The seed students selected from the entire class, including Liu Kun, were all pessimistic when facing Wang Ba, Wu Chun, and the others from Classes One and Two. Tang Jian found it rather speechless.
Still, it was not as though he could blame them for failing to live up to expectations. Both Wu Chun and Wang Ba possessed the strength of Three-Star Card Apprentices, and their Card Energy values were said to have exceeded 120.
Those two could be called the strongest students at Xicheng No. 1 High School at present. With Card Energy above 120, their vitality was certainly above 12 as well.
Tang Jian had made it sound easy just now, saying he would teach Wang Ba and the others a lesson after entering the Interstellar Tower, but he did not actually have absolute confidence in victory.
Yet no matter how high these students' vitality and Card Energy were, it would still be difficult for them to deal with a reincarnated Three-Star Card Master like him.
Tang Jian did not say any of this to Yang Mao and the others. Even if he had, they might not have believed him and would instead have thought he was bragging.
This time, Tang Jian had no intention of keeping a low profile in the Interstellar Tower. He intended to achieve a dazzling result, make the school's upper management take full notice of him, and have them devote all their efforts to nurturing him.
In this era, blindly keeping a low profile was useless. One had to stand out in order to compete for resources in every aspect.
Before long, Vice Principal Zhou Dongbo arrived with several school leaders. After offering a few formal remarks, he announced that the Interstellar Tower was opening.
Sun Yiying came over and offered everyone a few encouraging words before leading them into a large room that had been assigned to them.
There was no furniture or equipment in the large room, only several broad genuine-leather seats. Above each seat hung a helmet-like metal device.
Tang Jian naturally recognized it. It was a Virtual Bio-Seat. Once seated and fitted with the helmet, one would enter the virtual energy world created by the Interstellar Tower.
Similar equipment could also be found in internet cafés in some major cities, where players used it to play highly immersive virtual games.
But the Interstellar Tower was the Interstellar Tower, and virtual games were virtual games. The virtual environments created by most virtual games were not made of energy, so cultivating within them could hardly increase one's strength.
Tang Jian casually chose a seat and sat down. A staff member came over and pressed a button.
At once, several neural connectors and wired devices attached themselves to Tang Jian's body, while the helmet above descended and completely enclosed his head.
Tang Jian felt a sharp pain in his tailbone, followed by a numbing sensation like an electric shock racing through his entire body.
A violent sense of vibration struck him.
Countless dazzling colors appeared before his eyes. His consciousness felt as though his body were plummeting at high speed, seized by weightlessness, while countless sounds and images flashed through his mind, making him dizzy and nauseous.
However, Tang Jian had long experienced similar scenes before, so he quickly adapted.
The next moment, he felt his feet touch the ground.
Tang Jian's feet jolted, and he bent his knees slightly. He discovered that he was standing in a vast wilderness, with Gobi hills in the distance and eagles circling overhead.
A gust of yellow sand swept past, pelting his face with dust. Even the dry scent of the air and the smell of earth lingered around his nose.
He was not the only one. Many other students had already entered the virtual energy world formed by the Interstellar Tower. When Tang Jian turned his head, he even saw students appearing nearby.
At that moment, a line of energy-formed words began appearing in the air, and Tang Jian heard Vice Principal Zhou Dongbo's voice.
"Students, you are now on the first floor of the Interstellar Tower. The assessment is about to begin. The content of the first-floor assessment is your actual combat ability.
"You will engage in a battle across this vast wilderness. You may find trustworthy teammates and act together, or you may act alone.
"Your mission on this floor is to use everything available to you to eliminate your enemies."
When Zhou Dongbo spoke the words "eliminate your enemies," Tang Jian even heard shocked cries from some students nearby.
He could not help smiling. It seemed this assessment would be even easier for him.
Most of these students sheltered in the ivory tower had never experienced a game of killing enemies. Even though this was merely a game-like test, the vast majority had never encountered anything like it.
Perhaps some had experienced killing people in virtual game worlds.
But the energy world created by the Interstellar Tower was far more realistic.
And the more realistic it was, the more it made these fledglings resist and recoil.
Tang Jian looked at a student not far away who had his back to him and was standing still, listening to Zhou Dongbo explain the rules. A sinister smile appeared on his face.
He looked around at the ground, bent down, picked up an irregular rock about the size of a fist, and weighed it in his hand.
At that moment, Zhou Dongbo was still explaining the rules.
".Pay attention. Once the assessment begins, each of you will receive a Card Device, a One-Star Blank Energy Card, and one random Blank Card.
"You may use the cards in your initial equipment to complete this battle, or you may use the combat techniques you have learned.
"For every person you kill, you will earn one point. However, once you die, all the points you have accumulated, including every resource in your possession, will go to the person who killed you.
"These points will all be recorded in the end. There are mysterious rewards, and the rankings will appear in the sky shortly."
"Once the assessment begins, poison gas will start spreading from the outermost edges of the wilderness.
"Therefore, none of you should entertain any thoughts of escaping by luck. You must gather toward the center. More card resources will be waiting there for you to pick up.
"The more resources you collect, the greater your chance of displaying stronger combat power, hunting other people, and achieving better results.
"Now, the assessment begins!"
Almost the instant Zhou Dongbo finished his lengthy explanation and announced the start of the assessment—
Tang Jian's tiptoeing steps immediately turned into a sprint. He raised the stone in his hand and smashed it directly down on the head of the student who still had his back turned.
Thud—
The dull sound of stone striking bone could be heard, like a rock hitting a wooden board.
Tang Jian could even feel the recoil from the stone in his hand.
That blow carried tremendous force.
The other student let out a scream and collapsed to the ground. After convulsing twice, his body faded away completely.
A rectangular Card Device and two White Cards appeared on the ground.
Several students nearby who saw this scene stared at Tang Jian, who had claimed first blood, with horrified disbelief. They instinctively began backing away, deeply wary and afraid of this ruthless man who had acted so decisively.
At that moment, the points on the ranking board in the sky instantly refreshed.
First Place: Tang Jian. Points: 1.
Many students had barely finished listening to Zhou Dongbo's words before instinctively looking up. The moment they saw Tang Jian's newly displayed name, quite a few of them froze.
"Damn, who is that? The assessment just started, and he already took someone out?"
"Did he turn on cheats or something?"
"Tang Jian? Holy shit?"
Liu Kun, Yang Mao, and the others from the same class saw Tang Jian's name immediately. Every one of them went blank with shock.
Did he have to be this fierce?
Outside, in a huge conference room, Vice Principal Zhou Dongbo was stunned as well.
Sun Yiying, who had been watching her students' performance closely, now had a face full of black lines.
Just now, she had personally watched Tang Jian approach his prey like a cat stalking carefully, then ruthlessly strike without hesitation.
No matter how she looked at it, he seemed downright sneaky. His method of knocking people out with a club was so practiced that it seemed this was far from his first time.
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