Chapter 15: The Shipwreck

[7:21]
[Possession status ended.]
[Current mental capacity: 1/20]

The battle ended in less than three minutes.
Jiang Tang kicked Arthur, who was sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, walked over to Gu Xue, and crouched down. She grabbed Gu Xue’s long hair, forcing her to lift her head and look her in the eye.
Gu Xue did not hide the resentment in her gaze, staring fixedly at those slightly cold black eyes. "If you have the guts, just kill me..."
Jiang Tang was silent for a long moment, then suddenly asked, "When you were hitting me, how did it feel?"
In her dreams, she had walked through the original owner's short life—a life of caution, endless bullying, and indifference.
Gu Xue had left a "vivid and colorful" mark in that life.
Being beaten until she went into shock, being dragged by a flight vehicle for twelve full hours, having her eyelids burned with cigarette butts—Gu Xue was present in every scene.
She had poured her purest malice onto Jiang Tang.
Gu Xue did not speak, her jaws clenched so tightly that her cheeks bulged. She stared at Jiang Tang as if she were an enemy who had slaughtered her entire family.
Looking at Gu Xue’s blood-covered face, Jiang Tang didn't feel disappointed, nor could it be called happy. She simply stated a fact calmly: "In every exam and every competition from now on, I will eliminate you and kill you, just like I did today."
Jiang Tang was a person who took every grievance to heart.
For someone like Gu Xue, the best revenge was to crush her arrogance and self-esteem bit by bit.
With that, Jiang Tang cleanly snapped Gu Xue’s neck, then turned to Lia. "Do you want to handle this piece of trash yourself?"
Lia sat slumped against the wall, saying weakly, "I have no strength left... Help me finish him off in the most vicious way possible."
Arthur lay helplessly on the ground; his limbs had already been shattered by Jiang Tang.
"Wait, I have the home-field advantage! There is a sect my family believes in within this instance. The boss fight is about to start; I can find the boss's weakness!"
With a crisp, sharp snap, Arthur’s voice came to an abrupt end.
Jiang Tang, expressionless, grabbed Arthur by his blond hair and slammed his head against the wall with all her might.
"Wow, you call that vicious?" Lia complained weakly. "You should at least burn off his blond hair, poke out his blue eyes, strip him naked, and record a video to upload to the campus network, right?"
"Forget it, babe, we're model students," Jiang Tang waved her hand modestly. "That would cost extra."
Lia clicked her tongue lightly and reached out to Jiang Tang. "Guess it’s my bad luck to miss the scoring wave. Come here—"
"What for?" Jiang Tang walked over and took Lia’s cold hand, preparing to pull her up.
The movement tugged at her wounds, and Lia couldn't help but groan, cursing, "Are you sick? Can't you see I’m about to die?"
She had held on in a near-death state until now just to watch Jiang Tang beat Arthur and vent her anger.
Jiang Tang looked innocent. "Then why did you give me your hand?"
Lia rolled her eyes and muttered, "Lady of the Lake, I request your aid to heal this person’s misfortune..."
A gentle white light emanated from their joined hands. A force cool as water flowed into Jiang Tang’s body, repairing her injuries.
Jiang Tang’s mental capacity soared to 20, a flash of surprise crossing her eyes.
Before she could speak, Lia’s eyes dimmed, leaving behind a faint whisper: "Ten thousand... can I write an IOU?"
She had been eliminated.
At the same time, the broadcast sounded:
[Time until boss arrival: 10 minutes]
[The Tide has arrived!]
[Candidates, please prepare for battle!]
On the sea, five pillars of water erupted into the sky, and low thunder rumbled in the overcast clouds.
A bolt of lightning tore through the curtain of rain.
In the alleys, on the rooftops, and against the walls, a group of xenomorphs gathered silently.
Jiang Tang, at the center of the encirclement, kicked up Lia’s knight sword and caught it.
She had thought the sword was a card like Arthur’s, but it turned out to be an innate weapon, just like her own telescoping rod—a lucky find for Jiang Tang.
Now, all that was left to do was to fight her way to the shore.
...
Outside the arena, Lia and Arthur, who had been eliminated one after the other, were teleported to the same spot.
Lia smirked. "Heh, how does failing feel?"
Other than Jiang Tang, no one on the leaderboard had passed; even Sheng Huaian only had 59.5 points.
She looked around the room, then at the large screen broadcasting the real-time exam situation and the leaderboard. Seeing only five names lit up, she thought this might be the fastest exam in history.
Several candidates gathered together, grinding their teeth as they watched the replays.
"If I find out who blew up the safe zone..."
"My spawn point was right in the water; the xenomorphs came ashore early and tore me apart like shredded chicken!"
"It didn't taste that good."
Arthur no longer had the heart to play the knight. With a gloomy face and malicious intent, he said, "Two losers huddling together for warmth, how far can you go? Lia, know your place."
Lia lifted her chin slightly, completely unaffected by Arthur, and instead repeated with a laugh, "You're flustered, you're flustered. Oh my, our Knight King is about to become the 'Breakdown King'!"
Lia and Arthur were siblings, both descendants of the Pendragon family, the lineage of King Arthur. However, the Pendragon family had not resonated with the Knight King for three hundred years.
The first card Arthur resonated with was related to the Knights of the Round Table, so the family bestowed the name "Arthur" upon him, hoping he would one day resonate with the true "Arthur."
Arthur’s fists cracked as he clenched them. Lia scanned the surroundings, discreetly looking for an escape route.
Although the school prohibited fighting, what if Arthur went crazy?
Fortunately, just as Arthur lifted his foot, he was called away by the Class A homeroom teacher.
"Arthur, you and Gu Xue, come to my office." The teacher’s face was equally grim.
...
Inside the research room, everyone held their breath, watching intently as Jiang Tang cut through the enemies like a hot knife through butter, racing toward the coast.
By now, half of the boss’s body had emerged from the sea, but other than Jiang Tang, no one had passed.
Even Sheng Huaian was stuck at 59.5 points.
"It’s fine, there’s still the boss fight... Passing shouldn't be an issue... The other students have arrived too..."
"But this boss is not easy to handle. Its original form is an S-rank xenomorph; even if suppressed to A in the instance, its strength is top-tier. If things go wrong, the students might be wiped out before they even take the boss down."
The Class C homeroom teacher saw her own student on the screen and muttered, "How did that girl Wang Laicai manage to get in there?"
At the coastline, Jiang Tang was already sailing toward the boss on the *Dingyuan*.
The sea was turbulent; the *Dingyuan* heaved violently, nearly capsizing.
Jiang Tang used her mental power to control the direction, only to see four figures flash past her one after another.
How could they all fly?!
Jiang Tang pushed her speed to the limit, finally catching a glimpse of their figures as they shrank into small black dots.
A golden arrow pierced the air and shot toward her.
Jiang Tang’s pupils contracted as she watched the arrow pierce the *Dingyuan*, the hull cracking and shattering inch by inch.
The broken *Dingyuan* was overturned by a giant wave, and she sank to the bottom of the sea along with the ship.