The First to Arrive

At dusk, in front of the base at the foot of the mountain where Jilan and the others were about to arrive, Shota Aizawa and Mandalay were standing at the door of the wooden house waiting.

Mandalay took out his phone and checked the time, then said hesitantly, "The sun is almost setting, and they still haven't shown any signs of breaking through. This test is definitely too difficult. You know, the trial for Class B in the neighboring mountains is much easier. Only a handful of them have just come out of the mountains. Eraser Head, do you really trust your students that much?"

"They've had real-world experience, so their growth rate is much faster than Class A's. What's more, there's also..." Shota Aizawa paused for a moment before continuing, "Now there's not much time left for them to grow steadily. In order for them to get what they can only get in the first semester of their second year after this training camp, even if they act recklessly a bit, there's no other way. I believe they can persevere."

"You mean the 'Provisional License' that allows emergency use of Quirk, right?" Mandalay chuckled wryly. "I took the exam for a whole year to finally get it. U.A. High School students are truly exceptional. I feel a little discouraged."

"That's nothing good, what's the use of getting it?" the child standing at the door said dismissively.

"Kota!"

The Mandalay whispered a rebuke to the boy, who fell silent, his face returning to calm as he walked back into the cabin.

Watching Kota's retreating figure as he entered the house, Shota Aizawa asked hesitantly, "Mandalay, could he be..."

Mandalay nodded with a wry smile, "That's right. That's why this child resents Pro Hero so much."

Suddenly, both Shota Aizawa and Mandalay's expressions changed, and they both looked towards the trees.

A boy with an afro, his school uniform tattered and covered in mud, dragged himself out of the forest toward them. He was panting heavily, his head down, moving his body step by step.

Standing before Aizawa, he struggled to lift his head, panting heavily, and asked, "Am I the first one?"

Before Aizawa could speak, Mandalay cheerfully exclaimed, "Congratulations, young man, you're the fastest!"

The Mandalay seemed very excited and was completely unaffected by the topic it had just discussed with Aizawa.

Aizawa nodded slowly.

After seeing the answers from the two, Bakugo breathed a sigh of relief. Then, the strength that had been supporting his body vanished instantly, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Aizawa placed his hand on Bakugo's nose and said in a deep voice, "He's fine. He's probably just exhausted. He'll be fine after a good night's sleep."

"That's good. I'll carry him inside." Mandalay grabbed Bakugo and dragged him into the room.

Aizawa didn't look at Bakugo, but turned around, looking at the increasingly dark sky, and frowned.

"It's already this late, and Bakugo is already here, why aren't they here yet?" Aizawa sensed something was wrong and walked over to the American Shorthair sitting to the side with its eyes closed as if it were asleep, and asked directly, "Senpai, do you know where they are right now?"

The members of Pussycats have been in the industry for twelve years. Although their clothing is indeed not what one would expect for someone their age, they should be called seniors by both reason and Aizawa.

The American Shorthair opened its eyes, looking somewhat troubled, and said, "My Earth Beast are scattered irregularly throughout the forest. Some places have several, but others have none. I can't determine the students' locations right now; I can only determine whether these monsters have been activated and whether they have been eliminated."

"How many were wiped out?" Aizawa asked.

The American Shorthair immediately replied, "I set up 100 in total, activated 56, but only 30 were completely defeated."

"There are enough activated ones, but only about half of them have been destroyed? In that case, you should be able to determine their route of travel." Aizawa thought of a way to determine their location.

"Based on my analysis of Bakugo's personality, he should have separated from the others. Therefore, your monsters should have been activated along two separate routes. Do you have a map here? We can use it to determine their final location so I can search for them along those routes."

Mandalay happened to come out of the room and said with some surprise, "Hey, are you going to find them? Didn't you just say you believed in their abilities?"

"It's precisely because I believe in their abilities that I'm going to search for them. Since Bakugo has already arrived on his own, there's no reason they shouldn't be here as well," Shota Aizawa said. "I think something must have happened to them that they can't handle, or they've misunderstood our instructions."

Let's rewind to three hours ago.

Midoriya delivered a powerful punch that shattered the head of another Earth Beast. Then, Iida swept off one of the Earth Beast's front legs with a whip kick, causing it to lose its balance and collapse to the ground!

Although the monster could still stand up and continue moving, it had lost a leg. Without Xingtian's method of turning his navel into an eye, it could only blindly wave its giant hand in the air.

This is a method proposed by Jilan for quickly eliminating enemies. Just like fighting zombies in the Resident Evil series, you need to shoot them in the head multiple times to kill them completely. However, in the early stages, there aren't that many bullets, so there's no need to kill them. Just break one of their legs, making them crawl on the ground and unable to move quickly. Even if you're looting supplies right in front of them, they can't do anything about it.

Their environment was very similar to that in the game. All their belongings were on the bus, and they had no equipment except their bare hands. Once their stamina ran out, they would have no way to resist the monsters and could only wait to die.

Therefore, Jilan proposed to only address the monsters' search and movement abilities, without completely eliminating them, and this suggestion was immediately accepted by everyone. They then took turns dealing with the attacking monsters one by one.

"I've already used my Quirk to keep over a dozen monsters stuck in place, when will this ever end!" Minoru Mineta was in tears. Although the Grape on his head could grow indefinitely, he didn't have much energy left, and if he pulled them out any more, he would bleed profusely! He could even feel his scalp burning!

Living in a perpetually dark forest where sunlight never reaches, and having to concentrate on dealing with monsters that seem to pounce from nowhere, even Jilan, who was constantly using the Hamon Breathing Method to keep himself ready to engage in battle at any moment, was starting to feel a bit irritable.

Jilan glanced at her classmates. Kaminari, Ashido, and the others made no attempt to hide their exhaustion, constantly exclaiming, "I'm so tired!" The others, though silent, were also panting heavily as they slowly made their way forward. Midoriya, Iida, Shoto Todoroki, and Tokoyami, though their eyes were resolute, were covered in dirt and their increasingly heavy breathing indicated that they were not as relaxed as they appeared.

Although they were capable of acting independently like Bakugo, and should have reached the finish line by now, they chose to stay and help break through the Beast's Forest in order to protect classmates like Koji Koda and Ochaco Uraraka, who were not strong in combat.