Chapter 91: The Protagonist Makes His Move

Watching the figure on the screen, the smile on Victor’s face couldn’t help but widen.

’This level eight new student... might be even smarter than I thought just now.’

She was not timid, nor was she unaware of how to compete. She simply knew when there was no need to fight and when there was no need for her to act at all.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Third Enclosed Ecological Zone, Ryan Carter finally arrived at the last publicly known location of the first badge. But he had come too late.

There was only a shattered rocky slope, a few students still tending to their injuries, and a red area rapidly moving toward the southeast.

One of the students recognized him.

"You’re here to snatch the badge too?"

Ryan looked at the map. Instead of answering, he asked, "Who has it now?"

The man’s expression was somewhat ugly.

"That astral summoner."

Ryan raised his head when he heard this, a trace of surprise appearing in his eyes. From his expression alone, one could tell he hadn’t expected Leah to have gotten it.

However, he did not chase her like the others. Instead, he directly put away the map.

The people nearby were stunned at this sight. Because Leah was known to be weak, everyone was going after her. They were stunned that Ryan would give up such an opportunity. After all, with his strength and speed, he could easily snatch the badge for himself.

"You are not chasing?" someone finally asked, breaking the silence.

"She’s already run far," Ryan simply replied, walking away and leaving the others even more stunned.

"Besides." He paused. "There are still two more later."

For the sake of Leah, who had already obtained a badge and had clearly prepared to flee, wasting a large amount of time chasing through the forest was not worthwhile. He turned and headed directly toward the central region.

Above the monitoring area, Victor likewise saw this scene, and he was impressed, his opinion of Ryan improving with each passing second.

Indeed, people with true potential were never the ones who lost their reason the moment they saw an opportunity. Instead, they knew what was worth fighting for, when to fight, and when to give up.

Just then, a second mana light pillar suddenly shot into the sky from the center of the ecological zone.

Boom!

All the students’ identity cards vibrated again.

[Regional Announcement.]

[The second Mana Core Badge has been discovered.]

...

After the second pillar of magical light shot into the sky, the central area of the Third Enclosed Ecological Zone almost immediately became the most dangerous place in the entire screening.

Unlike the first badge, which was located in the eastern rubble hills, the second badge appeared right in the central rock valley, a place that was already the intersection of several main routes. The surrounding magical beasts were generally higher in level, the resources were richer, and many new students had been heading toward the center ever since entering the ecological zone. So, less than two minutes after the light pillar appeared, more than fifty students had already changed course.

Although Ryan was close, he wasn’t the first to arrive.

The ones who actually discovered the second badge first were a squad of five.

More precisely, they hadn’t found it in some hidden box. They had discovered a black and silver metal box in a natural stone cavity beneath the abdomen of a level 15 Ridgescale Lizard after defeating it.

When the box opened, several of them hadn’t even fully reacted yet. The Mana Core Badge had already lit up on its own, and the second locator light pillar had already pierced the sky above the rock valley.

So what had originally belonged to five people became something the entire central region knew about in less than a few seconds.

"Go first!"

The girl with short hair in the squad almost immediately grabbed the badge.

But the shield warrior leading them stopped her.

"We can’t leave together."

"Why?"

"Five people moving together is too big a target."

The man quickly scanned their surroundings.

He could already hear people approaching in the distance.

"Split up. Luke and I go west. You take the badge and go north. The remaining two go south and draw people away."

There was no argument. At least the people who could form this kind of fixed squad had far better coordination than hastily assembled teams.

The five of them quickly scattered.

But they had underestimated one thing.

After a Mana Core Badge was discovered, although the exact identity of the holder wouldn’t be made public, the people nearby who had already seen the light pillar weren’t stupid.

Five people suddenly splitting from one location in three directions.

Who had the badge?

It was just a guess.

The first seven students who arrived took only ten seconds to make different choices simultaneously.

Three chased north, two chased west, and two stayed behind to inspect the original location.

No one put all their hopes on a single judgment.

A little over an hour after the screening began, these new students’ speed of adaptation was already clearly much faster than when they had first entered the ecological zone.

And when Ryan arrived, what he saw was exactly this scene of five people scattering while seven people pursued them.

And even more students were rushing in from the outer edges of the rock valley.

He only paused for a few seconds.

He didn’t ask anyone where the badge was.

Instead, he looked at the ground.

There were fresh movement traces in all three directions.

The footprints to the west were the heaviest.

The ones to the north were the messiest.

The ones to the south were the fastest.

Ryan thought for a moment, then chose the north.

It was not because he was certain, only because if he were the one holding the badge, he would also have the two strongest teammates draw attention in the most obvious direction, while the real holder left along a relatively complex route.

The north happened to be a field of broken rocks.

The best place to hide.

As for guessing wrong?

Then he’d just switch targets. After all, the badge would keep refreshing its location later anyway.

...

High up in the monitoring area.

Victor watched Ryan make his choice, not particularly surprised. He had already noticed a long time ago that the protagonist was smarter, even smarter than the original author had written him.

But what interested Victor more right now was that the central rock valley was rapidly gathering more and more new students.

At a time like this, as long as no fatal danger appeared, the academy wouldn’t intervene forcefully.

In other words, a truly large scale student battle would soon occur.

For Leah, this was also a good thing.

She already had the first badge in her hands.

Over the next few hours, she would definitely keep running into pursuers.

And what would truly let her quickly adapt to combat against multiple opponents was never repeating drills against a single opponent dozens of times on a training ground.

It was this kind of environment.

Of course, the premise was not being stupid enough to get surrounded by dozens of people.

Victor looked back at the monitor showing her location.

Leah had already left the northern slope and gone more than two kilometers.

After the first badge’s location refreshed, she hadn’t continued fleeing in a straight line. Instead, she had circled into an old forest area with more complex terrain, and on the way, she had even deliberately passed through a shallow river, using the current to weaken footprints and magical traces.

This was what Evelyn had taught her.

And clearly, she had taught it well.

What was truly troublesome for her now wasn’t the pursuers but her mana.

Earlier, in order to break up the pursuit by seven people, she had used a complete [Starfall]. Combined with the previous continuous control of Gale Hyenas and the skill consumption from the melee involving multiple opponents, although she was still far from being unable to fight, she wasn’t suited to continuing to use such attacks with high mana consumption frequently.

So she began learning to go around obstacles. She didn’t fight magical beasts she could avoid or get entangled with people she could shake off. Even when she saw resources, she only took what was on the way.

She was finally starting to look like someone truly participating in a survival screening.

...

Northern part of the central rock valley.

Ryan caught up to the first group of people.

More precisely, he caught up to a battle that had already begun.

The girl with short hair responsible for leaving with the Mana Core Badge was named Ella, a level 14 fire battle mage. She was clearly not someone whose profession relied purely on ranged casting. Her right hand held a short blade, while her left hand continuously released fire magic, fighting three pursuing students while moving.

"Hand over the badge!" A warrior specializing in speed leapt down from above the rocks.

Ella didn’t even raise her head. A flash of firelight came from her left hand.

Boom!

A wall of fire instantly rose, forcing the other person to change direction temporarily.

But the second person had already cut in from the other side.

In his palm was a ball of bubbling water. Aiming his palm at the wall of flame, he blasted water toward it.

Hiss!

A large expanse of white mist instantly exploded outward.

The third person took advantage of the obscured vision and charged straight into the mist.

Their coordination wasn’t especially exquisite, but at least they knew how to use each other’s skills.

Ella’s expression was clearly ugly.

What she was best at was dealing explosive damage at medium range.

Being continuously suppressed by three people like this made it very hard for her to truly open up distance.

Just as the third student was about to reach her, a sword light suddenly appeared from within the white mist.

Clang!

A longsword blocked the short blade.

The third student was stunned as the sheer power of that sword strike forced him to stagger backward.

"Who?" he muttered in a slightly frightened voice.

The white mist dispersed, slowly revealing Ryan standing between the two of them.