Chapter 83 - Blade Shattering Python
The remaining Illusion Cats were intimidated by him. When they saw the torn limbs of their comrades, they became afraid and did not dare to move forward.
Meng Chao took that opportunity to retreat and bring out the emergency health kit to treat his wounds.
He first used the medical hemostatic gel, then applied an anesthetic and cold spray to curb the pain. While his wounds were numb, he used an emergency suturing tool shaped like a stapler to calmly press down on his wounds.
Thud, thud.
With two thuds, his wound was sutured in a simple fashion.
He then ate two high-calorie nutritional fluids and one strong painkiller, and some color returned to his face. His expression remained as calm as ever, as if what he just sutured was not his own limb.
The three top students of the key high schools in the district might have seen many things and had fought in life-and-death situations in virtual battlefields, but they had never met someone so ruthless. They could not help but gasp in surprise.
This guy did not get the highest-grade emergency health kit because he was afraid of death…
It was because he planned to use his body as bait and increase his killing efficiency to the max by trading off injuries for kills!
“This is seriously…” Their expressions were complicated, and they had nothing to say about it.
When it came to martial arts and shooting skills, they were confident that they were above Meng Chao.
But when it came to ruthlessness, they just could not catch up to him!
Meng Chao did not care about the feelings of the protected babies. He rested for a while, and when he saw the Illusion Cats surrounding them again, he grinned and went forward with a swing of his saber!
“You… You still want to fight?” The three elites felt their hearts tremble in fear.
“My stamina isn’t completely drained yet, and the blood I lost hasn’t reached the point where I’ll lose my mobility, so why shouldn’t I continue killing?”
While Meng Chao swung his saber, he said, “With the current medical technology, even if your flesh or tendons are torn or your bones are broken, as long as your nerves, lungs, and brain are fine, you can be healed.
“Since that’s the case, in a mission where our goal is to kill a large number of monsters, it’d be a waste not to squeeze out every bit of energy from our bodies.”
As he spoke, the wound he had just stapled on his arm was torn again because of how vigorously he was swinging his saber.
Meng Chao did not even bat an eyelid at it. He turned around and made a beautiful arc as he swung his saber down.
Thud!
An Illusion Cat’s stomach was torn open.
Hot monster blood sprayed over Meng Chao’s body. It turned into balls of red fog that surrounded him until he looked like a demonic killing machine. The three elites were terrified when they saw him.
“Aren’t… you afraid of death?” First High School’s Fang Da could not help but ask.
“Of course I am. It’s precisely because I’m scared that I’m doing this,” Meng Chao said. “Do you think that your body is the most important thing when you’re on the battlefield in the depths of the fog? No. I’m telling you, there’s something else that’s even important—Time!
“There are dangers lurking everywhere in the fog. You will be plagued by uneasiness even when you sleep, and anything can happen.
“That’s why, no matter what sort of mission you carry out, it’s best to finish it in the shortest amount of time, even if you have to pay a huge price for it.
“For example, if our mission today was to hunt down one hundred monsters in the depths of the fog, I would fight until I finish all of my bullets and food, am covered in wounds, and have almost every drop of my blood drained from me, since if I manage to finish my mission perfectly and return to the base one the day itself, I will enjoy the best treatment and can sleep at ease that night. A few days later, I will be jumping around energetically, and there will be nothing wrong with me.
“You treasure your equipment and bodies, so you’re careful when you hunt. You’re not willing to have even a single wound, so you drag out the fights to two or even three days, even when it’s a mission that you can complete in one day.
“Let me ask you, because of those two extra days, won’t it be necessary for you to bring extra food and ammunition with you? You’ll be taking up valuable transportation capacity, and you’ll also be wasting your stamina.
“In that time, won’t it be possible for new and stronger monsters to show up to attack you? Won’t it be possible that something will change in the environment in the depths of the fog? What if a space-time torrent appears and transports you to a place further away from Dragon City?
“The more you fear death, the more likely you will be to die. The more desperately you fight, the more likely you’ll be able to find life in the midst of death. This is the absolute truth on Earth and the battlefields in the Other World!”
While speaking, Meng Chao didn’t dodge in the slightest, and an Illusion Cat clawed at his chest.
He drove his Lightning Saber into the Illusion Cat’s mouth and pierced its neck and lungs. The bloody saber tip came out of its butt.
This brutal scene left behind an unforgettable mark in the three elites’ brains.
It also turned into various streams of data when the dozens of unmanned aerial vehicles videotaped it. There was a long silence in the monitor center.
“Check the boy’s family. Does he have an elite from the military in his family?” a colonel with a celestial dragon insignia on his shoulder asked.
“His father was once an ace sniper in the military.” The information was immediately sent to them.
“Just an ace sniper?” The colonel thought about it. “Bah, whatever. The military school is definitely taking this talent with us!”
“Colonel Ceng, aren’t you being too eager? You’re grabbing all the good talents to the military school when you see them. You’re not even asking whether they’re willing to come with you,” another slightly plump high school teacher said.
“I think that with Meng Chao’s temperament, he’s very suited for Dragon City University’s martial arts course. His fighting skills can be slowly trained, but temperament is something you’re born with. He’s a good piece of jade. It’ll be a waste if he plays around with guns and cannons instead of practicing martial arts.”
“You—” Colonel Ceng glared at him.
“Both of you, calm down. Don’t fight over him anymore,” a female teacher with snake earrings on her ears said with a smile. “Meng Chao is very familiar with the structure of monsters. I’ve looked at his information and found that his father is a harvester as well. He’s definitely someone suited for Monster University. Why are you trying to snatch him from us?”
At that moment, a few recruiters and powerful fighters in the military stood up.
The atmosphere was even more aggressive compared to when they fought for Luo Hai, Fang Da, and Xie Feng.
As they spoke, Meng Chao killed more than one hundred Illusion Cats as if he was cutting vegetables.
This result was enough for him to get into the top three hundred in the city.
Once Luo Hai, Fang Da, and Xie Feng recovered their strength, they began killing as well.
But the Illusion Cats were terrified by Meng Chao’s demonic strategy and became unwilling to fight against humans. Instead, they started running around like the Rapid Biting Rats.
The trio grumbled. ‘Just our luck to stand together with a monster like Meng Chao.’
They had forgotten that just two hours ago, they were also monsters to quite a number of examinees, so no one was willing to be together with them.
However, the trio did not completely give up on hope.
Based on the tests in the past, the practical tests always released three waves of monsters.
The first wave consisted of Rapid Biting Rats. They were tiny monsters that came in large droves but did not have a lot of offensive power.
The second wave had Illusion Cats, which were elite monsters. They were incredibly fast and had a certain degree of fighting power.
The third wave had the true boss. The points it gave were the highest, but it was also the most dangerous.
There were still two hours before the practical test ended. Judging by the time, they were about to release the boss soon.
Just as they expected, beeping sounds rose, and their communicators trembled at the same time.
They raised their wrists to look, and the expressions of the three elites changed.
“Blade Shattering Python? Why is the national college examination this year so insane?!”
Meng Chao whistled.
Blade Shattering Pythons were right below superbeasts and were the kings of snake-type monsters.
They were more than ten meters long and as wide as a bucket. Their muscles and tendons were strong, and their scales were tough. Their bite strength and binding strength were incredibly terrifying.
What was the most dangerous about them was that when they were angry, they could straighten up their scales. They became like numerous fine blades, which would increase the damage to the target being constricted by the python.
Even if the examinees had the protection from the gel fighting suits, if they got entangled with a Blade Shattering Python for a few minutes, their tendons would be torn, their bones broken, and they would be reduced to a bloody mess.
The students knew that the difficulty of the national college examination increased with every year, but they did not expect that it would be so difficult.
Of course, there was something good about the Blade Shattering Pythons as well. Just like the Illusion Cats, if there was enough food in the area, they would not be willing to take the initiative to provoke fully-equipped humans.
In other words, if the examinees were afraid, they just had to stay quiet and not move, and they would not have to worry about any danger to their lives.
But if they wanted to get into a famous university, they had to take the initiative to provoke the Blade Shattering Pythons while wondering whether they would end up as one of those who would fulfill the quota of the crippled and dead list.
Luo Hai, Fang Da, and Xie Feng’s expressions were grave.
However, when they thought about how Meng Chao was covered in wounds and did not even have a single piece of gel fighting suit on him anymore, a strange thought rose in their hearts. They could not stop it from appearing even if they tried.
Fang Da smiled and said, “Alright, Meng Chao, thanks for providing us with guidance just now. You helped us gain a lot of practical experience. But I want to know just how you will fight against the Blade Shattering Pythons in your condition.”
Meng Chao shrugged. “I won’t fight. I’ll look for a place to hide. Anyway, I already have enough points. Even if I can’t get into the ace courses of the famous universities, I won’t have any problem getting into the normal courses. Why should I continue fighting?”
“What?!”
The three elites were dumbfounded. Didn’t this ruthless guy’s fighting style change a little too quickly?!
“Heh. I was just joking. How could it be possible that I won’t fight?” Meng Chao said with a grin. “But with my current condition, it’s impossible for me to fight head-on. I have no other choice. I can only follow behind you and see whether I get a chance to steal a kill.”
“You want to snatch our kills?” The expressions of the three elites changed.
The practical test did not allow the examinees to snatch other examinees’ prey. The penalty for internal conflict was even worse than the one for cheating. If they were discovered, they would be chased out of the test area. In fact, they would even be denied taking the national college examination for three years.
But if an examinee was not strong enough and turned to run away, other people were allowed to butt into the fight.
The standard was thirty seconds.
When an examinee launched the first attack on a monster, it meant that they targeted that monster, and the other examinees could not touch it.
But if the examinee could not launch a second attack within thirty seconds after the first attack, it would be seen as them having left the battlefield, and the other examinees could turn the monster into their prey.
There was one more situation in which others could join the fight. If an examinee was being attacked by a monster and their life was in danger, all the examinees who saw it had to immediately save them, and it would not be considered as snatching a kill.
Of course, they had to determine whether an examinee was in danger on their own. but the invigilators would judge it based on the situation of the battle, the injuries on the monster, and the examinees’ physiological parameters. Then, they would enter the results into the communicators of the examinees nearby so that no one would forget to help each other even if they were engaged in a fierce battle. This would allow them to remember the principle of fighting together.
Luo Hai and the other two had sized up the fighting power of the bosses in the past and were confident that no one would be able to snatch their kills.
But the bosses this year were Blade Shattering Pythons, so their carefully formed plans were completely shattered.
“Are you certain that you’ll be able to snatch our kills?” Second High School’s Xie Feng gritted his teeth.
“If I can’t, then it’s fine. I’m going to rest and eat some MRE. I’ll be catching my breath and observing the fight. In any case, I’m ranked at the top, so I have plenty of time to waste.”
Meng Chao grinned at them. “If I can snatch a kill, I will. If things don’t work out, I’ll fight to the end. But even if I don’t manage to win, I’ve already secured my spot in a university, so why should I be anxious?
“As for you, you still don’t have enough points to get into the ace courses of the famous universities. You have to fight against the Blade Shattering Pythons.
“But I don’t have to steal your kills the moment you attack. Once you kill one or two Blade Shattering Pythons, you might not have any strength remaining to kill the third. That’ll be my best chance, don’t you think?”
The three elites’ faces became incredibly sour.
They noticed that Meng Chao was a chess player with great skills, and he included all of them in his strategy.
Damn it! They were the children of aristocratic families, the elites of famous schools!
But in the eyes of this person from a key high school in the region, they were… just weapons that he could use as he wished!