The Professional Rankings, in twelve volumes, each bearing the name of my lord.

The urban area of ​​Jiangnan City is so large that it is impossible to build city walls for defense. Instead, buffer zones such as industrial zones, agricultural zones, defensive zones, and patrol zones can be established outside the urban area.

In this way, when events such as world boss sieges or abyss invasions occur, the wars will take place in buffer zones, avoiding direct impact on densely populated urban areas.

Because of the vastness of the urban area, there are mountains and lakes within the city limits.

Heart Lake is one of them, named for its heart-shaped shape.

For combat professionals in Jiangnan City and more than a dozen surrounding cities, the martial arts portion of the college entrance examination begins at the scenic plaza on the shore of Heart Lake.

More than 10,000 candidates lined up in the square, listening to the exam rules.

The person who read out the rules was Luo Tong, the mayor of Jiangnan City.

After the opening remarks, Luo Tong began explaining the exam format.

"This year's martial arts exam at our Jiangnan City test center is quite unique!"

I believe it will be more interesting than any previous session, or at any of the test centers throughout the administrative region.

Can you all see this big lake behind you?

This is Heart Lake, a famous tourist attraction during its golden age.

Nowadays, there are very few tourists, and the scenic area's property management has long become history. Everything here has returned to its original appearance.

The water is deep and teeming with fish; the island is dense and covered with forests.

On the lake of the heart, there are dozens of small islands, and your examination venue is on these islands…

This is a new type of martial arts exam called the Star-Seizing Battle.

Each candidate starts by receiving a belt with one hundred holes, which can be used to insert five-pointed stars.

Initially, everyone has three stars.

Afterwards, all candidates will be randomly taken to various islands.

The number of candidates varies depending on the size of each island.

Crossing the islands is permitted, but all boats on Heart Lake have been removed; if you want to go to other islands, you'll have to find your own way.

Once the exam begins, the candidates' task is to snatch those five-pointed stars from the others.

The belt is specially made, and the five-pointed stars embedded on it record the time and the current quantity when they change.

After the exam time is over, rankings are based on the number of participants; if there are ties, rankings are based on the time taken.

"The martial arts exam is broadcast live every year, but this year we have canceled this feature."

The judging panel unanimously agreed that the candidates' battles were more realistic when no one was monitoring them.

Of course, this doesn't mean you can go all out; your belts will monitor your vital signs and health.

Once the warning threshold is reached, the belt will lock the star in place, preventing its removal. The hidden abyssal rock inside will open, rendering the wearer incapable of combat, effectively disqualifying them from the exam.

After explaining the rules, we moved on to the Q&A session for the candidates.

"What if some classes have high burst damage and can one-shot me? What's the point of this belt if it shows my health is 0? I'm already dead!"

"This possibility certainly exists. In fact, our exam format has been approved by the General Administration of Administrative Regions and has a 1% death rate standard. If you are afraid, you can withdraw from the exam now. The first person to withdraw will have their score counted as the last."

It's worth reminding you that if someone intentionally kills an opponent during an exam, we can find out who did it by checking the records in the belt.

Accidental injury or death is permissible, but intentional killing will likely result in you spending the rest of your life in prison.

The focus is on exchanging skills, stopping short of killing; the goal is to capture stars, not lives.

Upon hearing the head of the judging panel say this, the candidates were in an uproar.

"What the hell? I'm here to take the college entrance exam, not to play a death game."

"Without live streaming, everyone will act recklessly. Even if they don't kill intentionally, the result of fighting freely is that less than 1% of them will die."

"Has the Federation gone mad? Playing this game?"

"I think it's exciting and interesting, isn't it? How useless is that person who asked the question, to be defeated in one move by someone their own age?"

"Have you forgotten? There's this guy in our year named Song Gua who's already on the Earth Ranking. He could easily take down ten of you, right?"

"Uh... peers are peers, and Song Gua is Song Gua, don't confuse them."

Outside the venue, the leader of the third investigation team of the Jiangnan City Special Bureau, and his team members, who had previously met the bandits at the Dingkua Bar, were also here.

They, along with the police and law enforcement officers who were requisitioned, will serve as examiners for this exam and will patrol the exam area.

Although there was no live broadcast, the proctors were still present, but their monitoring was not always possible in every situation and was rather ad-hoc.

The group leader frowned and said, "Why is this year's exam site using such a high-risk method?"

"I'm standing to the side," said the captain of one of the law enforcement teams.

"Compared to North America, the European Union and other administrative regions, college graduates in the Chinese administrative region seem to be getting more and more pampered. When they arrive at the battlefield of the ten races, they don't even dare to kill a foreign race."

The authorities hope that recent graduates will be more spirited and have been seeking better talent selection methods.

The "Star-Winning Battle" at the Xinhu test center was proposed by our mayor. It underwent several years of review and was finally approved. This year, it's being piloted here.

Within the queue, clones of Daniel Wu, Edison Chen, and Gunman pretended not to know each other and stood far apart from one another.

They are communicating on the local area network.

"Did you hear that? There's no live stream, no surveillance! Why don't the ten of us just gather together, grab whoever we see, and get into the top ten as fast as we can!"

"That's a good idea!"

"Why go through all that trouble? I can take on all this trash by myself."

"That makes sense. The gunman's gear was specially bought by the old thief; it's really powerful. The key is that he's already done his second job advancement. For him, dealing with these first-job advancement players around level 20 is a piece of cake, isn't it?"

"In that case, the nine of us will be responsible for finding the prey. Once we find it, we'll call out the location to the gunman so he can come and shoot!"

Several people were discussing it.

Suddenly, a few people from the referee team came down and walked up to the gunman.

"Student Song Gua, your combat strength has made it onto the Earth Ranking. According to the Federation's College Entrance Examination General Rules, candidates on the Three Talents Ranking do not need to participate in the martial arts exam. Their ranking will be determined according to the order of the ranking list."

This year, although some people made it onto the list of top performers, you're the only one on the list of top performers from all districts. You're already the top performer in the entire administrative region for this year's martial arts exam.

The gunman paused for a moment, then asked, "Is it possible to not participate? Does that mean I can participate?"

"certainly."

"Then I'll participate, so people won't say I'm using special privileges. I hate people who use back channels the most."

Edison Chen and others were moved.

Gunman has us in his heart!

Unfortunately, the referee then said, "However, given the special nature of this test center, you cannot participate, to prevent too many casualties from occurring under your watch."

"Don't worry, I'll just use basic attacks, no one will die."

"I'm afraid you can kill someone with a basic attack."

"You might not understand what I'm saying, but really, I'm not as amazing as you think."

"Hehe, don't joke around, Song Gua."