"Round Two exam type: Completion."
"Exam objective: Find ??, and with the help of ??, evade attacks by Aberrants."
"Hint: People have forgotten where the gods came from, but they remember what They looked like."
"Who, exactly, are They?"
"Warning: Find ?? within two hours, or you will be unable to pass the final examination."
"Points available this round: 40."
...
The question appeared.
In the darkness, everyone breathed heavily. For a short while, nobody spoke.
At last, Hu Jia, the most nervous of them all, couldn't help asking,
"Aren't you... going to say anything?"
"What's with the question marks? Are we supposed to guess what we're looking for?"
He asked tentatively. He Zheng immediately gave him an irritated glance.
"More or less."
"With Completion questions, the system won't tell you exactly what to do. It's not like the last round, where two doors meant the answer had to be one of them. With something like this, we have to guess first, then work out which answer is right."
"My guess..."
He swiped his watch back to the first round's information.
Somewhat uncertainly, He Zheng offered his opinion.
"This round should tie into the background description. Maybe we need to find a 'god'?"
He looked at Ye Lin first, then at the others.
"What do you think?"
After what had happened before, he intended to hear Ye Lin's view first. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
"Brother He, that's what I thought, too. Look at this line: 'People have forgotten where the gods came from, but they remember what They looked like.'"
A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.
Aware that he'd performed poorly and could be abandoned at any time, Hu Jia wanted to prove himself.
"I think it means there are clues here about what the gods look like."
"The challenge might be that 'god' refers to a human, or even one of the monsters. It'll be hard to identify Them. We have to pick Them out correctly from the possible candidates before They can help us get out alive."
"Otherwise, we die if we can't find Them. We die if we find the wrong one, too."
He Zheng frowned.
There was nothing wrong with Hu Jia's reasoning. In fact, that had been his own first reaction to the question.
But it still felt a little too simple.
The others seemed to share that thought. Apart from Lin Ya quietly agreeing, nobody spoke. Faced with their silence, Hu Jia rubbed his nose awkwardly.
"Well, if you think that's wrong, then..."
"We might not need to find a specific god. It could be Their weapon or equipment."
An Ke spoke suddenly, her gaze on the fire axe in He Zheng's hand.
"The key clue in the first round was the fire axe. The second round might be similar."
"When we saw that axe, we should have realized it was there to break the chain. It was the most out-of-place thing in the entire scene."
"By the same logic, if we see anything unusual from here on, we should pay attention. The system doesn't put things here for no reason."
Zhang Tie and the others looked at her in surprise.
The logic was simple. Even the acid that appeared later might have been a hint that they could corrode the chain.
"You've got a point. But why the fuck didn't you say something about the axe earlier?"
He Zheng's question carried a trace of suspicion.
Her reasoning was useful, but he was more concerned about why she'd waited until now to mention it.
He wasn't overreacting. In the Death Gaokao, he'd seen too many bastards keep their ideas to themselves out of selfishness or self-preservation, making things far harder for everyone.
An Ke had barely spoken since arriving, almost as though deliberately making herself inconspicuous. Find the original chapter at g.com.
For some reason, he felt there was something off about her.
Noticing his unfriendly stare, An Ke simply tightened her ponytail and answered calmly.
"Because I wasn't sure. You told us to stay away from Basement Level One from the start, so I didn't know what was down there."
"And even if I had known, I couldn't be sure you were strong enough to break the chain."
"By the time I was sure, Ye Lin had already found the answer. There was no point saying it then."
"What do you mean, no point...!"
Before He Zheng could press her, Ye Lin caught his arm.
"Let her finish."
His eyes swept over An Ke's hands as he spoke quietly.
"You think we're looking for some kind of item this round. Do you have any other reasons?"
An Ke hesitated briefly, then continued.
"Yes."
"There's nothing wrong with Hu Jia's idea. But I don't think the system is likely to put anything like a 'god' in this exam."
"In the usual sense, gods are incredibly powerful. Even if They aren't on a mythological scale, They'd at least have transcendent powers."
"If a god will help us, then It must be an enemy of the Aberrants. In that case, why would It allow Aberrants to remain here instead of wiping them out?"
"Unless the Aberrants are so powerful that even a god can't destroy them all. But if that's true, running into one could wipe us out immediately!"
"We've got two hours to search for clues. I don't think we can avoid encountering an Aberrant even once."
There was no value in a line of reasoning that led to almost certain death.
Hearing his idea challenged, Hu Jia couldn't resist arguing.
"Not necessarily. A god doesn't have to be strong. Maybe It's sealed away and needs us to free It. Or, like in a horror movie, maybe It only protects a particular place. We could survive by hiding there."
"That's possible. But..."