Qin Ze soon found Teacher Yao's group: two boys and two girls.
"Let me explain everyone's trial assignment for today."
"This otherworld is a maze. The exotic beasts in the area where we'll be conducting the trial are all below F-rank."
"Compared to martial artist levels, they're around level 0.3, making them excellent opponents for you."
"We'll be exploring undeveloped areas and drawing a map."
"Rewards will be handed out based on your performance, including exotic beasts killed and progress made on the map."
Teacher Yao handed each of them a locator about half the size of a palm and a shortsword.
The signals from all the locators were fed into a central unit, automatically creating a map.
"No wonder they opened the otherworld early. They wanted people to run around mapping it."
Qin Ze suddenly understood.
It was much like college internships in his previous life.
The teachers sent them all to work on assembly lines.
They were nothing but tools.
"Stay close to me, everyone. Don't get separated."
Teacher Yao led the five of them to the enormous rift.
Everyone taking the trial today was a student from No. 2 Middle School, divided into groups of five.
Since there weren't enough teachers, some martial artists from the City Defense Bureau had joined them as escorts.
Whoever stood at the front of the rift was immediately sucked in, with one group entering every three minutes.
Soon, it was Qin Ze's group's turn.
"Don't be nervous. There won't be any danger."
Teacher Yao reassured everyone.
Qin Ze saw a flash of white light before his eyes.
A few seconds later, his vision returned.
Before him was a passage three meters high and two meters wide.
It looked like the inside of a building.
The floor was a mess, littered with piles of broken wires, assorted trash, and unidentifiable fragments.
The walls all around had been painted, and the lights overhead flickered, seemingly from a lack of power.
"Follow me."
Teacher Yao led the five through a series of twists and turns into a narrower passage.
They encountered no exotic beasts along the way, nor any human corpses.
Rooms lined both sides of the passage, filled with beds like dormitories. This further reinforced Qin Ze's belief that people had once lived here.
"Teacher Yao, are all otherworlds the same?" Qin Ze asked.
"Every otherworld is unique." Teacher Yao began to explain. "Otherworlds are broadly divided into two categories: those you can enter and those you can't."
"The ones you can't enter are either filled with poisonous fog or radiation. Anyone who goes in dies."
"You won't drop dead the moment you enter an accessible otherworld, but it's still full of dangers."
"Once you enter an otherworld, you must be on your guard every second."
At those words, everyone except Qin Ze wore a tense expression.
"Gah-"
A humanoid exotic beast suddenly leaped out of a room on the right.
It was completely hairless, and its shit-yellow skin was covered in wrinkles.
The girl at the front came face-to-face with the exotic beast. So frightened that she froze on the spot, she forgot to fight back.
Just as the beast's claws were about to strike her face, Qin Ze unleashed the first level of the Fate Reversal Technique and cut off its head with a single stroke.
Compared to the exotic beast he had encountered at the psychiatric hospital, this one was as different as heaven and earth.
Qin Ze estimated that this exotic beast had roughly the fighting power of three geese.
The girl came to her senses, looked at the headless corpse on the ground, and threw up with a loud retch.
"Qin Ze reacted the fastest. Those are the qualities a martial artist should have," Teacher Yao said with satisfaction.
After throwing up, the girl lowered her head in shame.
The group continued forward and encountered several more of the same humanoid exotic beasts.
With Qin Ze's example to follow, the others soon got their first blood as well.
The exotic beasts were about the same level as the students and had no weapons. One-on-one, they were no match for them.
Teacher Yao guarded the rear, stepping in only at critical moments.
Two hours later, the map was already two-thirds complete.
A few hundred meters farther, and the team's trial assignment would be finished.
"Teacher Yao, I need to use the bathroom." Qin Ze clutched his stomach.
"Be quick," Teacher Yao said.
Qin Ze ran back a ways, found a room, and slipped inside.
"Split up."
Qin Ze summoned five clones.
The rooms along this stretch of passage were all filled with beds, and he was curious about what the other areas looked like.
A few minutes later, Qin Ze returned to the team.
Back in the room, Qin Zes emerged one after another and headed in the direction they had come from.
There were simply too many passages here, like an underground ant nest.
Qin Ze estimated that even if he sent out all his dozens of clones, they wouldn't finish exploring the place in less than a few days.
Meanwhile, He Bi had also left his group and was wandering around like a headless fly.
"I remember Qin Ze's group came this way."
After wandering around for a long while, He Bi found himself back where he had started.
He seemed to be lost.
"Damn it!"
Cursing, He Bi picked another door.
The moment he opened it, he ran headlong into one of Qin Ze's clones.
"Are you blind?!"
He Bi clutched his forehead and took two steps back.
When he got a good look at the other person's face, he was overjoyed.
"I wore out iron shoes searching in vain, only to find it without the slightest effort!"
"Qin Ze, I finally found you!"
Qin Ze pushed him aside and brushed past him.
"Sorry, I'm not into guys."
Whoosh-
The clone hadn't gone far when a streak of sword qi came at him from behind and severed both his legs.
"Fuck, you sneaky Laoliu!"
The clone was caught off guard.
He Bi said smugly, "Qin Ze, remember this: a dirt-poor peasant will always be a dirt-poor peasant."
"You want to ride on our heads and shit on us? Dream on!"
He Bi gave the clone another kick and walked away, satisfied.
"Now that I've taken care of Second Brother's business, I should get back to the group."
He Bi passed through a few more doors and saw a familiar figure standing in a room through the glass in the wall.
"Qin Ze!"
He Bi's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
He had clearly cut off Qin Ze's legs just now, so how was he standing here unharmed?
"You again, you sneaky Laoliu?" The clone was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected to run into him again.
He Bi swung his sword and severed the other's legs once more.
"Let's see how you recover now!"
He shut the door tight, leaving him inside to fend for himself.
He Bi had just stepped out of the passage when he saw another Qin Ze coming toward him.
"This is like seeing a ghost!"
He Bi realized something was wrong.
"You stinking Laoliu, eat my sliding tackle!"
The Qin Ze clone accelerated and slid toward He Bi.
"Courting death!"
He Bi did the same as before, severing the clone's legs.
"This is really bizarre!"
He Bi frowned deeply.
He noticed that these three Qin Zes were much weaker, nowhere near the level of the first level of the Fate Reversal Technique.
"Could I have entered an illusion?"
He Bi switched on his locator and hurried back the way he had come. He wanted to get out of this otherworld as quickly as possible.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?"
He Bi hadn't gone far when a fourth Qin Ze suddenly appeared and blocked his path.
He Bi gripped his shortsword tightly, his body trembling.
"Who the hell are you?"