When the old woman saw the change among these examinees, she revealed a smile and said, "Well, what are you waiting for? The clock is already ticking."
Once she said this, there were some people who couldn't wait as they charged right into the corridor of the airship, looking to find those red balls.
But there were also people who stayed in the room, as if they were waiting for something.
Of course, there was one thing in common between these people who stayed. They all looked at the people who had run off like they were looking at idiots.
They had a reason for this. To put it simply it was because those people were too dumb to realize the crux of this game.
This airship itself wasn't that big, which meant that it wouldn't be that hard to find the red balls. The main problem wasn't with finding the red balls themselves, but rather being able to keep them.
The key to this was the fact that there was a two hour limit to this game and that interference was allowed. To put it simply, with how easy it was to find the red balls, it was almost as if the rules of the game were encouraging people to steal red balls from each other.
That was the second reason why they looked at these people like they were idiots. Even if you found the ball in the beginning, would you be able to keep that ball all the way to the end?
The first important thing was the fact that one could steal balls, but the second and more important thing was that there was a time limit, so getting the balls right away wasn't the smart thing to do. After all, even if a person was powerful and could keep others from stealing their balls, if they got the ball right away, they would have to keep fending off people who would be trying to steal their ball the entire time.
Even if one was powerful, would they have the stamina to last that long?
The only difference was if someone had a powerful enough hiding technique, but that wasn't very likely because of how small the playing field was. Even if this airship was bigger than most other airships, that still didn't mean that it was big enough for them to freely run and hide on.
So with no viable strategies to keep the ball safe, it was better to wait and steal a ball in the end.
But while there was no lack of smart people in this room, there was one person whose instincts had surpassed the wit of everyone who was still left in the room. Sometimes when people wanted to consider every possibility, there were many times where they tended to overthink things and miss the obvious solution.
Wang Jian walked up to the old woman and asked, "Can I please have that red ball in your hand?"
The old woman looked at Wang Jian with a smile before throwing the ball at him without saying a thing.
As soon as that had happened, everyone realized that they had made a mistake. Even Lin Fan couldn't help being surprised by Wang Jian's instincts.
They had all assumed that the red balls were all hidden around the airship and they wouldn't be in plain sight like the one that had been in the old woman's hand. They had even assumed that the red ball that had been in the old woman's hand had been a demonstration ball and wasn't included in the ten that they could find, so they hadn't bothered with it.
But now they realized that this ball was actually one of the ten that they could get. Not only that, with how easily Wang Jian had gotten, they realized that any of them could have secretly gotten this ball and escaped while everyone had been distracted.
The good thing was that Wang Jian had taken the ball in such an open manner that everyone had seen, so now they knew that this red ball was on the table.
The bad thing was that the one who had gotten it was Wang Jian and they definitely weren't confident in stealing that ball from him.
The old woman noticed how everyone was looking over and she turned back to Wang Jian to say, "Manners do pay off sometimes. It's good you know to say please."
When she said this, everyone was stunned once again.
They had thought that they already had an idea of this old woman's personality, but now it seemed like they had no idea what it was at all. One moment she was cold and then the next she was a kind old woman…
Please just pick a personality and stick to it, alright?
That was what echoed inside everyone's head.
Well, that was everyone except for Lin Fan and Mo Ze Chen since they were a bit mentally prepared when she had given them that warning. They had an idea of what kind of personality she had and what she did just now fitted that personality that they thought.
But of course, no one had time to think about the personality of this old woman, there was something more pressing that they had to take care of.
While they didn't want to take the red ball from Wang Jian right now, the fact that there was a red ball that was right in front of them meant that they had a target to focus on.
There were several small groups that gave each other looks and then they began moving, surrounding Wang Jian's position in groups.
Since they knew that they wouldn't be able to take Wang Jian on alone, they made sure to team up first so they would be able to deal with him. Then they started moving around him to make sure that he wouldn't be able to escape from them.
But Wang Jian didn't plan on escaping at all as he just stood there with the red ball in one hand and the sword in his other.
While everyone moved around Wang Jian, there were a few groups that had also moved towards Lin Fan. They gave him questioning looks as if trying to find out what he was thinking, as well as trying to lure him over to their side, but he ignored every single person that came close to him.
Finally, there was one person who couldn't take it anymore and came right up to where Lin Fan was standing.
Mo Ze Chen was about to come forward to say something to stop him, but Lin Fan gave him a look and he moved back to where he had been standing.
The person that came over was another young master, but he wasn't from one of the twelve great factions. He was a young master that came from one of the cultivation families from a city under one of the twelve great factions, so while he had some position, his position wasn't that high either.
That was why he wanted to show off in this Hunters Exam and catch the attention of certain people so they would invite him to their factions.
The one problem was that he hadn't made it into the city in the giant golden glowing tree, so he didn't know how strong Lin Fan really was or what kind of personality he had, he just knew that since everyone was looking at Lin Fan like this, he had to be someone important.
He had his ambitions and he wanted to hug the biggest leg, so of course he chose to come talk to Lin Fan.
The young master came up to Lin Fan and said, "How about we work together to take down Wang Jian? If we work together, my family will definitely remember this favour…"
But before he could finish, Lin Fan had already punched out.
He knew that if he didn't set an example, there would be other people who would think the same as this person and he wasn't in the mood to deal with all of them. Well, to be fair, he was never in the mood to deal with these kinds of people because they were the kind of people that he hated.
These people only cared about their own benefits and there was nothing to gain from cooperating with them. Even if Lin Fan didn't have anything in this realm that he could consider his.
The young master clearly didn't expect Lin Fan to suddenly punch at him, but he had quick reactions since he was skilled enough that his family had sent him to take this exam. Still, he had clearly underestimated how strong Lin Fan really was.
It didn't matter if he could react in time because even if he could see it, that didn't necessarily mean that he could dodge it.
The punch was already in front of his face when he had reacted and when he tried to move, the full force of Lin Fan's fist hit the young master right in the face, sending him skidding across the floor before he lost consciousness.
Lin Fan had made sure to hold back since there had been clear rules established, but he also made sure that he could inflict as much damage as possible within the rules to show an example to the others.
Everyone looked at Lin Fan with shocked looks, but not a single person dared to say a thing.
Beside him, Mo Ze Chen looked at the young master who had been sent flying with a look of pity since he had already expected this when Lin Fan stopped him.
As for Lin Fan himself, he hadn't even looked at the young master once, as his eyes had been looking in Wang Jian's direction the whole time.
