Chương 80: War God’s : — Chapter 80 - Even Cheating Couldn't Be This Fast, Right?

Chapter: Scarlet Cloud Mountain Assessment At the gathering point below Scarlet Cloud Mountain. Rows of fully armed soldiers guarded the temporary camp, patrolling back and forth. Dense formations of examinees lined up in square units, entering the camp to verify their identities. Inside the camp, besides military personnel, there were also leaders from various major clubs and high schools.

"Wang Xian!" Wang Xian, who was queuing for identity verification, heard someone calling him. Turning around, he saw Zheng Changhong from the Heavenly Blade Club walking over with a gleaming silver blade in hand. Wang Xian stepped out of line and greeted him. Zheng Changhong glanced at Wang Xian, his gaze falling on the ancient-style blade on his back, and let out a long breath.

"I knew your equipment would be subpar, kid."

"Good thing I got here in time."

"Take this 'Cold Firmament' blade." Wang Xian gave an "oh" and accepted the blade Zheng Changhong handed over. He took just one look. He nodded. It was a fine blade. Light in hand, yet the blade edge didn't lack heft. The cold gleam on its surface was almost blinding. Among first-tier martial combat gear, it was absolutely top-tier, capable of greatly enhancing a martial artist's blade technique power. The materials used were definitely the best available. Worth at least six figures.

"The day before yesterday, after your awakening, I didn't get a chance to talk to you." Zheng Changhong spoke earnestly.

"But it seems like you weren't affected much, kid. Your mindset must be pretty steady."

"But rest assured, even if you have no talent, the contract with the club is still valid."

"Also, we'll still apply for a higher-level contract for you from headquarters."

"Today's real combat assessment, just relax and go for it." After speaking, Zheng Changhong patted Wang Xian on the shoulder. Wang Xian nodded.

"This blade, consider it a thank-you gift." Zheng Changhong said.

"It might be a bit lacking. No rush, there'll be more chances later." Wang Xian understood what this thanks was for. Probably about how he'd declined that contract before and given it to other classmates. And then had Ye Miyue sign it. A club managing to sign a martial artist about to awaken a taboo-tier talent before the awakening stage even happened. Pure dumb luck. All of this, if Wang Xian hadn't declined that contract back then, might have truly been missed.

So Zheng Changhong had felt like his heart was on a crazy roller coaster these past two days. On the first day of the Martial Exam, seeing 723 points, he thought he'd drawn a limited-edition SSR. Then on the second day, he saw the limited-edition SSR's power level was gutter-tier, and he was completely dumbfounded. Yet who could have imagined a UR actually appeared. And this UR even had a linked bond with that previous limited-edition SSR?

In just 3 short days, Zheng Changhong had experienced the greatest ups and downs of his life. Therefore, he absolutely could not abandon Wang Xian, and even had to strive for an even higher-level contract. Wang Xian accepted the blade and said nothing. The assessment rules allowed bringing two pieces of first-tier martial combat gear. Didn't matter. Having this one, Wang Xian didn't plan to directly use the Blood-Drinking Frenzied Blade anymore. After all, that demonic blade was a bit sinister.

If the military personnel sensed something off and caused some accident, that would be bad. Anyway, most of the real combat assessment involved F-rank exotic beasts, and not even true exotic beasts, but local mutated beasts. There wasn't much Malevolent Qi to absorb. Using the demonic blade or not made no difference. The blade Zheng Changhong gave was just perfect.

"Cold Firmament, the name's not bad..." Wang Xian touched the blade edge and returned to the line. It drew another wave of envious gazes. Not every family could spend hundreds of thousands to buy an ultimate first-tier martial combat blade. This already counted as the highest-spec first-tier martial combat gear. Any stronger, and it wouldn't meet the assessment regulations, making entry into the real combat exam grounds impossible.

"Examinee identity verified..."

"Your exam zone is Scarlet Cloud Mountain Zone 3..."

"This is your scoring wristband."

"The wristband will monitor your position in real time. The satellite will surveil all your real combat behavior and record your damage received."

"Removing the wristband voluntarily during the assessment will result in a score of zero."

"The rest of the various regulations and rules won't be elaborated on. You should have all read the email."

"Additionally, one more thing."

"When entering the core area of Scarlet Cloud Mountain, the wristband's signal will suffer interference. Any accident that occurs will greatly delay the rescue by patrol martial artists within Scarlet Cloud Mountain's interior zones."

"So, don't push beyond your limits." Accompanied by the intelligent prompt tone, Wang Xian passed through a detection gate and put on a wristband in the style of a watch. As vast rays of morning glow emerged, Wang Xian followed the mountain corridor passage of Zone B and slowly entered the interior of Scarlet Cloud Mountain. The real combat assessment lasted one day. The military issued one day's rations and 3 tubes of vitality recovery serum.

Each tube could roughly allow a martial artist with 10 life force points to fully recover. Because the vast majority of examinees were below 10 life force points. Only the martial arts class elites from each school had life force above 10, some even reaching 50. Those reaching 90 were dragons among men. Among all examinees in the entire Western Shu region, there were no more than 10. So in fact, these 3 tubes of vitality recovery serum weren't very useful for many top students.

Three tubes might barely allow a full recovery. Without forming a team, examinees entered alone. Actually, most students formed teams. Teaming up was safer, though the score gain was somewhat lower. The military and schools also encouraged students to form teams and coordinate their talents during the assessment. Plus, with the scoring wristband, each person's real combat actions and contributions would be calculated by the wristband's intelligence, extremely precise.

Only true top-tier students would take the assessment alone. This way, the danger was higher, but the score would also be higher. A moment later. At the end of the passage, a glimmer of light appeared. Wang Xian stepped out in one stride. The wristband immediately displayed a few words:"Real Combat Assessment Begins!" He glanced at it. Wang Xian thought to himself, quite intelligent. He didn't rush to move. Scarlet Cloud Mountain was divided into 3 zones.

The first, the outer perimeter zone, was a ring-shaped structure, set up with various traps, mist and miasma, and also some special puppets. At the same time, because the outer perimeter zone was too vast, it would be divided into 1 to 5 major sectors based on examinees entering from different entrances. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. This dispersed the examinees. Breaking through this layer would lead to the second layer zone, the inner layer zone.

Starting from the second layer zone, there would be higher-intensity challenges, meaning exotic beasts would appear. This layer's difficulty was much higher. After that, there was the most critical core zone. Each zone had a different score calculation structure. For example, in the outer perimeter zone, triggering too many mechanism traps or being trapped in the mist and miasma for too long would result in point deductions. At the same time, receiving attacks oneself would also deduct points.

Therefore, safely passing through the first layer outer perimeter zone was the difficulty many examinees had to face.

"Scarlet Cloud Mountain was once an ancient battlefield in the past. Originally an unmanaged area, it was only completely cleared and brought under military control after a large number of martial artists went deep."

"If it's an ancient battlefield... the first layer zone should mostly be machines, right?"

"Mechanical puppets." Wang Xian walked unhurriedly through the mountain forest interior. He hadn't gone more than a few steps before he saw a vast expanse of white mist beginning to spread from all around. A streak of crimson light appeared in the depths of the mist. The next second, an intense blast of gunfire shot out.

"Indeed, mechanical puppets..." Wang Xian smiled. Mechanical puppets were also a type of exotic beast. Before the revival of cosmic energy, thermal weapons were the main theme of the era. As an ancient battlefield, this place should have many thermal weapons buried here. Then, through the injection of cosmic energy, combined with occupation by exotic beasts and Malevolent Qi erosion, these thermal weapons would fuse with some local wild beasts to become mechanical puppets. For example, right now.

What appeared before Wang Xian was a black bear. It was just that a row of gun barrels had emerged on the black bear's back, spitting out sparks. Its flesh was rotting, its internal skeleton had completely transformed into steel rebar, and there seemed to be dense circuitry, as if it had been modified.

"It must have been modified by the military..."

"Possessing a certain level of intelligent programming..."

"Life force isn't high, around 10 points."

"Counts as something the vast majority of examinees can handle..."

"It's just that, as a real combat assessment, it's definitely not that simple..." Wang Xian didn't rush to act. While casually dodging, he took a couple more looks. In just a few breaths, Wang Xian discovered the clue. At the heart position of this mechanical black bear, there was a red needle-like device, faintly flickering.

"Is it an alarm?" Wang Xian was thoughtful. Here came the assessment's difficulty. Real combat wasn't just about letting you casually kill monsters. Martial artists also had to use their brains. Otherwise, it would be better to just fight AI intelligent exotic beasts directly. Why go through all this trouble with these environments and special mechanical puppets?

"Examinees fight with all their strength. After slaying the mechanical black bear, the alarm in the heart will trigger..."

"Then they'll be besieged by a large number of mechanical puppets."

"Once the numbers increase, at best, they'll suffer a major defeat and retreat, with points deducted. At worst... directly eliminated." Tsk tsk. How insidious. Imagine it: a small team is in the midst of celebrating their excitement over defeating the mechanical black bear. Then, not even a few seconds later, they're surrounded by even more mechanical puppets. And so, amidst laughter and cheer, they call out GG. This was the 'exam question.'

The further one went inside, the more of these mechanical puppets there would be. Even if top students forcibly slaughtered large numbers of mechanical puppets. Don't forget, there were still 2 zones behind. Consuming too much here meant there would be little vitality left for the latter 2 zones. Then their scores would inevitably fall behind. Most importantly, killing 7 or 8 mechanical puppets here might not even match one exotic beast in the inner layer zone.

"Killing these mechanical puppets without triggering the alarm, that's the solution method."

"It's just that, even if thinking of it is easy, doing it isn't so easy." His pondering finished. Wang Xian made his move. For himself, this was simple. Inside this, 2 points were being tested. One was tier-level technique mastery. The higher the technique mastery, the more precise the control over power, making it less easy to trigger the alarm. This was also why martial artists' technique foundations were assessed. The second was speed.

The faster one passed through this zone, the faster one could enter the inner layer, and the score would certainly be higher. As a battle genius with rich experience, Wang Xian had completely seen through this layer's exam question the instant he entered Scarlet Cloud Mountain.

"Then, next... no need to waste time here..." Wang Xian rose and moved. He drew 'Cold Firmament' and charged toward the mechanical black bear, turning into a streak of flowing light. In the instant they brushed past each other. A wisp of cold, sharp blade light flashed out. The black bear's body suddenly halted. The next second, it directly transformed into neatly arranged square chunks. Only the alarm device at the heart position landed on the ground completely unharmed, burying into the soil.

Fourth-stage blade technique plus Butcher Dismembering Beasts. Just the most ordinary single slash was already capable of instantly dismantling this unremarkable mechanical black bear. Less than 1 second. Immediately after, the score on Wang Xian's wristband began to surge madly. It couldn't even keep up with Wang Xian's advancing speed. He was like a cheetah in the jungle, sprinting like a shooting star.

Every time he passed one, or even several, mechanical puppets, it was just a matter of a few slashes before effortlessly turning them into chunks. Along the way, he occasionally encountered 1 or 2 batches of examinees. But because Wang Xian's speed was too fast, by the time these 2 batches of examinees reacted, the several mechanical puppets in the distance had already turned into piles of neatly arranged chunks. Just like that. Until he passed through layer after layer of dense mist. BEEP!

The wristband emitted a notification sound.

"You have passed through the outer perimeter zone of Scarlet Cloud Mountain. Your passage time is: 10 minutes, 35 seconds."

"Total mechanical puppets slain: 42."

"Based on the mechanical puppets' life force, your obtained score is [1 - (Your Life Force - Mechanical Puppet Life Force) / 100] × Total Life Force of Slain Mechanical Puppets ≈ 37. 8 points, rounded to 38 points."

"Alarms triggered: 0 times."

"Traps triggered: 0 times."

"No point deductions."

"Since you are the first to pass through the outer perimeter zone and did so within half an hour."

"You have received a real combat bonus: 200."

"You have broken the historical fastest passage time for the first zone of the Scarlet Cloud Mountain real combat assessment."

"You have received a record-breaking bonus: 200."

"Your current total score is: 438 points." Wang Xian swept his gaze over it. Not many points. Forty-two puppets, meaning 42 slashes. The consumption for himself was very small. Likewise, the point value was also very low. No helping it. The score calculation for the real combat assessment was very nuanced. Simply put, the higher an examinee's life force, the fewer points they got for killing low-life-force exotic beasts. Just like the mechanical puppets. Only 10 life force. His own life force was as high as 101.

101 minus 10 was 91. Originally, 42 mechanical puppet beasts would count as 420 points. Then, on this basis, multiply by 1 minus 0. 91, which was 0. 09. Only a mere 38 points. So for top students, the more they killed in the first layer, the less worthwhile it was. This also prevented the idea of some high-life-force examinees wanting to farm trash mobs in the first layer for points. If they accidentally triggered an alarm and got points deducted. The score would be even lower. So, working backwards.

The fewer points top students obtained in the first zone, the more points they would inevitably obtain in the latter 2 zones. Conversely, the more exquisitely they killed mechanical puppets and the faster they passed through the first layer, the more bonus points they would instead receive. This was the scoring point for top students! Just passing within half an hour would earn a 200-point bonus!

"Good thing there really is a time-speed reward in the assessment..."

"Didn't expect I even broke a small record..."

"438 points... pretty decent." Wang Xian didn't dwell on it and continued looking toward the inner layer zone of Scarlet Cloud Mountain. The corner of his mouth faintly curled into a smile.

"This layer is a bit more interesting..." At the same time. At the center of the Scarlet Cloud Mountain military camp.

"The assessment has already started, right?" Chief Zhao said with a face full of smiles, looking at the holographic images on the central large screen. And the score fluctuations on the other side. Examinees could only see their individual scores. But the camp center had real-time monitoring and could instantly obtain the examinees' firsthand scores from the wristbands. This allowed them to clearly see the score changes of all examinees.

"At 9 o'clock sharp, all examinees have entered Scarlet Cloud Mountain." The adjutant at the side nodded. Bai Hongtian said, "Did you change the exam questions this year somewhat?"

"Yeah." Chief Zhao was somewhat smug.

"The mechanical puppets in the first layer are set with the examinees' positional information. As long as they're nearby, they'll definitely initiate an attack. Trying to sneak through this layer zone won't work."

"Who's the fastest right now?" Chief Zhao asked.

"Seems to be Xu Rong." The adjutant looked at the data, then switched to the examinee's feed.

"She's flying in the sky... uh, she got hit..."

"Hahaha..." Chief Zhao let out a great laugh.

"Clever tricks. The previous year's examinees also had some who could fly at the first realm, wanting to fly over the first layer's outer perimeter zone. Where's the ease in that? Most of the mechanical puppets this year have been loaded with old-era anti-aircraft guns."

"Exactly to guard against those who can fly..." After speaking, he waved his hand, signaling the adjutant to stop talking.

"This year's exam questions are much harder than last year's."

"Without a full hour, don't think about casually passing through the first layer's outer perimeter zone."

"Is it necessary to make it harder and harder?" Bai Hongtian chuckled wryly.

"No choice. That little monster last year who passed through the first layer's outer perimeter zone in 25 minutes truly made our Western Shu Military Region a laughingstock to several other military regions." Chief Zhao sighed.

"That guy just flew over. This time we've learned our lesson."

"Before, there were also a few who burrowed through the ground and passed in under half an hour."

"This time, we deliberately loaded the examinees' positional information onto the mechanical puppets. Even if they burrow through the ground, they can be detected immediately."

"......" Bai Hongtian. Battling wits and courage against the examinees' talents. You guys really have it in you.

"I dare say!" Chief Zhao said smugly.

"This year's real combat assessment, just the difficulty of the outer perimeter zone alone is a whole tier higher than what the other military regions have set!"

"Aren't you afraid the examinees will curse you later?" Bai Hongtian laughed.

"I also took a look at the exam questions you set for the latter 2 zones. Honestly, they're all pretty hellish. Especially the exotic beasts in the core zone."

"Absolutely not afraid!" At this moment. The adjutant at the side suddenly widened his eyes, pointed at the screen, and stammered, "Chief, something's wrong!"

"Oh no!"

"What's all the fuss about? Not a shred of a soldier's composure!" Chief Zhao reprimanded. The adjutant gulped and pointed at the screen.

"Someone has already passed through the first layer zone." The words came out.

"Whaaat?" Chief Zhao froze, then erupted in rage.

"Impossible! How long has it been? It's only been a bit over 10 minutes since the exam started! Even cheating couldn't be this fast!"

"Who? Ye Miyue? Even if her taboo talent kills fast, can it be this fast?"

"N-no... no, it's Wang Xian."

"Who did you say?"

"It's that Wang Xian..."

"Pull up the footage. I want to see for myself. What trick is this kid playing?" Chief Zhao's expression changed. Bai Hongtian at the side was stunned for a moment, then immediately perked up. Interesting. The adjutant hurriedly pulled up Wang Xian's combat footage. To avoid missing anything, he directly pulled up the footage starting from when he entered Scarlet Cloud Mountain. So the few of them began watching. The more they watched, the graver Chief Zhao's expression became. Until they finished watching.

"Seen a ghost..." The adjutant was so frightened his whole body trembled.

"The instant this kid entered, he seemed to have seen through the exam question. Even the first mechanical he encountered didn't trigger the alarm."

"After that, all were solved in one slash. The route was straight as an arrow heading for the second zone."

"Didn't trigger a single alarm..."

"Wait, he didn't even get a single point deducted?"

"Time... 10 minutes and 35 seconds... My god, that's way too fast!"

"Right now, the fastest among the others hasn't even finished one-fifth!" Chief Zhao's face flushed red.

"Hahaha..." Bai Hongtian burst into loud laughter, momentarily so amused he didn't know what to say.

"Mere fourth-stage technique mastery alone can't achieve killing so many mechanical puppets in succession without a single mistake and without triggering the alarm."

"It's Butcher Dismembering Beasts..." Every word seemed squeezed out from between Chief Zhao's teeth.

"Seriously, how could a high school student possibly cultivate a secret skill this hard to train to such a degree?"

"Did you live in an exotic beast nest or something?" Chief Zhao helplessly sighed. For a moment, his feelings were complicated. There was happiness, helplessness, and embarrassment. Happiness in that our Western Shu actually had a student with such terrifying combat talent? Helplessness in that the exam question they had prepared so well was instantly cracked by this kid. Very frustrating.

Embarrassment in that, damn it, the moment he'd just finished saying no one could pass within an hour, this brat went and broke the record right after. Made him lose a lot of face.

"Actually, your prediction wasn't wrong..." Bai Hongtian glanced at the data.

"Apart from Wang Xian, the fastest among the rest is also He Yiming. At his current pace, he'll just barely pass the first zone in a bit over an hour."

"......"

"I don't believe it..." Chief Zhao stared at the screen.

"Pull up Wang Xian's real-time combat footage for me. I want to personally watch how this kid handles what comes next!"

"The latter 2 zones get harder one after another!" ➤ Next: An Unprecedented Real Combat Score!