Everyone's Class: One Effort, 10,000x Bonus Reward! - Chapter 228: Victory! Good News

Chapter 228: Chapter 228: Victory! Good News

In the deep night, at the far end of the street, a single small candle flickered in the wind.

Its soft glow lit up a young, innocent face.

A little girl walked slowly toward the athletes waiting at the hotel entrance. In her left hand, she held a red candle; with her right, she held her grandmother’s hand.

Behind them, more and more lights appeared—like stars in the night sky.

Soon, the dark street was filled with countless flames.

People from the Elephant Empire stood everywhere, each holding a red candle, silent and respectful.

The crowd parted, and the Emperor of the Elephant Empire, Xander, stepped forward, surrounded by his people.

He also held a red candle high. His eyes were firm, his face serious. Looking at the athletes who were about to leave, he took a deep breath and slowly raised the candle above his head.

“Braves! May the light of the red candle guide your way and bring you home victorious!”

Roar!

A roar rose in response. The red flame burned brighter, sending a straight column of red smoke into the air.

Then, everyone in the crowd raised their red candles together and shouted again and again:

“Braves! May the light of the red candle guide your way and bring you home victorious!”

“Braves! May the light of the red candle guide your way and bring you home victorious!”

…

The candle burned fiercely, and hot wax dripped down.

Even the little girl, who had started it all, showed pain on her innocent face. But there was no fear in her eyes. She kept the candle high, looking at the young talents with hope in her gaze.

One of the brightest students from the Elephant Empire took a deep breath and quietly explained:

“You might not know, but this is an old tradition of our land. It has been practiced for a very long time.”

“Whenever our warriors leave to protect the city, the nation, and the people, the citizens of the Elephant Empire always do this.”

“Candlelight represents the brave warriors. The red candle stands for the danger and challenges they will face. And the red smoke? That is our prayers and our hope for them.”

Hearing this, Aiden’s eyes softened with emotion.

It was already late. Over the past few days, so much had happened. Even in the capital of the Elephant Empire, fear began to fill the air.

Yet here these people still were, doing whatever they could for every athlete leaving.

He looked at the little girl holding the red candle high above her head. Suddenly, a memory flashed in his mind—the scene he had seen in The White City.

A dying Reclasser, covered in blood, gave him a thumbs-up with his last ounce of strength.

“Ge- General… kill a few more… kill as many as you can…” Those were his final words before he passed.

Aiden slowly closed his eyes. He could still hear those words echoing in his mind.

“Bro, you’ll all come back safe and victorious, right?” The little girl, holding her red candle, finally spoke up.

Her eyes were reddened. “My dad, my mom, and my brother were all killed by the Demons. Grandma told me that if we pray for you, the Demons will be defeated and you will all come back alive.”

“Is that true?”

“Bro, please be careful and stay safe. Wait for me until I grow up. Then I will fight the Demons too, just like you. I want to be a hero!”

Her innocent voice left all the athletes speechless.

You could hear only deep, heavy breathing as they tried to hold back their emotions.

Aiden had always thought he was calm and steady, that nothing could shake him.

But seeing this, he gripped his fists tightly. A fierce anger rose in his heart toward the Demons.

Just then, Robert slowly turned his head and looked at Aiden.

Among these more than one hundred athletes, if anyone was fit to represent them all, it had to be Aiden.

Soon, more and more athletes turned to look at Aiden.

Many of them didn’t know how to face such heavy expectations.

Aiden took a deep breath, straightened his back, and walked toward the little girl and Emperor Xander.

When he reached the front of the crowd from the Elephant Empire, he stopped.

The eyes around him were brighter than the candles, filled with all kinds of emotions—hope, fear, pride, and trust. It was hard to know what to say.

“This battle, I, Aiden, will surely win!” Aiden finally spoke after a long pause.

Become the hero the little girl had called for?

That was never his plan. What he said, he would do.

Even if no citizens had shown up, even if there were no prayers or hopes from them, he still intended to defeat the Demon geniuses.

“Victory for this battle, I, Victor, will surely win!” Victor’s voice suddenly rang out from behind Aiden.

Almost immediately, most of the athletes followed Aiden and shouted in a powerful chorus:

“This battle… we will win!”

Their voices, filled with passion and determination, echoed across the night sky. Swirling with the flickering candles and rising red smoke, the scene became sacred and solemn.

“Good! Go show them! Kill as many Demons as you can!”

“We believe in you! You will win!”

“Those Demons are about to face the true strength of human geniuses!”

“Be careful! Stay safe! Please come back alive!”

“Your names will be remembered by every citizen of the Elephant Empire!”

In an instant, countless words of care and hope filled the space, lifting their spirits and giving them strength.

In the shadows of the crowd, Miles watched Aiden’s back, the center of everyone’s attention. He clenched his fists tightly. His eyes burned with hatred. He thought to himself:

“Hmph? Victory? You won’t find victory. Instead, you’ll face unimaginable despair and fear!”

“It’s not my fault. You all forced me. Damn Aiden, damn Calvin, damn Sophia, damn the Azurecloud Empire, damn all of you humans!”

Miles kept cursing in his mind. Right now, his only goal was revenge. He wanted everyone to regret everything.

Thinking this, Miles glanced quickly at Robert, then dropped his head low, afraid Robert might notice him.

Soon, Robert began leading the athletes away from the hotel, heading toward the departure point. As they stepped out into the street, they saw even more citizens from the Elephant Empire waiting for them. There were more candles, more eyes, and more hope.

Even after the athletes boarded the waiting train, the crowd didn’t leave. Instead, they began to sing loudly:

“Brave warriors, set sail!”

“May the storms and the rough roads not make you afraid. The candlelight will light up everything…”

The powerful song followed the athletes all the way out of the Elephant Empire’s capital.

As the train moved into the wild, night swallowed the surroundings.

Aiden sat by the window, eyes closed, deep in thought.

In another seven or eight hours, they would reach the front lines of the battlefield.

Right now, Aiden was paying less attention to Miles and more to Liam.

Even though he had Robert’s help, he still didn’t have a clear plan on how to investigate Liam’s secret.

There wasn’t enough time. He couldn’t afford to be slow.

However, Aiden knew one thing clearly: no matter what Liam wanted to do—or more accurately, what the Wraith inside Liam wanted to do—their ultimate goal was to strike at Earth.

“Kill the human geniuses? Kidnap these athletes? Or… control them like they did with Liam? Maybe turn these highly talented Reclassers into their puppets?”

Aiden’s mind raced, spinning through every possibility.

The Wraith inside Liam was almost certainly Goust. Even if it wasn’t Goust, it was definitely connected to him.

Aiden had already contacted Robert, ordering him to send people to dig up every bit of information on Liam.

Without a doubt, they would find something useful.

After all, the enemy wouldn’t expect to be exposed, so they would have left clues behind.

None of this would have come to light if Aiden hadn’t taken the “Bane of All Races 2: Genius Nightmare” mission.

And it wasn’t until he met the Wraith known as “The Omniscient,” Jack, that he could confirm Liam was under a Wraith’s control.

As the train rolled forward, the athletes’ fierce spirit faded. They fell silent, their expressions growing serious.

Just then, Robert walked into the carriage. He greeted Aiden and quickly made up an excuse, asking him to come somewhere private immediately.

As soon as Aiden left, some of the talented athletes in the carriage began whispering among themselves.

“Robert Lord called Aiden for what?”

“I don’t know. But didn’t you notice how gentle Robert Lord was with Aiden?”

“If you were as talented as Aiden, everyone would speak to you that way.”

“That’s true. The gap between people… no, the gap between geniuses is just too huge. If I went to talk to Robert Lord, do you think he’d even bother with me?”

“Just go out there, kill a few Demons on the front lines first. Then try talking to him. He’ll definitely listen to you then.”

In a private compartment on the train, Robert’s face was grim. He raised his hand, releasing a swirl of green light that sealed the room off from the outside world.

He quickly pulled out the file on Liam. “You were right,” he said. “Liam is definitely being controlled by a Wraith.”

“This is the information we dug up. And there’s more good news: I found something even bigger in my agents within the Azurecloud Empire.”