mchenry-crisis.org Chapter 49 Ranking Up
Chapter 49 Ranking Up
Anning City Examination Affairs Center.
On the screen, Song Chen's ranking suddenly jumped.
52nd place.
"Song Chen has entered the core area."
This statement is like a stone thrown into calm water.
The core area is unchained and unregulated, where mythical beasts roam freely. It is a true battlefield prepared for top candidates, and also a place where people can truly die.
"Entering the core area only an hour after the exam starts?"
"What's the use of being fast? The core area isn't about who gets in first, it's about who survives the longest and kills the most."
Song Chen was unaware of these things.
All he knew was that the air in the core area was different.
More humid, heavier, and carrying a strong aura of psionic energy.
The woods were denser and darker than outside. The canopy overhead blocked most of the sunlight, leaving only sparse patches of light on the ground.
He slowed his pace, and his True Sight silently activated.
A pale golden light swirled in his eyes, and everything around him became crystal clear.
Fifty meters away, he spotted a mutated lynx lurking in the bushes.
Thirty meters away, a mutated venomous snake was coiled in the tree canopy.
Further away, even more signs of life were stirring.
He took a deep breath and gripped the knife hilt tightly; this was the prey that had value.
Song Chen glanced at the rankings in the corner of the screen and frowned slightly.
He fought his way from the outer perimeter to the core area, killing nearly a hundred strange beasts, yet he only ranked fifty-second.
Although most of the time was spent traveling, the number 52 was still a bit unexpected.
There are quite a few talented people in this cohort.
A deep, powerful roar echoed from afar, carrying a sense of oppression. Second-tier, high-grade. Perhaps even at its peak.
Song Chen's eyes lit up.
He walked in that direction. Fifty-two? That won't be the case for long.
The first prey in the core area was a mutated giant lizard of the second rank.
It lay on the edge of a swamp, its body covered in dark green scales, with a row of serrated thorns standing upright on its back.
It is over four meters long and has a thick, powerful tail that can snap a tree as thick as a bowl with a gentle flick.
Its eyes were amber-colored, with cold, vertical pupils, staring directly at Song Chen.
Song Chen squatted on a tree branch twenty meters away, his True Sight Eye operating at full power.
He could dissect the monitor lizard's scale thickness, joint rotation angle, and tail attack range.
It is a second-tier superior item with high defense, great strength, and decent speed. Its only weakness is its abdomen, where the scales are thinnest and a blade can cut through.
He took a deep breath and fell silently from the branch.
The monitor lizard immediately turned its head. It didn't move, but just stared at him, making a low hissing sound from its throat.
Song Chen didn't move either. The two faced off for more than ten seconds, neither of them making the first move.
The monitor lizard is waiting for its opportunity, and so is Song Chen.
Then Song Chen moved. Instead of charging forward head-on, he unfurled his Wings of Gale, and his figure suddenly rose higher.
The monitor lizard reacted faster than he expected, its tail sweeping outwards with a whooshing sound as it struck the spot where he had landed.
Song Chen abruptly changed direction in mid-air, unleashing a lightning bolt with his left hand that struck the giant lizard directly in the eye.
The monitor lizard roared in pain, its head thrown back, its tail sweeping away the target.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Song Chen landed beside it, his blade crackling with deep purple electricity, and slashed at the joint of the giant lizard's forelimb.
The blade sliced into the joint crevice, and blood gushed out.
The monitor lizard's forelimbs buckled, and its body tilted.
Song Chen didn't give it a chance to adjust. The Gale Wings unfolded again, and he circled around to its abdomen, stabbing the light white soft armor with his second slash.
With the blade mostly embedded in the ground, he twisted his wrist, and the power of lightning exploded inside the giant lizard's body.
The monitor lizard stiffened and then collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Song Chen landed, panting heavily. He had earned 500 points for a second-tier high-grade item.
He glanced at the system panel and saw his ranking jump to 48th.
He didn't rest and continued to delve deeper.
The density of mutated beasts in the core area far exceeded that in the outer and middle areas. After walking less than two hundred meters, we encountered another group of mutated hyenas.
There were six of them, the leader being a mid-grade second-tier creature, and the rest being low-grade second-tier creatures.
They formed a semicircle, baring their teeth and slowly approaching.
Song Chen gripped the knife handle tightly, without backing down.
During his time in the Cangmang Mountains, he learned one thing.
When faced with a group attack, you cannot retreat. If you retreat, you will be caught up, surrounded, and torn apart. You can only fight your way forward.
The first hyena pounced.
Song Chen turned to the side and severed its front leg with a single strike, while simultaneously unleashing a bolt of lightning with his left hand towards the second one.
The lightning struck, and the hyena howled and fell to the ground.
The third and fourth hyenas pounced from both sides at the same time. He spread his wings of whirlwind, his body leaping into the air. The two hyenas collided and rolled on the ground.
As he landed, flashes of light appeared, and the throats of two hyenas were slit open.
The lead mid-tier second-order beast remained motionless, crouching behind and watching coldly.
Only after Song Chen finished off the last low-grade hyena did it slowly stand up.
Song Chen stared at it.
This one was a size larger than the others, with a shoulder height of nearly 2.5 meters. Its muscles were as solid as iron lumps, and its eyes were dark red, showing no fear, only madness.
It pounced.
The speed was astonishing; Song Chen didn't even have time to swing his knife and could only dodge to the side.
The claws grazed his armor, sparks flying.
Taking advantage of the momentum from his dodge, he swung his sword backhand and slashed at its hind leg.
The blade pierced the flesh, but did not damage the bone.
The hyena, in pain, turned and pounced again, this time faster and more vicious.
Song Chen didn't dodge; instead, he met the attack head-on. The moment the claws touched his chest, he ducked and slashed upwards with the blade, cutting from his throat down to his abdomen.
The hyena crashed to the ground, twitched a few times, and then lay still.
Song Chen stood up, looked down at the corpses scattered on the ground, and continued walking.
For the next hour, he barely stopped.
A swarm of mutated poisonous bees emerged from the tree canopy, a dense, black mass, numbering in the hundreds.
Song Chen raised his hand and unleashed the full power of the Sky-Splitting Thunder. A purple electric net covered an area of ten meters in radius, and poisonous bees fell like raindrops.
One, two, ten, fifty... each one is worth one point.
The score was fluctuating wildly, with the ranking jumping from 48th to 38th, and then from 38th to 27th.
A mid-grade second-tier mutated python sprang up from under the withered leaves, moving as fast as a shadow.
Song Chen's True Sight had already pinpointed its location. The instant it sprang up, he had already dodged to the side and severed the snake's head with a single strike. Blood sprayed all over him, the stench of which was pungent.
A mutated giant ape of the second rank, of superior quality, leaped down from the cliff, slamming its fists into the ground, causing the ground to crack and sending rocks flying.
Song Chen was so shocked that he staggered a step, and the giant ape's second punch was already slamming into his face.
He had no time to dodge and could only take the blow head-on. The Thunderclap Blade was held horizontally in front of him, and his giant fist slammed into the blade, the immense force sending him flying and crashing into a tree.
The giant ape caught up, raising its fists high, intending to smash him into a pulp.
Song Chen gritted his teeth, unleashed his Gale Wings at full power, and darted out from the side the instant the giant fist landed, circling behind the giant ape.
He channeled all the power of the Sky-Splitting Lightning into the blade and slashed it down on the back of the giant ape's neck.
A full-force attack from a Grandmaster, combined with the burst of B-grade lightning.
The blade sliced into the spine, the giant ape's body froze, and then collapsed like a mountain.
Song Chen landed, knelt on one knee, and gasped for breath.
The ranking is still fluctuating; it's currently at number twenty-one.