Chapter 974 - 628: Competition Round 5_2

"Now, you can get to know your judge."

As Judge Wang's words fell, Li Pu saw a man in his early forties walk up to him.

"Hello, contestant Li Pu."

"I hope we'll have a smooth journey for the next 30 days."

"My name is Chai Pan."

The man extended his hand.

"Hello, Teacher Chai."

Li Pu shook the hand, feeling its strength.

This surprised him a bit.

Despite being a summoner, his strength seemed quite strong for a normal state, indicating he trained frequently.

At this moment, although Chai Pan maintained a smile outwardly, internally he was silently lamenting.

The chief judge changed every year, while he remained steadfast in the judge group.

He could say with certainty that his experience was deeper than most chief judges.

Why? Because he was the second strongest in the judge group, just below the chief judge.

Thus, every year during tasks that required accompanying others, he was always assigned to the most troublesome team.

This year's task was no different.

The lame person before him was the most troublesome individual this season and surprisingly, it was a single-member team.

After the first round, the judge group sent someone to communicate with the angel in question.

Only then did they learn the daring man had snatched a feather.

Strictly speaking, it didn't violate competition rules, and he wasn't caught red-handed, so they couldn't do anything about it.

In the fourth round, this guy hid in the carnivorous mist and secretly eliminated five teams, almost undermining the whole competition's purpose.

Judges saw it all through the safety sphere.

So now, Chai Pan was sent here to prevent this person from causing any major incidents in the crucial final round.

After teams and their judges greeted each other, they began to board the hovercars.

Li Pu and Chai Pan were allocated a private room.

This room didn't have a screen, but there was a deployment pod.

"Li Pu, once the hovercar ascends to a height of 3000 meters or higher, we'll be able to disembark."

"If you need a landing device, there are some here."

Chai Pan pointed to a corner where there were several sets of parachuting and flying tools.

After reaching the designated height, the hovercar would circle the great desert three times in the sky.

During these three circles, teams could choose any location to jump.

This landing method sounded a bit like a survival elite peace mode.

"Teacher Chai, are you parachuting?"

Li Pu didn't answer; instead, he asked back.

"Almost, I don't have a flying summoning beast."

"But don't worry, I'm quite skilled with flying gadgets."

"I can definitely keep up with you and won't hinder you."

Chai Pan pointed to a nearby small wing equipped with a retractable glider and booster.

"No, let's walk down together."

Li Pu thought for a while and shook his head.

His eyes glanced at the altitude display, which had just reached 3000 meters.

"Let's go, Teacher Chai."

Then he placed his hand on the lever handle.

"Eh?"

Chai Pan was slightly stunned; jumping already?

Also, what does "walk down" mean?

Bam!

Before he could react, Li Pu had already pulled down the switch.

The floor of the room suddenly opened up to both sides.

"?!"

Chai Pan, quick-eyed and deft, had already pulled out his exclusive booster from storage.

But before wearing it, he found the anticipated free fall hadn't happened; he felt like he was stepping on an air floor.

Then he saw Li Pu taking steps downward as if walking down stairs.

"What kind of novel experience is this."

Chai Pan looked around, feeling quite fresh.

"Teacher Chai?"

He then heard Li Pu urging as he stood still.

"Coming, coming."

Chai Pan quickly followed suit, mimicking Li Pu's movement down the steps.

But after descending about a dozen steps, Li Pu sensed something wasn't right.

A distant team also chose to descend using parachutes.

The speed before opening the parachute was far faster than theirs.

At Li Pu's speed, it might be possible that other teams would have landed while he hadn't even reached halfway.

"Stand firm, Teacher Chai, we'll speed up."

He then alerted Chai Pan.

"Oh? Such a feature."

Chai Pan raised an eyebrow, remembering the automatic escalators in malls.

Whoosh!

"Ahhhh!"

Ultimately, he guessed wrong.

Li Pu directly reversed the gravitational field, pressing down on both of them with a speed even faster than freefall.

No, more than ten times faster.

"Li... Li Pu, contestant, this this this...!"

The intense air resistance twisted Chai Pan's facial features, frightening him terribly.

With this speed, even if he deployed the flying gadget for upward thrust and buffering, he felt he couldn't escape being smashed into pulp.

Turning his struggling head towards Li Pu, he noticed this guy was leisurely lying flat in the air.

Thinking about it, it made sense. At least, facing upwards, his face wouldn't be destroyed by air resistance.

But...

But how would you see the ground height like this!

But evidently, Chai Pan was overthinking, as after a period of rapid descent, their speed began to sharply reduce.

Gradually leveling off, with a trend of slowing to almost zero.

Oddly enough, when their feet touched the ground, their fall speed was almost negligible.

Chai Pan felt it was as soft as stepping on a stall mat.

"..."

Just his heart was still pounding furiously and hadn't calmed.

No bungee jump would be as thrilling.

"Li Pu, contestant, well done."

Suppressing the mild nausea and dizziness, he gave a thumbs up.

"Overpraise, overpraise."

Li Pu, while modestly saying this, released his summoned beasts.

[Grass!]

[Eat Eat!]

[Roar Roar!]

[Ee Yay!]

[Summoner, please stop me! I don't want to go!]

The grassman led the group of little brothers and sisters running off without even a greeting.

Only Number 2 carrying Fu Fu stayed by Li Pu's side.

Chai Pan was quite curious about which competition strategy this guy would choose next; would it be hunting or exploring the terrain and gathering information?

However, because of the judge's impartial stance, he couldn't ask.

For the next 30 days, in most scenarios, he'd have to act as a transparent presence beside Li Pu.

"I'll relax these few days; once everyone accumulates points, I'll go rob them."

It seemed Li Pu saw through his thoughts, voluntarily revealing his strategy.

"..."

Indeed, the troublemaker lived up to his name, leaving Chai Pan speechless.

While rules allowed robbing other contestants, it actually wasn't easy.

Primarily because the desert area was vast; finding others and catching up to them was very difficult.

Moreover, if he angered many and faced a united crusade, it'd be counterproductive.

Chai Pan believed even if Li Pu was formidable, he couldn't defeat a dozen teams united.

Still, he couldn't openly remind him.

"By the way, there's one crucial notice in this desert."

The recent thrill now reminded Chai Pan of an important caution.

"Make sure, under any circumstances, not to provoke the rulers of this desert."

Thus, he spoke.

In this competition, if defeated by beasts needing judge intervention for rescue, it deducted half points and required returning to the hovercar to parachute again.

Only a specific type of beast, if provoked, not even judges could resolve it.

As their strength was immense, their numbers vast, and they held grudges, causing trouble once meant farewell to desert mixing.

"So powerful? What are these beasts called?"

Upon hearing this, Li Pu involuntarily raised an eyebrow.

After all, the primary goal was acquiring adventure team qualification; it was best to proceed cautiously.

"They're called..."

[Grass! Grass Grass!]

Chai Pan was quite serious now, but before finishing, he heard grassmen yelling from afar.

This commotion was familiar to Li Pu.

They seemed to be gang-beating some beasts...

...

...