Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

As the examination map continued to shrink, the combat mode suddenly forced students into confrontations, resulting in frequent changes among the top two thousand names on the score leaderboard. The number of students eliminated from the map examination was rapidly increasing.

Mentor Fang noticed that Ruo Manni and her teammate Neptune were steadily climbing the ranks, now within the top hundred.

After about two more hours of the map continuously switching and reducing, the opponents they faced showed no signs of lessening in difficulty.

At this point, the remaining candidates were among the strongest, facing off against intermediate and perfected fourth-level warriors, while most of the weaker fourth-level candidates had already been eliminated.

The most dangerous encounter for the duo was when they faced a five-person team, all of whom were intermediate fourth-level warriors, with two of them being at the perfected level.

Neptune, although a late fourth-level warrior, hadn’t yet reached perfection, which lowered his combat power somewhat. Moreover, with Ruo Manni, who was only a late third-level warrior, he was further hampered.

Neptune was quickly held up by three intermediate fourth-level candidates, while the other two charged directly at Ruo Manni.

Without hesitation, Ruo Manni sent her leaves flying towards the two boys. Though caught off guard, they managed to avoid serious injury, sustaining only about eighty points of damage.

Ruo Manni felt frustrated; these two boys had rich combat experience. After failing to catch them off guard, they were able to dodge her subsequent leaf attacks. Even when they couldn’t fully evade, they managed to avoid critical hits, causing her to lose ground and be chased instead.

Fortunately, in this war realm, Ruo Manni felt her combat power was low, so after acquiring Lightness Technique, she had worked hard to train.

While her physical skills were only at the third level, her earlier battles had consumed mostly mental energy, leaving her physical stamina relatively intact. Her opponents, however, were at a disadvantage, and in this way, her speed was not much slower than the two boys.

With the trees providing obstacles, Ruo Manni could maneuver more freely, and just as they were about to catch up, she suddenly used her mental energy to trip them, slowing them down.

The first time Ruo Manni used this move, the two boys were caught off guard; one nearly stumbled, while the other almost crashed into a tree. Their pursuit slowed, increasing the distance between them.

It seemed that Ruo Manni’s use of mental skills made the boys hesitant, causing them to hold back in their chase. This gave her a chance to catch her breath.

However, this kind of combat was not in her favor; her physical and mental energy were being heavily drained, and her health points were continually dropping. At this rate, victory or defeat was uncertain.

Fortunately, Neptune was reliable. After about half an hour, he dealt with the three opponents and rushed over to support Ruo Manni.

But the two boys attacking Ruo Manni were quite alert. As Neptune withdrew, they coordinated a full-force attack on her, only to feint and leap into the left-side forest to escape.

Both Neptune and Ruo Manni had no intention of chasing them. They were not lacking points, and with the danger gone, they decided to rest in place; both were exhausted from the battle.

Just as they settled down, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in their ears: “Currently, only one hundred thousand candidates are remaining across all ten examination areas. Please prepare for the final battle phase…” Before they could react to the announcement about the map switch, Ruo Manni and Neptune felt a slight shift in their bodies as the grass beneath them transformed into scorching hot sand.

They hurriedly jumped up but, due to the sudden force, their feet sank deeply into the sand, about ten centimeters deep.

Ruo Manni fared slightly better, while Neptune sank even deeper. She figured it was because Neptune was heavier than she was.

Ruo Manni glanced around and noticed that the desert was a fully simulated environment, making everything feel incredibly real, even the hot winds that blew past her.

“The final battle phase is actually in the desert? Walking is so difficult without mechs,” Neptune said, somewhat frustrated.

The desert terrain was not advantageous for fighters. The flat and open geography provided no cover, forcing everyone into close combat.

Without mechs or weapons, the candidates had to rely on their martial skills. However, the sand impeded their agility, making unarmed fighters less nimble and unable to exert their full strength.

But for a mentalist like Ruo Manni, this terrain was quite favorable.

Without ranged weapons, she didn’t have to worry about distant attacks. The wide field of vision meant she wouldn’t have to expend mental energy scouting for opponents, and the sandy terrain hindered her opponents’ mobility, making it easier for her to launch surprise attacks.

Ruo Manni was grateful for Neptune’s advice; she had prepared a large number of “hidden weapons.” Since the system fully simulated the real natural environment, she filled her pockets with leaves. While resting, she found some soft vines and wove two pouches to tie around her waist, filling them with many hard-shelled seeds the size of soybeans to use as hidden weapons.

These hard-shelled seeds caused more damage than leaves. Using leaves against mid-level fighters wouldn’t easily lead to a knockout, but hitting opponents with the hard-shelled seeds could take away ten percent of their health points.

“You really are quite talented; no wonder you have a gift for mech crafting,” Neptune remarked, clearly impressed. He had never seen anyone weave by hand, and the girl’s hands were incredibly skillful.

The system transported over a hundred thousand candidates from twenty examination zones to the desert area. Ruo Manni felt the heat enveloping the desert, realizing it was likely not very large.

Fortunately, she and Neptune were lucky enough to be sent to the edge of the desert, with no candidates behind them. This meant they only needed to guard against enemies in front and on their sides.

The candidates who made it this far were all formidable. As soon as they were teleported and steadied themselves, they instinctively attacked nearby opponents, plunging the entire desert into chaos within moments.

Ruo Manni, being an obvious underdog, became a target for those looking to take advantage. However, those who aimed to bully her quickly regretted it.

Taking advantage of the candidates’ slowed movements due to the sand, Ruo Manni unleashed her hard-shelled seeds, eliminating over twenty candidates within the first ten minutes and boosting her score to over nine thousand points.

While the candidates on-site couldn’t see the leaderboard, Mentor Fang was watching closely. She was not surprised at all to see Ruo Manni’s score soar into the top twenty within just ten minutes after the map change.

All of Mentor Fang’s astonishment had already been exhausted in the hour and a half since she first discovered Ruo Manni was assigned to the combat examination area.