GAMMT - Chapter 66
Chapter 66: Sneak Attack
The wild grass rustled violently, shattering into pieces. Jian Feilan and the others were tense, feeling as if they were the ones in a king-versus-king showdown, not Lin Chengxiu and the black-clad figure. They even held their breath, treading carefully.
But… after about ten seconds of waiting.
The black-clad figure suddenly lunged for the large goose lying on the ground.
However, the goose was dragged into the wild grass with a whoosh. Vaguely, they could see that it was being pulled by exquisite, translucent golden threads of light.
This Lin Chengxiu could actually materialize light?
The black-clad figure was likely just as surprised, but they were indeed threads of light.
"Is that Light Stream?"
Light and dark were not primary elements. Although ubiquitous, they were more ethereal and unpredictable, making it harder for them to resonate with the human body. This made comprehending their Arcane arts more difficult.
However, the light element was most commonly used by healers. A physician who mastered the light element was hailed as the most orthodox kind of healer, their powerful light-based healing a blessing to any team.
But this Lin Chengxiu was clearly not on the healer path. A healer would have to invest attribute points into constitution, as many healing skills were based on sharing one's own constitution points and converting them into life recovery. His constitution was so poor and his defense so weak that he couldn't possibly be a healer.
It was rare to see a light Arcanist focused on offense whose power wasn't particularly strong; it felt as if his attribute points had been allocated incorrectly.
But his agility and insight were truly incredible.
The black-clad figure could no longer sense the goose's trail. His eyes flickered for a moment before he finally turned, concealed himself, and vanished.
The stronger person chose to leave. It wasn't out of cowardice, but because his opponent was slippery and difficult to pin down. He was unwilling to waste time and energy.
As soon as he left, the tense atmosphere immediately relaxed.
It was the same in the waiting area.
"So strong."
"I never thought there'd be a student this powerful besides Sanqian and the others, and from our Jingyang, no less."
"Lin Chengxiu is from Jingyang, but that black-clad figure isn't, right?"
"Of course he is, you idiot. Did you forget the black-clad figure from the second stage of the assessment?"
"Holy crap, it's him! I knew that mask looked familiar."
Everyone was amazed and excited—provided that the other candidates on the screen weren't their own children.
After Jian Feilan and the others saw the black-clad figure leave, they watched Lin Chengxiu turn around.
"Lin Chengxiu, we're from the same city, after all. Dong Chen and Gao Yang are eyeing us like tigers. We need to uni—"
Before the word "—te" could be spoken.
Thump, thump, thump!
Lin Chengxiu delivered a swift blow to each of their heads.
The entire group collapsed.
Then, Lin Chengxiu took out a coffin and stuffed them inside, one by one.
What made people particularly uncomfortable was the way he stacked the "bodies."
To save space, he expertly arranged them head-to-toe in alternating layers, packing them flat. This way, one large coffin could hold many people.
Finally, he even pressed down hard, managing to just barely close the lid on the unconscious bodies of Zhang Fulan, Jian Feilan, and the others.
"To be honest, he's a bit like my grandma. That's how she pickles salted fish."
"I think so too. My grandma pickles vegetables the same way, but she also puts a big rock on top."
"This Lin Chengxiu is quite professional. All that's missing is the salt. You can tell he's a good kid who often does housework."
Their parents' faces twitched as they cursed and grumbled, stopping just short of making voodoo dolls of Xie Keli.
But as they talked, the atmosphere among the crowd grew strange.
"Why do I feel like something's off?"
"That coffin looks a bit familiar…"
"Has Lin Chengxiu used this coffin before?"
"I don't think so. The one who took out this coffin seems to be…"
Just as some of the more perceptive people were about to blurt out a name, "Lin Chengxiu" wiped her face, ended the Mimicry, and reverted to her own appearance. Since there were no outsiders left, there was no need to waste elemental and mental power.
Mimicry was very draining.
Holy crap!
"It really is Xie Keli!"
"My god, he's that strong?!"
"That sick pervert!"
Such a double standard. When it was pickling salted fish, Lin Chengxiu was a good kid, but Xie Keli was a sick pervert.
Fu Chuan was not the chosen one; the screen wouldn't always favor her and protect her secrets from being exposed. When the time came, she would be revealed. So, at this moment, the crowd was still a bit dazed when they saw "Lin Chengxiu's" true identity.
The members of the Teng family shot to their feet in shock, but then they realized that the Xie Clan and Lan Clan were calmer than they were. Feeling awkward, they quickly sat back down.
Were the eunuchs more anxious than the emperor?
Was the Xie Clan not anxious? No, they were stunned. They couldn't fathom how a useless illegitimate son raised on a garbage star had become so formidable.
Ultimately, the family-centric worldview of this world took precedence. An elder quietly tried to contact Xie An and the other elders with his communicator, only to find no response.
Strange. Was the family on a secret mission?
He held his tongue.
The Lan Clan, on the other hand, appeared calm but was actually the most anxious.
"This kid is too good at hiding things, Third Master…"
Lan Chenshuang was currently ranked higher than Xie Keli, but the gap in their actual strength was enormous.
The Lan Clan members were at a loss and looked to Lan Luoqi, whose expression was also grave. He wondered if he had possessed such strength and cunning during his own High School Entrance Exam.
He hadn't.
And he had enjoyed the best resources from a young age as a legitimate son, while Xie Keli had enjoyed nothing.
Based on this, in a few years, the latter's achievements would surely crush his own.
A grave threat.
Unfortunately, there were no more opportunities for assassination… Lan Luoqi grew agitated, unconsciously rubbing the back of his hand with his fingers. Suddenly, his communicator buzzed.
A message arrived.
Lan Xuanyu: The groundwork is laid. He has agreed to take me as his apprentice as long as I rank in the top 100 in the Beluke Province college entrance exam. For now, don't worry about the Xie Clan's affairs.
The meaning was clear: once he finished the exam and became an apprentice, the Xie Clan and Teng Family would no longer be a concern.
Lan Luoqi's eyes lit up, but he was also puzzled. Who was "he"?
Unfortunately, Lan Xuanyu didn't say. This nephew of his had always been deep and calculating; he would probably only reveal the details after he succeeded.
But anyone who could set such a demanding condition was certainly no ordinary person.
The top one hundred in the Beluke Province college entrance exam—what did that even mean? Back in his day, he couldn't even break into the provincial top one thousand.
But every year, the number of students taking the exam in Beluke Province reached the millions. The top thousand were already the cream of the crop, the kind of people guaranteed to reach the 60th level in the future.
They could do it in their sleep.
In the opposite spectator stands, Zhou Linlang was a little puzzled. Why did she pretend to be Lin Chengxiu?
Was it just to frame him?
From what she knew of this little sister… it probably wasn't that simple.
The cost of Mimicry was not low. If it was purely for framing someone, the cost-benefit ratio wasn't high, because her combat power was already quite outstanding, second only to that black-clad figure.
It was known that the strongest contenders at present were the duo from Dong Chen City, Sanqian and his partner; the group of four from Gao Yang led by Lao Lu; and the mysterious black-clad figure from Jingyang.
These three factions, seven people in total, were at the pinnacle of comprehensive strength. They feared no one and could even sweep the field.
"For her to go out of her way to impersonate Lin Chengxiu… this Lin Chengxiu is probably no pushover either. On some level, he must have touched upon her interests."
He posed a threat to her.
After dealing with the goose, Fu Chuan had essentially completed the first two steps of her plan.
The final step was to go to the morgue.
A lot must have happened at the morgue in the 12 hours she was away. There might have even been several large-scale skirmishes, with the candidates from the three cities having mostly clashed.
But Fu Chuan didn't know how Jian Feilan and the others, who had been taken away by the Coffin Carrier, had escaped.
It wasn't important.
If they couldn't even handle three Coffin Carriers, these people weren't qualified to continue the assessment.
At the very least, the Lin siblings would definitely be able to escape.
They had already established their power. There wasn't much for her to gain by going in to farm points, as the monster-grinding spots would have been mostly taken. She was only going to check on Little Skinner.
At the morgue, an invisible Fu Chuan slipped in and found that, just as she had predicted, the three cities had each established their own spheres of influence.
Dong Chen was led by Sanqian and Liu Yun, Gao Yang by Lao Lu's group of four, but Jingyang was in some disarray, unable to compete with the other two cities. It seemed they had been scattered.
"These two cities are ruthless, ganging up on Jingyang."
Fu Chuan sighed to herself, not considering for a moment that this was her responsibility.
Jian Feilan and his group had gone out for the goose and fallen into her hands.
Rising stars like Zhang Fulan were also in her hands.
She had taken out the top-tier batch from the early and middle stages. Before that, she had ambushed them, causing their points to suffer. It was only natural that they couldn't compare to the other two cities.
She didn't care about that. She had suppressed their points, not taken their lives. It was fine as long as they were left to fight monsters.
However, every scene had points to be earned. The mass grave had scarecrows, the grassy area had gnomes, and inside the morgue were hopping corpses from the various coffins.
It was a bit terrifying—all the hopping corpses had been skinned, so you could see dry, blackish-red muscle, like old cured meat. It was a frightening sight.
The hopping corpses were stronger than the previous two types of monsters. Scarecrows were worth 5 points, gnomes 10 points each, but a single hopping corpse was worth 20 points. They were much harder to fight, and they could all launch Arcane attacks, capable of both ranged and melee combat. If surrounded by dozens of them, even Sanqian and his team would find it troublesome.
No wonder these people had racked up so many points.
She didn't know about the other two cities, but Jingyang's number one, Zhang Fulan, had already reached 6000 points before being pecked by the goose.
Points were a minor issue at the moment.
Fu Chuan remained invisible, moving through the walls. She used her pupil technique to scout ahead, doing her best to avoid the teams and the hopping corpses. Naturally, she wouldn't run into Sanqian and the others.
She had been lying low from the start, so she might as well see it through. Using her pupil technique, Fu Chuan carefully made her way deep into the morgue.
And then… she was blocked inside the wall.
She seemed to have bumped into something—a chest muscle?
It was hard as a rock, but she was certain it was a pectoral muscle under clothing.
Fu Chuan slowly raised her head, looking at the pitch-black world within the wall. Because the distance was so close, she could smell the stench of decay.
Lifting her head, her insight--enhanced eyes also had a night vision function.
So she saw a line of hopping corpses standing facing her.
Fu Chuan was suddenly reminded of the scene where Wei Xiaobao went to pee and saw a group of little eunuchs standing like corpses.
Then she saw the big brother at the front, the one whose chest she had touched, open his eyes.
There were no eyeballs.
He just stared at her with pitch-black sockets, then suddenly stretched out his hands, clawing for her heart.
But as Fu Chuan was startled, she immediately cast a Stun, followed by a thread of Light Stream that shot through their abdomens, piercing their corpse cores.
A skewered instant kill.
200 points in the bag. But Fu Chuan lifted their clothes to check and saw suture marks on the shriveled, skinless muscles of their abdomens.
Undoing the sutures, she pulled out the corpse cores underneath, which were engraved with some curses.
"Dark Curse Arcane: Corpse Puppetry + Gnome Suture Technique. Corpse Puppetry is a necromancer's specialty. If this person is a necromancer…"
"Then this person will definitely have a big move at the end."
Because necromancers were the least afraid of losing their minions.
Fu Chuan put away the corpse cores and, after a moment of thought, used her pupil technique to scan for the area with the heaviest aura of death.
That would be the area where Little Skinner most frequently operated, or even hid.
This time, Fu Chuan didn't dare to be reckless. She waited a while, urgently recalling the Little Locust to merge with her before daring to enter.
Ten minutes later, having transformed into a small ant, she discovered a secret space in the deepest part—a seemingly ordinary storage room. But her pupil technique revealed that it contained spatial elements of a secondary, overlapping space.
Fu Chuan added another layer of a basic Invisibility Arcane Truth to herself. Only after stacking several buffs did she dare to enter.
Passing through the space, she saw a huge area at a glance.
It covered at least three thousand square meters, with a row of more than a dozen cells and several execution platforms. Hanging from the ceiling were sheets of human skin.
They were all air-dried, and the skins were covered in many incantations.
Fu Chuan glanced at them and then looked away, turning her attention to the cells. The other cells were empty, stained with blood, and their doors were wide open. It was clear that Little Skinner hadn't been in business for a long time—the villagers were all dead, replaced by gnomes disguised as villagers.
Only two adjacent cells were a bit strange.
The cell doors were tightly locked. Through the bars, she could see that one room was well-decorated, with a bed, a dressing table, and a clean, pretty little quilt. The one next to it was more terrifying.
Shackles and chains hung from the ceiling.
On the floor, leaning against the wall, was a female corpse that looked very old. She was on her side with her knees bent, her ear pressed against the wall, and her head lowered. Her scalp was bare, with only shriveled muscle underneath. She had no scalp, but Fu Chuan knew that if her scalp were still there, it would be covered in wounds.
Because on the floor beneath the chains was a pile of long hair, matted with blood that had dried years ago. There was so much blood; a large pool of it had thickened on the floor. You could probably scrape off a large, stiff chunk of it with a shovel.
The body was still skinned; the skin was nowhere to be found.
But she had been tortured to death—the joints of her wrists showed signs of dislocation, indicating that she had struggled with all her might in her agony…
Finally, she had left the chains.
She had crawled to the wall, pressing her ear against it, listening to the sounds from next door?
Fu Chuan was a very emotionally perceptive person. With just a glance at the traces inside, she could imagine the scene from back then. Looking at the cell next door, she saw a Barbie doll on the dressing table.
That seemed like something a five or six-year-old girl would play with.
She vaguely understood something.
Two people had once been imprisoned here. The woman in the right cell, who had been tortured with chains, was about thirty or forty years old based on her bone age. Judging by the time of death, she had died ten years ago.
Coincidentally, the diary of the village girl was also dated ten years ago.
Ten years ago, Little Skinner had just arrived in this village and had harmed many villagers, possibly including this mother and daughter.
The mother was in her thirties, the girl five or six, still at the age of playing with Barbie dolls.
The mother endured brutal torture next door, finally crawling to the wall to listen to her daughter's voice…
The daughter's treatment was better—this couldn't be due to Little Skinner's mercy, because the other little girls in the village had all been harmed without distinction.
Therefore, her treatment was bought with her mother's own sacrifice.
But the girl probably didn't know. There was still a cake box on the table, and the leftover cake inside had rotted away.
She had happily eaten that cake, but hadn't finished it.
So, was this girl still alive? Who was she?
Fu Chuan looked at the Barbie doll and understood. Just as she was about to order the Little Locust to do something, suddenly!
There was a noise outside.
Fu Chuan's heart tightened. She wanted to retreat temporarily, but a prompt appeared: Special private space. Entry is possible when the owner, Little Skinner, is absent. If the owner returns, the space becomes semi-owned by him, and entry and exit are prohibited.
Oh my god!
She was trapped inside.
The planners at the Education Ministry must have honeycombs for brains, so many tricks!
If it was a private space, wouldn't her presence be instantly detected by the owner?
No, the prompt said: semi-owned?
Semi-owned meant that the space belonged to the latter, who could control entry and exit, but it wasn't completely private. Otherwise, he would be able to see everything inside.
Fu Chuan reasoned that this was because this private space could hide living people, and for a living space to be completely owned, the owner's level requirement would be very high.
Level 30 was the threshold.
From this, she could infer that Little Skinner was below level 30.
Fu Chuan decisively chose to use Mimicry.
One of the human skins on the ceiling was gone, replaced by an identical one hanging in its place.
A moment later, a short boy appeared at the entrance below.
He looked harmless, but his gait was strange, like a drunkard's. After entering, he scanned the entire space, took out a black skull, and pressed his fingertips on it… then began chanting a spell.
It was indeed a necromantic Arcane—the Black Bone Flying Eye Technique.
Fu Chuan recognized this type of Arcane at a glance and became even more cautious.
At that moment, the black skull flew up. A red light ignited in its two pitch-black eye sockets, and it flew around the space, constantly scanning… just as it passed by Fu Chuan's side.
It scanned past… and then flew on.
The combination of the Blue Pupil's disguise, Mimicry, and the Little Locust's merged state was still very powerful. It had fooled him.
The skull confirmed that the space was safe. Only then did Little Skinner let out a breath and smile, muttering, "I'm really too cautious. How could I think they could find this place just because those playthings outside are a bit tough."
"It must have been too long. I've become paranoid."
"I wonder who has the key to that protection formation."
"I need to investigate this thoroughly."
He rummaged through some chests and drawers, found some props, and then left.
A while after he left, Fu Chuan was about to leave when she noticed that among the hanging human skins, one in the very center had severe abrasion marks on its wrist skin from struggling, and its scalp was covered in wounds.
The incantations on it were the most unusual.
After leaving Little Skinner's private space, Fu Chuan checked the time.
There was one hour left.
Time to wrap things up.
Fu Chuan immediately sent the Little Locust to a certain place.
"To the prison? Sister, what do you want me to do there?"
"Find someone."
"Who?"
"Barbara."
The Little Locust didn't ask why and immediately flew off at top speed, taking fifteen minutes to reach the prison.
By now, the prison was long empty. The candidates had either withdrawn or gone deeper into the assessment.
After it flew into the prison… before it could find anyone, a voice came from above. It looked up and saw Barbara hanging herself in mid-air with chains, smiling at it.
But her eye sockets were dripping blood.
"Where did this little bug come from? Do you want to play a death game with me?"
"I'm so lonely, I'm the only one left."
"No one will play with me."
The Little Locust understood: this was the so-called hidden punishment mission.
Sister had said that this Barbara was not easy to deal with… it had to do as she said.
After sending out the Little Locust, Fu Chuan herself revealed her true form and appeared in a corridor inside the morgue. She put on a show of fighting a few waves of hopping corpses, raising her score quite a bit, while moving closer to the Jingyang City candidates.
At this time, the Jingyang City candidates were in a very bad situation, being surrounded and attacked by people from the other two cities. They couldn't win against anyone because they were scattered, lacking a leader or a cohesive team, each fighting alone.
"It's a disgrace to even talk about it. Those two cities are fighting each other to the death, yet they can still spare the effort to suppress us."
"Strange, where are all the usually powerful people from our city?"
"They were probably all screwed over by Xie Keli. That guy must be a spy sent by another city."
"Stop it. Don't blame everything on others. Our cohort was never as good as theirs to begin with. Or maybe there are some who are comparable, but they have their own plans. You can't blame others."
Fu Chuan was speechless hearing their complaints, but she saw Shen Qixi speak a fair word. The others weren't as strong as her and didn't dare to talk back, but their faces were full of displeasure.
Fu Chuan knew that this girl was probably still stuck in her initial dilemma: unable to find teammates worthy of her, only finding useless burdens.
Her previous teammates might have been eliminated or found other paths.
And these people were so unwilling to be led by a little sister; they would probably betray her at a critical moment.
Fu Chuan must have had a cursed tongue, because just as she thought this, she saw a small team charge out.
They were from Gao Yang City. There were ten of them, more than Shen Qixi's group. The leader was a level 20 youth who immediately used three Vitality Element Essence Beads to boost his elemental energy, then locked onto Shen Qixi for a group attack.
When Shen Qixi realized she was the only one being targeted, she knew something was wrong. She hurriedly tried to dodge, but it was too late—her teammates had all left the team and collectively thrown negative buffs on her.
They were going to eliminate her directly!
A ten-person assault plus negative buffs from several others—she couldn't withstand this wave. It was either die or withdraw.
"Fuck!" As Groundhog jumped up and roared, Shen Qixi on the screen was already in mortal danger.
Even Shen Yunyi knew her daughter was in a perilous situation. She had known this for a long time.
After all, she was too young, her foundation insufficient, and she herself couldn't provide her with many resources…
She was always being bullied.
Yet she was smart, proud, and stubborn, so she could only suffer losses.
Shen Yunyi lowered her head, seemingly struggling with something, but then she suddenly heard a voice.
"Little dwarf, why are you always getting bullied?"
The voice was scummy and arrogant. Then came a group stun, followed by a swift shuttle of Light Stream. Before these people could even realize where the attacker was, their bodies had been pierced by the high-agility attack. It first pierced the core energy center in their abdomens that controlled their elements, then exited from their stomachs. The golden threads then looped around their throats. Before their heads could be instantly snapped off, the terrified individuals all chose to withdraw from the competition.
Silence.
Fu Chuan emerged from the wall.
Shen Qixi didn't seem particularly surprised, or perhaps she suppressed her surprise, simply staring at Fu Chuan.
Fu Chuan sent her a team invitation.
Shen Qixi glanced at her. "Didn't you say you don't recruit little dwarfs?"
Fu Chuan: "I've discovered that many people are even worse than a little dwarf like you. I'll reluctantly accept you."
Shen Qixi really wanted to stubbornly refuse, but since the exam's outcome was tied to her future, she could only swallow her pride and join the team. She comforted herself internally: What if this scumbag is actually a good person? A good person with a sharp tongue can be forgiven. And even if he isn't the captain lady, he probably has a close relationship with her.
This Light Stream… why is it used so much like spider silk?
But they were completely different elemental substances.
Regardless, Shen Qixi breathed a sigh of relief. She had long grown tired of teaming up with incompetent and foolish people. They weren't even as cute as Groundhog; just looking at them was annoying.
Xie Keli was a scumbag, but at least he was powerful and smart.
"Since you've teamed up with me, it means you need a teammate. Give your orders. What's next?"
The little dwarf, Ah Qi, never wasted words, getting straight to the point.
Fu Chuan led her out.
"I was delayed by some things earlier and missed out on farming points. Now they're all in groups, and I don't dare to take on those top teams. So I need teammates. Let's find some people to team up with quickly. I have a feeling Little Skinner is about to come out."
The closer it got to the end, the more certain it was that the big BOSS would appear.
This reason was perfectly logical. Although Shen Qixi was puzzled, she didn't suspect much and followed Fu Chuan out to grind monsters.
Soon, her mood improved even more.
Having a reliable teammate was great. She would never force herself again.
"By the way, where are Guan Zizai and the others? Why are you with these useless people?"
Shen Qixi's expression was calm. "As you can see, Jingyang City's situation isn't great. We've been unable to form a cohesive force and have been suppressed by the other two cities. But there's no law saying people from different cities can't team up. So, people climb towards higher places. They tried to recruit me, but I didn't agree."
This was her stubborn side.
Fu Chuan raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because I feel that Jingyang City still has some very powerful people in hiding. Choosing a side rashly would mean betraying my own pride and might not even guarantee my interests. Why bother? Anyway, before Little Skinner appears, everyone is the same."
Her strategic thinking was broad, but her luck in finding teammates had always been poor. Even people like Guan Zizai couldn't resist the lure of personal gain in the high school entrance exam.
But most people couldn't, could they?
Fu Chuan: "I get it. You couldn't get a hot piece of shit, so you had to settle for a cold one."
Shen Qixi: "…"
Excellent. With one sentence, she had managed to disgust everyone watching the exam, the group of candidates who had just been eliminated, and Shen Qixi herself.
It was lunchtime right now!
Zhou Linlang, who was in the middle of her lunch, looked down at the small bread her deputy had sent over.
It happened to be a coiled, custard-filled bun. The deputy was thoughtful; it was even heated, steaming warmly.
She hesitated, wondering if she should continue eating.
But inside the exam, Fu Chuan and her team had just saved their third teammate.
"Holy crap, big bro!"
A bruised and battered Pang Ci, fleeing in disarray, suddenly ran into Fu Chuan and Shen Qixi. He was overjoyed, as if he had met a divine savior, but he immediately warned them, "Damn it, that Liu guy and his partner are at the back gate! They're terrifying, on a killing spree, eliminating people from other cities. We have to run!"
Hearing that it was Sanqian and the others, Fu Chuan decisively led the two of them to hide in an inconspicuous side room.
"How did you run into them?"
Pang Ci wiped the blood from his face, looking dejected. "I don't know. They had just fought a wave of people from Gao Yang. They seemed to be talking about some key. Our group happened to be nearby, so of course we were curious, since it concerned information about breaking the dungeon. But they found us and turned around to kill us. Luckily, I escaped quickly… By the way, how did you two end up together?"
"Didn't you say you don't team up with dwarfs?"
Pang Ci really didn't know how to talk. Shen Qixi shot him a look.
Fu Chuan: "Then you're a dwarf too. I can't team up with you either."
Pang Ci: "Don't be like that! Add me, add me."
Fu Chuan extended her hand, as if about to send an invitation…
Suddenly, in that instant!
50 Vitality Element Essence Beads + Light Stream + Light Explosion + Light Glory skill charge + Basic Attack Arcane Truth critical hit.
She unleashed a powerful combination attack!
A sneak attack.
A direct, brutal strike aimed at Pang Ci's head!
The entire enclosed room was filled with the Light Explosion.
Shen Qixi was a teammate, so she wouldn't be harmed by her own captain's attack, but her eyes and mind were still reeling from the shock. What is he doing?!
Is there something wrong with this Short and Tight?
BOOM!!
Pang Ci probably never saw it coming, but he did react… a very hasty reaction.
As soon as his reaction appeared, the crowd, stunned by Fu Chuan's terrifying sneak attack, quickly realized the key point—this Short and Tight's impromptu reaction was two sickles.
The terrifying sickles they had seen not long ago appeared in a cross, attempting to block the attack while buying time to summon his own defenses.
But this scumbag Xie was truly too cunning; everything had been prepared in advance.
50 Vitality Element Essence Beads plus the two new skills, Light Glory and Light Explosion, gave the Xie Keli he had previously judged as inferior to him a damage output that was now on par with his own.
The sneak attack was completely unexpected. He never thought…
Even experts could be killed by a rookie stabbing them in the back, let alone someone who wasn't a rookie.
BANG!!
The sickles were a step too slow.
In an instant, Pang Ci's body vanished into thin air.
He had withdrawn. Because he was strong, strong enough to make the only choice available at that moment—to withdraw. He had no other choice.
The light faded. The parents, nobles, tycoons, and reporters, who were holding their chopsticks and eating their boxed lunches, all fell silent, unsure how to react.
After the light faded, Fu Chuan picked up the metal sickle that Pang Ci had dropped and pointed at the empty air in front of her.
"Your dear teammate has been eliminated by me. Your perfect iron triangle now has a gap. Although you two together might not fear me, there is clearly a better option—joining my team."
"Eliminating him was not my wish, but I really like you two."
"Brother Lin, and Sister Lin."
This was a high-level game. Shen Qixi looked at the two siblings who had appeared out of thin air and realized that some conflict must have occurred between these people.
Just now, Pang Ci had approached them proactively, and these two had followed, clearly planning to get close to Xie Keli and assassinate him.
A pity.
The result was that Xie Keli struck first, directly sneak-attacking and eliminating one of them, taking his place.
Lin Hangjing's face was pale and she remained silent, while Lin Chengxiu frowned and asked, "How did you find out?"
At that moment, the black-clad figure, Pang Ci, who had been forced out, slowly walked away, clutching his head that had almost been cracked open. His expression was dazed and melancholic. He ignored the shocked stares of the others, turned his head to look at the screen, and his face grew somber.
The person who had almost instantly killed him with a sneak attack was now speaking: "The purpose of following Jian Feilan was for the goose. Encountering me was just an accident. I don't think you could have predicted my appearance there. To be honest, the people who had the most contact with the goose were us from the final wave of the second stage assessment. You two siblings were among them. I analyzed it before and felt that you two had some kind of scheme going on. Perhaps you were the biggest beneficiaries of the second stage. But I wasn't sure if you had a companion. However, I had spent money to buy a recording of the second stage exam before this one started, and I knew that Jingyang had such a mysterious candidate. Later, I analyzed the ten of us present, and none of them matched his strength. What's interesting is that at the final moment of the second stage, while we were fighting to the death, your sister was able to remain unharmed. He wasn't among the ten of us, so he must have been in a nearby corridor. If you weren't allied with this mysterious candidate, why didn't he attack your sister? Was your sister strong enough to evade his detection?"
So, she later concluded that the three of them were most likely a team.
The brother openly drew people over, the sister lurked in the shadows to reap benefits, and the mysterious person lurked in the wild to eliminate rivals.
A very powerful iron triangle, and very inscrutable.
"And in this dungeon, there are only three types of people looking for the goose. First, people like Jian Feilan with official backgrounds, who have been coached by the system and understand the assessment's tricks best. They are also smart enough to use the electric net. Second, people like me who have had the most contact with the goose and discovered its fear of poison. And third, people who already know it very well—the second dungeon was the goose's domain, so the final benefits must be related to it. I immediately suspected the Lin siblings. I also hoped they would come for the goose, so I deliberately transformed into Lin Chengxiu. Even if you didn't expose yourselves, I would expose you for you. And as a result, he came."
"He came, he attacked me. I couldn't beat him, but luckily I didn't die."
"However, I knew he could definitely recognize that I wasn't the real Lin Chengxiu. You would start investigating the identity of this imposter—just as I understand you, you are smart enough, and in the end, you would suspect me."
"Because I used poison. A batch of Jingyang's powerful candidates were sent into the Coffin Carrier's coffin by me. You went directly to the morgue, far from the mass grave, but only the scarecrows in the mass grave had so much poison to collect. That made my suspicion a certainty. Since you had locked onto my identity, then, naturally, you would be the first to approach me, wanting to assassinate me."
So, when Pang Ci proactively appeared before her.
She knew the identity of the black-clad figure.
Lin Chengxiu took a deep breath. "So you were just waiting for us to walk into your trap, then sneak-attack and eliminate him first, because you weren't confident against the three of us together."
"It's not that I wasn't confident. It's that I would have certainly died."
Fu Chuan: "The explanation is over. Can you join the team now?"
She hadn't wasted all this breath just for an academic discussion.
But Lin Chengxiu clearly disliked her. He said with a stern face, "And if we don't? We could leave right now, and you couldn't stop us."
Of course, Fu Chuan believed that as well, so she said, "It seems Pang Ci reminds me of one more thing. Why did he approach me from the very beginning? Did he know from the start that I was extraordinarily talented? I think you arranged for him to approach me from the beginning for another reason—for example, you needed to stir up conflict among the three noble families of Jingyang. With the nobles fighting amongst themselves, they wouldn't have the leisure to suppress candidates like you, who come from commoner backgrounds but are threatening enough to be noticed. Without being pressured, you wouldn't have to expose yourselves prematurely. So, back when we were eating noodles at the restaurant… it was Pang Ci who tipped off that idiot from the Lan Clan, right?"
"I'm not saying this to deliberately expose you."
"But to genuinely expose you, to let the three families outside see how you've been playing them like fiddles."
"So, for self-preservation, you must achieve a better ranking, right? Plus, with such a big commotion here, my agility and insight are enough to escape, but what about you? Are you sure you can escape the encirclement of the candidates from the other two cities?"
"Therefore, you have no choice."
"Out of consideration for having eaten your family's pancakes twice, I can give you two chances. So I'll say it again: join, or die."
Holy crap, holy crap!!!
The people outside exploded. The expressions of the members of the three noble families all changed.
And Shen Qixi took a deep breath.
Was this the high school entrance exam?
So many schemes… She felt that not only was she young, but her abilities were also quite inadequate.
At least the three people in front of her each had eight hundred schemes in their hearts.
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