19: Chapter 19: The First Test Ceremony for the Trialers!

"Who are you calling a dead person?"

Su Tang abruptly turned her head and stared at the buzz-cut boy.

Sensing her master's emotions, the Silver Moon Wolf locked its ice-blue vertical pupils onto the buzz-cut boy, emitting a low whimpering sound from its throat.

The buzz-cut boy subconsciously took a step back, but with so many people around him, his confidence returned. "What? Did I say something wrong? A world with a zero survival rate for three years isn't something I made up..."

Before he even finished speaking, the Silver Moon Wolf took a step forward with its front paws, and the plastic runway beneath its feet hissed as three shallow cracks split open.

The surrounding commotion quickly quieted down, and a few sharp-eyed students had already taken out their phones to start filming.

Although Su Tang hadn't made a move, her aura was completely different from when she had first emerged.

The originally docile Silver Moon Wolf now had its forelegs slightly crouched, baring its sharp teeth with a fierce glint flashing in its eyes.

"Su Tang!"

Qu Xianghong quickly stopped her. "Calm down."

Su Tang took a deep breath and patted the Silver Moon Wolf's head.

The Silver Moon Wolf let out another muffled whine, reluctantly retracted its paws, and squatted back down beside her, but its vertical pupils were still fixated on the buzz-cut boy.

The buzz-cut boy swallowed hard, turned his face away awkwardly, and stopped talking.

At that moment...

The playground suddenly fell silent.

A harsh static sound rang out from the broadcast speakers mounted on the four corners of the playground.

"Ahem, ahem... Sound check. Alright, it's connected."

Everyone raised their heads simultaneously.

On the rostrum, Principal Fang Zhenyuan stood up.

He was nearly sixty years old with graying hair, but his back was straight. The moment he stood at the front of the stage, the entire playground instantly fell pin-drop silent.

"First of all, congratulations to all trialers on your safe return."

He nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping across the entire audience.

"Being able to walk out alive from the plane gate is a victory in itself. You are already stronger than you were yesterday."

Scattered applause rang out from the edge of the playground.

Fang Zhenyuan pressed his hand down into the air slightly and continued, "But you should all be aware that the trial is only the first step. You have obtained different fortunes in different worlds; some have undergone a complete rebirth, while others merely sought self-preservation. These gaps will be quantified through an initial strength assessment next!"

"After the initial test, everyone will proceed to the first round of evaluations—of course, that is a matter for later."

He turned sideways and pointed to the exact center of the playground.

Everyone looked over following his finger.

At some point, a piece of the turf in the center of the playground had been peeled back, revealing the concrete foundation beneath.

Above the foundation stood a square, dark gray rectangular stone stele, about five to six meters high and two meters wide. Its surface was as smooth as a mirror, exuding the cold light unique to metal.

The base of the stele was deeply embedded in the ground, surrounded by a poured ring of silver reinforcement frames densely covered with intricate rune carvings.

Standing there, that thing resembled a scaled-down skyscraper, silent and heavy.

"This is a specially made force-measuring instrument provided by the Trialers Headquarters. It was just transported from the provincial capital and is still piping hot."

Fang Zhenyuan made a rare joke. "The initial test score directly determines your future resource allocation. The all-time national record is ninety-one points, set by a genius over a decade ago, and it remains unbroken to this day. Your goal is to get as close to this number as possible!"

The surface of the force-measuring instrument lit up slightly, and a preset row of gray numbers slowly emerged on the surface — "0".

"To save time and improve efficiency, trialers who have already emerged can test first without waiting for subsequent returns."

"Class mentors, organize the lines."

As his voice fell, the playground instantly erupted into an uproar.

"That ninety-one-point genius the principal mentioned... isn't that the Flammefiend big shot from our Great Xia Country who is currently fighting on the front lines?"

"That's right, that's right! A top-tier powerhouse ranked globally! With a casual wave, he unleashes natural disaster-level power. It's terrifying, my idol!"

"Me too! I became a trialer just to follow in the footsteps of the Flammefiend big shot!"

"Come, come, come, who's first? Let me see where the ceiling of our batch is!"

Amidst the chaotic voices, the mentors of each class had already begun organizing their formations.

The twelve different otherworldly planes corresponded to twelve teams.

Each team ranged from fifty or sixty people to as many as a hundred and twenty. Under the command of their mentors, they converged toward the center of the playground, gradually forming loose queues.

The first to take the stage was a short boy from the Magus Guild Plane, wearing black-rimmed glasses.

He walked up to the force-measuring instrument and stood still, taking a deep breath. He crossed his hands in front of his chest, and a very faint blue halo blossomed at his fingertips.

This was the most basic mana condensation of the Magus Guild Plane—nothing fancy, just rolling all the mana into a ball and smashing it out.

With a low shout, he thrust his palms forward fiercely. A fist-sized blue orb of light left his hands and smashed into the surface of the force-measuring instrument.

The surface of the force-measuring instrument trembled slightly, and a flash of gray light swept across it. A number popped up above: "32".

The crowd fell silent for half a second, followed by sparse applause.

"Not bad, managed to reach the thirties."

"The Magus Guild really is weak; I guess even the most top-notch ones inside are only in the early fifties."

"Next, next!"

Students from the Magus Guild went up one by one. Their scores fluctuated between 30 and 50, with the highest reaching only 52 points.

The precision of their mana condensation was obviously a cut above the other students.

When she walked down, the mentor beside her patted her shoulder in encouragement, but the reaction of the onlookers was very lukewarm.

"Just over fifty points... quite a bit worse than previous batches."

Actually, this was normal.

The Magus Guild Plane itself was the least eventful and most mediocre among the twelve worlds.

Its magic system had a low entry threshold, but its ceiling was also low.

Aside from the rare few geniuses who could learn advanced magic, most people could only scrape together low-level spells in this plane, leaving their combat power and growth space quite limited.

Most students who chose this plane sought stability; they didn't expect to reach the heavens in a single bound, only hoping to return safely and secure the status of a trialer.

Next was the Shadow Escape Plane.

There were finally some fluctuating score values. A few students who had learned the Fractal Technique scored in the forties, with the highest reaching 58 points.

They used a combination attack of the Substitution Technique and ninja daggers.

"Logically speaking, the Shadow Escape Plane shouldn't score this low."

"Those who went to the Shadow Escape Plane this batch probably didn't get any high-end ninjutsu. Being able to learn a Fractal Technique is considered lucky. A couple of years ago, a senior learned a Vortex Jade in the Shadow Escape Plane, and his initial test score directly hit the seventies!"

Next came the Psionic Plane, the Spirit Crossing Plane, and the Necronomicon Plane. The scores still fluctuated between forty and fifty, and occasionally one or two breaking sixty points would elicit a chorus of exclamation.

Most trialers' grades were concentrated in the fifty-something range...

Not strong, but not useless either; ordinary, blending into the crowd.

Qu Xianghong looked calmly at the numbers on the force-measuring instrument jumping up one after another, not saying a word.

But the name list in his hand was crumpled up.

"Teacher Qu, I'm going up."

The speaker was a student of Qu Xianghong's, the one who previously said, "If the female ghost looks like this, it's not out of the question..."

He walked up to the force-measuring instrument, formed a few hand seals, and after holding his breath for a long time, produced a crooked clone. Alongside his main body, they rushed toward the force-measuring instrument and struck the stele surface with both fists simultaneously.

48 points.

Not high, but considered to be in the top three of the class led by Qu Xianghong.

"Why is the class led by Qu Xianghong so weak?"

"I don't know. It seems their class also has someone who went to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the one with a zero survival rate."

"Tch... All I can say is they have dreams."

"Guessing their overall level is just subpar, and thinking it's all the same whichever world they're in, they just decided to gamble?"

Qu Xianghong's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, but he didn't say anything.

Right at that moment, a male student walked out from the queue of the Foul Curse Plane.