Chapter 122: Banning death
The preparation for the upcoming practical examinations became the absolute hottest topic across the entire Ascendant Academy.
Every single student in Class One was incredibly excited about the final prize, and the same rule applied to Ayla.
To her, however, there was a massive unfair advantage working behind the scenes.
She had Nexus to directly guide her and feed her all the hidden background data about the examination realm before the gates even opened.
If any of the other hard working students inside her division knew that the so called fair and neutral world system was actively helping a single student prepare for the survival trial, they would probably spit out thick blood in anger.
"The simulation monsters inside the realm are completely real, and the physical pain and psychological fear you experience will all be completely real too," Nexus explained, her melodic voice echoing clearly within the private training suite. "Even the exact sensation of your heart stopping and your body going cold in death will have absolutely no difference from a real execution in the outside world. It is just that I have officially banned dying inside the parameters of the forest."
Nexus stopped speaking for a brief moment, waiting patiently for Ayla to ask questions about the technical rules.
"Banning death?" Ayla asked in genuine confusion, her mental voice muttering as she opened her small blue fluid mouth.
She focused her energy and smoothly swallowed another high grade monster core that Nexus had secretly brought into her room for her to eat.
Although these specific system cores did not contain any transferable racial traits for some strange reason, the raw energy locked inside them was slowly and continuously saturating her Apocalypse Silver Metal Core.
At this incredible speed of consumption, Ayla could easily become a Gold ranked Crusader in less than a month without even stepping into a single public combat arena.
She chewed on the hard core, feeling the dense silver mana dissolve into her jelly body.
However, currently, her primitive monster brain was far more curious about the concept of ’banning death’ inside a real physical space.
"It is simply the advanced invention of my own personal trait, Perfect Authority," Nexus answered smoothly, her tone filled with a light touch of pride.
"You also have a trait?" Ayla asked in surprise, her golden eyes widening slightly beneath her translucent blue surface.
Nexus chuckled softly at her innocent, blunt question. A soft, artificial breeze suddenly generated inside the room, gently rubbing against her round slime body like a warm hand.
Ayla bobbled her jelly form in pure content as she felt the soft, nourishing energy of the world grid washing smoothly through her fluid body, relaxing her internal parameters.
"Of course I have traits, little girl. I used to possess a real physical constitution and a complete biological framework before I decided to become the official Administrator of this world," Nexus explained.
"Can you take it back?" Ayla asked, her multi-layered voice dropping its usual bored tone and turning quite serious.
"Only if I am no longer the administrator of the system grid," Nexus replied in a quiet, unhurried voice.
"Then if you leave your position, will Kenji lose his physical constitution and his human body too?" Ayla’s tone of speech changed completely, letting out a heavy tinge of sudden confusion and a bit of genuine reluctance.
Nexus didn’t answer her question right away, remaining completely silent inside the mind link.
This sudden lack of response made Ayla much more agitated than before. Her blue fluid began to ripple violently, her golden eyes flashing with a deep, dark anger as she flattened herself against the mattress.
"I don’t want him to be an administrator," Ayla stated flatly, her voice filled with a cold stubbornness.
"That is his ultimate fate, Ayla," Nexus sighed softly, her digital presence letting out a weary vibration. "It is the path that has been laid out for him since the very beginning of his birth. No one can change it now."
"What foolish fate? If it tries to take him away, I will simply eat it," Ayla trembled in anger, her internal fluids bubbling up with a ferocious heat.
She had already deeply missed the long, quiet nights that she had spent together with Kenji back in the lower planes.
She remembered how completely fulfilling and warm they were to her primitive monster soul. Knowing that even hugging his chest or sleeping beside him became an absolute physical impossibility because of his incoming transformation into a formless cosmic entity, she became incredibly angry at the system rules.
"Well, you don’t have to be so dramatic. He can still easily take different physical shapes and manifest real bodies if he truly wants to after the transfer is complete," Nexus pointed out, her tone suddenly shifting back into a highly teasing cadence. "You don’t have to worry about losing your chances of getting ’railed’ by him in the future."
Nexus found it absolutely hilarious and funny that the primary reason for Ayla’s intense anger over Kenji losing his human body was entirely tied to her physical desires.
And true enough, Ayla’s dark mood improved significantly upon hearing that specific structural detail. Her rippling fluid settled back into a smooth, calm sphere.
"He can actually take different shapes?" she asked, her voice filled with a heavy trace of no trust as she analyzed the statement. "Then if that is the truth, you can also take a physical shape right now? Why don’t you take one and walk around the academy sectors?"
"Because I don’t have anyone special waiting around to ’rail’ me too," Nexus teased back instantly, her virtual laughter echoing loudly through the mind link. "But if you agreed to it right now, I can easily manifest a handsome male body and ’rail’ you instead."
"I don’t agree, you pervert antique," Ayla replied instantly without a single second of hesitation.
"Wha—? Where in the world did you learn that specific combination of words from!" Nexus shouted in complete surprise, her digital voice cracking with shock.
Ayla used her translucent blue liquid to smoothly form a small, unmistakable human palm from her mass. She extended the watery hand and pointed directly toward the glowing screen of the Ascendant Net floating beside her bed.
"From here," Ayla said simply.
For a few quiet moments, Nexus did not speak a single word. She went completely mute, leaving the room in total silence.
While Ayla waited patiently for the system to say anything back to her, a massive, unannounced system update suddenly happened across the entire global infrastructure of the Ascendant Net.
A loud ping chimed in her ear as a new, strict administrative rule appeared in a red update box on her screen.
The system update explicitly banned all R-18 slang words and adult profanity from being typed or translated anywhere on the digital student forums.
Nexus had literally altered the security code of the entire academy network in a fit of digital embarrassment.
Ayla ignored the sudden update and calmly continued asking detailed questions about the layout, terrain, and monster distributions of the Examination realm.
She only went to sleep hours later when she was completely satisfied with the massive amount of practical knowledge she had gained from the system.
The next two days passed by with extreme speed. Ayla spent every single waking hour training inside her reinforced suite, testing her newly invented Emotion Weaver sub-functions on the defensive energy arrays.
She practiced removing, interchanging, and combining fake emotional targets until her execution speed required zero mana delay.
While she was calmly mastering her skills in private, the rest of the academy was in a complete, boiling mood of intense preparation.
Despite the fact that Ayla had successfully planted deep seeds of doubts and greed inside her own specific sub-division, the students from the other nine sub-divisions were all heavily focused on building massive, unified teams for the examinations.
The grand stone plazas and floating bridges were filled with thousands of alien recruits bartering for gear, trading potion formulas, and locking down formal survival contracts.
The competitive stress between the different infinite races reached such a toxic high that the local homeroom teachers had to work extreme overtime hours just to police the sectors.
They had to constantly step in and use their Crown-ranked power to stop any of these large, rowdy groups from starting massive physical fights on the campus grounds before the exam even officially started.
And finally, after days of mounting tension and endless anticipation, the designated day of the practical examination arrived.
Ayla woke up early in the morning, her blue slime body shifting smoothly as her self-cleaning uniform wrapped securely around her fluid mass.
She activated her holographic contact lens, watching the green navigation arrows light up over her right eye.
She hopped off the large bed and waddled toward the main exit door, her golden eyes burning with a deep, silent excitement.
She knew that the gates were finally opening, and she was more than ready to step into the forest and start her grand harvest.
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