23: Chapter 23 Trialer Assessment Mission!

The wreckage of the force tester was still smoking.

The silence on the playground lasted for a full five seconds before being shattered by a harsh screech of static.

Fang Zhenyuan's voice exploded from the broadcast speakers, cracking with distortion.

"Everyone stand by in place! The security team will seal off the playground entrances and exits! No one is allowed to approach the wreckage of the force tester! I repeat... no one is allowed to approach!"

He turned off the microphone, turned to look at the school leaders behind him, and took a deep breath.

"Immediately notify the Trialist Headquarters and package all the data transmitted by the force tester just now for upload. Send the raw data without any processing. Tell them someone at Qingzhou University has blown up the force tester!"

Several secretaries picked up their phones and started dialing simultaneously, their fingers trembling.

Academic Director Sun Zhiguo took off his glasses and wiped them. "Principal... should we conduct an internal evaluation of this matter before reporting it? What if the force tester really malfunctioned..."

"Malfunction? Even with a malfunction, it's impossible to hit an instantaneous peak of ninety-nine and blow up the meter!"

Fang Zhenyuan interrupted him. "Data doesn't lie. The record of ninety-one points from over a decade ago was sealed for more than ten years, and now someone punched right through it. And you're talking to me about an internal evaluation?"

Academic Director Sun Zhiguo swallowed hard, said no more, and lowered his head to start organizing the roster.

In the center of the playground.

Lin Ye withdrew his fist and turned to walk back.

As he passed by Shen Qinghan, their gazes collided.

The halo of light on her blade had not yet dissipated, reflecting on her slightly flushed profile.

She seemed to want to say something, but in the end, she only nodded slightly.

Su Tang hurried over and glanced at Lin Ye's fist.

Then she looked up toward the direction of the force tester's wreckage.

Suppressing her shock.

"You've got to be kidding me. I got seventy-seven points, and the moment you came back, you blew up the force tester. Can you give me a heads-up next time so I can mentally prepare myself?"

Lin Ye spread his hands.

Actually, he figured he could at most set a new record with one punch, but he didn't expect the force tester to explode outright.

"I didn't know it would turn out like this."

Su Tang was silent for a moment, then laughed out loud.

The Silver Moon Wolf squatted by her feet, letting out a very faint whimpering sound from its throat.

Su Tang said, "It is afraid of you."

"Lin Ye."

Qu Xianghong's voice sounded from behind.

He then took off his own jacket and handed it to Lin Ye.

It was a navy blue sports jacket, a bit worn from wear, but washed very clean.

"Put it on. Your outfit of tattered rags made you look like a beggar just now, and now you look like you just came out of an explosion site."

Lin Ye chuckled; indeed, he did.

Qu Xianghong added another sentence: "The principal will definitely want to talk to you later. No matter what he says, don't agree too quickly. Once your score is reported, olive branches from above will fly in like snowflakes, and none of them come free—they all come with conditions. Did you hear that clearly?"

Lin Ye nodded.

Qu Xianghong wanted to give a couple more instructions, but Fang Zhenyuan was already striding down from the rostrum, followed by four or five school leaders.

The expressions on everyone's faces were rather unnatural.

Fang Zhenyuan walked up to Lin Ye and looked him up and down closely.

"Your name is Lin Ye?"

"Yes."

"Not a bad punch."

Fang Zhenyuan nodded with satisfaction. "Just now, that strike was already transmitted up. We're waiting for a reply from above."

Lin Ye nodded.

Fang Zhenyuan wanted to say something more, but turned his head to glance at the students on the playground who were still dumbfounded.

He raised a hand to press down on the microphone.

"Quiet. Everyone be quiet."

The noise on the playground gradually subsided.

Everyone realized that the content to be announced next might be even more important than that thunderous punch just now.

Fang Zhenyuan looked around the entire venue and began to speak: "First, once again, congratulations to all trialists for returning safely. Your seven days of training in the different world are only the first step to becoming a true trialist. And next comes the second step!"

"The trial assessment."

As soon as these four words came out, the atmosphere on the playground instantly shifted from excitement to tension.

Several students who were still immersed in their scores immediately straightened up.

"The assessment time is early tomorrow morning, and the location will be uniformly assigned by the Demon Suppression Division."

"Before announcing the locations, I will first explain the assessment rules."

He raised a finger: "First, all trialists returning from the Plane Gate must participate in the assessment. Those who do not participate will be regarded as voluntarily giving up their trialist identity and will never be allowed to take the exam again for eternity."

The second finger: "Second, the assessment content is actual combat. You will be dispatched to real Ghost Domains or monster active areas to complete designated tasks under the supervision of the Demon Suppression Division's Field Operations Department. Completing the task means passing the assessment and becoming an official trialist!"

The third finger: "Third... and the most important one! The assessment is not a drill. What you will face are real demons and ghosts. You will get hurt, you will bleed, and you will die! Therefore, bring out all your strength!"

A wave of sharp gasps sounded across the playground.

Fang Zhenyuan ignored them. "Next, Captain Zheng from the Demon Suppression Division's Field Operations Department will announce the assessment location assignment plan for each class."

A middle-aged man walked up from the side of the rostrum, looking around the early forties, with fatigue on his face from staying up for several nights, and a pair of eyes bloodshot.

Pinning a badge of the Demon Suppression Division on his chest.

"Hello students, I am the head of the Demon Suppression Division's Field Operations Department for the Qingzhou suburban Ghost Domain sector. My surname is Zheng."

"This year you are very fortunate, yet very unfortunate. Fortunately, the stability of the Plane Gate has increased by twenty percent compared to previous years, and more of you have returned this time than in past years. Unfortunately, you have caught up with the most severe Ghost Domain tide outbreak in Qingzhou City in recent years. The manpower in the city is almost exhausted, so... this year's assessment tasks for you will be even more difficult than in the past!"

The atmosphere on the playground instantly turned solemn.

Captain Zheng turned a page of his notes: "Before announcing the specific assignments, I want to mention a situation. On the outskirts of Qingzhou City, at a location about thirty li in a straight line from our school, there used to be a resort villa. Now it is gone, replaced by an expanding Ghost Domain. The designation of this Ghost Domain is QC-0047, and we have given it a code name... Red Lantern!"

He motioned to the bespectacled woman behind him to bring up the projection.

The large screen on the playground showed the final footage captured by a drone:

A thick gray-white fog enveloped a detached villa, with two red lanterns hanging at the entrance. Standing within the halo of the lanterns was a woman with a seductive figure, her silk nightgown fluttering in the fog.

She was waving at the camera, and the smile on the corner of her mouth turned exceptionally eerie the moment the image froze.

The screen went black.

"This is the core, a female Resentful Spirit."

Captain Zheng looked at the young faces off the stage and said word by word: "A mutated entity in the late Wandering Spirit stage, it has already touched the threshold of the late Resentful Spirit stage. Three days ago, it had fewer than ten Wandering Spirits under its command. But in these past three days, it began dragging passing pedestrians nearby into illusions, feeding its subordinates with their fear and despair. By this morning, there were at least twenty Wandering Spirits in this Ghost Domain. Its core strength is still continuously increasing!"

There was dead silence off the stage.

"Ghost Domain classification... Level 1 is the weakest, Level 10 is the cap. This Red Lantern Ghost Domain officially broke through to a Level 2 Ghost Domain yesterday. According to conventional deployment, a Level 2 Ghost Domain requires four to five 2-Star trialists leading the team to safely clear it. But the problem now is..."

He smiled bitterly, "Trialists above 2-Star have all been transferred to block higher-level Ghost Domains, and we can't spare the manpower."

"Therefore, Qingzhou University, Class 2... your assessment location tomorrow will be right here!"

The playground fell silent for two seconds, followed by an uproar.

"Level 2 Ghost Domain?!"

"Didn't they say newcomer assessments are at most Wandering Spirit gathering places?!"

"It's true I learned a few ninjutsu moves in the Shadow Escape Plane, but you're asking me to fight a Resentful Spirit?!"

"We're done for, Level 2 Ghost Domain, that's something for 2-Star trialists to deal with! What level am I? I only scored forty-eight points on the force tester just now! Going in there is just delivering ourselves to our deaths!!"

Captain Zheng did not stop these voices.

He waited a short moment before continuing: "I know this is unfair. But now the city's manpower is exhausted, and everything that can be transferred has been transferred. To tell you the truth, if you don't go, this Ghost Domain will expand to Level 3 within three days. By then, it won't just be a matter of dozens of Wandering Spirits; lives will be lost. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people in Qingzhou City, their safety hangs on these Ghost Domains!"

He bowed to the audience: "Please."

The clamor on the playground slowly died down, and no one complained anymore.

But that oppressive silence was even harder to bear than complaining.

Qu Xianghong stood at the front of Class 2's formation, no expression visible on his face.

Fang Zhenyuan took back the microphone, his voice much deeper than before: "All members of Class 2, assemble at Classroom 301 of the teaching building at 8:00 tonight. The Demon Suppression Division's Field Operations Department will give a task briefing. The specific assessment locations for other classes will be notified by their respective mentors. Now... dismissed!"

The crowd on the playground slowly dispersed. No one cheered, no one discussed scores, and everyone walked with their heads lowered.