875 Real Inner Courtyard 1 (1/2)

The Inner Courtyard was made up of three libraries, sixteen training grounds, thirty-six wrestling rings, and the residential houses of numerous professors, instructors, and Elite Students.

It was also a fully Gothic city. The flow of people there and their consumption demands required shops to be built there. The presence of the stores then produced sparse differences in the rate of foot traffic there.

Garen walked a full circle around the periphery of the Inner Courtyard carefully and ensured that his tracks would not be discovered by Fila and the others. There were surveillance cameras everywhere, but most of them had been damaged by other people. The areas that were not covered by cameras were completely covered in traces of fights among students. Blood stains could even be seen on certain walls.

This was the Inner Courtyard, the real Blackboard Academy where the weak were the prey of the strong.

Fighting was prohibited in the department headquarters cum administration building in the center of the area. However, they could fight in the other places that were monitored by the cameras as long as they did not kill others. Meanwhile, no one would care about their actions within the unmonitored areas.

This place prioritized the survival of the fittest and weaklings would be eaten from the first moment they stepped foot inside.

When Garen was walking over, he saw many groups of students that were actually part of organized factions. There were also Mech fights everywhere while Willpower contests resembled frequent fireworks explosions.

He had gained many legitimate benefits after entering the Inner Courtyard, such as specialized training grounds.

These training grounds were equipped with first-class technology that could create battle simulations with any opponent. The entire Inner Courtyard was only able to maintain such great momentum despite cutting themselves off from the outside world because of these ruthless mechanisms.

After Garen had carefully evaded a few brawls and scuffles that were occurring on the streets, he finally arrived at a black rectangular multistoried building.

This building was was perfectly straight and strong, and it stood out from the crowd of silvery white buildings as it looked abnormally eye-catching.

A circle of thin dark-red crystal-like rings was suspended in mid-air around the buildings. They were surprisingly beautiful.

Garen raised his head and admired the power and influence of the rings. He could vaguely feel immense Willpower forces coming from above that were way beyond the abilities of an average person. He felt as if the Willpowers of numerous people were being gathered in one place to form a terrifyingly powerful Energy Field.

There were dried blood stains on the steps in front of the training grounds. There were faint cracks in certain places while it was impossible to form holes in other areas even if they were struck by airborne explosions. He had not expected to see any sign of damage on the steps.

Garen glanced around briefly and noticed two middle-aged people passing him from behind. Without even looking at their surroundings, they took large strides and entered the training grounds before disappearing behind a large pitch black door, as if they had been teleported instantly.

A group of blonde, nonconformist youths walked out of the black door together with solemn looks on their faces and blood stains on the corners of their mouths. If they tied white silk scarves around their heads, they would have looked like the master martial artists portrayed in the daily papers, who had held fatal grudges during the era of the Republic of China.

None of them paid any attention to Garen. Those who entered and left this place would only have either exhausted or solemn expressions on their faces.

The training grounds and library were special benefits for the Elite Students. These were the most important part of the other benefits were for their family members. Although there were monetary allowances, they were never sufficient for the expenses within the Inner Courtyard.

From an outsider's perspective, the students of the Inner Courtyard received unimaginably large allowances. However, every single one of them was actually extremely poor.

Many students who had reportedly been sacrificed themselves during missions had actually died because of the vicious fighting within the Inner Courtyard.

Garen thought of the things he had seen on the way and the information he had obtained by using his watch to access the internet in the Inner Courtyard. He exhaled firmly.

”This is the real Blackboard Academy…”

He took large strides and walked into the black door.

Bang!!

Moments after he stepped foot inside, he saw a human figure being flung across the room violently. The figure was plastered against the large arch-shaped wall on the left side before it slid down slowly seconds later.

The person who had been sent flying was not that old. He looked to be about twenty years old and was a man with a face full of bruises. His Willpower seemed to be around Level Three.

The attackers who stood on the right side were a group of four to five people. Their leader, who had short black hair and wore black leather gloves, was currently doing wrist exercising movements.

”Anything else you want to say?” Black Gloves asked casually while looking at the young man on the ground. ”You weren't my opponent three years ago, and you're still completely hopeless three years later.”

The man on the ground tried to crawl up determinedly even though his body looked terribly injured. He had suffered serious internal injuries and could only lie on the ground weakly after numerous attempts to get up.

A few curious onlookers were scattered around the area while Garen stood on the edge and eavesdropped for a while.

The attacker and the victim had once been good friends who had, unfortunately, fallen out after falling in love with the same girl. They had initially planned to use peaceful measures to compete with each other, but their friendship ties were severed at once when the girl had died in an accident while trying to save the current victim of the attack.

Garen stopped and looked for awhile before turning around and walking towards another arch-shaped passage on the left side. That passage was one of the two entrances to the training grounds and rooms.

He had not gone too far along the passage before he saw two males clashing with each other against the wall. Both of them had terrifying looks on their faces while their lips were right next to each other's ears as if they were whispering something. Suddenly, the male who was pinned against the wall suffered a blow to his stomach and spat blood immediately.

The male who had attacked cast a threatening glance at Garen but remained silent as he continued with his own business.

Garen furrowed his eyebrows; he realized that the chaos here was worse than usual.

After walking further inside for a period of time, he saw a boy and girl who were badly bruised and clad in nothing but their underwear. They were in the middle of a circle of people who were constantly pushing them around. It was clear that they were being bullied.

Garen glanced at the room. The information above stated that the degree of the simulations here could only reach Level Two Willpower. Therefore, they could only simulate opponents with Level Two Willpower. Garen continued to walk deeper.

Along the passage that began to spiral gradually, Garen could see various acts of bullying, fighting, and quarreling happening after a specific distance. If he had forgotten that he had actually entered an Inner Courtyard of Elite Students, Garen would have suspected that he had walked into a completely chaotic fallen city.

People were being robbed, chased, beaten, charged with protection, confronted by other factions, and even raped. Anything that was imaginable could be seen here.