The screen on Bai Feifei's wrist expanded, displaying a map densely packed with red dots.
Each red dot represented a student, slowly crawling across the vast red wasteland of the North District.
Xu Mo took a brief glance and said directly,
“Head southeast. Move fast. You can't be slower than those students.”
As soon as he spoke, Bai Feifei didn't hesitate and bolted forward.
When she wasn't resisting, her execution was incredibly swift.
The wind howled past her ears as the red soil beneath her feet kicked up behind her, making it feel like she was surfing.
Avoiding the locations of the red dots on the map as much as possible, she rushed into a low-lying ruin, where her footsteps suddenly came to a halt.
Even without Xu Mo's warning, the continuous thumping of the heart within her body already told her what was happening.
A massive scorpion burst out of the ground. This creature had three tails, but they were actually three bloody human arms!
It whipped its tails toward Bai Feifei's ankles from an incredibly tricky angle, but she dodged it as if she had predicted the move.
Next, there were no fancy moves or charging of power—just the most direct slashes and thrusts.
Sword-light flashed, and three aberrant corpses fell to the ground, their foul blood seeping into the red soil with a faint, sizzling sound.
Soon after, more of these creatures rushed out from all directions. Bai Feifei leveled her sword and began her slaughter.
“Watch out. Don't let yourself get hurt fighting these small fry.”
Xu Mo's highly "caring" reminder echoed in her mind.
In truth, he was just afraid of feeling the pain himself...
Bai Feifei shook the blood off her sword, panting slightly.
Although they weren't high-level aberrations, the ones here were exceptionally ferocious and even seemed to possess some combat techniques.
They felt much more intelligent than the aberrations back at the Black Smoke Coal Mine.
As she basked in the nourishment of the experience points and used the Heart of the World to listen for any further movement around her, she suddenly noticed something off.
The aberrant corpses were sinking!
As if being sucked down by something from below, they were slowly sinking into the red soil at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Yet, the surrounding debris of the ruins didn't sink at all.
“What... what's going on?” she asked subconsciously, her voice laced with unconcealed shock. “There's something wrong with this place, isn't there?”
“No duh,” Xu Mo replied. “What's the point of playing this game if nothing is wrong with it?”
His tone was casual, as if he didn't think it was a big deal.
After all, he was already used to it and just treated it as a regional feature.
“Alright, let's head to the next spot. Hurry up.”
“Tsk, these brats seem to be heading to some pretty accurate locations.”
Bai Feifei didn't speak again. Her black figure sped across the red soil once more.
After she left, the ground slowly smoothed over, and all the corpses and blood vanished without a trace.
Another ten-odd minutes passed.
A group of figures advanced rapidly across the red wasteland, appearing in this very spot.
It was none other than the students of Yaoguang Academy.
Fang Yang looked at the tracking on his wrist and suddenly raised his hand.
“Everyone, be careful. There might be some variables.”
The group quieted down immediately, following his gaze to look ahead.
They knew that when Fang Yang spoke like this, they had reached their destination.
Of course, they couldn't make it too obvious. Since the cameras were still rolling, they had to pretend they were scouting.
After pretending to search around for a bit, Fang Yang pulled a bizarrely shaped whistle from his storage space!
Holding the whistle in his hand, Fang Yang said,
“Everyone, take two steps back and cover your ears.”
“Also, get ready for combat!”
The students' muscles tensed instantly. Many of them were incredibly nervous, realizing they were about to face aberrations for the first time.
Unlike the students of Qingping Academy, they hadn't undergone a month of desensitization training with Bai Feifei.
Mentally, they were still quite fragile.
Once they were ready, Fang Yang brought the whistle to his lips, took a deep breath, and blew hard.
The shrill whistle echoed across the empty red soil. Instantly, Fang Yang's own muscles tensed up as well.
According to what those people had told him, this whistle had no special abilities and didn't count as a Containment Object, so it could be brought into the assessment.
But it could lure monsters!
Here they come!
But after a moment...
The wind swept red sand past his feet, making a rustling sound.
Nothing happened.
“Ahem.” Fang Yang cleared his throat, the tension on his face turning somewhat stiff.
“Wait a moment, everyone get ready.”
He blew it three more times in quick succession.
Still, there was absolutely nothing.
The atmosphere began to grow a little awkward.
“...Perhaps the situation in the North District is too complex.” Fang Yang lowered the whistle, his lips twitching as he checked the location tracking information on his wrist again.
He shouldn't have misremembered...
But if he kept blowing it here, it would be far too conspicuous.
Turning around, he spoke:
“We can't waste any more time. Let's keep searching.”
The Yaoguang Academy students: ?
The students exchanged glances. Finding it awkward to ask directly, they followed him in silence.
The next suspected location was in a low-lying depression. The terrain looked like a massive crater blasted out by something, with steep edges.
Just before they arrived, a black figure had rapidly darted away from the steep edge and vanished.
The corpses at the bottom of the crater were also slowly disappearing.
By the time the Yaoguang group arrived, the place had once again returned to a desolate, completely empty state.
The whistle blew.
The whistle stopped.
Still nothing.
“Let's... let's go! We'll change locations again!”
Similar incidents occurred several times in a row across this ruined red soil.
As the saying goes, a first attempt rouses the spirit, a second depletes it, and a third... Are you kidding us?!
Fang Yang led all the Yaoguang students through a series of maneuvers, moving left and right, yet they didn't see a single thing!
The atmosphere became completely awkward.
The team was dead silent. The students stared at him, looking at one another in bewilderment.
Finally, a girl couldn't help but speak up, asking in a low voice,
“Brother Yang... is your path really the right one?”
Fang Yang was speechless.
“Ahem, what path? Scouting! Let's keep scouting first!” In the end, he could only squeeze out this single sentence.
...
The camp.
The large screen was split into dozens of feeds, each showing a student's real-time perspective, resembling a security guard's surveillance monitors.
Technicians from Turing City sat before the console, debugging basic equipment issues.
Liu Yun stood with her hands behind her back directly in front of the screen, while Tian Guannan leaned against a pillar on the side, his eyes fixed on the display.
All the Scavengers in charge of the assessment, along with the logistics staff, watched from there, observing the students' performances and preparing for any emergencies.
On the other side of the live broadcast screens was a leaderboard recording the current points of all the students.
And now, two hours after the start of the Graduation Show, everyone's points were unusually consistent.
—They were all at zero!
Rate on N.U.
