Confidence

Meanwhile, on the edge of the ancient battlefield.

One thousand and sixty-five duplicate projections spread out, like a chessboard pieced together from different landscapes.

Under a hazy gray sky, various themed dungeons— Ice and Snow Worlds, volcanic lava fields, dark forests, metal fortresses—stand side by side, each facing a horde of monsters surging from the depths of ancient battlefields.

Su Mu's copy, sandwiched in the middle, resembles an abrupt continent.

Those candidates who chose the more challenging sections were the first to feel the pressure.

Most of them were arrogant and thought that with their SSS-level or double S-level strength, killing monsters of higher levels was a piece of cake. But when the first wave of monsters rushed up, they realized they were wrong.

"Damn! These monsters can dodge skills?"

A boy in a dark blue combat suit stared wide-eyed.

His core card is a lightning spear, which deals extremely high area-of-effect damage and was invincible in previous assessments.

But at that moment, as the spear light swept past, the monsters in front of him suddenly rolled on the ground in perfect unison, passing through the gaps in the lightning.

"They'll coordinate!" Another examinee next to him turned pale. His instance was a lava field with extremely strong fire damage, but those monsters... a group of level 20 skeleton warriors... had actually split into three teams.

One team drew fire from the front, another team bypassed the lava zone from the flank, and the third team rushed directly towards his core card.

"Stop them! Stop them!"

He roared as he commanded his creature cards to return to defense, but it was too late.

Three skeletons rushed towards the core card, raising their bone swords and hacking wildly. The core card's health instantly dropped by 20%.

This is just the beginning.

The monsters on the ancient battlefield are completely different from those encountered in previous assessments.

They don't charge blindly or recklessly run into skills. They observe, judge, and coordinate. Low-level monsters will spontaneously gather and only charge when there are enough of them; high-level monsters will spread out and apply pressure from multiple directions simultaneously.

Ranged monsters will hide behind melee monsters to deliver precise attacks, assassin-type monsters will flank and ambush core cards, and support-type monsters will constantly buff their allies.

Those who chose the more conservative areas fared no better.

A girl in a gray robe placed her instance in the area with the lowest monster density.

She thought this way she could slowly wear it down and persevere for longer.

But the low-level monsters didn't rush up in a scattered manner as she had expected.

They will gather together.

At first there were only three or five, which she easily cleaned up.

Then there were a dozen or so, which she could still handle.

But when hundreds gather, they charge simultaneously, like a gray torrent. Her bio-cards can't stop them, and her core card's health begins to drop.

"How could this happen..." She gritted her teeth, desperately directing the biological cards to defend.

The boy next to him was in an even worse situation.

He chose a seemingly safe area, but the monster emerged from underground. His dungeon lacked ground defenses, and the monster burst out directly from beneath the core card.

If the protection mechanism hadn't been triggered in time, he would have been eliminated.

This is the ancient battlefield.

The true elite of the lair.

They are not monsters that act according to fixed procedures, but an organized, tactical, and coordinated army.

"I can't hold on any longer!" A scream came from a distant examinee.

His copy projection flickered violently, and the core card's health reached a critical point. A beam of white light descended from the sky, enveloping him, and then he vanished from the spot.

Disuse.

Immediately afterwards, several more beams of white light appeared.

Some players had their core cards destroyed by monsters flanking them from behind; others were overwhelmed by suicidal hordes of monsters; and still others were caught off guard by multiple attacks.

In just ten minutes, nearly a hundred people have been eliminated.

Those who are still persevering are also suffering immensely.

They constantly adjusted the positions of the biological cards, continuously unleashed their skills, and constantly repaired the defenses.

But there were too many monsters, and their coordination was too perfect. Every time we managed to plug one gap, another one would break through from the other direction.

"Is this really the college entrance exam...?" someone gasped for breath, their face covered in sweat and exhaustion.

"Stop complaining, hurry up and cover! They're coming again!"

"I know! I don't have enough manpower!"

"Who has enough cards? I already have three dead cards!"

Chaos reigned.

Amidst the chaos, someone noticed Su Mu's direction.

"Look over there at Su Mu's side..." One of the examinees glanced up briefly, then froze.

On Su Mu's projected image, monsters are pouring in from all directions.

Monsters were also crossing mountains and valleys from the east, north, west, and even south—directions that should have been blocked by mountains. They surged forth from the depths of the ancient battlefield like countless black streams, flowing into Su Mu's vast territory.

However, Su Mu's copy showed no signs of crashing.

The monsters went inside, and then... disappeared.

No one could see what happened after they entered the territory of the Su Mu.

The actual battle footage was hidden within the secret realm.

"His territory is so big, it would take the monster a long time to run around there," someone whispered.

"No matter how long you run, you'll eventually reach your destination. The location of his core card is too obvious; it's right in the middle. As long as the monster keeps rushing in, it will eventually get to it."

"But the number of monsters he's dealing with is dozens of times greater than ours."

"That's his own choice. The larger the territory, the longer the borders, and the greater the area vulnerable to attack."

The one who breathed a sigh of relief was Zhao Wuji.

He stood beside his own instance projection, directing the Nine Nether Sword Master to clear the surging monsters while glancing in Su Mu's direction.

When he saw monsters pouring into Su Mu's instance from all directions, a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"You won the first round by virtue of your superior strategic depth of over 100 kilometers."

He muttered to himself, a hint of smugness in his voice, "This time, everything's back to square one. Such a vast area, so many directions to defend, let's see how you hold out."

He withdrew his gaze and focused on his own copy.

His Nine Nether Sword Master stood at a narrow pass, and with a single sweep of his sword, dozens of monsters vanished into thin air.

He chose an area with a moderate monster density and narrow terrain, requiring him to defend only one direction. This made things much easier for him.