Rankings Announced

Meanwhile.

Dozens of meters above the finish-line plaza, inside a concealed floating structure.

The Main Control Room overlooked the entire assessment plaza and was filled with Holographic Projections and streams of data.

"Hiss..."

Chief Examiner Iron Wrist stared at the slow-motion replay of Jiang Yue clearing the course, just generated by the Super Intelligence, and the detailed damage analysis beside it. He could not help drawing a sharp breath.

His signature Mechanical Prosthetic pointed stiffly at the analysis on the main screen. His rough voice echoed through the Main Control Room, thick with shock:

"One-Eye! Come look at this kid! Look at the damage reports on those Puppets he took down!"

Iron Wrist enlarged a cross-sectional image of a damaged Puppet. "Aside from a few shallow fist marks, the outer Special Alloy armor is almost untouched. There's no structural fracture at all!"

"But look inside it... The Puppet's internal components have been shaken to fucking powder!"

Iron Wrist turned, disbelief filling his eye. "Force transmitted through the body! And with incredible precision!"

"This kid mastered a terrifying killing technique that plenty of veterans can't even begin to grasp, right in the middle of a high-intensity breakout under crushing pressure!"

"But that's not even the most ridiculous part..."

Iron Wrist drew a deep breath and swiped through the air, bringing up a graph of Jiang Yue's energy expenditure.

He looked as though he were staring at a monster wearing human skin. "Look at his energy expenditure curve! In the first half of the course, he burned through an enormous amount. The red line nearly reached the point of total exhaustion!

"That's normal. This technique puts a brutal strain on the body.

"But in the second half, when more and more Puppets surrounded him and he was using it even more often, his energy reserves didn't collapse from overexertion. They... they started steadily recovering?"

Iron Wrist slammed a hand onto the Alloy console. "What the fuck kind of monstrous recovery is that?! Has he got a fusion reactor in his lungs?!"

Instructor One-Eye, who had stood silent behind Iron Wrist, finally stepped forward.

His remaining natural eye and the mechanical eye on the other side, glowing cold red, fixed on Jiang Yue's blood-drenched yet upright figure on the screen.

Undisguised delight and deep admiration gleamed in One-Eye's mechanical eye.

He folded his arms. A satisfied smile slowly spread across his weathered face, its curve almost cruel.

"The wolf cub I picked didn't let me down!"

One-Eye looked at Jiang Yue's sparse file, frozen on the screen. His voice was cold and stern, yet carried boundless expectation:

"He can break through his physical limits under extreme pressure, make someone else's secret technique his own, and keep his head like a beast cornered in a fight... This kid has more potential than I imagined."

He turned to Iron Wrist, his tone grave and severe. "If he keeps up this ferocious pace over the next ten days and builds a solid foundation without getting arrogant or impatient.

"If, in the life-or-death Monthly Grand Exam ten days from now, he can fight through thirty thousand hungry wolves and secure a place in the top five hundred again..."

A sharp light flashed in One-Eye's eye. He spoke one word at a time: "Then he'll have proven himself worthy of learning Limit Breaking!"

As the last recruit stumbled out of the light curtain, the heavy Pressure Door at the end of Alloy Puppet Alley locked shut with a dull rumble of mechanical bearings.

Harsh white beams shone down from the plaza's domed ceiling, illuminating the starkly divided crowd.

Of the twenty thousand recruits who had taken the assessment, fewer than five thousand could stand here.

Around the plaza's perimeter, emotionless Caterpillar Medical Robots hauled away recruits who had passed out from exhaustion or been badly wounded by the Puppets, dragging them like corpses and leaving shocking trails of blood.

Inside the light curtain, in the qualified zone, the scene was entirely different.

Chu Lin, Zhan Feng, and other heirs of Warlord Families stood at the front.

Though covered in machine oil and sweat, their chests rose and fell steadily. Their deep reserves of Blood Energy had restored their ability to move in just a few minutes.

Jiang Yue stood unnoticed in the Square Formation of the top five hundred.

His Training Uniform clung to his body and reeked of blood. Inside him, however, the newly advanced green trait Thunder Breath was working silently and efficiently.

Inhale—exhale—

A faint rumble of thunder, inaudible to anyone else, vibrated through Jiang Yue's organs.

With each deep breath, microscopic energy particles in the air entered his lungs along with oxygen, then rode his powerful bloodstream throughout his body.

The lactic acid from the fierce fighting broke down, and the tearing ache in his muscles ebbed away like a receding tide.

Jiang Yue's breathing was too steady.

So steady that several people nearby turned slightly and gave him sidelong looks of scrutiny and suspicion.

Sensing their gazes, Jiang Yue's eyes sharpened. He immediately controlled his diaphragm, deliberately making his breathing heavier and more ragged. Then he braced one hand on his knee, feigning severe exhaustion.

"Silence."

At that moment, Chief Examiner Iron Wrist's rough, penetrating voice rang from the holographic loudspeakers above the plaza. The noise died at once, and every recruit tensed.

The outer wall of the elevated Main Control Room became a vast transparent screen. Iron Wrist looked down on them from above.

"The assessment is over. The fact that you pieces of trash are still standing here proves you might just be useful as cannon fodder."

There was no warmth in Iron Wrist's voice. "As per military practice, the ranking rewards will now be distributed."

He struck the console hard with his Mechanical Prosthetic, and a line of blood-red text appeared on the giant holographic screen.

"Any recruit who has entered the top one thousand for the first time in this assessment will receive one free injection of Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid from the military!"

At those words, the recruits from ordinary backgrounds around the plaza's perimeter instantly went red-eyed. Their heavy breathing rose in a chorus.

For someone born at the bottom, even a Primary Genetic Serum was a path to a better life.

Obtaining a Gene Potion meant faster progress in the future and better treatment once recruit training ended.

Jiang Yue stood still, his expression calm.

He had already placed 876th in the first Gravity Assessment and received Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid. With the violent surge of the drug, he had forced his Food Digestion trait to evolve into the green trait Gluttony.

The human genetic chain developed a strong resistance to drugs of the same grade. Even ten more injections would bring no substantial improvement.

Still, reaching the top one thousand a second time naturally came with a reward of equivalent value.