A Chemistry Genius

The more Arix thought about it, the luckier she felt. At the start, she had considered joining up with folks from the Hecaris Military Academy, but she decided against it.

She figured if she joined the group, her gathering of herbs would slow everyone down and annoy some people. To avoid trouble, she ditched the idea.

If she had stuck with the main group, she would surely be on the list of those eliminated by now.

In this virtual world, students with Star-Class talents were everywhere, while those weaker ones with Planet-Class talents were a dime a dozen.

Arix was quite aware of this. She knew she might seem no different from an insectoid in others' eyes—both were just there to give away points.

Just as she thought of insectoids, Arix frowned and looked behind her. She heard some odd noises coming from there, getting closer to her position.

Quickly climbing a tree to get a better view, Arix looked in that direction.

A blood-covered person was running towards her, closely chased by five huge insectoids.

These insectoids, as big as elephants and looking a lot like ants, didn't scare Arix much. But bugs always made her skin crawl a bit.

If there was just one insectoid, Arix might have tried to save this fellow student from the Hecaris Military Academy.

But with five of them, she knew she had no chance to save the person, and there was a 100% chance she'd get knocked out of the game along with them.

Arix wasn't dumb; she knew the smartest thing to do was to run.

But humans definitely can't outrun these giant ants. After all, they've got six legs. In no time, those creatures were only 10 meters away from Arix.

That's when Arix sadly realized she couldn't outrun the insectoids, also… the heavily injured dude had actually caught up with her.

That injured student was Drexel Kering. He glanced at the school badge on Arix's chest and frowned. It seemed like he made up his mind and said, "You better run, I'll hold them off."

"What? What about you?" Arix was shocked, not expecting such kindness in the world.

Drexel took a moment from his heavy breathing to glance at Arix. Even now, he was incredibly calm. "Seriously? Instead of hesitating here, you might want to focus on getting away."

"..." Arix felt scolded without hearing a single bad word. Weighing her options, she decisively left Drexel behind and ran forward.

Meanwhile, Drexel used his psychic power to create an invisible barrier, stopping the spiders in their tracks.

Drexel was never too much of a good guy. He helped Arix only because they were both students from the Hecaris Military Academy.

He knew he shouldn't have put himself in danger so easily. However, as the heir to the Kering family and with the Hecaris Military Academy being supported by his family, he couldn't just abandon anyone from the academy, or anyone who might potentially join.

For Arix, Drexel gave up his chance to escape. The audience watching the live stream on the interstellarnet blew up the comment section at this.

"Poor Drexel. That girl wasn't worth saving; she just left him behind."

"Drexel led those five insectoids away just to save students from the Hecaris Military Academy before. Now, he has to stay and fight for them again. These are five Planet-Class insectoids. The no-goods from the Hecaris Military Academy should just give up and not drag Drexel down."

"Drexel is in danger. Fighting just one insectoid without a mecha is hard enough. Now there are five, he's doomed."

"This year's test is insane. Weren't Planet-Class insectoids always the final challenge in previous years? And now there are five all at once... Really? What was the test designer thinking?"

At that moment, in the virtual arena on the interstellarnet, the insectoids were furiously attacking Drexel with their sharp forelegs.

Drexel held on for a whole minute. When he felt Arix should have escaped, he finally dropped the barrier. Then he quickly took out a sword he had bought for a lot of money from his backpack.

One insectoid was excited to see Drexel's psychic power barrier gone. With a hiss, it lunged at Drexel's waist with its scary teeth.

The other four insectoids, using their sharp limbs, slashed at Drexel's calves with terrifying speed.

Drexel leaped up and landed on the back of an insectoid. With a flash of his sword, a huge head fell from the neck of the insectoid, and its massive body collapsed the next moment.

Unfortunately, the death of their companion didn't scare off the other four insectoids. They attacked Drexel even more fiercely.

These monsters were very tough to handle. After a long struggle, Drexel finally killed two more insectoids. But at the same time, his injuries became more severe. His hand gripping the sword was soaked in blood and trembling uncontrollably.

With a grunt, Drexel spat out a mouthful of blood.

His body was at its limit, too exhausted to fight the two remaining insectoids. As Drexel passed out, he murmured with some guilt, "Grandpa would be so disappointed in me..."

Arix didn't mean to leave Drexel behind. After reaching a safe distance, she quickly combined the basic tools she carried with the chemical materials she had found. In her panic, she even failed a few times, which was rare for her. But in the end, she managed to make the insecticide.

On her way back with the insecticide, she saw Drexel covered in blood, with several huge insectoids about to tear him to pieces.

Arix was startled. She threw the insecticide potion directly at the head of the insectoid that was about to attack Drexel.

As the glass bottle shattered, the pure white gas inside was inhaled by two of the insectoids.

The massive bodies of the insectoids wobbled a few times before they fell to the ground, lifeless.

After sighing in relief, Arix approached Drexel.

She wasn't worried about Drexel being dead because in this exam competition, if a student dies, their Psychic Incarnation is directly teleported out of the interstellarnet.

Since his projection was still in the arena, it meant Drexel was severely injured at most but not dead.