CH 429

429: The Challenge Starts

The introduction helped the group get to know each other’s skill and class. Next up was to share what each person picked as their items.

Since they weren’t allowed to use magic or qi, everyone chose flint and or weapons. Seven of the ten had chosen flint but Feng Wu was the only one who chose a tent.

They immediately saw her as dead weight and hated her when they saw her pot. What use was a tent and pot? Such wasted opportunity. You could just shelter in a cave or sit under a tree if you were tired. Then there was her pot. Who would pick a pot for a challenge?! Another stupid choice.

The competition banned personal storage equipment so the only storage the participants had were the ones supplied by the school.

The storage equipment had twenty slots, five of which were filled with the start up items they chose. This left fifteen slots available, but there was still food to consider, which would take up space in storage as well.

Rations for three days would be supplied to each person. Once depleted, participants were expected to forage for their own food inside the arena. There were a lot of poisonous plants, so they had to be careful what they chose. Choosing the wrong one and being unlucky could mean being poisoned to death.

When that happened, the contestants would be booted out of the field, but they wouldn’t suffer any real world damage.

Rations prepared by the school were quite adequate and included meats, breads, biscuits and steamed buns. Most chose bread and jerky and a few bags of water, of which each person was allotted three bags.

Once they ran out, they were expected to find their own water supply. Failure to find drinkable water in time would mean severe dehydration, and therefore automatic disqualification from the challenge.

Feng Wu was the only person on the team who chose the water purification tool. This contribution made the others see her in a better light.

She chose meat buns, steamed buns, and jerky. Once she filled her three days worth of food and stocked up on her water supply, she was ready to go.

Once they were done with their selections, the students were sent to their field in their respective groups.

Not only would all the members of the group have to survive and cross the finish line, each person had to find a school badge hidden throughout the arena.

The last component made the challenge even more difficult and dangerous, as the badges could be stolen from one person to another.

The participants found themselves in a large inhospitable space upon entering the arena proper. Staying overly long would be dangerous, especially if they encountered another more powerful team.

“Dear classmates, we can see the participating students are all ready. We now ask that teachers send their students to the correct challenge venue!” Tamansha’s elegant voice rang out.

The screen displayed all the students falling through a hole in the ground. It was so sudden, none of them had time to mentally prepare for the drop.

“Wow! I see our teachers are quite good at practical jokes. All our participants fell into the pit without warning!”

The students watching the challenge from inside the virtual world smiled knowingly when they heard Tamansha’s words.

“Vice principal, can you tell us a little about the environment the students will face next? I heard the challenge will test their ability to survive in extreme environments. Is this true? And if so, what’s the point?”

“As our students rise in grade and grow in strength, they will face all kinds of difficulties. There may be places they can not use magic or qi, in which case they will be just like ordinary private citizens who can not do anything.

They must think of ways to survive and escape the danger. This competition is meant to help our students hone those skills. . . ”

The vice principal talked a lot, but the students weren’t buying anything he said.

“Didn’t he say he wanted to chose people for the special mission and that’s why the challenge was designed the way it was?”

“The vice principal is talking nonsense. If the challenge was held for the reasons he says, then we would have had one every year for thousands of years. We wouldn’t just have one now.”

“The vice principal becomes more and more ludicrous every year. Why give such a noble justification for the challenge?”

“As expected, the vice principal’s ability to talk nonsense grows stronger and stronger.”

“Hey! Who threw a hidden weapon at me?!”

“My ass! Which bastard just kicked me?!”

The teachers on stage looked at the students who were searching for the culprit. Then they looked at the students sitting on the stage who were talking about how great of an idea the games were. None of the students had seen the vice principal secretly teach the students who had badmouthed him a lesson.

You guys are too careless! Don’t you know the vice principal is very powerful. He can hear what you’re saying even if he’s not paying attention to you! There’s no difference between gossiping down there and insulting him to his face!

Do you just not know how petty the vice principal is? He will happily make your lives difficult for an entire year!

Tamansha didn’t dare ask further questions after the vice principal’s lofty answer. “Yes, thank you for such a detailed answer Vice Principal. Now we must ask the teachers to switch us back to the field screen. Let us watch the each group’s performance through the screen. . .