Right then, the jagged rocks ahead suddenly moved.
Rumble!
A half-human-tall stone suddenly split open, revealing scarlet flesh inside and eyes gleaming with a cold light.
This thing wasn't a stone; it was an aberration!
Fang Yang's breath caught, and his entire body froze.
He instinctively took a step back before snapping out of it. Spinning around, he yelled to those behind him, “I found it!!”
“No... wait, I mean, I spotted one!”
His voice carried an excitement so intense he sounded on the verge of tears.
After several agonizing hours, he had finally found one.
Heaven truly didn't disappoint those who persevered!
Armed with the leaked information, he had thought he would lead Yaoguang Academy to glory. Instead, he had ended up looking like an absolute clown.
The hesitant, questioning, and even contemptuous looks from his classmates had made him want to crawl into a hole and die!
The classmates behind him were startled by his shout. Then, their expressions shifted drastically as they looked in the direction he was pointing.
What the hell was this thing?
Had a rock literally come to life?
“Prepare for battle!” Fang Yang didn't waste any time on words. Drawing his weapon, he charged forward.
The others quickly followed suit, surrounding the stone aberration and hacking away at it.
This aberration wasn't particularly strong. Although the students' attacks lacked coordination, their combined efforts quickly brought it down.
Filthy blood splattered across the ground. After a few final twitches, the aberration fell still.
Panting heavily, Fang Yang, who had landed the killing blow, looked down at the point recorder on his wrist.
The number on it jumped from '0' to '15'.
“We have points!” His eyes lit up. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he quickly adjusted his expression to one of pleasant surprise.
“Cough, I didn't expect our luck to be this good,” Fang Yang cleared his throat, speaking while 'casually' glancing at the camera mounted on another student's chest.
“After exploring for so long, we finally ran into one.”
The classmates behind him exchanged glances and quickly began to play along.
“Yeah, yeah! I really didn't expect us to encounter an aberration here.”
“This must be the first aberration killed in this Graduation Show, right?”
“Leading us was definitely the right call, Brother Fang!”
They chimed in one after another, their expressions as earnest as could be.
Although Fang Yang knew the aberrations in this area wouldn't be very strong—probably not even Type 3 ones—he quickly adopted a serious expression.
“Everyone!” He turned around. “The North District is highly complex. There might be more aberrations around!”
“Keep your guard up and stay sharp! If we run into a powerful opponent later, that will be our chance to showcase our true strength and resolve!”
The classmates behind him nodded in agreement, their expressions incredibly sincere.
...
Outside the red soil region, in the monitoring area.
Sitting in his chair, Xie Xuan watched the Yaoguang Academy students' 'performance' on the screen, unable to hide the disdain on his face. The other Turing City staff had similar expressions.
Leaning back, his lips twitched. “They're putting on quite a show.”
The assessors from the other academies didn't look pleased either.
They had already heard Wang Gaofeng's interrogation testimony. Hearing these students' words now only made their act seem incredibly clumsy.
The assessors from the other academies began whispering among themselves.
Even though the students from their own academies were no angels either, it didn't stop them from taking the moral high ground and criticizing.
Naturally, the most embarrassed person was the leading instructor from Yaoguang Academy.
At this moment, as he watched Fang Yang's feed, his face flushed red and white with embarrassment. He wished he could sink into the ground.
Covering his face with his hand, his voice squeezed through his fingers: “These kids... I will definitely investigate this thoroughly when we get back. This is completely unacceptable.”
Just then, another assessor spoke up.
“Hey, look. There's movement on Tiandou Academy's side too.”
Everyone's gaze shifted to another screen.
On the screen, the students from Tiandou Academy had also encountered an aberration.
They first feigned surprise, then scrambled into combat, though their 'pre-prepared' coordination was impossible to hide.
Immediately after, Lieyang Academy's screen lit up as well.
Then another academy.
And then another.
In an instant, the scores of the various academies—which had been stagnant for a long time—finally began to rise now that Bai Feifei was no longer stealing their kills.
However, the atmosphere in the control room only grew more bizarre.
Now, no one could mock anyone else. Everyone's hands were dirty!
But the problem was that this made everything look terrible. A Graduation Show had been reduced to a complete farce with absolutely no assessment value, like watching a circus performance.
“It seems Qingping Academy still hasn't made a move,” Xie Xuan suddenly remarked.
Everyone looked at the leaderboard.
Sure enough, among the list of active academy names, Qingping Academy's column was still at zero.
But now, this zero was no longer a badge of shame.
Instead, it was proof of their integrity. Their students were scattered across various areas, trailing behind the other academies as they slowly searched forward.
“There are still decent people left,” Xie Xuan nodded, his tone filled with admiration.
“The students trained by Teacher Bai are indeed different. Not a single one of them is cheating.”
He had already essentially fallen out with Dawn City, so his words cut like a knife, entirely devoid of politeness.
Hearing his words, everyone's lips twitched.
Seriously? You have to bring up that woman even now?
Is there really a need to play favorites so blatantly!
...
Deep within the red soil region, the people from Yaoguang Academy had no idea they had been completely exposed.
The good news: they had points.
The bad news: the points were meaningless.
Gripping their weapons, the students dispersed in small groups, pretending to explore, search, and kill within the aberration-infested area.
Quite a few of them had already killed the stone-like aberrations and gained points.
“Stay alert!” Fang Yang waved his hand. “There might be powerful aberrations around!”
However, his words turned out to be a jinx.
Another stone split open, revealing an aberration that rolled toward them.
But this time, the aberration didn't follow their script.
Fang Yang slashed outward, but the creature suddenly shifted half a step to the side, dodging the blade with perfect precision.
Before Fang Yang could even pull back his blade, it slammed into him. Feeling a sudden tightness in his chest, he was knocked back several steps.
He froze in surprise.
This aberration actually dodged?
It has combat instincts?
“Watch out!” a girl on the flank suddenly screamed.
Another aberration rolled out from behind a pile of rubble. Instead of lunging directly, it kicked up a shower of loose stones. The moment she instinctively closed her eyes in panic, the creature pounced.
Several more newly emerged aberrations appeared, all moving far more intelligently than the previous ones.
Although their raw power hadn't fundamentally increased, their combat techniques had suddenly leaped to a whole new level!
“What the hell is going on?” someone panicked.
Before anyone could react, several stone aberrations stopped in their tracks and began to shake violently.
A dark purple glow leaked from their cracks, giving off an ominous sensation of impending loss of control.
If Xu Mo were here, he would definitely recognize that their state was strikingly similar to humans who had overdosed on the potion and were on the verge of complete aberration!
Rate on N.U.
