Chapter 222 Beginning Of Another Descent
Seven days ago...
Dante left the Black Land with his group, his avatar feeling refreshed as he meditated using the incenses, but rather sought to clear his mind and achieve 'the dao' rather than work hard sorting out wires, since the avatar literally couldn't do so anyway.
Meanwhile, the others also looked quite pleased as no matter how badly they scored, they still gained some insights while in the first mock exam. Even Louisa, who was trailing the class, looked somewhat touched, but everyone gave her a wide berth.
Not only was she a pure human of a top clan, but no one forgot her initial arrogance and behavior. Even though most of the class avoided each other anyway, and there was literally no harmony or camaraderie, there were some small pockets of similar races or factions.
The other three pure humans mostly walked together, but they did not dare approach Louisa because of the people she offended, as well as their disdain for her weakness, while Dante was something they hoped to approach but saw the effects of associating with him from Harold and Lucian's families' outcome.
Louisa seemed used to this, and her previous frivolity and young mistress behavior were gone, leaving only determination to fight for a better future for herself. When life slaps you in the face with the hard truth that you're not as special as you thought you were, you only had two outcomes.
To accept it and work hard to make yourself special or to break down and refuse to accept reality. Kudos to Louisa for making the former choice, but sometimes hard work alone is not enough in this world.
Whatever the case, the group was led to the staging area of the Black Land where they were informed of the details of the next Zero Gate World challenge.
"As you already know, this time the whole first-year class, the 28 of you, will be put together in the same server with a randomly generated layout similar to the Zero Gate World," Xue Bing began with her usual fake smile.
"This means that the difficulty has scaled much higher than before, as you will be directly competing with each other for the prizes that are few and far between in this quantum world. You are free to use any methods possible against each other, as there is no such thing as cheating."
"After all, when the real descent happens, no one will be able to know what happens within except what you yourselves reveal. There's no point in pretending that there will be fairness and righteousness in these mock exams with that in mind."
Xue Bing sighed deeply. "As a teacher, I must advise you professionally and from my heart. When you enter both the real Zero Gate or even this world, don't forget to consider surrendering to Dante and becoming his lackey to secure your survival. Why risk death when you have such a bright future ahead?"
The other teachers were furious again.
"Bitch Xue Bing, you were warned against doing this?! How dare you?!" Another female teacher, who had red lines flowing through her body - as her blood was made of magma - questioned as her powers activated.
Xue Bing simply remained smiling but didn't respond. Warned? Are you a child? The fact that I violated the rules so heavily by favoring my student and was only warned verbally should tell you something.
The other teachers were angry but could see this logic. Just as they planned to back off, the magma-based female teacher could not hold back her explosive temper anymore and directly attacked.
"Since this rubbish school does not want to punish you, then I will take its place and teach you a bloody lesson!" She roared and attacked, spewing an intense amount of lava bullets towards Xue Bing.
Being in such close proximity meant that Xue Bing could not respond in time, and the other teachers were shocked. They knew their colleague had a temper, but she had never gone this far, even when she was teased or suffered actual losses before.
The students could not even understand what was going on, but before anything could happen, the spatial defenses Xue Bing always kept on her body activated and carried the killing attack into another dimension.
Xue Bing's expression became ugly as she teleported away and glared at the woman with hatred. "Maria, are you crazy?! You actually tried to kill me? Do you think you can get away with this?!"
The Maria woman calmed down instantly and smiled. "Why can't I? If you can get away with your nonsense, so can I."
Xue Bing was stunned, then seemed to understand something as her expression changed. Maria smiled playfully as she narrowed her eyes.
"That's right, don't always go believing that the headmistress is omnipotent. She is powerful and influential, but she cannot decide everything about the universe. I am just here to warn you and him that you shouldn't go too far."
Xue Bing was speechless. Clearly, your target is more or less him, so why the heck did you attack me?! And you are talking about me and him, why are you looking his way and fixing your eyes stubbornly on me?
In the end, the students were dismissed, most of them looking puzzled, but Dante could tell using the feedback of emotions from his spirit sense that they were very aware of the ins and outs but were pretending to be ignorant students who had no hand to play.
This made Dante sigh tiredly. This was what he hated about this school and this universe in particular. Everyone was so cunning and cutthroat, and his first few days here had been really stressful.
To be honest, if he did not meet Beatrice but happened to meet anyone else, his fate would be so far different from what it was now that it would not be recognizable. Dante understood more and more why Beatrice believed their encounter was fated because by god, it really was.
Anyway, he returned to the dreadnought and entered a virtual pod to log into the Etraverse. From there, he found the newly unlocked Zero Gate world, which was slightly different from the one before.
[World Name: Zero Gate World (Intermediate)
World Owner: Eternal Academy
World Creator: Eternal Academy
World Size: Small
World Type: Shared
World Genre: Survival/Exploration
Bionics Allowed: No
Psionics Allowed: No
Superpowers Allowed: Yes
Requirements: Student ID
Duration: 30 days
Description: This is a recreation of the world behind the Zero Gate that has been refined countless times over the centuries to suit the true nature of what exists. The world behind the Zero Gate is randomly shuffled each time upon entry, but the archetype of the dangers and benefits that exist are traceable after so many voyages within.
Objectives: Survive for 30 days to pass and acquire as many Fruits of Condensation as possible.
Limitations: No Bionics, Psionics, or AI chips like in reality. One cannot leave the world until they either die or complete the tasks. Other students of the first year are present, providing competition.
Provisions: Your body is perfectly scanned and replicated to its truest extent, allowing you to use all your powers and abilities freely.]
Looking at it, the beginner version that he had previously spent time in was there too, but it was now locked. Dante's eye flickered as he wondered whether he could sneak in there with his quantum marker but gave up.
The quantum marker would only lead to the void since the world was generated on the spot upon entry. So what he would see would be a blank space with nothing within, like a placeholder world.
If he could create more quantum clones later, he could try and play with the idea of entering multiple Zero Gate worlds if access was released to him. In fact, after he dominated the real Zero Gate, it might be cost-effective to sell one or two of the less powerful fruits he got to the school to 'buy' unlimited access to these worlds.
From there, he could endlessly farm quantum fruits and then replicate them in reality, giving them what might be actual utility. He actually did not know if they worked in reality because he had not tried them yet nor given them to anyone.
Anyway, these were all speculative thoughts and plans for the future. As for right now, Dante was more focused on entering this world and harvesting a set of ten fruits once more. As for his lovely 'classmates', if they knew what was good for them, they would hide by the side and wait out the 30 days.
If they dared to actually compete or compare with Dante, he would give them an unforgettable reminder as to why Xue Bing had given them that friendly advice.
With such vicious and dark thoughts in mind, Dante clicked to descend into the world, and the short buffer activated. His quantum clone then logged into the Zero Gate World just as his real body would, through an avatar.
It was only after ensuring that his avatar was safe that the quantum clone descended with its 'real body'.
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