Chicken Dinner Mode

Three hours quickly passed.

Inside the exam venue, the broadcast voice rang out again.

"The third round is about to begin. All examinees, please prepare. The rules are now being announced."

"This round adopts a multiplayer competitive mode. All examinees will be randomly scattered across a large map. Each of you will receive a scorecard, which will display your current Points."

"Examinees can earn Points by killing Ferocious Beasts, or by plundering others' scorecards."

"When an examinee successfully plunders another, they will obtain half of the plundered examinee's Points."

"The plundered examinee will be randomly teleported to an area within a hundred meters with no one around. When plundered a second time, that examinee will lose qualification to continue the exam, and their final score will be based on the Points before elimination."

"This round lasts seven days. The map will shrink at 24:00 each day."

"After the fourth day ends, all examinees will lose their teleportation opportunity. If your scorecard is plundered, you will lose all Points and exit this exam, but the Points before your exit will be retained as part of your College Entrance Exam score."

"Additionally, after the fourth day, plundering another's scorecard will grant you all their Points."

Jiang Yan listened carefully to the exam rules, finding this final round truly brutal—every line hinted at plundering others' Points.

"Isn't this just like that four-word game from my past life?"

The daily shrinking circle was meant to increase the chance of examinees encountering each other.

Losing the "revive" chance after the fourth day was clearly encouraging competition among examinees.

A single College Entrance Exam revealed Blue Star's underlying attitude toward martial artists.

That was wild growth, never cultivating flowers in a greenhouse.

Jiang Yan continued listening to the subsequent Points calculation rules.

Unlike before, this final round had no ranking Points; all scores had to be earned through strength.

Killing a First-Order Ferocious Beast earned 5 Points.

Killing a Second-Order Ferocious Beast earned 10 Points.

Killing a Third-Order Ferocious Beast earned 50 Points.

Killing a Fourth-Order Ferocious Beast earned 100 Points.

Notably, when an examinee believed they would be killed by a Ferocious Beast, they could press the help button on their scorecard in advance.

After requesting help, the examinee was directly eliminated, teleported out of the exam venue, with no "revive" chance.

Jiang Yan pondered. Since the rules mentioned earning Points from killing Fourth-Order Ferocious Beasts, it meant such beasts existed in this round. He just didn't know the proportion, but guessed it wouldn't be too many.

Killing one Third-Order Ferocious Beast was worth ten First-Order ones. In this round, the strong would easily pull ahead of ordinary examinees.

Soon, the round began.

Jiang Yan's figure appeared in a barren desert. In his hand, he held a metal-wrapped, tech-heavy card, its black screen displaying "0."

Below the black screen was a red button, locked by fingerprint, pressable only by him. Pressing it would mean Jiang Yan declared elimination.

He tucked the scorecard into his pocket and observed his surroundings.

"Not a single blade of grass here. Hiding's impossible, but that works for me."

Jiang Yan still used Wind Rider plus Nine Consecutive Steps, leaping into the sky to survey the terrain.

In his view, the north was a snowy mountain range, the west barren, the east low grasslands, and the south still bare.

He spotted many examinees and Ferocious Beasts in his sight.

The livestream fans were already used to the flying camera angles, even joking that watching Jiang Yan's stream required a helicopter pilot's license.

The real-time tracking of the livestream footage truly tormented these viewers.

"Nope, I'm dizzy. Gonna hit the bathroom to puke a few times."

"Same here."

"I think Jiang Yan should focus on killing Ferocious Beasts first, then plunder others' scorecards after four days to maximize gains."

Someone began analyzing pros and cons, planning for Jiang Yan, believing this was the only way to get the most Points.

This comment gained approval from most viewers.

Fight monsters in the first four days, grab cards in the last three. With Jiang Yan's previous 1,000 Points, he'd at least rank in the top hundred.

The strength of major examinees hadn't fully surfaced yet, so no one could definitively say Jiang Yan would become the Top Scholar.

Of course, he was the biggest contender for Top Scholar, but that was still just hope.

A commoner defeating the elite—no matter how many years passed, it remained a crowd favorite.

As the comments thought, Jiang Yan indeed didn't plan to fight examinees in the first four days, waiting until the last three to harvest the fattened sheep.

He dove from midair, a single blade strike cutting down a Second-Order Fire-Breathing Lizard before it could defend.

Just as he was about to leave, a sharp shout came from behind.

"Wait!"

Jiang Yan turned around. A woman with a ponytail and a pretty face, hands on her hips, arrogantly ordered him.

"You stole this young lady's monster, so as punishment, hand over your scorecard now."

Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself, Is this person an idiot?

The woman saw the disdain on Jiang Yan's face, stamped her foot in anger, and whipped out a leather whip, snarling viciously:

"Since you won't give it to me willingly, don't blame me for being rude."

She flicked her wrist, and the whip in her hand turned into a venomous snake hurtling toward Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan countered with his blade, shattering the whip before the girl's stunned eyes.

The Alloy Long Blade hovered above the woman's head.

"Hand over the scorecard."

"No!"

"Heh. The exam might not allow killing, but it never said anything about crippling people." Jiang Yan sneered coldly.

His blade tilted the woman's chin upward, the edge slowly slicing through skin as bright red blood began to seep out.

Terror crept into the woman's expression.

"You... you can't do this..."

Boom!

Jiang Yan kicked the woman flying. Her body tumbled backward, her head smashing against the ground. The violent impact left her dazed and unconscious.

Jiang Yan walked over, pulled the scorecard from her clothes, and was just studying the little gadget to figure out how to use it when—

The scorecard in front of him vanished along with the woman's body.

Jiang Yan checked his own scorecard.

2.5

"Looks like she killed a first-tier Fierce Beast before this."

A first-tier Fierce Beast was worth 5 Points; half of that was 2.5 Points. The math checked out perfectly.

Jiang Yan decided to stop moving altogether. He had a better idea.

Since after the fourth day, plundering other examinees would grant him all their Points, didn't that mean if he plundered the first-place contender, he'd become first himself?

Until then, he didn't need to waste time and effort killing Fierce Beasts.

But there was one drawback.

If Jiang Yan couldn't beat the first-place contender and had no Points saved up beforehand, he'd be eliminated with a zero score.

"So... can I beat the first-place contender?"

Jiang Yan had no reference point right now and had no idea how strong the other top examinees actually were.