*Roar!*

The overlord beast let out a deafening roar. Other beasts were responding to that roar, and they started retreating.

The people widened their eyes in disbelief. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"The beasts are retreating?"

"We won?"

"We won!!!"

"We repelled the beast!"

"Oohhhh!"

The people started cheering.

They never thought they would survive this battle. The reinforcement had truly come and appeared a few minutes earlier. If it hadn’t been for his appearance sooner, the commander would have died.

The big clash between Arnie and the overlord beast didn’t happen. Both of them knew that it would be futile. A prolonged battle would just give the humans an advantage. Arnie’s ability would be more effective at killing more targets.

Arnie also didn’t want to waste his energy fighting this beast. He had another reason for coming to this city.

Arnie leaped to the top of the wall with a casual expression.

Director Popo and the Lightning Emperor nodded politely to Arnie, showing respect to the strong.

"It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ve been chasing a bunch of lowlifes before coming here. Anyway, I take it that you can handle the rest?"

Mr. Popo pointed to the right. "The students must be experiencing hardship right now. There is another beast wave, so..."

"Don’t worry. That’s what I’m going to do. In that case, you guys take care of the matter here."

"Yes, sir!" Both of them nodded with serious expressions.

Arnie smiled and disappeared.

Once he reached the forest, he was quite surprised by the chaotic atmosphere around them.

"..." Arnie didn’t show himself at first to get a feel of the situation. He took a peek into one tent and saw so many people lying down. In another tent, he could see people crying over their injured or fallen friends.

It seemed that another brutal fight had happened in this place.

To his surprise, he found Auric resting quietly in a corner.

Auric was focusing on recovering his energy before opening his eyes, as he sensed someone standing in front of him.

"Yo, boy. Should we talk?"

Auric thought for a moment before nodding. "Let’s go somewhere private."

Auric quietly led Arnie to a much more secluded spot. "Adjudicator."

"It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m here as reinforcement. Can you tell me the situation?"

"Sure." Auric explained everything he had found briefly, including the poison.

Arnie was quite surprised by the impact. If it were truly incurable, the poison would have stopped 80% of freshmen from advancing.

It was truly a vicious poison. The effect wouldn’t be visible for a while, but the moment a generation or two was cut off, the country would be weakened severely because the older generations didn’t have successors.

By taking advantage of the beasts, they could cause large-scale mayhem.

Arnie contemplated. "So, can you heal them?"

"I can. Actually, the principal was ’calling’ his connection to help with the treatment."

"Oh!" Arnie thought for a moment before saying, "Do you want me to act as a bodyguard for that friend? This way, it will create a perfect cover for you."

Auric raised his eyebrows. "That would be great, but why? What do you want from me?"

"I’m just a good person. I like the potential of future generations and want to see them flourish." Arnie smiled proudly.

But Auric was just staring at him as though he had just heard the biggest lie of his life.

"You don’t need to look at me with that eye. Well, I want you to take a look at their laboratory. The people from the government are good, but I think you have something special that can lead me to an answer quickly. Of course, I’ll guarantee that your identity remains unknown. Officially, you were never there."

Auric thought for a moment. "I will need to ask my teacher’s permission first."

"Sure." Arnie patted his shoulder. "Anyway, I should help eliminate all the beasts here first. Anything you want to say?"

"There are a couple of assassins who tried to get me and my group earlier. I’m afraid they’re the same people who spread the poison. I don’t know if their bodies have been devoured yet or not."

"Okay. That’s all. Take it easy, I should be done in a few minutes. By the way, where is your teacher?"

"She is inspecting the ruins right now."

"Got it. Thanks." Arnie nodded and waved his hand before disappearing.

With Arnie taking the lead, the beasts were gradually suppressed. He, of course, met the principal.

Since the principal was the first person to create a cover story for Auric, they needed to work on the story together to create a perfect cover.

Once they were done, they set up a new tent for treatment.

Of course, no one was allowed to remain in the tent other than Auric and the patients themselves.

Arnie didn’t insist, even though he also wanted to see how Auric treated the patients. Fortunately, he got plenty of information about the treatment from Dexter. The only thing he didn’t know was that most of Auric’s treatment used chaos energy.

Professor Vienna had prepared the anesthesia, making sure that they weren’t awake to know that the person treating them was Auric.

This way, the identity of the person who treated them would remain unknown.

Arnie looked at the tent.

A student gradually opened her eyes.

"Ugh..."

"Rea. Andrea! Can you hear me?"

"Sylon?" She clutched her head and tried to get up. "What’s going on? Shouldn’t I..."

"You were treated not long ago. According to them, the poison in your body is now gone."

"Hmm...?" She was confused and tried circulating her energy. Soon, her energy came out of her body. There was no discomfort or pain. "I can use my energy again..."

"You’ve recovered!"

"I’ve recovered."

Both of them looked at each other with surprised expressions. They then hugged each other and cheered. "The treatment is working!"

More and more people began to wake up. Their friends were checking their conditions, and it turned out all of them managed to recover.

Principal Fernandes told them that he had a contact who could treat them, and he was right.

The students were grateful to Principal Fernandes.

Arnie smiled after confirming the student’s recovery.

Once he was done, Arnie tried to reach out to Maya.

He was quite surprised by how tattered her clothes had become.

"Whoa? You look like you’ve seen hell..." Arnie looked amused.

Maya paused for a moment before deciding to keep quiet about it. "I’ve been better."

"Who on earth could cause that much damage to you? Even among the same level, not many can actually fight against you."

"I don’t know. The one I encountered was a man with a golem made of black metal. Not your magma rock, but a pure black metal like Zirconium or something. There was another person. A woman with a firebird avatar, red hair, short legs, and a flat chest."

"Looks like that woman pissed you off." Arnie smiled wryly. "So, where are they? Did you defeat them?"

"..." Maya paused for a few seconds before saying, "Yeah. I defeated them. It was a hard one, but I managed."

Arnie fell silent. Her clothes might be tattered, but her wounds were already closed. It looked like Maya had another helper and didn’t plan to tell him about that helper.

"Okay then."

"Do you know who they are?"

"I don’t know about the woman, but the man should be Zivic Kirslan. One of the most wanted terrorists. He had killed two officers of the same rank, which made him dangerous."

Maya nodded in understanding. "That’s good then. You should check the ruins. Maybe you can identify them. Also, the timing is so perfect. The beast wave..."

"It doesn’t look like they were the ones causing this beast wave. It was a natural beast wave, but they might play a role in it.

"For example, a powerful beast was already there, so it was normal to be reported, right? Then, the recon team would be sent to check this credibility to confirm the potential threat."

"!!!" Maya widened her eyes. "Do you mean someone from the government passed this information to lure them out?"

"Yes. Well, I’ve got an idea how and who, so I will take care of it." Arnie waved his hand. "Also, I’ve just got a notification. You are an active adjudicator now?"

"It’s just for this beast wave. I will relinquish that status again now that the beast wave has been repelled.

"Is that so? That’s truly a shame. I thought there would be another reliable senior adjudicator. Miss Black Witch."

Maya’s eyebrows twitched. "Are you really provoking me right now? You do know that I dislike that nickname."

"Hahaha. I’m just joking. Anyway, I’m going to bring your student to the laboratory. He might find something fast, so I need his help with the investigation. After looking at this beast wave, I don’t think you will disagree, right? Besides, your student was almost assassinated. There were four people."

"!!!" Maya widened her eyes. "So, the enemy split into three groups. The first one inspected the ruins, the second one opened the gate, and the last one tried assassinating my student?"

"Most likely."

"..." Maya contemplated for a moment. "Fine. You can bring Auric. However, only under my supervision. I will go there as well."

"Come on. Do you think I can’t protect him? I’m stronger than you."

"I know, but I also know that you are a sly fox. If I leave you alone with him, you’re going to employ every trick you have to make him join the adjudicators. He doesn’t plan to join, so I’m not letting you trick him."

"Look at how little you trust me. Do you think I dare to do that? I don’t want Senior Mathias knocking on my door with the full force of the Shadow Guards."

"Hmph." Maya snorted and looked away.

"Anyway, I got what I needed this time. It’s time to finish my work here. Look at this junior of yours... She’s so disappointing. She doesn’t even want to help me hijack a plane. I still remember when you hijacked an underground train."

Maya rolled her eyes. "You just have a screw loose who thinks hijacking things will make things convenient."

"Well, all the adjudicators have a screw loose in their heads. You are no exception. This junior of yours must have one as well, but she hasn’t shown it yet. It’s going to be interesting for a while... teaching this newbie."

"..." Maya’s eyebrows twitched. The problem was that she couldn’t deny his words.

Arnie’s behavior might be chaotic, but he closed cases much faster than anyone else. So, he gained a reputation that told people to let him do whatever he wanted.

Besides, he knew the bottom line.

Maya just sighed, watching Arnie walk away.

...

At night, the officer whom the commander had entrusted with control, Nathan, took a deep breath, looking vacant as though he was lost in thought.

He drank the entire bottle in one gulp before breathing heavily. "Haa... Ha..."

Suddenly, a voice echoed from the side. "Mr. Nathan."

"!!!" The officer turned around and trembled. "Who are you?"

"I am Chief Adjudicator Arnie." Arnie smiled and took out his phone. "Let’s see. I’ve checked your financial records. Apparently, you got a large amount of money after filing the report regarding a rumor about the existence of a rank 6 beast. It caused the beast wave in this city.

"That was your crowning achievement. I could see a few other misconducts, small bribes, corruption, and misconducts. It’s quite surprising that you are able to reach this rank with all that. Must be good to have such a supportive family."

"You... you know about my family. So, you should know..."

Arnie rolled his eyes. "Of course I know. That’s why, with the special rights given to me as the chief adjudicator, I am now giving you a judgment.

"You don’t have the right to defend yourself. For causing the beast wave and being responsible for the deaths of 103 people, you are hereby sentenced to death.

"Congratulations, Mr. Nathan. Your life is now forfeited." Arnie smiled and walked away.

"W-What?" Nathan was confused, but he soon felt intense heat in his body. "Aaahhh.. What is this? No... NOOOOO!"

His scream died down as his body melted away into nothing.