Reaching the Summit First! The Terrified Geniuses of Dongjiang!

"This is a bit too hard, isn't it?"

"The HP isn't that high, but the defense and magic resistance are set way too high!"

At the Examination Center, as the exam began, countless people stared intently at the large screen.

And right now, the screen was displaying the young prodigies—the candidates most likely to take the top spot in this year's college entrance exam across Dongjiang Province.

Lan Ruoyi was among them.

Besides her, there were over twenty other candidates from different exam halls who had also reached level 29 or above and chosen Purgatory Difficulty.

It could be said that these people had already secured the top 20 spots in Dongjiang Province for this exam.

As for the other Gold Label candidates who chose Nightmare Difficulty, there might be a few dark horses among them.

"The base damage of First Turn profession skills isn't high at all—at most just over a hundred."

"And since they're not allowed to wear equipment, their Attribute Value bonuses won't be high either. For an ordinary professional, a skill that could deal one or two hundred damage on the stat sheet might only land a dozen or so points on this Goblin."

Someone was putting themselves in the candidates' shoes.

At First Turn, with no equipment, no potion effects, and no buffs.

Even breaking through the defense would be tough.

In the end, it might just be a slow grind.

Li Yuanjing chuckled: "Otherwise, why do you think I vetoed this difficulty level and stopped using it in formal assessments?"

Qi Guoguang, sitting beside him, carefully scanned the large screen but didn't see Lin Yi's shadow.

"What about that level 42 kid?"

Li Yuanjing, reminded by him, also noticed that Lin Yi's dungeon footage wasn't on the screen.

Just then, a staff member in charge of broadcasting the dungeon footage quickly reported: "Sir! Our Crystal System's broadcast feed is automatically captured based on a certain logic."

"Currently, the priority logic is the rarity of these candidates' professions."

"Both leaders, regarding the candidate named Lin Yi that you're interested in, we've already assigned a specialist to retrieve his footage. It should be projected onto the screen within two minutes!"

Li Yuanjing nodded.

By conventional standards, rare and uncommon professions were definitely stronger than Common Professions.

So having such a capture logic was perfectly reasonable.

They just needed to wait quietly for Lin Yi's dungeon footage to appear.

Taking advantage of the few dozen seconds before the first round of testing began, Li Yuanjing waved his hand and continued: "Give me a list of everyone who chose Purgatory Difficulty this time, sorted by overall level and profession rarity."

Soon, a list was in his hands.

Looking at the top ten candidates, just from their surnames, Li Yuanjing could basically guess which noble family each prodigy came from.

"Heh, isn't the one at the top of the list your Second Son?"

"You're a rare profession in the archer class, and he actually Awakened a Legendary Profession—his future is limitless!"

Qi Guoguang also received a copy of the list.

The person at the top of the list was named Li Zerui, Li Yuanjing's Second Son.

"Zerui has been a bit lazy on the usual days, not worth mentioning. But your granddaughter is no pushover either, haha!"

The second name on the list was none other than Qi Xiaying, also a Legendary-grade professional.

"Not at all, not at all. Xiaying didn't inherit her father's diligence at all—she's lazy at home too!"

The Dongjiang Province Education Department and Professional Alliance higher-ups sitting beside and behind the two big shots all grumbled inwardly as they watched this mutual flattery.

How ridiculously humble could they get?

That said, most people still kept their eyes glued to those two on the screen.

Because everyone knew that the one most likely to take the top spot in the first round would probably be one of them.

The one-minute countdown ended.

Soon, on the left side of the screen, a short Goblin monster suddenly spawned in front of a young man.

The young man reacted instantly. As he raised his right hand, his entire palm was coated in a layer of silver metal, and then the center of his palm deformed into a dark cannon muzzle!

Boom!!

The next moment, a rocket shot out from the muzzle, hit the Goblin monster, and triggered a massive explosion.

The Goblin's HP dropped by a large chunk. This attack dealt roughly close to 1000 points of damage.

With 1000 dual resistance, that damage was already quite impressive.

However, it seemed that such a high-powered attack like a rocket launcher required reload time, so he couldn't use it frequently.

Thus, the cannon muzzle on his right arm transformed into a machine gun barrel.

The rattling sound of gunfire rang out as countless dense bullets poured into the Goblin monster.

Tearing its flesh apart.

"That's some insane firepower!"

"So this is the Gunner Class Legendary Profession, Alloy Modification Vanguard?"

"Feels like he'll kill that Goblin with pure damage in under twenty seconds!"

"Elder Qi's granddaughter is no joke either—look, she's already got over a dozen Glimmer Patterns circling her. She's probably waiting for a burst window."

On the big screen beside Li Zerui.

Qi Xiaying, clad in a short fighting outfit, looked sharp and spirited. Her fists and feet struck the Goblin monster at lightning speed.

Every ten hits, a Glimmer Pattern shimmering with elemental light materialized around her.

Her profession was called Battle Spirit Master.

Though it was a branch of the Mage System, her attacks were almost entirely close-quarters.

Each melee strike added magical damage, and the stored Glimmer Patterns could unleash various elemental effects.

Under the girl's deliberate control, the patterns orbiting her mostly glowed with an orange-red light.

These fire-attribute Glimmer Patterns, once fired, inflicted a burn effect on the target, and their base damage was the highest among all elemental patterns.

In this exam condition, which demanded burst damage to kill the monster quickly, it was the optimal choice.

"Both of them are tearing through it fast!"

"Their HP's already around 70%! And that's only been two or three seconds!"

"That Lan girl seems pretty strong too!"

Countless onlookers stared at the screen, watching these shining talents of Dongjiang, brimming with excitement.

But the next moment, the empty slot in the top-right corner of the screen, reserved for the leaderboard, suddenly flickered.

A name appeared out of nowhere.

All chatter in the Examination Center died out.

[Total Score Ranking]

[Current Test Round: Round One]

[Rank: NO.1, Examinee Lin Yi, Round One Clear Time: 2.36 seconds, Points Earned: 1000!]

Huh?

Everyone was dumbfounded.

They looked at the big screen, where Li Zerui and Qi Xiaying were still going all out, and felt like their CPUs were about to melt.

What the hell?

How come others are only halfway through the HP bar, and you just one-shot it?!

It wasn't just the Dongjiang higher-ups watching in the Examination Center who were stunned.

Countless examinees still fighting in the first round were equally shaken!

Boom!

Another rocket blasted from the cannon barrel on Li Zerui's right arm.

But it missed.

His heart was rattled, his aim forgotten!

He had been dead set on taking first place in this round across the entire province.

But he never imagined that while he was still at half HP, someone had already finished it off!