As a rich second-generation kid who never lacked for resources, Little Fatty had access to plenty of Martial Arts.

In fact, forget Profound Level Martial Arts; he even had access to Earth Level Martial Arts.

But he didn’t learn them.

The reason was simple—he couldn’t learn them...

The higher the Level of a Martial Arts technique, the harder it was to reach the Entry Level. He had tried learning a Profound Level Martial Arts technique before, but after practicing for two months in his spare time and still failing to reach the Entry Level, he gave up.

After all, Martial Arts of this caliber were normally meant for powerhouses at the Blood Qi Realm.

Trying to reach the Entry Level during the Optimized stage was exceptionally difficult.

Moreover, reaching the Entry Level was considered the absolute limit. Cultivating to the Minor Success stage was practically impossible.

And now, this impossible feat had been accomplished by Lin Xinghai, which was why Little Fatty was so utterly shocked.

But once the shock subsided, it was replaced by sheer delight.

Because Martial Arts were different from Superpowers; as long as one still had stamina, they could be used continuously.

That meant Lin Xinghai really could lead them to steamroll through everything without using Firearms or his Superpower.

Little Fatty figured this out, and Jin Tong quickly did as well. Both of them looked at Lin Xinghai, their faces alight with excitement.

"Let’s go! Don’t just stand there gawking. This is just the beginning. Opportunities for close-quarters combat like this are rare. We can all use this to properly hone our melee skills." As Lin Xinghai spoke, he took the lead and moved forward.

It hadn’t been long since Lin Xinghai and Liu Miaomiao had become the Optimized. Unless they were piloting Mechas, they had very few opportunities to fight with melee weapons.

It wasn’t just them; Jin Tong and Little Fatty were in the same boat.

So when it came to fighting with melee weapons, all of them still had plenty of room for improvement.

They advanced along the main road and soon encountered the next zombie horde. This time, it was a horde numbering over 100.

But Lin Xinghai didn’t hesitate in the slightest. He raised his spear and charged straight in, with Little Fatty and the others hurrying to follow.

At first, seeing so many Zombies, they had all prepared to use their Superpowers, but they quickly realized it wasn’t necessary at all.

Because Lin Xinghai was the first to use his Superpower.

He hadn’t forgotten that he had another objective to complete during the upcoming battles: use his Superpower more to increase his Control Power.

As he unleashed his Speed Superpower, his speed instantly skyrocketed. At this speed, using the Phantom Body Technique, every movement and dodge seemed to leave behind an afterimage.

Meanwhile, the sharp glints from his spear were like myriad stars, erupting amidst the zombie horde.

Every flash of spear light signified another thrust from Lin Xinghai, and each thrust invariably left a bloody hole in a Zombie’s head.

Even High Level Zombies were no exception.

Right now, even though Lin Xinghai wasn’t going all out, his Speed was still maintained at around 400 points.

His Speed was at least four times greater than that of a High Level Zombie.

Under these circumstances, even the High Level Zombies had absolutely no time to dodge.

You could say that wherever Lin Xinghai passed, swathes of Zombies fell.

Of the hundred-plus Zombies in the horde, he alone took down at least 50.

Jin Tong and Little Fatty gulped, exchanging a glance. They could both see the utter shock in each other’s eyes.

They had anticipated that Lin Xinghai going "all out" would be terrifying, but they had never imagined it would be *this* terrifying.

Of course, what neither of them expected was that this slaughter was merely the beginning.

...

Time flowed on, and in the blink of an eye, three hours had passed.

By now, the sixth batch of examinees had also arrived in Dong’an City aboard military transport planes.

It was worth noting that this was also the final batch of examinees. By rights, with 31,200 examinees and a transport capacity of 5,000 per trip, it should have taken seven trips. However, the military couldn’t be bothered to make a separate seventh trip for the remaining 1,200 people, so they overloaded the sixth flight and brought everyone over at once.

Zuo Wenya, the chief examiner, had also arrived in Dong’an City on this transport and made his way into the Military Department’s temporary command post.

This assessment was a joint operation between East Sea Academy and the military from East Sea Base.

However, at East Sea Academy, both students and instructors actually held military ranks. After advancing to the Divine Demon Realm, Zuo Wenya had also successfully obtained the rank of Major General.

As a result, he was the supreme commander for this assessment, for both the academy and the military.

As he stepped into the command hall, all the officers and soldiers present saluted him in unison. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

After returning the salute, Zuo Wenya turned to the officer in charge, Lü Wei, and asked, "Colonel Lü, how many examinees have sent distress calls in the past three hours? What’s the casualty situation?"

"A total of 132 people have sent for help, and our soldiers arrived at their locations within a minute. Of those, 53 are seriously injured and two are dead. The rest only have minor injuries," Lü Wei replied promptly.

"What happened to the two deceased examinees?" Zuo Wenya asked, frowning.

"They were a twenty-person squad that ran into a horde of over one hundred Zombies. It should have been manageable, but they were killing the Zombies too slowly to conserve ammunition and Superpower energy."

"Unfortunately, there were two other sizable Zombie hordes nearby. The sounds of battle drew them in, and the number of Zombies besieging the squad swelled to over 300. More than 40 of those were High Level Zombies."

"They tried to break through the encirclement at first. It was only when they realized they were outmatched that they called for help. By the time we got there, we were just a step too late," Lü Wei said with a wry smile.

It wasn’t a failure of our response time; the squad was just incredibly unlucky. Plus, they misjudged their own capabilities and didn’t send a distress signal right away, which led to this outcome.

Zuo Wenya nodded. "While the military’s response was adequate, I want to avoid incidents like this as much as possible. Let’s do this: have another batch of reconnaissance drones transferred over from the base. We need to achieve full surveillance with no blind spots."

"If a similar situation is detected again, the nearest rescue squad should move to the vicinity beforehand, even before a distress call is made. Many of these examinees lack real combat experience. We can’t overestimate their ability to assess a battle."

"These examinees are all quite talented. Even if they don’t make it into East Sea Academy, it would be a great loss to the nation if they were to die during the assessment."

"Understood! I’ll have someone see to it immediately," Lü Wei said.

Zuo Wenya didn’t dwell on the matter, shifting his focus to the next point. "Now that all the examinees are inside Dong’an City, you can release the leaderboards."

More than three hours had passed. If there were any promising candidates in this cohort, some initial signs should be emerging by now.

After all, the truly powerful ones had all gone in with the first and second batches. The chances of anyone from the later groups staging an upset were slim.