There were no paths in the primeval forest area originally, but as more examinees passed through, traces of a trail gradually emerged.
Su Hao walked forward, dense branches and leaves drooping down, blocking his way.
He didn't bother to push them aside with his hands, letting the foliage brush across his face instead. Just before contact, a gentle force swept the branches away.
The wristband's light shield protection!
Normally, in such a thickly wooded forest, besides Pokémon, there were plenty of insects, birds, and beasts.
Among them might be poisonous bugs or venomous snakes.
Their threat to the examinees was no less than that of wild Pokémon.
Thorny vines and sharp-edged twigs could tear through the examinees' clothes and cause injury.
Only those with rich野外生存经验 could survive in such an environment.
Su Hao and the others were just a bunch of clueless high school seniors.
They studied Pokémon training and battling, not wilderness survival skills.
The wristband's light shield protection gave the examinees a strong sense of security.
As long as they didn't deliberately charge into dangerous areas, brushing against some obstructive branches or bushes consumed negligible energy from the wristband.
Once Su Hao got used to it, he stopped using his hands to part the grass, saving some time.
For complex, hard-to-pass areas, he either went around or had Silkworm Baby or Little Fire Crow create an opening.
It didn't take much time before he arrived at the supply point tower.
A white tower appeared before Su Hao, its stone exterior covered in green vines. Faintly visible were some mottled scratches—likely marks left by wild Pokémon—along with traces of repairs, giving the tower a sense of age.
Directly facing him was an iron door.
At that moment,
the iron door was wide open.
According to the rules, each tower contained a varying number of supply boxes, some better than others, but every examinee could only take one supply box from a single tower.
Taking more than one was impossible; there were surveillance cameras inside the tower.
Many places in the forest also had them.
"Even though I'm definitely arriving late, if I were the examiner, the number of supply boxes in the first tower should at least be more than the number of examinees, right?"
Thinking this, Su Hao walked toward the tower.
He ran into three hurried figures.
A three-person team, carrying briefcase-sized supply boxes, had just come out of the tower.
Eight eyes met, and the atmosphere suddenly froze.
"It's... him!"
The three-person team's expressions shifted slightly.
None of them were fools. From the order of entering the forest, they could tell that the last one in would definitely be the biggest threat.
"The strongest student from Ancheng No.1 High, with two Pokémon, Silkworm Baby and Little Fire Crow!"
In their minds, information about Su Hao surfaced.
Though he couldn't compare to the powerhouses in their own school, they were just ordinary students from No.1 High.
Not big shots!
But behind them was the white tower, and ahead, Su Hao blocked their way.
With a quick exchange of glances, the three decided to act!
At least they had the numerical advantage!
A Prairie Wolf, a Needle Spider, and a Spotted Mushroom that looked like a humanoid mushroom—three Grass-type Pokémon under their trainers' commands...
"Guno!!"
Silkworm Baby struck first, leaping high and spitting out a hazy green radiance.
Rice Grain Machine Gun!
Countless green light particles converged into a stream of light, sweeping over the three Pokémon with a whoosh.
Dust flew up around the three Pokémon.
From the swirling dust came the pained whimpers of the three Pokémon.
Moments later,
the Prairie Wolf fell, the Needle Spider lay flat, and the Spotted Mushroom passed out.
Pokémon were beings born from nature; they didn't bleed from injuries, so there were no scenes of blood staining the ground or internal organs spilling out.
But it was clear that the three Pokémon were covered in wounds.
This was still the result of Silkworm Baby holding back—or rather, conserving its energy.
The three apprentice Spirit Tamers from No.1 High couldn't believe it. The one in the middle clenched his fist, watching the Prairie Wolf struggle to stand after falling.
"Get up, get up, Prairie Wolf!"
A faint, pointer-like glow appeared on his fist.
[Spirit Taming: Persistence]: Allows a Pokémon to unleash its final combat power when on the verge of its limit.
"Owww!"
The Prairie Wolf pushed against the ground, struggling desperately to stand.
Whoosh!
A peanut-sized projectile flew over.
With a smack, it crushed the Prairie Wolf's last bit of persistence.
The Prairie Wolf GG'd.
A gust of wind blew, sweeping away the dust.
Su Hao revealed a smile, which looked like a devil's grin to the three-person team.
"Are you surrendering yourselves? Or surrendering yourselves?"
One examinee picked up his Pokémon, the Needle Spider, and tried to run to the side, but after just two steps, a flame claw swept him back.
Though protected by the light shield, he still ended up dizzy and disoriented.
Only the Needle Spider was cradled in his arms, curled up, avoiding a second injury.
He got up, saw that the shield energy had dropped by 10%, and stopped clinging to hope. "I surrender!"
He pressed the button.
The other two team members also pressed their buttons.
Su Hao's wristband immediately buzzed with a notification.
He checked it. Points +1.
"So you three only defeated two Pokémon?"
Su Hao found it boring. He took a supply box from the tower, casually swiped the compressed biscuits and two bottles of water from the other team's boxes, and slipped into the grass with Silkworm Baby and Little Fire Crow.
Leaving behind three miserable examinees.
...
In the primeval forest area, the deeper they went, the denser the branches and leaves became, giving off an eerie feeling.
Silkworm Baby led the way, clearing the path, Su Hao walked in the middle, and Little Fire Crow circled overhead, keeping watch.
Suddenly,
as he passed by, the green vines缠绕 on a tree trunk came to life, several tendrils shooting out like ropes.
"Fireball!"
Su Hao heard the sound but didn't turn his head.
He trusted his Pokémon to judge the direction.
In an instant, a massive fireball shot out, igniting the incoming vines and exploding against the tree trunk, exposing several Vine Snakes that had been camouflaged coiled around it.
They scattered from the trunk, darting through the bushes, invisible except for the rustling sounds from the surrounding grass.
"Wing Attack."
He commanded.
Little Fire Crow's black feathers spread continuously, in a blink forming a pair of huge wings. The wings swept around, uprooting bushes and sending the slithering Vine Snakes flying, the sharp feathers leaving many marks on their bodies.
As if sensing Little Fire Crow's toughness, the Vine Snakes came quickly and left just as fast.
They even knew to scatter and escape.
But Su Hao's... Silkworm Baby couldn't bear to let the points slip away.
It spat out tiny energy spheres, one after another, and with a rumble, all the Vine Snakes ended up covered in dust, knocked unconscious.
Silkworm Baby didn't go for the kill; these Pokémon looked badly injured, but with their natural healing abilities, they'd recover movement in half a day.
If they didn't encounter other enemies.
He couldn't predict what would happen after they left, but for now, neither he nor Silkworm Baby and Little Fire Crow could bring themselves to kill these Pokémon.
There was no need in the joint exam.
The referee team also advised just defeating them, for the sustainable development of the primeval forest area.
But in the future, Su Hao felt he would have to cross that line.
He turned to look at the tree that had taken a direct fireball. The bark was charred black, but the flames hadn't spread and had already gone out.
Su Hao breathed a sigh of relief.
Ordering the fireball was purely instinct, and also because Little Fire Crow was right overhead.
"Still, since the school set the exam site here, this forest probably... isn't that easy to set on fire, right?"
This forest was indeed peculiar. Besides the towering trees, Su Hao noticed irregular crystals on some trunks.
At first, he thought his eyes were playing tricks, but the deeper he went, the more trees with crystals appeared.
He couldn't help but ponder.
Casually, he tore open a pack of compressed biscuits.
He took a bite himself—tasteless—then fed some to Silkworm Baby and Little Fire Crow.
They turned up their noses at it too, but still ate it earnestly.
Just then,
Silkworm Baby's eyes fixed on a patch of tall grass not far away.
Little Fire Crow also grew alert.
The grass parted, and a vaguely familiar figure stepped out.
"It's you."