Chapter 160 : Chapter 160

Chapter 160: The Hundred-Person Melee Has Escalated into a Battle Royale

With the two spell buffs from the wrist guards, those few people naturally couldn't escape with my current physical fitness.

After all, the arena had boundaries.

Besides, I wasn't limited to close combat; close combat was just one of the ways I used Fireball.

Fireball was essentially a ranged attack.

“How can that be! How can a cast Fireball curve?”

The girl I was targeting, after thinking she had dodged my Fireball, turned her head right into another Fireball that had curved around.

Then, under the referee's intervention, she was lifted by one hand and voiced this soul-searching question.

It was obvious the referee had directly judged that this contestant could not withstand this blow in her current state, and the actual situation was indeed so.

Otherwise, even severe disfigurement would be considered her being lucky.

Without any protection, even an ordinary Fireball could kill an ordinary person.

This was the conventional power of a one-point consumption spellbook.

As for the other few contestants I had locked onto, they were preparing to counterattack with spells.

A hastily cast Fireball hit my back but was blocked by the protective spell.

“A bit careless. A good sneak attack, but do you only have one Fireball spellbook?”

By the time I quickly got in front of her, she had already started casting the next spell, but it was clear she was too late.

As I stretched out a hand, passed through the spell ritual, and grabbed the magic wand she was pointing at me.

Crack—

Her magic wand was snapped in two by me, and the spell was completely shattered at the same time.

I shook off the elemental energy from the spell that had stained my hand, bringing up an illusory image of runes condensed from energy.

That was an important structure in the ritual, but now it was broken.

“My magic wand!”

“As a contestant, your skills are not up to par. Which class are you from?”

I asked subconsciously.

“What? This, I… I withdraw! I surrender! Wuwu…”

“Huh?”

I was speechless watching her burst into tears just because her magic wand was broken by me.

This one's mental fortitude was really poor.

But at this moment, she directly withdrew from the edge of the arena, not even needing the referee to help her.

It seems there was a reason she lost in the first match.

Now, in the revival round, she was targeted by me again.

Her pressure must have been particularly high.

After all, the footage here would be broadcasted live.

To fall here while shouldering the expectations and blessings of the entire class.

But what does that have to do with me?

I just eliminated a contestant who should be eliminated.

Maybe the other party was just such an unsympathetic person, or maybe she was just a temporary class president taking the fall.

But I was also very curious how this person became the class president.

After becoming the class president, you would get a share of the class resources.

Or was this just the result of normal resource allocation?

She only had one Fireball spellbook, and her total Magic Power Source had just reached double digits.

If she had just asked her counselor and joined a more reliable club, it wouldn't have been like this.

And at this moment, I quickly changed my mind.

Now was the time for a melee.

After I dealt with these few people, I felt like I had become the target of public criticism.

Just a simple first collective clash, and the total number of nearly two hundred people was directly reduced by a small half.

Contestants like the one just now were completely eliminated in the first screening.

And what was interesting was that most of the remaining ones seemed to have transformation spells.

As expected of the spell with the highest overall cost-performance at this stage.

The counselors of each class were not fools.

When sponsoring students, they naturally had to use the most cost-effective spellbooks to maximize the benefits for the students.

Just as their gazes intentionally or unintentionally turned towards me, I silently cast the Illusory Clone spell.

They were wary of me, always paying attention to me.

So why wouldn't I want to eliminate them?

Perhaps they couldn't imagine that while they were looking at me, they might be affected by the Illusory Clone.

Perhaps some people might know.

After all, I knew there was commentary during the first match.

My Illusory Clone spell was probably exposed, and contestants who liked to do some pre-match intelligence gathering would naturally not ignore this method.

But when I didn't use it, they naturally wouldn't react so quickly.

Even if they did react, they might not have the means to quickly dispel the illusion effect.

At this moment, from the live broadcast perspective.

As the former commentator for Arena One, and now the commentator for the number one perspective, it was always her regret that she did not commentate on the second half of the first match.

Even though she started her own private live stream in the end, the effect was not satisfactory.

At this moment, she had become a commentator again, so she naturally had to go all out!

“Now we can see that the number of people on the field has been sharply reduced to less than a hundred. This speed of elimination is simply breathtaking.”

“However, we can also see that among those eliminated, there are many familiar faces, all of whom performed poorly in the first round of the elimination matches.”

“Oh the first highlight of the massive battle royale has appeared! Contestant number 14 once again demonstrated her unique skill of tearing apart a spell ritual with her bare hands, and even broke her opponent's magic wand!”

“The opposing contestant cried due to excessive pressure and voluntarily withdrew from the competition. I hope this incident does not leave too much of a psychological shadow on her.”

“However, the current situation does not seem to be favorable for contestant number 14. As expected, the terrifying strength in the first elimination match has put enormous pressure on everyone. But contestant number 14 does not seem to be affected, and has even started to rub a fireball!”

“The fireballs created by number 14 are orbiting her body without exploding. This technique seems a bit familiar. It seems this spellbook has something to it.”

“As the fireballs increase, the pressure number 14 exerts on the crowd also grows. This has presented a difficult problem to the others. If they ignore number 14, they will be completely crushed later. But if they go to interrupt now, they might not return. Wait! Someone is rushing over!”

“It’s contestant number 96! While everyone was still hesitating, only she quickly made the choice to press forward without hesitation! Let us… huh? The direction she is rushing in seems a bit off. Is this, is this attack hitting the air!”

“Oh dear! She was sent away by number 14 so quickly, tsk… It seems this contestant has fallen for number 14's Illusory Clone. It seems everything is under number 14's control.”

When the first person who rushed forward was dealt with by me in this way, many people also realized the matter of my Illusory Clone.

Of course, there were also those who hadn't paid attention and didn't know what this meant, just thinking that I had used some spell to control the other party.

Even so, many people began to be on their guard, and even began to suspect whether the person in front of them was a clone.

But they were not the type to wait for death.

Close combat might be tricky, but ranged combat was relatively safer, and it could also be used to test whether the other party was a clone.

After all, there were so many people, and the other party would have to pay a price to deal with so many at once.

Besides, they didn't just have spellbooks as their means of attack.

They also had alchemical items and potions.

Even potions included offensive potions, such as volatile potions, poisons, aphrodisiacs, corrosive potions, etc., all of which were very terrifying means.

And alchemical items were no less powerful than the spellbooks they had mastered at this stage.

They were even easier to use than spellbooks.

At this moment, I could be considered to have experienced the feeling of being besieged.

The consumption of the energy shield had now become the main drain, but thankfully I had enough Magic Power Sources at this moment.

This was the first time I had experienced such a wealthy battle.

I even wanted to experience the power of my spellbook that consumed a hundred points.

But that would be a bit too reckless, so it was better to just think about it.

At this stage, even in a steamroll match, one should be more conservative.

If I lost the match because of being too reckless and careless, I would regret it for the rest of my life!

Numerous attacks now surged towards me like a tide.

Once their momentum was up, the rhythm would fall into their hands.

Coordinated with ranged harassing attacks, the contestants who mainly used transformation spells also came to surround and kill me.

The momentum of their charge made me feel a bit troubled, and even made me wonder if I should learn some close combat fighting skills.

But this thought was quickly extinguished by me, because compared to close-quarters brawling with them, I found that I still preferred the violent crushing power of spells!

Especially when the Fireball seriously injured them from an angle they couldn't imagine, this sense of accomplishment was incomparable to the hot-blooded feeling of close-quarters combat.

But now it seems that ordinary Fireballs can no longer cause fatal damage to those who are using transformation spells.

Then what about after modding?

No need for too many fancy things, just a little increase in the magic power conversion efficiency.

Even if it was still a Fireball spell that consumed one point of magic power, its power became extremely terrifying at this moment.

I haven't studied other spellbooks much, but I know Fireball inside and out, especially these last two battles have benefited me a lot.

The magic power conversion efficiency inside the spellbook, to a certain extent, formed an exponential upward trend with the damage.

That is to say, the later it gets, the more terrifying the damage increase brought by the improvement of the conversion rate.

But this increase was not unlimited, which was why I said that the relationship between this conversion rate and damage showed a "partial" exponential growth trend.

This meant that each spellbook had a limit.

No matter how much I modded it, the spell cast by the Fireball spellbook could not reach the power to destroy a star.

The result of infinitely stacking magic power would be the destruction of the spellbook.

Perhaps a spellbook could do what I said was impossible, but I couldn't access that level of modding technology.

For now, I couldn't break through this limit.

Compared to stubbornly sticking with Fireball, it was more cost-effective to switch to a spellbook with a higher upper limit for modding.

Boom—

As the first modded Fireball exploded on the field with its terrifying roar, the nature of this match also changed.

It was as if the battle royale on this field had been upgraded to a battle royale.

“I was wondering why contestant number 14 had been performing so mediocrely until now. Now number 14 has shown her fangs! That casual blow, a fireball with an explosion more terrifying than an Explosion Flame Spell, is like the god of death calling for your life. The moment it appeared, it eliminated three contestants!”

“Fortunately, the referee was quick-witted. Except for one who was a little too scared, the other two seemed to be just frightened.”

“Imagine how terrifying it is to have such a terrifying spell explode in front of you!”

“What should the remaining contestants do now? Should they submit to fate and engage in a final battle royale where the last one standing is king, or should they unite to fight for that slim chance of victory?”

“According to this trend, uniting seems to be the only choice, but there is also the possibility of being wiped out in one go. After all, the explosion in the morning's elimination match is still fresh in everyone's mind.”

“The crowd is in some turmoil. The groups that had just united have dispersed? What's going on?”

“It’s the Illusory Clone! Such a large area of Illusory Clones, when did this spell begin? This spell with no attack power has now become the last straw that breaks their alliance!”

“It’s hard to imagine how many clones are interfering with the contestants' judgment in their eyes. There are even instances of infighting in the crowd that's not right, they were already opponents, how can you call it infighting?”

“It seems the deterrent that number 14 has brought us almost made us forget that this is a massive battle royale. The number of people on the field is dropping sharply now. According to the Earth Vein Information, there are currently 56 people remaining, and this number is still decreasing at an astonishing speed!”

At this moment, the commentator felt that she couldn't stop at all, as if every moment since the start of the massive battle royale had been a climax.

You must know that a massive battle royale format is generally very difficult to commentate on, especially with the perspective issue.

If the camera switches frequently, the viewing experience for the audience will also be very poor.

But now that a one-sided situation has appeared, it has actually made the commentary easier.

This was a rare scene, and it was only during an upset that such a situation of crushing newbies would appear.

“Contestant number 14 being called the Explosive Witch at this moment is truly well-deserved!”

The commentary continued, and I was also constantly trying things out.

The arena here was a place where I could cast spells without restraint, even more convenient than the laboratory.

A steamroll match would not improve my combat skills at all.

If I didn't even gain any new insights into spells, this battle would undoubtedly be a failure for me.

The first elimination match made me realize the importance of spell diversity, and this second one naturally had to yield something as well.

A battle purely for showing off and looking cool was meaningless except for increasing my fame, and I'm not the type to enjoy fighting in the first place.

If I had to fight, I preferred to crush my opponents with absolute strength.

Besides Fireball, I would also intermittently add some other spells to mix things up.

After all, I had more than two hundred Magic Power Sources now, enough for me to splurge like this.

“We can see that contestant number 14 has used spells that she has never used before. It seems number 14 is really hiding her strength. Wind Blade Spell, Water Surge, Lightning Strike! Although they all look like common one-point magic consumption spells like Fireball, their power does not seem to exceed our cognition. It seems number 14 is more proficient in the Fireball series of spells.”

“The number of people at this moment has been further reduced. It seems that this massive battle royale is nearing its end. So in the end, let's see which unlucky ones in the field will miss the next match.”

At this moment, I seemed to have a moment of enlightenment, and my understanding of spellbooks reached a deeper level.

It was precisely because I was facing a battle with frequent unexpected situations that I had needs that I would never have thought of in normal times.

With needs, I would encounter difficulties and problems that needed to be solved.

With problems, everything had a clear direction.

Although this battle looked like a steamroll, I took the opportunity to thoroughly understand the Fireball spellbook.

And in the next step, I encountered a bottleneck, and the hard bottleneck that was holding me back was my own knowledge reserve.

This brought up the rune-related book that Teacher Ji Niang had given me before.

The path I could walk by relying on talent had reached its end.

Next was the professional field.

To put it bluntly, I was just a newly enrolled student, like a child who had just come into contact with small inventions.

I had a gifted hands-on ability and could mod various inventions, but talent was not omnipotent.

Without the support of theory and knowledge reserves, I could not continue to walk down this path.

This was my predicament on the field.

The growing difficulty of the problems had exceeded my personal cognition.

I needed time to slowly settle down and accumulate foundation.

I even needed to integrate the field I was proficient in with the knowledge in the book, which was by no means as simple as it sounded.

After figuring this out, I didn't even have the mood to continue.

I just wanted to end this farce quickly.

But as the Fireball in my hand flew towards a contestant who hadn't had time to run, a big hand directly kneaded my modded Fireball until it was extinguished!

I looked up and suddenly saw the owner of that hand.

It was the referee.

“Alright, the match is over! Everyone stop attacking!”

The referee looked at me and signaled, then loudly announced the end of the match.

The girl who was almost blown up by my Fireball seemed to have taken a trip to the gates of hell.

At this moment, she was lying completely on the ground, relieving her tense spirit.

With the official announcement from the referees, the light screen above the arena also showed that this match was over.

The photos and names of the remaining contestants were displayed directly on the light screen.

But at this moment, the audience stands were filled with loud shouts of “Explosive Witch” and “Yang Yuehan.”

This was enough to show the audience's recognition of this title and their affirmation of me.

And outside the arena, at this moment, many young girls burst into tears due to the excessive pressure.

After all, they were also young girls who had just come of age.

Faced with such pressure and the crushing defeat by a terrifying opponent, it was inevitable that many of them would have an emotional breakdown.

After all, they represented the honor of their entire class.

There were so many people in a class, and words could be formidable.

Even if everyone in the class comforted them, it would only stimulate them to not dare to face the reality that followed.

Not to mention the pressure that would come if someone criticized them.

At this moment, I was in a normal state of mind, just feeling that this match had finally come to an end.

Then I fumbled in my storage thigh strap and finally took out the book Teacher Ji Niang had given me, Analysis of 300 Common Runes.

It seems Teacher Ji Niang had probably calculated this, right?

To continue to go deeper, I really needed to understand what runes were, and to analyze the fundamental internal structure of spellbooks from the very basics.

With the end of this brief massive battle royale in the afternoon, the 18 advancing contestants were also finally decided, and today's Newcomer Competition had come to a close.

And tomorrow morning, it would be a battle between two hundred people!

And this would also be the most important battle, because after this battle, the top one hundred places would be decided!

And there would be no such thing as a revival round anymore.

And the top one hundred would be on the Newcomer Top 100 List!

But regardless of the ranking, the moment one was on the Newcomer Top 100 List was an honor!

The subsequent battles would gradually refine the ranking.

And the ranking would also affect the final rewards for the competition.

The higher the ranking range, the more rewards one would get!

It could be said that after this revival round, the two hundred contestants selected had already received their rewards from this moment on.

For those ranked after two hundred, there were only some consolation prizes left.

As the contestants left the field, a teacher soon came forward to summarize the day's events and organize the audience to leave in an orderly manner.

And I, as a contestant, could go directly back to the contestants' lounge, or go directly back to the dormitory.

I naturally wouldn't stay here all the time.

I needed a quiet place to chew on this book that Teacher Ji Niang had given me.

I believe that when I have thoroughly understood these basic runes, my understanding of spellbooks will also reach a new level!

This was much more meaningful than blindly exploring the various structures of spellbooks before.

It seems that Teacher Ji Niang was still quite indulgent with me before, allowing me to mess around like this.

The biggest taboo in research is to mess around without a plan.

Although I had figured out the Fireball spellbook like this before, in Ji Niang's eyes, it was probably like a primitive person inventing something, purely relying on metaphysics.

After leaving the contestants' lounge, I saw a crowd of people already gathered.

I had deliberately read a preface in the lounge, so why were these spectators still here blocking the way instead of going back?

It seemed that my appearance caused the crowd to burst into cheers.

“Hehe, it looks like they are specifically here to block you.”

“Good luck, Explosive Witch.”

A few girls who passed by me spoke to me with a smile as if we were old friends.

And I could only respond awkwardly.

Was I stupid to walk this way?

Is it fun to be blocked by so many people?

I didn't have that much time to waste with them.

I looked at the open-air area of the arena, confirmed that there were no invisible barriers, and directly took out my flying broom and slipped away from above.

“Hey! That Little Han ran away!”

“Where? Where?”

“Damn, a flying broom!”

“Whatever, I'm coming too. Flying broom, activate!”

And after I slipped out, I also breathed a sigh of relief.

The feeling of being surrounded by so many people was very bad.

Were those senior students so idle?

If I became a senior student, I wouldn't have that much interest in watching the newcomer's competition live.

So the senior students who came to watch were probably not to be trifled with either.

Just as I was trying to figure out the direction in the sky, a figure suddenly approached me on a broom.

“Excuse me, are you Miss Yang Yuehan, the Explosive Witch? I'm not mistaken, am I?”

“Huh? You are!”

I was almost startled by this person who suddenly appeared.

This feeling was like riding a bike peacefully, and suddenly someone rides a bike over to ride side by side with you and asks if you are so-and-so.

Who could stand that?

“I am a reporter from the Witch Academy Press Club. May I interview you like this?”

“Ah?”

I was stunned for a long while.

Why did the academy have all sorts of clubs, even such weirdos existed.

It was obvious that I ran away like this to avoid people like her.

Why did she have to come over and stick to me?