Zhou Ke raised the gun and pressed it against his temple.
The barrel was cold, and he felt the icy touch against his skin.
Five empty chambers remained, with one bullet loaded.
The odds of firing it were one in five—20%.
Not terribly high, but luck was unpredictable. A single shot could still be lethal.
Zhou Ke closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
Click.
He exhaled softly.
Second shot.
Nothing.
After all, 20% wasn’t that bad. He couldn’t be that unlucky.
Zhou Ke rolled his shoulders and moved to hand the gun to the figure across from him—
Then the examination hall’s system chimed abruptly.
[Beep! Emergency question issued!]
[The student currently holding the gun must complete a minor task before transferring it!]
[Failure to comply will result in another self-inflicted shot!]
An emergency question?
Complete a task to pass the gun?
...
“We’ve got a live feed from the classroom!”
After a few quick maneuvers by Zhuang Xingyao, a large screen flickered to life, broadcasting the deadly examination in real time.
“Russian roulette was supposed to be the school’s standard luck-based test…”
“But now, the gun’s been swapped for a real one. If the bullet fires, someone will die.”
Zhuang Xingyao muttered under her breath, a trace of unease in her voice.
It wasn’t that she particularly cared about the examinee’s life—but this second round of testing was her responsibility.
No fatalities had ever occurred during freshman evaluations before. If something went wrong now, she’d be the one held accountable.
At this moment, every freshman in the school was glued to the screen, watching the life-or-death game between Zhou Ke and the Skull Society’s assassin.
When Zhou Ke’s first shot turned out empty, Professor Chen Yun let out a long breath.
“A student dying on the first day of testing would be a catastrophic educational incident.”
Then, the screen displayed the [Emergency Question] prompt.
“An emergency question? Professor Chen, was this part of the plan?” Zhuang Xingyao looked up.
Professor Chen Yun frowned, her eyes locked on Zhou Ke’s figure on the screen.
“Absolutely not. The luck test is purely about chance. So…”
“This emergency question must have been planted by the assassin.”
...
Inside the examination hall.
An emergency question?
Zhou Ke furrowed his brow as he read the blackboard.
Why was he the only one being forced to do an extra task?
Was this still part of the luck test?
A penalty for the unlucky?
[Emergency Question:]
[Within the 5-second time limit, locate a ‘red’ item and place it at the center of the desk!]
[Countdown: 5…]
A red item?
Just find something red and put it on the table?
Simple enough—except…
Zhou Ke’s eyes darted across the classroom. The space was stark and utilitarian.
Desks, chairs, the gun… all gray. Not a trace of red in sight.
[4…]
He couldn’t leave his seat to search.
The initial rules had been clear: attempting to stand would trigger the hidden blade behind him to strike.
He wasn’t keen on testing his reflexes against a knife.
Even if he could search freely, there was no guarantee he’d find anything red.
Zhou Ke’s gaze shifted to the black-clad figure across from him.
Beneath the shadow of the hood, the assassin’s lips curled slightly.
[3…]
Something was wrong. This exam was all wrong.
Because… this was supposed to be a [Luck] test.
The emergency question had nothing to do with luck.
And singling him out like this violated the test’s fairness entirely.
[2…]
No time to dwell. Survive first, think later.
A red item… a red item…
Truthfully, Zhou Ke had already thought of one. He just didn’t want to use it.
But as the seconds ticked away, he had no choice.
Without hesitation, he raised a finger to his mouth—
And bit down hard.
[1…]
Expression unchanging, Zhou Ke withdrew his bleeding finger.
Calmly, he placed it at the center of the desk. A drop of blood fell.
Blood was [red].
[Red item detected. Task complete!!!]
Zhou Ke wordlessly handed the gun to the assassin, then asked:
“You didn’t seem surprised by the emergency question.”
“And your voice doesn’t sound like an 18-year-old’s. Care to explain why you’re hiding your face?”
...
“Whew, that was close!”
Zhang Yang slapped his chest in relief as Zhou Ke narrowly escaped danger.
“Don’t die on me, man! I finally made friends with a genius—I was counting on copying your homework!”
Professor Chen Yun pulled a handkerchief from her LV bag, dabbing her forehead.
“Thank goodness… Of course the student I picked would pull through.”
Zhuang Xingyao remained silent, her eyes fixed on Zhou Ke.
When she saw him bite his own finger without flinching, solve the emergency question effortlessly, and call out the assassin’s disguise, her eyebrows lifted slightly.
“Zhou Ke… just who are you?”
...
Back in the examination hall.
The Skull Society assassin ignored Zhou Ke’s questions. He took the gun and, without hesitation, pressed it to his own temple.
Four chambers left. One bullet. 25% odds.
Click.
Third shot.
Empty.
Zhou Ke’s frown deepened.
Too calm. The assassin hadn’t hesitated at all.
Was it possible… he already knew where the bullet was loaded?
“I’m not a student,” the assassin said abruptly.
“But this isn’t personal. I’m just following orders.”
Zhou Ke’s grip tightened as he took the gun back.
Again, he pressed it to his temple.
He had no choice—the blade behind him twitched, ready to strike if he broke the rules.
“You’ve tampered with the exam’s parameters, haven’t you?”
“So, what’s your mission?”
Zhou Ke asked quietly.
Three chambers. One bullet. 33% chance of death.
High enough that the next shot could be the end.
Without pause, he pulled the trigger.
In that split second, he saw the assassin’s eyes—cold and murderous beneath the hood.
The assassin whispered three words:
“Kill you.”
Click.
Fourth shot.
Empty.
The assassin sighed, disappointment heavy in his voice. “Pity.”
Zhou Ke set the gun down slowly, never breaking eye contact.
“So… you’re an assassin. And if I’m not mistaken, the classroom’s safety protocols have been disabled?”
“If the bullet had fired, I’d really be dead?”
The assassin tilted his head, revealing half his face—one cruel, predatory eye locking onto Zhou Ke.
"You're quite clever. But... being too clever can be a bad thing."
"I think I’m starting to understand why 【that person】 wants you dead."
Zhou Ke ignored the black-clad assassin’s words and simply handed the pistol over.
But the other side didn’t take it.
Because...
【Beep—Another surprise test question incoming!】
The system voice rang out again.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
