Chapter 14: The Beginning of the Assessment
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As it happened, the registration for the assessment was not an obstacle to Lin Huang at all. It was just a preliminary screening of sorts to avoid too many participants in the Assessment stage.
Since Lin Huang was already in the meeting room, to Yi Yeyu, his presence did not make a difference to the assessment. From the way he looked, she thought he would definitely be eliminated during the assessment anyway for his abilities were not going to save him. So, to avoid embarrassing him, she let his registration mess-up slide.
Lin Huang did not even have the opportunity to show Yi Yeyu that he was an Imperial Censor and before he knew it, the registration was completed.
"Bro, you’re so lucky! When you raised up your hand and said you haven’t registered, I thought the f*cking witch would throw you out," the fatty laughed and got even friendlier than before as he shook Lin Huang’s hand. He then said, "Let’s get to know each other. I’m Yin Hangyi, what about you?"
"Lin Huang, pleased to meet you," Lin Huang replied, as he could not avoid the guy’s friendliness and he did not seem skeptical to it anyhow, so he shook his hand.
"You’re not even iron-level and you’re here for the assessment. Such audacity!" Yin Hangyi patted Lin Huang’s shoulder.
"Just trying my luck. Maybe I'll pass, you never know," Lin Huang answered with a smiled. He had no plans of revealing his identity as an Imperial Censor to the guy, of all people, so he kept quiet about it.
After chatting for awhile, Lin Huang said goodbye to Yin Hangyi. If he did not leave, he might have had to talk to the fatty forever.
After dinner, Lin Huang took a stroll at the night market to calm his thoughts. Then he went back to the hotel and slept early in preparation for the day to come.
The next morning, he went to the meeting room right after breakfast. The head examiner Yi Yeyu seemed to despise people who were late, so he did not want to lose his eligibility to the assessment because of tardiness.
As it turned out, the strict warning had everyone else on edge too. Nobody was late on the second day. The 127 people who joined the meeting on the first day were all there before 7:50 a.m.
At exactly 8 a.m., the Head Examiner Yi Yeyu arrived. This time, she wore a pair of long, black pants and a short sleeve white shirt. Her style was a little different from the first day but no matter how hard she tried to cover up her voluptuous body, her curves could still be seen.
All the male members present were young and horny at the sight of her. Most of their eyes followed her movements, but they did not focus on her face. Instead, their stares were centered on her breasts.
Yi Yeyu walked to the podium, looked at the crowd and started to speak.
"Everybody is here. That’s great! Now I will talk about the syllabus of the assessment today," she started.
"The theme of the assessment is - Survival. As a professional hunter, we will always encounter horrible environments and powerful monsters. Thus, survival is a topic that all professional hunters should master. One who does not master this will surely die tragically in the end," she warned.
"The location of assessment is a wilderness 330 kilometers away from the foothold No.7C87 - Pure Gold Desert. The objective of the assessment is simple. All you guys have to do is enter Door A to the Pure Gold Desert, walk across the desert that is 1,500 kilometers long and within 15 days, you must arrive at foothold No.7D121 or be eliminated," she said. As Yi Yeyu spoke, she projected a 3D map showing the location of the starting and ending points.
"You are not allowed to bring food and water during this assessment. You would have to obtain them in the desert," she continued.
Everyone was stunned at what she said at the end. Even Lin Huang was upset. He had prepared a ton of water and snacks yesterday for the assessment.
"Later, each and every one of you will be given an emergency communication device once we have inspected your storage spaces. If any of you cannot handle the challenge, press the rescue button to give up the assessment and you will be saved, and subsequently eliminated. Of course, if you’re not able to arrive at your destination foothold No.7D121 within 15 days, that will be considered as failing the assessment," she explained.
"That's all for the assessment briefing. If you have any questions, please ask now." Yi Yeyu asked with a sinister grin on her lips.
"Miss examiner, looking at the terrain of the 3D map that you showed us, our destination No.7D121 isn’t connected directly to the Pure Gold Desert. Instead, it’s blocked. That means, the area of the assessment isn’t only a desert, but it will also include climbing the mountain. Am I right?" A man in glasses asked.
"You’re very observant, yes, climbing the mountain is part of the challenge and you have to do it with your bare hands. The equipment for climbing in your storage space will be confiscated later," Yi Yeyu said, as her smile widened at the thought.
The crowd groaned again. Yin Hangyi who sat next to Lin Huang was getting more and more upset.
"Do they plan to fail each and every one of us?" The fatty mumbled.
"Are there any more questions?" Yi Yeyu asked. She seemed to be satisfied with the briefing of the assessment that she had presented.
"Miss examiner, I've done some research on the mountains. It’s called the Snowy Goddess Mountain, located right behind foothold No.7D121. It’s a level-2 wild zone. Based on records of the area, bronze-level monsters have been sighted there. In such a wild zone, isn't it unsafe to carry out the assessment... there?" A voice at the back of the room asked. As it turned out, it was Lin Huang who asked the question.
Everyone was shocked when they heard the fact.
Yi Yeyu was stunned. She frowned and said, "The entire zone of the mountain is in fact, a level-2 wild zone. However, there’s one mountain around there that’s without bronze-level monsters. So that place is considered a level-1 wild zone. All of you should climb that mountain instead. I'll get someone to mark it down on the trail," she answered.
As it seemed, she had intentionally left out the information to increase the difficulty of the assessment and decrease the passing rate. She did not expect Lin Huang to point it out, but now she had to mark the safer trail for everyone to use. If she did not do that and insisted everyone to take the assessment as it was, the results of the assessment would be invalid if an incident was brought up to the management of the Hunter Association. A level-2 wild zone was prohibited as an assessment field.
"Are there any more questions? Please do not hesitate to ask. If not, we’re ready to go." Just when Yi Yeyu was done speaking, a few of them raised their hands but their questions were irrelevant.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang was scratching his head thinking about the difficult situations within the assessment.
"The lack of food and water would be the biggest issue. As we go, we still have look for a source of water. Moreover, in the desert, there are many deadly monsters that we should be aware of. Above all, people are the most dangerous beings that we should watch out for. There will be many of them who will try to steal our food and water. By my calculations, the 1,500-kilometer desert trail can be completed in 13 days. Climbing with your bare hands would take more than a day, I might need to reserve two days for that…" Lin Huang said, in discussion with Yin Hangyi.
"It’s now 8:20 a.m. Let me bring you to the assessment point," Yi Yeyu said and waved into the air. Suddenly, a green wooden door appeared. She then pushed open the door.
"Please queue up. After you passed through the door, please wait and don’t move around the place!" she warned.
"Ooo! A Dimensional Relic!" the fatty Yin Hangyi exclaimed when he saw the door.
"What’s a relic?"
"You’re so ignorant. A relic is an extremely rare treasure that surpasses gold-ranked equipment. If one has killed a transcendant monster, there's a possibility that they would get it. A Dimensional Relic's rarity is even more valuable than some weapon relics. It seems like this witch isn’t just a hot simpleton after all," Yin Hangyi explained in all seriousness.
Lin Huang became even more curious about the world he knew. The rank after gold-ranked equipment is transcendant? He was impressed at the thought of it. How powerful can the strongest combat rank be?
More and more people passed through the door. Soon the queue got shorter and it was finally Lin Huang and the fatty’s turn to enter.
As he stepped into the door, he felt a slight dizziness and in the blink of an eye, he was in a desert.
"That’s amazing!" Lin Huang exclaimed.