Once they pulled up the footage, the truth became clear. Starting early that morning, Number 235 had crawled out of a tree hideout, opened his laptop, typed furiously for a while—and then headed straight for the finish line in the shortest possible route. A straight line. He hadn't encountered a single enemy along the way. Forget enemies—running into a bird would've been a miracle. The guy was basically a walking cheat code. Luke stared at the synced surveillance feed, pinpointing the general location of Thora’s group. "Boss, it's not that I didn't want to come find you," Luke muttered to himself in mock repentance. "It's just that the path to you guys is way too dangerous. I can't handle that solo."To avoid dragging you down, I figured I'd clear the exit first." He sighed, continuing his one-sided confession. In reality, after hacking into the surveillance system, Luke hadn't been able to spot Thora or the others at all. There were plenty of blind spots in the island's camera coverage. Locating them simply wasn't possible. More importantly, though—he trusted them completely. Within Wolffang, there was an unspoken understanding. When you fully trusted your teammates, the best thing you could do was take care of your own task. That way, no one had to worry about covering your back. And Luke's task right now was simple. Wait. "This ... this means he hacked our surveillance system, so—" Roman stammered, caught off guard. Sergio nodded, confirming the conclusion. "Correct. By mapping out the location of every camera on the island, he reconstructed the full terrain and the route to the objective on his laptop. That's how he got out so fast—without meeting any resistance." Sergio's voice had turned cold. After all, this was the first time in the academy's history that a candidate had cleared the course this way. "Then does this count as cheating?" Roman frowned. The other examiners turned to Valen as well. Opinions were split—half the panel thought it was cheating, the other half didn't. In the end, the decision rested with only one man. Valen—the Tyrant. Valen's gaze sharpened. He turned to the technician and asked coolly, "How sophisticated was the intruder?" The technician answered immediately, "Reporting, sir—extremely advanced. The execution was very clean. If we hadn't embedded a dedicated anti-intrusion protocol into the firewall, we probably wouldn't have detected it at all." Valen fell silent for a moment. Then he looked around at the panel of examiners. "Blue Star Military Academy isn't bound by tradition," he said evenly. "Since this candidate's technical expertise is that strong, it falls well within our recruitment standards. And this action does not constitute cheating—nor does it violate any rules for this round of the exam." As this year's chief examiner, Valen's words effectively were the rules. No one objected. "Yes, sir." The examiners nodded in agreement. Valen's eyes returned to the surveillance feed, settling on Luke. If he remembered correctly... Number 235 also seemed to be associated with Number 230. Strange. Why was it that every candidate who stood out even a little somehow revolved around 230? In Valen's original impression, Number 230—Thora—was an unserious, careless young person. Otherwise, how could someone show up at the very last minute for an exam this important? But as the assessment progressed, the Thora appearing on the monitors looked nothing like the image he'd formed at the start. Even so, Valen still believed that strength alone didn't excuse a lax attitude toward an exam. A soldier had to be disciplined, precise, and self-controlled. What he didn't realize was that he had already begun judging Number 230 by a far harsher standard than anyone else—despite the fact that she hadn't even officially enrolled yet. And by sheer coincidence, Thora's fight with Sierra had taken place in a blind spot of the surveillance system. He hadn't seen it at all. If he had, his opinion of her might have changed completely."I should go out and receive them," Sergio said, placing his cap on his head as he led several others toward the deck. Since someone had already made it out, the rest wouldn't be far behind. As the examiner in charge of the second round, Sergio was obligated to personally welcome the candidates who earned their victory.