My setting is above yours!

Chapter 23 I am number one!

After that, all that remained was a crimson expanse.

The sprayed blood smeared onto the notebook, obscuring everything.

...It seems that the laboratory ended up like this because the final promotion ceremony failed.

However, judging from the later entries in the diary, the laboratory director probably didn't have a good ending either.

Ron could guess what he had been through—

Instead of using the finger bones of the unjustly killed to create a magic potion, he used an unknown ritual to directly infuse the magic within them into his own body...

Although he did indeed advance to become a "superhuman" through this method, it was clearly incomplete.

After all, the Gravekeeper's potions have more than one main ingredient; he can only be considered half a Gravekeeper at most.

Moreover, he had never experienced the process of purifying impurities by concocting potions...

The sound of the river that Ron heard on the day of his promotion echoed in his ears, and then it was polluted, distorted, and warped—this was only to be expected.

But let me tell you, judging from the last entry in this diary, perhaps this supervisor was not yet at the point of going completely insane and turning into a monster due to pollution.

He was simply driven by the apocalyptic despair that "emptiness" would bring...

Therefore, the "void" is not just a crisis that will appear in the outer city of the ideal city?

It will bring about the end of the world... Is this the main reason why the municipal government is reforming the college entrance examination to select combat talents?
Ron seemed to be deep in thought, and flipped through the pages, only to suddenly discover that a bone that had been polished into a bookmark had fallen out.

He instinctively caught it and immediately recognized what it was.

Is this the finger bone of the wronged victim that this person found in the hollow? Surprisingly, even after draining all the magic from it, it still remained on the hand…

To be honest, the finger bones found in the "Void" are actually quite different from those found in the "Potion Age".

This thing looks noticeably more ethereal than the finger bones from the "Potion Era"...

Ron was looking at the bone bookmark in his hand with great interest when he suddenly heard a "ding":
[An anchor has been detected; world setting "Void" has been generated.]

[You can select a world setting to fill the blank world frame and create a new world.]

[Currently, the world's maximum capacity is set at 2.]

A new anchor point?!

Ron's expression immediately turned serious.

"Void"... This thing, which the mad supervisor sees as the root of the apocalypse and which Ideal City guards against with all its might, has actually been extracted from the manual and made into the world setting!

Ron immediately thought of the Potions era—

By simply using the seemingly mild keywords "potion" and "mystery," a powerful era has been created, one where magical heritage remains and a historical void continues to plague the modern world...

So, what about this "void" that could even represent the end of the world...?

What kind of powerful era will Ron create, and what will he gain from it?
He looked at the dimensional update manual and tried to create a new world.

But after careful examination, it was discovered that he can no longer create a new world using "emptiness" as the world setting.

Because in the world creation options, the field for accommodating world settings not only has a maximum limit of 2, but also a minimum limit of 2...

In other words, each time a new world is created, there must be two different world settings.

Ron currently only has three world settings. "Mysticism" and "Potions" together constitute the "Potion Age" and cannot be separated.

It seems the only way to create a new world is to find a new setting and anchor...

Ron carefully put away the bone bookmark and meticulously searched the underground laboratory, cleaning up all the walkers.

However, because the [Potion Sequence] class has been consistently rejected and worn down by major updates, Ron had to switch back to the Superpowered class in order to retain this trump card.

He relied solely on the [Ignorant Servant] to control the corpse shell and clean up the zombies, searching for clues in the laboratory as he went. His kill efficiency was almost no better than Jiang Cheng's when he was acting alone.

However, Ron's meticulous search yielded results commensurate with his efforts...

"It's actually a data archive from a biological modification experiment..."

Noah Pharmaceuticals failed to remove this thing; was it hidden incredibly deep within the pile of corpses?

Ron looked at the USB drive he had found among a pile of lab personnel corpses, plugged it into his personal brain-computer interface, and pulled up the documents inside.

The document details the physical data of the mutated monsters that emerged after the rituals failed...

This data was of no help to Ron, but a particular record in the file piqued his interest—

"Through testing... the experimental subject was afraid of meaningless high-decibel or high-frequency sounds?"

So, the guy who received organ transplants from these monsters, the "ace" for Noah Pharmaceuticals in this college entrance exam...

Will they also inherit the same weaknesses as these monsters?

Ron seemed to be deep in thought. He put the USB drive back in its place and then, escorted by the corpse, slowly walked toward the exit of the underground laboratory.

However, as they gradually left the depths of the laboratory and the death magic emanating from the ascension ritual, the two corpses showed obvious signs of "wear and tear."

Just as if it had gone through endless time, it began to decay noticeably.

Before they could even get Ron to the door, just like the husks summoned by the old magician, their fangs fell out and their claws broke...

Finally, it completely decayed, turning into a pile of fine white ash.

...Perhaps this is part of the problem that major updates are rejecting.

Ron looked at the two puddles of white ash beside him and thought to himself.

Perhaps everything from the previous era can appear here through the so-called historical void, but it will eventually be completely worn away due to the loss of magical power...

Their influence is unlikely to pose any real threat to the rule of the Ideal City.

—But why would a madman manager think that “emptiness” is the prelude to the end of the world?

It seems there are some secrets I don't know about behind this.

Ron slowly walked out of the underground laboratory, where Jiang Cheng was already waiting nervously at the door.

Seeing him come out, I breathed a sigh of relief and immediately pressed the pager.

The door to the underground laboratory slowly opened. The client and his secretary were still standing there, but they were clearly surprised to see Ron and Jiang Cheng emerge.

"...I never expected you to win."

There was a hint of emotion in his tone:
"Young people are indeed unreliable; experience is the best teacher..."

As he spoke, he turned on the brain-computer interface and tapped a few times. Ron and Jiang Cheng immediately received notifications on the association's forum.

[Commission: Clean up the Extraordinary Riot (Completed!)]

[Your commissioned points and credits have been credited to your account. Thank you for your support of Super Control.]

—In this long, dark night, we are the only torch, the last light.

I must say, the Magicians' Guild's advertising slogans are quite righteous and noble.

But considering the actions of these magicians...

At least Ron couldn't see where they resembled "the last torch."

"Alright, now for the promises I made before you went in..."

As the client spoke, he took out those files again:
"Does anyone here want to take on an assassination mission to prove their loyalty to Noah Pharmaceuticals?"

Jiang Cheng shook his head, clearly uninterested.

Ron, of course, took the file with his name on it and left after promising to complete the assassination before the college entrance exam.

As Jiang Cheng was leaving, he tried to get closer to Ron, but Ron ruthlessly shook him off.

Having secured the assassination commission, he still needed to investigate who exactly wanted to harm him; he had no time to feign compliance with Jiang Cheng.
He found a secluded spot to revert to his original form and immediately went home to check the commission file.

After carefully reviewing every word in the file, Ron didn't find a clearly identified client. This was expected; assassination is a clandestine profession, and naturally, no one would want to reveal their identity.

However, after carefully reviewing the case file, Ron was able to narrow down the range of enemies...

According to the records, he was only a Level 1 telekinetic user whose abilities seemed to have mutated, and he had killed a Level 2 psychic.

Just by looking at the emphasis of this ability record, Ron knew that the source of this client's information must be the Patrol Bureau.

After all, only the patrol bureau's files will have these records.

Furthermore, considering that the entity issuing the commission is Noah Pharmaceuticals...

Could it be that some powerful and influential person is going to make a move against me?
Ron frowned, completely baffled as to what kind of important person he had offended.

"Dong dong dong."

A crisp knock on the door suddenly roused Ron from his reverie.

He carefully put away the case file and looked out through the peephole, but all he could see was a gleaming golden... medal?
"Alright, stop looking...aren't you going to open the door for me?"

A familiar voice came from outside the door. Ron opened the door and saw Xia Zhi holding a golden five-pointed star medal, looking at him with a smile.

She tossed the medal to Ron, who instinctively caught the glittering five-pointed star and noticed a faint gold chip on the back.

"This is……?"

Seeing Ron's confusion about the medal, Xia Zhi explained:
"This is your Good Citizen medal."

"From now on, whenever I need to use my ID card, no matter what I'm doing, I can swipe this medal along with my ID card, and I'll often receive some preferential treatment."

Can you do this?

More than a medal, this thing is technically more like a chip-based identity card…

Ron carefully put away the medal and nodded to Xia Zhi:

"Thank you, Sister Xiazhi... but why did you have to deliver this?"

"Isn't it because they're afraid the logistics department will 'lose' this thing?"

Xia Zhi's tone was tinged with a hint of helplessness:

"Don't be fooled by the fact that it's the inspection bureau; there are plenty of corrupt officials inside... Never mind, let's not talk about this."

"I remember you're taking the college entrance exam soon, right? Have you heard about the reforms to the exam this time?"

Ron nodded. "I heard it's going to be a reform geared towards combat?"

“That’s right,” Xia Zhi nodded. “They’re supposedly going to have some kind of virtual reality ability free-for-all, where they’ll group people together and send them into virtual environments to raise monsters…”

She winked as she spoke: "Based on my understanding of wealthy people, they would definitely pull some strings at times like this..."

Your "Good Citizen" medal might help you take advantage of their underhanded tactics to some extent.

"Considering the strength of your abilities in combat, even if you're only Lv.1, it seems there's nothing that can stop you..."

As she spoke, she once again tried to win Ron over:
"Why does a genius like you have to go to Moen University... Don't you want to try Tianting University?"

"Thank you, Sister Xiazhi, but never mind..."

After exchanging a few words with Ron and confirming that he had absolutely no intention of taking the entrance exam for Tianting University, Xia Zhi sighed, "What a waste of a genius," and then disappeared without a trace.

Ron was just about to go back and continue investigating who wanted to assassinate him when his phone vibrated again—

[An Hui: I heard you've been practicing at the gym a lot lately and haven't gone to any of your school classes?]

[An Hui: Although I don't think there's anything wrong with this, I still want to remind you—don't forget to go back to school to pick up your exam admission ticket!]

[An Hui: I don't want to see you go through all that trouble to improve your skills, only to be stopped outside the exam hall because you don't have an admission ticket, while I easily become the top scorer in the college entrance exam and regret it...]

I'd really forgotten about that!

The day after tomorrow is the college entrance examination. Luckily, Huihui reminded me today, otherwise I would not be able to participate in the college entrance examination without an examination permit. Who would I complain to?
Ron casually replied "Received," and hurriedly rode his electric scooter towards a high school.

...Not long after, he returned to his familiar school.

The old teaching building, with only a gatekeeper's booth, evoked a sense of nostalgia in Ron.

"Hey, isn't this Lao Luo? You're back to pick up your exam admission ticket too?"

A familiar voice came from the school gate, and Ron then saw a chubby figure standing in front of the school's automatic gate.

He carefully examined the man and remembered that his name was Lin De, and that he was Lin De's classmate, with whom he could only borrow homework to copy.

Like Ron before him, Lind is also a powerless individual who has failed to awaken his personal reality.

Unlike Ron, Lind's family was relatively well-off, owning a small business in District D, so they didn't have to worry about their future.

Although he wasn't very familiar with Ron, Lind approached him warmly and chatted with him about his recent life.

Ron didn't seem to mind much, and they chatted casually before arriving at the teachers' office.

They knocked on the door and went inside, where they saw an elderly teacher with gray hair sitting at a table.

"...Back to pick up your exam admission ticket?"

The old teacher looked at Ron and sighed deeply:

"You didn't give me your letter of intent, and you don't come to class... You don't want to go to college, is that right?"

"Yes, I still want to try the college entrance exam."

"Try it, but how can you try if you don't have the ability? This is clearly the best path..."

The old teacher seemed a little angry, but quickly lost his temper.

"Fine... go ahead, it's none of my business."

He waved his hand dismissively, tossed the two students the exam admission tickets that looked like cards, and then shooed them out of the office.

"Actually, the old man is doing this for your own good, Ron."

Linde scratched his head. "But everyone has their own ambitions. No one can stop you from taking a chance and achieving good results in your exams..."

As he spoke, he patted his chest and said:
"But don't panic, brother. If you do poorly on the exam and can't afford to pay your student loan, don't worry. Just come find me!"

As you know, my family owns a small factory. I'll beg my dad to arrange a job for you, and that'll be enough to pay off your huge student loans..."

Ron chuckled and shook his head:
"Then there's no need..."

As he spoke, looking at his exam admission ticket, a subtle feeling arose in his heart.

...Everything is ready.

With the college entrance exam just around the corner, Ron is about to participate in this high-stakes gamble for the new generation of Ideal City, a gamble that will determine their future.

Everyone stakes their entire life on this exam; some lose everything, while others achieve high scores and win a brand new life.

As for Ron...

He smirked and hopped on his old electric scooter.

Suddenly, Linde looked at Ron riding his old, beat-up electric scooter and felt, in a daze, that his familiar old classmate had changed.

Unlike before, he no longer constantly exuded a sense of fatigue and insecurity.

He rode his electric scooter with the same fierce determination as the knights in novels who mounted their warhorses!
Linde looked at the somewhat unfamiliar Ron, only to hear him speak calmly, yet Linde felt a surge of heroic spirit—

"I will get first place in the exam."

As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Ron said again:

"I am number one!"

(End of this chapter)