After separating from the other two, Jian Jingyu began to accelerate, determined to put some distance between himself and the Class S students who would depart later.
Huang Yan and Wang Tianwei, on the other hand, turned into narrow paths, one to the left and one to the right.
"It's starting, it's starting! My sister is in Class B!"
"The students in Class A are pretty good this year!"
"Class S is getting interesting! A game of cat and mouse!"
Just as Chao Hao had said, even if the school administration knew about his actions, there was nothing they could do. He indeed had the authority to make partial modifications to the training content of the class he was leading.
In fact, many classes would introduce additional ways to earn or lose points.
Some classes had the primary goal of exterminating star beasts, some focused on unity and mutual assistance, while others aimed to figure out how to eliminate students from other classes.
The main quest for everyone was to survive on Mount Juji for seven days, but the side quests varied wildly...
It was just that the rules set by other classes at least required everyone to act as a group. Only Yama Chao split his students up and even made them act as bait.
He brushed off the school's inquiries by claiming he needed to be on standby in the rescue aircraft, ready to save students at any moment.
Left with no choice, the new rules for Class S were prominently displayed in the livestream, leaving students who had previously trained under Chao Hao sighing in emotion, bluntly wondering how those three had managed to offend Yama Chao.
However, it was also because of this rule that everyone paid more attention to Class S, eager to see how long those three could hold out.
"Hilarious! Young Master Huang probably never imagined in his life that he'd be treated like a little mouse after leaving the Capital Star, right?"
"Where did those three go?"
"Student IDs 11, 23, and 32. Go watch their exclusive livestream channels. You're welcome."
The other students in Class S had already formed their teams while resting and waiting. After crossing the starting line, they all kept their backs perfectly straight!
Their every move was being broadcasted live by the cameras. This would become their very first video record upon entering Qilin, so they had to leave behind some good-looking footage.
"Are we going to hunt those three?"
A member of one of the squads suddenly spoke up. Their temporarily elected captain was a round-faced young man,
"Sure, Lu Bai! You want to go catch them?"
Lu Bai let out a laugh,
"That's twenty credits! A mutant plant or animal is only worth one credit each, and a star beast is only five credits. Don't you want to go?"
"Hahaha, let's go! Why wouldn't we! We're all going to be classmates in the future! What's wrong with them contributing some credits to us!?
They set off an hour early. If we walk a bit faster, we should be able to catch up before dark!"
The four-person squad quickened their pace, completely unaware that barely two hundred meters away, Wang Tianwei was hiding behind a tree, calmly spraying mosquito repellent at a massive mosquito right in front of her.
The mosquito didn't die immediately; instead, it wobbled as it flew away.
"..."
She used to hear people say, mosquitoes are so big that three of them could make a stir-fry, and thought it was an exaggeration. Now it seemed like a realistic description!
It was a pity, though, that according to the Comprehensive Guide to Flora and Fauna, mosquitoes were not edible star beasts.
At least that much was the same as before, they were still annoying pests...
Wang Tianwei put the mosquito repellent spray back into her backpack, took out another small bottle, sprayed some on herself, and began to move out.
Having set off twenty minutes early at the start, she had separated from Huang Yan and Jian Jingyu, then circled back in a wide loop to hide near the starting point.
This way, she left traces of her departure, and by hiding here, she had also recovered some of her stamina.
Anyway, they were the first batch to enter the mountain. With six days left, there was no such thing as falling behind.
Just as she expected, no one would willingly give up twenty points. Therefore, no matter how fast one ran at the beginning, they would eventually be caught up to and besieged by the people behind them.
So she decided to do the exact opposite. She circled back to the starting point and waited for all the S-Class students to set off before quietly trailing behind them.
After all, the only requirement was to make it out of the mountain within the specified time. As for the mutant flora, fauna, and star beasts... she would deal with them when she encountered them.
Wang Tianwei maintained a distance from the last team of the S-Class—close enough to keep them in her line of sight, but far enough to remain undetected.
These students clearly lacked experience, or perhaps they were just scared. They huddled together in a group, walking right down the middle of the main road.
It never even crossed their minds that their "bonus points" were following them from the nearby woods.
This drove the viewers watching the live stream crazy.
"I take back what I said earlier. This is the worst batch I've ever seen!"
"Turn around! Just turn around and look, will you?!"
"Can't the beastmen smell her?! That Wang Tianwei is so close!"
"She just sprayed herself with scent-masking fluid..."
"Damn! First mosquito repellent, now scent-masking fluid! How is she so well-prepared?! Then what about me, almost getting carried away by mosquitoes in the mountains back in the day?"
"Consider your blood sweet."
"The rookies this year are playing it really safe... That Huang Yan circled back too."
"Sure enough, rich people all think alike..."
"Hahaha, just thinking about two top-tiers sneaking back to hide behind a bunch of freshmen cracks me up!"
"Idiots! Searching for someone on the main road?! It's obvious they would take the small trails!"
"Stop yelling, upstairs. Were you really any better than them back then?"
As the vegetation grew denser, Wang Tianwei's movement through the woods became less smooth, forcing her to widen the gap between herself and the S-Class students.
The flora and fauna of Mount Juji had all undergone some degree of mutation. Even the bushes grew taller than any she had seen before. For her, this was a double-edged sword.
While such an environment was ideal for hiding, moving alone inevitably invited certain troubles...
Like right now.
A vine as thick as an arm slithered up from behind like a snake. By the time Wang Tianwei sensed something behind her, her ankles were already bound, and she was hoisted upside down from a tree.
Damn it! It just bumped her chin!
Hoisting her upside down wasn't enough for the vine. Additional branches crawled up from her ankles, coiling around her and gradually tightening in an attempt to strangle its prey to death.
Wang Tianwei gripped her laser gun tightly, her eyes tracing the length of the vine... There!
She unfastened the backpack's safety buckle with one hand. Letting her arms hang down, the backpack hit the ground with a heavy thud.
She quickly retracted her arms and aimed at the root of the mutant vine. By this time, the vine had already reached her waist...
Inhale. Shoot.
She fired three shots in rapid succession. The laser gun blasted three large holes into the root of the mutant vine. It trembled in pain and flung its "prey" away.
Wang Tianwei adjusted her posture in mid-air, but momentum still forced her into a forward roll upon landing.
After landing, she didn't rush to run away. Instead, she turned around and fired a few more shots into the mutant vine's root.
Only when the laser had completely obliterated the root and the two vines stopped flailing did she cautiously step forward to observe.
This mutant plant only had two vines in total; it probably wasn't a mature specimen.
Wang Tianwei furrowed her brows tightly.
To think that a mere juvenile possessed enough strength to hoist her upside down!
In the post-apocalyptic era, an attack of this caliber would be on par with a Level 2 zombie, capable of claiming countless lives. Yet, here in the interstellar age, it was merely used as fodder for military academy freshmen to farm credits...
She gained a profound new understanding of the era she now found herself in.
Enemies had evolved to unprecedented heights. A Level 5 zombie, a monstrosity her entire squad couldn't defeat in the past, might not even warrant a classification here. She could no longer afford to let her guard down...
The observer, whose eyes had been glued to the screen, let their fingers fly across the keyboard to broadcast the announcement:
"Wang Tianwei, Class S: +1 point."
