Old Earth Oddity: Unfixed High Tower

At this moment, what appeared before Lin Xuan and the others was an unknown land that looked somewhat desolate and dilapidated!

Although the distance was shrouded in mist, making it impossible to see too far ahead.

Even the area visible to the naked eye was far larger than any stadium!

"We climbed the spiral staircase upward for at least an hour. Even if there was some ingenious mechanism inside this tower that kept us standing still, there definitely shouldn't be an area like this around the tower..."

Looking at the desolate expanse before him, Lin Xuan's thoughts ran wild.

Ever since he had noticed that something was wrong with the tower, he had been guessing what exactly was going on.

At first, he had wondered whether there was some mechanism inside the tower that made the spiral staircase loop in a way they could not detect.

The principle was somewhat like a stair climber at a gym, only much more ingenious. If that were the case, it could explain why they had climbed upward for an hour without reaching the top.

Yet the sight before them completely shattered all his previous guesses.

Because he could no longer find any explanation he considered reasonable for what was happening before his eyes.

His first thought had also been whether everything before him was some kind of virtual projection technology, with even the distant scenery being virtual.

But when he noticed that the door behind them had no doorframe at all, like a gap that had appeared out of thin air, he abandoned that guess.

"I know!"

Xing Yan suddenly cried out beside Lin Xuan.

"Yan Older Brother, what do you know?" Lin Xuan looked at Xing Yan.

"I know where this is. No wonder we couldn't reach the top of the tower no matter how we climbed." Xing Yan looked excited, just as he had when he first saw Vice Dean Pei. "This tower should be the Old Earth Oddity Unfixed High Tower, Sequence 097, controlled by Qinghong Academy!"

"Old Earth Oddity... Unfixed High Tower?"

This was another completely unfamiliar concept. At the very least, Lin Xuan had never heard of any Old Earth Oddities before.

However, judging from Xing Yan's words and the literal meaning, an Old Earth Oddity should be some kind of secret treasure acquired from the Old Soil.

Moreover, this treasure itself must possess many wondrous properties, which was why they had experienced so many unbelievable things.

Before Lin Xuan could think further, Vice Dean Pei turned around and spoke again.

"Those under ten, stand to my left. Those aged ten and above, stand to my right—"

Following Vice Dean Pei's order, the remaining candidates quickly split into two groups.

Once everyone had taken their places, Vice Dean Pei glanced at the watch on his wrist before nodding.

"Very good. No one tried anything stupid. Better than the idiot from the previous round who thought he was clever and got himself eliminated..."

Vice Dean Pei's words immediately made Lin Xuan and the others realize that if anyone had tried to lie about their age and stand in the wrong place, they would have been directly eliminated.

However, Vice Dean Pei did not care what candidates like Lin Xuan were thinking. After roughly looking over the numbers on both sides, he clapped his hands.

At the same time, twenty-five cylindrical stone platforms slowly rose from beneath the ground with a rumble.

Each cylindrical stone platform was around twenty meters in diameter and stopped only after rising to a height of roughly two meters.

After the cylindrical stone platforms stopped rising, Vice Dean Pei took a step in one direction!

This time, the ground did not tremble as though there had been a small earthquake. Instead, a crack spread outward from the tip of his foot!

The crack divided the newly risen cylindrical stone platforms, with ten on one side and ten on the other.

Vice Dean Pei said, "The rules for what comes next are simple. The ten platforms on the left belong to those under ten, while the fifteen platforms on the right belong to those aged ten and above. In the end, anyone who occupies any one of the platforms will receive a ticket into the Spark Program..."

Under Vice Dean Pei's explanation, the candidates quickly understood the rules of this round.

Without question, this was the final stage of the assessment.

After all, fewer than a hundred candidates remained. The first two stages had been a preliminary screening, and only those who remained were qualified to enter the stage where they competed in strength.

As for the division between ten platforms and fifteen platforms, it was mainly based on the proportion of candidates under ten and those aged ten and above. There was nothing particularly special about it.

The only rule Vice Dean Pei emphasized was that the fight for possession of a platform had to be one-on-one. Anyone who violated this rule would be directly eliminated.

Clearly, this time they were no longer allowed to seek help or actively help others as they had during the second stage.

After Vice Dean Pei finished explaining the rules, most of the candidates did not act rashly.

Because with even a little thought, it was easy to understand that taking a platform first did not mean much. They might even end up letting someone else reap the benefits.

Although platform battles could only be one-on-one, every fight would inevitably consume some of one's strength.

It would be even more troublesome if the opponents were evenly matched. Even the winner might only achieve a miserable victory. Wouldn't that just be making a wedding dress for someone else?

This reasoning was not difficult to grasp, so many candidates decided to observe the situation first.

It would be best to wait until things became clearer before making a move.

However, Lin Xuan keenly noticed a detail. After thinking for a moment, he had Xing Yan bend down and whispered something into his ear.

Xing Yan looked stunned after hearing it. "This... isn't that a bit too risky?"

Lin Xuan merely spread his hands, then chose a platform and leaped onto it, becoming one of the first candidates to occupy a platform.

Xing Yan had initially been somewhat hesitant, but when he saw that Lin Xuan, who was several years younger than him, had gone up, he immediately stopped overthinking it and chose a platform as well.

Like Lin Xuan, several youths occupied platforms at the first opportunity, including the people Lin Xuan had noticed earlier.

About five minutes later, all twenty-five platforms were gradually filled.

Only then did the contest truly begin.

Before all twenty-five platforms had been occupied, there had been no need to fight for them. Anyone who wanted one could simply find an empty platform and step onto it.

But now, anyone who wanted to occupy a platform had to defeat a candidate who already held one.

"I should be the first one challenged, right?"

Standing atop the platform, Lin Xuan looked around expectantly.

As the youngest candidate, even among the group under ten, he was undoubtedly the softest persimmon.

(1/2)