I'll Take All of You On Alone

"Heh heh, your reactions weren't fast enough. Was this really the preparation you made, Haki'en?"

An Hui teased Ron as she leaped from the tall building. Pale silver currents danced around her, seeming to form a shimmering veil.

Light as a bird spreading its wings, she made a single leap and landed before Ron.

"Bang!"

The cracked ground beneath her feet, however, proved that her leap had been anything but light...

It was sheer power.

Yep, still as fierce as ever.

An Hui might have looked thin and small, like a short high school student,

but by manipulating magnetic fields and using bioelectric currents to stimulate her body, her physical strength had already far surpassed that of ordinary people.

By comparison, she was probably far stronger than Ron's physical strength when he loaded the Potion Sequence, Sequence 8 Corpse Collector...

But that was not because the Corpse Collector was too weak—

If Ron were willing to load Beyonder Loss of Control back into the Potion Sequence, a truly complete Corpse Collector would be no inferior to An Hui's "Magnetic Field Rotation."

Unfortunately... once Beyonder Loss of Control was truly loaded into the Potion Sequence, Ron's Loss of Control would rise rapidly whenever he used the Potion-granted supernatural abilities.

He still did not understand why, but until he solved that problem, he could only keep using the weakened version of the Potion Sequence.

An Hui dusted herself off. Seeing Ron still staring at her, she grew a little uncomfortable.

"Enough already. Why are you pretending to be some master without saying a word?"

As she spoke, she cautiously surveyed the surroundings.

"This isn't a place to talk... Follow me first."

Though they were theoretically enemies in this exam, Ron did not refuse. He silently followed behind An Hui.

The two climbed over collapsed high-rises, hid in a corner amid gaps in the concrete ruins, and moved through the scattered shadows among the wreckage.

An Hui moved very slowly. With every step, she carefully checked the surroundings before inching forward only after confirming that no one was lying in ambush...

Ron shuffled behind her for quite a while before finally asking, "Do we... really need to be this cautious?"

He watched An Hui carefully step over broken dirt and stone ahead of him, wriggling forward on tiptoe. After a moment of silence, he said,

"I feel like we're two maggots squirming along."

"Shh!"

An Hui shot him a vicious glare and made a quiet gesture.

"A newbie with zero points in a Placement Match is questioning a super expert ranked 1,314?

Lie down, you unfilial brat. Today, I'll lead you in slaughtering the whole map and extracting perfectly!"

...All right.

As long as Huihui was happy.

Ron shrugged and began wriggling along with An Hui.

Before long, they reached an inconspicuous corner of the ruins. There were no longer any rustling sounds of others moving between cover nearby, nor were any eyes watching them.

"All right... We can relax a little now that we've made it here."

An Hui led Ron up a high-rise at the edge of the Flame Wall and lazily leaned against the wall.

Looking at the points and ranking above Ron's head, she could not help sounding emotional.

"I really didn't expect your very first match with zero points to put you into this game.

It looks like, according to the Intelligent Brain's calculations, the strength of your Personal Reality is already enough to support fair competition in a match like this."

After all, it was Lv. 2 Vector Manipulation...

Even Ron felt that the Intelligent Brain's judgment was wrong.

A top-two-thousand match could already let Lv. 2 Vector Manipulation compete fairly?

Based on what Ron knew of An Hui, he did not think she could put up anything resembling a fair fight against him...

If they were mortal enemies, then perhaps in a single exchange, An Hui would be defeated by the destructive force of Vector Manipulation.

Ron shrugged. "Maybe it isn't all that fair... If all the other examinees in this match are like you, it might be a one-sided match for me."

"Heh." An Hui sneered. "That confident?"

"If you alone entered this match, how would you become the final winner of this test?"

"Me?" Ron rubbed his chin and briefly compared their abilities' strengths. "I think I could just crush my way through."

"I'd grab people and fight them from the start. As long as it was one-on-one every time, I think I could take down every opponent pretty quickly..."

"Heh heh." An Hui raised a finger and shook it. "Looks like if you, you unfilial brat, had been unlucky enough not to run into me, you'd have suffered a huge loss."

As she spoke, she jerked her chin into the distance, signaling Ron to look over there.

"Look at what's happening over there... Do you really think the fair duels you imagined would happen?"

Ron followed An Hui's gaze and vaguely saw four or five examinees cautiously protecting a lazy-looking person as they slowly cleared corners of the ruins where people might be hiding.

Not long after, they caught an examinee hiding there, apparently intending to ambush others, and directly beat him half to death with all their strength...

Then the lazy youth being protected made his move. Without any effort, he killed the ambusher, and the score above his head surged upward.

...What the hell was this?!

Ron stared in astonishment as they searched the ruins for enemies like a bulldozer, crippling every enemy they found before handing them over to the lazy man...

"What is this, farming points? This really doesn't count as cheating?"

Ron could not help asking, only to see An Hui wearing an expression of complete certainty.

"Of course it doesn't... Once you enter the Hollow Battlefield, whether you cooperate or oppose each other is entirely up to the examinees.

Most people like that are young masters from giant corporations. They only take the College Entrance Exam to gild their résumés, and the city government turns a blind eye to them.

As long as they don't use equipment that enhances their personal abilities and violates the College Entrance Exam rules, any method of earning points is legal and compliant."

Seeing Ron's incredulous expression, An Hui asked,

"Although those protected are 'big bosses' who paid Credit Points in reality, and you only occasionally see them in these high-ranking matches,

temporary teams exist in every kind of match...

Tell me, if you ran into that group, could you still steamroll the entire match so easily?"

...He could.

Although all of them had Lv. 2 abilities, they were clearly nowhere near as terrifying as Vector Manipulation. Ron could definitely defeat them.

But... it would probably be far more difficult than he had imagined.

After all, facing one enemy at a time and facing multiple enemies at once required completely different costs.

If every match had groups of examinees banding together, Ron felt that even his Vector Manipulation would eventually fall short halfway through battle due to the successive fights...

After all, there was one thing that could not be ignored—

Mysticism Influence existed within this Hollow Battlefield!

If he kept his ability active, it would eventually wear down and become unusable...

At that point, he would be fish on the chopping block, at everyone else's mercy.

Seeing Ron fall silent, An Hui grinned and patted his shoulder, then raised her head and gave herself a thumbs-up.

"But who told you to run into me...

Come on, let me teach you how to get the greatest gains in this test for the smallest price!"

As she spoke, she signaled for Ron to lie prone with her in the corner of the rooftop.

"Lie here with me and wait for a while. Also, rein in your ability a little...

Abilities are constantly affected in this place. Using them recklessly will severely drain your stamina.

Before long, you'll feel like your processing power is overloaded and be unable to use your ability at all."

An Hui sighed.

"When that happens, you'll have no choice but to leave Simulated Reality, return to reality for a while to rest, and farm a Resurrection Coin before you can come back..."

So this was how ordinary people perceived the erosion of supernatural abilities by Mysticism Influence...

Unlike Ron, whose settings would be worn down and temporarily rendered unusable, but whose ability strength would not change whenever he could use it.

Obediently copying An Hui, Ron reined in his ability and simply removed the Superpowered profession altogether.

There was no danger right now, after all. They were merely waiting for nothing...

But not long after removing Superpowered, Ron discovered something he had never considered—

The damage level of Superpowered's traits was steadily repairing itself. Before long, it had returned to full!

How could this be... Was it because I was still in the Superpowered Era?

In this version, Superpowered would naturally repair itself. It only appeared damaged because it was constantly being affected by Mysticism Influence...

With that thought, Ron's mind began racing.

Did that not mean he did not need to return to reality to recover like the other examinees?

As long as he temporarily removed it after its settings were damaged, he could quickly return to peak condition and continue fighting for points!

Luckily, I got a Fully Immersive Pod. It came standard with life-support equipment...

If it had not been a Fully Immersive Pod, then even if Ron could keep fighting in Simulated Reality using this advantage, he would still have to leave to eat and drink.

Not long afterward.

A green beam suddenly shot into the sky from beside the ruined high-rise where they were hiding, marking out a small clearing.

The group of examinees whom Ron and An Hui had been secretly watching also finished their hunt and immediately headed toward the place where the green light had appeared...

Ron immediately realized what the green light represented.

"This is... an Evacuation Point?"

Ron could not help looking at An Hui beside him. "You brought me here to lie in wait because..."

"That's right." An Hui nodded with an inscrutable air. "For this very moment!"

As she spoke, she watched the group arrive at the Evacuation Point. One after another, they obediently offered their lives to let their boss farm points, until only the boss holding a dozen or so admission cards remained, preparing to evacuate...

She suddenly attacked with all her strength. Iron Sand hidden within the ruins was pulled by magnetic force, transforming into sharp spikes that burst out without warning and instantly pierced the man's limbs!

"Quick, Ron, kill him directly. You don't have a single point right now, so get some first..."

Ron did not stand on ceremony with An Hui. He immediately loaded Superpowered again and casually tossed down a pebble, turning the unfortunate boss into a Data Bubble.

[Points acquired: 35000.]

Seeing his score rise, his expression became somewhat strange.

"This is... what you meant by getting the greatest gains for the smallest price?"

"What else would it be?" An Hui put her hands on her hips matter-of-factly. "Those people are least guarded at the Evacuation Point. Camping an Evacuation Point is obviously the best choice!"

All right, An Hui did have a point.

In an environment where using supernatural abilities caused them to wear down, hiding in the shadows and killing in a single blow truly was the most reliable fighting method.

Still, it seemed examinees would stop at nothing to fight over points...

Ron complained inwardly as An Hui jumped down from the high-rise and picked up every admission card the man had dropped.

"Unfortunately, there are only seventeen. That's nowhere near enough for us to evacuate..."

She curled her lips, then jumped back onto the high-rise.

"You hold onto them first. We'll lie low a little longer, then ambush a few more unlucky guys preparing to evacuate—"

Before she could finish, however, a fireball suddenly rose from nearby and hurtled toward them!

Ron instinctively grabbed An Hui's hand. Vector Manipulation twisted gravity, and they leaped directly onto the rooftop beside them.

The fireball exploded where they had just been, tearing a huge hole in the already unstable floor and sending chunks of concrete tumbling down.

If they had failed to dodge it... the two of them might already have been severely injured and turned into Data Bubbles.

A cold voice came from nearby.

"I didn't expect you to dodge that... Hmph. No wonder you're rats who only know how to camp Evacuation Points."

"So it's a newcomer with only 35,000 points and a noob ranked barely over a thousand..."

Ron looked toward the source of the voice and found eight or nine examinees in a temporary team walking out from the ruins.

Every one of their rankings was within the top thousand. The one who had thrown the fireball and mocked Ron and An Hui had an exceptionally high ranking of 535!

They were all Lv. 2 ability users...

Ron fell thoughtful. Beside him, An Hui gritted her teeth and spoke in a heavy voice.

"Damn it, they found us... Those guys have nothing to be proud of either. They were clearly tailing that boss; we just got there first."

As she spoke, she stuffed every admission card in her hand into Ron's hands.

"Go quickly. You only need to stay inside the light circle for ten seconds to evacuate. I'll hold them off for a while and definitely get you out!"

The leading examinee sharply noticed An Hui's movement and could not help looking surprised.

"You're still trying to protect this newbie and get him out? Can't you see how many of us there are?"

"Stop struggling. Stay here obediently and become our points!"

Damn it, why was our luck so bad...

An Hui clenched her teeth. Pale silver currents crackled across her forehead. Just as she was about to risk everything, she saw Ron stuff the admission cards back into her hands.

Ron took two steps forward and spoke calmly.

"Who said I was leaving? Come on, let's fight one-on-one."

"One-on-one?" The leading examinee was instantly amused by Ron's words. "Please, do I look like an idiot?"

"Why would I talk about honor and send people up one by one to fight you to the death when we can gang up on you?"

"No." Ron shook his head. "That's not what I meant."

He raised his hand and pointed at every one of them in turn.

"You, you, you... and you."

Ron's tone was calm, as though it were only natural.

"I'll take all of you on alone!"

The next moment, the ruins around them abruptly rose into the air...

Gravity reversed in an instant!