(4200) Ranking

Back in the main arena of level two, I looked at the timer in the center of the arena; it was just one minute.

Luo Jun walked to the table, fiddling with the number one number plate, wondering in his mind, where exactly does this Mechanical Knight rank among monsters?

Looking at the completion time, he was the fastest. Even if it wasn't the easiest, it should still be relatively easy... Luo Jun temporarily put the sign at the bottom.

After waiting in the room for about three minutes, the door to room number three opened, and out came Zhu Sanyang, clutching his stomach and burping.

Zhu Sanyang was slightly taken aback when he saw Luo Jun, seemingly not expecting anyone to be faster than him. He wasn't one for words, so he simply nodded as a greeting, then went to the display board, picked up his number three card, considered it for a moment, and placed it in the third slot.

This kid's pretty confident, huh? Coming out so quickly and placing him in such a high position? Shouldn't he at least ask for other people's opinions first?

"What happened to you?" Luo Jun pretended to be indifferent, but he couldn't help but speak first when he encountered someone who was naturally indifferent.

"A sticky, soft monster." Zhu Sanyang clicked his tongue. "A bit sticky..."

"Huh?" Luo Jun was completely bewildered, finding it hard to imagine what this guy's fighting style would be like.

"And you? Who is your opponent?" Zhu Sanyang countered.

"I probably can't eat mine," Luo Jun joked. "It's a Mechanical Knight, made entirely of metal."

"My opponent is quite strong, but he was countered by my abilities. I estimate he's above average." Zhu Sanyang pointed to the number three card in the third position.

"My strength isn't high; one strike would have been enough," Luo Jun said. "It should be either seventh or sixth."

As the three were analyzing the situation, door number two opened, and Cui Zheng Hai came out, noting that ten and a half minutes had passed.

"Our abilities are different, and we're better at dealing with different enemies, so subjective feelings aren't very accurate..." He thought for a moment, "You guys should contact some otherworldly monsters you've fought before, the kind everyone knows, find those with similar styles and strengths to compare them with. That will make comparisons easier!"

"Thank you, the treatment is complete." Du Jincai nodded with a smile. He looked quite well, which wasn't surprising given his high rank in the Yuan Cultivation Society and his possession of Healing Treasure Item.

"My ghost is similar to a [Paranormal] Red-Clothed Vicious Ghost," Zhu Sanyang clicked his tongue. "The difference is that this one has a physical form, but it is real yet intangible. It is skilled in Curse and is very difficult to destroy."

He looked somewhat disheveled, his clothes were torn, and there was some blood on his left arm.

"That makes sense!" Du Jincai's eyes lit up. "My opponent reminds me a bit of Three-Star Assassin from the Hidden Kill Sect in the Martial World, but because of his unusual body structure, he'll be a bit more difficult to deal with."

Du Jincai looked at the two with some admiration. "What kind of monsters did you encounter? I encountered a woman whose entire body could grow Bone Blades... or rather, Succubus. She had strong attack power and was very fast, but her defense was average... Have you ever seen such a monster in another world?"

"My opponent was a Giant over ten meters tall," Cui Zheng Hai introduced as soon as he appeared. "He was very strong, with thick skin and flesh, but not fast, and rather clumsy. I wore him down."

The two remained awkwardly silent for a while, then door number five opened, and Du Jincai came out.

"You guys came out very early." Du Jincai checked the time; just over seven minutes had passed.

"Does it require treatment?" Luo Jun asked.

Du Jincai nodded. "Then I'll go second. My opponent is similar to Assassin, which is easy to deal with for Martial Combat Faction who are good at head-on combat. If he encounters a weaker faction, this guy can easily kill them with one blow thanks to his speed and high lethality."

"I came out a little over four minutes ago." Zhu Sanyang pointed to Luo Jun: "He was the first."

"It seems the monsters in these seven doors are all original creations," Du Jincai analyzed. "We can't rank them according to their type; we can only rely on our feelings during combat."

Then he listened to the three people's analysis, looked at the display board, and shook his head, saying, "This kind of analysis is meaningless..."

Luo Jun had never seen him before, and Zhu Sanyang shook his head as well. The two then briefly described their opponents, Du Jincai he had no recollection of either.

Zhu Sanyang licked his lips. "I quite like the metallic texture, the cool and chewy feel..."

"What?" Luo Jun wasn't just confused this time, he was shocked.

Cui Zheng Hai nodded. "To use my analogy, the Cyclops of the [Empire] is stronger than a regular Cyclops, but not as strong as the advanced Blood Rage Cyclops."

After saying that, the three of them looked at Luo Jun.

Luo Jun thought to himself, "What are you all talking about? I've never seen any of these people!"

He racked his brains, trying to find similar monsters, and finally remembered the knight from the last Miracle Chess Game.

"Charging Devil Centurion," Luo Jun said, "But much weaker."

"This range is too broad!" Cui Zheng Hai shook his head. "The Charging Devil Centurion is a high-level demon. If we're talking about that strength, your opponent should be the strongest. The key question is how much weaker."

"This..." Luo Jun had never fought against other knights before, and having killed one of them with a single strike, he didn't know what other abilities the opponent had besides charging and shooting arrows, so it was really hard to judge.

Just then, Gates 4 and 6 opened simultaneously, and Zheng Ji and Elisa emerged.

These two distracted the three men, thus temporarily saving Luo Jun.

After listening to the analysis of the others, the two also began to find similar analogies for their opponents.

"My opponent is a giant spider-like insect, the disgusting kind," Elisa analyzed. "I don't know if you know anything about the Wasteland? There's a monster in the Wasteland, a stage three infected by the Eternal Virus, which also mutates and grows many limbs and spews venom. It feels a lot like this insect, and its strength is about the same."

Zheng Ji analyzed, "My opponent is a giant worm. There's a monster in the [Savage Wilderness] called the Four-Jaw Water Serpent, which is somewhat similar to this one, and its strength is about the same. However, this worm can also spray acid, making it a bit more difficult to deal with than the water serpent."

Luo Jun's eyes lit up upon hearing this, thinking to himself, "Finally, a monster I recognize!"

But he soon discovered, to his dismay, that it had been more than two months since he had dealt with the Four-Jaw Water Serpent, and his strength had improved by leaps and bounds since then, so his senses were no longer accurate.

However, even a level 5 monster like the Mechanical Knight, which is still Tier A Mission, should be stronger than the Water Serpent, right?

Thinking of this, Luo Jun moved the number one card up one rank. "My opponent is a bit stronger than the Four-Jaw Water Serpent, so you can put yours down."

"What?" Zheng Ji complained, "So my opponent is the weakest in the end? Let me tell you, that giant worm's venom is very poisonous, and it's radioactive. It's not easy to deal with! It's only because I can control the water that I can avoid it. If it were you guys, it wouldn't be so easy to dodge it. I think my ranking could have gone up a bit!"

However, no matter how he tried to explain, everyone still reserved the bottom spot for him.

As for the others, a rough order of priority was also established. While this analogy doesn't accurately reflect the strength of the monsters, it at least provides a framework.

Now, everyone's eyes are on Gate Seven, with Lao Miao Miao being the only one who hasn't come out yet.

Once she's out, we can complete the last piece of the puzzle, determine the order, and then submit the final answer.

"I said, she didn't die in there, did she?"

With the thirty-minute time limit fast approaching, Zheng Ji looked at the door with concern.

"Don't say anything unlucky," Elisa reminded him. "Mr. Zheng, that's what you warned me about before."

"I'm telling you, it's different!" Zheng Ji waved his hand. "If she really died, how would we arrange things?"

"The only one who died inside should be in the first three squares..." Du Jincai frowned and said, "Currently, the first one is my opponent, the second one is the Giant that Cui Zheng Hai is facing, and the third one is the soft monster that Zhu Sanyang is facing... At present, the first and second squares are not much different in strength, and the third one is slightly better. Let's put her in the third square for now."

"Do you think it's possible he's not actually dead?" Cui Zheng Hai frowned and analyzed, "The rules only say that you can come out if you win, but they don't say that you have to come out if you win. Could it be that she already won and is just stalling for time inside?"

Following her line of thought, the others analyzed the situation, Elisa asked curiously, "What are the benefits of this?"

"What if she's the mole?" Cui Zheng Hai said, "She deliberately comes out late, so others can't deduce the monster's strength from her combat time, making it easier to mislead us."

"Yes, she was the only one arrested in the last round!" Zheng Ji said. "I told you she was the mole, but you didn't believe me!"

"She even stole my lucky number," Elisa said, feeling wronged. "Could it be because she's an insider and knows some secrets?"

Luo Jun, meanwhile, was staring at Gate Seven. This Lao Miao Miao was acting strangely; she was completely different from the Senior Sister Miao he remembered.

As the group was discussing this, door number seven opened.

Lao Miao Miao slowly walked out, her gaze sweeping over the faces of the others, and she saw distrust in their eyes.

"Everyone's here, let's line up!" Cui Zheng Hai clapped his hands and came to Lao Miao Miao: "What kind of opponent are you facing? If we were to compare them to a monster that everyone knows, what level of strength would they be equivalent to?"

"My opponent is a Magma Elemental monster. There's a small sect in the Martial World that practices Blazing Fire Skill. I've fought their Sect Leader before, and I feel their strength is about the same."

This junior Sect Leader was someone no one else had encountered before. Cui Zheng Hai asked, "The Fire Elemental and Flame Troll of the [Empire] are similar to what you described. How do they compare to others?"

Lao Miao Miao shrugged. "I've never been to other worlds abroad, and I haven't seen the monsters you mentioned in the Chaos Mission..."

The group frowned slightly; this was practically blatant interference with the mission.

"I think you're the mole!" Zheng Ji jumped out, pointing at Lao Miao Miao and cursing, "I could tell you were suspicious last time!"

Luo Jun felt a slight jolt in his heart. Senior Sister Miao's fiery temper, she'd probably retaliate with a barrage of insults...

To everyone's surprise, Lao Miao Miao simply sighed and said, "Believe it or not, it's up to you..."

"Stop arguing!" Du Jincai stepped forward, pointing to the number on the display board. "Here's what you do, listen to other people's descriptions, and based on your intuition, put yourself in the list..."

Everyone described their opponents, especially emphasizing the basis for their ranking. After listening, Lao Miao Miao realized that there were only a few minutes left. Holding card number seven, she looked at the display board and considered it for a moment before finally placing the card in the fourth position, right in the middle.

"Are you sure?" The group asked, somewhat doubtful. Lao Miao Miao nodded.

With no other reference points available and time running out, this was the only decision we could make.

The final ranking is as follows: No. 5 (Du Jincai), No. 2 (Cui Zheng Hai), No. 3 (Zhu Sanyang), No. 7 (Lao Miao Miao), No. 6 (Elisa), No. 1 (Luo Jun), and No. 4 (Zheng Ji).

As the Countdown ended, the level reviewed the sorting results and determined that they were incorrect.

Really!

Everyone frowned and looked at Lao Miao Miao, guessing that she was deliberately causing trouble and not giving a proper evaluation.

However, the correct order was subsequently revealed in the room.

Number 5 (Du Jincai), Number 1 (Luo Jun), Number 2 (Cui Zheng Hai), Number 3 (Zhu Sanyang), Number 7 (Lao Miao Miao), Number 4 (Zheng Ji), Number 6 (Elisa).

"Haha, I told you my opponent wasn't the weakest!" Zheng Ji laughed, while the others looked at the correct order and fell into deep thought.

The order was mostly correct, and the problem didn't lie with Lao Miao Miao, the most suspicious person. The main errors were with Elisa and Ye. Elisa was one thing; if you don't count Ye, she just switched places with Zheng Ji, going from second to last to last. But Ye's situation was a bit exaggerated—he actually jumped from second to last to second in line?

"Night, are you sure you arranged this seriously?" Cui Zheng Hai asked suspiciously.

"No, how did you and your opponent even exchange blows? Don't you have any idea how intense the fight was?" Zheng Ji glanced at him as well.

"He killed him in one strike, so I didn't feel anything... hiccup..." Zhu Sanyang said casually.

"Wow, you're amazing! You were the first to come out when facing the second strongest monster," Elisa exclaimed in admiration.

"I think it's just to show off, deliberately underestimating himself to appear more powerful," Zheng Ji said, still relentlessly pressing the issue. "Looking down on my opponent, huh..."

Luo Jun was also taken aback by this result, looking completely stunned. He never expected that the Mechanical Knight he had defeated with a single strike would rank so high.

Thinking about it carefully, firstly, he had never been to any other world besides the Savage Wilderness, so he had no concept of the strength of the monsters described by others. Secondly, his progress was indeed too fast. An opponent who was struggling to fight just two months ago might now be easily defeated. Even his own feelings might not be accurate.

However, because of his outstanding performance in the previous round, people did not have much doubt about him.

"There's no point in blaming each other now. We still have two chances, let's try again," Du Jincai encouraged. At this moment, all seven doors lit up, and the next round of challenges could begin.

Everyone nodded and went through their respective doors.

Anyway, the monsters behind the doors are random, so everyone is used to looking for the same door as last time. Luo Jun is still number one.

But this time, Lao Miao Miao beat him to it and snatched Zhu Sanyang's number three. Zhu Sanyang was stunned for a moment, then walked towards Lao Miao Miao's number seven while burping.

Noticing this, Luo Jun frowned and reached out to push open door number one.

The moment Luo Jun stepped over the threshold, he felt his foot slip and the door vanish. He turned back to try and grab the doorframe, but the door had disappeared.

Thump!

Luo Jun fell into the water, kicked his feet hard, and leaped out of the water. Looking around, he saw an endless expanse of water, and a salty, fishy smell filled his nostrils.

Is the venue on the sea this time? There's not even a place to land?

Just as Luo Jun was stunned, a huge shadow appeared on the water beneath him, and then a giant mouth burst out of the waves and swallowed Luo Jun whole.

(End of this chapter)