Evolving infinitely from ground zero

After watching the video of Wu Tiancheng killing the Rat King, Lin Zichen continued to search and browse related news.

Soon, a wanted notice about the remaining fugitive cultists of the Rat God Cult caught his eye.

The content of the news was that there were still nine Rat God Cult followers on the run, but the public security department had already found their specific identity information and made it public, hoping citizens could provide clues to assist in the capture.

There was a reward for providing clues, with the amount ranging from 5,000 to 500,000 yuan depending on the importance of the clue.

Lin Zichen glanced at the wanted photos, committing to memory the appearances of the nine remaining Rat God Cult fugitives.

These nine people were walking 500,000 yuan each, worth remembering their faces.

However, the reward was secondary, the important thing was to protect oneself.

Knowing the appearances of the Rat God Cult fugitives meant that if he happened to encounter them by accident one day, he could recognize them immediately and quickly distance himself to avoid danger.

He would provide clues to public security only after ensuring his own safety, and then claim the reward.

“Xiao Chen, aren’t you up yet?”

“It’s already six o’clock!”

“If you don’t get up now, you’ll be late for school!”

While he was engrossed in the news, Zhang Wanxin’s voice came from outside the door.

“I know, I’m getting up now!”

Lin Zichen responded and quickly got out of bed to get dressed.

Then he washed up, went downstairs for breakfast.

About half an hour later.

Lin Zichen stepped out the front door and went to school with Shen Qinghan, who was already waiting for him outside.

Along the way, Shen Qinghan, unusually quiet, kept humming softly, sounding more and more skilled and pleasant to hear.

Lin Zichen listened and enjoyed it.

He had thought that Shen Qinghan would definitely win an award in the competition at the end of December, but now, he believed she was sure to come first.

In less than ten minutes, the two entered the gates of the school.

Walking along the campus paths, many were pointing at Lin Zichen, whispering about what had happened to him yesterday.

Having announced his challenge to the entire school on the sports field stage the previous afternoon, he was now famous throughout the school.

To exaggerate a little, even the stray cats on the road and the dogs kept by the teachers might recognize him.

However, this fame wasn’t exactly positive.

In the senior years, especially among the seniors, aside from some infatuated girls whose values followed their looks, the vast majority of seniors are quite averse to him.

They think this freshman is too arrogant and has deeply offended them, the seniors.

As for all the pointing and whispering on the way, Lin Zichen didn’t care at all, acting as if he had seen or heard nothing, and went about his business as usual.

It was tough, though, for Shen Qinghan walking with him.

Already socially anxious at school, Shen Qinghan, walking along the campus paths, was constantly struck by the looks others directed at Lin Zichen, her head bowed the entire way, too scared to lift it.

The constant chatter around her only made her feel more uncomfortable, to the point where her legs seemed to forget how to walk, and every step felt awkward.

Seeing her in this state, Lin Zichen also felt helpless.

His childhood friend lacked confidence, always timid at school, which made her seem like an easy target for bullying.

He wondered when she would become more confident.

The time quickly reached 12 o’clock at noon.

As soon as the bell rang for the end of class,

Lin Zichen didn’t even stop for lunch; he left the classroom and headed for the school gymnasium.

He had already eaten something to line his stomach during the break the class before.

It was an onigiri made by Zhang Wanxin.

It was convenient, time-saving, and didn’t require cleaning a lunchbox.

Seeing Lin Zichen heading to the gymnasium, Shen Qinghan hurriedly left her seat to heat her lunch in the office, planning to bring the warm food to the gymnasium to eat and accompany Lin Zichen throughout his challenge matches.

She intended to use her phone to capture every moment worth recording of Lin Zichen’s performance, collecting all the highlights of his student days, and then prepare a slideshow to give to him as a gift.

Meanwhile, Lin Zichen had already arrived at the gym and stepped onto the Martial Stage.

The gym was empty at that moment, not a soul insight.

The students had just finished class and hadn’t arrived yet.

Two or three minutes later, students began to trickle into the gym.

These students hadn’t gone to the cafeteria for lunch but had bought a piece of bread from the campus store and come to watch Lin Zichen’s first day of individual challenge matches.

There were classmates.

There were onlookers.

There were fangirls.

There were hopeful challengers.

And there were students who were just there for the raffle.

In order to encourage active participation in the challenge, the female principal added a prize for participation in her plan: any student who took part in the challenge would get a raffle ticket.

The prizes were generous, including various latest models of electronic products.

“Zi Chen, the top student of the high sophomore honors class has his sights on you,” he said. “Today, he wants to rub you relentlessly on the Martial Stage, beat you until even your own mother wouldn’t recognize you!”

Below the Martial Stage, He Yu was leisurely munching on his bread as he mimicked the threatening tone of that sophomore honors class tyrant and relayed the message to Lin Zichen, appearing like an instigating eunuch.

Wang Shujie sneered upon hearing this, “He’s just a worthless person who’s practiced for an extra year. How could he be considered a match for Lin Zichen?”

Lu Gang also remarked, “Those high graders are nothing but frogs in a well. They have no clue how strong Lin Zichen truly is.” At this moment, both top achievers from Nanguan City stood speaking up for Lin Zichen, sharing his enmity, and looking down upon the top student from the high sophomore honors class.

After several shocks, awe, and existential doubts, they both accepted Lin Zichen’s superiority, thoroughly convinced that he was the number one of Shanhai High School.

Even though Lin Zichen had not yet faced the top students of the junior and senior honors classes, this did not prevent them from being so sure of their stance.

They trusted their intuition as geniuses.

“Xiao Chen, good luck later!”

Shen Qinghan, holding her heated meal, sat in a corner below the stage, smilingly shouting a word of encouragement to Lin Zichen.

Beside her, Li Chuxin also shouted, “Zi Chen, go for it!”

Lin Zichen waved back at the two and the rest of the class with a smile.

About ten minutes later.

The teacher in charge of refereeing arrived.

Seeing this, Lin Zichen didn’t waste a second and immediately asked everyone below the stage, “Everyone, the individual challenge match can now begin. Does anyone want to come up for a sparring session?”

“I’ll do it!”

With a delicate voice, a girl with twin ponytails jumped onto the Martial Stage.

She was a student from the ordinary class of grade one and was weaker than Shen Qinghan.

The main reason she stepped up to the challenge was to have physical contact with Lin Zichen.

Lin Zichen didn’t go easy on her just because she was a girl; aiming to save time to spar with more challengers, he knocked her out in less than three seconds.

Survival of the Fittest achievement progress +1!

“I’m next!”

“It’s my turn now, my turn!”

“And me too!”

In the time that followed, the little fan girls took turns scrambling to get on the stage, all eager for physical contact with Lin Zichen.

Then, in less than half an hour, Lin Zichen had taken down nearly a hundred little fan girls, significantly increasing his achievement progress by dozens of points.

With 95 points progress made in less than half an hour, he thought at this rate, he might complete the Survival of the Fittest achievement by this week…

Lin Zichen felt a surge of excitement within.

Another half hour passed, and the supply of little fan girls below the stage had almost been spent.

At this time, the cumulative progress for the Survival of the Fittest achievement had reached 309 points!

A straight gain of 190 points within an hour!

The speed of progress was far more than what he had accumulated over the past few years combined, ridiculously efficient.

In the meantime, some fan girls were not ready to give up and wanted to challenge again after their defeat.

Lin Zichen flatly refused, not accepting a second challenge from any losers.

Because for the Survival of the Fittest achievement, he had to defeat different competitors to increase the completion progress.

“Are there any other challengers?”

After making use of the little fan girls, Lin Zichen looked down at the others and asked.

“Yes, of course!”

There was an immediate response from below the stage.

As long as they stepped up to challenge, they would get a raffle ticket afterwards.

Everyone was enthusiastic about this, lining up to take their turns for the challenge.

Half an hour later, the completion progress for the Survival of the Fittest achievement had reached 419 points, nearly half completed.

Meanwhile, the total amount of money accumulated in the prize pool had reached 2,000 yuan.

“Anyone else want to come?”

Lin Zichen looked down and asked.

By then, all the little fan girls had had their turn, and the students who wanted raffle tickets were done as well.

“I’m coming!”

A senior student from the key class of third-year leapt onto the Martial Stage, a huge guy two meters tall, covered with muscles, looking like a mountain.

He had his eyes on the 2,000 yuan in the prize pool.

“Junior, I know you’re strong, but setting up a challenge for the whole school as a freshman is a bit too arrogant. Today, I’ll teach you a lesson!”

After speaking, the senior took off his shirt in public, showing off his ridiculously exaggerated pectoral muscles, which throbbed with every flex, brimming with explosive power.

Ten seconds later.

“Bang!”

A collision sounded.

The confident muscled senior who had just been full of confidence to fly backwards off the Martial Stage.

“Next!”

After taking down the muscle-bound senior, Lin Zichen immediately shouted to those below the stage.

However, no one came up to challenge.

Seeing even a key class third-year senior get swiftly defeated, everyone understood their chances, and none stepped forward to be humiliated.

As for the raffle tickets, not everyone cared about that.

Just as Lin Zichen thought it might be time to call it a day,

a commotion suddenly arose from below.

“Yan Shaoxuan is here!”

“I didn’t expect him to specifically come here for the challenge; he must really dislike this freshman and wants to come up here to teach him a lesson.”

“This is interesting; now there’s a show to watch.”

Most of the students who came to the gymnasium had done so to watch Yan Shaoxuan teach Lin Zichen a lesson.

After waiting so long, they finally got to see this dominant figure from the second year’s top class.

Who is Yan Shaoxuan?

Hearing the voices below and following everyone’s gaze toward a boy approaching the Martial Stage from a distance, Lin Zichen became curious.

Thinking to himself, he turned his head to look at He Yu, who was well-informed about the happenings below. Seeing Lin Zichen’s curious gaze, He Yu knew what he wanted to ask and promptly introduced, “Yan Shaoxuan is the number one student in the top class of the second year that I mentioned to you before. He’s said to be able to lift a 560-kilogram barbell with one hand, sprint 100 meters in just 6.38 seconds, and his overall strength is among the top five in the entire school.”

After hearing that, Lin Zichen nodded, completely unfazed.

It was then that a lean figure leaped out from the crowd!

The height of his jump nearly reached 4 meters!

And then, like a god descending from the heavens, he landed on the Martial Stage with a “thud”!

PS: Holding out my bowl, asking for monthly and recommendation tickets!