Chapter 696: Iterative Update of the Power Network

In the Ninglan area.

Due to this multi-school joint exam, the matter was announced within the city and in all the shelters and sanctuaries.

Furthermore, some restrictions on the scope of activities were imposed on the general residents, roughly similar to the management level of a military exercise.

And special wilderness areas and mountainous regions outside the city were marked, telling the general residents not to go there, which meant establishing restricted zones, and so on.

This special hunt would last for seven days, and it could be said that all places in the Ninglan area were notified, and the news was even buzzing on the Plant Network.

Anyone who caused trouble or did not follow the rules during the hunt would bear the consequences directly.

Those who were innocently affected could directly apply for hunting disability subsidies.

During this period, the recovery of hunted prey, such as Mutated Beasts, by the examinees in the Ninglan area would be handled by professional local Ninglan Aboriginals specially hired for transport.

Examinees were prohibited from directly or indirectly extending the battle to these people during the transport.

Of course, this "corpse transport team" for Mutated Beast bodies also had another group, which was the recovery team composed of senior students from various academies.

Generally, these people would only be sent to places where the prey was hunted in rugged areas that ordinary people found difficult to reach.

This task was posted on the Academy System mission board, and the rewards were not generous.

Because the students who chose this kind of task did not need many rewards; they were all eager to try, full of desire for participation and enjoyment of the spectacle.

After all, the exchange competition was exclusively for the lower-grade students, and the senior students were already watching enviously, practically drooling.

Moreover, this was a live broadcast, and some people might even sign up for this task just to make an appearance.

And right now, we were still wandering around the marketplace.

At this stage, we had already chosen our class, and I had also opened the skill tree.

The Mage's skill tree had ten skills, with the first skill, "Fireball," initially lit up.

This Fireball spell would be the only powerful means of attack for the Mage in the early stages.

Yes, the skill tree was not fully unlocked from the start; it had to be opened gradually, and the consumption for unlocking the skill tree was "scoring."

In other words, the more points one had, the stronger they were, until all ten skills were fully illuminated.

However, for our teaching assistant group, it was not that troublesome, because we did not need scoring.

We only needed to count the number of examinees killed to unlock the skill tree.

For example, I initially had one starting skill point, and the newcomer guidance unlocked Fireball, consuming one.

The second skill would require two skill points, meaning the killing of two students to unlock.

The third skill would require… 3 points.

Seeing this, I also breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, it was not an exponential multiplication.

If it were, unlocking all of them would require at least… a simple calculation showed that I would have to kill over five hundred people!

That would make me go crazy killing people for seven days straight, wouldn't it?

But luckily, it wasn't like that.

I clicked through and checked, and even the last skill only required ten skill points.

But even so, the number of people to kill was still high.

Even though there were so many people participating in this joint exam, without overwhelming strength, one couldn't even think about soloing or cleaving through them like cutting grass.

Even if all the skills were unlocked, crushing the opposition was impossible.

How should I put it?

I hoped that after this joint exam was over, if any teaching assistant failed to unlock all their skills, they would probably be laughed at for a lifetime.

However, besides the skill tree, weapons were also very particular.

When the Myriad Connection Main Network Tree was created, due to various restrictions, classes had to be divided, and because of the skill tree, spellcasting required an extra medium as a prerequisite.

Therefore, equipment was very important.

Poor quality equipment might "explode" upon use.

Hence, the Appraisal Spell had a special value to describe the sturdiness of the weapon, which was the equipment's "Durability."

"Speaking of which… the contract doesn't seem to restrict us from using our own weapons." Liffia suddenly spoke while we were browsing the "Equipment Market."

“But it restricts those activated weapons and disposable alchemical items and other weapons used for cheating, so don't bother trying to find loopholes when you have nothing to do.”

I reminded her.

“Why wouldn't we exploit a loophole? This is a beneficial aspect for ourselves! Since it belongs to our legitimate rights and interests, we should defend it to the death!”

Liffia said with righteous indignation.

“This is where the contract is flawed. What we should and should not do should be regulated by a moral standard, not by a simple exhaustive list. Restrictive clauses generated through this channel will always have loopholes.”

“Sigh, don't think so much. What if they actually encourage everyone to look for loopholes? Don't make the conversation so stiff, Xiao Han. What weapon are you planning to use?”

“Me? If nothing unexpected happens…”

At this time, I pulled out a casket, “I'll use this.”

“Oh! I knew it! I heard that you named this book 'The Persuader,' right, Xiao Han!”

Liffia immediately became excited when she saw the Book in the Casket and took it to examine it closely.

“Its name is Book in the Casket. The title of The Persuader is actually… a kind of practical joke? After all, it did help me persuade quite a few people back then.”

“This book is almost becoming your symbol! I feel like you're going to start a craze in the Witch Academy for smashing people with books!”

“Blindly following the trend is not good, but if they insist on doing so, I'm too lazy to bother.”

I took the Book in the Casket back from Liffia.

“Let me look at it again.”

“What's there to see about a weapon? What about you? What are you planning to say?”

As I spoke, I cast the Appraisal Spell of the power network on the Book in the Casket in my hand.

Currently, the durability limit of my Book in the Casket was…

“???”

This indicated that the durability of the Book in the Casket had exceeded the upper limit of the power network's information classification.

That is to say, the skill tree's ability medium could hardly cause damage to the Book in the Casket.

Or, even if a sliver of damage was caused, the Book in the Casket's self-repair mechanism could immediately make it as good as new.

“Me? I'll just use my own Magic Wand. But I see a lot of spellcasting weapons sold here, they look very new and interesting…”

“Then you can buy a few to try.”

“But it looks like everything here is calculated by scoring. What about us teaching assistants?”

“Teaching assistants have unlimited resupply permission during this joint exam. This means you can take as much as you can, but mass malicious bulk buying using storage equipment is strictly forbidden.”

I reminded her.

“Wow, then it seems like we, as teaching assistants, are having quite a good time.”

“You won't think so once you leave the city during the exam.”

I added with a smile.

“What do you mean… Oh! It seems you're right… So, it's not just leaving the city, but even entering the city will be difficult!”

Liffia said.

After all, if we swaggered in or out like this, wouldn't we be besieged by everyone?

“Actually, there is a very simple method.”

“What method?”

“Being killed, and then for one hour after resurrection, one is a non-hunting target, which is the safety period. During this period, you can return to the city to purchase items, and then leave the city to temporarily escape the trailing examinees.”

I said with a smile.

As special hunting targets, teaching assistants cannot be exploited by examinees for scoring through a bug.

The entire Expansion Realm is almost under the control of the various Transcendent Academies.

Transcendent Mentors will appear immediately before any student who dies in the hunt, not just teaching assistants, but also careless examinees, and so on.

Therefore, in this hunt, some people will experience the real threat of death!

And resurrected teaching assistants have one hour of safety period.

During this period, attacks from other students are ineffective.

Whether they are effective depends on whether there is a "health bar" above the target's head.

The design of the health bar was an effect that Big Sis Agnes and the others tried their best to present, and it absolutely reflected a true portrayal of a person's life flowing away.

There wouldn't be bizarre situations where the health bar was emptied and the person was forcibly killed, or a person was critically ill but the health bar got stuck at the end and they just wouldn't die.

So the safety period was the breathing time for the teaching assistants.

However, if a teaching assistant chose to actively attack during this time… the safety period would be immediately canceled, and the health bar would instantly display!

Therefore, the safety period would also not have the malignant loophole of becoming an "invincibility period" for the teaching assistants.

After some "free" shopping, we wandered back.

At the Ninglan New City plaza, too many people had already gathered.

They were organized by class, almost completely occupying the area, and were constantly guiding the examinees out of the city.

“In this final joint exam, you must all fight for yourselves! You must also show the class's momentum! I don't care if you go alone or team up, the choice that allows you to hunt targets and gain scoring is a good choice!”

“Do you see those two people! They are the special hunting targets you might encounter during this joint exam. They are teaching assistants from the Witch Academy. Now, they can only use the power network just like you. My request isn't high: each class must kill at least one. For every one killed, I will personally offer generous rewards…”

Just as Liffia and I came here ready to watch the show, we were suddenly singled out by that Counselor.

Although he said "those two," it felt like he was just short of announcing our ID numbers…

And at this time, it was not only the class led by that Counselor, but many other classes of examinees were also attracted by this "bizarre" commotion.

But when they saw that white-haired figure, a few individuals subconsciously trembled.

The experience of the dream state test back then had resurfaced.

In contrast, they didn't have much emotional fluctuation toward Liffia, whom they didn't know well, and some even looked eager to try.

“Xiao Han, hurry up and leave. If we don't, I feel like we're going to be peeped at. That teacher is playing it so awkward.”

Liffia urged me in a low voice to quickly leave this place.

And I sensibly didn't linger either.

After all, staying there any longer would truly be asking for trouble.

“Forget it, Big Sis Xiao Han, let's just leave the city. I remember that transcendent power is not allowed inside the city. Let's go outside and test the power of this spell.”

“Alright, let's go.”

I nodded and agreed to this suggestion.

However, I was still not too accustomed to this form of the skill tree, but I could learn about every update of the skill tree.

For example, the Fireball spellcasting time was not as slow as before.

Of course, the power was the same!

The very first player back then, the first spell they mastered was the "Lesser Fireball Spell."

Even so, it still required a long time to cast, and the worse the weapon, the longer the casting interval.

The spell we had mastered now had already undergone a transformation, removing the "Lesser" prefix.

Leaving Ninglan New City, we came outside, but there were still many examinees on the open ground outside.

However, this was not unexpected, so we went to a further place.

“Come and try it. Yours is Fireball too, right?”

Seeing that there were no more people here, I spoke.

“Hmm, almost, but I still want to see Big Sis Xiao Han give a demonstration first!”

“Alright, as you wish.”

I picked up the Book in the Casket and held it in front of me, merely performing a simple "casting."

Subsequently, I didn't need to make any movements.

Countless Knowledge Power evolved into runes and a spell framework, forming a spell ritual that was nearly a person's height.

It seemed that the power network's architecture built on top of my own order had not changed.

And at this moment, a fire ball the size of a human head instantly appeared in the center of the spell ritual.

The size of this fireball seemed to be the limit of the former "Lesser Fireball Spell" from the very beginning.

However, it seemed this was not all.

It seemed that it could continue to charge, and this charging could last for about one second.

During this one second of charging, this fireball grew from the size of a human head to a diameter close to half a person's size.

“Wow! The power of this spell from the power network is terrifying! I was almost fooled! Who spread the rumor that the power network's spell power was very poor?”

At this time, Liffia was shouting excitedly from the side.

This Fireball spell was already close to the intensity of her using the Fireball Spellbook!

“Indeed, it seems that the power model of the power network has undergone rapid iterative updates.”

I was also somewhat surprised by the power of this Fireball spell.

Although I clearly knew the progress, this was completely different from trying it firsthand!

However, the power network's spellcasting still had many "pain points."

That was the casting speed.

It was much slower than using a spellbook.

Perhaps the difference for one Fireball spell was barely acceptable, but the gap widened significantly as spells developed further.

No wonder the spells on the skill tree didn't seem to have very great power, and most of them were… effect-type spells.

For example, the spell after Fireball was Ice Shield Spell.

The first spell slot represented "attack," and the second was "defense," while the third was "displacement" or "Wind Pressure Spell," which represented movement speed, and so on.

“Liffia, aren't you going to try casting a spell to adapt?”

“Me? I'll pass. Tsk This power network feels so awkward to use; it's still not as convenient as using a spellbook!”

Liffia also started to complain at this moment.

“It's indeed not very convenient, but… this fixed attack model is more conducive to fostering combat strategy, training thinking reaction ability, and controlling the rhythm of battle.”

“Big Sis Xiao Han, you can talk about this kind of thing in such a high-sounding way? I feel like this thing has no benefit other than cultivating a group of people with fixed thinking patterns! They'll absolutely be crushed into nothing if they go up against a spellbook with this mindset!”

“Well it's still the testing phase, so don't think too much about the future. Furthermore… a weak person who doesn't know how to adapt is useless no matter what method they use to learn. A truly strong person can draw nourishment under any restriction. Learning is never dominated by a single factor of the objective environment; people must at least be responsible for themselves.”

“Big Sis Xiao Han, you're starting to preach again. I can't argue with you on this. Let's go, let's go. While we still have this last bit of time, I'm going to choose a nice spot to camp and have a barbecue to welcome the fate of being hunted tomorrow!”

“Don't be so pessimistic. Maybe we'll be the ones hunting them?”

“Big Sis Xiao Han, you really are confident!”