GAMMT - Chapter 53
Chapter 53: Ferocity
Zhang Juan had already been eliminated. After receiving treatment in the medical bay, he couldn't stand it any longer and came over in a wheelchair. On the way, he had learned that the one who had harmed him was none other than the Xie Keli he had intended to deal with. The rage and indignation festering inside him were immense.
That damn Xie Keli!
However, by the time he arrived, he saw the scene on the screen, and his heart-pounding fear gave way to wild joy.
That Grand Paramour, Xie Keli, was about to die!
With Lan Chenshuang's methods, he would surely do more than just get him eliminated from the competition. He would cripple him, plunder his points, and ensure he could never make a comeback!
Zhang Juan had even resigned himself to the consequences of his own failure in the High School Entrance Exam, his future now bleak. But if Xie Keli failed this time, the Xie Clan would never tolerate him. When that time came… it would be his chance to kill that dog bastard!
Zhang Juan had even mentally prepared an ancestral tablet for Xie Keli. He watched the screen with eager anticipation… and then, he saw exactly what he had been hoping for.
Bang! The big, fat duck was caught off guard by a collective attack and was struck. How could it possibly withstand that? It collapsed with a single hit.
It fell, but it didn't revert to its original form like a demon in a TV show or novel. It just lay there quietly. But Lan Chenshuang received a notification.
[Killed a mini-BOSS, +50 points.]
Lan Chenshuang: "???"
What the hell? Wasn't this fat duck Xie Keli?
"What's going on, Wu Long? Weren't you the one who said he turned into a fat duck?" Lan Chenshuang grew anxious, frantically attacking the other ducks nearby. None of them were the target!
As his teammates attacked the ducks, they were still shouting, "Xie Keli!"
Duck 1: Quack?
"It must be you! Xie Keli!"
Duck 2: Quack quack?
"Xie Keli, Xie Keli! Damn it, where the hell are you!"
Ducks 3, 4, 5: Quack quack quack?!!
Just as Wu Long's side launched their attack, Shen Qixi and her group seemed to be on guard and actually dodged it. Then, they collectively withdrew from the competition!
Watching them exit the match, Wu Long felt no joy at all. The exam was almost over, and their point rankings were still on the board. Then, he heard the furious and panicked shouts of Lan Chenshuang and the others from behind. Suspicious, he turned to look and saw the slain fat duck. He understood.
"Yes, he really was…"
Not good!
Wu Long and Lan Chenshuang figured it out at almost the same time. Their faces changed, and they frantically shouted for a retreat, preparing to exit the competition as a group. But it was too late.
The sky grew a little dark.
Three giant BOSS yellow ducks flew in from the nearby forest.
They immediately unleashed stun and storm skills… blanketing everyone.
"No!"
"Retreat, retreat, retreat!!"
"It's no use…"
Caught completely off guard, Lan Chenshuang, Wu Long, and the others were hit by the first wave, and their points began to plummet.
During the few seconds they were under crowd control, the remaining students' points cascaded down like a waterfall… but a few seconds later, they still managed to make a panicked exit.
With their targets gone, the duck king BOSSes were displeased. They spread their wings, circling the mountain forest and screeching as they searched for new targets. The remaining ducks, having lost their objective, began to rest where they were, recovering from their critical health…
The situation had reversed so quickly that the crowd hadn't even had time to react. Lan Chenshuang and the others who had withdrawn from the competition appeared one after another in the exam center. As they stepped out of the teleportation array, their eyes met with Shen Qixi's group.
The atmosphere was incredibly awkward.
Someone on Shen Qixi's side had a sharp tongue and asked, "Hey, weren't you two colluding? Why are you out too?"
Did they even need to ask?!
Wu Long sneered and asked Shen Qixi, "You knew all along? You were working with him?"
Lan Chenshuang, his face as dark as ink, shot a sharp glance at them, as if they had conspired with someone to set him up.
But in truth, many people still didn't understand the situation.
Shen Qixi said, "Knew what? That you and Second Young Master Lan were colluding from the start? All signals are blocked during the competition, so I'm guessing when we entered the barrier zone, the surveillance device he set up alerted him. He knew we were coming. Later, he sent something to follow us or contacted you directly. You told him that we and Xie Keli were ducks. Then you two turned the tables, and after he lured the ducks over, you deliberately exposed yourselves to draw us out to fight the ducks together. I suppose you were using our labor. Once they were mostly dealt with, you planned to attack us and Xie Keli separately, intending to both cripple us and monopolize all the duck points."
"Unfortunately, it seems Second Young Master Xie also knew your plan all along. Perhaps he knew from the moment he passed through the barrier zone."
"It was just a plan within a plan."
She ignored them and walked away.
Guan Zizai pondered for a moment, then rubbed his nose and quietly followed her. Wu Long's expression shifted as he stood his ground, then he looked at Lan Chenshuang.
"Say no more. Let's go out first."
Lan Chenshuang kept his voice low, which was the same as suppressing his temper.
Seeing this, the others had no choice but to walk out of the corridor.
They arrived at the waiting area. Before they could even bear the gazes of the parents and their own families, they couldn't help themselves. They wanted to know the result, but they were also afraid to know.
Then they turned their heads to look.
The screen was huge.
Inside, the forest was deep and lush, still shimmering with the elemental light from the fierce battle. Just as the three BOSSes flew away, a normal-sized duck waddled out. Facing the dozens of defenseless, low-health ducks… it threw a grenade.
An explosion!
Her points skyrocketed. She was in first place.
When Lan Chenshuang checked his own score, he saw that the earlier group attack from the three BOSSes and a flock of ducks had cost him several thousand points. Now, he was left with only seven or eight hundred.
Currently, his rank was 999.
A rank of 999. It couldn't solve his problems, but it was certainly irritating.
Wu Long and the others had all dropped out of the top 1000.
Lan Chenshuang clutched his chest, not daring to face his uncle and family. But he felt that the gazes of everyone around him were like a deluge of spit.
999, what trash!
Ptui!
But, was no one really going to object to Xie Keli's method of farming points?
Lan Chenshuang shot a look at his family members, and the latter immediately had one of their usual subordinate families speak up.
"This is too much! How are other candidates supposed to compete? With Xie Keli operating like this, it leaves no room for anyone else to score points. This is outright cheating!"
This person was just making an unreasonable scene. He was Zhang Juan's parent.
When one parent shouted, others whose children had performed poorly naturally joined in, trying to pressure the Education Ministry into giving them an explanation.
The proctors had long known this would happen.
Because after the reforms, regardless of whether someone like Xie Keli existed, there would always be people who were dissatisfied.
Unless they were the ones benefiting.
"First, the exam is legal, compliant, and reasonable. Anyone who disagrees can file a complaint in court."
"Second, Xie Keli's actions are not problematic. There was no cheating."
"Third, do you have any other questions? Ask them all at once, because you won't have another chance later. Causing a disturbance during the exam is prohibited!"
Zhang Juan wheeled himself over and suddenly said in a cold voice, "I can accept that he has a special Mimicry skill. I'll concede that point. But I don't believe an ordinary Mimicry skill would prevent those ducks from attacking him. It's not logical. He must possess some special item. If such an item exists, then the very design of this exam is flawed, as it gives someone the ability to cheat."
Oh, that was a rather sharp angle.
Many people quieted down. Zhou Linlang also watched the farce with great interest.
But the pot-bellied, bald teacher simply patted his stomach and said, "So, there's a reason for failure. You still don't know why those ducks didn't attack him?"
Obviously, I don't know, you idiot!
Zhang Juan was infuriated by the old baldy's contemptuous gaze. The other parents were also growing impatient and started clamoring.
"The meditation device."
A clear, cool voice suddenly spoke.
Everyone turned to see a seemingly ordinary young woman sitting there, speaking calmly. "Why don't the ducks attack the meditation devices? This is a known outcome. So, if you dismantle one, there must be something inside that the giant yellow ducks' mechanical programming is set to ignore."
"I guess that this Xie Keli, at some point when we weren't watching, quietly dismantled a meditation device and took that component from inside. That's why he could so brazenly disguise himself as a duck and blend in."
"Mimicry plus that component—that was his greatest trump card."
"The exam itself is designed to screen for unconventional talent. Demanding fairness inherently implies mediocrity."
"I think you can all understand this explanation, can't you?"
What she didn't mention was the courage and imagination, the sufficiently brilliant concept and reaction time, and the execution needed to achieve an exam performance that bordered on cheating.
When a brilliant talent first shows their edge, the mediocre are bound to be left behind.
Because the road to success requires stepping stones—and these people who were eliminated early were just that.
Why hadn't they thought of such a strategy?
Because they just couldn't!
The scene fell silent for a moment. Many people had an epiphany, while others were suspicious of this extremely ordinary-looking woman's identity. Then, Shen Qixi walked over and called out, "Mom."
Soon, they learned that this woman was a researcher who had retired due to an injury. No one knew where she used to work, but she was clearly a highly educated individual. After saying her piece, she fell silent, only speaking quietly with Shen Qixi.
Shen Qixi was a little dejected.
"Mom, lately I feel like I've met several people whose abilities surpass my own."
"Mm, you'll meet many more in the future. Why be sad about it ahead of time?"
"…"
Shen Qixi was retorted into silence.
Was this really her mother?
Forget it. Her mother had high standards. She hadn't even used the word "genius" to describe Xie Keli just now, because in their circle of intellectuals, the title of genius was not to be used lightly. Its requirements were very high.
She was still young, after all. She turned to look at the screen. "But I don't quite understand how this person suddenly became… so formidable. Maybe I was deceived back in the village."
Did it make sense?
For two such powerful youngsters to exist in the same village at the same time.
They seemed to be around the same age.
And they were brother and sister… No matter how she thought about it, something felt off.
Moreover, after this Xie Keli finished off the ducks, he suddenly ran off. The crowd followed his movements… and soon discovered he was looking for the lair of the three BOSSes.
The BOSSes had been drawn away by the recent turn of events and were now searching everywhere for contestants. But he, on the other hand, took advantage of the route he had figured out while luring the monsters earlier and quickly arrived at the entrance to their cave lair.
It was a cave in the central mountain.
It was pitch-black inside.
"This Xie Keli always seems to know the locations of the contestants and those ducks ahead of time. It seems we've underestimated him. This isn't the kind of ability an Arcanist with extremely poor meditation aptitude should possess."
Lan Luoqi suddenly said with a smile, which also served to remind everyone that this person had the ability to pull off the stunt in the first stage of theory exam. The one who had screwed over so many candidates wasn't Lan Chenshuang, but this Xie Keli.
And he wasn't wrong; quite a few people suspected the same thing.
But in the next second… they saw Xie Keli use his wrist device to control several lizards, which crawled toward the cave.
Ah, they had been careless. They almost forgot this dog was quite rich.
"It seems we also have to thank the young master of the Lan Clan for giving our Second Young Master the opportunity to earn some extra cash."
An elder from the Xie Clan seized the opportunity to make a sarcastic remark.
Lan Luoqi's face darkened.
They could guess with their toes that Xie Keli had definitely earned at least two or three billion from that video. Buying this kind of expensive equipment was certainly not a problem.
That dead scum!
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