62: Ranked 10th

On the real-time updated points leaderboard, the top spots were all occupied by Platinum-rank card players.

Among these ranks, a Gold-rank player, and specifically a Gold 4, stood out conspicuously.

In Dayuan University's monitoring room, Shi Li had successfully attracted the attention of the inspection team.

"This Shi Li, at only Gold 4, can fight Three-Star Demons."

"Mainly, his two Characteristic cards are somewhat overpowered among the trial participants."

"However, getting Characteristic cards so early isn't necessarily a good thing."

"The main thing is he hasn't achieved card resonance yet..."

Two Recruitment Officers were discussing, while President Zhou remained silent.

Their opinions on Shi Li were conflicting.

One considered his immediate combat power and thought he should be a key focus.

The other believed Shi Li hadn't achieved card resonance and saw no need to pay attention to him.

So, they posed the question to President Zhou, wanting to hear his opinion.

"What both of you said makes sense, but you've overlooked one thing."

President Zhou crossed his arms and slowly uttered three words: "Mental power."

"Mental power?"

"Now that you mention it, his hunting numbers are indeed very high..."

With his guidance, the two suddenly understood.

In terms of points, 10 Level 1 Two-Star Demons are equal to 1 Three-Star Demon.

So, theoretically, as long as the search speed and card game speed are fast enough, even a Gold card player who only hunts Two-Star Demons might not necessarily lose to a Platinum card player who hunts Three-Star Demons.

But the problem is, the former's mental power consumption is definitely greater than the latter's.

Even with the help of a vehicle to greatly increase search speed, a card player cannot endure such continuous card game battles.

Therefore, under this assessment mode, mental power determines the upper limit of hunting efficiency, not search speed.

"Let's observe him for now."

President Zhou, of course, had good judgment.

He believed the other party likely possessed a Talent related to mental power.

The top existences among owners of such Talents often create famous scenes in other realms, like "one man holding the pass" or "one man defending a city."

"The number of card games Shi Li played today has clearly exceeded the limit of a normal Gold card player."

"He either has extremely deep mental power, or very high mental power recovery efficiency, or both!"

Considering it from a different angle, the two Recruitment Officers' views on Shi Li immediately changed.

Similar scenes were also playing out in the monitoring rooms of Huaguang and Beijing next door.

At this moment, Shi Li was completely unaware that he had attracted more attention, and was still tirelessly hunting.

Indeed, as the inspection team had expected, he experienced almost no mental power consumption.

The mental power consumption of demon card games, especially Two-Star Demon card games, was far less than that of refreshing simulated missions.

Frequent refreshing and training had given him a mental power intensity that was unmatched by his peers in the same rank.

The gaps while driving the vehicle to search for demons were already enough for him to rest.

So, even at night, Shi Li did not stop moving.

Because although he was currently in 10th place with 129 points, he was still far behind those ahead of him.

Ouyang Huan, in 1st place, had already reached 232 points, and Fang Jinghai, in the same group, was in 7th place with 173 points.

He knew that only by working extra hard while others rested would he have a chance to catch up in the rankings.

With a card player's powerful vision, combined with the drone's lighting function, the arrival of night did not pose an obstacle for Shi Li.

While driving the vehicle in an S-shape with one hand, he opened his backpack and took out food.

This kind of food was specially designed for outdoor activities, occupying very little space.

The taste certainly wasn't delicious, but the nutrition and calories were absolutely sufficient.

"Too bad I haven't encountered any berserker-type Three-Star Demons."

Shi Li also opened his card player panel to check the progress of his current enhancement missions.

Hunt berserker-type Three-Star Demons - 0 / 10

Hunt berserker-type Level 5 Two-Star Demons - 73 / 100

Hunt other-type Level 5 Two-Star Demons - 200 / 200

In this place, completing the Two-Star Demon mission was certainly not difficult.

But Three-Star Demons were harder; he had killed 5 so far, and none were berserker-type.

"Strong life fluctuations detected ahead."

Just then, the drone above him suddenly gave a warning.

It had a sonar collection system that could detect the presence of demons within a certain range.

Although the range was limited and insufficient for dedicated demon searching, it could at least provide early warning in a small area, serving to protect the card player.

The area Shi Li was currently in was a seemingly fertile black soil, with soft and loose ground.

What was quite striking were the large pits that could be seen on the ground from time to time.

These pits were all bottomless, as if something had tunneled through them.

They varied in size; the large ones were big enough for a subway to pass through, and the small ones could accommodate a person.

The various demons that could live here basically had the ability to dig holes and burrow into the ground.

For example, demons like earthworms, snakes, moles, and pangolins.

These numerous pits were left by them.

Following the direction pointed by the drone, Shi Li seemed to see a strange wriggling mass.

But it was too far and the light was insufficient, so it was a bit blurry.

"Drone."

"I'm here."

"Ascend, increase illumination."

"Received, activating high-altitude illumination mode."

Following Shi Li's command, the accompanying drone quickly rose high and then emitted light like a small sun.

With the help of the drone's light, Shi Li finally saw the mass clearly.

He realized why it looked so awkward.

Because it was clearly a strange snake with tentacles and foot-like appendages, as thick as two people embracing.

And at this moment, the strange snake's long body was tied in three knots.

So, with its body tied in knots, it moved so laboriously and awkwardly.

Clearly, this was definitely not the strange snake tying itself up; it was the work of an external force.

At this very moment, the people in the Qingchuan monitoring room also simultaneously saw this bizarre scene.

Female Recruitment Officer: "Who tied this Tentacle Snake like that? What a sick sense of humor."

Male Recruitment Officer: "Strange, in the middle of nowhere, where would such a prank come from?"

Female Recruitment Officer: "Hmm? The video signal seems to be interfered with?"

Under their gaze, the screen suddenly distorted gradually but quickly returned to normal.

However, in the restored image, Shi Li remained motionless.

Not only him, but the entire scene exuded a strange stillness.

It was as if the surrounding space-time had been frozen.

...

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