My setting is above yours!

Chapter 113 Speed ​​Test, First Stage: Heading to the Advanced Exam Room (5k)

Ron frowned as his gaze swept over the familiar prison cell:

'Ideal City...does it really have so many data records related to the [Potion Era]?'

'Evening Bell City? Why simulate Evening Bell City? Is there something special about this place?'

To be honest, this is not normal.

Although Ron has experienced far too much in Evening Bell during the Potions Age, and all his experiences in the Potions Age so far have been confined to this small town, it doesn't mean that Evening Bell was the only town in the Potions Age.

This is just a town that you could find anywhere in the "Potion Age," nothing special about it...

After such a long period of time, countless years later, Ideal City chose to simulate Evening Bell City as the exam venue for students' monthly exams... This is simply unreasonable!

'Unless... this isn't Evening Bell City at all!'

A thought flashed through Ron's mind, and he immediately turned to look out the cold iron bars of the tower prison.

The familiar church and bell tower of Evening Bell City were nowhere to be seen, nor were there any passersby or speeding carriages...

Outside the window, there was only a cold, desolate wilderness.

Even the virtual scene engineers working on the window view were too lazy to cut out the images; Ron saw countless grass textures overlaid on everything and casually pasted them onto the outside of the tower...

Looking back at this seemingly similar yet distinct prison, though quite similar to the tower prison of the Scorched Earth Sanctuary in Evening Bell City, Ron suddenly understood—

'This is indeed not Evening Bell City... but it is certainly the tower prison of the Scorched Earth Sanctuary!'

'After all, in the [Potion Era], the [Scorched Earth Sanctuary], as a powerful righteous church, probably had a fixed architectural template for its [Limb Prison] used to imprison villains and criminals...'

'The data records stored by Ideal City should only include these building templates!'

'If that's the case...'

Ron's heart stirred slightly, and he immediately thought of the general structure of the tower prison in the Scorched Earth Sanctuary, rummaging through his memories to recall the various cramped corners and passageways within...

In "Fleeting Light and Shadow," Ron had died countless times in the tower prison of "Scorched Earth Sanctuary," and had long since thoroughly explored every corner of the tower and understood its architectural structure.

As long as the simulated prison in Ideal City doesn't differ too much from the prison in Scorched Earth Sanctuary in Evening Bell City, Ron can thrive here, gaining considerable advantages through his familiarity with the terrain...

With this in mind, Ron did not hesitate and prepared to leave the prison directly, to be the first to gain freedom and seize the initiative.

Although the exact scoring system for this month's exam is still unclear, the fact that you can get a high ranking simply by beating others will obviously remain unchanged...

If you can escape prison earlier than others, you'll have the opportunity to set traps along certain routes, gaining an advantage in every step you take.

But as soon as he raised his hand to push open the prison door, he found that he had lost all his strength before he even touched the door, as if he were imprisoned and could not move at all...

'what's the situation? ’

He frowned slightly, then noticed that he was covered by an extremely thin, semi-transparent, pale golden film—

There were countless flashing characters on it, which seemed to be some code that Ron couldn't understand.

He turned to look at the others, and upon closer inspection, he saw that everyone was covered in the same thin, pale golden membrane as him, and they were all immobilized, unable to move at all...

Ron was immediately relieved:

'It seems to be a limitation imposed by the school, not by anyone's ability...'

After about three to five minutes, everyone simultaneously heard a familiar, lazy voice suddenly echo in their minds:
"Hello, hello? Can anyone hear me?"

The 404 error message rang in everyone's ears, sounding somewhat weary:
"It seems you can hear me... Alright, now that all the candidates are here, the monthly exam is about to begin. Let me first tell you about the temporary reforms made for this monthly exam."

"I think everyone has seen the near-explosion of the [D District Great Hollow]... Although you may not realize what it really represents, I must tell you that the near-explosion of the [D District Great Hollow] has led the Moen City Government to make a decision—"

"Since then, Moen Ideal City has been in a state of emergency, ready to fight against the disaster of the [historical void] at any time."

"Therefore, this monthly exam abandoned the previous ranking based purely on academic ability, and is no longer constrained by a competition of individual practical skills and calculation abilities..."

"Instead, we've brought in all the magicians and put you through a real, comprehensive combat assessment to select the truly outstanding talents who can fight in the [Historical Void]."

"Therefore... we rushed to create a temporary simulation of the 'Potion Era,' making a map of the environment and architecture of the previous era, and at the same time, we put in enough monsters from the 'Potion Era.'"

"These monsters also appear in the [Historical Void], and they are very likely the enemies you will face in the future—"

"So, kill them, take as many of their point cards as possible!"
"The ranking for this monthly exam is based solely on points."

As soon as 404 finished speaking, Ron saw a simulated screen pop up in front of him, displaying more detailed exam rules for this test...

Upon closer inspection, Ron discovered that although the test required killing monsters and taking the score tokens from them, the score tokens were not immediately added to your score record upon killing a monster. Instead, you had to carry the score tokens to a designated evacuation point in the test area and leave the Hollow Battlefield to truly claim them as your own.

If you are killed and have your points token stolen in the simulation before leaving the Hollow Battlefield, then no matter how many "Hollow Monsters" you kill, it will be useless; you'll just be doing the work for someone else.

Furthermore, this monthly exam was divided into multiple exam rooms. For example, the hundreds of students in Ron's physics department were evenly distributed into ten separate exam rooms, and each exam room only contained one hundred "Hollow Monsters"...

'This score...this number of monsters...wait a minute, right? Who is this supposed to be testing?'

Ron frowned slightly, but then he saw the following text:
This exam is divided into three stages. After you complete the required points, you can enter the next, higher-level exam room at any time through the "promotion path" in the center of the exam room.

[More and more powerful "Void Monsters" will be added to the intermediate-level exam room, and the exam area will be reduced... An extremely powerful ultimate "Void Monster" will appear in the advanced-level exam room; killing this "Void Monster" will grant a huge amount of points.]

The number of intermediate-level exam rooms is 3. The number of advanced-level exam rooms is 1.

Upon seeing this rule, Ron suddenly understood, and the doubts in his heart vanished instantly.

I knew it... how could this monthly exam be as easy as I thought?
To earn points, you must venture into the advancement path and face more and more powerful examinees and monsters in higher-level examination halls...

Only by finally emerging victorious in the advanced examination hall, facing all the strongest and most confident candidates, can one guarantee a top ranking in the points system...

However, the risks involved are self-evident—before leaving the examination room, all the points are not recorded in the file, but are only carried on the body as point tokens.

In higher-level exams, facing even greater threats, if these points tokens are taken away without warning, all gains will be lost forever, with no chance of recovery.

'No wonder...no wonder 404 emphasized that this monthly exam ranking was based solely on points, and stressed that it abandoned the previous exam method that compared academic ability scores...'

Ron suddenly understood the purpose behind this monthly exam reform:

"In this monthly exam, there will likely be many highly capable but overly reckless students who get a zero, landing at the bottom of the rankings—ranks that don't belong to them..."

The reason for tacitly allowing this situation to occur is because it's all for the sake of future battles within the [historical void]—

"After all, dying in a simulation only results in a loss of points, but dying in the real [Historical Void] means losing your life!" "This monthly exam is to tell all the test-takers... the [Void] is merciless!"

However, despite this, Ron was not afraid at all.

After all, for him, not getting into the top three in the physics department and not getting access to [Prometheus] was no different from getting to the bottom...

In fact, only by winning first place and seizing that "relic" of the [mysterious] sequence of Heroic Spirits would he truly find something attractive to him!

'However, to get the most points... you need to get to the higher-level exam room as quickly as possible...'

After a moment's thought, Ron immediately came up with the best course of action.

Although the exam hasn't started yet, and his body in the simulation remains imprisoned, the [Central AI] can only control the simulation, not the Dimensional Update Manual...

With just a thought, Ron had already secretly switched to the [Ignorant Servant] form.

After a short while, seemingly waiting until all the candidates had thoroughly read the exam details, a cold, mechanical voice suddenly rang in everyone's ears:

"Attention! The [Hollow Battlefield - Monthly Exam] is about to begin. Please prepare for battle."

The next moment, Ron felt the strange power that had been binding him disappear.

The pale golden membrane covering all the candidates melted away as if it had been melted, the densely packed, shimmering characters disappeared as if they had been deleted, and time began to flow again.

"The exam is now officially starting!"

As a cold, mechanical voice rang out again, the examinees immediately took action without hesitation, tearing apart the hideous, clawing limbs of the cage in various ways.

Ron was no exception. He skillfully twisted off these distorted limbs, watching them dissipate and transform into a delicate points token the size of a fingernail.

'This is the points token...'

He picked up the token, and a virtual map immediately lit up on the virtual screen that had previously displayed the rules. Two locations were marked on it: the "Promotion Passage" at the top of the tower and the "Evacuation Point" at the bottom of the tower.

Next to the promotion path, Ron can see a numerical indicator:
[Points required: 1/3]

'Does it take at least 3 points to advance to the intermediate exam...?'

Ron silently put away the token, retreated to the corner of the cage, and watched the others stride out of the cage...

Then, they all stopped moving at the same time, tacitly retreating into their cages, their eyes fixed on the other examinees—

The reason is simple: after breaking free from the limb cage and escaping their predicament, everyone discovered that the only way out was a straight path, and the path was pitch black, making it impossible to see the whole picture or what might be hidden within.

Whoever takes the first step down this path will be the first to expose their back to the other test takers.

They are all students of Moen University. Even those who got in through various admission programs wouldn't be so stupid as to expose their weaknesses to others and become the first lamb to be slaughtered by the hunter.

For a moment, the surroundings were completely silent, and everyone froze.

After a moment, seeing everyone extremely wary and tense, staring at each other, someone suddenly chuckled and stepped out of the cage again, breaking the tense silence:
"Gentlemen, I think we don't need to waste our time here."

He was dressed extravagantly, with a ring on his finger, clearly a magician who had transferred to the school.

"I know you may be worried that someone might try to attack other candidates from behind and steal more points... But seeing how vigilant you are, I don't think there are any fools among you."

"So... I think we can cooperate."

As he spoke, a smile played on his lips, and he opened his arms as if to embrace everyone:
"Right now, each of us only has one points token, so even if we really wanted to launch a sneak attack, there's obviously no real benefit..."

"So why can't we find ways to gain more and greater benefits?"

"You must understand, these 'void monsters' are not to be trifled with. If you fight them one-on-one, you might not be able to easily kill them and take the points tokens from them..."

"But if we all cooperate and unite our strength, we will surely be able to kill the vast majority of the 'Hollow Monsters' and take away the points that we cannot obtain by fighting alone!"

"You know, this exam was divided into three stages, with three different exam rooms..."

"Do you all really want to fight tooth and nail for a few points in this lowest-level exam room, only to slink out of the room and leave this monthly exam in such a sorry state?"

His words contained a hint of sincerity, but also a touch of seduction:
"If you're willing, we can cooperate right now, wipe out the monsters in this exam hall, and then go to a higher-level exam hall together. With our combined abilities, we can turn even more powerful [Void Monsters] into points..."

"So, do you all agree with my idea? Are there any friends who are willing to fight alongside me and earn points in this exam?"

Upon hearing this, many people were immediately eager to try it out, realizing that what the magician said actually made a lot of sense.

If I can get the points I wouldn't normally be able to get through this method, I might be able to achieve a ranking that I would never normally be able to get in this monthly exam... That would be great!
Moreover, since everyone only has one points token now, they won't suffer any major losses. No one will really break off relations over a single point, so we can try cooperating like this...

Thinking this way, most people immediately agreed with the magician's idea. Only Ron quietly huddled in the corner of the cage, head down, hiding in the shadows without saying a word, making it impossible to see his face.

Looking at Ron, the only one who was unwilling to cooperate and even ignored him, the magician frowned, feeling somewhat annoyed.

But he had only just assembled a team and needed to maintain a semblance of harmony, so in the end he merely glanced at Ron a few times and said coldly:
"Unfortunately, there are still some useless fools among us who can't even see this win-win opportunity... Oh well, let him fend for himself."

"Alright, let's go. Let's hurry, we can't let the candidates from other exam rooms get to the advanced exam rooms first and gain the upper hand..."

As he spoke, he led over thirty examinees away, heading to the lower levels of the tower according to the instructions of the [Central Intelligence] to hunt down other "Void Monsters" carrying point tokens...

But as he listened to their footsteps fade away, Ron stood up, glancing in the direction the magician and his group had just left, a sneer creeping into his heart:
'Cooperate? Kill stronger monsters and steal more points?'

'What a joke... They haven't even decided on the distribution method yet and they're already talking about this kind of thing. Once they have a ton of points and tokens in front of them, there's no way these people will maintain order!'

'Furthermore... to advance to the intermediate examination hall, each person needs at least three point tokens—if there aren't enough tokens, who will be promoted?'

Ron had no desire to waste time on pretense with this group...

After all, only the weak need to band together. The truly strong, who are confident in defeating all the "empty monsters," will not waste time in the first stage of the exam!

With that thought in mind, Ron casually beckoned with his finger, and all thirty-odd corpses in the cells obediently walked in front of him and snapped their own necks—

The next moment, more than thirty points tokens fell into Ron's hands.

He weighed the thirty-odd tokens in his hand, nodded in satisfaction, and then, without hesitation, strode off in the opposite direction from the group, heading towards the top floor of the tower—

Arrive at the higher-level exam hall earlier to gain the upper hand, defeat the ultimate monster in the advanced exam hall, and quickly pass the monthly exam...

This is exactly what a powerhouse like Ron, who aims for first place, should do!

(End of this chapter)