While the few of them were busy, seven or eight classmates suddenly emerged from the street opposite.
“Jiang Xueyao!”
“It’s Yang Xiaobing and the others!”
The students’ eyes lit up, and they all ran over to them.
“Those are guns!”
“Finders get a share!”
“Give us some!”
They were still talking when the police officer blocked them.
“Who are you people? Don’t interfere with me carrying out my duties. Disperse at once!”
the officer shouted in a low voice.
Someone said indignantly, “They got guns, so why can’t—”
“They helped me kill two monsters. Who are you? What have you done?” the officer said disdainfully.
Only then did everyone react.
That was right.
This was an exam!
If they had done nothing and still wanted to gain armed support, to reach the heavens in a single step—how could that be possible?
The teachers must have arranged everything already!
Then they looked at the police officer again.
His hand was already resting on his gun.
If they kept making trouble, things probably wouldn’t remain so simple.
In an incident where demons were slaughtering the city, if they couldn’t help and only caused trouble instead...
They might not even be able to reach a passing score.
“It was our fault.”
“Sorry.”
The students apologized awkwardly, retreated a few steps, and disappeared into the darkness, continuing off in another direction.
Xu Yuan finished equipping himself and smiled at the officer.
“I’m Xu Yuan. May I ask how I should address you?”
“Liu Shanxing,” the officer said.
“Officer Liu, is there anything else we can help with?” Xu Yuan asked.
Yang Xiaobing, Jiang Xueyao, and Zhao Afei had all been getting ready to leave, but when they heard him say this, they could not help being stunned.
Xu Yuan shook his head at them, signaling for them to stay calm.
—They were still students, after all. Naturally, they didn’t know that at a time like this, you had to farm a character’s “favorability” while also probing for information.
If you passed by, you couldn’t miss the opportunity.
Veterans, in order to thoroughly explore the plot, were capable of doing anything.
Applied to this moment in particular—
His actions looked as though he were earnestly offering help to maintain public order in the city. It was not abrupt at all.
Even from the perspective of the exam, it made perfect sense.
Officer Liu said in surprise,
“Don’t you have other matters to attend to?”
“Thank you very much for providing us with equipment and weapons. Our own matter isn’t all that important. If you need support here, we won’t shirk our duty,” Xu Yuan said.
A trace of a smile appeared on Officer Liu’s face.
“With your extraordinary strength, you can indeed be of help to me.”
“Please tell us,” Xu Yuan said.
“Patrol Chaoyang Road for me—I need to go back and arrange for people to come handle matters here. How about it?”
Officer Liu asked.
“No problem!” Xu Yuan agreed readily.
Officer Liu nodded, tore off his police badge, then took a police walkie-talkie from the car and handed both to Xu Yuan.
“The badge and walkie-talkie are enough to prove that you’re assisting me. Go!”
“We guarantee the mission will be completed,” Xu Yuan said, taking the badge and walkie-talkie.
He looked back.
Zhao Afei’s face was full of excitement, Yang Xiaobing’s eyes were shining brightly, and even Jiang Xueyao nodded at him.
They had obtained the status of assisting in a case!
—Whatever they did next would be much more convenient!
Xu Yuan also had some understanding now of the basic “competition logic.”
Contribute to this city.
The city would repay you, helping you go farther in the exam.
For example—
The four of them had saved Officer Liu just now.
Now they had obtained the status of “assisting in an investigation,” and could help enforce the law during public security incidents.
The exam itself was testing the students’ ability and contributions within the incident.
This would absolutely add points!
“So they’re assessing students’ ability and character from the angle of contribution...”
Xu Yuan thought silently.
Then he saw Yang Xiaobing run toward a bus stop in the distance to check the city map on the stop sign.
Officer Liu had also already set off and left.
Xu Yuan was just about to go over and look at the map with Yang Xiaobing when he suddenly sensed something and raised his head.
It wasn’t just him.
Jiang Xueyao, Yang Xiaobing, and Zhao Afei all raised their heads at the same time and looked toward the sky.
Deep in the night sky.
Within the layers upon layers of leaden clouds—
Something was moving.
What exactly was it?
Yang Xiaobing drew a talisman from her sleeve, pointed it at the sky, and shouted softly,
“By decree! Seize Form and Calculate Shadow!”
The talisman instantly turned into a sheet of white paper. A line of flickering numbers flashed wildly across the paper before finally stopping at “3100.”
3100 points!
“The stock market’s been falling pretty hard lately,” Xu Yuan remarked.
“This is the intensity of the power fluctuations on the enemy’s body—generally speaking, this number surpasses peak Foundation Establishment. It’s already an existence above the Golden Core realm,” Yang Xiaobing explained.
Above Golden Core!
The Director of Education had said that the divine artifact was still unstable, and that only Foundation Establishment teachers and Qi Refining students could enter.
Then—
As Xu Yuan was pondering, he suddenly saw all the clouds in the sky scatter.
A black flood dragon, several hundred meters long, appeared before everyone’s eyes.
“A flood dragon... ah...”
Everyone spoke in unison, drawing out that “ah” for a long, incredulous stretch, as if as long as they did not finish saying it, all of this would remain only a dream, not reality.
That was a flood dragon!
This was the sort of abnormal demonic beast whose combat strength simply could not be measured by numbers.
It was born with all sorts of divine abilities, and its body was as formidable as a magical treasure.
A Golden Core flood dragon required cultivators of an even higher level to fight it.
And even then, victory was not guaranteed!
At this moment.
All the students taking part in the exam fell into a daze.
A flood dragon!
How was that possible—
How could a flood dragon appear in this high school exam!
“Let’s go. The exam has officially begun.”
Xu Yuan said.
“Wait, where are we going?” Zhao Afei held onto the bus stop sign with both hands, feeling his legs go weak, unable to move even a single step.
—That flood dragon was still coiling in the sky, and no one knew what it was going to do.
What was it going to do?
Right.
In a little while, this city was going to be destroyed!
This flood dragon was going to annihilate the city!
The more Zhao Afei thought about it, the more terrified he became. Suddenly, a loud bang sounded beside his ear, startling him so badly that he jolted.
He turned to look.
Xu Yuan had already flipped the overturned police car back upright.
Xu Yuan got into the driver’s seat, fastened his seat belt, then turned the key—
The car started!
“Everyone get in. We’re starting our escape now.”
Xu Yuan shouted.
Everyone’s hearts stirred.
That was right.
Asking high school students to deal with a flood dragon was definitely a fantasy.
So this should be a survival-type exam!
—Escape!
As long as they survived, they should have met the exam’s requirements!
Jiang Xueyao leaped lightly onto the roof of the car and said,
“I’ll keep watch from above.”
“Good—you two sit in the back,” Xu Yuan shouted.
Yang Xiaobing and Zhao Afei got into the back seat.
Zhao Afei pressed a hand against a pouch at his waist, craned his neck, and continued staring at the flood dragon in the sky.
“During the last monthly exam, we repelled the rat demons harassing the farmland.”
“This time it’s become a flood dragon...”
he murmured in a daze.
The car started quickly and sped down the road like the wind.
Along the way, more and more monsters began appearing around residential areas, supermarkets, parks, and other places.
They could also see figures of some students.
Yang Xiaobing poked Xu Yuan with her hand.
Xu Yuan looked back.
Zhao Afei’s head was covered in beads of sweat, and he seemed so nervous that he was close to losing control.
“Afei, you’re in charge of observing the surroundings. Tell me what’s going on.”
Xu Yuan shouted loudly.
“Ah—okay—”
Zhao Afei jumped up, hitting his head against the car roof without even seeming to feel the pain. He directly opened the window and looked around in every direction.
“Liu Hao from Class Three and his group are hiding in a supermarket.”
“Students from two teams are setting up defenses on the street!”
“We’ve entered Chaoyang Road—wait! That’s Zhang Yang from our class. Their team is fighting a wolf demon—Xiaobing, can you check the wolf demon’s combat strength?”
Zhao Afei continuously reported the situation, seeming to gradually recover.
“A wolf demon?”
Yang Xiaobing raised a talisman and was just about to activate the power on it.
But Xu Yuan shouted,
“Hold on tight!”
The car suddenly drifted.
The tires scraped against the ground, producing a sharp, ear-piercing sound.
Yang Xiaobing grabbed the handhold.
Zhao Afei cried out in alarm, pressing both hands tightly against the car window.
On the roof, Jiang Xueyao rapidly shifted her steps and asked in surprise,
“What are you doing?”
But Xu Yuan had already grabbed a handgun from the passenger seat, extended it out the window, and at the instant the car sharply turned and drifted—
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
Several hundred meters away.
The wolf demon in the middle of pouncing stiffened all over, staggered a few steps sideways, and collapsed to the ground without moving.
The bullet had shot through its eye socket and pierced the back of its skull.
It was dead.
Illusory gold coins rose from the corpse.
The total number of gold coins had reached 33!
“Wolf demon killed during patrol on Chaoyang Road. Over.”
Xu Yuan picked up the walkie-talkie and said this, then stomped on the accelerator. The car roared as it sped away from the battlefield.
Zhao Afei was stunned. He could not help shouting,
“When did you learn firearms?”
“I found some time to learn,” Xu Yuan said.
“No—I mean, we’re together every day, but I’ve never seen you play with guns!” Zhao Afei said.
“That’s because you’re not hardworking enough. You must never have seen Los Angeles at four in the morning.”
“What’s that? Forget it, never mind. When we get back, I’m learning too!”
Zhao Afei shouted loudly.
On the car roof.
Jiang Xueyao’s eyes lit up.
“3 to 0. Looks like I’ll have to get serious too.”
she thought silently.
Yang Xiaobing, however, had already withdrawn her gaze. She drew a talisman from her pocket, quickly folded it into a paper crane, flicked it out the window, and whispered,
“Go scout the road ahead.”
The paper crane flapped its wings a few times in midair, then suddenly transformed into a white crane, flying ahead of the car and constantly observing the situation around them.