Evolving infinitely from ground zero

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

Soon, a wanted news about the remnants of the Rat God Cult caught his eye.

The content of the news was that there were still nine followers of the Rat God Cult on the run, but the security department had identified all nine individuals' identities and made them public, hoping that citizens could provide clues to assist in their capture.

There were rewards for providing clues, ranging from 5,000 to 500,000 yuan, depending on the importance of the information.

Lin Zichen glanced at the wanted photos and memorized the appearances of the nine remnants of the Rat God Cult.

Each of these nine was walking 500,000 yuan, worth remembering their faces.

However, the bounty and all were secondary; what mattered was being able to protect oneself.

Knowing the appearances of the remnants of the Rat God Cult meant that if one accidentally encountered them one day, they could be recognized immediately, and one could then quickly distance oneself to avoid danger.

In the event that one could ensure one's own safety, then information could be provided to the security department to claim the reward.

"Xiao Chen, aren't you up yet?"

"It's already six o'clock!"

"If you don't get up now, you're going to be late for school!"

Engrossed in the news, Lin Zichen heard Zhang Wanxin's voice from outside the door.

"I know, I'm getting up now!"

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

After washing up, he went downstairs for breakfast.

About half an hour later.

Lin Zichen stepped out of his house and went to school with Shen Qinghan, who had been waiting for him outside.

All the way there, Shen Qinghan hummed songs quietly, increasingly becoming more skilled and pleasing to the ear.

Lin Zichen listened and enjoyed it very much.

He previously thought that Shen Qinghan would definitely win a prize in the contest at the end of December, but now, he was certain she would win the championship.

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

Walking on the school path, many people pointed and whispered about Lin Zichen, discussing the events of the previous day.

Because he had announced on the sports field stage yesterday afternoon that he would challenge the entire school, he was now famous throughout the school.

To exaggerate a bit, even the street cats and the dogs kept by the teachers probably recognized him.

However, the fame he had gained wasn't exactly something to be proud of.

Students from the senior grades, especially the twelfth graders, with the exception of some lovesick girls who were enamored with him, the vast majority of his seniors disapproved of him.

They thought this first-year student was too arrogant, deeply offending those older than him.

As for the pointing and whispering along the way, Lin Zichen couldn't care less, as if he hadn't seen or heard any of it; he just went about his business as usual.

It was Shen Qinghan who suffered, walking alongside him.

Shen Qinghan was already socially anxious at school, and now, walking down the school path, she kept getting accidentally caught in the various glances aimed at Lin Zichen, which made her so uncomfortable that she dared not even lift her head, walking the entire way with her eyes down.

Listening to the constant idle chatter around her made her feel even more uncomfortable, to the point where her legs almost forgot how to walk, finding every step awkward.

Seeing her like this, Lin Zichen also felt helpless.

His childhood friend really lacked confidence, always meek at school, seemingly easy to bully.

He wondered when she would become more confident.

...

Time soon reached 12 noon.

The bell for class dismissal rang.

Lin Zichen didn't even go for lunch; he left the classroom immediately and headed for the school gym.

He had already eaten something during the break.

It was rice balls made by Zhang Wanxin.

They were convenient to eat, didn't take time, and didn't require washing a lunchbox.

Seeing Lin Zichen going to the gym, Shen Qinghan hurriedly left her seat to heat up her rice in the office, intending to bring the heated meal to the gym to eat, accompanying Lin Zichen throughout the challenge match.

She wanted to use her phone to capture every moment of Lin Zichen worth recording, collect all the highlights of his student days, and then make them into a slideshow to give him.

On the other side, Lin Zichen had already arrived at the gym and ascended the Martial Stage.

At that moment, the gym was empty, not a single person in sight.

The students had just finished class and hadn't arrived so quickly.

About two or three minutes later, students started trickling into the gym.

These students hadn't gone to the cafeteria for lunch, but instead bought some bread at the school store and came over, specially to watch Lin Zichen's first day of the personal challenge match.

There were classmates.

There were bystanders.

There were little fan girls.

There were challengers eager to try their luck.

And there were students simply there for the raffle.

To encourage students to participate in the challenge, the female principal included a reward system in the plan; every student who participated in the challenge would get a raffle ticket.

The prizes were generous, including various latest electronic gadgets.

"Zi Chen, the top student from the high second year's elite class has his eye on you," He Yu said leisurely while nibbling on his bread, imitating the overlord of the high second year's might, playing the role of a meddlesome messenger.

Wang Shujie heard this and scoffed, "He's just a failure who has practiced for an extra year, how could he be compared to Lin Zichen?"

Lu Gang also said, "Those seniors are frogs at the bottom of a well, they have no idea how strong Lin Zichen is."

At this moment, both top scholars from Nanguan City were supporting Lin Zichen, sharing his enmity and looking down on the top student of the high second year's elite class.

After several shocks, amazement, and questioning life itself, they both now worshipped Lin Zichen completely, convinced that he was the number one at Shanhai High School.

Even though Lin Zichen hadn't yet competed against the students from the senior elite classes, that didn't stop them from being so certain.

They trusted their intuition as geniuses.

"Xiao Chen, go for it later!"

Shen Qinghan, holding the heated food, sat in a corner under the Martial Stage, smiling and shouting a word of encouragement to Lin Zichen.

Next to her, Li Chuxin also shouted, "Zi Chen, go for it!"

Lin Zichen smiled and waved at the two people as well as everyone else in the class in response.

About ten minutes later,

the teacher acting as the judge arrived.

Seeing this, Lin Zichen didn't waste a second and immediately turned to everyone below the stage, asking, "Folks, the individual challenge match can begin now. Does anyone want to come up for a spar?"

"I'll give it a go!"

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

She was a student from an ordinary first-year class, even weaker than Shen Qinghan.

The main reason she went up to challenge Lin Zichen was that she wanted to have physical contact with him.

Lin Zichen didn't cut her any slack just because she was a girl. In order to save time and fight more sparring matches, he took her out in less than three seconds.

Survival of the Fittest achievement progress +1!

"I'm next!"

"It's my turn, my turn!"

"Me too, don't forget about me!"

Following that, each fan girl rushed to the stage one after another, scrambling to have some physical contact with Lin Zichen.

Then in less than half an hour, Lin Zichen had already taken down nearly a hundred fan girls, adding dozens of points to his achievement progress.

In less than half an hour, he had gained 95 points of progress. With this rate of improvement, it felt like he could complete the Survival of the Fittest achievement this week...

Lin Zichen felt a surge of excitement in his heart.

Another half-hour passed, and the fan girls below the stage were nearly used up.

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

A full 190 points gained in just an hour!

This rate of progression was much more than the sum of several years put together, absurdly efficient.

During this time, some fan girls felt unsatisfied and wanted a rematch after failing, but

Lin Zichen promptly refused, not accepting second challenges from the defeated.

Because the Survival of the Fittest achievement required defeating different competitors to improve the completion progress.

"Any other challengers?"

After utilizing the fan girls, Lin Zichen looked down at the others and asked.

"Yes, yes!"

Someone from below immediately responded.

Just by stepping onto the stage to challenge, they would get a lottery ticket afterwards.

Everyone was enthusiastic about this and formed lines to come up and challenge one after another.

Another half an hour later, the completion progress of the Survival of the Fittest achievement had reached 419 points, almost half way there.

Simultaneously, the money accumulated in the prize pool also reached 2,000 yuan.

"Anyone else want to try?"

Lin Zichen looked towards the crowd below and asked.

By then, the fan girls had all had their turn, and the students wanting lottery tickets had also completed theirs.

"I'll do it!"

A senior student from a high-priority third-year class leaped onto the stage—a towering two-meter-tall hulk, his body covered in muscles, looking as imposing as a mountain.

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

"Junior, I know you're strong, but putting up a challenge stage and inviting the whole school as a new student is too presumptuous. Today, I'll teach you a lesson!"

After speaking, the senior student took off his clothes in public, revealing his excessively showy pectoral muscles, which would throb vigorously when flexed, exuding explosive power.

Ten seconds later.

"Bang!"

A collision sound echoed.

The muscle man who had just been brimming with confidence was sent flying backward off the Martial Stage.

"Next!"

After taking out the muscle man, Lin Zichen immediately shouted to those below the stage.

However, no one responded to his call to challenge.

Even the high-priority senior had been defeated in an instant, and seeing this, everyone knew their place and chose not to humiliate themselves by stepping up.

As for the lottery tickets, not everyone cared about them.

Just as Lin Zichen thought the day's challenges would end there,

a commotion suddenly broke out among the crowd below.

"Yan Shaoxuan is here!"

"I didn't expect him to specifically come here for the challenge; he probably can't stand this newcomer and wants to come up and thrash him on the stage."

"Interesting, now this is going to be a good show."

The majority of students who came to the gymnasium were there to see Yan Shaoxuan teach Lin Zichen a lesson.

After such a long wait, they finally saw the arrival of this apex student from the high-priority second-year class.

Who is Yan Shaoxuan?

Hearing the voices below and following the direction of everyone's gaze toward a boy approaching the Martial Stage, Lin Zichen couldn't help but feel curious.

Thinking this, he turned his head to He Yu, who was well-informed about the school's affairs below.

Seeing Lin Zichen look over with a curious face, He Yu knew what he was likely to ask and immediately introduced, "Yan Shaoxuan is the number one from the high-priority second-year class I mentioned before. He can lift a 560-kilogram barbell with one hand and sprint a hundred meters in 6.38 seconds. His comprehensive strength ranks in the top five in the entire school."

After hearing this, Lin Zichen nodded, unfazed.

At that moment, a lean figure leapt out from the crowd!

The height of the jump nearly reaching 4 meters!

Then, as if a god descending from the heavens, he landed on the Martial Stage with a solid "thud"!

...

PS: Appealing for your Monthly Passes and recommendation tickets!