59: Chapter 59 The First Monthly Exam
A full month had passed since the Special Recruitment Camp opened.
Everyone was summoned to the camp's largest central plaza.
The atmosphere was somewhat heavy.
Because everyone knew what day it was today.
The first, all-member elimination tournament.
Thunderstorm's burly figure stood on the high platform. He didn't even use an amplification device, yet his voice, resonant like a great bell, reached the ears of every Student clearly.
"It has been a month."
"Among you, some have been making progress, while others have been slacking off."
"It is time to see who is a mule and who is a horse."
He scanned the faces below—some nervous, some expectant, some numb—and the corners of his mouth curled into a cruel arc.
"The code name for this monthly exam is 'Chaotic Hunting Ground'."
"All Students will be dropped onto a closed island with an area of about five hundred square kilometers."
"Each person starts with 100 points."
"Points are your life."
A small commotion broke out in the crowd below the high platform.
Thunderstorm paused, giving them a moment to digest the information, then continued.
"There are two ways to earn points."
"First, hunt the mutated creatures released on the island. Different levels of mutated creatures correspond to different point values."
"Second..."
He deliberately drew out the sound, and the playfulness in his eyes made many people's hearts skip a beat.
"Hunt other Students."
"If you successfully 'hunt' a Student, you will seize all the points they possess."
"Those who are 'hunted' will have their points reduced to zero, be considered dead, and be immediately eliminated."
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire crowd was in an uproar.
Students could hunt each other!
This rule was simply encouraging everyone to kill each other!
Countless gazes began to shift among the crowd, and the once harmonious relationships between classmates instantly changed in flavor.
Everyone became a potential prey.
Everyone could also become a hunter.
"The assessment time is forty-eight hours."
"After forty-eight hours, the system will rank you based on your points. The bottom twenty percent will be directly eliminated and kicked out of the Special Recruitment Camp."
Thunderstorm's voice was Cold and ruthless.
"Now, step onto the teleportation pad."
"I wish you good luck."
Hum.
After a slight spatial fluctuation, Wang Pingan's feet touched solid ground.
Before him was an unfamiliar primeval jungle, and the air was filled with the scent of damp soil and rotting leaves.
Before he had a chance to observe his surroundings, the personal terminal on his wrist began to vibrate frantically.
Beep, beep, beep.
A virtual light screen unfolded before his eyes.
It was a simple map of the island, and on the map, a green dot representing himself was being locked onto by dozens of red arrows from all directions.
The map's public channel was already flooded with messages.
"Wang Pingan's coordinates are (173.455). Damn it, we finally caught him!"
"This bastard is alone! Brothers, stop farming wild monsters, let's take down this super BOSS first!"
"Team up! Everyone near coordinates (170.450), gather quickly. The first team to find Wang Pingan, beat him half to death but keep him alive, and wait for us to come and split the points!"
"Cold's people are already on their way. They've declared that anyone who dares to compete with them is going against the entire Cold family!"
In the very first minute of the hunt, the entire hunting ground reached an eerie consensus.
Kill Wang Pingan first.
There was no other way.
He was too conspicuous.
Knocking out Cold with one punch, having the Chief Instructor personally spar with him, and receiving an S-rank training program.
These things had long since made him a thorn in the eyes of all the Students.
More importantly, in the eyes of these people, Wang Pingan was a super fat sheep wearing legendary gear but only at level one.
No matter how awesome he was, could he fight ten people, or a hundred people, alone?
As long as they surrounded and killed him, the "abundant" initial points on him, as well as the "honor" he represented, would become the Tang Monk meat that everyone fought crazily for.
Wang Pingan watched the flashing red dots on the terminal, which were closing in on him at an extremely fast speed.
He had become a popular target.
He had become the public enemy of the entire hunting ground.
Far from being nervous, he turned off the noisy public channel and a strange expression appeared on his face.
He muttered to himself.
"These people... are really rushing to deliver warmth."
He did not choose to run, nor did he choose to find a place to hide.
Instead, he opened the map, carefully studied the terrain, and then walked unhurriedly in the direction where the red dots were sparsest.
He was not the prey.
From beginning to end, he was the most efficient hunter.
...
On the other side of the jungle.
Three Students wearing the same combat uniforms were forming a standard triangular search formation, moving cautiously through the forest.
The Student with the square face leading them lowered his voice and spoke into the communicator.
"All units pay attention, the target is eight hundred meters ahead of us, he is moving, not fast!"
"Damn it, he must be panicking and wants to find a place to hide!"
"Team Three and Team Four, flank from the left and right! Team Two, suppress from the front with me! We must take him down today!"
Hanging up the communication, the square-faced one made a gesture to his two companions.
"Speed up! Don't let this piece of fat meat get away!"
The three of them immediately accelerated, speeding through the shadows of the trees like three agile leopards.
In their view, Wang Pingan was already a turtle in a jar.
However.
None of them noticed.
Above the dense canopy tens of meters above their heads, a figure like a weightless ghost was silently following them.
Wang Pingan looked down at these three "hunters" running hard.
[Eye of Truth] activated.
In his field of vision, everything about these three people turned into the most intuitive data.
blood qi value, speed, strength, and even the frequency of their every breath and the habits of their muscle exertion were clearly presented in his mind.
Three at the peak of the Second Rank.
The strength is okay.
Unfortunately, their brains are not very good.
Wang Pingan's gaze shifted away from them and looked further away.
In his data vision, on the left and right wings, there were two other three-person squads with the same configuration, rapidly closing in.
A large net was slowly tightening.
The corners of Wang Pingan's mouth curled up slightly.
He fished a pebble out of his pocket and flicked it gently toward an inconspicuous dead tree to the front side of the square-faced Student's direction of travel.
Snap.
A light sound.
An inconspicuous little hole appeared on the trunk of the dead tree.
The square-faced one, who was moving at full speed, suddenly felt his feet go soft.
Crack!
The ground beneath his feet, along with the dead tree, collapsed without warning!
"Ah!"
He was caught off guard and fell in.
This was a trap carefully camouflaged with leaves and loose soil, with sharpened bamboo spikes at the bottom.
"Boss!"
The other two team members were shocked and quickly stopped.
Just at the moment they turned back to look.
A ghostly shadow descended from the sky.
[Phantom Step] perfected!
Wang Pingan's figure left a blurred afterimage in the air, while his true self appeared silently behind the Student on the left.
He stretched out his hand, fingers together, his palm like a knife.
He struck the back of that person's neck lightly.
Pfft.
That Student didn't even manage a grunt, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed softly.
His personal terminal screen instantly went dark.
[Student XXX has been eliminated, points reduced to zero.]
"Who?!"
The last team member finally reacted. He turned around abruptly and saw Wang Pingan's face, which was excessively calm.
Fear instantly seized his heart.
He wanted to scream, wanted to call for help, wanted to attack.
But Wang Pingan's movements were faster than his thoughts.
A straight punch that was simple to the extreme.
The fist landed precisely on his chest.
The force wasn't great, but it was just enough to disperse the blood qi value he had gathered.
The Student felt a tightness in his chest, his vision went black, and he followed in his companion's footsteps.
[Student XXX has been eliminated, points reduced to zero.]
The whole process happened in a flash.
From the trap being triggered to taking out two people, it didn't take more than three seconds.
Wang Pingan didn't even look at the two "corpses" lying on the ground. He walked to the edge of the trap and looked down.
The square-faced one was lucky. He was blocked by tree roots when he fell, so he only scratched his thigh on the bamboo spikes and was not directly eliminated.
He was struggling, trying to climb up.
Seeing Wang Pingan's face, the color drained from his face instantly.
"Wang... Wang Pingan..."
His voice trembled, and his eyes were filled with terror.
Wang Pingan did not speak.
He just stretched out his foot and stepped gently on a piece of loose soil at the edge of the trap.
Clatter.
More soil slid down, completely burying the square-faced one.
[Student XXX has been eliminated, points reduced to zero.]
After doing all this, Wang Pingan's figure merged back into the shadows of the jungle.
Like a ghost, he began to proactively welcome the two teams flanking from the sides.
A one-sided slaughter began.
Forty-eight hours passed in the blink of an eye.
When the Cold electronic voice announced the end of the assessment, all the surviving Students were teleported back to the central plaza.
The plaza was a mess.
Less than half the people survived.
Everyone looked exhausted, and all of them had injuries to varying degrees.
But their eyes were fixed on the huge light screen in the center of the plaza.
The points leaderboard.
Names were scrolling rapidly from bottom to top.
The names of the eliminated Students were gray.
And the survivors nervously searched for their own rankings.
"Phew, thank goodness, I'm ranked three hundred and twentieth, I made it!"
"Damn it, that was close! I was almost eliminated!"
"Look! The top ten are coming out!"
Everyone's heart was in their throat.
The top of the light screen.
Tenth place, ninth place, eighth place...
The owners of these names were all long-famous genius Students in the Special Recruitment Camp, and each of them wore a proud expression.
However, when the ranking scrolled to second place, everyone was stunned.
Second place: Li Mo.
Points: 3250.
This score was already quite terrifying, almost three times that of the tenth place.
Li Mo himself, a young man with a sinister gaze, also revealed a Cold smile of determination.
He believed that first place was undoubtedly his.
But next, everyone saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
The very top of the light screen.
That position symbolizing the highest honor.
A name slowly emerged.
First place: Wang Pingan.
Points: 52780.
The entire plaza was deathly quiet.
Everyone widened their eyes, unable to believe their own sight.
Fifty-two... thousand seven hundred and eighty?
What the hell kind of number is this?
What kind of joke is this!
The Cold smile on Li Mo's face froze completely.
He looked at that terrifying number, which was more than ten times higher than his own, and felt his worldview being overturned.
In the crowd, those who had participated in the encirclement of Wang Pingan and had luckily survived were now trembling all over, their faces as pale as paper.
They finally understood what kind of monster they had been hunting for the past two days.
That was not a fat sheep.
That was a prehistoric devil in sheep's clothing!
His points alone were more than the sum of the second to tenth place, no, the second to fiftieth place combined!
Just when everyone was still immersed in this incomprehensible shock.
Wang Pingan's personal terminal vibrated slightly.
[Monthly exam settlement complete.]
[Points reward: 52780 points.]