"Out of the way!"
Bang!
Everyone scrambled aside.
Charging forward with the corpse held like a shield, He Zheng slammed it into the chain. Sulfuric acid compressed inside the abdomen burst outward.
"Aaaah! Aaaah!"
He screamed as acid mixed with corpse fluid sprayed across his face.
The corrosion left him looking like a fiend dragged from hell, almost without an intact patch of flesh on his body.
"Hit it! Hit it now!"
Ignoring his injuries, He Zheng bellowed through a twisted face.
Hiss...
White vapor rose as the chain corroded.
Knowing they would die if it held, Zhang Tie didn't even wait to remove the corpse hanging from it. He raised the fire axe and smashed down with all his strength.
"Fucking break!"
Bang!
Acid and pulped flesh flew. With a clatter, the smoking chain fell from the door.
"Push!"
There was no time to celebrate. At Ye Lin's urgent command, they threw themselves against the door and pushed for their lives.
Gears rumbled. The immense door, previously immovable, slowly opened onto deep darkness.
Another mechanism triggered. The moment the gap reached half a person's width, a powerful suction erupted behind them.
What the...?
He Zheng, at the rear, instinctively looked back. What he saw filled him with terror.
Under that violent suction, the heated acid across the floor shot away like seawater being sucked backward.
The pull was so strong it dragged Lin Ya off her feet. Screaming, she clung to the door.
"Zhang Tie! Get everyone inside!"
Ye Lin shouted after darting through.
The sudden change caught them off guard. Fortunately, although stunned himself, Zhang Tie instinctively obeyed.
"Grab my hands!"
One in each hand, he hauled them like sandbags. Veins bulged on his forehead as he dragged everyone through before the suction strengthened again. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Boom!
The door slammed shut. They collapsed against it, gasping.
As the adrenaline faded, their acid burns hurt so badly they shook. But they'd survived. They looked at one another, half laughing and half crying.
"We're alive... We really made it...!"
"Thank heaven! Thank heaven!"
Watching Hu Jia and the others babble in terror, Zhang Tie nudged them with his shoulder, indicating that the one they should thank was Ye Lin.
They thanked him over and over. Ye Lin merely waved a hand, his eyes fixed on his watch.
Leaning against the icy door, He Zheng swallowed. After a long moment, he looked at Ye Lin with a complicated expression and spoke hoarsely.
"Ye Lin. Thanks..."
He offered no elaborate gratitude. The ten minutes weren't up yet, and the system hadn't announced that they'd passed the first round.
But given what they'd just seen, Ye Lin's judgment had undoubtedly saved his life.
Recalling that terrifying suction, He Zheng felt a lingering chill.
If they'd stayed upstairs, the acid surging back would have dissolved them instantly. They would've died even worse deaths than Huang Bin.
"It's nothing. I was saving myself, too. Next..."
Before Ye Lin finished, the countdown on his watch reached its final second. Several icy system announcements sounded.
"Examinee He Zheng, ID D66311, has passed. Base points: +20. Contribution: 20 percent. Bonus points: +4."
"Examinee Zhang Tie, ID E14872, has passed. Base points: +20. Contribution: 10 percent. Bonus points: +2."
"Examinee An Ke, ID E12911, has passed... Base points: +20..."
...
"Examinee Ye Lin, ID E99067, has passed. Base points: +20. Contribution: 70 percent. Bonus points: +14."
...
The announcements ended.
With confirmation that they'd passed the first round, everyone finally relaxed completely and exchanged excited looks.
Hu Jia and the others only envied Ye Lin's fourteen extra points. He Zheng, however, sprang to his feet in disbelief.
"Fourteen bonus points?"
"How the hell did you get that many?"
Unlike Hu Jia and the others, he knew exactly what those points meant. He knew how hard they were to earn.
"Is that a lot?"
Ye Lin looked over. Envy was practically spilling from He Zheng's eyes.
Against the twelve hundred points needed to leave, fourteen was a drop in the bucket. And that didn't even account for the points they would have to spend getting stronger.
"A lot? You're fucking rich!"
"Thirty-four points in the first round. You're going to take off when you get out of here!"
He Zheng sighed. There was a touch of jealousy, but he soon thought of a reason.
"Probably because it's your first exam. You get the newcomer treatment, and your contribution was highest. Not many people died, either."
"If a few more had died, you definitely wouldn't have gotten that much. They might even have deducted points."
The requirements for bonuses were brutally strict. The first exam was the easiest, but newcomers were rarely much use.
He'd never seen anyone like Ye Lin.
He himself might have done most of the heavy lifting, but this kid had been the one to save them.
"What abilities can I buy with those fourteen extra points? Judging by the base points, twenty should be the minimum for each round, right?"
He Zheng answered his puzzled look irritably.
"Buddy, that's not how it works."
"Fourteen might not sound like much, but those are bonus points! Normally, we're blessed if we get sixty in a whole exam!"
"After paying the sixty-point base fee when we turn in our papers, we've only got three or four left. If you make it out alive, you'll have earned as much in one exam as we do in five or six. Maybe even ten!"
He couldn't hide his envy.
"As for abilities? Plenty! If you can think of it, the system can sell it to you!"
"Didn't I tell you? One point buys a million! But that's if you exchange one point at a time. If you're willing to buy something like an anonymous black card, your fourteen points could get you a hundred million! Of course, only an idiot would do that. You're still a little short on abilities, but with a few more points, you could get the lowest level of Telekinesis."
A hundred million? Telekinesis?
Hu Jia didn't understand what the second one could do, but he still gasped. A hundred million. He'd never seen that much money in his life.
He Zheng sneered at their shock. Apparently, these useless shits still hadn't realized how worthless money was here.
"A hundred million isn't..."
"Round Two is beginning. All examinees, prepare yourselves!"
The cold mechanical voice cut him off.
Like a death god urging them onward, the system seemed unwilling to grant them a moment's respite.
Their faces stiffened. Every trace of joy vanished.
As another countdown appeared on their watches, it felt like storm clouds pressing down on their chests, leaving them unable to breathe.
What would the question be this time?