The Retired Hero is an Extra

Jash mentally played with them, and Amael had to play along, not knowing Jash's schemes, but he couldn't act against the tide either.

'Just what's his game?' Amael wondered in frustration, unable to get a read on him.

Meanwhile the golden-haired boy was in his own realm of thoughts, 'This... this never happened.'

Unaware and unbothered about their thoughts, Jash casually glanced at them before refocusing on the boss monster.

It seemed to be on its last legs, its horns cut off, many scales shattered and cracked, and a few dangling against its skin.

With every second, its blood loss increased, teetering it even closer to the jaws of death.

Yet its eyes showed a flicker of defiance and anger despite being nothing more than a simulation.

Using the realistic approach allowed the monster to display basic emotions like anger at being attacked or having its territory invaded.

However, its defiance wasn't expected by the professors and they immediately cut off its emotions.

Their decision was to prevent it from going berserk, leading it to become nothing more than a sitting duck.

Of course, the examinees or the audience could never notice it, excluding Jash.

'Hm?' his eyes narrowed in confusion, thinking that he might have hallucinated for a moment.

But he shook his head in the next second, quickly shaking off the confusion, focusing on the protagonist and Amael closing in on the boss monster.

Despite them holding great animosity to each other in the future, none of that was reflected at the moment.

Even if Amael himself knew everything about the future, there was no real reason to show his hostility openly.

Since he had not experienced those moments himself, why would he feel any emotions towards a stranger?

Only the bias created after going through the novel information prevented him from seeing anything else.

Meanwhile, the protagonist himself was confused at the set turn of events, going with the flow with no other option.

As if to break the monotony of the situation the nine examinees one-by-one defeated their opponents, getting slightly injured in the process.

The one with a fuming expression was Avon as he couldn't believe he was the fifth to defeat his opponent.

Not like anyone was happy to be behind anyone else as they considered themselves as the top geniuses.

Everyone but Jash and Caeron.

Caeron because he had no interest and felt that these ranks didn't matter much, what mattered was staying alive.

On the contrary, Jash knew that Amael was more talented than him, if not for his unfair advantage of a past life.

So, he had no arrogance or pride over the fact.

It was just that, a fact.

Nothing more than that.

That's why his emotions were stable throughout, not being stoked in the least unlike them.

"That's mine," Jash yelled, throwing a spear at Amael and an axe at the protagonist, distracting them for a second.

—Woosh!

"Ugh!" both groaned as they were moving and had to transfer the momentum to their weapons to block the strike.

Jash had thrown the weapons at the last second, making it impossible to dodge by side stepping, forcing them to deflect.

He seized that moment to thrust his sword through the boss monster's head... or at least he tried to do so.

At the last moment, a stray ThunderBall spell forced him to let the sword escape his grip.

—Bzzt!

Retracting his hand at the last second, Jash didn't even turn around to look at who sent a spell at him.

Instead, he ducked down, rolling ahead on the floor as an ice arrow passed by his previous position.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, he inhumanely used the monster's horn he had taken and drove it inside its dying body.

—Spurt!

Blood spurted but the sound of attacks landing echoed as it wasn't just him being attacked.

Since he, Amael, and the protagonist were in the lead, they were targeted by everyone, and any attacks aiming at the boss monster were neutralized by one another.

Of course, the ones attacking wildly were getting more and more agitated by their unsuccessful attempts to breach the three's defenses.

Yet a stunned silence befell the area after the boss monster started dematerializing, leaving behind its horn as if it were real.

As the others were bewildered, Jash swiftly pocketed the horn and kicked away, having already planned an escape route.

On the other side, Avon had just reached the golden-haired boy, instantly clashing against him and was forced to step back.

His expression distorted before he realized that the attacks had stopped, inadvertently looking at the boss monster.

"What!?" he exclaimed in disbelief, being the first to react as others were too stunned by the sight, allowing Jash the window to escape.

Of course, Amael had caught Jash trying to escape from the corner of his eyes, but that was all.

The arrow was approaching his head, and even though no new spells were being cast, it was still going to reach him.

It was fired by Zaos, making it all the more formidable, forcing Amael to focus on deflecting it, so as to save time and strength.

'The chase would be annoying,' he thought with a frown, not ready for Jash's action as it was out of the plot.

For some reason, Jash was going overboard to the point of showing off.

However, it was something else that mattered to Amael.

'Oi System! This! Doesn't this change the story?' he asked his system, wanting to get Villain Points, alas, he was asking to be disappointed.

{Error! Host has not caused these changes! Unable to find source! Error!}

'Damn this system,' Amael cursed inwardly and felt a stray spell turning to him. He turned and tilted his head to his left, dodging it by a hair's breadth.

Though no one was focusing on him or anyone else, they all had their eyes set on Jash, aiming to defeat him until...

"Wait! Isn't the Entrance Test over now that the boss is taken down?" the neutral elf exclaimed, happy for this madness to end.

Yet his words did nothing to stop any of them from chasing Jash, all the while being wary of each other and attacking even.

The one with the highest advantage was Zaos, he could just stay in the back and fire arrows at everyone.

While Caeron and Yirox could indeed have done the same, it took longer to cast spells and moving and casting was too much to ask for.

By the time they completed their spells, there was a high chance the others would have been out of their range.

Of course, they weren't slow, it was just that everyone was on their nerves, using everything at their disposal.

It didn't matter what they did, after all, there was no use hiding it if they couldn't even tank Rank 1.

Sadly, it was all useless as the Entrance Test had ended.

Long ago, indeed.

However, the audience and the examinees were the only ones unaware of it.

As time closed in, even the sun was on its setting throes, signaling the end of the Entrance Exam.

Yet the audience was excited to see what would happen next and so the academy forced the examinees to stay within a limited area.

"Shit!" Jash cursed, knowing what came next.

"Finally!"

"Caught you!"

It was the others who were looking for him, finally catching up to him and forcing him into a corner.