Villain : Nonchalant Greedy-Chapter 5: Evaluation

Clem registered their team under the name "The Newbies", which left Sarl overflowing with sadness and frustration—he had wanted the name "The Titans". However, that name sounded too flashy and might attract unnecessary attention.

But Sarl quickly got over it. The important thing was that Arsene had joined them and they had officially formed a team. The match schedules would be announced later.

This was just a casual activity meant to break the routine, and it usually didn't attract much attention. However, the final match was always intense—especially because many students placed bets on which team would win.

For now, the three of them were relaxing in Arsene's apartment, which he received as a perk for being a Singular. The apartment was nice and cozy, with a spacious bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room.

While Sarl admired the place, Clem and Arsene were discussing the meeting they were supposed to attend the next day—one specifically for Singulars with information-type abilities.

It wasn't a tense conversation. Neither of them knew exactly what would happen during the meeting. It might just be a get-to-know-each-other kind of thing.

Still, Arsene was suspicious. They had five whole years to get to know each other—why this meeting now?

"Maybe they want to evaluate us?" Arsene thought.

But hadn't they already been evaluated during the entrance exams week? Then again, this could be an evaluation of their actual Singular abilities, especially since only those with information-type Singularities had been invited.

Clem and Sarl left after they had dinner together. Clem had cooked, since he was good at it. Arsene invited them to stay over, but they decided to leave—especially since a new roommate could arrive at any time and mess with their stuff.

The meeting was scheduled to be held in one of the lecture halls in the morning, so Arsene met up with Clem in front of the cafeteria so they could have breakfast together before heading to the hall.

"Do you think there'll be many people like us?" Clem asked.

"I doubt it," Arsene replied. "People with information-type Singularities are extremely rare because their abilities are always tied to the mind."

"This type of Singularity is linked to intelligence. And intelligence has always been more of an innate trait than an acquired one. You can count the naturally gifted people on one hand compared to the rest of the world."

Arsene explained it calmly. Clem was impressed by Arsene's analysis—it made a lot of sense. Information-type Singularities were indeed very rare, from what they'd heard after passing the entrance exams to Regis Academy.

They were approaching the corridor that led to the hall where the meeting was supposed to take place. Oddly enough, the area was unusually quiet—there were no students roaming around, and the silence filled the space like a thick fog.

As they neared the hall, two individuals were standing by the door. Upon noticing Clem and Arsene approaching, they waved at them.

"There you are! You're late—we've been waiting for you!"

The truth was, Clem and Arsene had gotten carried away chatting at the cafeteria and completely lost track of time. They assumed the meeting would have already started without them—but it seemed the others had been waiting specifically for their arrival.

The two stopped at the door, and the people guarding it requested their academy IDs to verify their identities. Arsene found this detail suspicious—but he handed his card over anyway. As soon as their identities were confirmed, the doors were opened for them.

And then came the shock.

The lecture hall was packed—almost every seat was taken, except for two empty chairs clearly reserved for Clem and Arsene.

"Maybe you miscalculated, Arsene," Clem said in surprise. "This is a lot of people for information-type Singularities. Though... compared to the total number of students, maybe it's a fair ratio—don't you think?"

Arsene didn't respond with words—just a calm, knowing smile.

They took their seats, which were quite a distance away from the platform at the front, where a desk was set up. Standing there was an elderly man in a white suit. Seated beside him were a few others: an older woman, a young child, and a man in dark sunglasses.

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A committee, maybe? Clem thought. This seemed to confirm Arsene's earlier suspicion—that the meeting was actually a hidden evaluation of information-type Singularities.

Finally, the old man broke the silence that had filled the hall.

"Welcome, everyone. First, allow me to introduce myself and those beside me, so you'll know who exactly you're meeting today.

I am Yogur Baltis, Head of the Information-Type Singularity Division here at the Academy—and across the entire One Blossom Alliance.

Beside me are also individuals with information-type Singularities.

This is Madam MacLenny, my deputy in the division.

This is Mr. Juanking, a professor here at the Academy—you'll be attending his class, and he'll be your primary mentor this year.

And finally, this young boy is a special guest from the Franschyz Empire—

the genius Faradice Forbes."

"Ahem. Now, as for the nature of today's meeting—this is not simply a gathering. It is an evaluation. An assessment of you as information-type Singulars."

"Before each of your seats, you'll find a number assigned to you. The challenge of today's test is simple:

Among everyone in this room, only nine of you are actual information-type Singulars. The rest are decoys—staff working with us, placed here to mislead and inflate the numbers."

"Only one person will pass this evaluation. That person will receive a monetary prize and 1,000 contribution points within the Academy, which can be used to purchase items at the Academy's stores."

Yogur Baltis looked directly at Clem and Arsene as he continued:

"Of course, the delay caused by these two arriving late has delayed the test for all of you. However, it has also helped narrow your target pool—from nine potential Singulars to just seven.

As a penalty, they must identify all seven true Singulars."

"The rest of you can exclude yourselves and them from the suspicion list—leaving you with only six potential candidates to identify."

"Oh! One more thing—don't get clever. Don't start overthinking or suspecting everyone. We on the panel are not part of the evaluation, so stop trying to 'think outside the box.'"

"Let the test begin!"

Everyone was deep in thought, especially after what old Yugger had said. He excluded himself and those beside him, but that only raised more suspicion—why did he tell us that?

Does it mean the two who arrived late could have been a trap to mislead us? Everyone was using their singularity to uncover even the slightest bit of information that could help identify the other Information-type singularities.

But they had to be careful not to make any suspicious moves, so they wouldn't expose themselves. The hall was filled with fake participants, and each fake person was playing their role perfectly—staring too long, trying to identify the singulars, and acting suspicious to draw doubt.

In fact, the ones who benefited most from being late were Arsene and Clem, because they knew for sure they weren't fake participants planted to increase the numbers in the room.

Arsene was smiling. "Why didn't they consider that some people might already know each other as Information-type singulars? What if someone already knew who the first-year singulars were before this test even began?"

Those were Arsene's thoughts as he watched everyone. He noticed Clem trying to read people's expressions using his singularity.

Arsene's singularity probably wouldn't work in this exact scenario, since it required physical touch and only worked on one person at a time—meaning he'd have to touch everyone in the room, which was likely against the rules, right?

Even if it wasn't, it would take way too long to examine everyone one by one.

There probably was no way for Arsene to pull this off.

That's what Clem was thinking, doing mental calculations, a bit concerned for Arsene, yet also feeling oddly relieved that even people like him could end up in no-win situations.

"Your singularity probably won't help you today, Arsene. As your friend, I feel bad. If I were closer to you, we could've helped each other out."

Clem was then surprised—shocked by what he saw—not just him, but the entire hall, including the committee members themselves.

Arsene had just stood up and walked toward the committee.

"I've identified the eight real Information-type singulars—excluding myself, of course!"