Keke staggered into the assembly area, panting heavily. Quite a few people had already arrived, and all sorts of people stood around casually, with no sign of anything resembling a formation.
Keke looked around and finally spotted Hela standing ramrod straight at the very front of the group.
She wanted to go stand with Hela and ask why she hadn't fallen to her death, but when she saw the instructors in the front row looking as though they wanted to eat someone alive, she could only obediently stand at the back.
A few minutes later, everyone had arrived.
Head Instructor Li Hu looked at the two hundred or so people standing below the platform like a heap of loose sand and couldn't help roaring at them,
"Just look at how you're standing!! You look like a fucking bunch of puppet soldiers!"
"Heh..." A quiet chuckle suddenly came from the group, then stopped just as quickly, as though someone had covered the laugher's mouth.
Instructor Li Hu frowned, then continued to roar,
"There wasn't a single thing wrong with what I said! Looking at you now, forget protecting your homes and your country-you wouldn't even be able to protect yourselves if you ran into a Variant!"
Some of the people below began to look displeased.
"I know! Everyone here got in either because they possess powerful superpowers, have martial arts at the pinnacle of perfection, or for some special reason.
"But!
"From this moment on! You have only one identity: recruits!
"You're rookies!
"Trash!
"Good-for-nothings!"
The people below wore a variety of expressions. Some lowered their heads in thought, some watched it all as though enjoying a show, and others simply stood there in silence. But the vast majority of the recruits looked extremely upset.
After all, even if those who had made it in weren't exceptionally gifted, they at least possessed extraordinary skills. Yet the instructor had called them worthless, and it was hard not to be angry.
Hela stood at the very front of the group, facing the instructor's mockery without a ripple of emotion. She didn't quite understand what the others were angry about.
Instructor Li Hu raised an eyebrow and gave two cold chuckles.
"What's with those looks? You don't agree?"
"That's right, we don't!"
"I don't agree either!"
"Neither do I!"
"I agree~! Ow!" The white-haired youth got hit again.
Instructor Li Hu watched it all, seemingly having expected it.
"Since you don't agree, let's play a game and make you agree!"
Instructor Li Hu called the four instructors behind him forward. Including him, the five instructors stood together on the platform, a powerful aura unique to soldiers bursting forth from them.
The crowd below, which had been making a racket, immediately fell silent, clearly shaken by the aura.
Hela looked up at the five instructors. The aura they gave off was familiar to her, quite similar to the one Liu Xiaogang had released when sparring with her, though the instructors' was a little stronger and more imposing.
"The rules of this game are simple. Starting now, at seven o'clock sharp, and ending at two this afternoon, the five of us instructors will each 'hunt you down' and eliminate you during that time.
"If you haven't been eliminated by the time it ends, you'll be considered to have passed. If you are eliminated, you'll be considered to have failed."
Instructor Li Hu took out a string of bells and held it in his hand.
"If you can also take a bell from my hand during this time and avoid elimination until the end, you'll be rated excellent!
"And this result will affect your future evaluations and whether you can become a Night Star!"
With that, all five instructors tied a string of bells around their waists.
Hela looked closely. Each instructor had five bells at their waist, making twenty-five among the five of them. In other words, at most, only twenty-five people could be rated excellent.
"Wait, that's not fair!" a recruit in the crowd suddenly spoke up.
"Every one of you instructors is at least King Master level. We're a bunch of New Stars; we might not even be able to escape, let alone take bells from you!"
Li Hu smiled and pressed a button on the string of bells. The aura he gave off was instantly suppressed by a considerable amount.
"These aren't ordinary bells. They're a [Variant Artifact] used to suppress strength. This [Variant Artifact] can lower its wearer's strength by an entire realm.
"My realm has now been suppressed to High Rank."
The other instructors did the same. With a press of the buttons on their bells, their strength was instantly suppressed to High Rank.
"Do you still think it's unfair now?" Li Hu looked at the people below the platform.
The recruits exchanged glances and began to discuss it in hushed voices. Although the five instructors were still High Rank even with their realms suppressed, there were over two hundred recruits!
With that many people, even if each person spat at the instructors just once, it would be enough to drown all five of them alive.
The recruits all thought it was doable and began itching to try.
Seeing that the recruits had no further objections, Instructor Li Hu took a deep breath and shouted in a strong voice, "The game starts now!"
Whoosh-!
No sooner had Head Instructor Li Hu finished speaking than several figures broke away from the main group and dashed off in all directions.
Hela was among them.
Xing Lan had mentioned this game, which marked the official start of training at the recruit camp, to Hela more than once.
She had also passed all her experience on to Hela, and Hela hadn't forgotten any of it.
"Hey, Hela, why are you running?" Keke, who was standing in the group, saw Hela dash off and hurried after her without a second thought.
Hela didn't answer her and simply continued to pick up speed. Keke looked puzzled, but still ran along with her.
Everyone else remained where they were, staring blankly at those who had run off, unsure what was happening.
The very next moment, they regretted not running after them.
One of the instructors on the platform smiled faintly, then stomped hard on the ground.
Boom-!
The ground in the middle of the crowd suddenly exploded. Amid screams, the recruits were blasted into the air like splashes of water.
Several people instantly lost consciousness and were eliminated.
The remaining recruits who hadn't been badly hurt immediately came to their senses, got up, and unleashed their respective superpowers at the instructors on the platform all at once.
Fireballs, lasers, blasts of air, and all sorts of other attacks flew at the instructors together.
But just as the attacks were about to hit the instructors, they were suddenly stopped in midair, as though there were an invisible barrier in front of them.
Instructor Chuan, standing beside Instructor Li, curled his lips slightly, looking rather pleased as he watched the attacks he had intercepted in midair.
The next moment, however, a shrill, high-pitched sound suddenly pierced the instructors' ears. Instructor Chuan, who had been smiling, immediately clapped his hands over his ears in pain, and the other instructors were much the same.
"Fuck! Chuan Cheng, what's going on? Why isn't your barrier working?!" an instructor shouted at Instructor Chuan, clutching his ears in pain.
"I don't know! My barrier is clearly still there!"
"It's a sonic attack! Physical defenses can't stop it." An extremely arrogant voice reached the instructors' ears along with the sound waves.
A recruit stood there with his hands in his pockets and his military uniform unbuttoned, sneering at the instructors. A sinister scar crossed his face, making his otherwise somewhat handsome features look a little frightening.
The other recruits around him were just like the instructors, clutching their ears in pain as they fell to their knees, though they seemed to be suffering more than the instructors.