Chapter 37 – Catching Up and Surpassing

Outside the Virtual Realm.

In the plaza.

At some point, silence had fallen all around.

Including Gao Wenbai, all the teachers stared at the leaderboard in utter disbelief.

Lin Ze’s bizarrely rapid climb had left them completely dumbfounded.

In just a brief moment, he had surged from over a hundredth place straight up to sixth.

This speed was simply inconceivable.

“Th-this… how did he possibly do it?”

“Could Lin Ze have killed several third-tier Ferocious Beasts in one go?”

“Impossible. The third-tier Ferocious Beasts in the forest all act alone, and they’re separated by considerable distances. There’s no way they could all gather together at once.”

“Exactly. And even if Lin Ze really did encounter several third-tier Ferocious Beasts, with his strength, there’s no way he could have taken them all out in such a short time!”

“That’s true.”

The crowd buzzed with discussion, utterly baffled.

It was Gao Wenbai who acted decisively, immediately having Lin Ze’s assessment footage pulled up again.

When the image appeared on the screen, a gasp rippled through the crowd.

“A Fermi Ant Swarm!”

Just as one examinee had guessed, Lin Ze had charged straight into a beast nest.

A Fermi Ant Beast lair.

He had stumbled upon it by chance on his way back from hunting.

The vast majority of Ferocious Beasts in this forest were non-gregarious types.

They either acted alone, or at most in groups of two or three.

It was extremely rare to see them moving in large packs.

But the Fermi Ant Beast was an exception.

It was an unquestionably gregarious Ferocious Beast.

After encountering the Fermi Soldier Ants, Lin Ze had deliberately left one injured and let it return to the nest.

Then he followed it all the way, successfully discovering the Fermi Ant Swarm’s main lair.

What followed was a thoroughly satisfying slaughter.

Fermi Ant Beasts were divided into four types: workers, soldiers, flyers, and the queen.

Among them, the workers and soldiers were first-tier Ferocious Beasts.

The flyers were second-tier Ferocious Beasts, though even at Mature Stage they only reached the strength of Level 2-3.

The queen was slightly higher in level, at second-tier, Level 7.

Unfortunately, she had no combat ability whatsoever, serving only as a breeding tool for the swarm.

The greatest threat of a Fermi Ant Beast colony lay in their collective behavior.

A single nest contained at least three hundred to five hundred ant beasts.

Although their individual strength was unimpressive, their terrifying numbers still made many examinees shrink back in fear.

Even elite geniuses like Tan Yong and Guo Xinyi wouldn’t dare face a Fermi Ant Swarm alone.

Only Lin Ze, the odd one out among the examinees, showed no fear whatsoever.

Instead, he felt the delighted surprise of someone who’d discovered a treasure trove.

Crack! Crack!

The sound of ice condensing echoed through the sky above the forest.

In the air more than ten meters above the ground, countless sharp ice blades materialized out of nowhere. After a brief pause, they poured down like a cascading waterfall.

Ice Waterfall!

Shhk! Shhk shhk!

The flyers in midair bore the brunt of it, instantly engulfed by the ice blades. Before they could even struggle, they were torn to shreds, their broken bodies falling to the ground as lumps of ice.

With a single strike, over a hundred flyers were wiped out.

And this was only the beginning.

Xiao Xue let out a tinkling giggle, reaching out to point lightly into the distance.

In that instant, countless ice threads emerged from the densest part of the ant swarm, rapidly condensing into a sapphire-blue crystal.

The next second.

The crystal exploded with a deafening blast, transforming into a ring of ice that swept outward in all directions.

Frost Nova!

Crack! Crack!

Amidst the crisp, continuous sounds, countless Fermi Ant Beasts were turned into ice sculptures one after another.

In less than a single breath, the ant swarm had once again been reduced by over a hundred ant beasts.

Faced with Xiao Xue, whose level completely overwhelmed them, the Fermi Ant Beasts had absolutely no power to resist.

Outside the Virtual Realm, the teachers stared blankly at the images on the light screens, mouths agape, unable to snap back to reality for a long while.

Even Gao Wenbai’s expression was somewhat dazed.

This was a complete one-sided slaughter.

The Fermi Ant Swarm, which could force any Tier 3 existence to retreat when acting as a group, was being easily massacred under Lin Ze’s ice-attribute Pet Beast.

What’s more—

Anyone with eyes could tell that the Pet Beast hadn’t even used its full strength yet.

The meaning behind this needed no explanation.

“A… a Tier 4 Pet Beast!”

One teacher stammered.

Every teacher present was at least a Silver-level Beast Tamer.

Under normal circumstances, a Tier 4 Pet Beast was nothing to them.

But when a Tier 4 Pet Beast appeared on an eighteen-year-old student, it was truly astonishing.

Gao Wenbai took a deep breath, a glimmer of amazement flashing in his eyes.

“Unexpected… It seems our intelligence was wrong. Lin Ze doesn’t possess a Tier 3 Pet Beast at all—it’s Tier 4!”

The teachers exchanged glances, undisguised shock spreading across their faces in unison.

A candidate with a Tier 3 Pet Beast was already worthy of being called a once-in-a-generation prodigy.

Among the nearly five thousand elite students gathered from all over, there were only a handful—four, to be exact.

Yet Lin Ze’s strength surpassed even that, with his Pet Beast having already grown to the Tier 4 level.

What kind of monstrous talent was this?

If the facts weren’t playing out right before their eyes, they simply wouldn’t have believed it!

“Such talent… it’s absolutely terrifying!”

“We underestimated him before.”

“The Dean truly had foresight—a genius like this absolutely cannot be let go!”

“Exactly. With proper nurturing, he’s sure to become our academy’s ace in the future!”

“Maybe he’ll even shine brilliantly in the next Academy League!”

After the initial shock, the teachers grew excited.

Being able to recruit such an outstanding genius into the academy was undoubtedly a great boon.

No one would ever complain about having too many excellent students.

Even Gao Wenbai, who was usually stern and imposing, now wore an expression of undisguised admiration on his face.

“He’s indeed a rare and exceptional seedling.”

“Now let’s see if he can surpass the four ahead of him and claim the position of Top Freshman.”

Many teachers nodded inwardly at these words.

Before this, they would never have believed Lin Ze could become the Top Freshman.

But after that astonishing display just now, such doubts had completely vanished.

With Lin Ze’s strength, even though his score was still some distance behind, it wasn’t impossible for him to overtake the others and seize first place.

Lin Ze was unaware of the thoughts of those outside.

After wiping out the Fermi Ant Swarm, he immediately continued hunting Ferocious Beasts with Xiao Xue without pause.

The highest Power Level of the Ferocious Beasts within the forest was only Tier 3, Rank 6.

One-on-one, they were no match for Xiao Xue at all.

The moment their tracks were discovered, they would be swiftly and cleanly killed by Xiao Xue in an instant.

The hunting efficiency was alarmingly high.

And reflected on the Leaderboard, Lin Ze’s score would surge upward by a large chunk every few moments.

501, 519, 531, 556…

The terrifying rate of increase left all the examinees staring in disbelief.

About half an hour later.

Under the stunned gaze of the crowd, Lin Ze’s score finally broke through the 800 mark.

His ranking also surpassed Li Pengyun, placing him fourth.

1st place: Tan Yong, 893 points

2nd place: Guo Xinyi, 885 points

3rd place: Lv Gang, 864 points

4th place: Lin Ze, 828 points

5th place: Li Pengyun, 815 points

At this point, Lin Ze had finally caught up with the pace of those at the very top of the scoreboard.

He had even overtaken one of them.

He was now less than 70 points behind Tan Yong, who held the first place.

And there were still about two hours left before the assessment concluded.