Chapter 62: Just One Person and One Sword

Everyone on the viewing platform watched as the center of the arena was divided into five distinct zones. Lin Xin'er was at the top, Carlyle on the right, Xiao Yuzhe on the left, and the other three seeded candidates were gathered at the bottom. As for the dozen or so ordinary examinees, they huddled together right where they started.

Although the seeded candidates in the four directions intercepted most of the black spheres, quite a few still slipped past. Black streaks flashed through the air, relentlessly bombarding the crowd.

Bang, bang, bang!

Before long, someone let out a miserable shriek, lost their grip on their shield, vomited blood, and collapsed to the ground. The formation instantly fell apart. Amidst the panic, cries of pain and muffled groans echoed continuously as examinees were struck down one after another.

"I'm going to help them," Jiali said, glancing back before speaking calmly.

Jiang Tianjie frowned and said in a deep voice, "Jiali, what's the point? This was their own choice. They misjudged their own strength and the difficulty of the assessment."

"They're going to die," Jiali replied simply.

With agile movements, she darted straight through the barrage of flying black spheres and returned to the group of examinees. Once again, she used clay to mold a strange, eerie pot, sucking the incoming black spheres into it to shield the crowd.

Right at that moment, a sudden change occurred in the arena. The four iron walls began to shift.

Clang, clang, clang!

On the eastern wall, two meters off the ground, several doors sprang open. At the same time, square drainage ports appeared all along the base of the arena's walls, gushing streams of water. The clean water rapidly flooded the metallic floor, shimmering under the blinding white lights.

"The exit is over there," Jiali pointed the way for the examinees.

Noticing that the pooled water had quickly reached ankle height, she frowned slightly and said in a deep voice, "The arena is flooding! If we don't leave now, we won't get another chance! Move!"

Panicked, the examinees scrambled to their feet, randomly grabbed a few numbered spheres lying near their feet, and helped each other run toward the eastern iron wall. Fortunately, just as the water level rose above their knees, they managed to escape through the exits right before they closed.

None of the six seeded candidates showed any intention of leaving.

Points! The longer they stayed, the more numbered spheres they could collect! They clearly possessed absolute confidence in their ability to survive.

A few minutes later, the accumulated water had risen past the dummy targets, reaching a height of two meters. The black spheres had long since stopped firing. However, the danger was far from over.

Everyone on the platform noticed gigantic, spindle-shaped figures swimming through the drainage ports into the arena.

"Sharks?!" someone gasped in shock.

Through the water's surface, the sharks could be vaguely seen emitting a silvery-gray metallic luster. Their eyes glowed with crimson light, leaving bloody red trails beneath the water—a terrifying sight to behold.

Wang Xi narrowed his eyes to take a closer look.

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

He raised an eyebrow slightly.

A two-star automaton shark... This naturally brought to mind the automaton legions produced under Calvin's direction in the fairy tale otherworld. The names were extremely similar, differing only in form. There had to be a connection between the two.

Pulling back his thoughts, he refocused his attention on the assessment itself.

*Examinees' movements are severely restricted in a flooded environment, compounded by the patrolling hunt of the automaton sharks... Under these conditions, trying to continue searching for numbered spheres that have sunk to the bottom and mixed in with ordinary black spheres is as difficult as one can imagine,* Wang Xi analyzed inwardly.

*Furthermore, the opening of the exits is not fixed. Just as the proctor said, the longer you drag it out, the more dangerous it becomes. This is a severe test of one's reaction and decisive judgment... Whether to leave with the numbered spheres before the flooding, or take on escalating risks and press onward.*

Even if one managed to find enough numbered spheres in the end, they would still find themselves trapped in a desperate plight due to the difficulty of carrying them, uncertain exits, and the encirclement of the automaton sharks...

Just as Wang Xi was pondering this, the six seeded candidates below simultaneously swam toward the nearest exits. They realized the danger and chose to withdraw. However, metallic sharks pursued them closely, launching vicious attacks.

Splash!

A silver shark opened its jaws lined with steel-sharp teeth, lunging straight at the long-haired, straight-locked Nagada An.

The genius girl representing the Vault of Heaven Consortium did not panic. She spun around and struck out with her palm, landing squarely on the shark's snout.

Bang!

A loud crash echoed, and water splashed everywhere.

Nagada An's wet hair swirled around her as her delicate, fair face revealed purple-black patterns. Even her eyes transformed into an enchanting dark purple.

"Vortex!" she uttered in the Shimabara language.

The massive metallic shark was blasted backward by a terrifying force of propulsion, spinning wildly in the water under invisible pressure. Several neighboring sharks were even drawn into the vortex, churning together into a chaotic tangle.

Taking advantage of the opening, Nagada An leaped out of the water, climbed up to the edge of the exit, and hoisted herself through.

The others also relied on their respective abilities to beat back the automaton sharks and successfully escape through the exits.

...

The water and sharks receded through the square drainage ports at the base of the walls. The arena returned to its original state.

The examinees on the high platform watched with pounding hearts, whispering amongst themselves. They clearly realized the extreme difficulty of this trial and were desperately trying to figure out a solution.

Wang Xi did not join the discussion. He turned his gaze toward the iron wall projection on the side.

The first-place ranking he had previously occupied had been usurped by Carlyle. This individual had scored a staggering 71 points in the survival emergency response test, earning a perfect evaluation of 100. Combined with the scores of the other seeded candidates, Wang Xi roughly deduced that securing 40 points worth of numbered spheres counted as a full score.

*With good luck, a single "K" sphere could do the trick. But with bad luck, it might take five, six, or even more numbered spheres,* Wang Xi thought to himself.

He also noticed that most of the ordinary examinees in this batch had only single-digit scores, presumably having only managed to retrieve a single numbered sphere. Consequently, their ratings ranged between 20 and 40—even lower scores than the first two trials.

"This is too hard..." an examinee beside him said with a mournful expression.

"My attack and defense scores from the first two items were only 50 and 30, which converts to a total of just 19.2 points. Even if I add a perfect score from the written test, I'll barely reach 39.2..."

Wang Xi wore a thoughtful look. The Brave Association had never explicitly announced the passing score, but it surely wouldn't be lower than 60. This proved that the assessment was indeed difficult for the vast majority of people. If it weren't difficult, how could it be called a life-changing opportunity for social mobility?

...

Batch after batch of examinees continued with the test.

They seemed to constantly learn from the lessons of their predecessors, gradually forming a cooperative "huddle" model. The reason was simple: without teamwork, they couldn't even survive the initial wave of black sphere shootings, let alone talk about picking up spheres and escaping.

Thus, the later the examinees went, the better their coordination and the clearer their division of labor became. Those holding shield equipment cards formed a perimeter, while the agile or sharp-eyed were responsible for picking up the numbered spheres scattered around. Finally, the group would distribute the points before the flooding and escape together through the exits.

The ratings for each batch of examinees slowly climbed from the initial 20–40 range to 30–50, and eventually 40–60. This was clearly the intended solution to this test!

A short while later, it was finally Wang Xi's batch's turn.

"Big Brother Wang!"

A group of examinees gathered around Wang Xi, wearing respectful and expectant smiles. They cautiously inquired, "We've all discussed it and plan to copy their cooperative strategy... Everyone has witnessed your strength, so we really hope you'll join us."

Wang Xi glanced at the group.

The examinees in his batch were quite young. Their slightly naive faces carried a hint of nervousness, as if they feared Wang Xi would act alone like the seeded candidates.

Fair is fair: if they possessed formidable strength themselves, they wouldn't be too keen on cooperating with others either. Therefore, even if Wang Xi refused, they would completely understand.

To everyone's surprise, however, the black-haired young man flashed a brilliant smile and gave a thumbs-up.

"Alright," Wang Xi nodded.

Hearing this, everyone revealed expressions of pleasant surprise.

"But you'll have to follow my lead. Is that okay?" Wang Xi added.

The group exchanged glances and nodded resolutely.

"No problem, Brother Wang! We'll listen to whatever you say!"

"Tell me what you're each good at, and if anyone has defensive equipment cards..." Wang Xi sped up his speech, asking brief questions.

Through everyone's overlapping explanations, Wang Xi gained a general understanding of them and nodded inwardly.

Shortly after, under the proctor's prompt, Wang Xi and the others walked down the stairs from the side of the platform.

To the utter shock of everyone present, this batch of examinees had divided themselves into five zones! However, it was the exact opposite of the seeded candidates' setup:

The ordinary examinees were split into four groups, gathering in the four corners of the arena, while the dazzling monster known as Wang Xi stood alone with a sword right in the center of the arena!

What on earth was he planning to do?!

Each corner held four or five people, backs pressed against the walls, with two of them holding shields facing outward to form an all-around defensive formation.

"Making a last stand?" Jiali, who was currently drying her hair with a towel, looked astonished and spoke softly.

"Facing the entire arena of dummy targets all by himself?!"

The other five seeded candidates were exceptionally clever and instantly grasped Wang Xi's intent.

"Utterly arrogant!" Xiao Yuzhe chuckled softly. "But without absolute confidence, this is suicide!"

"Judging solely by his performance in the previous defense test... he can't do it," Carlyle narrowed his eyes and said indifferently.

"High probability... he will die."

Jiang Tianjie, Lin Xin'er, and Nagada An remained silent, keeping their gazes locked firmly on the black-haired young man in the center of the arena.

The examinees wore looks of profound shock, and even the proctors, including Shi Bo, couldn't help whispering amongst themselves.

Beeep—

As a prompt tone sounded, Wang Xi, the focus of the entire arena, bent his knees into a half-squat, lowering his center of gravity. He extended his left arm horizontally like a scaffold, resting the executioner's sword in his right hand flat across his left arm.

This appeared to be some sort of swordsmanship stance, one that looked profoundly imposing without needing explanation.

Wang Xi closed his eyes.

His companions in the four corners watched him with tense expressions.

"Can Big Brother Wang really pull this off?" someone asked.

In the dead silence, only the sound of swallowing could be heard.

"Hiss..."

Wang Xi clenched his white teeth, pulling his lips apart into a narrow slit to draw in a massive breath of air.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!!!

Black spheres rained down from all directions like a storm—

Wang Xi snapped his eyes open.

The executioner's sword in his hand spun into a torrential blur, resembling a silvery-gray sphere. The incoming black spheres crashed violently against it, sparking brilliantly before deflecting outward toward the four corners.

Clink, clang, clinking!!

He had transformed himself into a "transfer station," intercepting, dampening, and reflecting the high-speed black spheres straight toward his companions.