four-ring circle produced multiple spears composed of cosmic energy that all targeted Hal who condensed a cosmic Aurora in his fist and struck it out just as the spears shot at him...

*Boom*

... Destroying the skill completely with the blowback even hitting Valerie who raised her arms coated with Cosmic energy to defend herself.

When she lowered her arms, Hal was smiling at her, 

"It really interests me to know how you got so strong"