GAMMT - Chapter 54
Chapter 54: The Big Goose
Regardless of what others thought or how they cursed, Xie Keli was now in first place. From 1299th in the first stage of the assessment to first in the second, it was an absolute comeback.
Even if he had used a method that was tantamount to "cheating," who would dare call him scum now?
"There are fifteen minutes left until the end of the exam. What is he doing in that cave? Are there still ducks inside?"
"Right, how long did that Mimicry skill of his last again?"
As people discussed, Lan Luoqi's fingers curled slightly. He thought to himself: Ten minutes.
His Mimicry lasted for ten minutes.
Every time he ended his duck transformation, it was at the ten-minute mark. Lan Luoqi was certain of this because he had been paying attention to it from the very beginning.
He had his suspicions.
He suspected that this Mimicry was an Arcane Truth skill.
"Arcane Truth skills are high-level resources. They require a knowledge body and must be manifested with special materials; they aren't reusable resources. The Xie Clan might have such a knowledge body, but definitely not many, and they would never give one to him to study. That leaves the academies. But he just returned from the garbage star and hasn't been to school. No middle school in Jingyang City could provide an Arcane Truth knowledge body to a student, unless that student had made immense contributions to the school in past competitions or provincial exams. Xuanyu received one before, but that doesn't apply to Xie Keli."
If all these possibilities were ruled out, the only explanation was a back door in the exam itself—the Education Ministry giving a leg up to a talented student from the lower class who lacked resources.
Lan Luoqi had the mindset of a noble but also worked in a government department, so on some level, he could grasp the Education Ministry's thinking. He guessed there was a hidden setting in the exam, and Xie Keli might have comprehended an Arcane Truth skill from it.
"However, if he comprehended it during the exam, an Arcane Truth knowledge body takes time to digest. In total, it's only been four hours. He's been in the public eye for a long time, so he couldn't have had much time to comprehend it. At most, he was off-screen for 20 to 40 minutes. Could he comprehend an Arcane Truth skill in such a short time, and a rather niche Mimicry skill at that?"
Lan Luoqi felt this logic was reasonable, but it didn't seem reasonable for Xie Keli.
If he were such a genius, why wouldn't the Xie Clan support him vigorously?
He knew that old fox Xie An was completely profit-driven. As long as someone had value, their background didn't matter. A person as clever as Xie Keli couldn't possibly be blind to Xie An's nature and should have revealed his talents earlier to secure cultivation.
But from the current situation, one was playing the fool, while the other was clearly shunning his illegitimate son, unwilling to cultivate him.
The rift between father and son was so obvious.
Why?
Setting aside this suspicious point, the premise was still to determine whether Xie Keli's Mimicry was truly an Arcane Truth skill.
Lan Luoqi had high standards and wasn't easily fooled. After careful observation, he used the calculation software on his communicator to constantly compute: meditation aptitude score + approximate level + approximate cultivation time + the time and speed of his casting a level-one Arcane spell + the duration of the Mimicry.
Ultimately, he arrived at this conclusion: Xie Keli's mental power should be over ten thousand. Based on his performance, although his mental power wasn't high, he had plenty of potions. And since he only used level-one Arcane spells and spent most of his time in disguise, he didn't need to expend other mental power. If this Mimicry was an Arcane Truth skill, over ten thousand mental power should last for more than ten minutes. Unless it was a skill with a cooldown and a high mental power cost, which would explain the recovery time and the ten-minute limit.
Combining the two, he believed that the Education Ministry's bonus question back door existed, but Xie Keli's performance didn't fit.
Just then, his communicator rang. Lan Luoqi raised an eyebrow when he saw the number.
It seemed the news had already spread.
"Is your situation handled? You still have time to worry about trivial matters over here."
In Lan Luoqi's view, this was indeed a trivial matter for now. Even though Lan Chenshuang's score had been cut in half, his combined ranking from the two stages was still within a safe range. He could still make a comeback in the third stage's dungeon combat.
As for Xie Keli… even a genius could be eliminated early. Besides, he wasn't considered a genius yet. A sharp mind held back by poor Arcane aptitude wasn't worth too much concern.
He was more concerned about the situation on the other end of the line.
Lan Xuanyu stood on the twenty-first floor of the Beluke Education Center, gazing at the magnificent metropolis in the distance. Through his eagle eye, he could see the dense crowd of candidates in the square below. His eyes were cool as he said calmly, "I used some connections and have already settled it. But don't publicize it. Just let everyone think I'm still trapped. The family should also put on a show. That way, I'll have a free hand to take care of a few things."
Lan Luoqi instantly understood that he was going to deal with the people who had been scheming behind his back.
Probably his competitors from the Big Four Academies.
"I can't interfere in your affairs, as my department is rather sensitive. As for your brother's situation here…"
He gave a rough summary of the situation.
"Third Uncle, you've dismissed your suspicions so easily?" Lan Xuanyu's tone was faint, showing no sign of anger towards Xie Keli.
His cunning and temperament were clearly far superior to his two younger brothers.
Lan Luoqi said lazily, "It's just the most likely possibility among many impossibilities. Isn't that what analysis is all about? But you're a cautious person, surely thinking of eradicating the problem. However, others aren't fools, and the Xie Clan is certainly not foolish. To kill him now and eliminate future trouble is impossible unless Xie An also wants him dead. Otherwise, there's no chance."
If the scions of Green Blood nobles were so easy to kill, they wouldn't deserve to be called nobles.
Lan Xuanyu said, "Then let's leave him be for now."
He didn't seem to have much killing intent either.
But indeed, for now, his most pressing matter was dealing with his competitors.
The conversation ended there.
Lan Luoqi put down his communicator and glanced nearby, noticing that Zhou Linlang was gone.
Looking at the screen, the countdown had already begun, but the cave was still pitch black.
No, several screens were locked onto the pitch-black cave.
It seemed quite a few people had gone to this cave at the same time.
"Three zones, distributed in a fan shape, with this mountain as the central point. It looks like most of the duck flock has been eliminated by the candidates. The ducks don't respawn, so to get more points, they have to explore inside the mountain."
"Look, they found the devices and are dismantling them."
"Xie Keli's soaring score must have tipped them off."
On the screens, one could clearly see the Lin siblings, as well as Mo Ruijing and others. They were from different zones but were all in the mountain tunnels. It was also possible some of them were already there.
In the darkness, Mo Ruijing said, "As expected, there's a shielding device inside the meditation equipment. Hiding in plain sight. Who would have thought of that? How does Xie Keli's brain work? He doesn't look that smart."
Xu Yi replied, "Sometimes, people who look ordinary are anything but. You see him as wanton, arrogant, lecherous, and immoral, but in reality, he might be reserved, patient, uninterested in women, and highly principled. It's best not to underestimate people."
Mo Ruijing said, "That makes sense. Only twelve minutes left… We still haven't found that space. Does it really exist?"
"It does. And there are several of them in this cave. According to our calculations, the coordinates of these spaces are connected, all within this mountain. Let's keep looking. I suspect other candidates have already entered, but whether they can comprehend anything is another matter."
Many outsiders couldn't understand the conversation between the three super-students, including Zhang Juan and the others who had already left the exam. But they soon realized what they had missed.
Soon…
"Found it!"
Mo Ruijing's group of three found the bonus question cave, which undoubtedly verified Lan Luoqi's guess.
The moment Fu Chuan entered the cave, she knew she would definitely run into candidates from the other two zones, and she knew the people outside were watching.
To be honest, she had already attracted enough attention. Being too high-profile could get you struck by lightning and wasn't conducive to her future plans. So she deliberately walked into the pitch-black areas, intentionally not using a searchlight. Once it was completely dark, she used her high agility to run.
Invisibility wasn't a level-one Arcane spell, so she couldn't use it. She could only run. Whether she could get away depended on luck.
In any case, she didn't want the people outside to see her enter the bonus question space. Of course, they probably didn't know she had already been inside once.
"The main thing is not to let them know I came out shortly after going in."
After entering, Fu Chuan once again saw the primary Arcane Truth knowledge body.
Unlike the previous space, this cave only had two knowledge bodies.
"Although there are only two, they seem more complex."
Fu Chuan didn't spend time comprehending them. Instead, she memorized them by rote, relying on her greatest BUG to commit all their knowledge points to memory.
Her BUG was that she was an outsider who had been exposed to the top-tier resources and Arcane arts of the Arcane world. What she lacked was practical experience, not vision or comprehension ability.
Of course, she also lacked time.
To save time and access more knowledge bodies as quickly as possible, after rapidly mastering the Mimicry Arcane Truth in the first bonus space, she had only memorized the other offensive and defensive Arcane Truth knowledge bodies.
Now, she had to memorize the ones in this space.
"I need to find more spaces… There's too little time."
Fu Chuan knew that these back doors secretly opened by the Education Ministry were a godsend for her, far more reliable than the Xie Clan. She had to seize the opportunity.
A while later, with eight minutes remaining, Fu Chuan came out. Just as she was about to slip away, she suddenly felt something was off. She looked back at the ground, bent down, and flicked something up.
What was this?
Soft and fluffy. A feather?
But those ducks were mechanical bodies. The materials used didn't seem this delicate.
Fu Chuan's vision was sharp. She could clearly see the blood vessels inside the feather… A mechanical body wouldn't be this lifelike.
Lost in thought, she burned it with a small flame.
After burning it, she was certain it wasn't a material from a mechanical body, but an organic carbon compound.
In other words… this was a real feather from a living creature.
"Strange. Did one of the candidates grow feathers?"
"Or could it be…"
Fu Chuan felt a sense of unease and quickly left.
Elsewhere, the Lin Hangjing siblings had also found a location, but they were in darkness, so the camera wasn't focused on them.
Lin Hangjing glanced at the rankings and asked in a low voice, "Brother, aren't you going to fight for points outside?"
"No. The point ranking is secondary. As long as we meet the advancement requirement and the gap isn't too large, this is more important."
"You go in this one first. I'll look for the next one."
"Brother."
"Go in. The next one is nearby. Be careful."
Lin Chengxiu was decisive and immediately headed off.
By now, many candidates had emerged in the waiting center. Besides Zhang Juan and those who had been eliminated through fighting, a large portion had been forced to retreat by the ducks.
Withdrawing early already put them at a disadvantage compared to the students still inside. Now, seeing these people taking advantage of the bonus questions, the psychological pressure was naturally immense.
Seeing Mo Ruijing and the others' discovery, the atmosphere among the crowd grew heavy.
"Where's Xie Keli? He seems to have disappeared. Don't tell me he went in too."
"I think he was just there a moment ago, in the dark. Then he vanished. Could it be…"
As everyone was discussing, the screen suddenly reappeared, showing Xie Keli squatting on the ground.
What was he doing?
The view zoomed in.
He was squatting, holding a twig, and poking something on the ground.
A pile.
It looked like… poop?
The image was so vivid. The camera even zoomed in further, allowing everyone to see his expression. He was looking at it so intently, his eyes bright and focused.
Shen Qixi was silent for a moment, then asked her mother, "Mom, do you think he's going to eat it?"
Based on her understanding of this Second Young Master Xie, the man seemed to be an oddball. It wasn't out of the question.
So she was considering whether to keep watching, because it was a bit disgusting.
Shen Qixi's mother: "…"
After poking it with the twig, Fu Chuan lifted one end of the stick, looked at the sticky, dirty substance on it, and her expression darkened. She hesitated for a moment but then continued running towards the next bonus question space.
A minute later, she found the place, but the situation was a bit awkward.
Because other people had just arrived as well.
Lin Chengxiu, Mo Ruijing's group of four, Jian Feilan's group of three, another handsome youth with a nearly bald head, and Fu Chuan herself—a total of ten people.
Damn it. She knew that gathering in one place at the end would inevitably lead to a face-off.
But weren't there too many people?
The atmosphere was a bit awkward.
"There are only seven minutes left. Do we fight or not?" Jian Feilan, with the air of a bureaucrat's son, asked coldly.
Before anyone else could say anything, Xie Keli politely suggested, "How about we be a little more civilized and play rock-paper-scissors?"
Jian Feilan thought the guy was insane. "Are you out of your mind? Only a ghost would play rock-paper-scissors with you. How about this: we solve a problem. Whoever solves it gets to go in."
Fu Chuan: "???"
Is this some kind of super-student thing? Why does it feel like he's targeting me?
The others: "…"
These two were both nuts.
"Enough nonsense, fight!" The nearly bald youth was surprisingly aggressive and was about to make a move to seize the chance to enter.
What was there to fight about? Everyone's spiritual energy concentration was restricted, and their levels were similar. Unless they revealed their trump cards, why bother?
Fu Chuan turned to run… but suddenly, she froze, staring at the end of the tunnel.
The others also sensed something was wrong and turned to look.
A black shadow appeared at the other end of the tunnel. It was quite terrifying.
It was large and made a strange sound.
Was it a BOSS?
If it was a duck BOSS, they weren't afraid. They were more than enough to handle it.
But what if it wasn't?
Everyone's heart was in their throat, and then…
It appeared.
Its neck was long, its body was fat, its beak was sharp, and its webbed feet were thick.
Its eyes were small, like red beans.
But!
It was truly terrifying…
The parents were terrified too.
Wait, why was there a goose?
An ordinary big white goose, just staring at them.
For a moment, they wanted to laugh, but then they found they couldn't.
The big goose vanished.
But in an instant, it split into ten copies, with ten big geese appearing before them simultaneously.
One big goose for each person, a fair share for all. Then, the goose heads pecked.
Pain, extreme pain!
Fu Chuan felt her abdomen being pierced—not a feeling, it was actually pierced. Blood and flesh sprayed out with a whoosh.
Sticky chunks of flesh splattered against the wall.
At the same time, she was slammed against the wall.
The others fared similarly, all of them had their bodies pierced, and at the same time, they received a notification that their points were being deducted.
"You have been hit by the skill of this assessment's BOSS, the Dragon Goose. Skill: Dragon Armor Stripping. After being hit by this skill, 2000 points will be deducted, and all spatial equipment and auxiliary statuses will be removed."
2000!!
2000 points for a single peck?!
And… my backpack!
With a clatter, everyone's backpacks disintegrated. Not just the bags, but a true "disintegration"—everything inside the backpacks burst out in a pile.
Fu Chuan and the others: "!!!"
What the hell!
Everyone's mentality shattered.
"Retreat, retreat, retreat!! Ah!"
Not a single one of the ten dared to stay. They all retreated frantically.
But at that moment, the big goose raised its head and shrieked. A sonic attack!
Everyone's mind went chaotic.
It wasn't a stun; it was a complete blankness, as if even their thoughts had vanished. At the same time, the screen also went chaotic. The people outside only saw that in that instant, the terrifying goose's duplicates teleported again.
They pounced directly onto the students.
No!
The students' bodies were already about to leave this space, but that final peck…
What was the result?
The display for the inside of the cave went completely white, followed by a terrifying silence.
In the waiting area.
Everyone was momentarily stunned…
"What was that just now? A goose?"
"So scary."
It was such an ordinary-looking goose, like something you'd find on a dinner plate, yet in just a dozen seconds, they had witnessed a scene of instantaneous, brutal bloodshed.
Ten people, ten elite candidates who had survived until the end without failing or withdrawing, had their bodies pierced in an instant, flesh and blood flying everywhere.
They were completely powerless to resist.
A one-hit kill!
"Didn't they have shielding? Why could it still attack all ten of them?"
"Yeah, not to mention Xie Keli, the duck king, but the others seemed to have dismantled the shielding devices too, yet they were still attacked."
There were three questions here.
1. What level of BOSS was the big goose?
2. Why did the big goose ignore the shielding devices and attack them?
3. How did the big goose find their location so precisely?
But no one had an answer, and no one was paying attention to what the other candidates were doing in these final moments. They were all terrified by the big goose.
However… Zhang Juan, Wu Long, and the others' eyes flickered as they all looked at the leaderboard.
The first place on the leaderboard had changed.
First, Lin Hangjing.
Or rather, the top ten or so names had undergone a complete reshuffle, because ten of the top-ranking students had their scores plummet collectively, losing thousands of points.
With these people suffering, the others naturally moved up.
Lan Chenshuang looked at the ranking and suddenly smiled.
Xie Keli, ha!
"They're coming out! The smell of blood is so strong."
"Are they badly injured?"
"My son is in there, I need to go in!"
As the parents grew agitated, the medical staff sprang into action, looking very nervous as they all ran into the tunnel. Not long after, a brilliant light shone from within.
The medical Arcanists were at work.
No one knew what the situation was like.
Inside the tunnel, Lin Chengxiu clutched his abdomen, his gaze sweeping around. When he didn't see Xie Keli, his eyes flickered. Could it be…
"Are there any other injured people?"
"Doesn't seem like it."
"Then…"
"There is."
A faint voice came from the side. Everyone turned to look and saw a hand emerge from around a corner like a ghost, scratching at the ground…
"I'm here… My leg was pecked through."
A physician ran over and saw that the person's left calf had indeed been completely pierced, with a pool of blood on the ground.
"The bone is pierced? Quick!"
"Hurry, hurry, this candidate's bone has been pierced."
Lin Chengxiu and the others were surprised, but they quickly realized they had escaped early and avoided the third peck. Xie Keli must have been a step too slow and taken the third hit, getting his calf pierced.
A pierced bone was no small matter; it could affect tomorrow's dungeon assessment.
At this moment, Fu Chuan was leaning against the wall, covered in a cold sweat, her fingers twitching from the pain.
"This will hurt a lot. Endure it. The anesthesiologist will be here soon."
Fu Chuan didn't speak, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes, but her mind was replaying the scene of being pecked.
This Education Ministry is quite something.
One trap after another. There was no absolute way to cheat.
Every type of assessment had its own corresponding difficulty.
That big goose was the final hurdle.
But clearly, all the candidates from Jingyang City this year had been game overed.
After several minutes, Lin Chengxiu and the others, under the intensive medical treatment of the Education Center, quickly recovered from their flesh wounds and began to walk out, somewhat weakened.
The wounds could be healed, but the lost blood needed to be replenished later, so they were still a bit weak.
However, Jian Feilan looked back and saw that Xie Keli was still being treated. His lips pressed down. "He seems to be in much worse shape than us. Should we go check on him?"
Xu Yi grunted in agreement. "We did take the exam together, after all. It's the decent thing to do."
Lin Chengxiu was taciturn and ignored them, standing where he was, probably waiting for his sister. The others walked over to Xie Keli and soon saw his miserable state.
Fu Chuan raised her eyes. Her sweat-drenched face was weary and weak. She looked at the seven or eight people approaching, her eyes flickering slightly. She said nothing, pretending to be asleep. After a while, they left.
A doctor said in a low voice, "Your classmates seem quite concerned about you."
Fu Chuan said calmly, "Yes, I'm quite surprised too. They're probably in love with me."
The doctor: "…"
They were just wondering why she appeared later than them.
These top students, each with eight hundred schemes in their hearts.
But in the end, they were all played by the Education Ministry, or rather, played by other candidates who utilized the final rules set by the Education Ministry.
Fu Chuan lowered her eyes, thinking about the circumstances of the big goose's appearance. Something felt off.
When Fu Chuan limped out, clutching her stomach, she happened to see the other candidates who had lasted until the end of the exam coming out. She walked over and saw the Lin siblings.
Lin Hangjing was still fussing over her brother. When she turned and saw Fu Chuan, her expression became a little reserved, and she stepped back.
Fu Chuan just looked at the two siblings, then turned her face away and slowly walked out.
Lin Chengxiu lowered his head, his eyes glinting slightly.
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