In this stage, luck, strength, and teamwork were all vital.
Pei Wu had spent years navigating life-and-death situations, so the first two stages were a piece of cake for him.
Shi Xu had progressed through them with ease.
However, for the final stage, he was entirely on his own.
In the original book, Pei Wu used his formidable strength to make up for his lack of luck.
From beginning to end, he only found a single dog tag, guarding it fiercely from start to finish.
Despite numerous attempts to snatch it, no one managed to take it from his hands.
Now, everyone entered through four separate gates into this training ground dominated by a ruined city.
Thousands of people surged in together, making for a truly spectacular scene.
Viewed from high above, they resembled a vast, swarming colony of ants.
Upon entering, the ants scattered in all directions, searching with intense focus.
Since it was just the beginning, everyone tacitly avoided conflict, choosing to conserve their stamina.
Grouping up was also the choice of the majority.
Under this selection rule, numbers brought a distinct advantage.
It was not hard to discern the higher-ups’ intent: cooperation was encouraged, and the seizing of tags was encouraged.
Cameras hovered all over the venue, faithfully recording the contestants’ performances.
Inside the monitoring room, the person in charge and the instructors watched silently.
“This is sheer nonsense,” someone spoke up. “Why did this young master show up here?”
“A member of the Mu family.”
“All fingers and thumbs,” the person remarked. “The people protecting him must have been sent by the Mu family too, right?”
“Not people from the Mu family, but fellow students participating in the selection. Who knows how this young master rounded them up, but he’s got a bit of skill.”
The other person scoffed dismissively, “Money, beauty, and power. Typical.”
“Old Zhou, we all know you can’t stand the sight of injustice. But you know how the Mu family is. With that person around, even if this young master is just here to play around, if he wanted to become an instructor, we’d only have room to step aside.”
That logic was sound enough.
“Anyway, he’s just playing around, can leave whenever he wants, and won’t take up a spot meant for ordinary people.”
He wouldn’t take up anyone else’s spot.
Zhou Heng sighed and said nothing more.
“This little fellow has quite a bit of nerve.”
Chatting and laughing among themselves, the group quickly changed the subject.
Zhou Heng stood rigidly straight, his expression neutral, but no one could know what thoughts churned within him.
Time quietly slipped away.
People were finding tags in various locations, and small-scale skirmishes even broke out here and there.
Everyone entered this training ground empty-handed, so whether one could snatch a tag depended entirely on their own abilities.
Shi Xu had decent luck; shortly after the start, he discovered a tag before anyone else spotted it.
He tucked the tag into his pocket and turned to head upstairs.
[Host, are we just going to play it safe and lay low?]
The system volunteered eagerly, [I can help you monitor their movement trajectories and constantly remind the host if anyone approaches.]
That actually sounded like a good idea.
With the system’s help, he could avoid everyone and safely coast through until the end of the selection without a scratch.
The system’s rationale was easy to guess: as long as he didn’t stand out too much, he wouldn’t draw anyone’s covetous eyes.
This would nip the possibility of catching Mu Yuanshan’s eye in the bud, preventing him from being turned into an omega.
As long as he wasn’t turned into an omega, the task would become much simpler.
Shi Xu smiled.
That idea sounded great, but he had no intention of doing that.
Acting so cautiously made it seem as though getting turned into an omega was Pei Wu’s fault for being too outstanding.
What wrong was there in being outstanding?
Pei Wu did nothing wrong.
“Please give me this person’s location, in real-time.”
[Just one person?]
“Mhm.”
[Understood, mission guaranteed!]
Time flew by, and soon only the final hour remained.
Relations among the participants grew exceptionally tense.
An unknown number of large and small skirmishes had broken out.
Although everyone entered empty-handed, equipment could be scavenged.
Iron rods, metal scraps, bricks, glass, and more.
Contestants let their imaginations run wild, resulting in a bizarre array of makeshift weapons.
At this point, Su Wenshan found himself in quite a sorry state.
He and his companion fled in panic, closely pursued by a group hot on their heels.
Su Wenshan shouted loudly, “We don’t have any tags on us! You guys were tricked by that last bunch!”
“Is that so? Then stay right there and let us search you.”
The speaker sounded nonchalant, but Su Wenshan never stopped running.
Anyone who actually believed their words and stayed put would be a fool.
Even without tags, those people would beat them until they were automatically disqualified.
Eliminating one person meant one less competitor. Why wouldn’t they do it?
Su Wenshan cursed silently.
What should he do?
He had already wasted a lot of time, putting endless effort into this chase without managing to shake off the pursuers behind him.
Where had Pei Wu gone?
If Pei Wu were here, he wouldn’t be in such a passive position.
At the very least, he wouldn’t be in this miserable state.
Of the three people who started with him, only one remained; one had gotten separated, and another had withdrawn due to severe injuries.
And the one beside him now:
“Brother Wenshan, what do we do now?”
Running all the way here had drained his color, leaving his voice trembling.
He was merely a beta and couldn’t be of much use.
“What else can we do?” Su Wenshan snapped irritably. “Run until they give up.”
That was the only option left.
“They already have enough tags in their hands; right now they’re just greedy for points.”
Aside from the tags needed to pass, extra tags could be converted into points.
The usefulness of points went without saying; they were the foundation of rankings and a precious currency.
Points weren’t this easy to acquire anywhere else.
Led by Su Wenshan, the two successfully slipped into an unfinished building.
Behind the building lay a commercial district with complex architecture and plenty of other contestants wandering about.
The two panted heavily, slowly recovering their stamina.
Su Wenshan thought to himself.
Continuing to run like this was definitely a dead end; their physical stamina was draining too fast.
As an alpha, Su Wenshan’s legs were currently trembling, let alone the beta beside him.
The beta looked ashen-faced, gasping for breath.
Su Wenshan gripped his weapon tightly, straining his ears. “We can only look for an opportunity to seriously injure one of them.”
The beta’s heart skipped a beat, his voice raspy, “Are we going to kill someone?”
“No,” Su Wenshan shook his head. “If we keep running, they will only think we’re scared and pursue us relentlessly.”
“This environment favors hiding. We could play hide-and-seek for a while.”
“But…”
Out of the two of them, they only had a single tag.
That tag had been found by the beta, who now kept it safely tucked inside his chest pocket.
Su Wenshan didn’t have a tag yet, so naturally, he was anxious. He couldn’t afford to waste time on a wild goose chase like this.
“There’s still the risk of being found,” Su Wenshan averted his gaze, speaking softly. “Instead of constantly hiding, we might as well take a gamble and snatch the tags off them.”
“Snatch… snatch them?” The beta trembled. “But there are so many of them.”
“We won’t fight them head-on. We’ll set a simple trap. We just need to catch one person.”
“But…”
Su Wenshan cut off his indecision. “Don’t you want to become a cadet? Don’t you want to bring your family into the base?”
This fellow had great luck and had undergone natural differentiation. Unfortunately, he was just a beta.
Betas in the base were neither too many nor too few, but they lacked the unique status of alphas and omegas.
Simply because betas were no different from ordinary people.
For this reason, people outside who differentiated into betas could not obtain residency rights within the base.
If he wanted to bring his family into the base, becoming a cadet was his only path.
Su Wenshan understood him thoroughly. Once those words were spoken, the beta stopped trembling and gritted his teeth, “I’ll listen to you. What do we do?”
“Don’t rush. Let’s observe the situation first.”
While the two were talking, the situation outside shifted once more.
Another group was approaching.
The noisy sound of footsteps drew near rapidly, accompanied by a large headcount.
Seeing that the duck that was almost in their mouth had flown away, that group felt unsatisfied, though they didn’t continue tangling.
They left.
Everyone left.
That large group showed no intention of searching the building and quickly vanished.
Both of them let out a simultaneous sigh of relief, collapsing onto the floor.
After a long moment, the beta whispered, “Brother Wenshan, are we still making the trap?”
“Yes,” Su Wenshan replied.
The shorter the time remaining, the fiercer the conflicts among the contestants would become.
Even within teams, problems were arising.
With groups of varying sizes, it meant not everyone could secure a tag.
Individuals had it easy; whatever they found belonged to them.
What about teams, though?
How should captured tags be distributed?
No one wanted to be the one eliminated.
Aside from young master Mu’s team centered around a single individual, every other team had friction of varying degrees.
Friction meant opportunity.
Su Wenshan analyzed, “There are bound to be dissolved teams soon. We should target people who hold tags.”
The beta nodded, “I’ll listen to you, Brother Wenshan.”
“A team over there just started fighting. Do we have a chance now?”
Su Wenshan followed the direction of his finger and saw a pampered young master shielded in the center by several people, surrounded by over a dozen hostile figures.
This wasn’t an internal team issue; it was clearly a clash between two separate groups.
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
Su Wenshan pushed down the beta’s head, which was about to stick out too far, and whispered, “Let’s watch first.”
The two factions below were already at daggers drawn.
The leader demanded, “Hand over the tags, and we’ll let you go.”
Young master Mu was no fool; he knew his remaining three protectors couldn’t safeguard him.
With a quick turn of his mind, an idea struck him. He thrust his hand inside his coat and scattered the tags into the air!
“Go pick them up yourselves!”
Metallic tags flew in all directions, glittering brightly under the sunlight.
Even the composed Su Wenshan lost his breath for a second.
The beta gasped softly, “So many!”
Indeed, so many.
He was lucky to hold onto that many tags; otherwise, he wouldn’t have thought of such a cicada molting escape trick.
Even Su Wenshan found it hard to resist.
This young master Mu actually had a clever streak in him.
He knew those dozen people shared a common goal, which was why they had united to block him.
Now that the tags were scattered, everyone scrambled to grab them, and the formation instantly dissolved into chaos.
No one paid any attention to him anymore.
Taking advantage of the opening in the encirclement, young master Mu fled!
Relying on his small frame, he quickly escaped, running around to the back of the unfinished building.
“Don’t shove!”
“Get lost, that’s mine!”
“Don’t let him get away!”
“He must still have more on him!”
“Catch him.”
The crowd fell into total disarray.
Even more people, drawn by the commotion, arrived to join the scramble.
Su Wenshan held his breath, watching figures dart out from seemingly unoccupied hiding spots around them, tightening his chest.
He knew some people were hiding in certain spots, but others had escaped his notice entirely.
Anyone who could last this long was no fool.
Su Wenshan grabbed the beta, “Let’s go. We’re leaving here, follow that young master.”
“He definitely still has some…”