Xu Wenpei quickly asked, “Li Yang, does this mean you haven’t encountered any mutated creatures?”
Li Yang had actually encountered quite a few.
But those little creatures weren’t mentioned in the Entry Guide, so they probably weren’t classified as dangerous species.
At the very least, she could easily handle them herself.
However, instead of answering the question, Li Yang asked them back, “Why are you all moving together?”
The three of them were momentarily stunned.
The only male in the group responded, “This is a two-star isolation zone it’s obviously safer to move as a team.”
Li Yang blinked and said, “Entry Guide, Article 19: Isolation zones are highly sensitive to foreign presences.
If you encounter danger, press the emergency beacon as soon as possible.”
Xu Wenpei’s heart tightened.
The boy frowned and said, “So what? Every isolation zone is sensitive to outsiders.”
Then he mumbled, “Isn’t this just common sense?”
Clearly, he still remembered what Chen Song had said and didn’t think much of Li Yang, considering her an inexperienced and unconnected country bumpkin.
Even though she looked better off than them right now, he figured she had just gotten lucky.
Li Yang smiled and said, “You’re right, it is common sense.
“Well, I’ll be going now. Good luck.”
Xu Wenpei immediately asked, “Li Yang, are you saying we shouldn’t be moving together?”
Xu Wenpei had always been polite to Li Yang and was quick-witted.
Although answering her question also meant giving the boy an answer, Li Yang didn’t hide anything and simply nodded.
“At least, that’s how I understand it.”
After saying this, Li Yang didn’t explain further.
She quickly distanced herself from them and dashed toward the next safe zone.
Three people moving together was already risky four would be even worse.
She just wanted to quietly harvest small mutated plants and survive these three days without any unnecessary trouble.
Xu Wenpei remained deep in thought.
The boy insisted, “Don’t listen to her! This is survival mode we have to work as a team.
“Cooperation and mutual support are important qualities for a soldier!”
He refused to believe Li Yang and thought she was just trying to stir up division.
This isolation zone was too dangerous if it weren’t for Xu Wenpei’s quick thinking, he might have already pressed the emergency beacon.
Xu Wenpei hadn’t memorized the Entry Guide, but she had carefully read it several times.
It was true that the guide mostly contained basic knowledge.
But… should common sense be ignored?
Another girl in their group whispered, “Xu Jie, we have been constantly ‘running into’ mutated creatures.”
The boy stubbornly said, “This is a two-star isolation zone! Of course, we’re going to encounter mutated creatures!”
Xu Wenpei said, “I was already thinking… this year’s practical exam seems too difficult.”
The other girl agreed, “Yeah, in past years, the acceptance rate was at least 60%.”
After all, these were students with a minimum physique value of 83 outstanding talents.
Although some would be eliminated, it was usually only 30-40% at most.
But the way this exam was going, it seemed like 70% of the candidates might fail.
Xu Wenpei made a decisive choice.
“We should split up.”
The girl, although nervous, nodded.
“Alright.”
The boy, however, panicked.
“If it’s already this dangerous as a team, then if we separate…”
But no one was listening to him anymore.
The two girls had already run off in different directions, quickly leaving him behind.
Li Yang didn’t dwell on this little incident.
She reached her next safe zone and got to work for the afternoon.
Harvesting was great. Harvesting was amazing.
She could be a happy little farmer for the rest of her life.
With her mental strength increased, she felt more efficient than ever.
She could sense the presence of star energy from even farther away or at least, that’s how she understood it.
Her focus had also improved, and even her accuracy with the axe had gotten better.
Crack!
This time, the ugly shrub didn’t even have a chance to attack before Li Yang cut it down.
Lifespan +1 month
Li Yang’s ears twitched, and she quickly turned her head.
Sure enough, three meters away, another little one was hiding.
It was a mutated wild grass hidden under some shrubs.
Clearly, it had been startled by Li Yang and was about to make a run for it…
Without hesitation, Li Yang threw her axe, hitting the mutated grass with pinpoint accuracy and harvesting it successfully.
Lifespan +1 month
Li Yang was quite satisfied.
Increasing her physique value had greatly boosted her strength and stamina.
Meanwhile, improving her mental strength had not only enhanced her sleep quality but had also indirectly improved her combat skills.
Yesterday, she wouldn’t have been able to throw an axe like that.
By 5 PM, however, her fun came to an end.
She had accidentally looped back to where she started.
She had cleared out all of Group 8’s safe zones!
Looking at Safe Zone No. 1 in front of her, Li Yang sighed, feeling a bit lost.
“So small…”
Coincidentally, the examiners in the control room were observing her at that moment.
They overheard her muttering.
The examiners: “……”
Was she actually complaining about the size of the isolation zone?!
In this massive special isolation zone, with nearly 200 candidates, every student was treating the exam like walking on thin ice, just hoping to survive the three days.
But Li Yang?
She had cleared out all her safe zones in two days, eliminated every non-ranked mutated plant, reached a score of 180…
And now she was complaining that the place was too small.
Forget the other groups even within her own group, Chen Song, who had a physique value of 88, was already half-dead!
Li Yang had no choice but to find a place to sleep.
She prepared some food for herself one of the perks of having a high physique value was that she didn’t get hungry easily.
Before entering the isolation zone, all candidates had been given basic rations.
Now, after two days, she had only eaten about one-third of her supply.
With three more years of lifespan added, Li Yang decided to spend it on increasing her mental strength again.
You spent one year reading and realized that ‘even fools have their own ways of learning.’ Mental strength increased to 80 points.
Li Yang ignored this stupid system.
You focused on reading for another year.
Although your efficiency was low and your progress was slow, you experienced a ‘flow state.’
Mental strength increased to 90 points.
Congratulations, host! Your physique value and mental strength have both reached 90 points. Your lifespan limit has increased to 50 years.
Li Yang: “!”
An unexpected pleasant surprise!
So, reaching 90 mental strength was the key to breaking through her lifespan limit.
Having a 10-year lifespan cap had been far too low.
Now that she had 50 years, she could store more life!
“Not bad, not bad,” Li Yang muttered.
Satisfied with her progress, she decided not to push any further.
A double 90 stat was enough.
She didn’t want to accidentally overdo it.
Li Yang’s goal was simple to be a low-key farmer.
As the sky darkened, she prepared to rest for the night.
Tomorrow, she planned to stay put and wait until the exam ended.
Military academy admission was secured.
She had gained so much, and she would even receive 500,000 credits later…
Li Yang was happily calculating her gains when she suddenly remembered something.
“Wait.
“The first batch of the practical exam includes both Zhongdu Military Academy and Zhanxing Military Academy.
“So how will the students who pass the assessment be assigned to the schools?”
Li Yang took a deep breath.
She definitely didn’t want to be randomly placed she only wanted to go to the Zhongdu Military Academy’s Agricultural Department!
Would it be based on cultural exam scores, with higher scores getting priority in choosing schools?
No!
Li Yang recalled the materials she had studied and realized that every year, the practical exam had rankings.
And the students with higher rankings had priority in choosing their academy.
But in survival mode, how were they ranked?
The only rule in this exam was to survive for three days.
A thought formed in Li Yang’s mind.
“They must be ranking us by the number of mutated creatures we kill!”
This wasn’t mentioned in the Entry Guide, nor had the exam proctors given any hints.
So she wasn’t entirely sure if her guess was correct.
But if not by kills, then how else could they rank students?
They couldn’t possibly rank them based on who had the most comfortable time surviving, right?
Ahem.
She was having a pretty good time, but an unquantifiable metric like that wouldn’t be fair.
On the other hand, counting mutant creature kills was straightforward.
Li Yang had killed quite a few mutated creatures, but they were the tiny, insignificant ones that weren’t even mentioned in the Entry Guide.
Did those even count?
If they didn’t, wouldn’t she lose her chance at priority school selection?!
Suddenly, she couldn’t sleep anymore.
She sat up and carefully reassessed her situation.
First, she had to pass the exam.
Second, she needed to secure a good ranking.
Of course, the most important thing was to ensure her own safety.
It seemed that tomorrow, she couldn’t just play it safe.
She had to go out and explore, find an opportunity to boost her ranking.
And if she accidentally got eliminated, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
She still had two years of lifespan left.
Worst case scenario, she would just “repeat” the year.
No matter what, she was going to Zhongdu Military Academy.
She was going to study agriculture!
“Hurry! There’s a big tree over there! We can climb it and hide!”
A student screamed in panic.
Li Yang narrowed her eyes and instantly spotted the star energy in the distance.
Oh wow.
This time, it wasn’t just a faint glow it was real, solid “star energy.”
In the darkness, the concentrated star energy looked like a blue fireball.
It was too far for Li Yang to see exactly what kind of mutated creature it was, but she could clearly see the four people running toward her.
Chen Song’s original six-member team was now down to just four people.
And they had just encountered the biggest crisis of their lives.
This was a Grade-1, Rank-7 mutated plant!
For students who hadn’t integrated star energy into their bodies, this was basically a death sentence.
Fortunately, they got lucky they spotted a big tree.
If they could climb up fast enough, they might be able to avoid the danger.
The mutated plant looked like a giant man-eating flower, about a meter tall.
It didn’t seem to have much jumping ability, so it probably couldn’t climb trees.
After two days of endless suffering, even students who hadn’t memorized the Entry Guide now understood one thing
The big trees in the isolation zone were relatively safe.
The trees here didn’t mutate they were simply too large.
They required too much star energy to mutate, and it would take decades for them to change.
And once they did mutate, they would be at least Grade-2 or higher, meaning they wouldn’t appear in this two-star isolation zone.
As it happened, this particular tree was the very one Li Yang had chosen as her resting spot for the night.
Chen Song’s group scrambled up the tree, only to immediately spot Li Yang.
She had built a simple shelter on one of the thick branches.
Their gazes met.
Stunned silence.
This time, however, Li Yang wasn’t surprised.
The only ones shocked were Chen Song and his group.
Chen Song’s condition was far worse than Xu Wenpei’s group.
His entire body was covered in mud, his arm was crudely bandaged, and his leg was still bleeding.
The only reason he had managed to climb up the tree was because of his 88 physique points.
The rest of his team also saw Li Yang and had the exact same expression
Pure disbelief.
Chen Song was arrogant, but not stupid.
He immediately realized what had happened.
“The Entry Guide”
Li Yang wasn’t interested in explaining.
She simply said, “This tree is already occupied.”
One of Chen Song’s teammates panicked.
“So what?!
“It’s a huge tree there’s more than enough room for all of us to hide!”
Li Yang glanced at the star energy approaching from a distance.
She said, “The more people we have, the more mutated creatures we’ll attract.”
The four of them: “!”
Someone asked in shock, “Are you saying that because you were alone, you never encountered any mutated creatures?”
They didn’t really need to ask.
Just looking at Li Yang was enough to see the truth.
They had all survived for two days, but while they were battered and exhausted, Li Yang looked completely unharmed and full of energy.
She looked like she was here for a leisurely camping trip.
Chen Song’s face turned ghostly pale.
He muttered, “So that’s why… I knew the difficulty of this exam couldn’t be this high…”
With his 88 physique points, he should have easily passed the practical exam.
But these past two days, he had almost pressed the emergency beacon multiple times.
Why had it been so hard?
Because they had ignored the Entry Guide!
Li Yang said, “If you don’t get down soon, you’ll attract even more night-patrolling mutated creatures.”
One of them screamed, “No! I’m not going down! That man-eating flower will kill us!”
Li Yang still couldn’t clearly see the mutated creature wrapped in star energy, but hearing the description, she realized
It was a mutated plant.
Another person added, “It’s at least Grade-1, Rank-7! If we go down, we’ll have no choice but to press the beacon!”
If they pressed the emergency beacon, the proctors would evacuate them.
But they wouldn’t get rid of the mutated plant after all, to a Grade-3 proctor, a Grade-1 plant wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Li Yang quickly assessed the situation and made a decisive choice.
“We need to kill it.
“Otherwise, we’ll all be forced to press the beacon.”
If they didn’t get rid of it, they would be trapped in the tree.
And if they stayed in one place too long, they might attract stronger flying-type mutated creatures which would be far worse.
Of course, Li Yang had another motive.
A Grade-1, Rank-7 mutated plant…
How much “lifespan” would that be worth?
She’d fight first and see.
If she couldn’t win, she’d just run away.
But if she stayed trapped in this tree, she’d eventually get dragged down with them.