"Did I hear that right?"
Mt. Lady blinked hard, disbelief etched across her face. She smacked her friend Death Arms on the shoulder.
"Nope, I heard it too—ow! Don't hit so hard!" Death Arms winced, rubbing his arm as his massive muscles twitched comically.
"I really hope we don't end up against him next round," said Kamui Woods, taking a deep breath and glancing warily toward Lock in the distance.
"Yeah…" Mt. Lady sighed, shaking her head.
From the start of the first round until now, barely five minutes had passed. Five minutes—and the exam had ended because of one person.
Because of the Lock.
She shivered. The idea of that boy as a villain was terrifying.
But as an ally? Invaluable.
Thinking of that possibility, Mt. Lady couldn't help but smile unconsciously.
Her two friends groaned and facepalmed. "You're seriously hopeless…" they muttered, pushing her toward the next examination site.
"Candidates who have passed the first round, please proceed to the Ante Room in the city's high-rise district," came Good Eyes' weary voice over the broadcast.
Immediately, teams of medical personnel rushed out to collect the unconscious examinees littering the arena.
It wasn't hard to tell who'd been eliminated—anyone lying unconscious from the flames was carried straight to the infirmary. Most wouldn't be waking up soon.
Ante Room
Lock entered quietly, taking his usual place in the corner.
The surviving candidates filtered in one by one. But unlike before, no one dared glance at him.
No one dared look at him.
The group instinctively avoided the corner where Lock stood, giving him a wide berth as though he were a walking natural disaster.
The result was unintentionally hilarious: Lock stood completely isolated, surrounded by space, while everyone else huddled at a safe distance.
"Uh… good to see everyone again," Good Eyes said dryly from the podium. "Congratulations on passing the first round of the elimination exercise."
He looked utterly exhausted, scratching his messy hair as he continued.
"In this modern Hero society, competition is brutal. Most Heroes struggle to survive—so the purpose of the first round was to make you experience that cutthroat reality firsthand."
As he spoke, every candidate except Lock shot him deeply unimpressed looks.
Good Eyes sighed internally. He couldn't blame them. Even the Hero Public Safety Commission hadn't expected this.
Their intention was simple—by designing multiple terrain zones, each candidate could capitalize on their Quirk.
For example, Kamui Woods would thrive in forest areas.
A candidate with aquatic adaptations—like the girl with Tyrannosaur-like ears—would obviously choose the coastal zone.
The test was meant to reward tactical awareness and adaptability.
But all of those carefully crafted ideas had gone up in smoke—literally.
The "Fire Dragon's Roar" had incinerated every scenario in just over three minutes.
The fastest round completion time in Hero license exam history.
Good Eyes' shoulders slumped. Still, he had a speech to finish.
"Now then," he said, coughing lightly, "please look at the screen behind me and find the number that matches your exam card."
A massive digital display lit up, showing the names and numbers of the 800 candidates who had survived.
Lock didn't even need to step closer—his enhanced Fire Dragon Slayer senses made his vision razor sharp.
Scanning the list, he quickly found his number. It showed him pairedwitho a team of five.
Above his name: Mt. Lady, Death Arms, and Kamui Woods.
Below his name: Sirius.
Their names were grouped, separated by blank gaps from other entries—clearly marking them as a single team.
Good Eyes explained, "For the second round, you'll compete in teams of five. The teams were decided based on the last four digits of your exam numbers—arranged in ascending order, cycling through one to five."
Lock nodded. The rule made sense.
With 800 candidates, there would be exactly 160 teams.
The screen even displayed visible spacing between teams, so no one could miss who their allies were.
"There will be two events in the team competition," Good Eyes continued. "A one-on-one individual round, and a full five-on-five team battle. The detailed rules will be handed out in written form later, so I'll skip the specifics."
He turned to step offstage, then paused. "Ah, right—before I forget. You have one hour. Use it however you like—find your teammates, strategize, eat, rest, whatever."
With that, he left the stage.
Instantly, the room burst into motion.
Candidates scrambled to find their teammates, waving numbers, shouting names, forming clusters of new alliances.
The lock didn't move. He simply waited.
Before long, Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and Death Arms spotted him and walked straight over.
Since the three were close friends who'd entered the exam together—and Lock had literally burned himself into everyone's memory—they found him immediately.
Moments later, another figure approached—a young woman weaving through the crowd.
The fifth member of their group.
Sirius.
Her presence stood out immediately. She was calm, poised, and strikingly beautiful, with long pale blue hair and a gentle expression.
Most noticeably—two fin-shaped ears curved elegantly from the sides of her head, a clear result of her Quirk.
A Hero trainee gifted with sonar-like hearing—the future Marine Hero: Sirius.
Lock tilted his head slightly, intrigued. "So she's my last teammate…"
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