Chapter Thirty-One: Mutated Beasts

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Cedar Valley lay in utter silence on the far side of the mountains, all traces of life concealed beneath a shroud of snow. The surface, bathed in sunlight, gleamed like a mirror, as if seeking evidence of anything alive beneath this icy world.

Suddenly, a hand thrust out from behind a massive boulder, followed by two feet kicking through the snow. Next, a snowman’s head emerged rigidly above the surface, and with a swipe of his hand, the snow was brushed away, revealing a man beneath.

Ye Bai’s mind was a muddled haze, as though someone were stirring restlessly inside his head. If not for the most basic instinct to survive, he might still be buried beneath the snow. He staggered to his feet, trembling, and closed his eyes to rest for a moment. Gradually, memories surfaced—Xiao Ma had probably been eliminated, Fan Xiang’s fate was uncertain, and in his current state there was no way to look for him. He had no idea how many days had passed since the exam began, and his points were running low; he needed to accumulate more, and quickly.

Ye Bai struggled upward, his steps uneven, hoping to gain higher ground for a better view of possible destinations. This frozen world was vast; with two thousand people scattered within, each was isolated, the chance of running into another almost impossible—unless luck intervened.

As he crawled upward, Ye Bai found that the higher he climbed, the more snow pits he encountered. Judging by their shapes, the frenzied beasts from before must have already clawed their way out.

At that moment, an adult mammoth struggled free from one of the pits. Its column-like legs trembled violently, as though the effort of breaking free had drained its strength. Ye Bai’s eyes lit up at the sight of the weakened beast. Here was a gift of points, delivered right to him. Channeling his attribute power, he advanced and dispatched the mammoth. As it fell, the device on his arm gleamed: 2.5 (950).

Ye Bai frowned. This was not a good omen. At this rate, he would certainly be eliminated. But then he noticed multiple red dots on his point tracker. Following their locations, he found himself standing on a flat, snowy plain. He couldn’t make sense of what the red dots truly signified, but recalling how the mammoth had emerged, he dug about a meter down into the snow—and sure enough, discovered an animal knocked unconscious beneath.

Delighted, Ye Bai marked the red dots on his tracker’s map; before long, the tracker vanished, but he had memorized most of the locations. After dispatching the slumbering beast, he moved on to the next red dot, spending the entire afternoon in this manner. By the time he finished off the last of the animals at the red marks, he’d even found a few saber-toothed tigers at the highest point; each was worth two points.

Night had fallen. Ye Bai found a random spot to rest. Just moments ago, he had killed the final animal, and as he looked at the number now displayed on his tracker, his face was filled with joy—50 (300).

The device would occasionally vanish, and so did Ye Bai’s smile, swallowed by the boundless night. Before long, he fell asleep, leaning against a stone.

Meanwhile, in a secret place unknown to any, five women—each seeming to embody the pinnacle of feminine beauty—worked at a cluster of digital screens, their fingers flying ceaselessly across the glowing displays. The endless streams of numbers would be enough to make an ordinary person dizzy, but the five women were unfazed, their faces calm as they processed every piece of information with practiced speed.

Not a word passed between them; it was as if their minds were already linked. Whether walking from one end of the room to the other, or simply reaching for a button, every movement was calculated in advance. So they worked, tirelessly, unceasing.

The exam had reached its fourth day; three days remained.

On the morning of the fourth day, the sun did not rise as usual. There was no snowfall either. Though daylight had come, the world remained dim and somber.

Ye Bai was still asleep, leaning against the rock. The day before, he had survived an avalanche and been struck in the chest by a falling tree. Though not mortally wounded, he still needed attribute power to heal the damage inside. And afterward, it had been nonstop digging for dazed beasts, racking up more points.

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Ordinarily, Ye Bai would have awakened by this time, but today exhaustion overwhelmed him; he wanted to sleep a little longer. Suddenly, his arm glowed—where the point tracker was—but instead of the usual blue, the light was blood-red.

Still dreaming, Ye Bai saw a field of red before his eyes. He slowly opened them, confused—he hadn’t killed any beasts, so why was the tracker showing, and why had it changed color? He brought it closer, and his expression changed.

Final three days of the exam. Sole task: survive.

Bonus task: slay a king-class mutant beast to gain fifty points.

Note: From now on, the tracker will not disappear. Reach the objective location quickly, and unite to resist the invasion.

Ye Bai stared at the crimson tracker—it was nothing like before. Previously, it had simply shown points, rankings, and a map of nearby animals. Now, the entire device glowed red. At the top was the points ranking, and beneath it a display of remaining contestants—1,500. Below that, the world map: at its edges, dense clusters of dark red dots. Cold sweat drenched Ye Bai’s back. He’d learned what those red dots meant yesterday—so many mutant beasts could annihilate all two thousand contestants in moments.

And in just this short time, the red dots spread like a plague, and the total number of survivors dropped by two hundred in an instant. At the center of the map, a single yellow dot marked the destination.

Ye Bai checked the distance—he wasn’t far from the target, and without hesitation, he hurried toward it.

At the edge of the frozen world, a few other contestants still searched an ice cave for something.

“Hey, you think there are any blue crystal mice left? We’ve already caught a bunch of ice crystal mice in here.”

“How should I know? Let’s look further down; the cave still goes deeper.”

Back-to-back, they ventured deeper into the ice cave. Suddenly, both their trackers lit up. Instinctively, they glanced down.

At that moment, a cacophony of screeches echoed from the depths. They barely had time to see what had changed on their trackers before they looked up—into a sea of red eyes filling the cave’s darkness.

Their scalps prickled with terror. They turned to run, but didn’t even have time to scream before they were swallowed by the oncoming horde of mutant beasts.

Halfway to the destination, for the first time, the landscape was not pure white—each step a boy took left behind a trail of sand, turning the heavy snow beneath his feet to earth. Behind him, every footprint was a dusty yellow.

He wore a robe like those of ancient emperors, though the golden dragon emblazoned across his chest was stained crimson, obscuring its features.

His sleeve glowed as the tracker flashed. Raising his arm, he studied it for a moment, then a wide smile split his face. “Ha! Just what I wanted.”

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The boy turned and spread his arms wide, a look of pure delight on his face, as if welcoming the coming beast tide.

Soon, the cacophony grew louder behind him. From the icy forest, someone burst forth, then another, and more followed in quick succession—some with clothes torn to shreds, others with flesh missing from arms, legs, even faces.

As they passed the boy, they glanced at him with strange expressions. But in this world, if you seek death, why should I stop you? I can barely save myself.

The roar behind grew ever louder, the trees in the forest shaking violently.

The first mutant beast charged out, mouth dripping with viscous saliva, eyes bloodshot, its gaze sweeping the area in search of anything alive.

Once gentle, adorable squirrels were now monstrous—their bushy tails bristling like steel spikes, fangs protruding from their lips, claws gouging deep grooves into the ice. The snow apes, whose hearts had begun to beat again after being frozen by the Sea Princess, now swelled with muscle beneath the ice, their growing bodies splintering the icy shell with sharp cracks.

A deafening howl split the air.

The snow ape burst from its icy prison, roaring at the sky, its massive frame swelling by several meters as it charged for the final destination.

A few saber-toothed tigers crouched and wailed, something bulging beneath the skin of their chests. The pain drove them to batter the ground with their claws, smashing stones to rubble. Their chests swelled further, until—at last—burst open in a spray of blood. The saber-toothed tigers leapt into the air, wings sprouting from their flanks, and with a mighty roar, they soared toward the center of the world.

The boy in the yellow robe stood surrounded by mutant beasts. It was impossible to tell how many had already died at his feet, yet more hurled themselves at him, eager to kill.

His eyes flashed like shifting sands. In an instant, sand dragons burst forth wherever he stepped, slaughtering the nearby monsters. The tracker on his arm flickered madly, his points surging—80, 90, 100…

A mammoth’s bellow echoed from behind the ice forest, its colossal bulk towering above the seven- or eight-meter pines.

The boy looked up, his expression grave. He glanced around at the mutant beasts, and with a final flare of attribute power in his eyes, slew the nearest monsters, then leapt free of the encirclement and sped toward the destination.