The place where the display would be held was different from what they had expected.
It wasn't anything like a stadium or a battle ring. Instead, it was more like a city.
The cadets and the investigators spectating had a facility within this city-like place where they all stayed.
Apparently, it was a city created for tests and training within the MBO. It was fairly large, with residential and business buildings positioned all across the place.
Gustav and the others arrived there on time. They took their seat in the facility, which happened to be a kind of tower situated behind the city.
There was a massive transparent wall in front of the seating area where everyone could see the city from their seating position.
There were also projections that displayed different parts of the small city as well.
The four inspectors from the higher-ups sat at the northwest corner within the facility clad in ash and red-coloured uniform, which showed that their ranks were higher than that of all the instructors.
As every first-year cadet arrived, one of the instructors moved to the front as the event began.
"I will now explain your tasks for today," Instructor Briant voiced out as he gestured at the city in front.
"This is a city just like in the outside world built only for the purpose of training and event like this… You all will be tasked with protecting different sections of this city in front," Instructor Briant explained as he gestured towards the city.
Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!
The place turned a little noisy as Officer Briant got to that point because some of the cadets were wondering why officer Briant was mentioning protection when they were prepared to display their most powerful abilities.
"Whatever section of the city you're tasked with protecting has to be kept safe while you attack whatever threatens it's safety…"
As Officer Briant reached this point, a holographic image of a black round metallic-looking ball writhing with electricity appeared in the air for everyone to see.
"You are to destroy this before it lands in the city… Every ball has a particular amount of force, strength and thickness, and it increases in these stats the more you destroy.
If a ball eventually manages to drop on that section of the city where you're meant to protect, you will be scored based on how many you managed to destroy," As officer Briant got to this point, the cadets had looks of understanding on their faces.
"You're not allowed to help another cadet deal with their section and you're meant to control the force of your attack to make sure your assigned section of the city is not damaged because of you," Instructor Briant added.
After all, this was said, the cadets waited for their names to be called one after the other.
According to instructor Briant, only five hundred cadets could be assigned to city sections at a time, so there would be different batches.
The special class cadets were not going to be among these batches because, according to the inspectors, they wanted the special class cadets to be assigned to two different sections of the city at the same time.
They also wanted to focus specifically on the special class when they were performing this task, unlike the normal cadets. The latter was about five hundred in number going at a time.
They obviously wouldn't be able to notify everyone. They also felt the special class cadets should always be made to do more.
The five hundred cadets whose names were called moved forward as expected and were teleported to different parts of the city.
As they arrived on the section they were meant to protect, they looked around.
There were about eighteen buildings in the vicinity, and light could be seen coming out of the drawn structure on the ground that surrounded these eighteen buildings, forming a kind of rectangular barricade.
This depicted that the section ended where the lights were located, and the buildings and roads were meant to be protected.
Each section was like a small street.
Some were lucky to find themselves in residential areas with small-sized buildings. In contrast, the unlucky ones found themselves amidst high-rise buildings like skyscrapers.
Those who found themselves in areas with high-rise buildings started making their way to the top of one of the buildings.
This was mostly because it was easier for the balls to hit one of the buildings if they remained at ground level. They felt they would be able to react better if they were on higher ground.
A few minutes after the cadets had arrived at their sections, officer Braint announced the beginning of the event.
They all became alert after the announcement and prepared to attack.
Shhrroouummm! Shrrooumm! Shrrooumm! Shrrooumm!
A few seconds later, everyone could hear loud sounds coming from the sky like something was traveling through it at a fast speed.
They looked up, and in the next few moments, massive black balls started raining from the sky.
They descended towards different locations in the city with force and speed. It looked as if meteors were descending from outer space with the speed at which they were moving.
Those who had noticed one coming towards their section of the city prepared to attack.
The moment it reached points where they knew their attacks could reach, the cadets began sending out attacks simultaneously.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!.
Different kinds of attacks were sent into the sky, and sounds of explosions rang out across the place with every collision.
In a few seconds, the skies had been cleared, and everyone had managed to destroy the balls before they could land in their section of the city.
Not every section was attacked in this first round since it was random, but everyone was still on the alert as they waited for the next round.
The skies still had smokes and some kind of coloring due to the massive number of attacks sent out earlier.
