Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 1408 - 72: Evaluation and Scoring

Chapter 1408: Chapter 72: Evaluation and Scoring

The pitch-black sight returned to light, and Tang Zheng saw the familiar pale white walls, looking like the blood-drained face of a person, a perfect scene for filming a horror movie.

"Finally back!" Feeling safe, Li Huiwen lost the strength that had been supporting him and plopped down on the ground; the siblings couldn’t help it either, thinking back on their deadly journey, they burst into tears.

"Alright, shut up already, so annoying," Sha Ou shouted, staring at the Black Cube in the room, "Trojan, get up already, start healing us."

The explosive rock version of the International Song suddenly blared, startling everyone; only then did the Cube start to spin and float up, intentionally delaying time.

"Toys, congratulations on your safe return. If nobody needs treatment, then let’s move on to the scoring procedure." The Trojan’s tone was punch-worthy, and it dragged out the words deliberately.

"Are you blind? Can’t you see we’re all seriously injured? Hurry up and heal us!" Li Huiwen, not yet aware of the Silver Trojan’s ruthlessness, pretended to be indignant on behalf of the team, shouting loudly.

"Reprimanding the Trojan, punishment given!" The Trojan spoke coldly.

"What’s happening?" Li Huiwen became scared, instinctively looking towards Xu Liangmao.

"Stop messing around, Trojan, start healing," Tang Zheng said, and with a loud bang, an explosion came. Li Huiwen’s entire arm burst apart, shattered so thoroughly that even the bones turned into powder.

Blood and minced meat were splattered over everyone; no one was exempt. The siblings, still unaccustomed, screamed in shock.

Li Huiwen let out a pained cry, kneeling on the ground.

"This is to let you know that the Trojan’s authority is not to be doubted." The Trojan was smug, enjoying the sight of the Toys’ miserable expressions. However, in the next second, gunshots rang out.

Bang, bang, Tang Zheng’s Devil Flame Pistol fired at the Cube, creating cracks on its surface.

"What are you doing? Have you gone mad?" The Trojan shrieked, furious.

"Seeing you didn’t immediately punish me makes me more certain that the more powerful I get, the less you’re able to limit me." After hearing Mu Nianqi’s words, Tang Zheng was quite eager to understand the Trojan’s background, believing that even somewhat extreme measures were worthwhile.

"Hmph, I warn you, don’t try to challenge my authority." Although the Trojan sounded fierce, it indeed did not punish Tang Zheng. Once a Toy reached the 2nd tier hero, the Trojan was not allowed to inflict physical punishment on them; they had to adhere to the procedure and could only die in the missions of the Theme World.

"Stop babbling and heal everyone, or I really will blow you up. It’s no big deal, after you annihilate me, let Lu Fan revive me." Tang Zheng teased the Silver Trojan, it’s just a shame it wasn’t human, otherwise one might deduce some information from its expressions.

"Humph!" Lu Fan crossed her arms, tilting her little chin up proudly; once this scoring was finished, her total points would definitely exceed ten thousand. But Little Lolita wasn’t planning to leave; she wanted to go to the Holy Land with her uncle.

"Healing begins, points will be deducted from the Toys’ scores!" The Cube shot out a pillar of white light, enveloping each person, visibly healing their injuries.

"My hand, it’s amazing." Li Huiwen no longer felt pain, it was warm, and the new arm was growing back, although the sight was a bit horrific—as anyone would be unsettled by watching nerves and muscles regenerating inch by inch.

After the white light vanished, the Cube’s screen displayed everyone’s avatars. Then, like a carousel, the images started spinning before stopping on Qian Rong’s, enlarging to fill the entire screen.

"It’s me!" Qian Rong, appearing like a woman of the night, was somewhat fearful, trying to move closer to Tang Zheng, only to be unceremoniously pushed away by Pang Meiqin.

"Get lost." The Beautiful Leg Stewardess couldn’t believe how lucky these newbies were, leaving her in a terrible mood.

"A prostitute, nothing more than selling your body, have you become so lazy that you won’t even use your brain anymore? Without a brain, even selling your body will only fetch the lowest price. Honestly, there’s no need to appraise you, your score..."

Suddenly the Trojan fell silent, causing a moment of confusion among the people.

"What happened?" Qian Rong, who had been shamed by the Trojan’s words, was now starting to worry.

Beep, beep, two long beeps sounded in the room, like the buzzers judges in talent shows use to eliminate a contestant, turning the entire screen blood red, marking Qian Rong’s avatar with a glaring X.

"Scored one hundred and forty points, insufficient to meet the two hundred point base score, annihilation punishment given to Qian Rong."

"No, I don’t want to die, you must have miscalculated, please count again," Qian Rong came to her senses, immediately lunging towards the Trojan, tearfully pleading.

Bang, Qian Rong’s head burst like a popped balloon, blood and brain pulp smearing the walls, with her skull spinning on the ground, rolling far away.

The newbies were stunned, uncontrollably starting to tremble; it was then they realized that safety wasn’t guaranteed upon return.

"I don’t want to die, I want to leave this place." The earring woman, likewise fortunate to have survived, was so shaken that she shook her head and suddenly rushed to the only door in the room, desperately twisting the door handle, to no avail.

"That’s enough, the useless waste Toys have been wiped out, scoring continues," the Trojan said indifferently as if it had squashed an insignificant mosquito, and continued rotating the avatars, stopping on the earring woman.

"That door won’t open, don’t bother," Sha Ou mocked the earring woman as she struggled like an ant, "Look, it’s your turn, I bet you’re no more than a hundred and fifty points."

"Stop teasing her," Tang Zheng frowned, disliking Sha Ou’s personality.

"A prostitute, even more useless than the one before, still without any value for evaluation, scored one hundred and forty points, shall be obliterated as a punishment."

"No..." before the woman with the earrings could finish, her upper body exploded, and the remaining half of her corpse fell into a pool of blood.

The gruesome death made the newbies retch again. As they looked at the organs in the woman’s chest cavity, a boy covered his sister’s eyes and hugged her tightly.

The avatar turned, this time to the only remaining client.

With a thud, the big man was so frightened that he knelt on the ground.

"A client, oh, you actually enjoy being abused. But aside from soliciting women, it seems you have no other talents, scored one hundred ninety points, sorry, not reaching the basic two hundred points, you must be obliterated."

"Go to hell," the man, upon hearing the Trojan’s verdict, became resigned and grabbed a rifle, firing at the Cube.

Considering the client’s defiance, this time it wasn’t a head explosion but immolation. Like spontaneous combustion, his entire body was set ablaze, turning him into a human-shaped torch.

The Conquerors stepped back, covering their noses. The scent of charred flesh and thick, black smoke carrying a foul odor dispersed, inciting disgust—another display of the Trojan’s evil taste, deliberately torturing these ’toys.’

In three minutes, the client was reduced to charcoal.

"Gao Liangcai, a professional thief, likes to collect women’s silk stockings, has a malicious character, vengeful, lazy, purely a scumbag, scored three hundred points, awarded a Black Iron Seed with a D-level evaluation."

Gao Liangcai didn’t care about the trash talk. Hearing he wouldn’t be obliterated, he breathed a sigh of relief and then began to sneak glances around, ready to steal whatever he could.

"Ran Mei, an unfortunate woman. Marriage is a woman’s second life, but sadly you chose a trashy man, hmm..."

The Trojan paused its assessment, but Ran Mei didn’t panic and instead stared at the only door in the room.

"Heh, interesting, so that’s how it is. Not bad, you scored five hundred points, awarded a Black Iron Seed with a D-level evaluation."

"What’s going on? I thought there would be another one wiped out," Sha Ou was disappointed.

"It’s okay now, really good." Probably because of shared hardships, Li Huiwen was kind to Ran Mei. Without her care, Ran Mei wouldn’t have survived.

"Thanks to you," Ran Mei gave up the idea of escaping.

Lu Fan and Mu Nianqi stared at Ran Mei, recalling the Trojan’s words, feeling something was off, while Qin Yan was less concerned, walking over to Ran Mei, patting her shoulder in comfort.

"Ran Mei, congratulations on surviving," Tang Zheng walked over to her and extended his right hand. "From now on, we’re all comrades."

"I will work hard in the future to repay everyone’s kindness," Ran Mei reached out to shake Tang Zheng’s hand, but the Group Leader suddenly grasped her face.

"Die!" Tang Zheng instantly entered Hero Mode, deployed the Gravity Well, and crushed Ran Mei’s head with a squeeze. Then the female musketeers acted, bombarding the corpse with a barrage of gunfire.

Tang Zheng’s sudden outburst shocked everyone. Lu Fan attacked without any hesitation, followed by an attack, while Tao Ran hesitated for a moment before releasing a Time-space Blackfish.

Most of the Conquerors were stunned, but also prepared to focus fire on Ran Mei, but Tang Zheng, in full force, had already blasted her into pieces.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dong Zixuan shouted, trying to stop them, "Why kill her?"

"Tang Zheng must have his reasons," Lin Weiguo furrowed his brows, Qin Yan, and Xin Lan didn’t attack, but they trusted Tang Zheng.

"Ran Mei was fake, probably taken over by an Alien Species," Mu Nianqi also didn’t attack because she knew Tang Zheng would definitely be able to take down the enemy.

"Fake?" Dong Zixuan still didn’t believe it, "How can I not see it?"

"She indeed was fake, parasitized by an Alien Species. However, I’m curious, how did you figure it out?" The Silver Trojan spoke, affirming Tang Zheng’s judgment.

"Her reaction was wrong. I remember Ran Mei was very timid, and she was often abused by her husband. Even if there were no psychological trauma, the sight of a man should make her uncomfortable, instinctively dodging. But just now, she shook my hand without any discomfort, totally illogical," Tang Zheng explained, not wanting to be seen as killing the innocent wantonly.

"You’ve spoken less than ten sentences to her in total, and you’re so sure?" Dong Zixuan both admired his attention to detail and reproached his recklessness, "What if you killed the wrong person?"

"If he was wrong, it’d just be a deduction of five hundred points for Tang Zheng; he can afford that," Pang Meiqin didn’t want to waste time on Ran Mei, the policewoman truly bored.

"It won’t be wrong. Listening to the Trojan’s evaluation, it’s a very obvious flaw. Besides, I don’t think she could’ve earned five hundred points." Tang Zheng gave a reason, but his real thought was akin to Pang Meiqin’s—he would rather kill by mistake than leave a hidden danger in the team, especially since Ran Mei had no potential and wasn’t worth cultivating. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)