"Alright, you have three minutes to prepare. Once everything is set, the assessment begins."
After saying this, the Raccoon Admin immediately left the field.
Hearing these words, Mi Yao's two teammates immediately approached him to discuss their next strategy.
"Um, our abilities are—"
Without waiting for his two teammates to finish, Mi Yao didn't even look up, focusing on playing with the silver-grey handheld console in his hands.
"Unnecessary."
Mi Yao played his game and said impatiently, "Once inside, you two hide yourselves and don't bother me."
"..."
Hearing this, the smile of the Mundane Male teammate froze on his face, and his heart immediately sank.
Did he guess what we were thinking?
They had teamed up with Mi Yao precisely because they planned to let Mi Yao attract the attention of the pursuers at the critical moment, allowing them to hide.
Because, by all appearances, Mi Yao was the strongest among the three of them.
It was only logical for the pursuers to go after him first.
Furthermore, Mi Yao was just a temporary teammate they met in a 'random match,' so they had no psychological burden selling him out.
However, Mi Yao's words seemed to indicate he had seen through their intentions, so he showed no sign of wanting to communicate with them.
Seeing this, the Mundane Male opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but the Mundane Female next to him tugged at his sleeve.
The two exchanged a look, ultimately not daring to speak further, and could only retreat to the side dejectedly, quietly discussing a contingency plan.
Their situation was observed by the other teams.
It also made Chen Kong momentarily anxious.
After all, he, An Qin, and the Cameraman Bro were also a temporary team.
If they encountered danger later, would his teammates also think about 'selling him out,' like Mi Yao's teammates?
Once the seed of suspicion is planted, it is not so easy to remove...
Before Chen Kong could reach a conclusion, the Raccoon Admin's voice chimed in.
"Alright, preparation time is over. The second assessment begins!"
Amidst the Raccoon Admin's slightly playful voice, Mi Yao's trio was immediately teleported to a certain location within the surrounding maze.
At the same time, a large screen appeared above everyone's heads, broadcasting the real-time footage from inside the maze.
[Assessment Maze - City Ruins Area]
The moment Mi Yao's trio landed, they immediately looked around.
Cracked asphalt roads, collapsed modern high-rise buildings, remnants of graffiti on the walls, and a few wild weeds sprouting from the crevices of the ruins.
The scene strongly resembled an urban ruin after an apocalypse.
"Let's find a hidden spot first to observe the situation. The Star Energy detector scans every five seconds. Running around aimlessly will only reveal our location."
After briefly observing the surroundings, the Mundane Female teammate spoke immediately.
As she spoke, she pulled out a palm-sized tablet from her backpack.
This was a special 'Terrain and Life Detector' she had prepared, capable of real-time mapping of the surrounding 3D model, as well as life forms within a certain range.
She pressed the button on the tablet, and a pale-blue Star Energy fluctuation spread out.
Before long, a simple model of the surrounding ruins appeared on the screen.
But in the next second, the Mundane Female's face turned pale, and the tablet 'clattered' to the ground.
"Wh-What's wrong?"
The Mundane Male quickly picked up the tablet and looked at the screen.
When he saw the situation on the screen, his pupils instantly contracted.
The 3D model was densely covered with red dots.
And among these red dots, one dot glowed a bizarre crimson, slowly moving toward them.
"An Apocalypse-level Star Beast fluctuation?!"
"How can there be an Apocalypse-level Star Beast in this assessment? Did the admin put it in, or was it an accident?"
The Mundane Male's voice was terrified, clearly not expecting such a situation.
In contrast to the panic of the two, Mi Yao calmly put away his handheld console, looking up towards the depths of the ruins.
"A little interesting. So there was such a big 'surprise' hidden here."
After speaking, Mi Yao didn't notify his two 'teammates.'
He turned and walked toward a certain direction in the ruins.
[Meanwhile, in front of the Rest Hall Holographic Screen]
Chen Kong stared at the ruins scene on the screen and suddenly froze.
His gaze was fixed on a dilapidated sign in the corner of the image, where he could still clearly read the four characters for 'Sunshine Kindergarten.'
The color, font, and even the chipped paint marks on that sign were identical to the kindergarten he attended when he was a child!
The Cameraman Bro noticed his anomaly and turned his lens to the screen, curiously asking, "What's wrong, do you recognize this place?"
Chen Kong did not answer. Blurred fragments of memory suddenly flashed in his mind.
A collapsed teaching building, his mother's shouts, the dense swarm of Star Beasts...
Without delving further into the memories, Chen Kong shook his head and said, "N-Nothing, maybe I just saw it wrong."
Did he see it wrong?
Watching Chen Kong lost in thought, the Cameraman Bro immediately grew pensive.
And did Chen Kong really see it wrong?
Naturally, he did not.
Because whether it was the kindergarten on the screen, the elementary school not far away, or the park further beyond, they all looked exactly like the city he lived in during his childhood!
"What is it, Tendo?"
"Nothing, I just suddenly saw something familiar."
Hearing this, Caroline immediately looked at the city ruins on the screen.
In just an instant, Caroline found area characteristics highly similar to these ruins in her 'Quantum Database.'
If the data was correct, the prototype of these ruins was the SSS-Rank Fallen Zone - Meteorite Site.
And the former name of the Meteorite Site was an unremarkable small city in the New Federation: Tianhui City (Sunshine Tutoring Center).
And this city, apparently, was the place where Tendo lived when he was a child...
Thinking of this, Caroline immediately began to ponder.
Because she didn't think the appearance of these city ruins was a coincidence.
And the dimensional viewers at Site 13 were also starting to ponder.
'Wait a minute, this looks like the city where Tendo and Chen Kong lived when they were kids, right?'
'It should be correct. That park and the tutoring class appeared in a previous flashback chapter.'
'Is it a coincidence, or some kind of suggestion?'
Dimensional viewers familiar with the production process of an animated series knew well that every frame had a meaning for a mature production team.
Because these frames required a huge number of people and a large amount of resources to create.
Unless it was a production team where the leader was just fooling around and didn't care about the cost.
Otherwise, frames like these that are released must have been strictly reviewed.
Adding to this, the core area of this hide-and-seek scene seemed to be the city where Tendo and the others lived when they were children. It looked intentional on the part of the production team, no matter how you looked at it.
'Is this setting the stage for a special plot later, or is there something unique about this assessment?'
'Hard to say. Perhaps this assessment is not as simple as imagined.'
'Speaking of the Apocalypse-level Star Beast, do you think the one appearing this time might be the one Tendo encountered in his childhood flashback?'
'To the commenter above, that might actually be possible.'
Besides speculating on the plot, a portion of the dimensional viewers also thought of more things.
Because up until now, the storyline of Tendo and the others' childhood had only briefly appeared in flashback chapters.
And according to the typical trope of classic hot-blooded anime, these places are definitely going to have foreshadowing buried in them.
Coupled with the fact that Tianhui City has now become the Fallen Zone - Meteorite Site.
And the explorers' mission is to explore the Fallen Zones.
In that case... the subsequent plot might feature Tendo and the others revisiting their old home.
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