NOVPUBJin spent the next few days exploring around the hotel.
Now and then, he saw military personnel taking rounds of the city to make sure things were in order.
Jin, being a foreigner, attracted quite some attention from the public, but he didn't care about it.
On the fourth day, he rented a car from a car rental company and left Umroi. While in the car, he seamlessly morphed into William and continued with his journey.
Four hours later, Jin reached a village named Fakir. It was a sparsely populated area with only a few huts made out of brick and mud.
He talked with the local inhabitants and soon met one who was willing to provide him shelter for a night.
By evening, a few more foreigners like Jin visited the place and requested shelter. Although the locals were confused, they didn't want to let go of this money-making opportunity and accommodated them all.
At night, when Jin had finished with his dinner, he heard a car's engine.
"That would make it fourteen, including me," Jin muttered.
"Just what is the reason you all are visiting this place? There's no fun thing to do in this small village of mine," Jin's host, Kalam, who was a single man in his late forties, asked.
"We have a meeting with someone in the nearby desert tomorrow morning," Jin said.
"Meeting? In a desert?" Kalam gave Jin an incredulous expression.
"Yeah, we are surveying places for building a future water park. This is only one of the sites we'll be looking at," Jin explained.
"Water park?" Kalam had never heard of such a thing and asked.
Jin proceeded to answer all his questions, and only when he was satisfied did Kalam call it a day and go to sleep. Jin did the same soon after.
The next day.
5:30 AM
"I'll be keeping my car here for a while, you don't mind, right?" Jin asked after handing Kalam a bundle of notes.
"Mind? Of course not, keep it here as long as you want, and if you need any more help from me later on, don't hesitate to ask.
"Haha, I'll keep that in mind, Kalam." Jin cheerfully shook hands with Kalam and soon, with a backpack on his back, went out.
The reporting time was 8:30 AM, so when Jin looked around the village, he didn't find his fellow hitmen around. 𝘯𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
'Looks like I'll be the first one at the spot,' Jin thought and started walking towards his left.
He soon left the village's periphery and was now traversing the smooth reddish coloured sand mounds that had just begun.
These sand mounds stretched over a hundred miles from here. Although picturesque, it was one of the most brutal and harsh places to be.
The desert showed no mercy to anyone, and if a person wasn't familiar with the routes, then the desert would be more than willing to rob them of their lives.
Jin was wearing a white sun hat, which he had bought from the market while roaming around in Umroi. He glanced at the sun and muttered, "Luckily, the sun's intensity is manageable right now."
Jin had input the coordinates in a navigation app and was using it as a guide.
An hour and a half later.
The sun's heat was intensified. Jin could feel his skin burning even under his clothes. The constant dripping of the sweat down his forehead was becoming a source of annoyance.
However, he didn't complain and, while bearing all this, he trudged forward towards his destination.
Fifteen minutes later.
"Well, that's very thoughtful of them," Jin muttered when he saw a canopy tent pitched at the spot.
Inside the tent, fourteen plastic chairs were laid out for them. Jin rested his bag on the side and sat on a chair, sipping on water from his bottle from time to time while waiting.
The second person to come in was a woman.
She was dressed in baggy clothes, and if not for her sharp gaze, one would think that she was just a normal woman.
"Good morning," Jin greeted her with a smile.
"…" The woman just glanced at him coldly before taking a particular chair for herself.
Jin's smile widened as he thought, 'Looks like this academy thing is going to be more irritating than I thought.'
One by one, more people started coming in. All of them as recluse as the first woman.
When all the seats were finally full, Jin glanced around at everyone. Many were doing the same thing.
'Ten males and four women,' Jin counted. All men looked battle-hardened and with good muscle mass. The women also had the merciless gaze of killers, and the fact that they weren't as strong as men but still managed to come here made Jin more cautious of them.
THWUP! THWUP! THWUP!
It was then that everyone's attention was attracted by a noise which was becoming greater and greater. Suddenly, the sand around them all started flying as if a dust storm had come, and their tent started shaking.
Alarmed, they all rushed out only to see a large double rotor helicopter up in the sky, slowly descending, a few meters away from them.
The noise became more and more deafening, and the clouds of dust completely obscured their vision. Under the intense wind force, the tent soon gave in and flew away with the chairs.
Everyone could barely keep their eyes open because of the dust as they watched the helicopter land.
It was only a couple of minutes after the helicopter had landed and the rotors were brought to a standstill that the dust settled.
Seeing this, the fourteen of them made their way towards the helicopter.
When they arrived, the back hatch of the helicopter slowly opened up, and from inside, a man in his late fifties walked out.
He had long brown hair reaching his neck and a rugged beard. He was shabbily dressed in a desert camo and had a headset on his head.
"Good morning, future Assassins," The man said with a bright smile.
"Good morning-" Jin replied, but soon realised that among the fourteen, he was the only one who had replied.
"Well, at least one of you has some decency this year. I'll be starting with the instructions soon but before that there's a warning, I must give you all," The old man's attitude turned grave and he continued, "You all have qualified for the Training Academy for assassins but there's still one thing that's left before that, an entrance test.
Seeing the frown on many of their faces, the old man smirked and said, "What? You thought it would be so simple to be trained to be a first-rate assassin? It's not. After this entrance test, out of the fourteen of you, only seven will make it to the academy. What will happen to the rest? They'll be dead."
Hearing this, the atmosphere turned grim.
Ignoring this shift, the old man continued, "So I'm giving you an option to quit now. This is the only time you'll be allowed to quit. If after knowing about the test details you decide to quit, then I'm sorry that won't be happening, you see those five men behind me,"
The man pointed towards his back. Inside the helicopter, there were five sharp-looking men with rifles in their hands.
"Yes, you'll be shot without mercy. I'll give you all five minutes. Shout your code name and buzz off if you don't want to die before then."
'Come on, do you really think anyone would quit at this point?' Jin thought while snorting. He felt that it was just a waste of time for them.
It was then that he heard a loud shout from beside him.
"Yellow! I Quit!"
One of the four women had given up.
"Nightmare! I Quit!"
"Fearless! I Quit!"
The next moment, two more also withdrew from the test.
'Fearless my ass,' Jin snorted when he heard the last man's codename.
The old man didn't say anything as the three took their bags and left the place. He just waited for the five minutes to finish.
Five minutes later,
"Very well then, it's the eleven of you then," The old man carefully eyed the remaining people and said while turning around, "Follow me inside."
The eleven of them soon entered through the helicopter's back hatch. The rotors gained momentum once again, and the helicopter soon took off into the skies.
