Don't mess with that necromancer; his summoned creatures level up on their own!

Song Xiaohe's heart skipped a beat.

She had never actually used the shield; she only knew that, according to its properties, it should be able to absorb the opponent's mana.

But is this thing actually usable? What do those black lines represent?

But she had no other choice at that moment; the seven people in front of her were already closing in.

The black patterns on the shield lit up for a moment as she infused them with her magic, forming a dark halo around the shield's surface.

The seven people who had gathered around suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"Wait! That black light..."

As a candidate with extensive practical experience, his body instincts told him that something was wrong with that thing, and that going any further might lead to trouble.

Seeing their reactions, Song Xiaohe felt a slight easing of tension in her heart.

She maintained a calm expression, not showing her anxiety on her face.

"If you keep rushing forward, I will drain all your mana. Without mana, you won't be able to use your skills."

"If you encounter monsters or other players and can't use your skills, you'll be eliminated. Are you sure you want to continue?"

The seven people looked at each other in bewilderment.

The leader's gaze skipped back and forth between Song Xiaohe's face and the shimmering shield.

His practical experience told him that enemies with unclear intelligence are the most dangerous, especially those that look inconspicuous but actually harbor deadly intentions.

But he hesitated, wondering if the girl was just bluffing.

What if that black light is just a special effect to fool people?

He hesitated for two seconds, then gritted his teeth and lowered his voice to speak to his companion.

"...Withdraw. Don't engage in a direct confrontation; wait until you're more confident."

The seven men simultaneously put away their guns, stepped back a few paces, and cleared the passage he had blocked.

Without hesitation, Song Xiaohe rushed out through the gap and quickly distanced herself from the seven people.

After she had run a dozen or so steps, a lazy voice came from behind her.

"Hilarious! The Third Middle School is full of ignorant fools; they were easily fooled with just a few words."

"If that shield could really absorb magic power, she would have acted already. Why would she need to waste so much time talking to you? You're all swayed by this? Aren't you ashamed?"

Song Xiaohe didn't turn around, but she heard the voice getting closer and closer.

Several people wearing the uniforms of the Second Middle School quickly caught up from the side.

The leader was a tall, slender young man with both hands in his pockets, looking calm and collected.

Three boys, also wearing the No. 2 Middle School uniform, followed behind him. They walked slowly, but always kept a distance of about two meters from Song Xiaohe.

The captain of No. 3 Middle School turned pale after hearing those words.

He turned to look at the tall, slender young man.

"Li Tianming, captain of the No. 2 Middle School team in Dachang City, are you planning to go head-to-head?"

The young man didn't even lift his eyelids; he lazily swayed his chin.

"I'm too lazy to fight. I was having a great run today and don't want to let someone like you spoil my fun. I just can't stand seeing you guys being fooled by counterfeit goods."

He raised his chin and gestured towards the Floating Light Shield in Song Xiaohe's hand.

"The genuine Floating Light Shield emits a golden light when activated, but that thing just emits a black light; it's clearly a counterfeit."

"You're supposed to be from the Third Middle School's combat training class, and you were scared off by a fake shield? If word gets out, how will the seven of you ever be able to hold your heads up in school again?"

The third squad leader was stunned.

He looked again at the shield in Song Xiaohe's hand. Indeed, the shield did not have a golden light; from the moment before until now, it only had a layer of dark, almost inconspicuous black light.

His expression changed from hesitation to embarrassment and anger, and then to irritability.

"I almost got scammed by counterfeit goods! Cripple her! All seven of you, get her together, don't let her get away again!"

The seven people surrounded her again, this time much faster than before. Without any probing or hesitation, they pounced directly towards Song Xiaohe.

Song Xiaohe was trapped in the middle, surrounded by the glint of guns and blades.

She was now even more suspicious. Could it really be a defective product?

Brother...did you really buy a fake?

Or did something go wrong during his forging that she herself was unaware of?

She let out a silent wail.

Brother, what exactly did you make for me...?

But there was no time to hesitate.

The seven people had narrowed their encirclement to within five meters.

Her magic had instinctively flowed into the shield, and regardless of whether it was defective or not, she had no choice but to give it a try.

"Buzz—"

A muffled buzzing sound exploded from the center of the shield.

A powerful suction force surged from the black light, forming a vortex-like whirlwind that rapidly spread outwards from the shield as its center.

The gust of wind came so suddenly and so fiercely that the seven people were forced to stagger back several steps and instinctively raised their hands to cover their faces.

But the whirlwind came quickly and went quickly, disappearing in just a few seconds.

The seven people lowered their arms that were blocking their way and looked down to examine their own bodies.

The magic power was not diminished in the slightest, and the suction force created by the shield seemed to be nothing more than a gust of wind.

They breathed a sigh of relief, then burst into mocking laughter.

The leader laughed the loudest, his silver spear planted firmly on the ground, his shoulders twitching.

"As expected, it's a defective product! Not even a single bit of mana was lost!"

"You put on quite a show of force just now, but this is all? This is it? You dare call this a shield? My kitchen pot lid is more useful than this thing!"

The others laughed along, and one of them laughed so hard he bent over and almost lost his balance.

Li Tianming stood to the side, a smug look on his face that said, "I told you so," with his hands in his pockets and a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth.

But just as they were about to make their move again, a sudden change occurred.

The sand and dust that had been whipped up by the whirlwind had fallen back to the ground; the wind had stopped.

But all seven of them felt a sudden chill, and when they looked down, they saw their school uniforms were rapidly tearing apart.

The fabric felt as if it had been torn apart from the inside by something, shooting from the wrist all the way to the elbow, and from the elbow to the shoulder.

In the blink of an eye, the entire garment was ripped off them by an invisible force and swept into the lingering aftershocks of the dissipated black vortex.

The fabric tumbled, tore, and disintegrated in the air, turning into countless tiny fragments before being swallowed up, leaving not even a single thread behind.

Seven students from the Third Middle School stood naked on the Gobi Desert, without a single piece of cloth covering them from head to toe.

The leader looked down at himself, then looked up at his companion who was also naked.

Then she let out the sharpest scream of her life.

"！！！！！"

He suddenly squatted down, crossed his hands to protect his groin, and tried to cover himself as much as possible with his body.

His companions reacted a beat slower, and then they too erupted in screams.

Li Tianming and several of his classmates from the Second Middle School were stunned.

They were just waiting nearby to see if the Third Middle School would finish dealing with Song Xiaohe before leaving.

They were standing less than five meters away, and could see the whole scene clearly from beginning to end.

A classmate behind him murmured something.

"Captain...that shield...it doesn't seem to be a fake?"

Li Tianming did not answer because his brain was overloaded.

Wasn't the Floating Light Shield supposed to absorb mana? How is this thing absorbing clothes?!

Not far away, several female students who were on their way heard the commotion and stopped in their tracks.

They turned their heads and saw the seven naked figures scrambling about.

The female trainees suddenly covered their eyes with their hands, but their fingers were wide open, and their voices were extremely penetrating.

"Aaaaaah! There are perverts! So many perverts!!"

All the candidates fighting nearby heard the scream and involuntarily stopped what they were doing.

Some people looked up in this direction, some tilted their heads to peek from the side, and some thought they were seeing things and rubbed their eyes hard to look again.

They stared in disbelief at the seven naked figures.

The wind blew against their skin, and the sand lashed their lower backs.

"Wait... how did your clothes get destroyed in a fight?"

Song Xiaohe stood there, staring at the scene before her, her mind blank.

Her gaze shifted from the first naked candidate to the second, and then to the third.

Then he abruptly pulled back to stare at his toes, his neck turning red visibly from his collarbone all the way to the tips of his ears.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, "Let me explain," "This shield wasn't intentional," "I didn't know it would turn out like this."

But finding himself unable to say anything, he could only awkwardly turn his head away, fixing his gaze on the shimmering shield in his hand.

"Brother... what... what kind of monstrosity is this...?"