Chen Koenig took the android from Hiroshi.

Hiroshi had been struggling just to hold it up, but Chen casually slung the “civilian” over his shoulder as if he were picking up an inflatable doll.

{Excuse me. I am not your luggage. Carry me properly, would you?!}

[Ah, shut up.]

That was Chen’s response.

Since the radios had been left on so runners could be swapped at any time, the opposing team’s voices came through vividly as well.

[It’s hard to focus, so could you keep it down?]

The seniors burst into snickers.

{What? Keep it down?! Hey! Is this how a Badger is allowed to treat a civilian?! Huh?!}

[Wow, this thing really does feel realistic.]

{And since when are we close enough for you to talk down to me?!}

“It’s a blessing Ro isn’t running this one.”

The seniors muttered as they watched the runners at the start line.

“If it were Giacomo Ro, he definitely would’ve smashed that thing halfway through....”

Will Jonathan be okay?

He looked like the opposing team’s second runner. Kairos would obviously crush this event, but it didn’t seem especially suited to Jonathan.

As for Sylvia, there wasn’t even a need to ask.

Huh. But right now, she was handling her “civilian” rather quietly.

Sylvia, who had taken the android from Kate, was gripping the android’s right arm.

Much more polite than Chen.

Though with the center ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) of gravity off like that, it didn’t seem easy to move the android around in that position....

I was wondering why she had chosen to hold exactly there when Ju raised the starter pistol.

Beep!

Runners ready.

Bang!

The match began!

The first obstacle was very straightforward.

The runners had to step across the caps of mushroom Creatures to enter the “Energy Bar Zone.”

They stretched their legs and stepped from mushroom to mushroom.

Boing, boing, boing!

It almost felt like sound effects were playing.

The seniors nudged me, chuckling.

“See it, Taleb?”

“Yes.”

“I think they probably made that because of you.”

“There’s no way. There’s already an original game.”

“Before you got that nickname, nobody ever even thought of doing something like this.”

That was because normally nobody ever needed to....

“But isn’t that slippery?”

It was.

The instant you failed to lock down your center of gravity, you’d slip and fall. The mushroom Creature caps were as slick as a floor drenched in gasoline.

But both first runners were acknowledged elites even among the Black Badgers, and Chen and Sylvia entered the Energy Bar Zone almost simultaneously.

Now the course changed from a linear lane into something that looked straight out of a game stage.

Devices and monsters had been placed all over the zone.

The first to move was Chen.

{Carry me properly! Properly, damn it!}

The android hanging carelessly over his shoulder flailed its arms.

{I feel like I’m going to throw up!}

Chen ignored it.

[Chen of Team Black Mamba heads for the first obstacle!]

He stopped in front of a giant Creature that looked like an enormous clam.

[It’s the ‘Rhythm Arbiter!’]

“What is that?”

I stared in confusion at the monster, seeing it for the first time in my life.

It definitely was a Creature—I could sense its presence.

But no matter how hard I searched my memory, I had never seen anything like it in the Empire.

“A giant clam?”

“Ah, you don’t know it?”

Leeho explained.

“Come to think of it, you’ve never done a sea mission, have you?”

The Rhythm Arbiter was apparently a Creature usually found near the coast. Unless you approached and stabbed it, there was no risk of it attacking.

Though found by the sea, it lived on the beach rather than in the water, and apparently it would actually die if dropped into the ocean.

[That’s a perfect Creature for Chen!]

The clam, which normally kept its shell tightly shut, produced a strange sequence of sounds.

Tuk. Tududuk. Tutuk. Tong.

Ju explained that if you perfectly imitated the bizarre rhythm, the clam’s shell would open.

That peculiar feature was what had earned it the unique name Rhythm Arbiter.

“But it’s nowhere near as easy as it sounds. Unless it’s a recording, almost nobody can succeed with just their mouth—”

Before Leeho could even finish, Chen succeeded.

[Team Black Mamba clears the first obstacle!]

“Nice!”

[Chen takes the lead by one step!]

Apparently the android had interfered with the beatboxing, because Chen had simply dumped it face-down on the floor.

[And there’s the first energy bar!]

[Ah, shit!]

Chen triumphantly pulled a biscuit-like chip from inside the opened Creature’s mouth and shoved it into the android’s mouth, then rolled up his sleeve and snapped irritably,

[Why the hell are you so weak?!]

Our team’s civilian, whose energy had dropped to four bars, returned to five.

At almost the same time, Sylvia cleared an obstacle of her own.

She had extracted the energy bar from inside a ball woven out of monster thread.

Using the thread pin stuck in her own hair, she had somehow dismantled the sticky orb.

“Wow.”

I wasn’t the only one impressed.

Ruta Ayer muttered in disbelief,

“Isn’t that Arachne thread? It’s so adhesive that unless you use a jackknife it shouldn’t tear. How the hell did she do that?”

“So that’s why she’s on the military deserter capture squad.”

Even Leeho clicked his tongue.

“I saw it happen and still have no idea how she did it.”

Sylvia gripped the energy bar.

But instead of wasting time feeding it to the android, she immediately sprinted toward another obstacle.

Unlike Chen’s android, hers was quiet.

Because she was currently running while gripping the doll by the throat....

[For reference, these ‘civilian’ dolls are designed to be fairly close to real humans!]

The moment the drone filmed Sylvia’s android dangling in her grasp, Ju’s clear voice rang out.

[If you hold the neck too long, your ‘civilian’ might suffocate to death!]

Sylvia let go.

The android stopped thrashing and stood quietly beside her.

The silver-haired senior watched it for a moment, as if allowing it time to catch its breath.

{Haaah... haaah....}

The difficult-civilian android even made remarkably human sounds.

The moment it frowned deeply at Sylvia, the silver-haired senior immediately clamped her hand around its throat again.

“Hey, the battery’s draining!!”

Someone from the Snake-Eagle team screamed.

Sylvia ignored them completely.

“It’ll drain even faster like that!”

Still she kept running.

{Cough... Sylvi... Sylvia....}

At this point the android had started pleading.

{I’m sorry.... I’ll shut up....}

The first runners kept clearing obstacles one after another.

An energy bar trapped inside slippery slime.

An energy bar released by answering a common-sense quiz correctly.

An energy bar held in the beak of a flapping miniature flying Creature.

An energy bar awarded only if you correctly caught the mole with the bandage on its head....

The two runners were clearing obstacles at almost the same speed.

The problem was how they were handling the androids.

Though they had obtained a similar number of energy bars, the civilian under Sylvia’s care had dramatically less energy remaining.

[Ah! The Snake-Eagle team is swapping runners!]

Most of the first zone’s obstacles had already been cleared.

That meant they could either keep scavenging what remained or choose to abandon Zone 1 and move on to the next.

The opposing team chose a runner change.

[They seem to be taking advantage of Chen’s struggle with the obstacle!]

Chen had become hopelessly stuck at the “shooting game obstacle.”

No, seriously—if you can nail rhythm, why can’t you shoot?!

I stamped my feet watching Chen die repeatedly in the shooting game.

That looks like the easiest obstacle there is!

“It’s Senior Kudo.”

At Nana Dol’s mutter, I barely tore my gaze away from the shooting game screen.

“The one who uses a sword....”

Jonathan started.

Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing!

He carried the android Sylvia had quickly backtracked to hand over, then stepped across the mushrooms.

Like the others, he crossed them stably and landed in Zone 1 in no time.

But there aren’t many obstacles left in Zone 1.

Is he going straight into Zone 2?

“Waaah!”

“This is it!”

No.

Jonathan sprinted straight for the “math problem obstacle” machine and punched in the answer without hesitation.

Cheers erupted from the Snake-Eagle team.

“The relay includes research staff too!”

“What the hell? Isn’t that cheating?”

Leeho shot to his feet in protest.

“The obstacles are supposed to be solved by the relay runner—”

Bang!

His words were cut off.

The instant Jonathan tried to feed the vending-machine-style energy bar that had rolled out into his android’s mouth, something struck the bar in his hand.

Chen had flicked a stone.

A pebble from the field, snapped with his fingers.

The energy bar shattered to pieces.

[Ah! Unbelievable!]

Ju shouted.

[Chen has destroyed Jonathan’s energy bar!]

“BOOOOOOO!”

Immediate outrage exploded from the Snake-Eagle side.

“That’s dirty!”

[An entirely unexpected move, but since it isn’t against the rules, it can’t be called a foul!]

Seriously?

[It’s a decision that could only be described as quintessentially Chen!]

“BOOOOOOO!!”

[Apparently satisfied after destroying the enemy’s energy bar, Chen abandons the shooting game obstacle and runs toward Zone 2....]

Jonathan suddenly sprinted after Chen.

I stared wide-eyed at the senior charging at full speed.

What is he trying to do?

Probably everyone had the same thought.

The sight of the senior, who had just been blinking at the shattered fragments, suddenly running like he was possessed by a monster was deeply ominous....

“Kudo! You can’t hit people!”

The moment Ami’s urgent shout rang out, Jonathan caught up to Chen, who had been running straight ahead.

Only then did Chen notice Jonathan’s presence.

Jonathan raised his right hand.

But contrary to everyone’s fears, he didn’t punch Chen Koenig.

Instead, Jonathan abruptly snatched away the android Chen had tucked under his arm.

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he hurled the “civilian” back toward the starting point.

Chen’s android flew through the air in a perfect arc.

“WAAAAAAH!!”

“HEYYYYYY!!”

An explosion of noise erupted from both teams.

“That crazy bastard!”

“Isn’t that insubordination?! Insubordination!!”

“Foul! Foul!”

[Fuck! Jake!!]

Chen screamed.

[You insane bastard?!]

“Runner swap!”

The moment Chen turned back to retrieve the android he had apparently arbitrarily named Jake, Jason Trevain shouted into the radio.

The veins on Trevain’s forehead were bulging, yet somehow he resisted crushing the radio in his hand.

“Black! You run!”

[Yes.]

Kairos’s relaxed voice came through the radio.

A moment later, red hair appeared at the start of Zone 1.

Smiling, he took the android Chen handed over.

Then Kairos began to run.

A roar erupted from the stands.

“BLACK-JAAAAACK!”

Boing boing boing.

Kairos crossed the mushrooms with complete stability.

“Run straight to Zone 2!”

“Smash it! Smash it!!”

Our furious seniors had all risen to their feet and were shouting.

“Destroy every single one of the other team’s energy bars!!”

Instead of answering, Kairos simply bared his teeth in a grin.