Chapter 72 (Part 1)
In previous years, the entrance exam would have concluded at this point. Candidates could return home and await their results, fill out their application, and decide where to begin their Beast Tamer journey.
But after this exam reform, there is one more item than before.
"It's an online test," Teacher Yuan said. "Because the Ark system needs to integrate everyone's simulated data, calculate the average level of this year's candidates, and then assign each person a staged promotion standard, it will take some time."
"Everyone, go back and rest first. Fight your last battle tomorrow—this assessment counts for a significant portion of your score."
"Everyone has tried the simulator system in the training ground, right? The exam will be similar to that, so don't be nervous."
The students nodded in agreement. Someone in the crowd raised their hands, "Teacher, I heard the Ark system has been fed to various beast control schools and research institutes for several months. There should be quite a bit of profound beast data from university students in there, right?"
"Not only that, I guess they even have the data on the Divine Beast Master."
"How terrifying! If it uses those to fight us, how can we defeat it?"
Teacher Yuan explained, "It's okay, don't worry."
"This assessment clearly stated that the new Ark subsystem was used. It can be considered a branch of the main system, possessing the data calculation and combat deduction capabilities inherited from the autonomous system, but the database is blank."
"It's like a clean sheet of paper. It relies entirely on the information entered by the candidates today to organize and summarize it. No profound beasts beyond the candidates' level will appear."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
However, someone in the crowd murmured, "What if some candidates are too strong, raising the average?"
Hearing the voice, the students all turned around and looked at Xia Muqing.
Xia Muqing: “……?”
What's the matter? She hasn't even boarded the Windhound yet!
Teacher Yuan was also at a loss for words: "Alright, everyone go back and prepare well. The Ark system assessment is divided into stages. Which rank you can reach depends on your ability."
"Even if the assessment is difficult, it will be difficult for everyone, not just you."
"If you really can't win, try to delay the fight. The duration of the fight might also be a scoring point..."
Teacher Yuan emphasized several key points the school's research group had speculated on, and the students dispersed. In the crowd, Xia Muqing held the koi fish and took a deep breath.
The previous exams were not difficult, but tomorrow was the most important one and also her biggest disadvantage.
The others were fighting with two mysterious beasts side by side. Some like Xu Ling and Yuan Feiyu could even command the mysterious beasts to use coordinated skills to achieve the effect of one plus one being greater than two. However, Xia Muqing only had one little koi, and fighting one against two was self-evidently difficult.
The little koi noticed Xia Muqing's nervousness, climbed onto her shoulder, and gurgled, blowing bubbles.
"Gurgle!"
Okay, Beastmaster, don't worry.
After using the 'Leap Over the Dragon Gate' move just now, it felt as if its mind had suddenly opened up, and its understanding of the skill had deepened a lot. A surge of mysterious power also surged out of the semi-finished dragon pill in its body, and the golden liquid filled a quarter of it in an instant.
This breakthrough was a natural result, a result of gradual accumulation. The little koi's daily hard work in practicing "Leaping Over the Dragon Gate" finally paid off.
So what if it's one against two? Doesn't it still have the "tail drift" function?
The more enemies there are, the stronger it will be!
Seeing that the mysterious beast was so energetic, Xia Muqing patted the little koi's back and a smile appeared on the corner of her lips.
"Okay, tomorrow is the last battle, let's cheer together!"
…
The next morning, Xia Muqing arrived at the examination room early.
When the bell rang and the students entered the examination room, they were surprised to find that the examination room had changed drastically overnight.
The instruments used to detect energy yesterday have been dismantled and replaced with a full set of VR simulation connectors. The invigilators attached energy connectors to the candidates and the mysterious beasts, and connected them to the simulation system.
A student nearby was muttering, "Now that we have virtual reality, will the online games we play in the future also be simulated?"
"You're overthinking it. This technique requires a very high level of mental strength from the user. Didn't you feel that during the simulation training?"
"In other words, only a beastmaster can open up a mysterious beast space. Their mental power is much higher than that of an ordinary person, so they can control this thing. But with our mental power, we'd be lucky if we could stay in there for five minutes..."
As they were talking, many people had already started the assessment.
Just as everyone expected, the test time for each person did not exceed 5 minutes. Those who finished the test first had to leave through another exit, but in order to prevent the test content from being leaked, they could not leave the test area for the time being. They had to wait until everyone finished the test before they could leave together.
After waiting for about an hour, it was Xia Muqing's turn.
She adjusted her breathing, tried to calm her nervousness, and put the connectors on her head and limbs.
After closing her eyes and opening them again, Xia Muqing saw a large training ground in front of her.
It was very similar to the ground where they usually trained. The little koi curiously landed on the ground and flicked its tail - wow, it was hard.
This simulator is very realistic, with a degree of authenticity of 90%, which is much more advanced than the simulator provided by the school!
Before Xia Muqing could look around, a huge countdown popped up in front of the man and the fish:
[Level 1, standard energy value 2000, battle starts in 3 seconds, 3, 2, 1...]
The virtual images of two mysterious beasts appeared in front of Xia Muqing.
A crescent horn and a mirror turtle, both of which are unevolved mysterious beasts. Xia Muqing estimated that they should have an energy value of 1,000 each, and the total amount would be 2,000.
This level is purely to deliver food to the little koi. It just casually flicks its tail and shatters the shadow into pieces.
[Level 2, standard energy value 5000...]
[Level 3, standard energy value 10,000...]
It was not until she reached level 9, with a standard energy value of 10w, that Xia Muqing finally felt the pressure.
What was refreshed were two colored steel centipedes with an energy value of 50,000, at the peak of the first stage of evolution. Their bodies were glowing with a strange alloy-like luster, and they looked as hard as iron. The poison sacs on their heads were slightly swollen, filled with thick, inky venom.
When Xia Muqing saw two identical mysterious beasts, she immediately became alert.
These two mysterious beasts may have a combination of skills!
The Ark system is too bad. It is definitely not a difficult task to defeat two 50,000 mysterious beasts with combo skills and two 50,000 miscellaneous soldiers!
"Xiao Jin, be serious and pray!"
The koi fish jumped up in response, and a beam of white light shot towards the two centipedes.
A colored steel centipede had just sprayed half of its venom when it was hit by the 'prayer'. The venom it sprayed suddenly lost its power in mid-air like a stream with its source cut off, and splashed onto the training ground.
“Sizzle——”
The bricks and stones of the training ground instantly began to emit smoke, and Xia Muqing could also smell a foul burnt smell.
“This simulation is quite realistic.”
The other colored steel centipede reacted quickly, and seeing that the situation was not good, it quickly dodged to the side with more than a dozen thin legs, dodged in a Z shape, and then pounced forward, revealing its ferocious jaws on its head, stabbing at the body of the little koi!
The little koi fish only had one tail, which was no match for its 18 legs, and was accidentally stabbed in the tail. Unexpectedly, the centipede's jaws pierced the scales, like piercing a hard diamond, and it simply couldn't penetrate the skin!
The little koi flipped its tail, and the big golden tail was dyed with a fiery red light, just like a blooming maple leaf in autumn, but when it swung, it was like an autumn wind sweeping across everything, and it slapped towards the body of the colored steel centipede.
The colored steel centipede was still in a daze because its stinger missed its target, and was caught off guard by the tail. Its hard shell shattered into pieces, and the entire figure of the mysterious beast disappeared in an instant.
Colored Steel Centipede: “???”
The other colored steel centipede had just woken up from 'praying' and saw its companion disappear, and immediately the whole beast felt unwell.
What’s going on? They haven’t even used their combo skills yet, and they’re being defeated one by one?
Besides, the skin of this koi fish is too thick, which is unscientific. Who is the defense king known as colored steel?
The other colored steel centipede was anxious and angry, and immediately attacked the koi fish.
But without the support of its companions, it was just an ordinary first-level mysterious beast. After being hit by several consecutive "prayers" from the little koi, it was almost crooked and soon followed in the footsteps of its companions.
The moment the shadow disappeared, Xia Muqing also breathed a sigh of relief.
The colored steel centipede was tough, venomous, and had combo moves, so most of the candidates probably wouldn't be able to make it. She had originally expected it to be a tough fight, but she hadn't expected the little koi to knock one out with a blessing and then quickly dispatch the other, leaving the other with nothing but 60% of their strength.
"By the way, Xiao Jin, *your physical strength has surpassed that of the Colored Steel Centipede?"
That's a dual-element mysterious beast with both poison and defense abilities, and the little koi can easily crush it. Doesn't this mean that the little koi's strength and defense are now far beyond those of ordinary mysterious beasts?
Xia Muqing's confidence increased a little.
"Come on, keep going! This system is quite interesting and much more flexible than the one at school. Let's take a look at what other novel designs there are."
…
As the candidates competed, strings of data flowed along the signal and merged into the Ark system extension in Jiang City.
As the most advanced intelligent system extension on Blue Star, Ark is constantly collecting data and information on mysterious beasts while processing data and organizing thousands of battles.
In the huge data stream, several strings of abnormal data attracted its attention.
[Unevolved Koi fish, passed level 9, abnormal data.]
[Data package decompressing... Beep, monitoring the game progress, no cheating detected.]
[The Koi's physical strength and profound energy fluctuation index are far above average. No residual drugs were found in its body, suggesting it is a high-potential special case. It is recommended to track and detect, retain data, and expand the upper limit of the database.]
[Opinion approved. Considering the limited space in the subsystem database, it is recommended that this be listed as a key observation target during the college entrance examination and that data be collected in a timely manner...]
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