Beyond the virtual world.
In the square.
The surroundings had become completely silent.
All the teachers, including Gao Wenbo, stared at the leaderboard in disbelief.
Lin Ze's bizarre ascent left them completely stunned.
In a short period of time, he jumped from over a hundred places to sixth.
This speed is simply unbelievable.
"How...how did they do that?"
"Could it be that Lin Ze killed several third-tier ferocious beasts at once?"
"Impossible. The third-tier ferocious beasts in the forest all act alone and are not far apart from each other. It's impossible for them to gather together at the same time."
"That's right, and even if Lin Ze really encountered several third-tier ferocious beasts, with his strength, it would be impossible for him to deal with them all in such a short time!"
"That's true."
The crowd discussed it amongst themselves, completely baffled.
Gao Wenbai acted decisively, ordering someone to retrieve Lin Ze's assessment video again.
When the image appeared on the screen, a gasp of surprise rippled through the crowd.
"Fermi ant colony!"
...
Just as one of the test takers had guessed, Lin Ze had stumbled into the den of ferocious beasts.
A nest of Vermi ants.
He discovered it by chance on his way back from hunting.
The vast majority of the ferocious beasts in this forest are non-social.
They usually act alone or at most in groups of two or three.
It is extremely rare for them to act in groups together.
However, the Fomi Antbeast is an exception.
This is undoubtedly a ferocious beast that lives in groups.
When Lin Ze encountered the Queen of the Fermi ants, he deliberately left one injured one behind and let it return to the nest.
They then followed behind and successfully discovered the nest of the Frmi ant colony.
What followed was a thoroughly enjoyable massacre.
The Fomi ant is divided into four types: worker ants, soldier ants, flying ants, and queen ants.
Both worker ants and soldier ants are first-tier ferocious beasts.
Flying ants are second-tier ferocious beasts, but even in their mature state, they only possess the strength of the second or third stage.
The queen ant is of a slightly higher level, at the second tier, seventh stage.
Unfortunately, it has no fighting ability and only exists as a tool for hatching ants.
The greatest threat to the Frmi Ants is their collective behavior.
A nest can contain at least three to five hundred ant-beasts.
Despite their individual strengths being weak, the sheer number of applicants still intimidates many test-takers.
Even elite geniuses like Tan Yong and Guo Xinyi wouldn't dare face a colony of Vermi ants alone.
Lin Ze, the only exception among the candidates, was completely unafraid of this.
Instead, it felt like discovering a treasure.
Click! Click!
The sound of ice freezing echoed through the forest.
More than ten meters above the ground, countless sharp ice blades materialized out of thin air, and after a slight pause, they poured down like a waterfall.
Icefall!
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The flying ants in mid-air were the first to be hit, instantly engulfed by the ice blades. Before they could even struggle, they were torn to pieces, their mangled corpses turning into ice blocks and falling to the ground.
With a single strike, hundreds of flying ants were wiped out.
And this is just the beginning.
Xiaoxue giggled and pointed remotely.
In an instant, countless ice threads emerged from the densest part of the ant colony, rapidly condensing into a bright blue crystal.
The next second.
The crystal shattered with a deafening roar, transforming into a ring of ice that swept outwards in all directions.
Frost Nova!
Click! Click!
Amidst the crisp, continuous sounds, countless Fomi Ant Beasts were transformed into ice sculptures one after another.
In less than a breath, the ant colony was reduced by hundreds of ants again.
Faced with Xiaoxue, whose level was completely overwhelming, Fumi Ant Beast had no power to resist at all.
...
The teachers outside the virtual world stared blankly at the scene on the screen, their mouths agape, unable to recover for a long time.
Even Gao Wenbo seemed somewhat dazed.
This was a completely one-sided massacre.
The swarm of Fomi ants, which could deter any Tier 3 being when acting in groups, was easily slaughtered by Lin Ze's ice-attribute pet.
Even worse.
Anyone with eyes can see that the pet beast wasn't even using its full strength.
The meaning behind this is self-evident.
"Fourth, a fourth-tier pet!"
A teacher stammered.
The teachers present were all at least Silver-level Beast Tamers.
Normally, fourth-tier pets would be nothing to them.
But when a fourth-tier pet appears on an eighteen-year-old student, it is truly astonishing.
Gao Wenbai took a deep breath, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes.
"I didn't expect this... It seems our intelligence was wrong. Lin Ze doesn't possess a third-tier pet beast at all, but a fourth-tier one!"
The teachers looked at each other, their faces all showing undisguised shock.
Candidates who possess a Tier 3 pet beast are already considered exceptionally talented.
Of the nearly five thousand elite students who gathered from all over the country, only four were selected.
Lin Ze's strength was even greater than that, and his pet beast had actually grown to the fourth level.
What kind of monstrous talent is this?
They simply couldn't believe it if it weren't happening right before their eyes!
"This talent... is absolutely terrifying!"
"We underestimated him before."
"The dean was right; such a genius should not be let go!"
"That's right, if properly nurtured, he could definitely become our academy's ace in the future!"
"Maybe they can shine in the next college league!"
After the initial shock, the teachers immediately became excited.
It is undoubtedly a great thing to be able to recruit such an outstanding genius into the academy.
No one would complain about having too many outstanding students.
Even Gao Wenbo, who is usually dignified, had an undisguised look of admiration on his face at this moment.
"He is indeed a rare and promising talent."
"Now we'll see if he can surpass the top four and win the title of top freshman."
Many teachers nodded secretly upon hearing this.
Before, they would never have believed that Lin Ze could become the top student.
But after what had just happened, that thought had completely vanished.
With Lin Ze's strength, even though he is still far behind in points, it is not impossible for him to catch up and win first place.
...
Lin Ze was unaware of what the people outside were thinking.
After wiping out the Fomi ant colony, he immediately took Xiaoxue to continue hunting ferocious beasts.
The strongest beasts in the forest are only at the third tier, sixth level.
One-on-one is no match for Xiaoxue.
Often, as soon as a trace is discovered, Xiaoxue will swiftly and decisively kill it.
Their hunting efficiency is frighteningly high.
This is reflected in the leaderboard as Lin Ze's score increasing sharply every short period of time.
501, 519, 531, 556...
The terrifying speed of improvement left all the candidates dumbfounded.
About half an hour later.
Under the astonished gazes of everyone, Lin Ze's score finally broke through the 800 mark.
His ranking also surpassed Li Pengyun, placing him fourth.
1st Place: Tan Yong, 893 points
2nd place: Guo Xinyi, 885 points
3rd place: Lü Gang, 864 points
4th place: Lin Ze, 828 points
5th place: Li Pengyun, 815 points
At this point, Lin Ze finally caught up with the group of people with the highest scores.
He even surpassed one of them.
He was less than 70 points behind Tan Yong, who ranked first.
At this point, there were still about two hours left before the end of the assessment.