The Retired Hero is an Extra

Just as there were animal-like monsters, plant-like monsters also existed in the world.

However, it was extremely difficult to differentiate normal plants from plant monsters due to their similar appearances.

Unlike aggressive animal monsters, plant monsters couldn't move or attack on their own.

They could only act passively, luring their prey into range with their guard and then... taking them down all at once.

While this wasn't true for every plant or animal monster, the higher their rank, the more unique they were.

Who knew what all species of monsters were left to be uncovered in the wild?

Yet it was quite easy to guess that Jash had encountered one such plant monster on his stroll and immediately cut off its stem.

The action made it produce a loud noise which could disorient most hunters of the E-Rank and even cause F-Rank hunters to faint.

Unfortunately, it met Jash, who was the top of the top amongst E-Rank Hunters despite being only at the Early stage.

Poor plant didn't even get to sense anything after its loud screech before it died and wilted immediately.

"I freaking hate plant monsters. They don't even give anything," Jash grumbled in irritation at the wilting stem and flower.

He couldn't care less about his earlier thoughts, then switching to the annoying plant monsters as his eyes turned upwards.

"What the heck? Why are there so many!?" Jash blurted out, noticing the dense cluster of plants in front of him.

Just like any other small plant, they had a green, leafy stem with green branches filled with big leaves and some buds.

Only a few had flowers at their axial ends or on some branches.

Unlike popular belief, these plants had a growth limit because their flowers inhibited further growth, known as cymose inflorescence.

In such plants, the main axis did not grow continuously as a flower grew terminally on the main axis.

Thus, limiting the growth of the main axis, making them nothing more than the size of a human's waist or shoulders at most.

If only the scientists and researchers of Aeternis Ājānia focused on plant and animal sciences, they might gain more insights into monsters.

"All this knowledge really helped my previous world's people to fight off the sudden mutations caused by mana,"

"Not like they would care about it in this world as people only believe in their strength here," Jash commented while walking away from the flower bed.

He had already killed one plant monster and it let out such an annoying voice, there was no way he would go over the entire flower patch.

Thus, he had already left the area, moving to another part of the grassy plains he was walking on.

By now, he had already crossed several regions on the island: forest, swamp, hills, and riverbank.

Yet he would be the least watched examinee on the screen except for his 1v3 fight and sleeping footage.

Of course, Rui used the reward chest footage with the comment, "Sometimes just relaxing can be rewarding as well."

He didn't tell anyone about the illusion or his theft, knowing Vice-Principal Zander way too well.

Since he rewarded Jash for the pseudo-balancing trial, Zander kept quiet and even saved him from Aileen.

But if he let others discover it... even Rui didn't know what'd become of him if he was that careless.

Though he also wasn't aware of Jash wanting to hack him to death literally and was planning a much worse method of revenge.

Oftentimes, humans feared separation from loved ones more than death itself.

Ignoring the money grubbers or some exceptions, most humans followed their emotions to make decisions.

And if one was going to get distanced from their friends and family, it'd be a far worse punishment than death.

That's why some people believe lifetime imprisonment and isolation was better than a death penalty.

In reality, it could even make the person psychotic or crazy, so it wasn't really feasible.

However, Jash was disjointed from such realities, having lived such a life—being alone despite being surrounded by countless humans and demons.

That's why the sudden familiarity and acceptance from Ramille Family would be too hard for him to accept if not for having his memories sealed.

The fact that his previous life's memories arrived only after he was a teen helped him adapt more quickly and in an easier manner.

Unlike him, Amael was a different case, having his previous life as the dominant manner made him quite distanced from the Blake Family and forced him to put up an act.

Unfortunately, Jash only knew that Amael was different and nothing more, or he would've tried to resolve it.

Even if he would have done that for Amael, Rui was a different case and he planned to make Rui's life a living hell.

Rui, unaware of the danger ahead, eagerly made his final comment and said good night before leaving.

As night fell, the moon shone beautifully, and Jash lay on the grass, enjoying the moonlight.

"Interesting," he mumbled, thinking how moonlight was nothing but a reflection of sunlight yet it was so cold and relaxing.

'Is this also referring to the dual nature of light? Being able to give heat and cold as well?' Jash mused, a relaxed smile on his lips.

He had no worries about the test or anything, he was even counting the stars in the night sky while speculating random things.

His mind was really something, wandering across numerous topics within the span of a few seconds.

As if nothing could tie him to one exact point in life, Jash continued to think of various scenarios.

The most predominant one was which would be the most effective way to capture the spotlight when taking the first rank.

'Defeating them at their peak? No... it would hurt their pride and I would get unnecessary enemies...'

'Defeating them after they tire themselves out? No... their pride would refuse to accept it and unnecessary problems would come my way...'

'Fighting them in a 1v1v1v1...? Nah, too eye-catchy...'

Jash spent a good ten minutes on coming up with a solid plan, all to only end up sleeping in the cool wind.

His sleeping frenzy was another sort of footage that would be used to plant the difference between him and other examinees should he secure Rank 1.

Not just him, every examinee who had higher chances of becoming Rank 1 had some of their footage cut and kept for that purpose only.

The only difference between them and Jash being, his footage would be the most sensational and offensive to his batchmates.

Not like he cared, though.

If he did care, why would he relax so casually while others were working hard for nearly 40 hours already.

However, the audience was more deeply engrossed with other examinees such as their favorite, Amael.

Avon, despite trying his best, still fell short of him while his sister was praised by all of the audience for her decisions.

Yet the fan favorite was the elven princess, Sylvie, and Caera, who outshone all mages, being a battlemage with an awakened element.

Barring them, the consensus among the professors was of someone else getting Rank 1 in the female category.

Even her scores in the second test were overall just a few hundred short of Jash, almost tied with the second highest in boys.