The Era of Gods

Chapter 739: 739 Chapter Novice Village (Part 1) Chapter 739: 739 Chapter Novice Village (Part 1) Next, Lin Xiao made several rounds through the school, killing all the dozen long-haired wolves and bat monsters that roamed the campus.

When he returned, he happened to see a few students holding firefighting axes or kitchen knives and pot lids, preparing to go downstairs.

They were all taken aback at the sight of Lin Xiao, bloodied, dragging two wolf carcasses and two bags of rice.

He casually greeted them and left, while they stared after him for quite some time until someone asked,

“Which class is he from?

He looks so badass!”

“Don’t know, not real familiar.”

“Forget about him, let’s go.

Today we aim to kill more to boost our strength.

I killed a long-haired wolf yesterday and my strength has increased a lot, I feel powerful all over.”

“Yes, let’s hurry.

...

We should get a head start before the other students catch on.”

The group, filled with anticipation, descended the stairs and headed toward the cafeteria.

Lin Xiao didn’t hear their conversation; he stood on the third-floor staircase looking outside.

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The edges of the vacant school field were now spotted with weeds – something you wouldn’t see in a normal school.

Beyond the vast playground was a tall perimeter wall, and beyond that wall was a dense primeval jungle.

Trees towering ten or even tens of meters high surrounded the school.

Occasionally, one could see beast shapes charging out of the forest to hunt other wild animals or fight among themselves.

Yet, strangely, despite the wall not being particularly high and the beasts being capable of easily knocking it down with their strength, there seemed to be an invisible force that made the enclosure invisible to them.

Lin Xiao knew in his heart that this was the system protecting them.

Since they had just arrived, they were all ordinary people, and there must be a buffer period.

He anticipated that it wouldn’t be long before this protection weakened, and when that happened, a great number of wild beasts would rush into the school from the forest.

It would be a brutal selection stage by then.

If they hadn’t started evolving in the early stages, they would only be headed toward death when faced with those fierce beasts.

Or to put it even more harshly, judging by the number of low-level wild animals that slipped in from time to time, there certainly wouldn’t be enough for all students to begin evolving.

That meant that of the students still alive in the school, most would die in the brutal selection process in a few days, and only a few who began evolving or were lucky would manage to survive temporarily.

Back on the fourth floor, several boys guarding the stairwell behind a pile of junk all sighed in relief at the sight of him, greeting him warmly.

Some female classmates who were cleaning up beast carcasses in the adjoining classroom heard the noise and came out.

They called his name enthusiastically and quickly came forward to help lift the wolf carcasses and rice bags off him.

Seeing their blood-matted hair, dark blood stains, and the smell of blood, Lin Xiao realized how in just a few days, they had transformed from pampered geniuses to their current ragged state.

It was undeniable that human adaptability was incredibly strong.

But not all students could adapt.

Out of twenty-some students, less than ten could handle the situation, and the rest stayed in their classrooms, too afraid to come out, relying on the food prepared by these few students who dared to venture out.

Lin Xiao didn’t despise them; they were underage kids, and it was normal for them to find it hard to adapt.

He would temporarily protect them until the Novice protection expired, but after that, if they still couldn’t adapt, he would have no choice but to apologize.

In this world where even he couldn’t guarantee survival, he couldn’t afford to protect a group of people who could do nothing.

At that moment, a female student struggled to lift a bag of rice.

Having walked only a few steps, she let out a faint grunt and wavered.

Lin Xiao quickly steadied her, and she adjusted her big black-framed glasses, smeared with lots of blood, and whispered,

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome!”

As he watched her strenuously carry the fifty-pound bag of rice into the classroom, Lin Xiao flexed his hands – her waist was so slender and soft…

The next morning, which was the third day after awakening, Lin Xiao left the classroom with his Bone Chopping Knife strapped on.

After going downstairs, he didn’t head to the cafeteria at the back but walked straight to the big playground.

The dozen long-haired wolves and seven or eight bat monsters roaming the playground all spotted him and charged at him with shrieking cries.

“Look at that, what’s he doing?”

A boy who was secretly observing the outside from the corridor’s handrail was startled when he saw him and quickly called over his classmates.

They huddled together, whispering and watching,

“That’s the guy from yesterday.

What’s he gonna do?”

“He couldn’t be thinking of taking on all those monsters by himself, could he?”

“Might be.”

“Is he that powerful?”

“Just watch and… Holy crap!”

“Holy crap!”

Among a flurry of exclamations, they saw Lin Xiao charge directly at two oncoming long-haired wolves without dodging, chopping off the head of one with his knife, and despite being bitten by the other, he acted as if nothing happened, his knife flashing continuously, and one by one, the long-haired wolves fell to the ground, howling no more.

In less than two minutes, both the pack of wolves and the group of bat monsters were wiped out, leaving everyone shocked.

He wiped the Blood Knife clean of blood on a wolf carcass.

It had so many nicks from the excessive chopping.

Taking big strides to the school gate, one side was a concrete surface, and on the other side were lush weeds, a clear demarcation between two separate worlds.

Today he was not planning to stay within the school and wait; instead, he intended to venture into the jungle outside the school.

The danger was definitely very real, but he had the Time Wandering Talent – as long as he wasn’t killed instantly, he could always make a narrow escape.

As long as we don’t stray too far from the school gate, leaping into the campus grounds at a critical moment could save our lives.

Taking a deep breath, I strode towards the gate, my gaze meticulously sweeping across the lush jungle before stepping into it.

Once my feet moved from the concrete to the damp, leaf-littered ground, the air quickly grew moist, and the scent of rotting leaves mixed with fresh ones assailed my senses, accompanied by the feeling of passing through an almost imperceptible thin film—likely the system’s protection for us novices.

“Bang!”

Standing just two meters in place, a long-haired wolf pounced from the dense forest behind me.

It was naturally courting death; without even drawing a knife, I grabbed it and pounded it to death with two punches.

But this was just the beginning.

In less than a minute, barely having moved ten meters, I encountered one attack after another from wolf packs and bat monsters hiding behind leaves.

Before I could finish them off, I heard the sound of snapping branches and heavy footsteps nearby and immediately turned to flee back into the school gate.

The sound stopped abruptly, as if the target had been lost.

After a while, a gorilla monster larger than the one I’d killed previously passed by the school gate, oblivious to the nearby entrance, but as soon as I peeked out from behind the sign, it paused as if sensing something.

Obviously, this film was meant to disrupt their various senses and wasn’t an outright barrier.

If we did anything rash inside the gate, it would surely attract the nearby monsters.

With this realization, I immediately had an idea.

I knocked on the signpost.

The black gorilla monster, which had been about to leave, was attracted and charged into the school gate.

I darted from behind the sign towards the black gorilla.

The moment before our encounter, I flashed into a gleam indecipherable to the naked eye, rushing forward and sending the gorilla monster reeling back, frozen in place.

A second later, it looked around in confusion, searching for its target, only to be met with a knife plunging through its forehead from above.

The same fate as the previous black gorilla.

Unfortunately, other than contributing some evolution points, this black gorilla’s death yielded no loot.

After a short rest, I continued to venture outside the school into the jungle, luring and killing nearby monsters, rapidly accumulating evolution points.

Regrettably, only long-haired wolves and bat monsters were near the school gate and around its vicinity.

There were very few gorilla monsters, and these low-level creatures contributed minimal evolution points.

Moreover, the further my evolution progressed, the lesser the points became, to the point of almost nonexistent gains.

By the end of the day, having killed just two gorilla monsters, my total evolution degree was at seventy-eight percent of Rank 1, still a considerable distance from Rank 2.

Dragging my somewhat weary body back to the academic building, I saw several boys carrying a bag of rice downstairs on the fourth floor.

They stepped aside to let me pass.

I glanced at them curiously and saw nervousness and embarrassment on their faces.

Frowning, I asked,

“Where did this rice come from?”

The boys hesitated, exchanged looks, and then suddenly dropped the bag of rice, hastily saying,

“Sorry!”

As soon as they finished speaking, they turned and ran off.

I immediately understood, but did not chase after them.

I simply watched coldly as they departed, dragging the rice up to the fourth floor, where the pile of miscellaneous items at the staircase had been knocked over and several classmates were piling them up again.

When they saw me and the bag of rice, I could clearly see the joy on their faces.

The night passed without incident.

I didn’t mention how to deal with those boys, but instead, before leaving the next day, I approached a few male classmates and said,

“Do you have the guts to come out with me?”

All five boys nodded.

However, as we were preparing to leave, the girl with the large black-framed glasses suddenly came up to me and, with her head held high, said,

“Can I come with you?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“Staying here is no less dangerous.”

….I thought for a moment, then nodded,

“You can follow, but don’t wander off without my order or you’ll be responsible for the consequences.”

Then other girls also came up, asking if they could come along.

Lin Xiao simply waved his hand and invited them all.

One bull to herd is the same as a whole herd.

I had plans to train them; it was just that I intended to take the boys out first to get used to it.

If the girls wanted to go as well, then I would take them all.

Before leaving, I returned to the classroom to convey this information, asking once more if anyone else wanted to come along.

Unfortunately, not a single person dared, including several boys.

I wasn’t surprised.

They were afraid to even come out to clean up bodies, cook, or stand guard at night, so how could I expect them to go out and battle monsters?

It was for the best they didn’t come out as their presence would have only given me the headache of watching over them like a nanny.

Including me, we were ten in total—six boys and four girls.

Once downstairs, we first circled around the school.

More wild beasts had entered during the night, but another group had already killed some of them.

Strange to say, in such a large college, only about a hundred students across two and a half classes had been pulled into this world, not a teacher in sight.

Lin Xiao speculated that perhaps only a hundred individuals would be brought into a group, hence the two and a half classrooms of students.

Among these students, the half-class had been huddled in the classroom the entire time, scarcely seen over the past few days; the other class had a few brazen male students who would occasionally show up.

Without me, they would probably have been the most promising group.