After getting their costumes and gear ready, they all congregated into a rectangular room.
Over 1000 students in total filled the room, and standing before them was an exhausted looking man in a suit.
'Is that Aizawa's brother or something?'
Sam thought—seeing the large bags under his eyes.
"My name is Yokumiru Mera. I'm so tired. The commission is way too understaffed."
Mera introduced himself—and complained about his job at the same time.
"Anyways, the first part of the exam will be a free-for-all. Heroes nowadays need to be quick to resolve an issue, thus you will all be tested on speed. Only 100 out of the 1541 of you will pass this stage."
That shocked everyone—except Sam, who was listening attentively.
"The rules are simple. You each get 6 balls. And you will each have 3 targets that you can place on your body—as long as it's visible. Using your 6 balls, you will try and hit the other students targets. The moment all your targets are hit, you're out."
This stressed the others out—but Sam was more interested, rather than stressed.
'This might be fun.'
He thought with a shit-eating smirk.
"The last person to hit someone, causing them to be disqualified, will get the credit for the elimination. In order to pass, you must eliminate 2 other students."
The students all started looking around at their opponents for this round.
The room began to unfold, revealing a large arena with many different environments.
The moment the walls folded, Sam already began looking at every terrain and possible hiding spot.
'I see. This is just a game of tag. Whatever. This seems simple enough. I'll just do things my way.'
Sam already concocted a plan.
He looked at his classmates and couldn't help but pity them.
———
After getting ready, the test was about to begin.
Sam stood with his classmates, surrounded by other students. What he already noticed, however, was the eyes on them.
"It seems like everyone will remain with their classes! We should do the same!"
Midoriya suggested after observing the students all staying together.
Bakugo ignored him and walked off.
"W-Wait, BakuBro!"
Kirishima followed after him.
"Kacchan!"
Izuku tried to reach out for Bakugo.
"I'm going to head off on my own too. I can't use my quirk very well in crowded environments."
Shoto said as he also walked off.
"Let me give you guys a word of advice."
Sam interrupted as Izuku—still shocked at Bakugo and Todoroki abandoning the class—turned his attention to Sam.
The rest of the class did as well.
"Aizawa didn't tell you this, but I think it's in your best interest to know this. Because you all are in U.A. and participated in the sports festival, they already have a good idea of what your quirks are."
Sam gestured to the other students glaring at them.
His classmates could see where Sam was going with this.
"So, they are going to come after us? All because they know what we do?"
Izuku asked for clarification.
Sam nodded.
"But that's not all. U.A. is constantly praised as the best hero institution. I personally find that debatable, but the public buys it. These other schools won't miss this chance to make their own schools shine, while proving that U.A. isn't as great as it seems."
Sam warned.
His classmates now were certain this would be harder than they thought.
"W-What should we do?!?"
Mineta asked—shivering.
Sam shrugged.
"Do as you please. I'm heading off."
The students were all shocked by that.
"Sam! Are you sure that's a good idea?!?"
Iida asked—worried for his friend.
The others nodded.
Sam just shook his head.
"I'll be fine. Worry about yourselves."
With those parting words, Sam headed off to one area that caught his eye—the forest area.
———
It's been a few minutes since the test started, and many students were already getting pegged with balls.
Nobody passed yet, which is understandable, yet adds a new challenge for the one to first pass the test.
In the forest, Sam was sitting on a tree. He surveyed the forest—finding nobody entering yet.
He also kept an eye on his classmates.
He saw the other students try to crush them.
'If I stayed, that would have been foolish. I don't fight head on like those punks. I have to be tactical.'
Sam was quirkless. He had to make up for that with his superior skill and experience.
"Damn it!"
"You guys okay? How many targets were hit?"
"I'm down to my last one!"
"Let's hide for now and think about what to do!"
He heard a group of students—not so subtly—escaping into his forest.
The moment he heard them, he smirked.
"The hunt's on."
Sam said, pulling up his hood and taking out the balls.
He carefully jumped down the tree and sneakily ran through the trees.
He kept his eyes and ears sharp and headed towards the voices he heard earlier.
Once they were close enough, he crouched flat on the ground and began to crawl. The lack of light in the forest from the trees shading made this the most optimal environment for stealth. And that was Sam's specialty.
"So, Yuto, what should we do?"
"We need to quickly find other students who are on their last targets like us. We will steal the final one and get two kills."
The leader said.
Sam was now observing them from a bush. He was watching their movements carefully.
'Amateurs. Can't even move without making a sound. Their bodies are trained, but still incredibly lacking. One good punch to the solar plexus would incapacitate them.'
Sam thought—completely dismantling the students before him.
'Quirks. One has a fire quirk. One has a web quirk. And the one called Yuto… still unknown.'
Sam deduced the quirks just by looking at their bodies.
He smelt flames from the hands of one of the students, who also had red hair.
The web quirk one had little white strings—residue most likely—on his bare wrists.
The others were weak. He didn't even need to focus on them. The 4 he mentioned are the only ones to worry about.
They could ambush him after his surprise attack, but judging from their sloppy movements, he was certain he could eliminate two of them before they could get him. And the moment he gets the second person, he immediately wins.
His targets were only Yuto, and Web guy.
They both had two of the three targets hit. They were a part of their classes elite, so they were all panicking at the thought of them being eliminated.
That's why they decided to hide and reconsider their plans.
'But it seems you escaped the pot only to fall into the bonfire.'
Sam was ready.
He carefully got into a crouching position—careful not to rustle the leaves of the bush.
He kept his eyes on his target.
He held the ball in a throwing stance.
'No wind here, means an easy throw.'
Sam saw the last targets.
They were resting at the moment so it was the perfect chance.
Fwoosh!
BEEP!
"Player 348 is eliminated!"
Sam then jumped out of the bushes and charged at Yuto.
To Sam's surprise, the boy instantly turned to him.
'His ears.'
He finally realized he had a strong sense of hearing. Thus why he turned to him when he heard the sound of the ball being thrown.
To Sam's dismay, Yuto then hit Sam with a blast of wind, slightly blowing him backward.
"Tch!"
He immediately realized that the boy could manipulate the wind.
"You bastard!"
Yuto glared at Sam with hatred.
"Isn't that the Quirkless Monster?!?"
"Shit! That guy's insane!"
"Get him!"
The students—even the scared ones—all got ready to jump Sam.
'Well shit.'
Sam thought as he immediately turned away.
He started to sprint back into the depths of the forest.
Luckily, he escaped right before a fireball hit the spot he was standing on. The fire guy growled seeing Sam run.
"Coward!"
He roared.
Sam didn't care. He was the only one with actual life or death experience. He knew when to retreat.
He could hear them following him.
Woooosh!
He could hear the sound of wind approaching him.
He immediately dived to the side.
Whoosh!
A giant ball of wind flew right past him.
He watched as it tore into a tree with its sheer power.
Sam got up and ran deeper.
"Get him!"
"He keeps running!"
"He can't run forever!"
He could hear a few voices. Luckily, only Yuto and the fire guy followed him.
Sam was thinking of what to do, when he recalled the weapon he ordered—the sword.
He unsheathed it and looked at the black Katana. It had blunt edges, but that was forgiven with a feature he asked for.
He saw a button on the hilt and pressed it.
ZAP!
The sword was suddenly engulfed in electricity. It was a large cattle prod that looked like a katana.
He then saw a pile of leaves from the tree that Yuto hit.
He put the edge of the sword on the leaves and immediately lit them up with his sword—causing them to go up in flames.
"Over there!"
He heard someone say as he then decided to enact his plan.
———
Yuto Kitagawa was pissed off.
He was always cast aside by the world due to his quirk being inferior to a certain other student named Inasa.
He could do great things with it, but compared to the wind quirk of Inasa, his was inferior.
Him and his class were about to join the U.A. crush plan, but he was ambushed by some smarter students who were going after those who were teaming up on U.A.
It took a lot of effort just to keep all of his targets from being hit, but he still lost two of them.
So did his other classmate.
He decided to hide in a forest to regroup and plan again. But the next thing he knew, a subtle whoosh sound entered his ears and a beep followed.
His other classmate who was also on his last target was eliminated.
And to make it worse, it was done by the Quirkless Monster! The guy who grounded Hawks, shot Endeavors knees out, and even made All Might nearly suffocate from a smoke grenade!
Now, he was chasing him—along with his other friend who was the only one courageous enough to go deeper into the forest.
He couldn't let this guy get away. To be eliminated by a quirkless guy would be the worst thing to ever happen.
But Sam Suzuki was something else. He was much faster than him and much more agile. He dodged his Wind Ball that hit like a sledgehammer.
After that, he completely disappeared deeper into the forest.
And to make it worse, he somehow couldn't hear him.
Thanks to his wind control, his hearing was highly advanced and he could hear the slightest changes in the wind.
But Suzuki was able to move so silently that even he couldn't sense him.
He couldn't let him get away.
When he saw the light, he immediately pointed it out.
"Over there!"
He quickly ran over to the light.
"Wait! Is that a fire?!?"
His friend with the fire ball power called out.
"Yeah! That crazy idiot is trying to burn this whole forest down! We need to stop it!"
Yuto replied—afraid of being in a burning forest fire.
He had to put it out quickly.
This would be costly, since that was Sam's plan.
———
"What the fuck?!?"
Yuto arrived at the sight of the light and saw a bunch of leaves burning.
He saw the flames spreading out to the trees and quickly put them out with his wind.
"Jesus! Did that lunatic try to burn down the whole forest?!?"
"Yuto! What happened?!?"
He turned to his friend.
"That psycho was about to light the whole forest on fire! He's mad!"
"I don't know about that. I had a feeling you'd see it. I knew you'd want to put it out."
Yuto and his fire friend stiffened.
"Heroes always choose the obvious threat. That's why they lose."
They both looked around and saw nothing.
Before they could call out to him, Yuto heard something falling from above.
"Look out!"
He dived to the side and barely escaped. But his friend was not so lucky.
Sam landed right on his friend's red head and slammed him face first into the dirt.
Sam looked down at the kid he smashed and winced.
"Sorry about that. Now. I could just eliminate this guy and pass… but why shouldn't I deal with you first?"
Sam said as he turned to Yuto—showing him his large smile.
Yuto shivered in both fear and rage.
"You bastard… you're dead!"
He charged at Sam in a blind rage.
His hand was surrounded in a ball of wind that was whirring faster than the ball he threw.
'That could probably tear me apart. He's lost it.'
Sam thought.
But like anyone who rushed into things recklessly, he was predictable.
Sam quickly dodged to the side—which led to Yuto punching a tree.
BOOM!
The impact was great enough to splinter the tree.
He turned to Sam and charged again.
Sam saw enough. He had to take him out while he was acting irritated.
Yuto charged again, but Sam also charged toward Yuto.
This surprised Yuto, but he kept running.
Sam ducked his punch and drove his fist right into Yuto's gut.
"Gaaahh!!"
He screamed in pain feeling the large impact.
Sam then grabbed his arm and used a perfect Judo throw to the ground—right on his back.
Gasp!
Yuto felt all the air in his lungs leave him and he writhed.
Before he could even think about what to do next.
Beep!
"Player 350 is eliminated!"
Sam placed the ball gently on Yuto's chest with a tap.
He then walked over to the unconscious red haired guy and tapped both of his targets with the ball.
BEEP!
"Player 349 has been eliminated! Player 1541, Samuel Suzuki, has passed the first part first!"
The announcer revealed to the rest of the participants.
Sam took a deep breath.
"Jackpot."
He exited the forest, completely ignoring the scathing looks from Yuto's classmates.
"Your friends are in the forest. Go get them."
He said to them, before exiting the forest.
When the rest of the competitors saw him, they paused.
They could only watch as a quirkless man—someone looked down upon by society—walked past them in victory.
Sam ignored them and walked to the exit.
'Well, that's that. Next part.'
Sam adjusted his breathing and prepared for the next round.