The two Sickle Zergs hanging from the top of the cave came plummeting down. Voom!
Four enormous sickle-shaped claws sunk into the ground, sending stones flying all over the place. Wang Zheng had already jumped back. It was a familiar feeling, having stones and sand showering him. In fact, this felt even more realistic!
Zoom!
The alloy knife struck right into a Sickle Zerg’s head. The other Zergs came rushing in, waving their sickle-shaped claws in the air. Wang Zheng leapt and jumped amongst the blades. Every time he struck out, a Sickle Zerg would collapse. His attacks were full of force and hit them right in their vitals. He did not give the Zergs any opportunity to struggle or to strike back.
Zergs were tenacious, and even these “domesticated” Zergs were fierce and scary. Attacks on them had to be accurate and strong enough in order to kill them.
Within a few short moments, the five Zergs had fallen to the ground, yet Wang Zheng remained standing, seemingly relaxed and idle.
He returned the alloy knife into its scabbard whilst spinning it in his hands. He was so adept at it, it seemed as though he had used it for over a decade.
“We may have made a mistake.”
“Yeah.”
“Things are going to get interesting.”
The three men looked at each other. It was evident that they all had the same thing in mind.
Throwing Wang Zheng into the equation would mess up the equilibrium and the balance of their present situation, and this was precisely what they wanted.
“No!”
A Sickle Zerg almost twice the size of the others came running through. Every cave had a Queen Zerg.
Boom!
Two enormous sickle claws came crashing down. Boom!
The alloy knife shook violently as it blocked the Zerg’s claws. The Sickle Zerg cried out, ready to shred Wang Zheng up.
But at that instant, its opponent vanished.
As the sickle claws landed on the ground, Wang Zheng stuck his knife into the Zerg’s body, spinning like a hurricane. Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!
Light bounced off the knife’s blade, shimmering. The enormous Sickle Zerg landed, lying flat on the ground like a turtle shell. It laid motionless while its head and claws fell, lining up next to its body neatly.
Wang Zheng felt famished after his little exercise, so he made a cut in the dead Zerg’s leg. The meat here was not as disgusting as compared to its body. While it may have smelled like salted fish that had gone rotten, it could fill his stomach.
As if having a post exercise snack, Wang Zheng ate all four of the Zerg’s enormous legs.
Mmmmm…
In the control room, the three generals watched the entire process from start to finish, without a word spoken.
It was apparent that they all found it nauseating.
Legend had it that back in the days where mankind and Zergs were in the depths of war, many warriors survived by doing that. But in this day and age, it was unbelievable that there were still men who could bring themselves to do so.
“I suggest nominating him.”
“I agree.”
“I agree.”
The three men had never been so unanimous in their decisions.
They turned around, almost at the same time, shouting, “NO CHEATING!”
Lear watched Meng Tian for a while and then looked up the whole arena, taking an especially close look at the non-key players. The information on the main players was complete, and given the present situation, there was nothing much that remained to be seen. But intel on the others was not as detailed. Who knew if there were any undiscovered talents?
As all those who managed to make their way here were particularly skillful in a certain area, their abilities to fight were not what was most important. What they needed to have was an outstanding character and the ability to be a good team player. It was crucial for a leader to unleash the full potential of his pawns.
As Lear watched the screens closely, he sensed something was missing, but he could not remember what.
“You guys go ahead and continue watching. I’m going to catch up on some beauty sleep. Let me know if you find anything interesting,” Lie Xin said, waving goodbye.
Achilles smiled and said, “I’m making a move, too.”
The first days mainly comprised of some simple tests. Getting to know what was going on was sufficient.
After Achilles and Lie Xin declared their intentions, Taros and Raston left too. Staring at meaningless fights on the screens was extremely boring.
Lear glanced coldly at the four of them. “Suit yourselves. Someone has to stay behind anyway.”
“Ha! An Earthling indeed. Always so egoistic. The General will not give you bonus points for doing this!” Raston laughed.
“Just don’t tell on us,” Taros said coldly.
Regardless, the General had wanted them to observe. Leaving just like that would leave a bad impression.
Lear let out a little smile, refusing to comment.
After the four left, Lear continued to observe in silence as the scenes changed.
This was evidently a sleepless night for most people. 13 had dropped out, but the overall capabilities remained decent; they were able to deal with sudden attacks calmly.
Dawn. When the first rays of sunlight lit up Demon Island, Wang Zheng opened his eyes. He had a good exercise, and he had eaten and slept well. Things were not too bad other than the poor quality of the food.
He took out a fruit and swallowed it down in no time. To maintain good physical fitness, he could not be picky when it came to food.
After stretching, Wang Zheng jumped down from the tree. Day time was obviously a good time to go looking for his teammates. The situation on Demon Island was way better than he had imagined. He rounded up two caves the night before and did not find too many Zergs. Moreover, they were all lowly Sickle Zergs. Given his experience, they had all been weakened and were far less ferocious compared to wild ones.
Back in the Rubik’s Cube, Bonehead had shown him all sorts of oddly shaped objects and opponents. Some he had seen before, but he knew nothing about most of them. In reality, there were barely any differences when the species were similar.
From the top, Demon Island looked small. But in reality, it was vast, and Zergs could appear as and when they liked, regardless of day or night. Yet these Zergs were well behaved. Wang Zheng had hoped to encounter a few of them, but after walking all morning, there was nothing.
Still, his luck was considerably good. Wang Zheng had caught a rat. It was a big one, rather stout. On Demon Island, this was definitely a delicacy.
He gathered twigs and branches, rubbed his dagger blades together, made a spark, and started a fire. Life with a laser gun was much more convenient.
He skinned the rat and pierced the alloy knife through it. Before long, it sizzled and a fragrance filled the air. This was heavenly compared to the Zerg flesh the night before.
Student Wang swallowed his saliva. Just then, three men jumped out from the forest. They stared at the smoking rat, stomachs rumbling. It was clear that they had not eaten for a day now. War was physically draining, and the smell of barbecued meat was undeniably irresistible. But the rat was barely 300 grams, so it was not enough for Wang Zheng alone, let alone four people.
But Student Wang was more than willing to share. He did not have to worry about not having enough food, anyway.
The three looked at each other and dished out their laser guns. “Ares kid, lie down and put your hands up!”
Wang Zheng was taken by surprise. This….
“Don’t blame us, man. A wise man submits to circumstances. Activate the wrist band and drop out.” The three of them had their laser guns pointed directly at Wang Zheng.
He thought that they had only come for the meat. Who could have known that they wanted to eliminate opponents? How creative.
In fact, it wasn’t just people from Pluto College. There were many out there doing this. Battling Zergs was one thing, but their competitors were not Zergs, they were other people.
With fewer competitors, their chances of being selected would improve greatly. Moreover, nobody said that they couldn’t do this. It would be alright as long as they didn’t kill anyone.
Even Student Wang found these people brilliant.
“It’s a pity, but I don’t intend to quit. Are you going to finish me off?”
The leader of the group waved his hand and the other two withdrew their alloy knives, walking towards Wang Zheng. “Don’t move. We won’t kill you, but don’t blame it on us when we paralyze you.”
“Just blame it on your tough luck, lad. Earthlings are more suited for drinking tea, playing cards, and talking about history. IG is not for your kind,” one of them said while grabbing onto Wang Zheng’s wrists. As long as the wrist band was activated, Wang Zheng would be disqualified.
With a knife held to his neck and a laser gun to his face, Wang Zheng kicked up and grabbed hold of the knife. His opponent wanted to exert force, but was unable to move. The knife was taken away in an instant and flew straight out. Nearby, the student holding to the gun screamed and held on to his arm. The knife had struck him.
Crack! The student entangled with Wang Zheng had his arm broken, then Wang Zheng tore his emergency wristband off. The first guy tried to make a run for it, but Wang Zheng took him by the collar and threw him against a tree. Unhurriedly, Wang Zheng took his emergency wristband off as well.
“You’ve got great ideas. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Don’t, don’t you dare come near! I will sue you in a military court! You have no idea who I am!”
Wang Zheng chuckled. “I don’t need to you know who you are. Here, listen to me, let me help you take that knife out.”
Weapons were still necessary after all, and Wang Zheng now had three more alloy knives. Meanwhile, the three men were sitting down plopped onto the ground. Very soon, there would be someone to take them away.
Some dogs’ barks were worse than their bites. Some barks, on the other hand, brought about an even worse bite.
Wang Zheng picked up his lunch and left. It seemed like there was a new type of opponent.
Day Two. No Zergs had appeared, yet 15 participants were eliminated from internal fights.
The generals did not know whether to laugh or cry at this. But it was for sure that they didn’t mind, as it was indeed still playing by rules. Those who got eliminated just had bad luck. To survive, it was important to have good luck too.
“That kid was pretty ruthless. He didn’t even flinch,” Drachmach said.
“Ha ha. If it were me, I would not have let them off this easy. This kid is strong and decisive. Very unlike Earthlings!”
Lie Wuqing roared with laughter. His admiration grew as he watched. What he detested most was Earth people’s indecisiveness and Moon people’s pretense to be serious. The true spirit lied in having clear lines drawn between love and hate.
“This lad is very vigilant and cautious. Did you notice his standing position when the three kids appeared?”
Meng Ao pointed at the screen, smiling. While he seemed relaxed, his body was evidently tense. He was very cautious. As a warrior, it was important to be vigilant and careful of one’s surroundings. Any foreign existence, even those of the same species, could be one’s enemy.
“Really? But he was still taken aback. My guess is he had wanted to share his meal with the three of them. Tsk tsk. What a weird child. He enjoys cruelty and killing, yet he remains a team player. How odd, how odd!”
Drachmach had noticed something different. Mercy and kindness were not required in the army, but some of mankind’s nature could never be changed. One rat was clearly not enough to feed four people, but it could maintain a certain level of fighting spirit.
A leader should not be selfish. At least that was what Drachmach thought.