“This is Basic Antidote Pill, six per person; open your transaction function to receive them.”
Seeing that the students’ enthusiasm had been stirred, Principal Chu Jianghe changed the subject and his steady voice carried across the whole place.
After a brief silence, the sports field erupted in suppressed cheers.
Six Basic Antidote Pill! The market price was 500 each, totaling 3000 yuan! That was enough to keep them alive in the Poison Fog Desert for three hours.
If the school had not provided the Basic Antidote Pill, many students had already prepared to pay out of pocket, so this school benefit was like a timely helping hand.
Principal Chu Jianghe smiled as his gaze swept over a row of young, excited faces and he completed each transaction one by one.
The Poison Fog Desert was extraordinarily dangerous, with difficulty nearly reaching city-level league standards, making it a brutal venue for the Newcomer Trial.
He intended to temper the students, not send them to their deaths, so necessities like the Basic Antidote Pill were naturally covered by the school to ease the burden on these children.
At the edge of the crowd, Lu Sheng and He Wanying stood side by side and Principal Chu Jianghe finally walked up to them.
Lu Sheng opened the transaction function.
『Chu Jianghe gave you Basic Antidote Pill *6!』
The completion prompt for the transaction floated in front of Lu Sheng.
“Lu Sheng, although you are a dual-class holder,” Principal Chu Jianghe said.
After finishing the transaction, Principal Chu Jianghe stopped in front of him and looked at the fair-featured youth as he continued, “they are all E-rank classes after all, and since you dared to come today, I assume your second class is a combat-oriented class.”
“But they were still only E-rank, so within the Secret Realm you must act within your limits and not show off; safety comes first, and if something is impossible, withdraw early.”
“Don’t worry, Old Chu,” Lu Sheng said with a grin, his expression relaxed, “I know to run if I can’t win.”
Before he finished speaking, a few undisguised looks of contempt immediately fell on him.
He Wanying’s unquestioning obedience to Lu Sheng had already made them burn with jealousy, and hearing such a spineless declaration from him only drew their sneers.
Someone even blatantly gave him the middle finger; He Wanying felt a chill sweep over her, her eyes flickered and her fingertips twitched, but a single glance from Lu Sheng quietly stopped her.
“Mm, with that resolve at least you’ll survive,” Principal Chu Jianghe nodded slightly and dismissed the small friction among the youths as nothing serious, since youthful temper and fighting over a beauty were perfectly normal.
They were all just newly matured kids, so this was very normal.
Principal Chu Jianghe thought with a smile in his heart.
Finally, he turned to He Wanying.
The girl stood as upright as a cold plum, and though a trace of sadness lingered in her brows and eyes, yesterday’s decadence was gone and in its place was an icy serenity.
Only when her gaze swept past Lu Sheng did that coldness quietly melt into a hint of warmth.
Principal Chu Jianghe looked at the girl who resembled an iceberg and a flash of gratification crossed his eyes.
“He Wanying, open your transaction function!” he prompted.
『Chu Jianghe gave you Basic Antidote Pill *6!』
『Chu Jianghe gave you Earth-Element Heart-Guard Mirror (A-rank) *1!』
He Wanying’s fingertips paused slightly and a faint surprise flickered in her eyes.
“Work hard, He Wanying!” Principal Chu Jianghe’s face was full of expectant smiles and his voice was loud, “the glory of this year’s Lanjiang No. 3 High School rests on your shoulders!”
In the recent transaction, besides the six Basic Antidote Pill, he had also secretly slipped He Wanying an A-rank life-saving gadget, the Earth-Element Heart-Guard Mirror.
After guessing that He Wanying might awaken a second class this morning, Principal Chu Jianghe had decisively taken one of the four Earth-Element Heart-Guard Mirror rewards he had originally exchanged with his personal military merits and gifted it to He Wanying individually.
The old man felt his painstaking care and hoped He Wanying would not disappoint him.
Principal Chu Jianghe felt moved in his heart.
However, just as he turned to leave…
“Lu Sheng, this is for you,” He Wanying said in a clear, cold voice.
“Hm?” Lu Sheng glanced sideways.
“Open your transaction.”
Lu Sheng followed the instruction and his brows rose slightly as he asked, “What is this?”
Gasps and low curses immediately echoed around them.
“Damn! big campus belle He even gave him Basic Antidote Pill?”
“Not just that! I think she’s completely devoted to him!”
“What kind of love potion did that trash give her?!”
Principal Chu Jianghe’s steps froze and he suddenly turned, his gaze striking the two like lightning, his benevolent smile instantly stiffening and a twitch uncontrollably formed at the corner of his mouth.
“Thank you, Principal Chu,” Lu Sheng’s face broke into an extraordinarily bright, impeccably obedient smile, his tone respectfully flawless, and he even took a simple bronze mirror from his inventory and pretentiously weighed it in his hand.
Seeing Lu Sheng toy with the Earth-Element Heart-Guard Mirror in front of him for a few moments before putting it away, Principal Chu Jianghe felt a surge of stifling anger rush to his temples and almost could not control the aura radiating from him!
Others thought it was just Basic Antidote Pill, but did he not know? That was one of the top-three reward A-rank life-saving gadgets he had exchanged for this time, the Earth-Element Heart-Guard Mirror!
It was his heavy bet on He Wanying as a dark horse! And what happened? No sooner had he given it than He Wanying passed it on to Lu Sheng!
The feeling was like a renowned teacher secretly giving the exam answer to a favored student, only for that student to hand it to her longtime failing little boyfriend!
This Lu Sheng… what on earth did he have?!
Principal Chu Jianghe deeply felt the thick, sour unfairness that the surrounding boys harbored for the first time.
Especially Lu Sheng’s sincere-looking thank-you expression made his chest pinch and he almost wanted to rush up and give Lu Sheng two hard slaps.
“Ahem!”
Suppressing the welling emotions, Principal Chu Jianghe took a deep breath and, his voice slightly stiff, addressed all the students.
“These six Basic Antidote Pill will guarantee your survival for three hours in the Poison Fog Desert! This trial is five hours in total, and the final rankings will be divided into individual and team lists, calculated based on the points earned from killing monsters in the Secret Realm!”
Although displeased, time would not wait, and Principal Chu Jianghe felt helpless about He Wanying’s action but still allowed it.
After all, he had secretly given He Wanying the Earth-Element Heart-Guard Mirror, and no other student knew of it… only he, He Wanying, and Lu Sheng knew.
His gaze swept over the nearly formed teams: “Now, complete your final team formation within ten minutes! Each team may have up to five people!”
The students had already found teammates in advance and quickly confirmed them now.
Although rewards obtained after forming teams needed to be distributed within the team and monster-kill experience would be evenly shared among members, cooperating with classmates made killing monsters far more efficient than acting alone.
The main thing was that solo action greatly increased the death rate.
Soon the students had finished forming their teams one after another.
Usually class holders formed teams with reasonable distribution according to class rank and type.
Combat-oriented class holders could be divided by type into tank warrior, agile warrior, spellcaster, support, and ranged attacker.
The tank warrior was responsible for attracting enemies from the front, taunting them and taking the majority of the attacks.
The agile warrior was responsible for roaming the battlefield and finishing off enemies.
The spellcaster primarily served as an area-of-effect damage dealer and provided some team buffs as strong output.
The support focused on team buffs and healing.
The ranged attacker complemented the spellcaster as a ranged damage role; although they lacked the spellcaster’s large-area explosive skills, their single-target damage was stable and skill costs were mostly far lower than the spellcaster’s, making them suitable as the final finisher.
Usually each position had one person, which was the standard configuration for most formal class-holder teams.
This year, Lanjiang No. 3 High School had 211 people participating in the Newcomer Trial; almost 99% were five-person teams, and class composition was largely reasonable and could basically satisfy the five-person team configuration.
Only two teams were exceptions.
One team was led by A-rank Flame Mage Zhao Qingtian as captain, with three members: A-rank support Holy Light priest Qin Yanran, B-rank tank warrior Divine Paladin Fang Tong, and B-rank tank warrior Rock GuardianZhang Yan.
Two shields, one damage, and one support.
As for why there were only four people, it was because Zhao Qingtian and Qin Yanran were too picky and looked down on other lower-grade class holders, so they reluctantly accepted two tank warriors as the team’s meat shields.
The remaining last team was even more special and drew almost every student’s strange gaze.
That team had only two people: Lu Sheng and He Wanying.
One was a publicly known double E-rank class holder, and the other was a single E-rank life-class class holder.
Those two going into the Poison Fog Desert together? What was the difference from sending them to their deaths?
Even Principal Chu Jianghe, who had guessed that He Wanying might awaken a second class, couldn’t help frowning as he asked.
“The Poison Fog Desert’s difficulty is different from an ordinary Newcomer Secret Realm; do you two want to split into other teams? I can decide and let you two join others to form a six-person team.”
“No need, Old Chu,” Lu Sheng waved his hand and smiled as calmly as ever, “Wanying and I, the two of us are enough.”
Two people were enough?!
What did he call her? Wanying?!
Big campus belle He actually didn’t refute?!
This light remark immediately ignited the jealousy in countless boys’ hearts, and a series of painful, indignant looks almost pierced Lu Sheng through.
A sharp, malicious sneer sounded: Zhao Qingtian crossed his arms, strode forward, and swept a vicious, sharp look over the two of them.
“Form a team? Who wants you E-rank trash? You’re nothing but parasitic bloodsuckers!”
Saying this, Zhao Qingtian deliberately raised his voice, “You two are a pair of snakes and rats, well-matched!”
Qin Yanran immediately caught on and stepped forward, staring at He Wanying with a hypocritical smile and a tone full of condescension.
“He Wanying, don’t be foolish. Isn’t your class an E-rank life-class profession masseur? Why not join our team? If you were willing to give me and Qingtian massages to relax us, it wouldn’t be impossible to bring you along; our team’s configuration is obvious, and even if you are a life class masseur, following us you could still get the school’s rewards.”
She deliberately emphasized the word ‘massage’, clearly trying to humiliate He Wanying.
Fang Tong and Zhang Yan remained silent and evidently had no say.
Zhao Qingtian and Qin Yanran had ill intent.
Their main antagonism was toward Lu Sheng; they wished Lu Sheng would enter the Poison Fog Desert alone and die in the Secret Realm.
As for the sudden proposal to let campus belle He Wanying join their team, that was Qin Yanran’s spur-of-the-moment idea.
He Wanying was the dream girl in the hearts of all the school’s boys, which made Qin Yanran feel a touch of jealousy toward her.
If she could get He Wanying to join and serve as someone who massaged and attended to them, the thought of using that method to humiliate the usually aloof big campus belle He Wanying gave Qin Yanran a pleasant thrill.
Would He Wanying refuse her invitation? How could she?
Their team was the most luxurious in Lanjiang No. 3 High School in terms of class ranks; if any team had the highest chance of coming in first, it would be theirs.
If He Wanying wanted to live and wanted rewards, she would obediently choose them.
Zhao Qingtian inhaled sharply and his gaze swept over He Wanying’s graceful figure, finally resting on those perfectly flawless white legs, and a greedy light flashed in his eyes.
If those beautiful legs could be dressed in black stockings, how beautiful that would be!
He tried to make his voice sound gentle and tempting: “Yes, He Wanying, why follow that trash Lu Sheng to his death? Come with our team, safety is guaranteed and the rewards are plentiful. You only need to… um, give us massages, very easy.”
Zhao Qingtian’s sudden change of expression stunned the surrounding students.
A moment ago he had glared at He Wanying as if he wanted to slap her, and now he displayed a seemingly caring attitude.
To Zhao Qingtian, He Wanying with Lu Sheng was naturally his enemy, but if she agreed to be his teammate… though He Wanying’s combat power was limited, her beauty and sweet voice, coupled with her innate iceberg temperament, were intoxicating, so forming a team with her was not impossible.
At the thought of the icy beauty He Wanying giving him massages as a teammate, Zhao Qingtian stiffened all over and the flame element inside him began uncontrollably to vent outward as two puffs of hot air streamed from his nostrils.
Countless gazes suddenly focused on He Wanying.
Would she yield? After all, Zhao Qingtian’s team was acknowledged as the strongest.
Almost everyone at school was eager to be on his team, but he simply looked down on them.
However, He Wanying slowly raised her eyes and those icy-lake pupils swept over Zhao Qingtian and Qin Yanran without anger or hesitation, only an indifferent look as if viewing ants.
“What are you…” she said, her red lips parting and her voice clear and cold, carrying bone-chilling frost, “to call yourselves anything?”
When her gaze finally returned to Lu Sheng, her tone softened.
“Even if it was massaging someone, only Lu Sheng is qualified!”
“My service belongs to him alone!”
The whole field fell silent!
No way…
Big campus belle He, the dignified iceberg goddess of Lanjiang No. 3 High School!
Where was your pride? Where was your dignity? Where were the massage videos?!
Why would the aloof, lofty big campus belle He publicly declare she only served Lu Sheng?!
Zhao Qingtian’s face immediately flushed the color of pork liver, veins bulged at his temples, and he finally scoffed through his teeth.
“Fine! Very good! Two E-rank trash! I want to see whether you can crawl out of the Secret Realm alive! Let’s go!”
He turned sharply and Qin Yanran glared at He Wanying before hastily following, with Fang Tong and Zhang Yan quickly trailing behind.
The little interlude ended and the teams began to enter the warped Secret Realm Entrance in an orderly fashion.
“Master, are we going in too?”
Seeing that the classmates had already entered the Secret Realm, He Wanying looked at the Secret Realm Entrance with a flicker of eager fighting spirit in her eyes and turned to Lu Sheng expectantly.
“Let’s go!”
Lu Sheng nodded.
『Lu Sheng invited you to join the team.』
『Agree.』
Whoosh…
Under countless gazes… some mocking, some puzzled, some complex… the two of them walked shoulder to shoulder through the rippling Secret Realm Entrance and disappeared in an instant.
At the same time, far outside the northern suburbs of Lanjiang City, Lu Xueyao sat at her computer; her onion-like fingers flew over the keyboard as she farmed dungeons for the friends in the streaming room, when she suddenly paused and her brows knitted slightly.