105: Chapter 105 Skills Assessment Begins

[Provincial Second Mock Exam · Martial Arts Technique Assessment Mode——]

Below the text, countless tiny runes scrolled and transformed rapidly, resembling a lottery wheel, pulling at the heartstrings of every examinee below.

“What will it be?”

“Please don’t let it be survival mode!”

“Melee? Or one-on-one?”

“...”

A tense atmosphere spread, and countless eyes stared fixedly at the scrolling light screen.

The scrolling lasted for about ten seconds, feeling as long as a century.

Finally, the light screen froze!

The giant characters instantly became exceptionally clear, carrying a sense of cruelty:

— — Arena Melee!

“Hiss.”

“It’s over!”

“How could it be a melee!”

“This relies too much on luck!”

The moment they saw the mode clearly, a huge uproar erupted on the plaza.

Many people’s faces instantly turned pale, their hearts heavy.

Arena Melee meant immense uncertainty and a high degree of luck. Even the strongest might be ganged up on or eliminated by the aftershocks of a battle between powerhouses.

The huge light screen then began to display the detailed rules for this melee, while a grand, emotionless mechanical voice sounded in everyone's ears, clearly explaining the rules:

This Martial Arts Technique Assessment adopts the [Arena Melee] mode.

The rules are as follows:

Grouping and Batches: All participating students in Jiangnan Province (approximately 500,000 people) will be randomly divided into fifty batches. Each batch will be sent into twenty independent super-large virtual arenas.

Single Arena Rules:

Five hundred students will be randomly thrown into each super-large arena at one time.

All students start with the same initial points. Students can attack and kill each other. Killing an opponent immediately grants half of that opponent's current points. The killed student loses half of their own current points.

There are no safe zones within the arena. Combat continues until the number of remaining students drops to ten, or the maximum time limit (10 minutes) is reached.

Advancement Rules:

At the end of each arena match, the top ten ranked by points advance to the next round.

After all fifty batches are completed, a total of 10,000 qualifiers will be generated.

Second Round Melee:

The ten thousand qualifiers will be thrown simultaneously into twenty new super-large virtual arenas, with 500 people per arena, following the same rules as above, to determine the top ten in each new arena.

After this round, a total of 200 qualifiers will remain.

Final Showdown:

The final two hundred powerhouses will all be transported to a single ultimate arena.

They will engage in a final melee until only the last person remains!

The final ranking will be comprehensively evaluated based on the order of elimination and accumulated points.

The moment the rules were read out, without giving anyone time to react, the hundreds of thousands of students on the entire grand plaza, along with all the leaders, representatives, and observers on the rostrum, all turned into countless streams of light and vanished without a trace.

The plaza, which had been bustling and noisy moments before, instantly became empty, leaving only the cold structure of the virtual space.

Li Wen only felt a blur before his eyes; his body was enveloped and pulled by an irresistible force. The next second, he found himself in a vaster area, almost boundless.

There was no rostrum here, only countless floating platforms and the faint outline of a giant annular structure in the distance, resembling the prototype of a super colosseum prepared for millions.

The space around him flickered, and dense figures were rapidly solidifying.

The true slaughter was about to commence on this even more massive virtual battlefield.

Crowded with people, buzzing with noise!

“My God—— I thought five or six thousand people was a lot, but now I see that all the Prodigies of Jiangnan Province are here!”

Deng Yuefei’s face was somewhat pale, his voice trembling, “Brother Xue, later we absolutely—absolutely must not be matched with those freaks.”

Xue Jun, usually a top student at the Third Middle School, also lost his usual confidence, leaving only solemnity and a trace of imperceptible tension on his face.

He gave a wry smile and said, “In Qingshi County, perhaps we can show off a bit, but among the younger generation of this entire Jiangnan Province—those stronger than us are as numerous as carp crossing the river. During the Provincial First Mock Exam, the mode allowed us to avoid top powerhouses and fight virtual targets, but now—”

He surveyed the vast virtual space around him, then looked at the figures instantly filling the huge arenas, “This is a melee. The arena is only so big; avoidance is impossible! Forget running into a Momentum Realm master, even encountering someone in the Unity Realm, we probably won't last more than a few seconds before being eliminated.”

Fear spread like invisible ripples among the remaining students from Qingshi No. 3 Middle School.

Even Huang Hao, ranked second among them, tightly pursed his lips, his eyes filled with apprehension toward the unknown strong enemies.

Although his technique Realm had reached Major Achievement in Top-tier Technique, not far from Perfection, yet—below the Momentum Realm, everyone was merely an ant!

Especially on an arena that limited the space for movement, if they were unlucky enough to encounter those monsters, perhaps a single blade light or fist Aura containing Shi sweeping past would be enough to instantly clear a large area.

Those like them, who hadn't even fully mastered Perfection in their techniques, were practically mobile points.

“Look how calm Brother Wen is,” someone whispered. Everyone’s gazes immediately focused on Li Wen.

His expression was calm and undisturbed, as if the shocking sight of fifty thousand students gathered and the cruel melee mode before him was merely an ordinary afternoon training session.

A powerful Momentum Realm Aura emanated from within him, creating a stark contrast between him and his surrounding classmates, as if he wasn't on the same level.

Huang Hao took a deep breath, suppressing the agitation in his heart, and said half-jokingly, half-seriously, “Brother Wen, if we’re lucky enough to be randomly assigned to the same arena later, you must take care of me!”

Several classmates from the Flying Star Class nearby, including Deng Yuefei and Xue Jun, also looked at Li Wen eagerly, their eyes full of longing and hope.

They knew well that if they could rely on the towering presence of Li Wen, their chances of passing the initial round would greatly increase.

Facing the entreaties of a group of familiar classmates, Li Wen’s lips curved slightly, revealing a gentle smile, and he nodded, “If we are randomly assigned together, I will naturally look after you a bit.”

This simple promise acted like a stabilizing anchor, instantly smoothing out everyone's inner anxiety.

The tense emotions of the Qingshi No. 3 Middle School group were greatly dispelled, and their faces even showed traces of relaxation and a slight flush of excitement, as if they could already see themselves safely advancing under Li Wen's protection.

Just then, the magnificent voice sounded through the void again, accompanied by a huge countdown: “Countdown: 3—2—1—Teleportation begins!”

Buzz—!

A strange fluctuation instantly permeated the area.

When the grand voice announced the end of the countdown, the first batch of nearly ten thousand students vanished in an instant.

The space that had seemed unbearably crowded moments ago instantly became somewhat empty.

Li Wen felt the figure of Huang Hao beside him suddenly flash, disappearing out of thin air as if erased by an eraser.

Immediately after, quite a few other classmates disappeared from their original spots one after another.

“Huang Hao has been selected!”

“Brother Wen, Huang Hao is in Arena Three!” Someone immediately shouted after checking the information through their personal virtual AI assistant.

Li Wen’s heart stirred, and his consciousness sank into the virtual assistant interface, instantly locking onto the name “Huang Hao.” He chose “Watch.”

His vision shifted dramatically!

Although they were far apart, the huge Arena Number Three, suspended in the void, suddenly zoomed in and enlarged before Li Wen’s eyes, as if he were positioned ten meters above the arena, where every detail was clearly visible.

He saw Huang Hao’s figure appear in a corner of the arena, with a faint glow hovering above his head, condensing into a semi-transparent eye marker, followed by a conspicuous number “10” behind the marker.

“Eye marker? Number of viewers—10 people?” Li Wen immediately understood the meaning of this setting.

This number represented that, besides him, there were 9 other spectators currently paying attention to Huang Hao, a participant in that arena.

Clearly, the number was still jumping rapidly: 20—50—100— — — — — — finally stabilizing at over 300 people in just a few seconds.

The vast majority of these were undoubtedly classmates from Qingshi No. 3 Middle School. Huang Hao, as the second-ranked student after Li Wen in the school, was naturally a focus of their attention.

What was even more interesting was that after Li Wen locked onto watching Huang Hao, he found that the figures of his surrounding classmates had disappeared—not truly gone, but all information unrelated to Arena Three had been “filtered out” by the System.

Beside him remained only the figures of the other spectators who had also locked onto watching Huang Hao.

These spectators’ figures were ethereal, floating around him like transparent ghosts.

“Brother Wen, you’re watching Huang Hao too?” The image of a slightly ethereal classmate from the Flying Star Class beside him greeted Li Wen.

Although the distance seemed far, the voice clearly reached Li Wen’s ears.

“En,” Li Wen nodded in response, casting his gaze toward the arena.

On the arena stage, including Huang Hao, all five hundred people had light projections of weapon racks and armor racks appearing before them.

Huang Hao didn't hesitate at all. He grabbed empty air with both hands, and two heavy, ferocious, gleaming alloy great axes appeared in his hands, while a layer of sturdy light armor covered his body.

Other contestants also selected their weapons, and for a moment, swords and blades were everywhere, with cold light flashing.

A murderous Aura permeated the arena.

The five hundred elite geniuses selected from the entire province exchanged wary glances, their expressions mixed with tension, excitement, calculation, and hostility.

“Arena Melee, elimination begins! Time limit: ten minutes!”

The moment the restriction was lifted, the entire arena fell into a brief dead silence.

Everyone was like a taut bowstring; no one dared to make the first move, fearing becoming the target of all.

Everyone was rapidly assessing the Auras and weapons of the opponents around them, trying to find a relatively weak Breakthrough point.

The entire arena presented a bizarre stalemate, where only heavy breathing could be clearly heard.

This suffocating balance only lasted for less than fifteen seconds!

“Kill—!”

A young man holding a long spear, whose Aura was fierce and menacing, seemed extremely confident in his strength and was the first to break the silence.

His spear shot out like a Dragon, carrying an unstoppable momentum, stabbing fiercely toward a slightly thin opponent beside him.

This roar was like a spark thrown into a barrel of oil.

Boom—!!!!

Almost at the exact same moment, the central area of the arena suddenly erupted with a terrifying sharpness that made one’s scalp tingle.

An incomparably dazzling white blade light tore through the air!

The blade light was over ten feet wide, condensed as if solid, carrying the sharp momentum of cutting through all things, exploding forth at a speed exceeding the limits of normal dynamic vision capture.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Wherever the blade light passed, it was like a hot knife cutting butter.

Whether it was blocked by swords and blades, defended by armor, or even some slower contestants who were still stunned, they were instantly swept away as if by an invisible giant sickle.

Over twenty figures instantly dimmed and vanished amidst the brilliant white light, leaving behind only scattered points of starlight representing virtual deaths and instant eliminations.

The entire arena, especially the area near where Huang Hao was located, fell into a brief vacuum and silence.

“Momentum Realm! That’s a Momentum Realm Blade Technique!”

“My goodness, they encountered a big shot who has mastered Shi right at the start!”

“It’s over! There’s nowhere to run!!”

The remaining contestants on the arena instantly exploded, and panic spread like a plague.

Those slightly farther away quickly retreated toward the edges, wishing they could get as far away from that center of death as possible.

The spectators who had just been holding their breath for Huang Hao all cried out in surprise.