Exam Missions

He thought back to the Instances he had visited before.

There were those like the Three Cities World, which were highly generalized and representative, and those like the Lu Family Courtyard, which had a more boutique, refined feel.

Then there were the Escape Room and Anomaly Kill Instances, which were straightforward and easy to understand; one look at the name and you knew exactly what the style would be.

No matter what, when he heard those names, he could already form a rough judgment of the situation inside the Instance.

But what on earth was 【:D】-101-2? A smiley face? It provided absolutely zero information.

Ms. Zhang continued to operate the mirror, answering as she worked.

"Unknown worlds are uniformly labeled with numeric codes by the Alliance's high-level officials, so it's a bit different from the ones you've encountered before. Don't worry about it."

"By the way, if you successfully pass this exam, you'll be allowed to rename this world."

"A numeric code, but..." Ren Yi looked at that strange symbol. "No matter how you look at it, that's just an emoticon, right?"

Ms. Zhang stopped her movements, looked back with a look of hesitation, and fell into silence as well.

"I feel like that symbol is mocking me," Ren Yi added.

"...I haven't encountered this situation either. Logically speaking, the naming should be standardized."

"However, I have a rough idea of what the 'dash two' means. It's likely because this Base Station has a bit of a story."

"A story? What kind of story?" Ren Yi looked up in confusion.

Are you sure it's not an "accident"?

Ren Yi was now extremely sensitive to these "minor anomalies."

Before Ms. Zhang could speak, his phone vibrated again, and a new mission pop-up flooded his mind.

【Core Exam Missions have been synchronized.】

【This assessment includes three missions. An average progress of 60% is a pass, 80% is good, and 90% or above is excellent.】

【Mission 1: World Exploration (Exploration methods include map mapping, energy system analysis, world essence tracing, etc. Please explore the methods for increasing progress on your own). Current Progress: 0%】

【Mission 2: Obtain at least one item containing World Rules. Scoring will be based on the strength of the World Rules contained in the final item held. Current Progress: 0%】

【Mission 3: Confirm the death of the Fugitive. Living subjects must be seen in person; dead subjects must be seen as corpses. Current Progress: 0%.】

【Restriction Rule: In this world, you will act in your True Form and cannot maintain a human form disguise.】

That was quite a lot of information to process.

Three missions in total.

Ren Yi thought the first few requirements seemed normal, but after reading the full mission descriptions, things became absurd.

The first mission was plain and unremarkable, fitting Ren Yi's expectation of a "spring outing" type of task.

Then came the second mission, and things suddenly felt wrong.

Was this a joke?

Were World Rules really that easy to obtain?

Among all the things Ren Yi had acquired, only the crystal from Azure that stored all the souls of the King of Xin's city could be considered one.

As for the third mission...

Someone, please explain what "Fugitive" was supposed to mean.

Well, it wasn't actually that hard to guess.

It was likely someone like Azure—a person who had escaped from a world already destroyed by the Alliance.

It's been so long, yet that damn Azure is still haunting me.

A more important issue was that while the mission showed a "0%" progress bar, there were actually only three possibilities.

"Not found," "Found the live Fugitive and killed them," or "Found the dead Fugitive."

In terms of the grade, it would either be "0%" or "100%."

There was an even more serious problem: what did "living subjects must be seen in person; dead subjects must be seen as corpses" mean? Was it possible this Fugitive wasn't even alive anymore?

If their remains had been completely obliterated, wouldn't he be screwed?

Even worse, according to the scoring standards, the weights of the three missions should be equal.

This meant that if Ren Yi didn't find or kill this person, his combined progress for the first two missions would have to reach 180% just to pass.

But given how bastardly difficult those first two missions were, Ren Yi felt that if he didn't complete Mission 3, passing would be essentially impossible.

Ren Yi turned to Ms. Zhang with a serious expression.

"Teacher, first I want to confirm—asking you about the mission content doesn't count as a violation, does it?"

"Of course not," Ms. Zhang said with a smile. "Did you run into a problem? Let me see."

Ms. Zhang took the phone with a smile.

Ren Yi watched her expression closely as she casually glanced at his screen.

The next second, Ms. Zhang's smile froze on her face.

On the ceiling and walls, the sketch-like eyes blinked continuously, looking a bit dazed.

Clearly, she also thought this mission was way beyond the standard scope.

Ms. Zhang's expression remained stiff for a moment before she forced a reassuring smile and said to Ren Yi.

"It's fine, Ren Yi. Stay calm."

She paused, then immediately followed up.

"On average, past examinees in the Alliance have to retake the exam three times and die once or twice before they pass."

"It's normal, perfectly normal..."

Ren Yi remained silent.

Thanks, Ms. Zhang, but I don't feel comforted at all.

Seeing this, Ms. Zhang quickly retreated to the mirror and operated it some more; this time, her hand speed was noticeably much faster.

But in the end, she stepped back helplessly.

"I can't change it. It shows here that there's no issue with the assessment missions issued by the Alliance. They can't be altered."

It seemed the die was cast.

"Teacher..." Ren Yi took a deep breath, accepting the bad news.

"Now you really have to tell me the 'story' of this Base Station."

"It's actually nothing much..." Ms. Zhang seemed a bit nervous after seeing those missions, and her tone now carried a hint of consolation.

"It's just that this Base Station once landed in a certain world and was activated once."

"That's why there's a 'dash two' in the suffix now."

"But don't worry, that world has already been wiped out by the Alliance. It's absolutely impossible for any powerful entity to have escaped."

"Furthermore, the new world you're going to this time has no connection to that old world."

"And the Base Station has measured the energy levels; this world's energy level is much lower than the previous one. Their power systems can't be the same, which is why it was chosen as an exam world."

Ren Yi wasn't comforted by Ms. Zhang's tone and pressed her further.

"Teacher, what kind of world was that old one?"

"Uh, it's a long story."

Ms. Zhang hesitated for two seconds before slowly speaking.

"It was a world that possessed a special energy called 'spiritual energy.' Some talented humans could absorb this energy into their bodies."

"Then, through certain methods they discovered, they could convert it for their own use."

"Supplemented by items made from special herbs, they could achieve periodic increases in power."

"They distinguished those who had formally entered this system from ordinary people and referred to a specific stage."

"I believe it was called... the Foundation Establishment stage."