The results screen came up, and everyone focused on it.
[Rankings of Performance among the Unique Batch of 10,998;
Student Name || Amount of Monsters Killed || Amount of Fruits Claimed || Overall Rating
1. Dante || 253 || 10/10 || EX+++
2. Humphrey Lottin || 67 || 3/10 || SSS
3. Slessor McKailen || 62 || 3/10 || SSS
4. Zara'el Ziran || 54 || 2/10 || SS
5. Grak'tar Thal || 52 || 2/10 || SS
6. Frella Rovik || 50 || 2/10 || SS
7. Kaelith D'vorin || 48 || 2/10 || S
8. Ethan Blackwood || 44 || 1/10 || A
9. Veshara Xyron || 41 || 1/10 || A
10. Zorin Darqan || 39 || 1/10 || A
11. Nalani Fireheart || 36 || 1/10 || A
12. Xalen Vortis || 35 || 1/10 || A
13. Taryn Smith || 32 || 1/10 || A
14. Lirael Windrider || 29 || 1/10 || B
15. Gornak Groth || 28 || 0/10 || B
16. Azura Nightshade || 26 || 0/10 || B
17. Sarah Miller || 25 || 0/10 || B
18. Mark Johnson || 23 || 0/10 || B
19. Kharik Blazefist || 22 || 0/10 || B
20. Syrenia Moonshadow || 20 || 0/10 || C
21. Rikar Ironfist || 18 || 0/10 || C
22. Thalia Sunstrike || 16 || 0/10 || C
23. Draegar Stormreaver || 15 || 0/10 || C
24. Zephyr Nightstalker || 14 || 0/10 || C
25. Kaldria Frostwing || 13 || 0/10 || C
26. Rygar Flameheart || 12 || 0/10 || C
27. Maelis Voidbringer || 11 || 0/10 || C
28. Louisa Nicolaides || 10 || 0/10 || C.]
When the base results were announced, everyone first checked who would be first, even though they suspected it. When they saw the name 'Dante' at the top, many felt bitter and thought that this was so.
However, when they saw his actual results, their expressions changed tremendously. The pupils of the teachers dilated and narrowed rapidly, their hearts thumping like unrestrained vehicles while the students were simply blank, wondering if this was a dream.
As for Dante, he was wondering something else. He wondered if the central server was aware of his 'cheating,' but then ruled it out. It was impossible to detect the abilities of the Quantum Entanglement superpower; otherwise, the Central Server wouldn't have been so confused about his ranking in the first place.
Meanwhile, the others were still digesting what they were seeing, and naturally, they found it hard to grasp. After all, the implications were too severe to gloss over.
Putting aside the number of monsters Dante had killed in the end, just the fact that he claimed ten fruits meant that he could likely replicate this feat within the actual Zero Gate!
This was exactly the biggest fear of the fellow students and the factions behind them!
For the factions, they feared that for 5 consecutive years, Dante would be a student, and all the fruits would be funneled away into the hands of the Portinari family, growing their power exponentially.
The ones who feared this the most were the powers that schemed against Portia Portinari, Beatrice's mother. They had already paid an extremely steep price to kill her back then, and they still had not recovered from it.
If the clan were to regain strength and investigate thoroughly, they would be at the risk of annihilation! Thinking of this, they became restless and began to even vaguely pressure the Portinari clan before the Zero Gate opened.
As for the students, what they feared the most was not failing their factions, but that Dante was the ruthless type who would kill anyone he encountered using the excuse of no one being able to see or record what happens in the Zero Gate.
It was similar to those secret realm arcs in eastern fantasy where everyone killed everyone because no one would know, so those who were weaker always dreaded the stronger ones.
Seeing his SDI 30 days ago made them feel like even though he had such crazy strength, it might not translate to much on the ground, but these results wiped away such flimsy hopes. Now, they understood that their mission had changed from 'plunder' to 'survive.'
Of course, most of them understood this. Those in the top 7 who had S- and above ratings did not accept this and made plans in their hearts. They believed in their strengths and talents, fully believing that even if they met Dante, they could put up a fight.
Whatever the case, the room was silent until the Central Server released the highlights. Usually, it would cut snippets of the achievements or disgraces of the students from their 30-day run to let the others learn from it.
The first three were all from Dante alone. The first one showed him confronting an army of giant termites with an earth-related superpower. Seeing the termites adeptly controlling the earth, even the teachers felt a chill.
Facing such monsters, the students calculated if they would be able to survive, and most came up with a simple answer: Death! They might not even have the chance to run, as running was a luxury for stronger ones like Humphrey and Slessor to enjoy.
As for the teachers, they saw themselves killing one or two while fleeing shabbily with injuries. Seeing Dante standing before the monsters, they almost forgot that the man himself was standing beside them and felt that he was going to be killed.
So you could imagine the sheer surprise they felt when Dante simply expunged a wave of his blackish-red hellfire to cover some of the giant termites. That surprise turned to fear when they saw that the other termites, who were not even close to the ones who burned, suddenly spat blackish-red fire from their eyes and fell down.
The students could not even fathom what happened, but their faces became pale as a sheet. Dante killed one, and then the others died? Did that mean that if he killed one student, he could kill all others in such a way?
As for the teachers, they were shocked at first, but they quickly identified the secret. The fire that Dante released had the ability to jump across mental connections, since that was the main feature of this type of monster.
After all, what burned specifically were their brains, not any other part of their bodies, so a knowledgeable and experienced hand could tell. However, this ability still left the teachers feeling cold because it meant that clones were useless against Dante.
If he killed your clone instead of your main body, it didn't mean you were safe since the fire would trace the connection between clone and main body to cook the brain of the main body into ash.
The second highlight from Dante showed him when he confronted the nine beasts. The students were baffled by this one as Dante simply looked at the 9 monsters that were staring at him with fear, wariness, and hostility at first that changed to affection.
Then the nine began to fight each other desperately while Dante freely plucked the fruit and walked away, leaving them to kill each other. This left the students stupefied and tongue-tied, while the teacher's expression became severe.
This time, they assessed that Dante must have some beast affinity-type ability or power. Of course, the idea that Dante could perform such powerful illusions did not occur to them because that was too overpowered and frankly, too terrifying.
Such a thing could only exist in fiction or virtual reality and definitely could not exist in reality… unless one had the support of a superpower with a cosmic tree at the back.
But they didn't know that, now did they?
The third highlight showed Dante slaughtering the monsters near every tree using just his blood Qi and halberd, which gave the students a deep fright. Seeing his raw power put on display, easily dominating monsters that they would have to tread carefully around, it finally hit home for the top seven.
They would have to create a wide berth around Dante! Even Humphrey and Slessor, with a huge number of kills, only won one-on-one fights or participated in battle royales after everyone had fought until they were greatly injured.
Then, they would pick them off, fighting and retreating the entire time. They never fought a battle where they just decimated their foes while clearly testing their skills like Dante. It didn't matter which superpower the monsters had and threw at him; he easily resolved them in time using various inexplicable means.
After seeing the third highlight, no one bothered to watch the others from Humphrey or Slessor, not even they themselves. Everyone just turned their focus to the placid Dante with incomprehension in their eyes.
Was this guy really not a higher-dimensional creature disguising himself as a pure human just to mess with us?
Dante coughed lightly to remind everyone why they were here, and Xue Bing took the cue as she shook her head slowly.
"Right, now that the first session is done, you all probably have some insights into your superpower in terms of how to use it and how to grow it, so into the Black Land you go."
"Also, take note that your position in the class is now decided by your most recent score in the virtual trials," Xue Bing added as she led them to their various cabins.
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