Chapter 65: Nightmare Start, Lin You's Debut!

Seeing that no one else had any further questions, Li Qianye proceeded to explain the rules of the examination.

"Upon entering the dungeon's starting area, each of you will be provided with an exclusive spiritual crystal bracelet."

"Every hour, the bracelet will update in real-time with the current points leaderboard for everyone inside the dungeon, and it will highlight the locations of the candidates currently ranked in the top ten."

Hearing this, the expressions of most people shifted instantly.

As expected, Li Qianye's next sentence made everyone realize that this fifth round was nothing short of a life-or-death slaughter game!

"Aside from slaying monsters to earn points, defeating other candidates will also grant you points!"

"The bracelets issued to you serve as a survival lifeline. If you encounter monsters in the dungeon that you cannot defeat, or if you find yourself facing a mortal crisis, simply press the red button on the side of the bracelet, and you will be teleported out of the dungeon."

"At the same time, this will signify your failure in this round of the test, and your points will be reset to zero."

"However, considering the complexity and unpredictability of abyss dungeons, as well as the casualties from previous years, all candidates are required to sign a life-and-death waiver."

"Any deaths or major injuries sustained during the test are entirely your own choices and have nothing to do with the examination committee!"

Just as Li Qianye finished speaking, batches of invigilators wearing uniforms and carrying relevant credentials walked into the arena.

They handed a life-and-death contract to every single candidate present.

This procedure made all the candidates grow tense.

It meant that this fifth round of testing they were participating in was completely for real!

Unlike the previous rounds, there was a genuine possibility of death here!

However, after Lin Yi finished signing his name on the life-and-death contract, he noticed that out of the more than three hundred candidates in the exam hall, not a single one chose to forfeit at this stage.

That was only to be expected.

Presumably, their families and the personnel who escorted them here had already warned them to varying degrees about the dangers of the fifth round.

If they had truly intended to give up, they wouldn't have bothered coming to the Imperial Capital in the first place.

Once Chief Examiner Li Qianye confirmed that all the life-and-death contracts had been submitted and taken effect, he announced in a ringing voice: "Time is up!"

"All candidates, please enter the test dungeon!"

The moment his voice fell, a spatial rift tore open right in the center of the circular underground space.

The heavy and dangerous aura of the abyss gushed forth.

The dungeon's light barrier flickered with a hazardous, purplish-red malevolent glow, creating a terrifying momentum.

A few minutes later, every single candidate participating in the fifth round within the underground waiting area had entered the dungeon.

The personnel responsible for escorting the candidates were all invited into a grand auditorium to observe the specific conditions of all candidates inside the dungeon.

***

Meanwhile, after arranging for all candidates to enter the dungeon, Chief Examiner Li Qianye took the elevator all the way up. After reporting the situation to the true core leadership of Great Xia's higher echelons, he returned to his office, pressed the projection screen, and began watching the events unfolding inside the dungeon.

This was part of his duties, and according to instructions from the higher-ups, he was required to broadcast the live feed of the fifth round of testing inside the dungeon.

"Boss, take a break."

"According to past practice, right after entering, basically no battles are going to break out."

"Things won't enter a white-hot stage until half a day has passed," one of Li Qianye's subordinates advised.

They had gone to immense and painstaking lengths for this fifth round of tests.

Li Qianye himself, in particular, hadn't closed his eyes in days.

Yet Li Qianye shook his head. "At this stage, most people should indeed be familiarizing themselves with the dungeon environment and gathering intel on monsters."

"And following past conventions, there will always be those who choose not to kill any monsters at all, simply waiting until the final few hours of the dungeon's time limit to prey on the people at the top of the leaderboard and plunder their points."

"But don't forget."

"Every single year, a few special unlucky souls appear."

Prompted by Li Qianye's words, several quick-witted individuals instantly realized what he meant.

"Boss, you mean those cases where someone gets teleported right next to an extremely powerful monster from the moment they enter, leaving them no room to hide and forcing them into battle?"

Li Qianye nodded.

"Oh! Boss! It looks like your prediction hit the mark. It seems there really is an unlucky bastard who spawned right next to the lair of the snow mountain region boss, the Golden-Winged Roc!"

The spiritual crystal bracelets worn by all candidates not only provided information to those inside the dungeon, but they also functioned as integrated communication devices.

They were capable of transmitting the real-time area coordinates of the wearers within the dungeon and live-broadcasting the scenes occurring around them.

The invigilator responsible for collecting the regional coordinates of the more than three hundred candidates inside the dungeon suddenly let out a startled cry, instantly snapping Li Qianye to full alertness!

It had begun!

This kind of situation didn't happen every single year, but whenever it did, it usually signified extremely heavy casualties!

Straining to keep his focus, Li Qianye hurriedly commanded, "Immediately lock onto that candidate and project their live feed."

"Call the Special Operations Rescue Team inside the dungeon to head to the snow mountain region for a rescue operation as a secondary contingency!"

Although Li Qianye had laid out the immense difficulty of this abyss dungeon when explaining the rules and made everyone sign life-and-death waivers, they couldn't simply sit back and watch people die.

When such a crisis arose, relevant rescue procedures naturally had to be initiated just in case.

The next moment, the projected screen flickered to life.

***

Li Qianye's eyes narrowed.

"It's him?"

On the large screen, the person who had been spawned atop the mountain peak and instantly hit with a bone-chilling freeze was none other than Lin Yi.

Li Qianye hadn't forgotten that when they first appeared, the very person who saw right through his disguise was this kid on the big screen.

In the projection, Lin Yi clearly hadn't expected to be teleported straight to this ghost of a place the moment he entered the dungeon.

The area he currently occupied was the northern alpine region of the entire Noah Ruins.

The entire Noah Ruins could be divided into five major regions:

The frigid alpine region to the north,
The desert region to the west,
The swamp region to the south,
The hilly region to the east,
And the central Noah wreckage region.

If one were to talk about which region had the most extreme weather, none surpassed the desert and the alpine regions.

Anyone who spawned in these two zones was undeniably unlucky.

As for someone like Lin Yi, who spawned directly near the lair of a King-tier BOSS, that made him an elite fighter among the unlucky.

"Screeeeech—!!!!!!"

Seeming to sense the presence of a living human, an extraordinarily loud and piercing cry rang out the next moment.

The sound wave was so immense that Lin Yi actually had to cover his ears.

Following that, violent winds whipped up the swirling snow across the cliffside.

Right before Lin Yi's eyes, a terrifying golden-feathered eagle with a wingspan exceeding ten meters and talons sharp enough to crush boulders beat its wings.

It soared out from the colossal nest at the peak of the mountain.

Its cruel, sharp eagle eyes stared fixedly at Lin Yi, as if it would dive down in the next second to tear him to shreds!

On the other side, Lin Yi within the projection appeared relatively composed.

A ripple of spatial distortion manifested beside him.

The next moment, a slender figure clad entirely in pitch-black knight's battle armor emerged.

Lin You had been summoned by Lin Yi.

Catching sight of the monstrous, intimidating golden eagle soaring in the sky, Lin You's gaze was as calm as still water. She drew her Soul's Elegy, stood firmly before Lin Yi, and radiated an overwhelming fighting spirit!