A New Solution

"Enough talk. Are we leaving or not?" Jiang Xueyao asked.

"Who knows if the Flood Dragon will come back?" Xu Yuan said. "Let's use these fortifications and see what happens."

He reached out and patted the thick, sturdy mushroom.

It was Yang Xiaobing's mushroom.

With it here, even if an earthquake struck, at least they would not be buried.

They had a makeshift shelter, a formation, and a mushroom. This was already a decent stronghold.

—That monster had come from above.

Which proved the surface was not safe either.

If they could not go below or above, they might as well stay here!

The others looked at the mushroom and soon agreed with Xu Yuan's judgment.

"This mushroom can fight, too. Just say the word if you need its help."

Yang Xiaobing spoke up.

"All right," Xu Yuan replied.

But Jiang Xueyao beckoned him over.

"?" Xu Yuan looked at her.

"Come here. I have something to tell you."

Before Xu Yuan could answer, she was already walking toward a distant corner.

Xu Yuan had no choice but to follow.

"What is it?" he asked, puzzled.

"This Border City Battle... I actually went through it during the independent admissions exam," Jiang Xueyao said quietly.

"What? A teacher gave you the exam question in advance?" Xu Yuan asked in surprise.

"No," Jiang Xueyao said. "I could have applied to sit out today's exam, but I still wasn't satisfied. I wanted to try again. Anyway, what I'm saying is—"

"The right choice is to meet up with the others at Drum Tower Street Subway Station, then fight the enemy there."

"—And give everything you have in the final battle to show what you can do."

Xu Yuan asked, "You think we should go there too?"

"I don't know. But a teacher from the Nine Luminaries reviewed this exam back then and gave that as the correct answer," Jiang Xueyao said.

A teacher from the Nine Luminaries...

That was like a professor from Tsinghua University. Now that was an expert.

Xu Yuan suddenly smiled and asked:

"Everyone meets up at that subway station. Then what?"

"Everyone works together, defeats the Demon, and wins the war," Jiang Xueyao said.

"The city survives? The people are saved?" Xu Yuan pressed.

"No. The city is destroyed, but the Demon is defeated. That's what happened ten years ago," Jiang Xueyao said.

Xu Yuan fell into thought.

Jiang Xueyao said nothing. She simply watched him in silence.

Xu Yuan met her gaze.

Her eyes were as deep as the sea and as dazzling as the stars.

But she said nothing. She only watched him, wanting to know what he would choose.

Xu Yuan turned and looked into the distance.

His gaze fell on the little boy.

Will he abandon this child?

Jiang Xueyao wondered silently.

After all, he had already been given the correct answer.

To be frank.

Her identity was sensitive. She knew a great deal and was curious about the past, which was why she had come to take this exam again.

As things stood, even if someone saw her telling Xu Yuan about it, they would only take it as a well-intentioned warning.

She was using what she knew to give a companion a friendly warning, all within proper bounds.

That fit perfectly with her identity as a scion of a thousand-year-old Aristocratic Clan.

It also showed that everything had happened naturally.

—The Jiang family merely took the exam with the team. We haven't meddled in matters of the past. We even pointed a companion toward a clear path.

And what was more—

She had absolutely not revealed the little boy's true background during this monthly exam!

That was why she had called Xu Yuan over to talk!

His reaction would prove that she had never revealed His Highness's identity.

Everything happening now had occurred naturally. There had been no schemes or painstaking plots whatsoever!

She had accomplished what she needed to.

Plenty of examiners could testify to it.

So now—

What would Xu Yuan choose?

Jiang Xueyao watched Xu Yuan and waited quietly.

"Look," Xu Yuan finally said, his voice low. "If that's the correct answer, it isn't much of one. Why don't we explore a new solution ourselves?"

Jiang Xueyao stared at him in surprise. "Wait, you want to—"

"Yes," Xu Yuan said.

He wanted to save the Commandery Princess!

Did he have any idea what that meant?

He had no idea at all!

Jiang Xueyao stared hard at him, waiting for what he would say next.

In the darkness.

She could not make out his face.

She only heard him say softly:

"If we want to save someone, we should go save them. If we want to leave the city, we should go and see whether we can. Life holds endless possibilities. We have to try. Maybe we'll find a new path."

"People's dreams and growth can't be bound."

"—Even if someone else has the correct answer."

Jiang Xueyao suddenly gripped Crimson Sky tight. Her eyes went distant, and only after a long while did she ask:

"What if we fail the exam?"

"Then we've only failed an exam. We're not dead. We can start over," Xu Yuan said softly, meeting her gaze.

"What if we die?" Jiang Xueyao pressed.

"If we're dead, why would we care about any of that?" Xu Yuan said.

Jiang Xueyao could not help rolling her eyes at him. "You always have an answer for everything."

She lowered her head, breathed a sigh of relief, and hurried back.

This would work.

His answer was sincere and had nothing to do with personal gain.

A boy wanted to take the exam according to his purest convictions.

No one could blame him for that!

She was safely through!

Xu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief too.

For fuck's sake.

She almost led me into a ditch.

Good thing I reacted fast. Made it through safely!

What he had said just now had come from the bottom of his heart, too.

This city offered so much room to maneuver, with countless possibilities, and she had come at him with a correct answer?

Correct answer, my ass.

The whole city had been wiped out, and that still counted as the correct answer?

He would never be satisfied without trying for himself!

Besides.

His own match was not about reaching that subway station.

If he wanted to win.

He had to keep the little boy alive!

From the darkness around them.

A faint rustling gradually rose.

Something was approaching fast.

"Xiao Bing, release the dog," Xu Yuan called.

Yang Xiaobing pulled out a Talisman, swiftly folded it into shape, and placed it on the ground.

The Talisman instantly became a hunting dog. It shot into the tunnel to scout ahead.

Only a few breaths passed.

Yang Xiaobing suddenly shouted, "The enemy's coming!"

"What is it?" Zhao Afei asked.

"Human skins. Lots of them, crawling along the walls. Damn it, there are too many!" Yang Xiaobing's voice was taut.

"In that case, I'll control the formation for attack and defense," Jiang Xueyao said.

"I know you're good with formations," Xu Yuan said, "but the spiritual energy they consume—"

His voice cut off.

Jiang Xueyao had opened a bag, and it was packed with Spirit Stones.

Spirit Stones could power a formation in place of spiritual energy!

What a filthy-rich heiress.

No, wait.

She's on our side.

—What a savior of the people!

"Please make sure I stay alive, Jiang Xueyao," Xu Yuan said solemnly.

"Oh, shut up," Jiang Xueyao said.

"Xiao Bing, Afei, let's meet them head-on!" Xu Yuan called to the other two.

He dragged several rectangular wooden crates in front of him and kicked off their lids, revealing the ammunition and firearms inside.

Officer Liu had supplied the equipment after the special operations squad was formed.

Xu Yuan turned to Yang Xiaobing and Zhao Afei.

"Have either of you learned to shoot?"

They both shook their heads.

"I'll learn when we get back," Yang Xiaobing said, a little ashamed.

"Me too," Zhao Afei said.

Xu Yuan's marksmanship had proved far too useful.

Even Zhao Afei, who had always looked down on modern weapons, now thought guns were genuinely useful!

Xu Yuan said:

"I'll handle ranged attacks. You two back me up in close combat."

"Got it!" they answered at once.

With their roles assigned, Xu Yuan looked toward the tunnel again.

He still did not know how the enemy fought.

But the tunnel was so close to their position that this would practically be a meeting engagement.

A meeting engagement...

Xu Yuan chose an assault rifle, set a light machine gun on the barricade, then slung a shotgun across his back.

The assault rifle had a moderate rate of fire and high accuracy. It suited confined terrain and worked well at both medium and close range.

The light machine gun would suppress the enemy's attack and block their advance and movement.

As for the shotgun—

At close range, its spread could inflict devastating damage across a wide area.

That gave him the classic infantry squad setup: rifle as the main weapon, machine gun for suppression, shotgun to finish enemies off.

Tch.

Preparing for a fight like this came naturally to him.

So why was he still nervous?

Xu Yuan closed his eyes for a moment and gathered his thoughts, then opened them again.

That was it.

This was different from every VR first-person shooter competition he had played before.

This time, it was a real monster.

And it could mean life or death for him!

So he wasn't nervous.

He was—

"You're sweating. Are you nervous?"

Jiang Xueyao spoke calmly.

"I'm a little excited. It's been a long time since I felt this way. It even reminds me of my first fight," Xu Yuan said.

"Your first fight?" Yang Xiaobing asked curiously.

"That's right. I was excited then, too." Xu Yuan looked as though he were lost in memory. "I beat the other side five to zero."

"You were that good?" Yang Xiaobing clicked her tongue.

Xu Yuan nodded solemnly.

Winning a match was easy.

—Back then, he'd been playing against his classmates at an internet café.

At the critical moment, he had secretly pressed the power-strip switch on their side, then immediately switched it back on.

No one noticed.

Then—

He had taken his sweet time crushing them while enjoying the looks of helpless rage on their faces.

Even now, he still thought competing was a pleasure.

Ah, youth.

So foolish, so beautiful.

Xu Yuan suddenly snatched up an assault rifle, aimed into the darkness beyond the barricade, and squeezed the trigger hard.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Muzzle flashes spat fire.

Inside the tunnel,

countless human skins poured out of the darkness, tumbled onto the platform, and crawled toward the barricade on all fours.

The bullets were too small. Hitting the skins only slowed them a little.

—They were nothing but sheets of skin.

What could a sheet of skin do?

Forget it. Whatever they can do, I can't let them get close.

Xu Yuan switched to a machine gun.

The barrage grew fiercer!

This time, he finally pinned the human skins down.

"Xiao Bing, A-Fei, don't move! Jiang Xueyao, give it a try!"

Xu Yuan shouted without looking back.

Jiang Xueyao pressed a hand to the Formation Disc—the one they had seized from the students of South Mountain No. 1 High School. Its sockets were already filled with Spirit Stones.

In an instant,

a faint green glow rose around the barricade, gathered, and took the form of a giant war hammer.

"Go."

Jiang Xueyao barked the command.

Boom—

The giant war hammer flew out and slammed into the tunnel with all its might, smashing down on the countless human skins.

The ground shook like a mountain.

The blow brought the tunnel entrance crashing down completely.

The human skins surging up behind it were trapped in the tunnel, unable to charge at Xu Yuan and the others' defenses.