Chapter 145: The End of the Exam

The core crystal had belonged to a Commander tier parasitic monster, after all. Parasitic monsters had always been rare, so the core crystal would definitely fetch a decent price.

Ugh… However, it did not seem like he lacked money at the moment.

Gao Peng realized this and fell silent for a while. He suddenly felt ashamed about his thoughts. As the saying goes, “Earning money is as hard as shoveling dirt with a needle, while spending money is as easy as waves finding sand.”

Gao Peng thought of the days when an egg had been all he had eaten for each of his meals. Those days were long past, but he could not help but fall into deep thought as he remembered them.

He let Dumby destroy the point pillar. The ground was covered in moss, which looked like a thick carpet laced with thin green threads. Gao Peng attempted to burn the place, but the flame would disappear after only burning a small area.

He sighed. It seemed like this thing’s fire resistance was pretty strong.

Initially, his best solution was to use Da Zi’s electric attack, but with such a large land mass, it would take too much energy to clear it all.

The main body of the monster had already been destroyed, and the only things left were the sub-bodies. Perhaps one day, these sub-bodies would evolve into another Commander tier body, but by then, they would already have become another life.

The moss on the ground moved slightly as it continued absorbing the minerals and nutrition within the earth, slowly growing thicker.

Fern type plants were already ancient plants, and they could even be called living fossils. The adaptability and evolution capability the plant showed at that moment amazed Gao Peng even more.

As he put his foot on it, it felt as if he had just stepped on a sandy beach.

The thick moss wrapped around the sole of Gao Peng’s foot. Gao Peng’s eyes sparkled.

…

“We can see the scores of the examinees. The currently first ranked examinee is Ye Han, with 778 points. There’s a small gap between him and the second rank, Jun Mo, with only a 10 point difference between them. Oh, Jun Mo added another four points, so he’s close behind,” the host said while nodding. The screen behind him switched.

The unmanned drone tracked the examinees from high in the sky. Through the dense forest, one could see a large black anaconda moving between the trees.

The unmanned drone flew lower and past the tree branches. It entered the lowly lit forest where light barely penetrated. Some of the trees were scarred from their involvement in battles, and some had even fallen or broken.

The corpse of a monster lay on the ground. The corpse was distorted beyond measure, and it looked like an old rag. The blood had drained from its body, pooling on the ground and dyeing the earth red.

“Yes, the competition between these two is very fierce. The black anaconda doesn’t eat the monsters; it kills for the sake of killing, only in the hope of earning a large number of points.”

“Yes, do you remember the guy from the flipping salted fish emoticon pack that was very popular on the internet?” the host suddenly asked.

The man sitting opposite the host was a guest. Yin Wu had been swapped out for a new guest for some reason… Of course, he did not enjoy participating in programs like this in the first place. He was very stubborn, though, and after he learned that someone from the upper ranks wanted to take him off, he deliberately held on and fought against the pressure. He used his bad temper and persevered through several episodes before leaving graciously.

“Of course I remember. Could it be that the salted fish and its owner are still around?” the guest asked, nodding.

“That examinee still hasn’t been eliminated. Let’s check his current ranking,” the host smiled mysteriously.

Name: Gao Peng

Rank: 15

The people in front of their TV’s widened their eyes. Rank 15?!

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The salted fish monster trainer actually managed to make it to rank 15.

I thought you agreed with everyone that we would all be salted fish together, and you actually flipped over in secret!

Gao Peng’s smile that appeared on screen pained a lot of people.

You’re clearly not a salted fish! How could a salted fish be like this!

“Rank 15? That’s not a bad ranking. Currently, only 121 examinees are left in the Dayang Mountain Forest. The 15 rank includes the scores of those who have been eliminated. The requirement for getting to the third round of the exam is to be ranked in the top 12. He is very close right now; he certainly has a chance.”

Gao Peng sneezed. He rubbed his nose in confusion. Who is praising me?

The sound of buzzing bees came from above. The sound was weak, and with Da Zi’s reminder, Gao Peng raised his head and saw an unmanned drone hovering in the air. The camera was pointed straight at him.

Gao Peng suddenly looked serious. A camera was pointed at him, after all.

He immediately straightened himself and made a pose that showed that he was trying his best. He had to create a hard-working image of himself in front of all the citizens of the country.

The unmanned drone only recorded for a short while before moving away.

Although Gao Peng stayed in the periphery, the number of points he accumulated was not low. He destroyed two point pillars and even killed three Commander tier monsters.

Even many students located within the depths of the forest hadn’t gotten as many points as Gao Peng.

In truth, there were a lot of the strong Commander tier monsters in the depths of the forest; however, when the students encountered them, they could only choose to run away. It was a very awkward fact. It was also the reason why these students were ridiculed.

It looked terrible.

After all, anyone would be disappointed to keep seeing monster trainers being chased around by monsters. They looked way too weak.

Gao Peng and the other monster trainer cadets did not know what was happening outside. Gao Peng continued with his rhythm of gaining points steadily in the periphery.

Apart from destroying point pillars, killing monsters also earned points.

Just as Gao Peng had said in the beginning, hanging out in the periphery didn’t raise his score very high, but it was very stable. Moreover, it was less likely for him to encounter a powerful monster and get eliminated.

In the remaining few days, five monster trainer cadets who had a higher score than his own were eliminated, one of them even suffering a “permanent elimination.”

In the depths of the forest, it was easier to grind for points. However, it was more dangerous. One had to be prepared to be eliminated at any time.

“The exam has ended. All scores will cease to accumulate and will be tabulated. All examinees are asked to move to a safe zone and await transportation.” A sound came from the band on Gao Peng’s left wrist.

Gao Peng yawned and looked at the tired familiars. He had done his best, and although he hadn’t found too many point pillars over the last few days, he had killed several Commander tier monsters. Everything was thanks to Stripey succeeding in being promoted to the Commander tier through battles. After Stripey’s promotion, its defense improved significantly, and paired with its control of spider silks, its combat ability increased substantially as well.

He had done his best, and he would not feel regret regardless of the result.

Two hours later, Gao Peng was sitting on a plane and looking down at the city below him. He had stayed in the wilderness for an entire week, but he was finally back in a busy city.

A starless night sky veiled Jiangnan City, as neon lights glowed up from the busy streets. A consecutive week of rushing about everywhere had exhausted the monster trainer cadets. They fell asleep almost instantly upon returning to the government-arranged hotel.

The results of the examinees also appeared the moment the examination ended.

Gao Peng was ranked 11.