Chapter 57
Chapter 57
Chen Jing, the captain of No. 2 High School, held her breath and carefully constructed the model inside her mind.
Echo Vision allowed her to detect moving objects across an enormous area and locate her teammates at the same time.
The Talent offered little combat power, but as an information specialist who could oversee the whole situation, she was the natural choice for captain.
“I’ve mapped most of the corridor layout on this floor and confirmed their positions…”
Her brow relaxed in satisfaction.
“Hmm…? What a powerful curse. Is that the 1-Star anomaly inside the instance?”
The returning echoes formed the image of a swollen mass of muscle in her mind, accompanied by a dense aura of curse energy.
As she tried to assess the anomaly in greater detail, the next wave of echoes suddenly trembled.
A curse so terrifying that it nearly stripped away her sanity directly erased the model she had constructed.
“Urgh!”
Chen Jing’s eyes snapped open, filled with fear.
“What… What was that?!”
“How could there be such a powerful curse inside this instance? That is definitely more than a 1-Star anomaly!”
“Did the instance selected for the joint examination suddenly increase in difficulty?”
Chen Jing rapidly considered her options.
“No. I need to contact the others and warn them first!”
Far away at the other end of the corridor, Qin Lan instinctively glanced back.
A notification had just informed him that his curse resistance had nullified a Talent.
“Echo Vision? What’s that?”
Qin Lan scratched his head in confusion. He had not felt anything at all.
He quickly stopped caring and continued exploring.
Before he had gone far, a strange creature shedding sparks suddenly flew around the corner.
It came face-to-face with Qin Lan, and both froze.
What?
There was an anomaly this weak inside the instance?
Qin Lan examined the little creature with interest. The curse aura on its body was pitifully faint, less than half that of even the weakest 1-Star anomaly.
This elemental spirit was the summoned creature of Wang Lei, the captain of No. 1 High School.
The two shared information. Under normal circumstances, Wang Lei should have been able to perceive Qin Lan directly through the elemental spirit’s senses.
But Qin Lan’s curse resistance turned that ability into a joke.
Any special ability that acted upon Qin Lan, even one used solely to gather information, was immediately nullified by his resistance.
From Wang Lei’s perspective, an “unknown presence” had suddenly appeared in the corridor.
He could perceive nothing except terrifying curse fluctuations and pure fear.
That fear came from the elemental spirit at the scene.
As a creature summoned through a Talent, the elemental spirit drew its power from curse energy. It could therefore sense even more clearly how terrifying Qin Lan was.
Its reaction was no different from the survival instinct of an animal confronting a predator at the top of the food chain–an existence that could kill it at any moment.
The elemental spirit transmitted every trace of that terror to Wang Lei in real time.
“Run. It has to run!”
Wang Lei did not hesitate for even a second. He ordered the elemental spirit to turn and flee.
“Oh? You know how to run?” Qin Lan grew even more interested.
He took a single step. His figure flickered and appeared in front of the fleeing fire elemental.
Then he simply reached out and pinched it between two fingers.
Like catching a fly.
“It’s pleasantly warm.”
Qin Lan clicked his tongue appreciatively.
Elsewhere, Wang Lei was nearly wetting himself.
What in the world had appeared before his elemental spirit?
He could see nothing. The presence in his vision was only a blurry, overwhelming mass of curse energy, while intense terror poured endlessly through his connection to the elemental spirit.
Even when a 1-Star anomaly appeared, he could usually perceive its rough outline. This time, he had been rendered completely blind.
“Abandon the summon! Sever the connection!”
Wang Lei made the decision immediately. He ended his Talent and cut off his link to the elemental spirit.
His aura weakened at once. Exhaustion appeared across his pale face.
More than half of his curse energy had been condensed into that spirit. Losing it caused his combat power to plummet.
But he had no choice.
If the elemental spirit continued transmitting those negative emotions, the backlash would inevitably reach him. It might even knock him unconscious.
“It disappeared…”
The little creature in Qin Lan’s hand dissolved into ash with a soft hiss, leaving him completely bewildered.
This instance was rather strange.
…
“So you’re saying that flying lighter was Wang Lei’s Talent?”
Qin Lan finally understood. “No wonder it was so weak.”
Liang Yu had already gone numb while listening to his description.
Senior Qin had beaten the anomaly inside the instance unconscious, then casually crushed the summoned creature of Wang Lei, an elite student and team captain from No. 1 High School.
Could he possibly become any more outrageous?
Liang Yu’s entire worldview was being rebuilt from the ground up.
It took her five full minutes to accept that a 2-Star Anomaly Hunter was no longer entirely human.
Before the examination, their team had identified Wang Lei as one of the opponents who demanded the greatest attention. Almost everyone believed his summoned creature would be extremely difficult to handle.
“Senior Qin, with your combat strength, you could eliminate all of them directly, couldn’t you?”
“Why didn’t you do that?”
Liang Yu could not suppress her curiosity.
If Qin Lan was not boasting–and he clearly was not–then his combat power utterly overwhelmed everyone else inside this instance.
He could simply search the wards one by one and beat every student from the other schools out of the simulation. There was no need to find her first.
Qin Lan opened his mouth and hesitated for a long moment before adopting an earnest expression.
“The future belongs to your younger generation. A stage this large should be left for you to display your abilities.”
“I only entered because the principal asked me to help all of you.”
Admiration instantly filled Liang Yu’s eyes.
“Senior Qin is young too, but he’s willing to give up the chance to distinguish himself before the teachers and students of so many schools. Instead, he’s leaving the spotlight to us…”
“He’s incredibly strong, yet modest, restrained, and so gentle…”
Her opinion of Qin Lan transformed completely. The uncertainty she had felt at first vanished, replaced by wholehearted loyalty.
The Four-School Joint Examination was also known as the “mini college entrance examination.”
Admissions officers from various universities occasionally attended in secret, watching for promising students they might recruit.
“With Senior Qin’s strength, a prestigious university could notice him during the joint examination and change his life overnight…”
“Yet he’s willing to act as a supporting leaf so the younger students can bloom.”
“Senior Qin is so gentle. I’m going to cry!”