14: Chapter 14 You came in first place, and you slept during the competition?
"Woof... Woof woof..."
The hoarse sound of a dog barking echoed across the empty training grounds of the Heifeng Hunting Camp.
Zhao Tai was on all fours.
The fabric on his knees had long since worn through, and rough gravel was embedded in his flesh, oozing streaks of blood.
His head was lowered, his face nearly touching the ground. With every crawl forward, he was forced to squeeze a dry bark out of his throat.
The area was crowded with people.
Of the thousands of freshmen, none had gone back to sleep.
The spectacle of kicking a man while he was down like this was something they wouldn't encounter even once a year.
"Brother Tai, your voice is getting a bit quiet!"
Someone in the crowd jeered.
"Hahaha! What an idiot Zhao Tai is. How can he be such a troublemaker?"
"Exactly! Where's that full-throated energy you had in the hall earlier? Keep being arrogant!"
Mockery mixed with whistling scraped against Zhao Tai's back like a dull knife cutting through flesh.
He gritted his teeth hard, his eyes completely bloodshot.
"I refuse to accept this! I, Zhao Tai, have never been weaker than anyone! I will never admit that I am weaker than that kept man!!"
"Woof woof woof!"
He let out an angry roar, but was immediately whipped by the camp soldier supervising him. He could only bark like a dog in frustration.
On the observation deck on the second floor.
Lin Mo looked down at the defiant Zhao Tai, a smile appearing on his face.
He just loved the way others looked when they were completely miserable but couldn't do anything to stop him.
In the shadows on the other side of the hall.
Several people stood straight, watching the farce on the playground with cold eyes.
The leading boy wore silver-gray standard light armor with a dark gold badge on his chest; his name was Chu Tiankuo.
He was a true expert whose team had a total score of 890 points on the first day!
He possessed an Epic Grade class: Storm Controller.
Unlike small fry like Zhao Tai, all four members of his team were powerful Epic Grade classes—geniuses among ten thousand.
They had crushed the third-place team with an absolute advantage!
If not for Lin Mo, they should have been the first-place team under the spotlight.
But now, that 150,000 points hanging high at the top of the leaderboard was like an invisible slap across their faces.
"Brother Chu, this is too fake."
Beside him, an Epic Grade Assassin nicknamed Monkey lowered his voice, his tone full of resentment.
"150,000 points? Damn! They didn't even try to hide the acting!"
Special Envoy Qin must have personally intervened, otherwise it would be impossible to get that score! Camp Director Zhang must have been suppressed by the higher-ups and didn't dare to tell the truth."
Chu Tiankuo turned the magic ring on his finger, his eyes gloomy.
"Su Xiaoli is Mythical Grade."
"To appease her, it's only normal for the Alliance to boost her kept boyfriend's ranking and create some hype for him."
Chu Tiankuo spoke in a cold voice.
"Then what do we do? The Consortium's task for us was to take first place."
"If we can't get it, won't we become useless discarded pawns?"
Monkey gripped the dagger at his waist.
He still remembered the cruel methods of The Consortium.
To them, anyone was nothing more than an object.
If one didn't show corresponding value, the only end was to be abandoned.
"Fake data is fake after all."
Chu Tiankuo stared at the sleeping figure on the second floor.
"In a wilderness hunt, deaths and injuries are inevitable."
He paused, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes.
"Did you forget that thing The Consortium gave us to prevent any accidents?"
"Are you talking about... that?!!"
Hearing this, Monkey's face showed shock!
The other two also looked terrified; they were a Priest and a Shield Fighter.
"What? Do you want the mission to fail?"
The Priest girl hesitated before shaking her head firmly.
The Shield Fighter also swallowed hard, and the two said in unison, "We'll follow the Captain's lead."
...
The second day.
In the early morning at Heifeng Hunting Camp, the thick fog had not yet dispersed.
The heavy iron gate of the camp slowly rose.
Several early-rising teams walked out the gate yawning, ready to begin the second day's slaughter.
Lin Mo walked at the back of the crowd.
His steps were casual, and he let out a yawn, seemingly not having had enough sleep.
The second he stepped out of the safe zone gate, Lin Mo reached into his storage space and pulled out the Boar Tooth Longsword and the berserkers axe.
Raising both hands, he placed the blade and the axe directly against the left and right sides of his own neck.
*Screech! Screech! Screech!*
The two blades crossed, erupting in a high-frequency sawing motion.
Sparks flew wildly in the morning mist, and the ear-piercing sound of metal grinding instantly drowned out the surrounding conversations.
The freshmen at the camp entrance stopped in their tracks, looking at the man who was sawing his own carotid artery while walking as if they had seen a ghost.
"Is this guy crazy?"
"Holy crap! Isn't this the guy at the top of the leaderboard? Could this be some weird cultivation method?"
In the shadows of the bushes in the distance, Chu Tiankuo and his three teammates had already been lying in wait for half an hour.
Monkey, the Assassin teammate, was chewing gum. Seeing this scene, the movement of his mouth instantly froze.
*Pui.*
He spat out the gum.
"Chu, Brother Chu..."
Monkey rubbed his eyes, his voice trembling.
"He's cutting his own neck with weapons. Is he insane?"
The Shield Fighter beside him swallowed and stared intently at Lin Mo's neck.
"Is he fucking committing suicide?"
"But sparks are flying out, so why isn't the skin even broken?!"
"Holy shit! Even the weapons are being ground dull by him!!"
Everyone saw that the axe and blade on Lin Mo's neck had clearly been ground flat...
Chu Tiankuo's eye twitched.
He gripped his staff tightly, staring fixedly at Lin Mo's actions.
He scanned him.
The weapons were real, not props.
The force behind the movements was genuine; those dazzling sparks couldn't be faked.
What did this mean?
Did he have some exaggerated defensive talent and was using this method to warn others not to mess with him?
Bullshit!
Chu Tiankuo didn't believe it. He had been there on the day Lin Mo awakened; he had seen Lin Mo's talent awakening with his own eyes.
No matter what today, he was going to test Lin Mo's mettle.
"Ignore what he's doing, follow him."
"Once he reaches the wilderness, I'll show him the meaning of true despair."
Lin Mo carried the blade and axe, walking three kilometers with sparks flying all the way.
The surrounding freshmen had long since been scared into taking detours by his psychotic behavior.
Qin Lan also felt extremely speechless.
This kid... really didn't even bother to hide it.
Lin Mo had actually noticed Chu Tiankuo and the others following him long ago.
His Spirit attribute, as high as 160 points, put him far ahead of these freshmen.
Even for an Epic Grade class, how could Level 2 compare to his Level 30?
Chu Tiankuo and his group's breathing, which they thought was hidden, sounded no different from thunder in his ears.
But he couldn't be bothered to care.
He really didn't want to move today.
After grinding frantically all day yesterday, his Block level had already surpassed the one thousand mark.
Moreover, his level was currently stuck at Level 30 with full experience; he couldn't level up without completing his first job advancement.
Searching everywhere for monsters to grind skill experience was too inefficient, and his legs were getting sore from running.
Lin Mo stopped in his tracks.
He looked around and took a fancy to a giant withered tree that was ten people's embrace thick.
With a leap, he landed steadily on a thick branch five or six meters above the ground.
Putting away the blade and axe, Lin Mo pulled a soft blanket out of his space and spread it beneath him.
He closed his eyes.
And went to sleep.
Two hundred meters away, behind a dirt mound.
Monkey held up high-powered tactical binoculars, maintaining that posture for a full ten minutes.
He stiffly lowered the binoculars and turned to look at Chu Tiankuo.
"Brother Chu... he's asleep."
Monkey's tone was full of disbelief.
"Damn it, he's really asleep."
"He didn't take us seriously at all."
Chu Tiankuo's face instantly turned livid.
He felt like a brainless idiot, having followed a powerful enemy all this way with full vigilance, only for the other party to have come out for a picnic and a nap.