192: Chapter 192 Thank you!

The battle continued.

The other Lesser Demons on the battlefield were killed one by one, and the battle finally reached its closing stages.

To the left and right, those two races had also completed their Assessment and promoted to the third task, though compared to Cui Jingming and his group, their casualty rates seemed absurdly high.

On the field, only a few scattered Lesser Demons remained, fleeing and hiding; most of the adventurer teams had now become idle.

Their gazes now fell curiously upon Gu Changming, who was still fighting that single Lesser Demon.

They observed him, whispering in low voices.

Of course, there wasn't much malice involved, just a sense of novelty.

It was their first time seeing someone fight like Gu Changming—constantly kiting and unwilling to take even the slightest risk.

Gu Changming also received the "benefit" of their stares; under everyone's watchful eyes, that Lesser Demon's movements became noticeably larger and more frantic, as if it were desperate to kill him.

During one forward lunge, it attempted to pierce his neck with its claws.

Gu Changming finally caught an opportunity; he tilted his body slightly to the side, though his neck didn't completely leave the range of the opponent's attack.

As he expected, the opponent seized this chance, its eyes lighting up as it lunged straight for his throat.

Gu Changming paused for a fraction of a second, and at the instant the opponent was about to strike, he immediately activated the power of the "Key of Contract," applying the Shadow Devourer's ability from the Mimic Beast to himself.

The area around his neck instantly transformed into a shadow-like substance, and the opponent's claws plunged into it, passing straight through.

The distance closed, and in the next moment, Gu Changming's mind stirred.

The Mimic Beast, which had remained motionless on his shoulder, finally began to transform; its form expanded and surged toward the opponent like a pool of black water.

In the blink of an eye, it entangled the opponent and restricted its body.

Gu Changming breathed a sigh of relief and pushed his palm forward.

The Thousand Silk Shuttle finally came into play, transforming in mid-air into white threads like mist, surging toward the opponent.

Seeing this attack, the thin Lesser Demon immediately began to struggle.

Although it partially broke free from the Mimic Beast's restraints, it was clearly too late.

At this sight, a flicker of fear finally flashed in its eyes, and its body erupted with a massive surge of black-red energy...

Gu Changming gave it no chance, exploding with his full Mental Power and pouring it into the Thousand Silk Shuttle.

The "white mist" of threads immediately emitted a bright light, its speed doubling; in a flash, it passed directly through the opponent's body.

As the "mist" passed through completely, the terrified expression on the opponent's face froze entirely.

Then, a second later, its entire body turned into pure bloody water, pooling on the ground.

Seeing that the opponent was thoroughly dead, Gu Changming finally relaxed completely.

Exhausted, he sat down on the ground to recover his strength.

He was only B-rank; making him fight above his level?

It was already impressive enough that he wasn't injured; was he not allowed to be a little tired?

After seeing Gu Changming's battle end, Cui Jingming walked over.

He reached Gu Changming's side and extended a hand, pulling him up from the ground.

After getting up, before Gu Changming could speak...

Cui Jingming spoke first: "It's fine."

Huh?

Gu Changming was stunned for a moment. What was fine?

During that moment of confusion...

The corpses of the dead Lesser Demons beneath their feet turned into motes of light and dissipated.

Simultaneously, the words [Second Assessment Passed] and a light gate leading to the next task appeared before them.

Gu Changming looked back at the corpse of the Lesser Demon he had just killed, which was also turning into light, and after thinking for a bit, he seemed to understand what "it's fine" meant.

Oh, he was the last one to finish off his Lesser Demon.

So, regarding the time he had delayed, the guy was saying it was fine and not to worry about it, right?

Am I supposed to thank you?

During the fight, Gu Changming had figured it out completely.

Him facing this guy wasn't just a combination of his and the Mimic Beast's combat power.

Rather, a portion of the combat power from the Lesser Demons that Cui Jingming and these three hundred people were facing had been diverted, and along with his and the Mimic Beast's own power, it was all added onto this single Lesser Demon.

The more easily Cui Jingming and the others handled their part, the more that corresponding pressure was transferred to his side.

Otherwise, the opponent couldn't possibly have reached A-rank.

And he wouldn't have had such a hard time fighting it.

Gu Changming hesitated to speak, but finally nodded. "Well, thanks to you all."

Forget it, he couldn't exactly tell them, 'I bore all the pressure for you guys, which is why you had it so easy.'

...

"Haven't figured it out yet?" Horn's expression was becoming anxious.

"Hmm..." Gray hummed unconsciously for a moment, then pulled his attention away from the analysis in front of him and back to the conversation.

"It's a bit difficult; it will take some time," Gray said, his brow furrowed deeply.

As he spoke, he couldn't help but look up at the Assessment appearing before them.

It was a flat, dynamic graphic display showing a repeating loop of nearly five seconds.

This was the content of the sixth Assessment: this graphic was formed based on the interaction of nearly ten basic rules. Under these ten rules, the graphics inside would change regularly.

The criteria for passing the Assessment were: predict a graphic with ninety percent similarity to the one thirty seconds later, or guess those ten basic rules.

It seemed simple, but in reality, it was not easy at all.

This was not a predictable, deterministic system; it belonged to a chaos model. Tiny differences in the initial state would be exponentially amplified during iterations, leading to the complete unpredictability of long-term results.

And in such complex systems, there was the most critical law: Computational Irreducibility.

That is, there are no shortcuts to directly calculate the future state. The only way to know the future appearance of the system is to simulate the evolutionary process step by step.

So... they were stuck.

This thing was simply unpredictable; one could only use that five-second clip to find those ten basic rules one by one, or try to guess during the completion process.

Now... Gray and his think tank had been grinding here for so long and had only found three basic rules, forming a stark contrast to the smooth progress of the previous stages.

So it was no wonder Horn appeared so urgent; he was afraid that the people behind would catch up to them.

"It's fine, take your time thinking..." Horn could only say. He wasn't good at these deductions and could only worry in vain; saying too much would instead disturb Gray and the others.

But it was a coincidence.

The moment he finished speaking, the progress chart hanging in the air ahead changed.

Immediately after, to their right, a light gate slowly appeared...