Warrior

6:30 a.m.

Woooooo—

Piercing blasts suddenly rang out across Monster Town.

From the large loudspeakers at the entrance, a gruff voice echoed throughout the town.

"The assessment period is over. All Quasi-Warriors in Monster Town are to report to the exit immediately."

It's finally over! I wonder how Brother Yang did? Xia Zhi thought as he stepped out of the break room and looked at the town beginning to stir in the distance. He then hurried toward the entrance.

At this moment, the Quasi-Warriors who had finished the assessment early were also arriving one after another.

Li Wei stood off to one side. When he saw Xia Zhi approaching, he snorted coldly and walked over to a nearby tree. With half his face hidden in shadow, he stared at Xia Zhi with a vicious gaze.

The Quasi-Warriors still inside the town emerged one by one.

Almost everyone was stained with blood. Some were injured, clutching their wounds as their companions helped them out.

Several heavy trucks drove out of the town. The first few were piled high with monster corpses.

The last truck stopped by the roadside, but it carried numerous human bodies. Some were even mutilated, their exposed wounds still showing traces of having been bitten and gnawed by monsters.

"Anyone who recognizes these Quasi-Warrior corpses, come claim them," an officer standing beside the truck said in a cold, stern voice.

"Ah!"

"Third Brother!"

"A Hao!"

Some of the watching Quasi-Warriors cried out in shock. A few even rushed over, threw themselves onto the bodies, and wailed loudly.

"What are you crying for?" The officer's cold voice rang out again. "Do you think fighting monsters is some kind of game?"

"When you fight monsters, how could there be no deaths? Since you've chosen the path of a warrior, you must be prepared to die!"

"Why does human society give warriors so many privileges?"

"It isn't so you can throw your weight around in front of ordinary people!"

"It's because warriors kill vast numbers of monsters, protecting the safe lives of people in the base cities and rendering merit to all humanity."

"That is why you are given privileges."

"Status, power... everything is earned by fighting for your lives!"

"If you can't even pass the most basic combat assessment, you'll only die once you leave the city and enter the Wilderness Zone!"

The officer's words silenced all the Quasi-Warriors present.

"Those of you who can still move, go submit your assignments at the registration desk!" With that, the officer stopped paying attention to them and left directly.

Xia Zhi swept his gaze over the bodies in the truck. Not seeing Yang Ming among them made him breathe a sigh of relief.

Then, a familiar face suddenly caught his eye. It was Li Qiang.

At that moment, he lay among the pile of corpses, his wide-open eyes still filled with terror.

His throat had been bitten through by a monster, completely torn open.

His combat uniform was strangely undamaged, but from the collar onward, his organs and flesh had been dug out and eaten clean.

Dark red blood, already clotted, covered his face and body.

Although Xia Zhi had once wanted to kill him with his own hands, seeing someone he had known lying on the cold truck now, mixed in with so many corpses—

Xia Zhi felt no pleasure at all. Instead, he felt a trace of melancholy.

Li Wei also spotted Li Qiang's corpse. After glancing at that face with its eyes still open in death, he said resentfully, "Trash is trash. Hmph!"

He turned and left without another word, not even bothering with Li Qiang's body.

Watching Li Wei leave, Xia Zhi thought, Compared to Li Qiang, you—the one who orchestrated this assassination attempt from behind the scenes—are the one who deserves to die most.

"Xia Zhi, Xia Zhi!" Yang Ming called out after spotting him in the distant crowd.

"Brother Yang," Xia Zhi replied.

"How was it? How many monsters did you kill?" Yang Ming ran over with a smile. "I killed five monsters. Haha, after fighting all night, I can feel that my strength has improved again."

"A few dozen, I guess. I didn't count." Xia Zhi headed toward the registration desk with Yang Ming.

"A few dozen? Xia Zhi, you really are a freak." Yang Ming stared at him with wide eyes, unable to believe what he had heard.

"Those monsters may have only been the lowest H-class monsters, but their beastly instincts are inborn."

"Take Shadow Cats, for example. Felines are natural hunters, and they're so fast. I risked my life all night just to kill five."

Xia Zhi smiled upon hearing that, secretly thinking, If you knew I also killed an F-class Tiger Mastiff King, wouldn't you be even more shocked?

"How did you hurt your back?" Yang Ming asked when he noticed the wound behind Xia Zhi.

Because Xia Zhi's body had evolved into that of a warrior, his cells were far more active. The wound had scabbed over and healed much faster than it would have for an ordinary person, and after some simple treatment, he could barely feel it anymore.

"It's nothing. I got scratched while practicing my footwork against a few monsters."

Xia Zhi said it casually.

After hearing his answer, Yang Ming stopped walking and stared at him for a long while, unable to say a word.

"You really are a freak! You actually used the assessment monsters to practice your footwork—and against several of them?" Shaking his head, Yang Ming said nothing more.

When the two reached the registration desk, quite a few Quasi-Warriors were already handing in the left ears taken from the monsters they had killed.

"That's Xia Zhi, the student recruited early by the Limitless Martial Arts School."

"I heard he signed an A-level contract."

"I wonder how many monsters he killed this time. Yang Lei from the Thunderbolt Martial Arts School killed forty-three just now."

"He's so young, he definitely doesn't have much combat experience. It'd already be impressive if he didn't wet himself when facing monsters. Haha."

When the two of them arrived, someone who recognized Xia Zhi revealed his identity. The fact that the Limitless Martial Arts School had signed him early under an A-level contract sparked discussion among the gathered crowd.

For a moment, every gaze at the registration desk focused on him.

"Xia Zhi, right? Give me the left ears of the monsters you killed."

Several officers were stationed at the registration desk. Some counted the monster ears while others recorded the results. One of the officers spoke to Xia Zhi.

Ignoring the continuous chatter around him, Xia Zhi took off his backpack, opened it, and turned it upside down.

A large number of monster left ears spilled directly onto the table before the officer. The two-meter-long table was more than half covered, and among them was a golden left ear belonging to the Tiger Mastiff King.

"So many?"

"How many monsters did he kill?"

The Quasi-Warriors watching nearby were stunned.

Even the officer responsible for counting was taken aback by the sheer quantity.

He then began counting the monster ears. After lingering briefly over the Tiger Mastiff King's left ear, the officer smiled and said to Xia Zhi, "Xia Zhi, there are eighty-seven monster left ears in total. So far, you've killed the most monsters in this batch."

"Next." The officer turned toward the person behind him, while Xia Zhi walked away with a smile.

"What a freak. Yang Lei killed forty-three, but Xia Zhi killed eighty-seven."

"I wonder if there's anyone who killed even more monsters than Xia Zhi?"

Xia Zhi paid no attention to the crowd's astonished murmurs.

What did it matter how many H-class monsters he had killed?

He had kept seeking out monsters to hone his footwork, casually killing them once he was done practicing.

If he had only been focused on killing H-class monsters, then with Xia Zhi's current strength, killing over a hundred in a single night would not have been unusual.

I passed the warrior combat assessment. I'm finally a true warrior.

Xia Zhi's heart swelled with joy.

He had finally taken the first step—and the most important step—on the path to becoming a top-tier powerhouse.

Thinking of the exciting future awaiting him, Xia Zhi's emotions surged.

This is the kind of life that's truly exciting!