Chapter 709: The Competition in the Free Joint Examination Hunting!
“Those demons are so disgusting…”
“Not only are they disgusting, but they’re also really annoying. They did the same thing during last semester’s joint examination, suddenly invading our exam hall and making a mess of everything!”
“Speaking of which, are we just going to let one Demon Academy mess up our final hunting event organized by so many Extraordinary Academies? That’s way too unreasonable!”
“Exactly! I was planning to hunt some large mutated beasts in the last two days to earn some side income… Do you think the materials from demons can be sold?”
“I’m not sure, but probably not. What if those disgusting demons were once humans?”
“Don’t say that! Ugh~ So disgusting! Why does Demon Academy even exist as a tumor?”
As the morning sun rose high in the sky, what should have been a beautiful day brought an unpleasant experience for all candidates in the Expanding Realm.
However, the hunting continued.
Unfortunately, during this time, there was a high probability of encountering Dream Creatures or demons coming out to cause trouble.
The rest of the situation didn’t change much.
The hunting groups, anxious to score points, began to shift their targets. Since it was hard to encounter mutated beasts, but demons could be found everywhere after all this chaos, they were all potential points!
They just couldn’t earn any side income anymore.
But soon, the candidates realized how troublesome demons were. First, the demons’ vitality was incredibly resilient; the commonly thought physical weaknesses seemed almost ineffective.
Arrows pierced through their hearts, or shot through their heads, yet they could still stubbornly survive.
These traits were even more apparent with undead and other immortals.
However… this was just a minor aspect. With the overwhelming numerical advantage, it soon became insignificant.
Moreover, compared to last semester’s Demon Tide, the “strength” of these demons was still lacking.
After all, the Demon Tide encountered last semester consisted of “local species” from the Abyssal World.
Their deaths transformed into flesh, quickly hatching new demons in a short time. Demons were effectively a group of undying tumors making full use of their flesh resources.
As for these “demon candidates” that were “localized” in the Main World, even though they had lost their rights as humans, they still retained human cognitive thoughts, unable to undergo complete instinct training.
Thus, as daytime slowly passed, the demons’ peak was soon overturned.
The reorganized hunting group drove the “students” of the Abyss Demon Academy back relentlessly.
Everything happened like a joke, the situation reversed so quickly.
Even some candidates who were ready to hide inside the city and wait for the joint examination to end had not truly clashed once with Demon Academy when the news of the demons being repelled began circulating on the Plant Network.
Many were left dumbfounded.
Until…
The news that the hunting groups and teaching assistants had teamed up to encircle the Abyss Demons spread across the Plant Network.
“This is simply a miracle!”
Watching this news spread wildly on the Plant Network, Li Feiya exclaimed.
“Is the sun rising in the opposite direction in today’s Expanding Realm? That group of teaching assistants actually took the initiative to encircle the Abyss Demons? And they’re collaborating with the hunting groups among the candidates?”
“Indeed, it’s a very strange combination.” I agreed from the side.
“This is too odd, why are they doing this?”
“The hype seems unusual; it feels like they’re creating momentum, or maybe they’re setting the stage?” I speculated.
“Setting the stage? Like how you previously gave points to create a consensus? Then backstab someone at a crucial moment?” Li Feiya inquired with a frown.
“Not necessarily, and I really want to find someone to fight; creating hype isn’t my goal.” I shook my head and said.
However, this matter was indeed very strange; why had the Abyss Demons suddenly become so weak?
What was their purpose in invading the Expanding Realm?
Was it just to make things easy for us?
That was what I couldn’t understand; aside from being thankless, I couldn’t think of any other description.
But soon, the teaching assistants displayed a series of outrageous actions on the Plant Network.
First, they expressed their willingness to respond to the temporary announcement about the joint examination hunting and to jointly deal with the root cause of the disruption.
The Abyss Demons.
They aimed to minimize the impact they brought and create a harmonious competition atmosphere during the joint examination.
Also, this group of teaching assistants represented the positions of various Extraordinary Academies and reached a special agreement with the large hunting groups formed by different Extraordinary Academies.
As this joint examination hunting entered its later stages, the mutated beasts in the Ninglan Realm had also become scarce due to large-scale hunting, with the remaining mutated beasts forced to leave the Ninglan Realm for areas outside of it.
For the candidates, going outside the Ninglan Realm wasn’t worth it.
First off, the journey was long.
During the joint examination, they couldn’t use convenient tools, which made back-and-forth trips take a long time.
Moreover, now the joint examination was nearing its end; there wasn’t much time left.
And… it’s difficult to hunt the exterior mutated beasts relying on the Power Network; encountering large mutated beast groups could lead to d*ath without knowing how it happened.
Thus, the teaching assistant group representatives and the hunting group representatives from each Extraordinary Academy prepared to conduct cooperative drills.
Yes, during an open hunting assessment, the two parties—hunters and hunted—actually teamed up to plan a competition-style confrontation!
The reasoning was quite complete, stemming from actions taken by “Teaching Assistant Yang Yuelan” a few days ago, pursuing a mutually beneficial combat condition, fully leveraging this joint examination to make sure candidates recognized the importance of combat skills.
Free hunting could certainly increase the chances of confrontation for both sides, but for the sake of scoring, the emergence of large hunting groups contradicted the original purpose of the joint examination, preventing each candidate from having a good environment to train their combat skills.
Hence, in the context of the Abyss Demons invading this larger environment, they eliminated these unstable factors together, creating an opportunity to communicate their opinions.
In the end, this led to the unique spectacle of this joint examination!
Currently, the group strongly promoting this competition between candidates and teaching assistants was also calling everyone to participate in this healthy confrontation.
They welcomed anyone with genuine strength, whether an individual or a team, to join this confrontation.
After all, as long as you could defeat the teaching assistants in the arena, you could instantly gain points for killing them!
This essentially provided an excellent platform for scoring during this final stage when gaining points was difficult!
As far as this matter was concerned, various academies did not express opinions.
After all, the joint examination was for the candidates; unless they collectively boycotted the examination, the academies would not interfere.
This tested the art of language; since the instructors hadn’t stopped it, then they must be supportive!
Anyway, such trivial matters wouldn’t prompt the instructors to lower themselves to clarify. Besides, if the instructors said nothing, wasn’t that the greatest support?
Therefore, they weren’t lying.
Under this “joint statement,” there was also additional care for “Teaching Assistant Yang Yuelan,” hoping that capable individuals would actively participate in this confrontation.
Since you enjoy challenging others, we’ve built the stage for you, don’t miss it!
Otherwise, you’ll be ruining your reputation and image.
At the very least, this was the implication conveyed by the information that had circulated.
And with such overwhelming Plant Network messages released and fermented, it hardly took long.
By noon that day, nearly every candidate participating in the joint examination was aware of this news.
“What are they doing?” Li Feiya, who was with me, looked at the avalanche of messages on the Plant Network, having already complained about it countless times.
“Those guys really know how to stir things up! There’s definitely something fishy here! Xiao Han, be careful!”
“Got it, I got it~ How many times have you reminded me already?” I shook my head and said to Li Feiya.
Moreover, we were currently heading towards the conflict venue as planned in that joint statement.
To make it easier for more people to participate, this confrontation organized by the candidates was set in the Sixth Refuge, where the most Extraordinary Academies were gathered.
Of course, the arena for the confrontation was located outside the refuge, which was a safe zone prohibiting fighting.
The venue for the confrontation was quite simple, all kept minimal, and time was critical, just drawing a contest space on the ground.
The rules were equally straightforward: life-and-d*ath battles, round-robin contests, and distinguishing life from d*ath marked the end of the combat.
This applied to teaching assistants just as much as to candidates!
Naturally, the primary reason for requiring life-and-d*ath battles was to filter out candidates. Those afraid of d*ath weren’t qualified to waste everyone’s time and wouldn’t be allocated points.
After all, the number of teaching assistants was limited, and when one died, they had a “safety period” of one hour.
This made it clear that only the strong were qualified to take the stage for the confrontation!
“Ah~ I’m just concerned about you.” Li Feiya spoke up.
But she didn’t say anything more since it was still a live broadcast, and saying unfounded things would only get trouble.
“Hey~ Xiao Han, your challenge response posted under their joint statement has already been pinned!”
“That means their target is indeed me.” I didn’t care too much about it.
Previously, so many of them had ganged up on me.
To be honest, that was the most pressure-filled battle I had faced so far, one of the few where I clearly knew I wouldn’t win.
In the end, I managed to fool them, and after they fled, they began plotting openly…
But I remained curious about how they managed to convince so many people… no, so many academies.
The psychology of group conformity made it easy to manipulate a leaderless crowd, but the leader representing the interests of a group isn’t someone to be trifled with.
Moreover, they were moving too fast…
This made me recall what Fu Xinglan had said to me back then; although she was talking about players, she also mentioned that other Extraordinary Academies wanted to deal with me.
Now, I only needed to clarify one thing—that is… my own value. Was my value worth all these academies joining forces just to ensure my eternal downfall?
Then thinking about it this way… did Teacher Lina really just want me to participate in this joint examination to experience learning combat skills?
As for the first question, my heart already had the answer. For the latter question… it’s worth a shot to find out.
When Li Feiya and I arrived within the range of the Sixth Refuge, we could see a large crowd gathered from a distance.
Upon seeing me, the people stared blankly at first, followed by a flash of excitement in their eyes, and a group enthusiastically approached.
After a simple conversation, I learned they were members of the “Xiao Han Support Group.”
They eagerly asked whether I was here to participate in this “destined-to-d*e” confrontation. Upon receiving an affirmative answer, they were overjoyed.
After all, they didn’t want to support someone who would back down.
After learning that I wouldn’t withdraw, they continued to explain the rules of this confrontation organized voluntarily by the candidates.
In this confrontation, one party was the teaching assistants, while the other was the candidates. Teaching assistants could only enter solo, while candidates could fight solo or in teams. If the challenging team won, they would have to share the points for defeating the teaching assistant.
This battle format essentially assumed that teaching assistants were stronger than candidates.
However… even teaching assistants with little combat experience could wear down many teams relying on their undying nature.
Also, teaching assistants were not allowed to “surrender” before defeat.
It was clearly aimed at me—a teaching assistant like me without undying nature, or rather, directly pointed at me…
They gave teaching assistants a brilliant halo, which meant that teaching assistants had to shine brightly. You could d*e, but if you lost in the early rounds, you didn’t deserve the honor of being a teaching assistant.
This should have been Teacher Lina’s way of mocking those incompetent teaching assistants, but now… they were using it against me.
At that moment, as I approached the arena, I heard a very high-pitched voice, similar to that of a commentator or host.
“Let’s see which heavyweight teaching assistant is joining our teaching assistant confrontation!”
“Look! It’s the well-known Teaching Assistant Xiao Han! The myth that hasn’t lost a single match in the entire joint examination hunting!”
“I knew our Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, who is dedicated to challenging geniuses and strong opponents, wouldn’t shy away from this life-and-d*ath confrontation, let’s make our cheers even more intense…”
As I stepped into this slightly shabby confrontation arena, those candidates acting as temporary commentators raised me to be the visual focus of the whole audience.
However, this seemingly passionate cheering foreshadowed an undercurrent of sabotage.
Perhaps many people noticed this, but they were glad to see it; after all, the spotlight wasn’t on them.
If the opponent fell from grace, they would gladly step in to kick.
If the opponent was truly capable, they wouldn’t mind letting the current shouts come from the heart!
“Come! Let’s clear the pre-reserved area for the No. 1 confrontation for our Teaching Assistant Xiao Han!”
“Let’s use the loudest cheering to welcome our protagonist… Teaching Assistant Yang Yuelan, and then warmly applaud… her opponents!”
“Ooohhhh——!”
“Sister Xiao Han, go!”
“k*ll! k*ll! k*ll! I want to see rivers of bl**d!”
Amidst the cheers of the crowd and the overly enthusiastic commentary, I silently walked onto this makeshift confrontation arena.
At that moment, all I could think was… is this what we call a multi-school joint hunting final assessment?
