Chapter 45

**Chapter 45**

Lu Xianyue said angrily, “This is too much! Can’t the teachers see they’re acting?!”

Li Leyang replied, “How can they tell? All five of them are low on health. It just looks like Luo Yu got lucky and came in to clean up.”

The screen even played a replay.

Gu Lingyue and Bi Keman analyzed it carefully, and the conclusion was obvious.

The five players were fighting each other like noobs, and Luo Yu seized the perfect timing to harvest them all.

If Li Leyang and the others hadn’t already known the truth, they probably wouldn’t have noticed anything suspicious either.

What Li Leyang was curious about was, “How did they confirm each other’s identities?”

The moment he finished speaking, the kill leaderboard jumped.

Luo Yu shot straight to first place.

Then several other people also climbed up the ranks, each securing three to four kills.

Bi Keman hit the nail on the head: “This is the consequence of avoiding fights in the early stage! When the circle is about to shrink, everyone panics and starts chaotic battles, which leads to widespread damage.”

Li Leyang: “……”

He understood now.

Luo Yu hadn’t just set up this one spot—she had set up several. No matter which one Ning Zhu ran into, she would go in for the harvest.

The fighters were fixed, and the harvesters were pre-arranged.

In that case…

The fighters only needed to act, and the harvesters only needed to harvest.

This way, they didn’t even need secret signals. They just had to do their own jobs.

Li Leyang gritted his teeth. “What a great show!”

Lu Xianyue looked around for Ning Zhu. “How is Ningning doing? Did she get any kills?”

The camera cut to Ning Zhu.

She had just come out from a corner when she ran straight into five people engaged in a fierce fight.

The five had roughly the same amount of cards and were fighting evenly. All of them were down to 30 health points.

Lu Xianyue said excitedly, “Ningning, go! Steal the kills! Free heads!”

Lin Ting frowned. “Something’s wrong!”

Li Leyang said, “She has no choice. Ning Zhu doesn’t have a god’s-eye view!”

Ning Zhu did go in. She threw a 【Flame Card】 and accurately hit one person, eliminating him instantly.

However, this immediately alerted everyone. The other four stopped attacking each other and turned their heads to stare at her.

Four 【Role Cards】 staring at her with that kind of expression made for a rather eerie scene.

Timid students might have been scared.

Then, the four of them focused fire on Ning Zhu.

Lu Xianyue panicked. “What’s going on? Wasn’t their script ‘get harvested’? Why are they counterattacking now?”

Li Leyang said, “They had already agreed on a health threshold.”

Lu Xianyue suddenly understood. “They had to be left with only ten points?”

The fighters fought, and the harvesters harvested.

The key point was that the harvesters would strike when the fighters’ health dropped to around 10 points.

With this agreement in place, they could easily identify who Ning Zhu was.

No matter how smart Ning Zhu was, she couldn’t have predicted this.

The moment she made a move, even though she instantly killed one person, she still alerted the other four.

The four of them stared straight at her, their hearts filled with wild joy.

A windfall from heaven!

If they could take out Ning Zhu here, they would each get an extra 50,000 in prize money!

Fifty thousand yuan!

For many students from ordinary families, their parents’ annual salary didn’t even reach fifty thousand!

The four stopped acting and started ganging up on Ning Zhu.

Lu Xianyue was frantic. “Where are the referee teachers?! Aren’t they going to do anything? This is clearly against the rules!”

Lin Ting sighed. “Where exactly is the violation?”

Lu Xianyue: “They…”

Li Leyang said, “After more than ten matches, everyone hates the ‘mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’ situation. Once the oriole shows up, they will prioritize killing it. It’s basically become an unspoken rule.”

Lu Xianyue: “…………”

Sure enough, aside from those in the know, no one else noticed anything unusual.

Gu Lingyue even said, “What a shame. Ning Zhu should have stayed patient and waited longer.”

Ning Zhu had no god’s-eye view and couldn’t see what was happening elsewhere.

She couldn’t have known about the health threshold agreement.

Coming out now, she was fully mentally prepared for a 1v4.

Rather than picking up one head, she wanted all five.

Besides…

Cards would run out eventually. These people’s fighting style was too reckless. If she let them continue, she might only end up picking up a bunch of waste cards.

Ning Zhu faced them head-on without any fear. She first used a 【Speed Boost Card】, then directly released a 【Long Blade Card】.

The hilt landed in her hand, and she charged straight forward.

The closest was a 【Mage】. He was about to throw a 【Flame Card】. Ning Zhu didn’t want him to waste any more cards, so she swept her blade horizontally and wiped out his remaining 30 health points.

The other three’s attacks followed immediately. Ning Zhu instantly activated her 【Armor Card】 and blocked most of the damage.

Bi Keman: “Amazing! That 【Armor Card】 release speed is insane!”

Gu Lingyue quickly explained, “Ning Zhu has very high proficiency with the 【Armor Card】. She releases it smoothly and naturally, and even achieved a perfect block. This is a very difficult effect to trigger. Once it activates, it doubles damage reduction and lowers spiritual energy consumption!”

Bi Keman added, “Ning Zhu is charging in! This 【Long Blade Card】 has just enough durability to kill three people!”

Gu Lingyue noticed sharply, “Ah, someone’s still hiding…”

Li Leyang and the others didn’t even dare to blink. Lu Xianyue was so nervous she almost couldn’t breathe.

Ning Zhu cleanly killed two more, then perfectly blocked a combined attack from the remaining three.

The three panicked. They gave up on the inaccurate 【Flame Cards】 and switched to using 【Weapon Cards】 for close combat.

They refused to believe it.

Three people attacking one—how could they lose?

Even more worrying was the fully healthy 【Warrior Card】 who emerged from the corner. She was clearly the “harvester” here. After seeing Ning Zhu make a move, she had identified her.

She didn’t rush to attack, waiting for the critical moment to deliver the fatal blow.

The three hacked at Ning Zhu. Ning Zhu used her long blade to block—and that was the perfect opportunity.

The 【Warrior】 charged out. To ensure a precise hit, she closed the distance, preparing to release a 【Flame Card】 within guaranteed range.

Not only would it definitely hit, it would also increase the 【Flame Card】’s damage. If they coordinated well, they could kill her in one go.

Fifty thousand yuan!

Just thinking about it made their blood boil!

Down in the audience.

Lu Xianyue was so scared she closed her eyes.

Lin Ting stared straight ahead, her face deathly pale.

Li Leyang clenched his teeth, veins bulging on the back of his hand.

—Ning Zhu looked like she couldn’t survive this.

**Bang!**

The 【Flame Card】 collided with a large blade.

But it wasn’t Ning Zhu’s blade—it was the 【Weapon Card】 swung by one of the three attackers!

Bi Keman shouted excitedly, “Godly prediction! Ning Zhu crouched at the critical moment and dodged the 【Flame Card】 from behind!”

Gu Lingyue said quickly, “How did she know someone was behind her? Was it spiritual energy sensing?”

“Spiritual energy sensing?”

“This is an instinct that only Sequence 3 and above possess. Once there’s spiritual energy fluctuation nearby, a Sequence 3 Card Master can sense it in advance. Even without seeing the attack, they can dodge by instinct!”

Lu Xianyue was stunned. A smile bloomed on her face as she asked, “Is that it? Yang-ge! Is that it?!”

Li Leyang: “……”

He was also shocked. After a long pause, he said, “That’s extremely difficult… insanely difficult…”

The problem was—Ning Zhu was only a first-year student.

A first-year with this kind of ability… even the Star Demon from a hundred years ago couldn’t do it!

Of course, they were overthinking it.

Ning Zhu couldn’t sense it—she had heard it.

The moment the “harvester” showed herself, Bai Ze had lazily warned her.

Ning Zhu might look like she was fighting alone, but she actually had eyes behind her back…

Well, saying “behind her back” was underestimating the white cat. It was clearly 360-degree coverage—Bai Ze could fly anywhere.

With such a little scout cat around, it was impossible for enemies to sneak attack Ning Zhu.

After dodging the “harvester’s” 【Flame Card】, Ning Zhu quickly used another 【Speed Boost Card】 to create distance.

The four people on the field were all stunned.

They clearly didn’t understand how Ning Zhu had survived that fatal sneak attack.

Especially the “harvester.” She was so shocked she couldn’t move.

Her name was Yuan Xiaona. The moment she saw Ning Zhu appear, she had gripped her cards tightly in excitement.

She wanted to “kill” her!

What Ancient God Card Master?

They were all from ordinary families. Why did Ning Zhu have such good luck?!

Yuan Xiaona hated Ning Zhu.

Ever since the 【Somersault Cloud Express】, she had already felt annoyed by her.

They were both from ordinary backgrounds—why was Ning Zhu so close to Li Leyang from the preparatory class?

From the way Ye Jianrong spoke, they seemed to be “good friends.”

During the first lesson of the school year, Yuan Xiaona hadn’t actually realized it was Ning Zhu who had pulled her.

The situation had been too tense. She only wanted to escape and didn’t have time to see who had touched whom.

But because Ning Zhu’s performance had been too outstanding, many shots from that first lesson focused on her, including the scene where she saved Yuan Xiaona and then tossed her aside.

There had even been forum posts calling Yuan Xiaona a white-eyed wolf.

Although the post didn’t get much discussion and sank quickly, Yuan Xiaona still saw it.

She felt even worse after that.

Who asked her to save me?

Besides, Ning Zhu had probably known it was a test all along, since she was so close to the preparatory class students!

In the two months after enrollment, aside from making a few snide comments on the school forum, Yuan Xiaona hadn’t done anything else.

Ning Zhu had been very low-key except for making that Three-Star 【Spiritual Energy Card】.

Their classes had no overlap, so Yuan Xiaona gradually forgot about her.

Until Luo Yu’s people contacted her.

All twelve groups had been approached individually.

The moment Yuan Xiaona heard the reward, she immediately agreed: “No problem!”

She even came up with an idea. She proactively found Luo Yu and said, “I know Ning Zhu. I can give her a fake code.”

Luo Yu glanced at her and smiled. “You know her?”

Yuan Xiaona immediately said, “I hate her!”

“Oh? What did she do to you?”

“She…” The suppressed anger in Yuan Xiaona surged up again. She said hatefully, “She knew the ‘first lesson’ was a test but still deliberately made me look bad!”

Luo Yu rested her chin on her hand, her smile growing wider. “But you really are quite ugly.”

Yuan Xiaona: “……”

Her face flushed red. She wanted to say something but didn’t dare.

Yuan Xiaona was actually quite afraid of Luo Yu. Luo Yu was very beautiful, but there was something sinister about her, especially when she smiled—it gave off a crazy, unhinged feeling.

The smile on Luo Yu’s lips suddenly disappeared. Her expression turned chillingly cold as she said slowly, “Fine. You tell Ning Zhu the code is ‘first lesson of the school year.’ If she believes it, I’ll give you…”

Luo Yu looked at Yuan Xiaona with eyes like she was looking at a dog. “Ten Three-Star 【Spiritual Energy Cards】.”

Yuan Xiaona: “!”

She became excited instantly and stammered, “G-good!”