Grade B Evaluation

"Hum."

A flash of white light vanished, and all six appeared in a cold hall.

Five and a half, to be precise. Only Huang Liang's upper body remained, his face bloodless and his chest caved in.

If the system hadn't refrained from announcing his death, anyone who saw him would have thought he was half a corpse.

Ye Lin looked down at himself. Perhaps items from the exam couldn't be brought back; of all the guns he'd carried, only his original little pistol remained.

Before he could think further, a system notification rang out:

"Beep. Severe injuries detected among examinees. The system has automatically activated its repair function. Points will be deducted according to injury severity."

"Please select a repair mode: Perfect Repair or Simple Repair."

Unlike the cold mechanical voice inside the scenario, the female voice in the Death Exam Space was much gentler.

Perfect? Simple?

Looking at the half of Huang Liang lying on the floor, Ye Lin immediately chose Perfect Repair. He didn't know how the two differed, but to be safe, perfect sounded far more reliable than simple.

Before Ye Lin could confirm, An Ke suddenly stopped him:

"Ye Lin! Don't choose Perfect Repair! Choose Simple Repair!"

"Perfect Repair is too expensive! Simple Repair can save them! If they don't have enough points, Perfect Repair will put them in the negatives! They'll be erased on the spot!"

Hu Jia and Zhang Tie both froze at her words.

Ye Lin selected Simple Repair, then looked at her expressionlessly.

An Ke's expression stiffened. She instantly realized her mistake and stood with her mouth hanging open, frantically trying to think of an explanation.

In her panic, she had forgotten she was pretending to be a newcomer. No-she had already exposed herself when they returned.

"I..."

"Who are you, really?"

Ye Lin stood up, his severed hand rapidly regrowing.

He glanced sideways at the two men bathed in white light, then drew his gun and pressed the muzzle against An Ke's forehead.

The muzzle was cold, and An Ke's heart lurched.

Ye Lin hadn't undergone any enhancements yet. He was still an ordinary man. Yet at that moment, her heart almost stopped.

"I... fine. I admit I'm not a newcomer, but I've only been through one exam."

An Ke took a deep breath and looked earnestly at Ye Lin.

But the moment she finished, Ye Lin scoffed and mercilessly exposed her lie:

"One? You think I didn't notice the Species by the entrance?"

"You killed a Species one-on-one without a gun. No matter how useless He Zheng is, you must have survived at least two exams."

"You're the other side's captain. Don't bother denying it. I don't know the rules, but there were no notifications when people on Huang Liang's side died. That means the two sides must have been tracked separately, and there had to be a captain. Who could it have been besides you?"

"In fact, you were probably the strongest according to the system's evaluation. Otherwise, there's no reason they would have encountered 'God' in the first round."

An Ke's breath caught. She hadn't expected Ye Lin to have noticed her so long ago.

Damn it...

Facing Ye Lin's icy gaze, she knew he didn't believe a word she said.

But... that thing was far too important...

An Ke's eyes flickered, and she drew a deep breath:

"Fine."

"In that case, there's no point hiding it anymore. But I haven't just survived two exams. I've survived..."

"Six."

Hu Jia and Zhang Tie nearly jumped in shock. Even Ye Lin was taken aback.

"Six! You survived six exams?!"

Amid his shock, Zhang Tie seemed to remember something. His eyes suddenly reddened as he demanded:

"Then why didn't you help us?!"

Thinking of everyone who had died horribly, he found An Ke utterly revolting! He didn't know how strong someone who had survived six exams would be, but even an idiot could figure out that if she had helped even a little, they wouldn't have lost so many people!

An Ke remained silent. Facing Zhang Tie as he stormed toward her, furious and itching to punch her, she offered no defense.

She understood why Zhang Tie was so angry, even though she hadn't intended any of it.

"Zhang Tie..."

Ye Lin suddenly raised a hand and quietly stopped him.

Looking at An Ke, who stood silently with her head lowered, Ye Lin frowned.

"You didn't act because your strength was restricted, or because you'd lost your powers. Right?"

"Was it a system penalty? Or something else? No, let me put it this way: what did you encounter in the Seventh Exam? My guess is that you used some method, or paid an enormous price, to barely survive."

"And..."

Ye Lin lowered his head and leaned close to An Ke's ear:

"You obtained something. Otherwise, you wouldn't be so afraid of exposing yourself."

"You're worried we'll covet it."

Ye Lin straightened as he finished, and An Ke's pupils abruptly contracted.

She hadn't imagined that one truthful statement would let this man guess her secret outright!

"No...!"

"I did pay a huge price to survive, but...!"

Bang!

Ye Lin fired without hesitation, and the bullet tore through An Ke's left leg.

"Ah!!"

An Ke let out a pained cry. Before the others could react in horror, he aimed at her other leg:

"Last chance. Don't try to deceive me."

"You know what I want. Either I shoot your limbs off one by one and leave you a limbless stump, or you do as I say!"

"We can't kill our teammates, but that doesn't mean... I can't cripple you."

Looking at An Ke's pained expression, Ye Lin seemed utterly devoid of emotion. His gaze grew colder:

"Of course, you can have the system heal you. Then we'll see whether it heals faster than I can shoot..."

"Ye... Ye Lin?! Lin?!"

Zhang Tie looked panicked. His anger toward An Ke vanished instantly, replaced by fear of Ye Lin.

An Ke was despicable, but he could understand her.

Yet judging by Ye Lin's reaction, he intended to kill her simply because she had lied!

How could this be happening?!

As far as he remembered, Ye Lin was a good, kindhearted person who had saved them more than once!

Ignoring the two panicking men, Ye Lin coldly began counting down.

During his first exam, he had only been an ordinary man, so naturally he'd needed to act a little "friendly." Now that they were back, there was no need to keep pretending.

"Three..."

"Two..."

"I'm not hiding anything! I really told you everything!"

"Why?! Keeping me alive is clearly more valuable! I know more rules than He Zheng! Wouldn't keeping me benefit you?!"

"Benefit? Value?"

Ye Lin sneered, his killing intent intensifying:

"Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"You might know a little more, but that's nothing compared to the added difficulty."

"Without you, the information we received in the last exam wouldn't have been such a mess. And the difficulty is calculated based on how many exams we've taken. Keeping you will only make the next exam harder!"

An Ke had lost all her strength, but the difficulty she brought was very real.

They had successfully cleared the last exam, and he had earned plenty of rewards. But Ye Lin knew perfectly well that luck accounted for half their survival!

If the "God" behind it all hadn't wanted to use them, they would have died long ago.

"I won't raise the difficulty anymore! I swear I'm not lying about that! Otherwise, I'll die in the next exam too! I couldn't possibly lie about this!"

An Ke's face was deathly pale as she desperately explained.

She had thought admitting to six exams would be enough to prove her value. She hadn't expected Ye Lin to still refuse to let her go.

Seeing Ye Lin apparently lose the last of his patience and press the gun against her other leg without hesitation, An Ke steeled herself and shouted:

"Wait!"

Her chest heaved:

"Fine! I'll tell you!"

"But first, you have to tell me exactly how much you earned in the last exam!"

Ye Lin raised an eyebrow at her words:

"You want to assess how strong I'll be after enhancing myself?"

"It looks like what you 'know' is far more important than I imagined..."

Ye Lin looked thoughtful. Then, a moment later, he actually holstered his gun and reached out to pull An Ke up.

The coldness vanished from his face as though nothing had happened:

"I don't know exactly how much I earned yet. But..."

"We can take a look together."

Supporting An Ke, Ye Lin casually smoothed her disheveled hair, then slowly leaned toward her ear and whispered:

"Don't try to be clever, or I'll skin you..."

His tone was gentle. Looking at Ye Lin, whose eyes seemed full of concern for her, An Ke felt every hair stand on end. If pain hadn't kept throbbing through her leg, she might have thought she'd imagined what had just happened.

This bastard...

He was a complete psychopath! Who the hell was he?!

"Ugh..."

"Ye Lin...?"

Behind them, He Zheng was the first to finish healing in the white light. He groaned and woke, his mind still somewhat muddled.

Rubbing his eyes, he stared blankly at the two, who looked rather "intimate," his mouth hanging open.

What was going on? How was he still alive?

And why, the moment he opened his eyes...

Was this kid hitting on a girl?

Beneath the crimson vortex, He Zheng rubbed the back of his head. He first glanced at Ye Lin, who was checking his rewards, then turned toward Huang Liang, who was still being repaired.

"So we're back? The exam's over?"

"What happened to Huang Liang? And how did you kill that monster?"

Watching Huang Liang's lower body steadily regrow, he was completely bewildered. His memories ended at the moment the Species had slapped him away.

"He Zheng, the system said there wouldn't be a third round because the questions had changed."

"After you died... passed out, the Species all died. Then Lin killed the Species. He blew that monster up with a grenade."

Hu Jia explained quietly, recounting what had happened.

He Zheng's eyes went wide when he finished. Apparently, he hadn't expected Ye Lin to have tricked the Species into eating his hand.

Overwhelmed with emotion, he suddenly seemed to remember something and hurried to check how many points he had left.

His reward information wasn't nearly as long as Ye Lin's. After reading it at a glance, He Zheng suddenly exclaimed, his eyes brimming with excitement.

"Holy shit!!"

"How do I have 118 points?! I still have 53 after the deductions?!"

"Where did this hidden reward come from? Why is it worth thirty points?!"

Looking at the detailed rewards in the system, He Zheng nearly jumped in surprise.

He had earned four points in the first round and eight in the second based on his contribution. But besides awarding him eleven points for participating in kills, the system had also given him thirty hidden points.

After deducting five points for treatment, he had fifty-three left.

Fifty-three points-he hadn't earned that much in his previous three exams combined!

"Did I do so damn well this time that I triggered a hidden reward?!"

"Ahem..."

"He Zheng, we all got the hidden reward..."

Looking awkward, Hu Jia tugged at He Zheng. After the sixty-point deduction, he had returned with twenty-six points too. He hadn't earned anything in the first round, and he'd only earned thirty in the second, not even enough to make sixty.

But the hidden question had given him thirty points outright, and assisting with kills had earned him six.

"Fuck..."

He Zheng cursed inwardly. If even Hu Jia had earned that much, the others probably hadn't done much worse.

Risking your life was no match for good luck. Hu Jia had lucked out too.

"Wait, what about Ye Lin?"

"Ye Lin! How many points did you get?! Did those Species count as your kills?!"

He Zheng asked eagerly. If he could earn fifty, wouldn't Ye Lin have earned a hundred?! No, if all those Species counted, wouldn't that mean...

"They did, but since I didn't kill them personally, the system deducted some points. Including nine Gods and 221 Species, I only got 72.1."

Ye Lin frowned. He was puzzled not only by the calculation, but also by why there were only nine Gods. According to the murals and system notifications, there should have been eleven.

Most of those monsters had died when the base crashed, and the system had tallied them all together.

That meant he didn't know who had survived, or who had died only after they left.

"72.1! That's plenty!"

"Looks like the two burned to death by the thrusters gave twenty points, and the other six in the base gave five each? And 0.1 per Species?"

He Zheng tried to work it out, but he was bad at math and couldn't be bothered to keep calculating.

"That's normal. If you weren't a newcomer, you probably wouldn't even get a fraction of that. Otherwise, you could redeem a nuke, run into a battlefield scenario, and farm tens of thousands in one go."

He Zheng felt a little disappointed, but he was satisfied enough:

"But if we work it out that way, you got at least 40 bonus points over two rounds, plus those 14 Species earlier, and another 30 points in hidden rewards. Doesn't that mean you..."

Counting on his fingers, He Zheng finished the calculation and froze on the spot.

"Over 210 points!? Even after deducting 60, you still have 150!?"

Though he had expected a high number, his head still buzzed when he actually worked it out.

He had never dared to dream of a number like that. One hundred and fifty points was enough to enhance an ordinary person into a superhuman! His heart pounded at the thought of everything those points could buy.

Ye Lin shook his head and opened his total score:

"No, I earned 302.1 in total last round. After deducting the base points, I still had 242. Once I passed 150, the system notified me that I'd exceeded the single-round cap and converted the extra points into one Grade B rating."

Ninety for the hidden test, thirty for the special Species.

"What's a Grade B rating good for? Is there any way to convert it back into points?"

Ye Lin lowered his wristwatch, his brow furrowing slightly.

Something he didn't even know how to use had swallowed up 90 of his points.

He Zheng stood frozen in place and shook his head blankly. He didn't know what it was good for either.

All he could think about now was 302.

Before he could recover, An Ke, her eyes full of surprise, hurriedly warned Ye Lin:

"You can convert it, but you absolutely mustn't."

"Converting a Grade B rating back into points would be an utter waste!"

An Ke took a deep breath. She couldn't even feel the wound on her leg anymore.

Conflict filled her eyes as she spoke, stressing every word:

"Ye Lin, I know how to use it! Give me some time to think. I'll come find you in a bit."

Ye Lin's gaze sharpened at her words. Judging by An Ke's reaction, this thing seemed important. Important enough that she no longer needed to "evaluate" him.