"Leave?" Wade chuckled. "If I wanted to leave, I could have done so ages ago."
He took out the bag, opened it, and tilted it upside down. A string of Golden Eggs clinked onto the ground, shimmering brilliantly in the faint light.
Amina's eyes widened as she saw the Golden Eggs, which her group had been desperately searching for, piled on the ground like a harvest of apples.
"You… you… you… despicable…"
She moved her stiff facial muscles, trying to make Wade feel more intense shame with her angry glare.
"What do you mean by that?" Wade asked, surprised. "I didn't steal my Golden Eggs from you."
Amina: "…"
Was it my fault for falling too quickly? Didn't you suddenly appear and ambush me?
—But being defeated by someone three years younger than herself, there didn't seem to be much room for protest.
Amina was so angry that tears almost welled up. She closed her eyes in frustration, refusing to look at that hateful face across from her.
—Unicorn Wand, you chose the wrong person!
"Alright, be mature." Wade leaned closer to her and said, "If the next person to come in is your companion, you'll have a chance to get them to help you remove the paralyzing toxin. But if you want to get a Golden Egg, I suggest you go the other way."
Amina had no choice but to open her eyes and glare at Wade. Although she didn't say a word, everything she wanted to convey was expressed through her gaze.
Wade nodded. "It's exactly as you're thinking… the remaining Golden Eggs on this path will also fall into my hands."
Amina said with difficulty, "The rules… don't… allow it…"
"I heard that," Wade said. "He only forbids me from leaving the arena with more than one Golden Egg, but he didn't forbid me from picking up Golden Eggs and then dropping them somewhere else, right?"
"Why…" Amina asked, puzzled.
"Hmm?" Wade countered. "Under permissible conditions, minimizing your opponents—isn't that standard practice? Of course, the main thing is—"
His voice paused, and Amina tried to lift her head a little. She saw Wade smiling as he said:
"I can do it, and it's not difficult, so why not?"
That sun-like confidence and composure, almost like a bullet, instantly pierced the girl's heart, making her heartbeat halt and her breath catch.
She watched as the boy, younger than her but already about the same height, walked deeper into the passage. Her heart pounded wildly, and she couldn't speak for a long time.
She should have been angry, but almost subconsciously, she began to hope that he would continue to win, to remain so proud, and that setbacks wouldn't smooth out his rough edges.
A sound came from the room. Another new Champion had entered the Chamber of Secrets. Amina heard voices from nearby:
"Wait, don't attack." Ryan Smith from Ilvermorny raised his hand and said, "I'm willing to put down my Wand first. Can you listen to me for a couple of minutes?"
"Okay!" Asada Chinatsu also put down her Wand. "I guess you're thinking the same thing I am."
Ryan nodded. "The previous announcement indicated that some Champions who entered earlier have already obtained more than two Golden Eggs."
Asada Chinatsu: "And they can set up ambushes, traps, and sneak attacks on us from the shadows—this place looks very convenient for a sneak attack."
Ryan: "So, there's no point in us fighting each other now. It'll just make the people who came in early laugh at us."
"While I agree with that, didn't Seraphina from your school also come in earlier?"
Asada Chinatsu said, "I was the first from Mahoutokoro to enter the second round. If you two team up, won't I be in danger?"
As they spoke, a cry of pain came from near the Compass. Someone else had entered.
This time it was Diogo Costa from Castelobruxo. He gritted his teeth and stood up from the ground, looking at the two people in front of him. He cautiously took a step back and pulled out his Wand.
So, the two in front once again asked him to calm down and repeated their previous idea.
"We're not in an either-or competition." Ryan said sincerely, "There are sixteen Golden Eggs in total. Even if five schools team up, there are more than enough Golden Eggs. We can help each other and pass this event."
Asada Chinatsu nodded in agreement.
"That makes sense, but the first Golden Egg found is mine," Diogo said with a bad expression. "Castelobruxo only has me left as a contestant."
The other two exchanged glances and felt that this school from Brazil was a bit unlucky, so they didn't object.
This event had a fifty percent elimination rate, which sounded terrible at first, but once the competition truly began, they felt that the chance of getting a Golden Egg was actually quite high.
"But the people before us might have also teamed up, and they entered this place before us. To close the gap, we'd better wait for two more people," Diogo added.
Ryan and Asada Chinatsu had no objections. They nodded immediately and waited patiently while observing their surroundings.
Before long, two more people appeared out of thin air, Cedric Diggory and Fleur Delacour.
Naturally, neither of them refused the suggestion to team up. The five discussed it and chose a passage to enter.
With mutual cooperation and looking out for each other, even if they accidentally stepped on a trap, they could handle it with the help of others. All five were top students from their respective schools, and none of them held the others back.
Soon, they saw Amina entangled in thorny vines.
Their eyes met. Amina excitedly opened her mouth, wanting to call for help, but due to muscle paralysis, she found it difficult to swallow normally, so a stream of glistening saliva trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Amina: "…"
…
"Ahhhhhh… I'm going to kill him! I'm absolutely going to kill him!"
Amina, who had been rescued by the group, still couldn't fully control her limbs. She leaned against Fleur, roaring like a fierce tiger in anger.
"Okay, okay, but who are you talking about?" Fleur asked, looking at her sympathetically.
"Who else could it be? Wade Grey!" Amina snapped, "Stop looking for Golden Eggs on this path; he's taken every single one in this passage!"
"What?"
Everyone was shocked. Diogo, who had been standing next to Cedric, immediately put some distance between them, and Asada Chinatsu, walking behind, already had her Wand pointed at Cedric's back.
"What?"
Cedric was also stunned. He quickly asked, "Why would Wade do that? Is there some misunderstanding?"
"How should I know? I can't read minds! I saw him with a whole bag of Golden Eggs myself!"
Amina let out another roar like a tiger, "I'm going to kill him!"
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