“That Lilith was actually the first one eliminated!”
“Serves her right! Who told her to beat up the four of us alone during the placement exam?”
“Exactly, that violent woman almost cost me my spot in school!”
The assessment had started less than 36 hours ago.
The universally acknowledged favorite to win, Lilith, the captain of the Black Queen team, was actually the first person out?
This was simply… fantastic!
“I told you the Chief Team definitely has something up their sleeve! One move and Lilith is already waiting for a respawn!”
Lomyu didn’t care about the noise that could be heard from a distance. His gaze drifted toward the direction where Annie and Mio Ibuki were returning from.
“Is it handled?” he asked.
Mio Ibuki sheathed her blade, her movements clean and sharp.
“Reporting to Excellency, Elena has been properly settled.”
Annie silently returned behind Lomyu, her posture impeccable as always. She added, “In the way that suits her best.”
Lomyu smiled.
“Tying her up and hanging a sign… that’s certainly a characteristic way of handling it. I like it.”
He turned to Karenina.
“How is your mana?”
“It’s well-preserved. After clearing the basic nests in this area, it should only take about 2 hours to fully recover.”
Karenina’s answer was brief and to the point.
“Tomorrow is the last day. We must take the two camps at the entrance that we’ve fattened up.”
Lomyu nodded; the plan was already clear.
“I’ll have Kacy set up the alchemy cards in advance.”
“Once mana is restored tomorrow, we’ll clear those two nests.”
“With a total of 100-tier artifacts, it should be a sure thing.”
For this assessment, the consumption of credits was like flowing water. But compared to the massive gains about to be received, this investment wasn’t even a single hair on nine oxen.
“I suggest we take turns keeping watch tonight,” Lomyu proposed to his “good brother.”
“Just in case some other team has hidden means we don’t know about that could bypass the blockade of those eight watchdogs.”
“Hm, we cannot let our guard down.” Karenina nodded, agreeing with him.
“I’ll take the last shift. I’m going to sleep first,” Lomyu said as he walked toward the tent, not forgetting to glance into the distance.
“I hope our classmate Elena enjoys the feeling of being in the spotlight.”
He could already imagine the expressions those self-proclaimed elite students would have after seeing Elena’s current state.
That was a public lesson he had specially prepared.
The name of the lesson was “Don’t mess with the Chief Team.”
It was also called “Don’t come near.”
***
At the boundary between the intermediate and high-level magic beast zones.
A few of the boldest teams had carefully advanced to the edge of this jungle. They held their breath, trying to find traces left by the Chief Team.
“Hey, look over there!”
A perception-type student lowered their voice, finger trembling as they pointed toward one side of the basin entrance.
There was a slightly raised earthen mound. On that mound, a white figure was tightly bound.
From so far away, they could only vaguely see a flash of blonde hair that remained conspicuous even in the dim light.
“Is that… Captain Elena?”
The voice was full of disbelief.
Everyone’s footsteps involuntarily moved in that direction. Strong curiosity overwhelmed the fear of high-level magic beasts at this moment.
The truth seemed to be right before their eyes.
*Rustle—*
The jungle shrubs were pushed aside. Three students from different teams converged at almost the same time.
They were originally competitors fighting for scattered resources. But now, everyone’s attention was completely captivated by the wooden stake standing alone on the mound and the figure on it.
“Is… is that a person?”
“Elena! That’s the captain of the White Queen team, Elena!”
“Oh my god, is there… a sign hanging on her?”
Elena felt someone approaching. Her body instantly froze like iron.
Immediately after, she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to escape the coming reality in a head-in-the-sand manner.
The thick tarp stuffed in her mouth prevented her from making even a whimper; she could only feel the nauseating sensation of the fabric rubbing against the base of her tongue.
The rough ropes bit deep into her skin, fixing her to the stake in an extremely humiliating posture. This posture crushed her dignity as an elven noble and an embodiment of wisdom into the mud, inch by inch.
“My god, it really is the White Queen!”
As the distance closed, a female student couldn’t hold back a short cry of surprise. Her voice sounded particularly piercing in the silent woods.
That cry was like a signal. Before long, more and more students who were drawn over formed a loose circle.
But none of them dared to get too close. Because not far away, those eight Rank 4 magic beasts with terrifying auras were leisurely pacing.
On one side were the suffocatingly powerful monsters. On the other side was the bound and humiliated top-tier genius.
This intense visual impact filled the scene with an absurd sense of eeriness.
“Look at that sign!”
Finally, someone plucked up the courage to get closer and whispered the words on the sign.
“I. Provoked. The. Chief. Team. Am. Tied. Here. Someone. Please. Save. Me. Thank. You. Meow!”
The air fell into a dead silence for 3 seconds.
“Pfft.”
Someone couldn’t hold it back and let out an impolite chuckle. This chuckle was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirring up a chain of ripples.
“Heh!”
“Ahaha!”
Uncontrollable laughter quickly spread through the crowd, appearing on everyone’s faces.
They weren’t the ones tied to a stake.
“Thank you meow? Did that high-and-mighty Elena really say that?”
“The Chief Team is too cruel. This is killing the person and then destroying the heart!”
“Look at her face. My god, it’s so red it looks like it’s dripping blood.”
The discussions grew louder and completely undisguised.
Elena’s eyelashes trembled violently; she was enduring the most extreme humiliation of her life.
She was even praying frantically, hoping a rampaging Earth-Cracking Bull would charge over and kill her, eliminating her from the test immediately.
That would be better than being watched like a monkey by this group of mediocre people she usually looked down upon!
“Should… should we save her?” a soft-looking girl asked weakly.
The captain next to her immediately glared at her.
“Save her? This woman almost cost me my spot during the placement exam. It’s polite of me not to go up and kick her twice!”
“Give it a rest. I’m still holding the ‘Talent Fund’ issued by the Chief Team. It’s good for all of us to let her hang here!”
“Hmph, let’s go. It’s embarrassing to watch. Her chest isn’t even as big as mine.”
The students pointed and gossiped before beginning to disperse in small groups.
But before they left, almost everyone used their Image-Transfer Cards to completely record this historic scene.
Who would refuse to record a woman who was normally high-and-mighty and skilled in calculation being stripped of all her cover in public?
‘Ugh! Eliminate me!!’
Elena wanted to scream at the top of her lungs.
But listening to the footsteps and laughter around her gradually fade away, her struggles also slowly ceased.
She was like a scarecrow with all its stuffing removed, no longer moving at all.
Only a single hot teardrop escaped her trembling eyelashes, sliding humiliatingly down her cheek and wetting the dust beneath her feet.
***
“Seems like the reaction was good,” Lomyu evaluated.
He held a skewer of sizzling, oily grilled meat—the dinner Mio Ibuki had just prepared.
“Doing this will make her hate you for the rest of her life.” Karenina sat opposite him, poking the campfire with a twig, her tone flat and emotionless.
“Plenty of people hate me. Where does she even rank?” Lomyu took a large bite of meat and replied indistinctly. “If she dares to come once, I’ll dare to send her back once.”
Lomyu looked toward the forest gradually being shrouded by night.
Genius?
Nobility?
In the face of absolute “game understanding,” these ethereal things were completely meaningless.
Making yourself stronger before others become strong—that was the only truth in this academy of the law of the jungle.
As for the methods?
Only the defeated losers who had been beaten down would pick up the weapons of morality and ethics to perform weak, futile barks.
With Sylvia’s brainless case as a precedent, Lomyu couldn’t possibly have any avoidance or pity for these so-called SSR-tier gifted daughters of heaven anymore.
“Most of the remaining teams have signed contracts with us.” Mio Ibuki walked over and sat by the fire, her murderous aura retracted. “Those who don’t have alchemy cards and aren’t strong enough are all at the outermost edge of the forest, fighting over the low-level nests we left behind.”
“Now you know the value of my ‘Talent List,’ right?” Lomyu took another bite of grilled meat and praised, “Hey, your grilling skills are really good.”
“And the way you handled that elf… wow, it’s a real appetite stimulant.”
“It is my honor.” Mio Ibuki smiled faintly, her gaze quietly falling on Lomyu’s profile illuminated by the fire.
He was indeed exceptionally handsome. It was just that he usually deliberately restrained his aura; if he didn’t speak up, it was easy for people to ignore him.
The girl practicing martial arts was secretly trying to improve her “looks resistance.”
But clearly, the progress was quite poor… even a bit addictive.
“Go to bed early.”
Having enjoyed dinner and filled his stomach, Lomyu stood up and walked toward his tent.
Under Kacy’s remote arrangement, the dozens of explosive cards he had prepared in advance had all been placed into those two final nests.
Combined with “Dragon Flame” and the team’s current combat power, clearing Rank 4 magic beast nests was not a difficult task.
The meaning of frantically accumulating credits earlier was exactly for this—to win the exam, start the snowball, and form an unstoppable positive cycle.
Lilith wouldn’t give up, and Elena certainly wouldn’t either.
Tomorrow, the entrance camp filled with high-level magic beasts would become the most troublesome yet tempting treasure mine.
A pity.
This wild area was already the private property of the Chief Team.
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