Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Flashback to Wen Jing's first battle upon entering the Trial Tower.

The energy level of the Gatekeeper is always consistent with the challenger's current level. Compared to her first challenge, the damage dealt by this opponent's attacks has noticeably increased.

"Swish, swish, swish!!"

In the empty Trial Tower plaza, two figures continuously exchange blows, wrecking the place, which instantly repairs itself due to the nature of the virtual reality.

However, up close, you'd see Wen Jing dodging all of the black-clad Gatekeeper's attacks with precision. No matter what attack the opponent makes, it's as if they're handing her openings; the rhythm of the battle is entirely under her control.

Even though Awakeners with low compatibility cannot yet use Abilities, certain basic innate talents of the Wild Body gradually show up in the Awakener.

For instance, an Awakener with a speed-focused Wild Body will naturally be faster than one specializing in defense as compatibility increases, even without using any Abilities, and vice versa.

This phenomenon is now also evident in Wen Jing.

During her first challenge, she fought the Gatekeeper purely using human combat techniques and talent. Even the 'Master of Mechanics' effect from Gravity Perception was useless due to her injuries at the time.

As for the Wild Body's own bonuses—well, you can't expect a Little Bug whose only survival skill is hopping and doesn't even have eyes to provide any special enhancements.

But now, after two explorations and evolutions of the Wild Body, the abilities and traits gained by the Wild Body have been transferred to Wen Jing.

Her eyes, when tracking moving objects, show a prism-like compound-eye view, refracting the Gatekeeper's future movement trajectories;

As her hair whips around, even with her back to the Gatekeeper, she can sense the energy fluctuations when the opponent changes weapons;

When executing physical maneuvers and combat, she can control every bit of force perfectly, using gravity, the environment, and the enemy to achieve attacks that look like lucky coincidences.

She can see through everything on the battlefield.

Wen Jing doesn't even need to use energy to dodge like she did the first time. Simply relying on basic prediction, she can handle all of the Gatekeeper's attacks with ease.

But despite having countless opportunities to defeat the opponent, she holds back. Instead, like a feline toying with its prey, she keeps watching the Gatekeeper.

She had already familiarized herself with the attack patterns and identified weaknesses during her first challenge.

The reason she does this now is to figure out the energy fluctuations inside the opponent's body.

"Combat Skill: Energy Weapon — 5%"

This skill's proficiency is still displayed on her status panel.

Right after her first challenge, this idea had already occurred to her: if she could 'see' the energy flow within the Gatekeeper's body, perhaps through continuous combat she could directly learn the usage of this Combat Skill, saving her the 80 points she'd need for the course.

Unfortunately, she didn't find any Secret Technique in the point shop that allows her to see the opponent's internal energy flow. For now, with the combination of Compound Eyes (Level 2) and Gravity Perception, she can just barely guess the opponent's internal energy flow through inference and imagination.

Time passes, and a rough model of energy operation gradually takes shape in Wen Jing's mind.

But when she checks her panel, the skill's proficiency only shows an increase to 10%, no big jump.

"Bang!"

Not ready to give up, a trembling Wen Jing tries to use an Energy Shield to form an extremely unstable longsword. But before the sword even clashes with the Gatekeeper, it shatters in a burst of energy.

"How can this be?"

Just as she is puzzled, the Trial Tower's familiar synthesized voice rings out: "10 seconds left on the clock. Failure to defeat the Gatekeeper before the time limit results in challenge failure!"

"Countdown: 9, 8... 3, 2, 1."

In the last second, the Gatekeeper dissolves into black mist before Wen Jing.

"Congratulations, you have completed Trial Tower Floor 1 challenge!"

Without even getting to watch the final cheering crowd, she is ejected from the Trial Tower. She hears the familiar result sound:

"Time taken for this floor: 14 minutes 59 seconds. Your speed of victory beats 0% of challengers in your grade. Overall rating: F. Didn't beat your previous rating. Added credits: 0."

There is no prompt for the next floor, per Trial Tower rules: unless the challenge rating reaches E or above, the challenger can't enter the next floor.

Outside the black Trial Tower, the mirror-like ground shows Wen Jing frowning, deep in thought.

Her expression is, of course, not because of the low score from this challenge.

Instead, now that the fight's over and she goes over the details, she suddenly realizes that the failure to simulate the Combat Skill might not be her problem. The issue likely lies with the Gatekeeper.

The Gatekeeper only appears humanoid; in essence, it's a tech-simulated 'fake human,' just like a fluid robot. The so-called weaknesses are merely program settings.

Thus, it's highly probable that the energy circulation method she deduced from the Gatekeeper simply doesn't apply to a human body. Simulating the external fluctuations of the Gatekeeper's skills with perfect accuracy is already impressive technology; you can't expect it to simulate the inside too.

More likely, this is a deliberate 'anti-theft' measure.

Figuring out that learning skills through the Tower might be a dead end, Wen Jing sighs in disappointment, turns around, and walks back toward the Trial Tower.

The black door opens, and the Gatekeeper stands in the center of the plaza.

As Wen Jing walks in confidently, it immediately raises its hand, ready to deliver a horizontal slash followed by a diagonal cut.

Frustrated and annoyed, Wen Jing, seeing the opponent's movement, knows exactly what to do. Like a speedrunner, she deftly parries the attack, fakes a move, then focuses energy into her leg and delivers a lethal knee strike.

"Bang!"

One move, and the Gatekeeper dissolves into black mist.

The next moment, cheers erupt from the spectator stands above.

Unlike the first two times, the venue ceiling explodes with fireworks, a huge golden rain falls.

"Time taken for this floor: 6 seconds. Your speed beats 100% of challengers in your grade. Overall rating: S. Credits updated: 15 (12 bonus)... Continue to challenge the next floor?"

Hearing the announcement, Wen Jing raises an eyebrow.

You get 3 base credits for clearing a Tower floor, which is an F rating. From F to C, each grade up gives 1 more credit. So last time, with her D rating, she got 5 credits. From C to A, the difficulty increases, and each grade adds 2 credits.

Getting an A in the monthly Tower challenge gives you 10 credits; unexpectedly, from A to S, the increase is an additional 5 credits.

For each floor, the Trial Tower only adds credits based on the highest rating achieved. Continuing to higher floors accumulates credits under the same rules.

"Continue challenge."

After Wen Jing makes her choice, the scene before her shifts, and she stands again before a black door.

A text advertisement pops up:

"Purchase the Combat Skill elective course 'Energy Weapon' now, get a 15% point discount! Only 68 points!"

"S-level clearance, the discount increased by 10%?"

Wen Jing’s eyes lit up as she finally understood why Instructor Joel had asked her to challenge the trial tower. She hadn’t forgotten that last time, with a D-rank clearance, she only got a 5% discount.

She stepped across the threshold before her. This time, what awaited her in the tower was a Gatekeeper with twice her energy.

In the trial tower hall.

Everyone was still reeling from the shock of the record being broken; the entire venue was in an uproar. Even those who had dispersed earlier and hadn’t gone far turned back out of curiosity upon hearing the commotion.

Then, they saw the message pop up on their smart terminals.

One by one, their eyes widened, and they instinctively rushed toward the trial tower hall.

But just as these people arrived at the trial tower hall, the golden effects they had just missed appeared for the second time—

“Congratulations to first-year winter class student Wen Jing for breaking the academy’s historical record in the second floor challenge of Trial Tower #8584, achieving an S-rank evaluation! Current record time: 10 seconds.”

“What?!” Terry and the others felt as if they had been slapped a dozen times, their minds buzzing.

Yu Yang and the others burst into cheers. Wan Ling covered her face with her hands and screamed, “Ten seconds! She only took ten seconds on the second floor!”

Although they didn’t know what was up with the earlier F-rank, as soon as they saw the S-rank evaluation, everyone knew Wen Jing would go on to challenge the second floor.

But even those classmates who believed in Wen Jing’s strength only thought she could get an A-rank on the second floor, and perhaps continue to the third floor afterward.

But then, facing a Gatekeeper with double the energy, Wen Jing once again broke the record, and the time she took didn’t even double—!

If the first announcement left many students too stunned to respond, this second golden shower truly set off everyone’s emotions.

Not to mention those on site, even the whole faculty and student body who received the mass text for the second time initially first thought was that it was a duplicate because of an exceptional case; after reading it clearly, they also got excited.

Those hostile to Wen Jing felt as if they were in a dream; Terry quickly pinched himself, hoping to wake up from the nightmare.

Yu Yang, Wan Ling, and the others were all flushed, forgetting to taunt Terry and his group, and couldn’t stop pacing.

The five members of the Action Department also had red faces, a mix of excitement and embarrassment, especially Du Ran.

A moment ago, they were merely shocked by Wen Jing’s talent, but with this second announcement, the other three finally realized why Ji Shuang had always had such high hopes for Wen Jing.

It wasn’t that Ji Shuang was particularly optimistic about Wen Jing; rather, she had recognized Wen Jing’s talent and strength much earlier.

Despite their self-proclaimed genius as sophomores, their achievements on the first two floors of the trial tower could not match Wen Jing’s.

As for the other bystanders present, the neutral students, who neither liked nor disliked her, they too couldn’t help clenching their fists in excitement and cheering, just like Yu Yang and the others.

This wasn’t about personal feelings; it was the collective sense of honor as students of the academy.

Messages could be sent with just a thought via smart terminals. At that moment, in Zherang Academy’s forums, circles, chat groups… messages kept refreshing, and many faculty and students received inquiries from friends and family.

Because a student achieving an S-rank in the trial tower would also be officially communicated to Qinglang Academy and Xuanhuang Academy on behalf of the academy.

While those academies were still asking about Wen Jing breaking the first floor record, the Zherang students already knew she had broken the second floor’s record too!

Awakeners were admitted according to their potential; as the academy always ranked dead last, its faculty and students always came in last in inter-academy exchange activities and tournaments.

The faculty and students of Zherang Academy understood the reasons, but that didn’t mean they were truly willing to forever be mere background extras when geniuses from other academies appeared.

Now that a genius outshining the two top academies had appeared, even though it wasn’t them personally, the thrill and pride were still beyond compare.

Even among the Plutocrat Scions, many cheered sincerely for Wen Jing at this moment, feeling honored to share in the glory.

In the trial tower hall, filled with surging emotions, almost everyone was frantically refreshing the rankings.

Because the question now was… would there be a third time?

“Go! For breaking the record!”

No one knew who shouted first, but then more and more voices joined in, the entire hall seething with passion.

“Break the record! Break the record! Break the record…”

At the same time, inside the virtual reality.

“Buy the same combat skill elective course ‘Energy Weapon’ now and enjoy a 30% discount using points! Only 56 points!”

The person in question, Wen Jing, also clenched her fist, burning with passion: “Go! For a bigger discount!”

She stepped through the doorway in one stride and saw the Gatekeeper with a fourfold energy boost.

In that moment, the figure before her was no longer a mysterious black-clad assassin but had transformed into a green 15%-off tag!

Over twenty seconds later, the trial tower hall was once again flooded with cheers.

Three S-ranks! Breaking the historical records of three consecutive floors of the trial tower!

Many people, due to extreme nervous tension, felt dizzy, but as Awakeners with excellent physiques, they simply couldn’t faint. If they were ordinary people, rescue robots would have already arrived.

Could a first-year who had only been enrolled for one month really do this? In other words, she had only been in school for one month—what would the future hold?!

More importantly, would there be a fourth time?

The moment this thought emerged, almost everyone instinctively dismissed it—even Ji Shuang, who had great faith in Wen Jing.

Wen Jing achieving an S-rank on the third floor made her eyes widen in shock, and her heart was filled with emotion, but she knew the difficulty of the fourth floor.

The third floor’s Gatekeeper still had four times the energy, but the fourth floor had eight times the energy. Ji Shuang could get an A-rank on the third floor, but could not even get an F-rank on the fourth floor.

With eight times the energy, the Gatekeeper’s attacks could injure with a single strike, and its defense was similarly enhanced.

The next moment, golden rain fell again.

“Congratulations to first-year winter class student Wen Jing for breaking the academy’s historical record in the fourth floor challenge of Trial Tower #8584, achieving an S-rank evaluation! Current record time: 43 seconds.”

Ji Shuang jolted, and her normally aloof face showed a dazed expression.

Not to mention her—even those expecting that Wen Jing would break the record on the third floor looked utterly floored.

For the students of Zherang Academy, the fourth floor of the trial tower was almost exclusively the domain of seniors with a compatibility rate above 50% who could nearly complete the Wild Body transformation.

This time, everyone’s cheers were a little hoarse—or rather, a little numb.

The trial tower only had five floors. The Gatekeeper on the fifth floor had its energy doubled again—a full sixteen times!

But if a fifth announcement came soon after, everyone there figured they wouldn’t be too surprised.

Fortunately, there was no more rain this time. Someone refreshed the screen and saw Wen Jing’s results.

“Time taken for this floor: 10 minutes 21 seconds. Your speed beat 100% of contestants across the grade. Overall rating: D. Credits gained: 5 (+2).”

“So the rating really was low… Huh, no next floor prompt. Does the tower only have five floors?”

Wen Jing, who was ejected from the tower, rubbed her chin and said ruefully.

Failing to break the record on the fifth floor was not due to Wen Jing's lack of skill, but purely a numerical gap.

The sixteen-fold Gatekeeper was not only an enhancement in energy but also an increase in life defense. Wen Jing's current Energy Amplification was a little over threefold, so her full-power attack could not break the opponent's defense in one go. A normal battle required whittling down the health bar, which naturally made the fight last longer.

If her Energy Amplification reached fivefold efficiency or more, she would have confidence in achieving an S-rank evaluation.

However, the result at hand was not bad either—

"Now purchase the same Combat Skill elective course 'Energy Weapon' and enjoy a 65% discount in points! Only 28 points!"

Haha! She is learning this Combat Skill at an ultra-discounted price!