Chapter 43: You Call This Purgatory Difficulty?

"Yes!"

The staff member at the examination center immediately began manipulating the spirit crystal to retrieve the data.

Actually, searching for the relevant data was quite simple and easy. After all, looking globally, the number of professionals who had made it into the global dungeon hall of fame was only in the tens of thousands. If you filtered out foreign names, the probability of someone in Great Xia having the exact same name was extremely low.

Sure enough, searching for Lin Yi's name quickly brought up a dungeon record displayed before everyone:

[Special Dungeon: The Fading City of Fericaine (Permanently Delisted)]
[Dungeon Level: LV.25]
[Dungeon Difficulty: A+]
[Dungeon Class Restrictions: Mage, Priest]
[Dungeon Best Clear Record: 0 hours 2 minutes 42 seconds]
[Record Holder: Lin Yi]

A commotion erupted throughout the conference room.

"Ah? It's this dungeon!"
"This dungeon was just globally announced a dozen days ago as permanently delisted!"
"Could he be the one who cleared it at the very end?"
"Hiss... Look at his clear record!"
"What? Two-plus minutes??"
"Wasn't the clearing requirement for this dungeon to survive for a limited time? I remember the requirement was to survive for 3 hours!"
"That's right, I remember too. I was actually the one who personally wrote the strategy guide for this dungeon back then and uploaded it to our province's strategy center."

Qi Guoguang fell into a long, deep silence.

He stared fixedly at Lin Yi on the large screen. Yet, in his mind's, a memory surfaced from a dozen days ago when he was holding a meeting for members of the Professionals Alliance. It was the footage uploaded by Tianshui Academy—that figure completely engulfed in burning blue flames!

The next instant.

Lin Yi's figure sharply overlapped with the figure in his mind, whom he had temporarily named the Flame Emperor of the Abyss!

Build, temperament...
They were somewhat similar!!

However, Qi Guoguang shook his head the very next moment.

It was too ridiculous.

Leaving aside the fact that the spell used by the Flame Emperor of the Abyss was at least at the eighth tier, the sheer uniqueness of that spell alone was something no Blue Star professional could possibly possess.

That was a high-tier spell that belonged exclusively to the abyssal world.
It was a mutated version of a Blue Star spell!

Moreover, since that footage had been extracted from someone else's memories, it was completely normal for the physique and appearance to have some discrepancies.

In the end, Qi Guoguang persuaded himself.

He came to a conclusion.

"This kid's fortuitous encounter is something I've only seen once in my lifetime."
"About a dozen days ago, I received a piece of memory footage uploaded by the administration of Tianshui Academy regarding this dungeon."
"In the footage, it was this kid who, while clearing the dungeon, encountered an extremely low-probability event."
"That was, the hidden boss within the dungeon was provoked by another powerhouse hailing from the abyssal world."
"That powerhouse possessed at least the status of a Demon Emperor, and with a mere wave of their hand, a mutated eighth-tier fire-type spell instantly obliterated the dungeon's hidden boss."
"Consequently, the entire dungeon completely vanished and was delisted, while this kid managed to clear it in a daze and even obtained a Hall of Fame title."

Hearing Qi Guoguang's explanation, everyone was finally able to somewhat accept it. Otherwise, if Lin Yi possessed such terrifying strength, why would he bother coming to take the national college entrance examination?

If he did, top professional universities across the country would probably be throwing recruitment offers at him instantly, while other nations on Blue Star would immediately designate him as their primary assassination target!

...

Outside the examination hall.

Sun Liang glanced at his wristwatch and spoke, "There are now 10 minutes left until the examination begins. Please enter the examination hall, candidates. The examination rules are about to be announced!"

Blue Ruoyi and the others, who were lined up near the front, walked into Entrance No. 1 first.
Lin Yi followed at the very end.

After entering Entrance No. 1 and following the directional signs on the wall through several corridors, a familiar dungeon barrier of light appeared before him.

It seemed that this year's college entrance examination tests were being conducted within a special dungeon provided by the organizers.

Seeing Lin Yi approach, those so-called geniuses from all over Dongjiang Province who had previously acted arrogant all fell silent.

Lin Yi could tell that the arrogance and innocent foolishness previously visible on their faces had vanished entirely.
Replaced by awe and dread!

"Attention all candidates!"
"The 3024 National Higher Education Entrance Examination for Professionals will begin in 5 minutes!"
"We will now read out the examination discipline and testing details!"
"All candidates must strictly comply. Violators will be dealt with severely!"

"This examination consists of five rounds. Only candidates who pass the first four rounds and demonstrate exceptional performance will be qualified to enter the fifth round."
"All contents of this test will be conducted within a special dungeon. All dungeons are independent instances, and aside from the proctors, candidates cannot communicate with other personnel."
"All candidates are strictly prohibited from bringing any equipment or other creation devices into the test dungeon. Violators will be treated as cheating!"
"Upon entering the dungeon, any food, alchemical potions, or non-class-provided buff effects carried by candidates will be dispersed."
"The evaluation system for this exam adopts a scoring evaluation. In each round of tests, the system will automatically score candidates based on their completion of objectives. The higher the test difficulty chosen by the candidate, the more points will be acquired after completing the corresponding objectives."
"Any emergencies arising during the testing process will be handled in accordance with the relevant regulations of the Administrative Measures for the National Higher Education Entrance Examination for Great Xia Professionals."

The broadcast finished playing.
The hall fell silent.

Five minutes passed very quickly.
Lin Yi heard a bell ringing throughout various parts of the examination hall. At the same time, near the exit, the whistles of numerous proctors and the roaring sounds of closing gates echoed through the air.

Once the exam started, any unlucky latecomers would no longer be permitted entry.

"All candidates, please enter the dungeon!" Sun Liang gave the order.

Everyone, including Lin Yi, took a step forward into the dungeon light barrier, and their figures vanished from sight.

After a moment of darkness, Lin Yi opened his eyes once more.

He found himself standing within a pure white, boundless space.
This space was exceptionally quiet, devoid of any sound.
There were no so-called monsters or terrain.
This was likely a dungeon that had been modified using special methods by some powerful figures.

However, Lin Yi still noticed a countdown timer and a scoreboard floating in the void not far ahead of him.

[Time until the first round of the exam begins: 00:00:59]
[Current Points Acquired: 0]

At the same time, a dungeon announcement rang out in Lin Yi's mind:

[Candidate Lin Yi, 1 minute from now, a goblin will spawn before you with its level set to LV.30, armor set to 1,000, magic resistance set to 1,000, and health points set to 10,000.]
[This goblin will neither move nor attack. Please eliminate it at your fastest speed!]
[The shorter the time taken, the higher the score!]

After listening to the rules, Lin Yi was momentarily stunned.
Then, a trace of disappointment welled up in his heart.

Come on, buddy, you call this purgatory difficulty?
Just this?
A monster with only 10,000 health, and it's basically a stationary log that won't even run away.
Who are you looking down on!