Chapter 62: Chapter 62: Just One Person and One Sword

The crowd on the high platform saw—

The center of the arena was divided into five areas.

Lin Xin’Er was at the top, Carl was on the right, Xiao Yuzhe was on the left, and the other three seeded participants were gathered at the bottom.

As for the dozen or so other regular examinees, they huddled together where they stood.

Although the seeded participants in the four cardinal directions intercepted most of the black spheres, a good number still slipped through.

Black streaks flashed past, continuously bombarding the crowd.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Soon, someone cried out in pain. Their shield flew from their hand as they spat up blood and collapsed.

The formation instantly fell into disarray.

Amid the panic, pained screams and muffled groans rang out as more people were injured and fell, one after another.

"I’m going to help them."

Yu Jiali glanced back and said calmly.

Jiang Tianjie frowned and said in a low voice:

"Yu Jiali, what’s the point? This was their own choice. They misjudged their own strength and the difficulty of the examination."

"They’ll die."

Yu Jiali replied simply.

Then, her figure moved nimbly, weaving through the flying black spheres to return to the group of examinees.

She once again molded a strange clay pot from mud, which sucked in the incoming black spheres, protecting the others.

Just then, a sudden change occurred in the arena—

The four iron walls began to transform.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Several doors opened on the eastern wall, two meters above the ground. At the same time, square openings appeared at the base of the walls throughout the arena, and water began to gush out.

The clear water quickly spread across the metal floor, shimmering under the dazzling white lights.

"The exits are over there."

Yu Jiali pointed the way for the group of examinees.

She noticed the water on the floor quickly rising to her ankles. Her lovely brows furrowed slightly as she said in a low voice:

"The arena is flooding! If you don’t go now, you’ll lose your chance! Go!"

The examinees scrambled to their feet, hastily grabbing a few of the numbered spheres at their feet, and helped each other as they ran toward the eastern iron wall.

Fortunately, they managed to escape just before the exits closed, as the water level reached their knees.

But the six seeded participants showed no intention of leaving.

Points!

The longer they stayed, the more numbered spheres they could collect!

They were clearly confident in their ability to survive.

A few more minutes passed. The water rose past the practice dummies to a height of two meters, and the black spheres had long since stopped firing.

But the danger was not over.

The crowd on the high platform noticed huge, spindle-shaped figures swimming into the arena through the water outlets.

"Sharks?!"

Someone exclaimed.

Through the surface of the water, they could vaguely see that the sharks had a silvery-gray metallic sheen. Their eyes glowed red, leaving crimson trails underwater—a terrifying sight.

Wang Xi focused his gaze.

[Delta Combat-Type Mechanical Doll - Shark (Crimson/Two-Star)]

His brow twitched slightly.

’A Two-Star Mechanical Doll shark...’

He couldn’t help but be reminded of the Mechanical Puppet Legion produced under Calvin’s direction in the Fairy Tale Otherworld.

’The names are extremely similar, just the forms are different.’

’There must be a connection between the two.’

He pulled his thoughts back to the present.

He refocused his attention on the examination itself.

’The examinees’ movements are hindered in the flooded environment, plus there are Mechanical Doll sharks patrolling... The difficulty of trying to find the numbered spheres sunk at the bottom, mixed in with the ordinary black ones, is unimaginable.’

Wang Xi analyzed the situation silently.

’And the exits don’t open at fixed times. Just as the Examiner said, the longer you wait, the more dangerous it gets. This really tests a person’s reactions and decisiveness... Do you leave with the numbered spheres before the flooding, or do you take the greater risk and continue?’

’But even if you manage to find enough numbered spheres in the end, the difficulty of carrying them, the uncertainty of the exits, and the encirclement by Mechanical Doll sharks could lead to a desperate situation...’

Just as Wang Xi was thinking,

The six seeded participants below all began swimming toward the nearest exit at the same time.

They had realized the danger and chosen to leave the stage.

But the metal sharks pursued them relentlessly, launching their attacks.

SPLASH—

A silver shark opened its great maw full of steel teeth and lunged at the long, black-haired Nagata An.

The talented girl representing the Sky Dome Conglomerate wasn’t flustered. She turned and slapped her palm out, striking the shark right on its snout.

BOOM!

A loud crash echoed.

Water splashed everywhere.

Nagata An’s drenched long hair swirled about as purplish-black markings appeared on her beautiful, fair face. Even her eyes had turned a bewitching dark purple.

"Vortex."

She spoke a single word in the language of Shimahara Country.

The giant metal shark was sent flying by a terrifying force, then began to spin in the water, caught by an invisible power. It even pulled in several other nearby sharks, tangling them all together.

Nagata An seized the opportunity to leap from the water, grab the edge of the exit, and pull herself up.

The others also used their own methods to fend off the Mechanical Doll sharks’ attacks and successfully escaped through the exits.

...

...

The water and sharks retreated through the square openings at the base of the walls.

The arena returned to its original state.

The examinees on the high platform watched with bated breath, breaking into a flurry of discussion. They had clearly realized the difficulty of this test and were desperately trying to figure out a solution.

Wang Xi did not join the discussion.

He turned his head to look at the projection on the iron wall to the side.

The first-place position he had previously held was now occupied by Carl. This person had scored an astonishing 71 points in the survival and emergency response test, earning a perfect evaluation of 100.

Looking at the scores of the other seeded participants, Wang Xi roughly determined that collecting numbered spheres worth 40 points was enough for a perfect score.

’If I’m lucky, a single "K" sphere could be enough. But if my luck is bad, I might need five or six, or even more.’

Wang Xi thought to himself.

He also noticed that most of the regular examinees in this batch had only single-digit scores, meaning they had probably only picked up one numbered sphere.

As a result, their evaluations were all between 20 and 40.

Their scores were even lower than in the previous two tests.

"It’s too hard..."

An examinee next to him said with a mournful face.

"My scores for the first two offense and defense tests were only 50 and 30, which converts to a combined total of just 19.2 points. Even with a perfect score on the written exam, I’ll barely reach 39.2 points..."

Wang Xi looked thoughtful.

The Hero Association hadn’t officially announced the passing score, but he presumed it wouldn’t be lower than 60 points.

It was clear that the examination was indeed difficult for most people.

If it wasn’t difficult, how could it be called an opportunity to change one’s fate and ascend in status!

...

...

Batch after batch of examinees continued the test.

They seemed to be constantly learning from the mistakes of those before them, gradually forming a pattern of teamwork. The reason was simple: without cooperation, they couldn’t even survive the first wave of black spheres, let alone think about grabbing spheres and escaping.

Thus, the later batches of examinees became more coordinated, with a clearer division of labor.

Those with shield Equipment Cards formed a defensive perimeter, while those who were agile or had sharp eyes were responsible for picking up the numbered spheres that fell nearby. Finally, they would distribute the points among themselves before the flooding and escape through the exits together.

The evaluation scores for each batch slowly increased from the original range of 20 to 40, to 30 to 50, and then to 40 to 60.

This was clearly the correct solution to the test!

A moment later, it was almost time for Wang Xi’s batch.

"Brother Wang Xi!"

A group of examinees gathered around, giving Wang Xi respectful and expectant smiles. One of them asked cautiously:

"We’ve all discussed it, and we plan to team up like the others... Everyone has seen your strength, so we were really hoping you would join us."

Wang Xi glanced at the group.

These examinees from his batch weren’t very old. Their somewhat immature faces were filled with apprehension, as if they were afraid Wang Xi would choose to act alone, just like the seeded participants.

To be fair, if they themselves possessed great strength, they wouldn’t be too keen on cooperating either. So, they would completely understand even if Wang Xi refused.

However, to everyone’s surprise, the black-haired young man before them broke into a brilliant smile and gave a thumbs-up.

"Okay," Wang Xi said with a nod.

Hearing this, everyone’s faces lit up with delighted surprise.

"But you’ll have to follow my orders. Is that okay?"

Wang Xi added.

The group exchanged glances, then gritted their teeth and nodded.

"No problem, Brother Wang, we’ll all listen to you!"

"Tell me what you’re all good at. Do you have any defensive Equipment Cards..."

Wang Xi spoke quickly, making simple inquiries.

After everyone chimed in with their introductions, Wang Xi gained a general understanding of their abilities and nodded silently.

A short while later, at the Examiner’s signal, Wang Xi and the others walked down the steps at the side of the platform.

To everyone’s surprise, this batch of examinees also split into five areas!

But in the complete opposite way of the seeded participants—

The regular examinees split into four groups, gathering in the four corners of the arena. Meanwhile, the monstrously dazzling Wang Xi stood alone in the center with his sword!

What was he planning to do?!

There were four or five people in each corner, their backs to the wall, with two of them holding shields at the front to form an all-around defensive formation.

"A full-on defense?"

Yu Jiali, who was drying her hair with a towel, looked surprised and spoke softly.

"He’s going to face all the practice dummies by himself?!"

The other five seeded participants, being exceptionally bright, also understood Wang Xi’s intentions at once.

"How arrogant!" Xiao Yuzhe chuckled. "But without absolute confidence, this is just suicide!"

"Based on his performance in the previous Defense Ability test... he can’t do it."

Carl narrowed his eyes and said flatly.

"He’ll most likely die."

Jiang Tianjie, Lin Xin’Er, and Nagata An said nothing, simply focusing their gazes on the black-haired young man in the center of the arena.

The examinees were stunned, and even the Examiners, including Shi Bo, couldn’t help but start murmuring to each other.

BEEP—

As the signal sounded, Wang Xi, the focus of everyone’s attention, bent his knees and lowered his center of gravity. He held his left arm out horizontally like a brace, resting the Beheading Sword in his right hand flat upon it.

It seemed to be some kind of Swordsmanship stance.

It looked impressive, even if no one understood it.

Wang Xi closed his eyes.

His companions in the four corners watched him nervously.

"Can Brother Wang Xi do it?"

Someone asked.

In the silent environment, only the sound of swallowing could be heard.

"HSSS..."

Wang Xi’s white teeth clenched, his lips parting slightly as he sucked in a deep breath.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Black spheres rained down from all directions—

Wang Xi’s eyes snapped open.

The Beheading Sword in his hand moved so fast it was impenetrable, like a silver-gray sphere. The approaching black spheres crashed against it, creating sparks, before being deflected toward the four corners.

DING! DING! DONG!

It was as if he had become a "relay station," parrying and slowing the high-speed black spheres and sending them toward his companions.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.