"This might be a little difficult, right?"
"The HP isn't that high, but the Defense and Magic Resistance have been set way too high!"
At the Examination Center, countless people stared unblinkingly at the giant screen as the exam began.
The screen displayed young prodigies who had already made names for themselves, candidates most likely to claim the top spot in Dongjiang Province's college entrance examination this time.
Lan Ruoyi was among them.
Besides her, there were more than twenty candidates from other testing sites who had also reached level 29 or above and chosen Purgatory Difficulty.
It could be said that these people had already secured places in the top twenty of Dongjiang Province's college entrance examination.
Among the Gold Label candidates who had chosen Nightmare Difficulty, there might also be a few dark horses.
"First-tier class skills don't have particularly high base damage. At most, they're only a little over a hundred."
"And since equipment isn't allowed, their attribute value bonuses won't be high either. For ordinary Class Users, a skill that could deal one or two hundred damage on paper might only deal a dozen or so points against this Goblin."
Someone put themselves in the candidates' shoes.
At the First Turn, with no equipment, no potion effects, and no buffs—
Even breaking through its defenses would be difficult.
In the end, they might really just be scratching at it.
Li Yuanjing chuckled. "Otherwise, why do you think I vetoed this difficulty level and stopped it from being used in the official assessment?"
Qi Guoguang, seated beside him, carefully scanned the giant screen but failed to spot Lin Yi.
"Where's that level 42 kid?"
Only after being reminded by him did Li Yuanjing realize that Lin Yi's Dungeon footage was not on the giant screen.
At that moment, an employee responsible for broadcasting the Dungeon footage hurriedly reported, "Report! Our Crystal System automatically selects broadcast footage according to a certain set of rules."
"The current priority is based on the rarity of the candidates' professions."
"Leaders, we have already sent dedicated staff to retrieve the Dungeon footage of the candidate you're watching, Lin Yi. We expect to project it within two minutes!"
Li Yuanjing nodded.
Under normal circumstances, Rare Professions and uncommon professions were certainly stronger than Common Profession Class Users.
So such a selection system was understandable.
They only needed to wait quietly for Lin Yi's Dungeon footage to appear.
Taking advantage of the brief few dozen seconds before the first round of testing began, Li Yuanjing waved a hand and continued, "Get me a list of everyone who chose Purgatory Difficulty, ranked by overall level and profession rarity."
Very soon, a list was placed in his hands.
For every candidate ranked in the top ten, Li Yuanjing could basically tell which great family had produced them just by looking at their surname.
"Heh, isn't the one at the top of the list your youngest son?"
"You have an uncommon Archer Class profession, yet he awakened a Legendary Profession. His future is limitless!"
Qi Guoguang had received the same list.
The person ranked first was named Li Zerui, Li Yuanjing's second son.
"Zerui's usually still rather lazy, so there's no need to mention him. Your granddaughter, though, isn't someone to take lightly either, haha!"
The second person on the list was Qi Xiaying, also a Legendary-grade Class User.
"Not at all, not at all. Xiaying inherited none of her father's diligence. She's terribly lazy at home too!"
The Dongjiang Province Education Department and Professional Alliance higher-ups seated beside and behind the two big shots inwardly grumbled as they watched them trade compliments.
This was way too damn pretentious.
Even so, most people still watched the two candidates on the giant screen without blinking.
Because everyone knew that the person most likely to take first place in the opening round would be one of those two.
The one-minute countdown ended.
Soon, a short Goblin monster suddenly spawned in front of a young man on the left side of the giant screen.
The young man reacted incredibly quickly. The moment he raised his right hand, his entire palm was coated in a layer of silver metal casing, and a pitch-black cannon barrel transformed out of the center of his palm!
Boom!!
The next instant, a rocket shot out from the barrel, struck the Goblin monster, and instantly caused a massive explosion.
The Goblin's HP dropped by a huge chunk. That attack had dealt roughly close to 1,000 damage.
With both resistances at 1,000, that damage was already extremely impressive.
However, it seemed that high-powered attacks like rocket launchers required reload time, so he could not use them repeatedly.
The cannon barrel on his right arm then transformed into a machine gun barrel.
The rapid rattle of gunfire rang out as countless dense bullets poured into the Goblin monster.
They blasted its flesh apart.
"What insane firepower!"
"So this is the Gunner Class Legendary Profession, the Alloy Modification Vanguard?"
"At this rate, he probably won't even need twenty seconds to drown that Goblin in damage!"
"Elder Qi's granddaughter is incredible too. Look, there are already more than ten Glimmer Patterns circling around her. She's probably waiting for a burst window!"
On the giant screen beside Li Zerui's—
Qi Xiaying wore a short combat outfit and looked every bit the valiant heroine. Her fists and kicks struck the Goblin monster nonstop at incredible speed.
Every ten hits, a Glimmer Pattern flashing with multicolored elemental light appeared beside her.
Her profession was called Battle Spirit Master.
Though it was a Mage System advancement, her methods of attack were almost entirely close-range.
Every melee attack carried bonus magic damage, while the Glimmer Patterns she stored could also produce various elemental effects.
Under the girl's deliberate control, the Glimmer Patterns orbiting her mostly glowed orange-red.
Once fired, these fire-element Glimmer Patterns inflicted a burning effect on their target, and their raw damage was also the highest among all elemental Glimmer Patterns.
Under assessment conditions that required explosive output and the quickest possible kill, they were the optimal choice.
"Both of them are attacking so fast!"
"The monster's HP is already down to around 70%! It's only been two or three seconds!"
"That girl from the Lan family seems amazing too!"
Countless people watched these dazzling Dongjiang geniuses on the screen, all of them thrilled.
However, the next moment, the previously blank area in the upper-right corner of the screen, reserved for the rankings, suddenly flashed.
A name abruptly appeared.
The discussions throughout the Examination Center instantly fell silent.
[Total Score Ranking] [Current Test Round: Round One] [Rank: NO.1, Candidate Lin Yi, Time Taken to Clear Round One: 2.36 seconds, Score Earned: 1000!]
Huh?
Everyone was dumbfounded.
They looked at Li Zerui, Qi Xiaying, and the others on the giant screen, all still frantically attacking, and felt like their CPUs were about to burn out.
What was going on?!
Why had everyone else only just reached half HP, while he had instantly killed it??
It was not just the Dongjiang High-Ranking Officials watching at the Examination Center who were stunned.
Countless candidates desperately attacking in the first round of testing were also completely shocked!
Boom!
Another rocket blasted from the cannon barrel on Li Zerui's right arm.
However, it missed.
His mind was in chaos, his gun had slowed, and he had even forgotten how to aim!
He had been determined to claim first place in the province for this opening round.
Yet he had never imagined that when he had only brought the monster to half HP, someone else had already instantly killed it!
Before you continue