Chapter 699: A Not-Quite-Failed Siege Hunt

“I’m truly sorry, Big Sis Xiao Han. But our positions are different now. If I say any more words to get close to you, I’ll be in trouble, you know?”

Anni also had a helpless look, but she made no excuses.

After all, there was no coincidence for the people who came here; they were all here to take my life.

If Anni had offered a single excuse, it would have been the start of hypocrisy.

But she didn't.

“Good, good, good. I'm starting to appreciate you, Anni. I wonder how much you've grown since we last met?”

“This is no place for you two to catch up.”

At this moment, the person beside her frowned and shouted sharply.

“You showed up just to stall me and wait for your main force to arrive, didn't you? Anni is playing the sentiment card to buy time with me. What are you doing, you good-for-nothing?”

I looked at the girl who interrupted Anni and me, and immediately launched an attack.

Especially the last sentence, "good-for-nothing," seemed to have hit a nerve, directly provoking her to jump up and down with anger.

“Who are you calling a good-for-nothing! You bastard!”

“Whoever can't see the situation, that's who. Have a Fireball.”

I directly confronted this person and openly rewarded her with a Fireball spell.

Such an obvious attack naturally made her dodge it, but she still dodged somewhat clumsily.

“Your physical constitution isn’t quite up to par. After this joint exam hunt is over, how about coming to Teacher Bai’s Physical Arts small class for the new semester to train?”

“I don’t want to attend any of your Physical Arts classes. Those things are simply heretical paths! A witch should use spells… Agh!”

Before she could finish, my Book in the Casket was thrown directly at her face.

This was already a restrained amount of force; otherwise, faced with these "tender" students, this blow would at least splatter blood on the spot.

“With this level of ability, you dare to come and challenge a teaching assistant. You might not even be able to defeat me, and yet you go try to fight them?”

I quickly arrived in front of her, catching the Book in the Casket steadily.

I just stood there in front of her, as if it were the greatest provocation.

“You!”

She subconsciously recoiled and was just about to nock an arrow, but I "slapped!" it away with the Book in the Casket.

When she looked a little at a loss, she pulled out the dagger at her waist, but once again, I slapped it away with the book.

“Do you have anything else? Look at you. Why would a Witch Academy student insist on choosing an Elf Ranger? You don't even know how to maintain distance as an archer, and you can't even hold a dagger steady.”

I provocatively patted her cheek with the Book in the Casket, prompting her to swing a punch directly, but this time it was worse.

I didn't even need too much movement; her forearm hit the spine of my book.

She cried out in pain and subconsciously bent over, clutching her forearm.

The short-range burst of force just now meant her forearm, even if not fractured, was at least cracked.

If a low-grade student without Undying Nature didn't want to die and resurrect to recover from their injury, they could only rely on healing potions.

But these supplies all require scoring to purchase.

However… looking at her fully equipped state right now, I guessed she spent all her initial scoring on equipment.

“Everyone has seen this, right? In this joint exam hunt, the so-called classes, skill trees—these methods of playing according to the rules—are exclusive to those examinees who hunt Mutated Beasts step-by-step. You don't even know what kind of group you are facing, yet you run over like an inexperienced fool. Do you want to die so badly?”

I glanced at the disarmed Ranger, then ignored her and walked two steps toward the crowd, my gaze fixed on Anni.

My words just now carried a tone of teaching, as if I wanted to impart a lesson to them.

“I know you chose to hunt me because you think I'm the same age as you, and my strength was entirely due to the spellbook. Now that I'm the same as you, you think you can do it too. Who gave you that delusion?”

“I don't mind popularizing the horrors of teaching assistants for you right here, for example… what's left of teaching assistants besides the magic power source and spellbooks?”

“Teaching assistants are left with combat experience far richer than yours, vast knowledge reserves, more farsighted insights, superior physical constitution, and a higher Level of Life…”

Just as I was about to warn them about a few things and tell them not to foolishly go looking for teaching assistants to die, a Fireball suddenly flew toward me.

“It looks like the main force has arrived. I was being kind and explaining intelligence to you, and yet you don't appreciate it?”

I barely dodged the fireball, and then saw a crowd that astonished even me; they were rushing here crazily.

The number… far exceeded my expectations.

“Tsk… Are you all a rabble? If so many people swarm me, will the scoring for my life be enough for you to divide?” 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“Hmph! That's none of your business! You're definitely going to die today, that's all!”

“Definitely going to die? That's not certain.”

I retorted.

While I admitted that the arrival of so many people was indeed troublesome, and I couldn't kill that many people all at once, if they each threw one Fireball, they could definitely overwhelm me and kill me with sheer firepower, and the Ice Shield Spell wouldn't save me.

But if I couldn't beat them, I could run past them.

I had already unlocked the third skill, Wind Pressure Spell.

This was a spell that used the Wind Element augmentation to make the body light, and naturally, the escape speed also became faster.

The third skill slot's designation was mobility.

“Don't let her run! Quick, catch her!”

At this moment, with the support of the large force in the rear, even the Rangers became courageous.

I looked at the gradually approaching crowd… this kind of disorganized, brute-force numerical crush was indeed aimed at putting me to death.

After settling my mind and planning what to do next, I appeared relatively relaxed.

Even if the worst happened, I still had one retreat route.

Although this trip didn't yield much, it did test one thing.

That was to verify approximately how many people a teaching assistant could attract under the Wanted order's location tracking.

Now, I basically had a good idea.

From the current situation, the number of people attracted had reached three digits and was still rising.

This number was slightly terrifying.

Especially with my strength restricted, I definitely couldn't survive in such a human tide.

Let alone open a one-man rampage among so many people.

I felt... this many people were only suitable for me to throw a Fireball from afar and see how many unlucky people I could hit.

Facing these Rangers who were now starting to surround me, I had no choice but to activate the Ice Shield Spell for protection against the whistling arrows.

The Ranger's precise charged shot skill was truly tormenting at this time.

Not only did it have considerable power with the augmentation of the special Elf Magic, but it also made little noise, and its concealment was very strong.

The speed of the arrow, combined with the Transcendent power augmentation, was terrifying and hidden.

Therefore, to block this kind of attack, I couldn't wait until the opponent completed their attack to block.

I had to predict the block.

So, although the arrows didn't have the explosion damage of the Fireball spell, they were more insidious in other advantages.

Since that was the case, I would no longer conceal my abilities.

I directly used the Ice Shield Spell.

After all, it was only the second skill.

Examinees who chose the Mage class like me could guess my other methods with their eyes closed.

“Saber in hand! Follow me!”

“Kill the teaching assistant! Steal the scoring!”

The distant crowd was led by students with close-combat classes.

Someone started chanting a slogan, which ignited the most primitive troublemaking mentality in everyone's hearts.

“That's a pretty smooth slogan…”

While dodging the dense attacks, I had to complain, and then I moved to the other side.

“Sisters, go! Kill that little Xiao Han over there!”

“Xiao Han, stop running!”

“Hehehe. It's our turn to chase Xiao Han this time, right!”

Intermittent voices came from a distance, mixed with many strange remarks.

Sure enough, the people who came straight for me at the start, neglecting their proper duties, had somewhat abnormal things going on in their heads.

After silently complaining in my heart, I also took advantage of the gap to return a few fireballs, but unfortunately, the kill count didn't increase.

“Xiao Han, you can't run away. You didn't think people were only surrounding you from this one side, did you? At least, the teammates I contacted made them circle around to the other side to surround you.”

The one who said this was Anni, and I naturally believed she was capable of doing this.

So, after only a few steps, I saw figures circling around in the distance.

“It seems you are all confident in taking me down?”

I came in front of the teaching assistant I had tied to the tree earlier.

“Then have you all decided how to distribute the scoring?”

As I finished speaking, I tossed her toward the front of one of the small teams that had circled around.

“She is also a teaching assistant. I choose to give her to you. Will you fight over this helpless person, or will you chase after me?”

As this figure traced a parabola in the air, the health bar unique to the teaching assistant identity lit up.

This maneuver directly stunned the people who had rushed over without knowing the situation.

Where did this teaching assistant come from?

And she was on the verge of death!

“Don't fall for it! Catch Xiao Han first!”

Anni was the first to react and shouted to her teammates.

But sometimes, the development of events does not follow the overall picture.

Because the crowd only saw a "100 scoring" target that was completely incapable of resisting, falling right in front of one team.

Such a huge amount of scoring was so easily obtainable!

Even though they knew it couldn't be monopolized, the moment the thought that it might be monopolized arose, it was enough to drive everyone to instinctively react.

“Stop her! Hurry up and stop her!”

At this time, the blockers who still had some rationality and knew what they should be doing shouted loudly, but even so, it was too late.

With a Fireball charged with my deliberate effort, I tore open a gap for me to escape.

Actually, this strike was intended to try and kill a few people, but it failed.

The priority now was to quickly run.

Although I could also kill a few people by relying on my physical constitution, what would be the consequence?

The consequence would be that I would be surrounded and focused-fired by those who reacted.

The consequences were too great to bear.

Even if some things could be done, they couldn't be done.

This was what I learned under the current fair power rules.

Or perhaps, this was the most basic issue of trade-offs for a person?

“Hurry, chase!”

“She's running so fast. Is the difference in physical constitution that huge?”

“It's a spell. The Mage's third skill is Wind Pressure Spell. Damn it, she's already unlocked the third skill?”

“Judging from the time remaining on her Wanted order—over five hours—she probably has unlocked the third skill.”

“It's okay. She can't keep running forever. The Wanted order lasts so long, we can know her movements at any time.”

Everyone could only comfort themselves in this way.

However… although they let that little Xiao Han run away, they also gained another teaching assistant!

So, they immediately plunged into the discussion of distributing the scoring for this teaching assistant.

It was just that the process of this discussion was not pleasant.

The people from the main force arriving from the front also complained, saying that a great opportunity was wasted, until they heard that they had killed another teaching assistant…

Then they "pleasantly" joined the game of contending for the right to distribute the scoring.

Perhaps after so many people fought over it, each person might only get one or two points of scoring in the end, but they didn't mind the small amount; they would just feel that it was just right.

After all, that was better than having one person flaunt the entire one hundred scoring points in front of them, wasn't it?

Seeing others take so much was more frustrating than seeing their own scoring drop to a negative number!

They were all working as a group, and they wouldn't allow such a person to appear!

However, even though this siege hunt failed, there were still some people who were unwilling to give up and chased after me.

After all, they relied on having my location tracking and weren't afraid of losing me, so they chased after me on a whim.

But the people who were present at that time clearly understood that there was no need to chase.

Even if they chased, going alone was simply asking for death!

That was no longer just an asymmetry in combat experience, but a complete mismatch in personal physical constitution.

Therefore, planning the next siege in advance was more realistic.

And at this moment, outside the examination ground.

The live broadcast was playing in various academies, and the Witch Academy was no exception.

“Sigh Even Xiao Han was surrounded and forced to run away this time?”

“It can't be helped. If Xiao Han was at full power, fighting them would be like fighting children.”

“What's the point of saying that? Which teaching assistant in the Expansion Realm can't reach that level?”

“I'm talking about Xiao Han's special abilities! What else can those teaching assistants do once their spellbooks are taken away?”

“And I'm saying that the Xiao Han you're talking about is only formidable because of the grand spellbook! A grand spellbook! Who wouldn't take off with something that powerful?”

“Xiao Han is still formidable without the grand spellbook!”

“I say, you're defending Xiao Han so much. Are you part of her support group? Is Xiao Han your god in the entire Witch Academy? Why are you protecting her and giving her so much undue praise?”

“Are you nuts? I'm in the support group, and that's right, but did our support group use our status to pressure you? What the heck are you so dissatisfied about?”

“I just can't stand you guys! Come on.”

At this moment, another two people started fighting because of a disagreement in their chat.

But even more people were paying attention to this special joint exam hunt.

And inside the Expansion Realm examination ground, what the examinees and teaching assistants were not very clear about was that some external rankings were also very highly watched.

It was just that the focus of this attention was different.

There were currently two rankings: one was the Examinee Scoring Leaderboard, and the other was the Teaching Assistant Death Count/Total Wanted Duration Leaderboard.

“Scroll to the very bottom! Let me see how much in the negative the last place person's scoring is!”

“Scoring is so boring. Examinee nicknames are the truly insane part, okay? I already saw two people named 'Xiao Han Step on Me' and one insane 'I am Xiao Han's' (dog).”

“Haha, what kind of ridiculous names are those? Are they so impatient to be unable to mix in the academy? And… and names can have punctuation marks?”

“They will probably have to change them in the next large-scale test. Cherish these names while they last.”

“Hey, hey Come and see this name, it's also insane!”

“What's it called?”

“Fengqing Street No. 56 Technician.”

“Hahaha! I feel like the most regrettable thing the academy did was not setting up sensitive words for nicknames and not limiting the nickname length.”

“Aren't you going to try it out? See how good the No. 56 Technician's skills are?”

“I feel like she's a marketing genius. I'll definitely go visit after the joint exam ends!”