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"If he really clears the next elite-monster stage, he might even become the top-ranked trial candidate in our city!"
"Mm. At this rate, he's qualified to challenge for the top spot!"
"I remember there are quite a few outstanding students. The competition is fierce, too."
"For the same stage, what matters is how quickly you clear the elite-monster stage."
The principals and teachers discussed excitedly.
The smile on Zhong Wenshan's face had grown unmistakably bright.
He hadn't expected a jobless student to make it this far—to the point of challenging for the top spot in the trial.
"Have any of you considered that this kid might be aiming for the provincial rankings?"
Suddenly, one of the teachers said this.
At his words,
the discussion on the platform fell silent for a moment.
Then
everyone shook their heads.
"Don't joke around. A Jobless Freelancer competing for a city ranking is already impressive. The provincial rankings... those are for true geniuses!"
"Exactly. Ling Zhan's combat experience and judgment are excellent, but unfortunately, he's a Jobless Freelancer. He's destined not to get far!"
"Elite monsters are much more troublesome to deal with than one or two thousand Sewage Poison Crabs!"
The teacher who had spoken gave an awkward laugh. "You're right. That was an exaggerated guess."
"Wow! There are so many reporters."
"The school security guards can barely hold them back."
At some point, rows of cameras and other equipment had been set up along the wall outside the school, packed tightly together.
Camera flashes kept going off.
The scene looked just like Ling Zhan repeatedly unleashing Prairie Fire on monsters in the Trial Stage.
The reporters had come in such numbers that they surrounded the school several layers deep, leaving no way through.
A proctor responsible for maintaining order during the trial rushed from the school gate to the field, then up to the platform. He was so exhausted he could barely catch his breath.
"D-Director Zhou... reporters from the official broadcaster are here too. They're asking to conduct interviews on-site."
"And the admissions officers from all the vocational schools."
"They're all here."
The entire field erupted into an uproar.
"I believe the official broadcaster's reporters genuinely came to conduct interviews, but why are the local stations joining in?"
"And those admissions officers from vocational schools... they've really gone too far!"
The students were indignant.
Some of the new students were confused. Only after upperclassmen carefully explained did they learn that every trial had an unwritten rule:
No media interviews.
No early recruitment.
"But... why?" a first-year student asked, perplexed.
"Alas."
His homeroom teacher sighed and gestured for the new students to look at the big screen.
On the screen,
a few numbers stood out starkly.
"Trial failures: 39."
"Deaths: 11."
The trial had been underway for less than a few hours, yet the numbers of eliminations and deaths kept climbing.
As time passed, the rate of increase even grew exponentially.
"Do you know why the school refuses media interviews?"
"Because they have only two kinds of interview targets: 1. Those who were eliminated. 2. The families of the dead."
"As for the admissions officers from vocational schools, their intentions are even more obvious. They want to recruit students who failed their professional trial into their own schools."
"It's cruel."
"But that's the truth."
On the platform,
King Yama Zhou wore a dark expression, and no one else dared make a sound.
In the end, though, he signaled to the trial proctor to play a video, as was customary.
The video was projected onto the big screen, where every teacher and student present could see it.
"Oh my god!"
The students in the audience were horrified by the images on screen!
The footage showed a ghastly scene, drenched in blood.
Three students' heads had been completely crushed!
The culprit behind the bloody scene was a Mutant Sewage Poison Crab!
Its menacing pincers had severed the three students' heads!
"Ugh!"
The students in the audience couldn't help gagging at the brutal sight. Their faces turned deathly pale.
The scene filled them with boundless fear!
The teachers explained things to their students. They were just as heartbroken, but at that moment, they could only be as stern as ever—several times stricter than usual.
"These are brief clips from videos saved from previous trials."
"No one succeeds easily."
"Once you enter the trial, death is everywhere."
"Our predecessors left you this video, their lesson written in blood and tears. They didn't do it to make you afraid or timid. They gave their lives and shed their blood to warn every one of you: the trial isn't a game. It's a man-eating demon!"
Fear and trembling.
This was the true face of the Job Transfer Trial Entrance Examination.
Who knew how many new students had been scared to tears?
But many more gradually regained their composure.
"Has anyone thought about why we find the trial easy? It's simply because Senior Ling Zhan is far too exceptional."
[Announcement: Zhao Lun (Candidate No. 5423) was killed by a monster during the trial!]
[Announcement: Zhang Xixi (Candidate No. 8521) was killed by a monster during the trial!]
[Announcement: Zhao Jia (Candidate No. 3875) was killed by a monster during the trial!]
Over the loudspeakers,
death announcements rang out again.
Three people at once.
The first- and second-year students trembled with fear.
Seeing that the effect had been achieved, King Yama Zhou's expression eased somewhat.
"All right. Cut the video."
This was only a brief clip, yet it had already scared countless new students half to death.
The archives held who knew how many more clips like it from previous Job Transfer Trial Entrance Examinations.
Too much of a good thing could backfire.
It was enough to use this clip to warn the new students.
The video cut off.
On the big screen,
Ling Zhan entered the inner district of Sewage City.
"Director Zhou, what about the reporters?"
"Let them in. Warn them that anyone who disrupts the trial will be dealt with severely."
"Yes."
Soon,
the school gate opened.
A huge crowd of reporters and admissions officers from vocational schools streamed inside.
The local-station reporters grabbed any unlucky student who had been kicked out of the Trial Stage and bombarded them with questions.
"Could you tell us how you feel after failing the trial?"
"Excuse me, will you repeat the year?"
"Hello, student. We're a vocational school, the Enchanter Institute. Since you failed the trial, would you be interested in joining us?"
Under the barrage of cameras and questions,
the student trembled with rage.
"Get away from me!"
"I got eliminated, understand? Eliminated!"
"Go to hell!!!"
That student was still relatively good-tempered. Those with worse tempers had already started cursing.
Thud.
One student being interviewed fainted from anger.
For a while, the field descended into chaos.
This was exactly why King Yama Zhou had initially forbidden those people from conducting interviews. They were inflicting a second psychological wound on students who had failed the trial.
Most of the students who failed were covered in injuries. Their vicious wounds were still bleeding, a clear sign of the brutal battles they had fought inside.
"What you need to do is learn from the failures of those who came before you," an experienced teacher scolded his students.
Many students, too, forced down their fear and anxiety, staring intently at the screen.
They knew the teacher wasn't telling them to gawk at the suffering of their upperclassmen.
He wanted them to learn from their mistakes!
They knew how to use their skills and equipment. What they lacked was practical combat experience.
No matter how well you scored on ordinary evaluations, without real combat experience, you would still die on the battlefield!
"Look, that senior didn't use the Archer's Invincible Slide in time, so he got hit by the monster's Lock-on attack."
"And this mage senior didn't use Water Prison to restrain her opponent first. She started chanting right away, but her team's front line was tied up and couldn't help her. Then she could only watch as the monster came right up to her..."
"Against a Defense Mutant, their team actually had the Archer use Antelope Lock and Tracking Arrow... There's no way those could break through its defenses!"
"Why didn't the Warrior on this team reduce the enemy's defense first? He shouldn't have charged in mindlessly!"
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