Published: February 12, 2025
CHAPTER TEXT:
"The first phase of the trial will end in one hour. Please, all surviving novices, choose an open area in the last five minutes to wait. Novice killings are temporarily halted. Those who do not follow orders will be executed."
A message appeared on the recording device for every living novice.
Upon seeing this message, many people breathed a sigh of relief, some lamented in disappointment, many remained indifferent, while others responded with coldness.
Regardless of their state, it signified the end of the first phase of the trial after three days, allowing for a bit of rest.
"The time between the two trials is twelve hours. Please, novices, take this time to make purchases and exchanges, but also pay attention to rest and treatment. The second phase will begin immediately after twelve hours."
"Novices in the last ten places on the points leaderboard, please hurry to earn points. After this phase ends, the number of eliminations in the last position will be ten!"
"Novices in the top one hundred of the points leaderboard, please pay attention. If you can maintain your ranking until the end of the first phase, you will receive an additional 2% point reward. Novices ranked from one hundred and one to one thousand, please take note. If you can maintain your ranking until the end of the first phase, you will receive an additional 1% point reward."
"Rewards will be distributed in real-time after the end."
On a small island, the Hawkins couple and others showed no signs of relaxation; they simply sat dejectedly on the ground, staring blankly at the sea before them.
Even though they had lost track of Ye Zhongming earlier, they still came to the Sea of Ten Thousand Isles after the roar of the update.
However, while they were all capable swimmers, they were merely at the normal top evolver level, far from the adaptability of Ye Zhongming, who moved like a fish in water here.
They had to maintain their ranks without falling behind, searching for mutated life forms and parasites to kill for points while also tracking Ye Zhongming.
If they fell too far behind Ye Zhongming, they couldn't lock onto his perception, making it quite difficult to catch up again.
Moreover, Ye Zhongming was very slippery; after each update on his location, he would move with all his might, causing his pursuers' efforts to be in vain.
Since they lost track of Ye Zhongming’s location, Hawkins and the others had not seen a trace of him.
Looking at Amus, who was ranked first with only over six thousand points, a sense of powerlessness washed over everyone.
It couldn't be helped; not every island had mutated life forms or parasites. Many times, they arrived at an island only to find nothing or just a single mutated creature that yielded a maximum of a dozen points after being killed, and as little as a few points at times.
Without any underwater abilities, their points were growing very slowly. Although their performance had improved significantly compared to before, they still hovered around six to seven thousand in rankings, which was far from their expectations.
If it were just that, it wouldn't be too concerning, but look at Ye Zhongming's ranking—he not only didn’t drop but rose significantly, officially entering the top thousand an hour ago! His points had reached one hundred seventy-seven.
In this ocean, his points were increasing even faster than before, and mind you, he had a broken arm.
"Let's go, I feel there’s a sufficiently powerful mutated life form ahead. Killing it, coupled with the time spent getting there, should bring us close to the end. Don’t be discouraged; there are six more phases to go."
Hawkins clapped his hands, encouraging everyone.
The others stood up and jumped into the water, swimming towards another island.
………………………………
Ye Zhongming was quietly floating on the sea surface, eyes closed, as if he had merged with the ocean.
Thanks to the ability of the sea king mark within the Sea King Crown, he could heal his injuries in the seawater. This was an all-encompassing healing ability—effective for all injuries except the curse of Naka.