Selection Begins

Lin Maoxian, already standing in the middle of the training ground, had no idea what Tiger and the others were discussing outside. If he had known, he would have told Tiger seriously, "In my last world, I actually didn't get many missions at all. It was just because of my talent that I earned more Source Points than the average adventurer."

When Lin Maoxian reached the middle of the training ground, he found that there weren't many people taking part in the martial contest—not even half as many as the adventurers. There were, at most, around forty of them.

Lin Wu carefully counted the people standing in the middle of the training ground and saw that their number was even. He called out to them, "There are an even number of participants, so each of you can find an opponent. Leave about one zhang between each pair. If you know you can't win, you can loudly admit defeat. Otherwise, if you get killed, you'll have only yourself to blame. Now, split into pairs on your own. Once you've found an opponent, you can start fighting when I give the word."

After hearing Lin Wu's instructions, the adventurers below began finding opponents.

Lin Maoxian didn't pay it much mind. He simply stood where he was. As far as he was concerned, it made no difference who he fought. Before long, a young-looking man came to stand about three meters away from him. Lin Maoxian used the skill from his glasses to check the man's attributes. They were ordinary: his Strength and Stamina were both 13, but nothing else stood out.

After seeing the man's attributes, Lin Maoxian didn't take him seriously. Against an opponent like this, if one punch didn't make him admit defeat, he'd just follow up with another and send him to meet Yama.

Not long afterward, when Lin Maoxian heard the signal to begin, he immediately charged at his opponent, using Copper Skin and choosing the temporary +3 Strength attribute. With the speed granted by his current 16 Agility, he covered the distance of about three meters in less than a second. Before his opponent could react, he punched him and sent him flying.

A loud bang! rang out, so jarringly in the quiet training ground.

The other groups had been getting ready to attack their opponents, but the moment they heard the loud crash, they turned to see what had happened.

Lin Maoxian heard the space's prompt: "Adventurer dealt crushing damage to target. Target lost (35-13)*3+10%===72.6 health. Current health remaining: 130-72.6===57.4." Just as he'd expected, if the man didn't admit defeat after one punch, he'd be sent to meet Yama.

With that in mind, Lin Maoxian said to the unfortunate man still lying on the ground, "Hey, aren't you going to admit defeat? Want me to give you another punch?" As he spoke, he shook his fist at him.

The man had been stunned when he heard the space's prompt. How could an adventurer deal such terrifying damage to him? And it was supposedly double crushing damage—that only happened when someone's Strength was at least 20 points higher than his. It was terrifying. Hearing Lin Maoxian's words, he ignored the pain and hurriedly shouted, "I admit defeat! I admit defeat!"

Lin Wu had also been stunned by what he'd just seen. He'd never expected a recruit to be such an expert. Still, he was delighted; the stronger this man was, the easier his mission would be. After the man admitted defeat, he immediately said, "Good. This contestant wins. The other groups, continue your matches." He pointed at Lin Maoxian, then addressed the other groups, who had gone quiet in the middle of the training ground.

The other adventurers didn't come to their senses until they heard Lin Wu's words. They were still shocked by the strength of the unknown adventurer, but what was happening in front of them mattered more. They put the thought aside and focused on their opponents.

The people outside the training ground stared blankly at what had just happened. After a moment, Shasha was the first to recover. She turned to the other two and said, "Even after seeing something like that again, I'm still so shocked. Do you think the captain could kill me in one hit if he wanted to?"

After recovering, Tiger replied dejectedly, "I don't know if he could kill you in one hit, but I do know you definitely wouldn't survive a second punch. Even I'd only be able to take one more than you. At the captain's speed, I'm afraid I wouldn't even get a chance to run."

Eel nodded in agreement. Although he was confident that his Agility was higher than the captain's, it wasn't higher by much, and his Stamina was low. He couldn't keep running at full speed for long. If the captain wanted to kill him, he'd only be able to run a little farther and buy himself a little time.

After hitting his opponent, Lin Maoxian stopped using Copper Skin. After all, he could activate the skill whenever he wanted. Once his opponent had admitted defeat and the Centurion confirmed his victory, he turned his attention to the groups still fighting, hoping to spot any especially capable adventurers he could recruit into his team.

After watching for a while, he saw that none of the adventurers had any flashy skills, since they'd all only been through one mission world. Lin Maoxian couldn't use Probe on everyone, either, so he couldn't tell whose attributes were better. He had no choice but to wait until the contest ended before deciding.

Lin Maoxian waited a little longer before the adventurers began finishing their fights one after another. Those who realized they couldn't win generally didn't stubbornly hold on. They readily admitted defeat, since they had nothing to lose by doing so.

Only after all the adventurers had finished their matches did Lin Wu stand up and address the middle of the training ground. "All right, those who lost should leave the training ground." Once they were gone, he continued, "There are exactly twenty-four winners, so you can split into twelve pairs. Find your own opponents again. Same as before: the losers leave, and the winners keep fighting."

After Lin Wu finished speaking, everyone started looking for opponents. But they all tacitly kept their distance from Lin Maoxian, clearly not wanting to fight him. Since everyone thought the same way, one unlucky adventurer was bound to be left over.

But no one wanted to be that unlucky person. After all, judging by the attribute bonuses for soldiers, Squad Leaders would probably receive even more, so everyone coveted the position. Naturally, they wanted to avoid the strong. And Lin Maoxian's performance had made it clear to them that he was strong, so avoiding him was only sensible.

After a while, Lin Wu saw three people facing off in one group, but none of them wanted to fight the strong one. Left with no choice, he pointed at one of them and said, "You. Go fight him."

The man objected, "Why me? Why can't one of those two do it?"

Lin Wu impatiently replied, "If I say it's you, then it's you. If you don't go fight, I'll just rule that you've forfeited. I'm in charge here; what I say goes. Why are you making such a fuss?" Lin Wu couldn't understand this clueless recruit. He dared to question an officer's decision in the army! If it weren't an unusual situation, he'd have made him pay for it.

Hearing Lin Wu's words, the man could only say helplessly, "Then I'll just admit defeat." As he spoke, he headed out of the training ground. He didn't think he was much stronger than the man who'd fought Lin Maoxian earlier. If the man suddenly went berserk and tried to kill him, he'd have no recourse.

"Fine. Then this contestant wins. The other groups, continue fighting." Lin Wu pointed at Lin Maoxian first, then addressed the others.

Lin Maoxian, who had won without fighting, merely shrugged. He wasn't surprised by the victory; he just hadn't expected the man to forfeit outright. He had no idea the man was afraid he might suddenly go berserk and kill him.

Lin Maoxian waited around in the same spot for a while, until the other groups had finished their matches one by one.

After seeing the defeated contestants leave the training ground, Lin Wu looked at those who remained and said, "All right, there are twelve of you left. Since we're only choosing ten Squad Leaders, two more people need to be eliminated. This time, I'll fight you myself. Whoever takes the least damage from one of my punches can become a Squad Leader. Of course, if you think you're especially fast, you can dodge my attack and still become a Squad Leader. The two who lose don't need to be discouraged; you still have a chance. You can challenge any two of the ten Squad Leaders to a match. The winners will become Squad Leaders."

After Lin Wu finished speaking, he turned to Lin Maoxian, who was standing in the training ground. "Let's start with you, the strongest one. Show me what you can do." As he spoke, he leaped to a spot about three meters from Lin Maoxian.

Lin Maoxian's heart stirred at Lin Wu's words. He'd been wanting to find out exactly how strong a Centurion was. Since he was afraid Lin Wu's Perception might be high enough to detect his Probe skill and cause trouble, Lin Maoxian had never used it to check the Centurion's attributes. This was the perfect chance to test his Strength and see how it compared to his own after using his skills.

Lin Wu looked at the man before him, who wore a solemn expression, and smiled. "Hey, are you ready? I'm about to start." As he spoke, he shook his fist.

Looking at the smiling Centurion, Lin Maoxian didn't dare let his guard down for a moment. He immediately used his Copper Skin and Iron Bone skills, choosing +3 Strength and +3 Stamina. He checked his attributes after activating them and saw that his Strength had risen to 35, while his Stamina had reached 31. He believed that even if the Centurion was very strong, his current attributes meant he couldn't suffer too serious an injury.