171: Chapter 171 Top 100 Emerge
"Cough... cough, cough..."
In the central control room, the white-haired project director watched the three top-tier BOSSes huddled together "playing landlord" on the screen, choking and coughing repeatedly, his old face turning the color of a pig's liver.
He had spent his whole life researching virtual reality and artificial intelligence and considered himself knowledgeable.
But this scene, full of magical realism, still made him feel like his worldview had been pinned to the ground and mercilessly rubbed back and forth countless times.
Letting three top-tier AI virtual beasts, with peak Grade 6 strength and high intelligence, accompany you to play "Landlord"?
And goddammit, they were having so much fun?
This... this wasn't even a technical issue anymore.
This was simply the most extreme and cruel insult to the word "science"!
"Star... Star Lord... This... this..."
He pointed at the screen with trembling fingers, trying to say something, only to find his language system had completely collapsed.
"Stay calm."
The Great Emperor of the Galaxy's face still held that detached, inscrutable expression.
It was as if this absurd scene before him was as normal as eating or drinking water.
He slowly extended his finger again.
He tapped lightly on the screen.
The image switched again.
This time, it wasn't a "Landlord" scene.
Instead, it was an even more outrageous one, full of "daily life"...
A Mahjong parlor?
In a virtual room decorated in an antique style, four BOSS-level beasts, each with different forms but equally terrifying, suffocating auras, were sitting around a fully automatic Mahjong table.
"Pong!"
"Chow!"
"Hu! Full Flush, Thirteen Orphans, Kong on a Kong! Pay up, pay up!"
A familiar voice, full of arrogance and triumph after winning money.
"..."
In the control room, a deathly silence fell once again.
The faces of all the technical experts showed a numb expression of having lost all will to live.
They felt that they could no longer love.
"Look."
The voice of the Great Emperor of the Galaxy drifted through.
"I told you earlier."
"This little guy isn't here to participate in the competition."
"He's just here... to go on vacation."
The twenty-four-hour competition time ended quickly.
When the distant and sacred bell rang over the Thousand Illusions Maze again, all the contestants breathed a long sigh of relief, as if they had been granted amnesty.
This competition, full of weirdness and endless torture, had finally ended.
Beams of teleportation light descended from the sky.
They were teleported back to the white plaza of the Central Sacred Hall one by one.
When they were back on solid ground and saw each other's disheveled and even injured appearances, they couldn't help but shed tears of excitement and survival.
It was miserable!
This competition was just too damn miserable!
They felt like they had fallen into a terrifying amusement park designed by a devil.
The beasts inside were all acting like they had gone crazy.
They didn't play by the rules at all!
Sometimes they would suddenly become extremely brutal, launching suicidal attacks on you without fear of death.
Other times, they would suddenly become extremely "friendly," even taking the initiative to send some precious "treasure chests" to you.
After you excitedly opened them, you realized that what was inside wasn't a treasure, but a high-energy bomb that would explode.
This kind of hot-and-cold, good-and-evil, schizophrenic torture made everyone feel like they were about to be driven crazy!
Just as everyone was still venting their "tragic experiences" to each other, the huge holographic screen above the plaza slowly displayed the final point leaderboard for the first stage of the individual competition.
Everyone's heart jumped into their throats at this moment!
They nervously searched for their names from bottom to top.
"Holy crap! I made it! 98th place! I actually made it into the top 100!" A Student jumped three feet high in excitement the moment he saw his name!
"I made it too! 85th place! Hahaha! Great!"
"Wuwuwu... I was eliminated... just a little bit off... just a tiny bit..."
Cheers, sighs, and cries rose and fell in the plaza.
Some were happy, some were sad.
And those top geniuses who had successfully advanced and ranked high, such as Xiang Kunlun from the Ba Huang Academy, Auston from the Heavenly God Academy, and Moonlight Yao from the Guanghan Palace Academy.
Although they had successfully entered the top 100, there was not a trace of joy on their faces.
There was only a thick, impenetrable heaviness and gloom.
Because their gazes were fixed on the very top of the leaderboard.
【First Place: Wang Pingan】
【Points: 13,218,765】
Thirteen million, two hundred eighteen thousand, seven hundred sixty-five!
The moment this number appeared before everyone's eyes, the entire plaza fell into a deathly silence again.
Everyone's eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets!
They felt that their brains were completely unable to comprehend this world anymore.
Thirteen million?
What kind of international joke is this?!
Among them, the person with the highest points, Xiang Kunlun from the Ba Huang Academy, had barely broken through three hundred thousand!
And you, goddammit, came up with thirteen million?!
Did you rob the entire maze system?!
"No... impossible... this is absolutely impossible!"
Xiang Kunlun looked at the terrifying number, which was more than forty times his own points. His burly body trembled violently due to extreme shock and unwillingness!
"Dark curtain! This is definitely a dark curtain!"
"He cheated! He must have cheated!"
He let out a beast-like roar full of unwillingness!
His words immediately aroused strong resonance from the vast majority of the eliminated and lower-ranked Students present!
"That's right! He must have cheated!"
"We demand a strict investigation! We demand his disqualification!"
"If you don't give us an explanation, we won't agree!"
Questions and protests erupted like a mountain flood again!
However, just when they were shouting the loudest, the majestic voice of the Great Emperor of the Galaxy slowly rang out from the high platform.
"Cheating?"
A look of "pity," as if looking at a fool, appeared on his face.
"In the name of the Great Emperor of the Galaxy, I guarantee to the entire Federation."
"No one cheated in this competition."
"All the points of Student Wang Pingan were obtained fairly and squarely through his own 'strength'."
After speaking, he waved his hand.
On the huge holographic screen, the image changed.
A "battle" recording of Wang Pingan in the Thousand Illusions Maze, accelerated hundreds of times, began to play.
In the screen, everyone saw the lazy teenager just leaning against the corner sleeping from beginning to end.
And the tens of thousands of terrifying virtual beasts in the entire maze, like a group of the most loyal and fanatical believers, lined up neatly one after another, walking to his front.
Then, with a gesture full of "piety" and "joy," they "offered" the "points" they represented to the man who was too lazy to even open his eyes.
The screen stopped there.
The entire plaza was silent.
Everyone's faces were filled with absurdity, dullness, and a loss of will to live.
They looked at Wang Pingan, who still had an innocent expression of "I don't know anything."
Only one thought remained in their hearts.
This...
This goddammit...
what kind of... devil is this?
The first stage of the individual competition came to an end in such an atmosphere full of weirdness and absurdity.
The final 100 Students with the highest points successfully advanced.
After one day of rest, they would welcome the final one-on-one arena finals!
And Wang Pingan, as the well-deserved "BUG"-level existence of this competition, had his first opponent decided by drawing lots.
It was a genius from a top academy that Wang Pingan had never heard of, called "Holy Light Academy."
It is said that the person was born with an "A"-grade, extremely rare, "Purification" talent.
His power could restrain most energy and spirit-based attacks in the world.
He was hailed as the absolute nemesis of all "mage" professions!
When this news came out, those geniuses who had been beaten to a pulp by Wang Pingan and had almost lost all confidence felt a glimmer of hope reignite in their hearts.
They felt that this man with the "Purification" talent might...
really be the chosen "hero" who could end the myth of the Great Demon King?