Chapter 40: End of the Exam!

Baylor and Eric were in the only plain terrain in the test area, which was also where the swamp was located. Therefore, their combat area was very limited to the surrounding swamp for them to plan out a natural fighting platform.

Forced backward, Baylor’s hind feet stepped into the swamp, he looked at Eric attacking his own with a breakthrough, not rushing to avoid, but waited until the long knife was about to cut on his own, then rolled to the side. And after dodging, through a crouching posture, one hand attacked Eric’s lower, while one hand held the gun to Eric’s left side.

Baylor was trying to use the force to fight, letting Eric push him into the swamp. His launched attack was also an attempt to make Eric’s center of gravity unstable.

This was a very clever move. The other side of the body had long been hit, but Eric was worthy of being the top student from the three military schools. He twisted his body to support the ground in the nick of time to flip back, not only to avoid Baylor’s attack, but also to pull away from the swamp.

That was close.

Eric’s back was covered with a cold sweat. He could feel Baylor was physically inferior to him, but every second of the battle with Baylor, he was like walking on a tightrope, for the slightest mistake would immediately be choked. Was this really a candidate like himself and not a battle-hardened officer?

Faced with such an opponent, he had to play his strengths. To attack harder, faster and harder!

So, everyone could see Eric’s attacks become more aggressive, like a tiger weiling a long knife, each kick bringing up the wind. The people watching in front of the screen were feeling the sweat from Baylor.

This was the power of an A-class alpha, the burgeoning muscles let people have no doubt that a punch down will be able to whack a person’s head flat.

“170’s combat awareness is very sophisticated and sharp, and his skillfulness is excellent.” The examiner from the First Military Academy commented with regret, “But unfortunately, before the overwhelming force still fell behind, his dodging movements have now begun to slow down, so Eric’s victory is a nail in the coffin.”

He said, wondering incomprehensibly, “Where the hell did this #170 get his training? What’s the deal with his coach? He doesn’t even do physical training? I have seen several movements of 170 because of physical limitations stopping halfway.” The more he said, the more he felt sorry for him, so he blew his beard and scolded, “This is a waste! If I were to be his coach, his fighting ability would be several times higher than it is now!”

Next to him, Sean also frowned with a grave expression. Indeed, Baylor’s advantages were outstanding, and his disadvantages were also very fatal. Because the previous battle was able to end in a short period of time, and the opponent did not have the advantage of crushing in force, so Baylor’s disadvantages in terms of strength were not so prominent.

Now this battle with Eric was fierce and unlikely.

Watching Baylor gradually become passive under Eric’s fierce attacks, straining up, Ensley sighed, “Still too forced, if he loses here, he will also fail the test. What a pity.”

Indeed, failing here would be a waste of effort for all the previous efforts. Not to mention first place, even the test would be lost.

“In fact, it’s okay. He just needs to participate in the next examination. Even if he fails this time, the next time he will definitely pass. It’s just a matter of time.” An examiner said optimistically, “This may still be an opportunity for him. His nature is too arrogant, and he needs to experience some setbacks to kill the sharpness, for his future growth.”

The crowd nodded their heads to show their approval.

In the eyes of the examiner and the students, although the battle was not yet over, they could already see the end. But even if Baylor lost, they would not have any contempt for Baylor, because this young man had shown abilities beyond the ordinary, enough to win their admiration and respect.

After all, if they let any of them go up, they might not be able to do a tenth of what this young man could do. So even if they lost, there was nothing to be ashamed of, they would give the loudest applause all the same – That’s what everyone thought, except for two people.

One of them was Baylor himself, and the other was Ewan.

“That’s a shame.” Weifield, who had come to ask about things but ended up being unconsciously drawn to Baylor’s battle, watching the live stream together, was lamenting. He would have to try during the next military examination.

Ewan, however, gave a soft, inaudible sigh. Then he said in a casual and light tone, “It would be better if he could lose.” 

There was a bit of imperceptible worry in his voice.

This was because he knew the real pity. Baylor would not let himself lose, he would only give everything to let himself win. And it was the price that Baylor, the little madman, would pay to win that worried him. And just as Ewan had predicted, under Eric’s increasingly violent attacks, Baylor’s dodging movements slowed down a bit compared to the beginning, but they didn’t continue to drop. Rather, they stabilized at a certain level and stopped changing.

Everyone was waiting for Baylor to lose, and as they waited, three minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes passed…

There were several times when Baylor was on the verge of being eliminated, but he always managed to get up at the last second and dodge the fatal blow, just like an undefeatable little force. Even in order to block the attack to the heart, sometimes in exchange for the opportunity to attack, Baylor gritted his teeth and used other parts of his body to take the attack several times.

A heavy punch came down, and Baylor’s mouth cracked and oozed bright red blood, but with the force of the fist attack, he rolled over and shot straight away. Baylor had quite a few wounds on his body, as did Eric.

Baylor’s sheer attack made him unavoidable, only he was in a slightly better position. But he was mentally under more pressure, obviously close to winning every time. However, every time he didn’t take that chance, no, it wasn’t that he didn’t take it, it was that he didn’t have the ability to take it.

Gradually, no matter who, no matter where, as long as the people who were watching this battle live were not talking, those who were expecting Eric to win began to have no expectations for this match. Their hearts were shaken by the two young men fighting to the death on this battlefield, especially Baylor who was at a disadvantage, but was tenacious and unyielding.

This was already far beyond the specifications of this examination should have, the battle could not be arbitrarily evaluated by anyone. Even those who were just passing time by watching the real experience of the battlefield of the general at this moment also put down everything else at hand.

These two candidates who were still green in their eyes burst out at this moment with an aura that did not lose to anyone. These soldiers and examiners clearly foresaw that these two people would become the most powerful figures on the battlefield and would leave a strong mark in the history of the Empire.

And the future history books prove that their premonition was not wrong, but those were afterthoughts, the most important thing was this battle. Although the knives were not open edge, the powerful attack also had a certain penetrating ability. Eric’s hand was holding a longsword as he stabbed out, while Baylor, although struggling to dodge, still stabbed his knife into Eric’s clothes and nailed him into the ground on the wet soil.

Eric tightly pursed his lips, not daring to have a moment’s hesitation, the hilt of the gun aimed at Baylor’s chip and struck down.

It was over!

However, in this lightning moment, Baylor’s previously saved physical strength burst out at this moment, his body functions instantly mobilized to the peak, he did not dodge the attack, but focused all his strength on his own attack. He charged forward against the longsword, defenseless, with only the chip at his chest in his eyes.

At this time the combat suit emitted a wail, the fabric that was pierced at his shoulder ripped, revealing the bandage around Baylor’s left shoulder.

Someone immediately noticed the bandage, “What’s that?”

When they saw it clearly, they immediately sucked in a breath of cold air, “He actually has injuries on his body, oh my God.” Who would have thought that someone who had been fighting with that kind of intensity would have been carrying injuries? What kind of other-worldly monster was this?

And it was at this moment that one person’s chip was hit.

With a ‘beep’ sound, the long battle was declared over.

On the screen, Eric’s gun hilt was against Baylor’s chest, while Baylor’s dagger also pierced Eric’s chest, and both of their battle suits lit up red. Just as everyone was waiting with bated breath to find out who had hit who first, the system alert sounded – “301 killed, 170 gained one point.”

The exact data could be seen in the invigilator room; the two hit each other’s chips almost simultaneously, but Baylor was 0.238 seconds ahead. As the beep sounded, all were finally able to catch their breath, and then a thunderous applause erupted from the large classrooms inside each military school.

In the middle of the exam room, Eric was finally able to breathe, and he exhaled a long breath before he extended his hand to Baylor, who was half lying down, “I lost, you were great.”

Baylor did not put his hand up, he braced himself on the ground, the fight almost exhausted his strength, he could have fallen unconscious in the next second, but he rose from the ground with perseverance.

With the back of his hand, he wiped the blood from the corner of his forehead that blocked his view, and he said nonchalantly, “Yes, you lost.”

Eric withdrew his hand. He was about to say something, but he froze in place because of Baylor’s next words. Baylor said, “Because you hesitated.”

The voice was a little weak from the effort, but it had the power to hit people right in the heart.

“This time you hesitated, you lost. Next time you hesitate, you will die.”

The examiners in the invigilation room were silent, and finally Sean took the lead in slowing down the playback of that last strike just now. Then, they realized that although the two men’s attacks seemed almost synchronized, at first Eric’s gun handle was actually closer to Baylor, and according to Eric’s explosive power and distance advantage, he should have been able to hit the target faster.

But as Baylor said, Eric faltered at that moment. Because he hesitated at that moment whether he should give up the attack and take the lead in protecting himself. And it was that moment of hesitation that allowed Baylor to hit him 0.2 seconds ahead.

It was a detail that none of them caught, but Baylor did.

What was even more shocking to them was that Eric had that 0.2 second of hesitation, but Baylor didn’t have even 0.0001 seconds of hesitation from start to finish. That’s why he was able to seize that momentary gap and hit his opponent first.

If they had previously admired Baylor as a student, at this moment they felt a hint of fear, the fear of the strong. They have been on the battlefield, they know that the most terrifying enemy in the battlefield was not the most physically strong, nor the most excellent at piloting mecha, but one that had a strong will, would never be disturbed by external forces, and would identify the goal with no side thoughts, even if he paid for the life of the person.

Such a person would not necessarily live to the end, but everyone was unwilling to run into the opponent. And Baylor was exactly this kind of person.

After Baylor finished, he braced himself to leave. Eric looked at Baylor and the other’s wobbly look made him very worried, but because he had been eliminated, he could only wait in the same place for the staff to pick him up to leave, so there was no way to follow.

Walking through the swamp, Baylor returned to the dense forest, holding the trunk of a tree. He reluctantly found a place that was still hidden, and then with a break in force, made a cry of surprise and fell to the ground. It was far beyond his limits to be able to walk this far with this body.

However, Baylor’s limit was also often played by himself as the bottom line. Going beyond the limits of his body was almost commonplace. If not, how could he have become a famous sentinel in their tower within just one year of entering the tower training? If not, how could he have lived alone in the streets that ate people without spitting bones until his teens? For him at that time, every day he needed to challenge his limits before he could see the gray daylight of the next day. 

The students who had just watched the battle were no longer allowed to have any first place other than Baylor, but they were also currently worried, as Baylor was unconscious in the middle of the woods, and if a candidate took advantage of the situation, Baylor would have no way to fight back.

“I’ll say this, who dares to come over and sneak up on me at this time, I swear on my name that I will go after that person after the test is over!”

“Add me to the list!”

“And me too!”

But having said that, they knew very well that if there was really a candidate ready to attack at this moment, all his actions were reasonable. All the people in the examination were competing against each other, who cared if they had just had a big battle and had no strength?

So, they all stared closely at the small map in the lower right corner, vigilantly watching to see if anyone was approaching, while also praying for Baylor, hoping he would wake up quickly. However, at this very moment, some candidates really came near Baylor. There were two of them, and they were gradually approaching Baylor. According to their route, they would surely meet the unconscious Baylor.

There was no doubt that as soon as they saw him, they would definitely take the opportunity to eliminate Baylor. So everyone’s heart was in their throat, and there were even some students with special physiques who simply covered their eyes and said in pieces, “I’ll watch the race to see who loses, I’m not going to look now, I’m not going to see, I’m not going to give anyone a flag.”

One thousand meters to go –

At this time, the two candidates found Baylor, “Hey, you look, there is a person lying there.”

Everyone immediately held their breath again.

It’s over!

Fuck, would these two passers-by not go around?!

That was really too fucking heartbreaking!

170, why don’t you hide yourself a little better even if you fall down?

The two candidates began to run towards Baylor’s position. It was really over.

Just when everyone thought that everything was over, staring at the two candidates and wanting to kill them with their sight so that they would be eliminated, suddenly a horn sounded.

It was the sound of the horn of the final task being completed.

Everyone was confused.

The people inside the examination room and the people outside the examination room were very surprised.

Who had completed the final task?

Just then, a notification sounded over the examination area, “No. 520, No. 170 have completed the final task and won first place.”

No. 170?

No. 520?

At this point everyone suddenly recalled that before Baylor left, he asked Kana to stay in the cave to unlock the clues to the final place! So, they quickly cut the camera to No. 520, only to see Kana clutching the mission box containing the glass badge, sitting by the final mission site – three thousand meters away from the cave creek, exhausted and gasping for breath.

At last, it was done.

It turned out that not long ago Kana solved the clues and successfully obtained the coordinates of the final mission site. Originally, she wanted to wait for Baylor to return before going there together, but she found that Baylor’s points on the scoreboard increased, symbolizing that he had won the battle, but he never returned. Thinking of Baylor’s previous brave appearance, Kana expected that situation would not be very good even if he won.

In this situation, one more second of delay was one more second of risk. So, right away she decided to venture to the final mission site by herself.

It turned out that her decision was not wrong.

At the end of the final mission, she and Baylor finished the test in first place, both earning 50 points, while Baylor finished first in the standings with a final score of 113 points, locking in the position of honorary newcomer.

As for George and Wolcott, they both met another group of players not long after they were separated from Baylor and were directly eliminated.

The staff quickly locked in Baylor’s coordinates and sent a flight to bring the two candidates back to the blimp together.

As soon as they reached the airship, Kana called out, “We need help here!”

Just as she finished shouting, Kana suddenly noticed that all the candidates in the lounge area were throwing a glance at her and Baylor, who was lying on the stretcher. The hand that she was anxiously reaching out also retracted somewhat timidly.

This… She was shy to have so many people suddenly staring at her. Of course, she could actually feel that more eyes were not on her body, but on Baylor. After all, it was the candidate who changed the nature of the test by virtue of his own power.

Many of them were also those who were eliminated by Baylor himself, as well as the two “teammates” who were eliminated early, George and Wolcott, were among them. They looked at the two who returned with honor and were looked at with envy by everyone. Their hearts were full of remorse, they should have enjoyed the honor too…

Eric, who had not been on board long before Baylor, heard the commotion and came out of the medical room after receiving treatment and quickly greeted them.

Kana recognized Eric, the son of the school, and she was a big fan of his brother’s! She immediately panicked, “You, hello, congratulations, congratulations!” The moment she finished, she wanted to slap herself, what happy, people were eliminated what good happy!

So she hurriedly apologized again, “Sorry!”

Eric did not care, “Hurry up and get treatment.”

“Oh yeah!” Kana only reacted at this moment to follow the staff carrying the stretcher and rushed to the medical room.

Eric also followed along.

Most of the people’s test had already finished, but the blimp would wait until the test was completely over and take all the candidates back to the military department together. Kana was also assigned a room. After washing and eating something, she went back to the medical room to see how Baylor was doing, and then she found that Eric was actually there.

In fact, it wasn’t just Eric…

She looked at the candidates who took turns to come to the medical room for a stroll. The corners of her mouth twitched, were these people here to sightsee with a tourist card?

Everyone wanted to see the human on the bed using gazes like they were looking at aliens. If it wasn’t for the fact that the examination hadn’t ended and everyone couldn’t use the terminal yet, otherwise, Kana would have suspected that they would all be taking pictures to remember.

Kana was silent for a few seconds, remembering what Baylor had done, and suddenly she could understand their feelings.

They wanted to get Baylor’s autograph once he woke up!

And the medical staff kept maintaining order, so that people who did not need medical treatment were made to leave the medical area. This was not a shopping area and they needed to leave. But then, these candidates started to say they hurt their bodies.

After all, they had just experienced a brutal test, being in pain was normal. 

Eric’s purpose in the medical room was actually to get these people away to avoid disturbing Baylor any further. He had a certain amount of prestige among these candidates, and with him here, those people were not too blatant to come over and sightsee.

Kana looked at the unusually lively medical room, thought about it and decided not to make a mess of the medical staff. With their care, Baylor should not have too much of a problem. So, she was ready to turn around and leave. And at that moment, suddenly there was a shout from the corridor.

Kana listened to the dead silence after the shout and she was a little curious. What kind of a scene was this? What’s going on outside? She was about to go outside to take a look, but before she took a few steps, she saw a sturdy figure in a normal military uniform. It was a powerful alpha. Even as a beta, she could still feel his strong pressure.

The people in the corridor drew a breath before pressing themselves against the wall to make way for the visitor. The man gradually approached, and Kana saw the profoundly three-dimensional features, handsome and severe face. Kana’s eyes widened and she drew in a breath of cold air, then made the same move as everyone else. She leaned against the wall and hung her head down to hide the shock on her face at the moment.

Although he was not wearing his general’s medal, his face was one that few people who wanted to enter the military would not recognize! The famous Empire’s general, Ewan, the God of War!

Mamma mia, she met the Empire’s general! She hadn’t even entered the military yet! Wait a minute, why would the general appear here? Is he here for inspection? Inspection… A military examination?

Raising her eyes quietly, Kana noticed that general was actually walking towards the medical room. She thought she should follow him! But she didn’t dare…

And at this moment in the medical room, the accompanying medical staff and Eric, who was guarding the side, also received a small shock.

“Gen… …General!” the doctor rushed up after a moment of trance and then asked, in all sincerity, “What can I do for you?” 

What is General doing here?

When Eric heard the doctor’s words, he stood up from his stool with a start, but because of the panic, even the stool was knocked to the ground. So he turned around again in a hurry to pick the bench up and then stood upright, “Hello General!”

It was really the general! You know, Eric’s idol has always been the God of War nowadays! Even his goal was to enter the Sky Wolf Legion under Ewan’s command!

At this moment, Ewan did not feel that there was anything wrong with what he did, lowered his eyes and looked at the unconscious person on the hospital bed. He raised his eyebrows, raised his eyes again, but he did not look at the doctor. He looked at Eric who was standing by, and then dropped a sentence in a casual tone, “Passing by, to see the newcomer of this year.”

At that moment, he didn’t know if it was an illusion, but Eric felt a seemingly hostile intent coming from the general.

The author has something to say: 

Eric: My idol!

General: I came to see (crossed out) steal someone.

Eric: ???