Chapter 92 - 90: Purple Mechanism: Taotie
Lin Ye subconsciously turned his head.
He looked toward the other Virtual Pod beside him, which had just opened.
Inside, Zhang Yuqing was also struggling to sit up. She dazedly rubbed her drowsy eyes, her fair cheeks still flushed from the intense battle before.
She wore the same expression of dazed bewilderment.
It seemed she hadn’t fully recovered from the self-destruction.
Looking at that living, unharmed face,
Lin Ye’s heart inexplicably eased.
An indescribable feeling of post-disaster relief, the feeling of ’we both survived’, quietly washed over him.
He opened his mouth, and two words squeezed out from his dry throat.
"Thank you."
The two words were light, yet heavy.
Zhang Yuqing froze for a moment. She seemed to finally snap out of her daze and heard Lin Ye’s words.
She looked at Lin Ye, their eyes meeting.
Zhang Yuqing’s heart skipped a beat. She quickly asked, "Did we succeed?"
Lin Ye nodded heavily. "It’s all thanks to you!"
Before long, a solemn bell chimed, echoing throughout the entire stadium.
On the massive light screen in the center of the spectator hall, the final rankings locked into place.
[First Round of the Survival Competition, Officially Concluded!]
[Second Round of the Individual Knockout Tournament, the Drawing Ceremony is About to Begin.]
In the hall, all the supervising teachers subconsciously sat up straighter, their gazes locked onto the light screen. The atmosphere grew tense once again.
The rules for the drawing soon appeared on the screen, simple and clear.
The rules were almost identical to the format of the previous school-wide competition at Dongjiang First Middle School.
The 128 contestants would be divided into brackets of ten based on their final rankings.
For example, ranks 1-10 were in one drawing pool, and ranks 11-20 were in another.
Within each bracket, the intelligent system would conduct a completely random matching for one-on-one battles.
After all, this was just an online exchange competition. Compared to the actual city-wide mock exams that affected university admissions, the schedule wasn’t as complex or thorough.
Therefore, the second round directly adopted the most brutal single-elimination format.
A single loss meant immediate elimination.
As the competition progressed, contestants from the lower brackets would gradually face those from the upper brackets.
The final rankings would be determined by the system after all matches were over, based on each contestant’s overall performance in both rounds.
During the wait for the drawing results,
Lin Ye glanced at the final rankings for the first round on the big screen.
[1st Place: Xue Wangshu, Celestial Star Martial Arts High School, Kill Points: 1269!]
Lin Ye was a little confused.
He remembered clearly that at the end of the first day’s point tally,
this person already had 1269 points!
’Why does he still have the same score after three days?’
Beside him, Chen Meng answered his unspoken question.
"The kid in first place voluntarily withdrew from the competition after the first day’s tally."
Hearing this, Lin Ye was even more confused.
But in the next moment, he suddenly understood.
’Did he quit because he felt this competition was a waste of his time?’
’Compared to the competition, cultivating and honing his martial skills were probably more important to him.’
’But even so, he still took first place in the end!’
Lin Ye’s suspicions were soon confirmed by the discussions of others around him.
This had become a legend that everyone had been talking about since the start of the competition.
He withdrew right after the first day.
But even so, he was still number one!
So arrogant, but so strong!
The stream of data on the light screen began to scroll wildly.
The drawing had begun!
Matchup brackets refreshed one after another like a waterfall.
Soon, all the names locked into place.
On the light screen, a clear line of matchup information appeared in everyone’s view.
[Lin Ye (10th Place, Dongjiang First Middle School) VS Yan Hui (5th Place, Dongjiang Experimental Middle School)]
The moment the results appeared,
Wang Zhengguo’s expression stiffened slightly.
The look on his face shifted unpredictably, finally settling into a helpless, bitter smile.
Wang Zhengguo gathered his thoughts and spoke with an unprecedentedly earnest tone.
"Lin Ye."
"I know you’ve improved a lot. A whole lot."
"Your homeroom teacher, Mr. Chen, and I both witnessed firsthand how you went from an unknown student to where you are today in less than two months."
"Honestly, you’ve already given us a huge surprise."
He paused, his gaze turning serious.
"But there’s something you must listen to today."
"You’re still young, and you have a long road ahead of you. With your talent and potential, I firmly believe your future accomplishments will be no weaker than this Yan Hui’s—in fact, you’ll be much stronger!"
"So, don’t write yourself off or get hung up on a single loss."
"We already lost one Jiang Feng. I don’t want to see this Yan Hui break the back of another one of our school’s geniuses!"
Lin Ye’s heart stirred.
The principal’s words made Lin Ye realize that Jiang Feng’s previous downfall was likely also because of this Yan Hui.
...
There was a two-and-a-half-hour break before the start of the second round.
Wang Zhengguo took Lin Ye and Zhang Yuqing to a nearby restaurant for a good meal.
After the meal, Lin Ye returned to the private rest area provided by the event organizers to close his eyes, meditate, and adjust his condition.
Inside the quiet room, Lin Ye sat cross-legged.
[Host: Lin Ye]
[Race: Goblin Warrior]
[Level: LV.16 (2109/18400)]
[Life Value: 2816/2816]
[Energy Value: 510/510]
[Physical Strength Value: 800/800]
[Boss Mechanics: Healing out of combat (White), Soul Furnace (Green), Crush (Green), Taotie (Purple)]
[Current Phase: P1, Other Phases Not Unlocked]
[Strength: 72.7]
[Agility: 73.1]
[Stamina: 89.3]
[Spirit: 62.6]
[Free Attribute Points: 13]
[Skill Points: 1]
[Temporary Skill: Crystalization]
After killing the Crystal Spirit Race youngling, the massive 15,000-point experience reward had directly boosted Lin Ye from Level 15 to Level 16!
Lin Ye’s gaze fell on the Boss Mechanics section.
[Taotie (Purple)]!
This was the first time he had ever seen a mechanic of this rarity.
He knew that the two green mechanics, [Soul Furnace] and [Crush], had already given him a huge advantage.
’What kind of effect would a purple mechanic have?’
Lin Ye checked the detailed description for [Taotie].
[Taotie: When you devour the life core or energy core of a special enemy, you will gain additional attribute bonuses and have an extremely low probability of plundering one of the target’s racial traits or exclusive skills.]
[Current Attribute Bonus: Spirit +0.4, Stamina +0.1]
[Note: For racial traits and exclusive skills obtained through Taotie, only 1 active skill and 1 passive trait can be activated at a time. Furthermore, the strength of this trait and skill cannot be increased through proficiency, only by devouring Source Crystals.]
’This is... a looting-type mechanic!’
’And a ridiculously high-potential one at that!’
It completely followed the same logic as Soul Furnace—getting stronger just by killing monsters.
But its potential was much, much higher!
First, the attribute bonuses it provided weren’t limited to a single stat like maximum Life Value.
It offered more comprehensive attribute growth.
Although devouring the Crystal Spirit Race youngling’s core this time only yielded 0.4 Spirit and 0.1 Stamina, which didn’t seem like much,
every little bit adds up.
The most valuable part of this mechanic was still the extremely low probability of directly plundering a target’s racial traits or exclusive skills!
Lin Ye instantly noticed the extra temporary skill at the very bottom of his panel.
[Crystalization]!