Ranking Announcement

Meanwhile.

Inside a concealed floating structure dozens of meters above the finish square.

Within the main control room overlooking the entire examination square, filled with holographic projections and streams of data.

"Hiss..."

Chief Examiner Iron Wrist stared fixedly at the slow-motion replay of Jiang Yue's clearance footage, automatically generated by the Super Intelligence on the central main screen, along with an extremely detailed battle damage analysis chart. He couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath of cold air.

His iconic Mechanical Prosthetic stiffly pointed at the analysis image on the screen, his rough, shocked voice echoing through the main control room:

"One-Eye! Come take a look at this kid! Look at the data report on the puppets he took down!"

Iron Wrist zoomed in on a cutaway view of a damaged puppet. "The outer special alloy armor is almost completely intact except for a few shallow fist marks—no structural fractures at all!"

"But... look at its interior! The internal structure of this puppet... it's all been shaken to powder!"

Iron Wrist turned his head, his single eye filled with disbelief: "Force transmission through the body! And extremely precise force transmission through the body!"

"This kid... in such a high-intensity, high-pressure actual combat breakout, he perfectly mastered this terrifying killing technique that even many veterans can't even touch the threshold of!"

"But that's not the most outrageous part..."

Iron Wrist took a deep breath, his fingers quickly swiping through the air to pull up a wavy line chart representing Jiang Yue's physical energy consumption status.

His gaze began to shift into something like looking at a monster in human skin, filled with horror: "Look at his energy consumption curve! In the first half of the clearance journey, his energy consumption was enormous—the red line was already approaching the dead line representing total depletion!

"That's normal. This kind of force technique is extremely taxing on physical energy."

"But in the second half of the journey, when he faced more and more puppets surrounding him and increased his force frequency, his energy curve didn't collapse to the bottom from overdraw—instead... instead, it began to steadily recover?"

Iron Wrist slammed his hand heavily on the alloy console in front of him: "What kind of monster recovery ability is this?! Does he have a nuclear fusion reactor installed in his lungs?!"

One-Eye, the instructor standing behind Iron Wrist who had remained silent until now, finally stepped forward slowly.

His single remaining eye, along with the mechanical eye on the other side emitting a cold red glow, stared fixedly at Jiang Yue's blood-soaked yet still upright figure on the screen.

In One-Eye's mechanical eye, undisguised ecstasy and extreme approval flickered.

He crossed his arms, a rough smile slowly curling at the corner of his mouth on his weathered face—a smile of deep satisfaction, even tinged with a hint of cruel arc.

"The wolf cub I set my sights on really didn't disappoint me!"

One-Eye looked at the simple file belonging to Jiang Yue frozen on the screen, his voice carrying a hint of cold severity yet also endless expectation:

"Able to break through physical limits on the spot under extreme pressure, able to turn others' unique skills into his own, and able to maintain this beast-like calm in a desperate situation... this kid's potential is even more terrifying than I imagined."

He turned to Iron Wrist, his tone becoming extremely grave and murderous: "As long as he can keep this devouring momentum in the next ten days, not getting arrogant or impatient, and solidifying his foundation."

"As long as ten days from now, in that life-or-death [Monthly Grand Exam], he can once again fight through the slaughter of these thirty thousand starving wolves and firmly hold a spot in the top five hundred..."

One-Eye's single eye burst with a sharp gleam, and he spoke word by word: "Then it will prove he's qualified to learn [Limit Breaking]!"

As the last new soldier stumbled and fell out of the light curtain, the heavy airtight door at the end of Alloy Puppet Alley locked completely with the dull rotation of mechanical bearings.

Harsh white beams of light shone down from the ceiling of the finish square, illuminating the sharply divided crowd.

Of the twenty thousand new soldiers who participated in the exam, fewer than five thousand could stand here.

On the outer edge of the square, a large number of new soldiers who had collapsed from energy depletion or even been severely injured by puppets were being dragged away like corpses by emotionless Caterpillar Medical Robots, leaving behind trail after trail of shocking bloodstains.

But inside the qualified zone beyond the light curtain, the scene was completely different.

Chu Lin, Zhan Feng, and a group of scions from warlord families stood at the very front.

Though they too were covered in oil and sweat, their chests rose and fell steadily, and their thick blood-and-qi foundations allowed them to recover mobility within just a few minutes.

Jiang Yue blended into the phalanx of the top five hundred, utterly inconspicuous.

His training uniform clung to his body, reeking of blood, but at this moment, the newly upgraded green word [Thunder Breath] inside him was silently and efficiently operating.

Inhale—exhale—

A faint thunderous sound, inaudible to outsiders, vibrated faintly through Jiang Yue's internal organs.

Each deep Breath Regulation pressed the free microscopic energy in the air, mixed with oxygen, into his alveoli, then pumped it through his powerful blood flow to every limb and joint.

The lactic acid produced by the fierce battle was forcibly broken down, and the tearing muscle soreness receded like a tide.

Jiang Yue's breathing was too steady.

So steady that not far away, many people slightly turned their heads, casting sidelong glances of scrutiny and surprise at him.

Sensing this gaze, Jiang Yue's eyes sharpened. He instantly controlled his diaphragm, deliberately making his breathing a bit rough and disordered, while propping one hand on his knee to feign severe energy depletion.

"Silence."

Just then, from the holographic loudspeaker above the square came Chief Examiner Iron Wrist's penetrating, rough voice. The previously noisy square fell into instant dead silence, every new soldier's nerves taut.

The outer wall of the elevated main control room turned into a massive transparent screen, with Iron Wrist looking down from above.

"Exam over. The fact that you trash can stand here alive proves you barely have the value to be cannon fodder."

Iron Wrist's voice carried no warmth. "According to military protocol, ranking rewards are now being distributed."

His mechanical prosthetic struck the console heavily, and a line of blood-red characters immediately jumped onto the holographic main screen.

"Any recruit who breaks into the top thousand for the first time during this assessment will be granted one injection of [Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid] by the military, free of charge!"

At these words, the civilian recruits gathered around the plaza's perimeter instantly had red-rimmed eyes, and a chorus of heavy, ragged breaths filled the air.

For those from the bottom rungs of society, the Primary Genetic Serum was already a ladder to the heavens.

Obtaining a genetic serum meant faster progress from then on, and better treatment after recruit training ended.

Jiang Yue stood still, his expression calm.

During his first Gravity Assessment, he had already secured the Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid with a rank of 876, and by harnessing that violent surge of medicinal power, he had forcibly tempered the [Food Digestion] trait into the green-grade [Gluttony].

The human gene chain develops strong resistance to serums of the same tier; even ten more injections would yield no real improvement.

Still, breaking into the top thousand a second time naturally came with a reward of equal level.