Chapter 140: Is Such a Move Even Possible?

"Oh, oh! A sudden surprise attack! Ye Zi is in big trouble! Based on our previous analysis—"

"Eh? The attack missed?" Cui Zaoze unblinkingly ate his own words.

"Oh, it hit twice..." Cui Zaoze, once again completely unblinking, swallowed his words back down.

It did indeed hit twice.

One shot struck a drone and destroyed it.

The other hit Ye Chao's upper right arm.

"Thud!" A distinct, muffled sound—that was the foam-alloy armor.

Knowing his reaction time was slow, Ye Chao had put on protective gear before entering the examination hall and projected holograms. Both the drones, his physical body, and the projections always maintained a subtle distance. The reason one was destroyed was simply because the shooter lacked accuracy and scored a lucky hit by mistake...

As for Chang Kongxin, he had fired three shots simultaneously: one aiming for the visor and two hitting the arm. Since they were impossible to completely dodge, the final tally was three shots fired, one hit.

"Oh, oh, oh! Ye Chao is in danger! This examinee is a three-star expert from High School Number One..." Cui Zaoze rapidly flipped through data and provided analysis, eating and spitting out words at the same time.

To think he ended up in the same squad as Ye Zi, what incredible luck!

When the ranking groups were announced, Chang Kongxin had immediately become excited and thrilled.

Over the past two days, Ye Chao's paper strength had been dissected and debated countless times by live streamers: the full-mecha form possessed strength and defense, but severely lacked speed; the half-mecha form had moderate speed and endurance, but no attack power; the non-mecha form basically had only speed and nothing else...

As long as one launched a sudden surprise attack before Ye Chao could pull out his mecha, there was a high probability of taking him down.

Even though there were three chances, there was nothing to fear; his own ability could be described as the ultimate counter.

Ye Zi had to assume the full-mecha state to defend against his ranged attacks. Although this form possessed long-range capabilities, its movement speed was a fatal flaw, allowing him to easily kite the opponent.

As long as he could take down Ye Zi and shut him out with a clean sweep, he would make a name for himself!

How did that pre-cataclysm poem go again? Oh, right: "Get a promotion and a raise, become a general manager, assume the role of CEO, marry a wealthy and beautiful woman, and reach the pinnacle of life..." What should he name his children back then?

Chang Kongxin had everything meticulously planned out. Even though the hit rate was unexpectedly low, it failed to dampen his excited and thrilled mood.

Even a low hit rate was still a hit; judging by the sound, bones might even be broken. What else did the guy have left to resist? Even if he had mecha, he still had to operate it manually, right?

As he was calculating and charging up to continue his attack, a sudden flash illuminated his vision!

It was a real flash.

Way too bright!

It felt as though a row of mini-suns had suddenly risen...

In an instant, tears streamed down his face, and he could not keep his eyes open.

Yet, squinting was useless. His fragile eyelids simply could not block that sun-like brilliance, which brutally pried them apart and pierced straight through...

A split second later, the blinding whiteness shifted from white to green, and from green to an impending black... His eyes showed signs of collapsing, and blood was actually seared out.

1K×10, Ultimate LED Lighting Jutsu!

It wasn't as if there hadn't been examinees who used high-intensity light as a weapon—fluorescent tubes, LED desk lamps, ultraviolet lights, they had all sorts—but apart from those carrying inscribed laser guns, none were as blindingly bright as Ye Chao's!

To understand just how blinding this illumination technique was, one might as well do a horizontal comparison:

Automotive headlights come in three types: halogen, xenon, and LED.

Halogen lamps have the lowest brightness and the worst luminous efficiency, typically ranging around 55,000 to 1,000 lumens.

Xenon lamps are slightly stronger, around 3,500 to 3,200 lumens.

High-quality LED headlights are the most powerful, capable of reaching 20,000 to 40,000 lumens, being both bright and energy-efficient.

So, just how bright was this LED Ultimate Lighting Jutsu?

A simple arithmetic problem: around 2 million lumens! Roughly equivalent to 500 car headlights turning on right in front of your face simultaneously!

You have to realize that a flashbang produces only 400,000 to 500,000 lumens.

Imagine that kind of suffocating brilliance...

It was bright enough to illuminate outer space.

Never mind the people on the scene being unable to open their eyes, even the 200,000 spectators in Jiangcheng were temporarily blinded, bathed in the glaring whiteness reflected from the massive screen...

Disregarding the astonishing brightness, the heat radiated alone was enough to instantly melt the wiring... so much so that the flashing period only lasted for just over a second.

Even so, that was more than enough!

The violent torrent of light pierced unstoppably into the examinees' eyes, traveled along the optic nerves straight into their minds, and wreaked havoc, plunging them into dizziness and vomiting, with severe cases like Chang Kongxin being directly blinded.

In this dim cave, mere peripheral vision was already enough to inflict massive suffering.

"Ah, ah, ah..." Amidst the dizziness and vomiting, Chang Kongxin's hysterical, blood-curdling scream suddenly rang out, shivering and trembling as if he were being bound and whipped...

Chang Kongxin was no ordinary person, after all; he was one of the only two three-stars in the squad, so Ye Chao naturally had to treat him well. Solar Flare couldn't actually kill anyone, after all.

Therefore, without waiting for him to recover, a stun gun immediately followed up.

==========

Wh-what happened?

Why are my eyes brimming with tears?

Why is my body burning so hot?

Why is even my soul trembling?

After a full minute or so, Chang Kongxin finally recovered. His soul returned to his shell, the whiteness in his eyes began to recede, and he became able to recall what had happened previously...

That light, resembling a mini-suna, was it cast by Ye Zi?

As expected of the top-ranked—oh wait, second...

I lost!

Defeated before I even knew what hit me!

It doesn't matter, though; failure is the mother of success.

It didn't work this time, but learning from experience, I'll get some sunglasses, and next time... Huh?

Calculating his tactics while recovering his vision, Chang Kongxin attempted to crawl up from the ground, but when he tried, he couldn't move; he tried again... still completely immobile.

He suddenly exerted force, writhing desperately, wriggling as if he were crawling out of his mother's womb, but his body remained utterly motionless, just like a bear being farmed for bile, a goose being fattened up, or a pig bound to a chopping board.

Wh-what happened?

Why can't I move?

Am I paralyzed?

Or... am I actually dead? Is this the world after death?

"Crack!" A sudden blow landed on his head, snapping him back to reality. "Dead or alive, what are you rambling about? I don't want to be eliminated yet."

Ye Chao slapped the guy to put an end to his nonsense.

This was the national college entrance examination, after all, not a real battlefield. Students needed to fight for real, but preferably without endangering lives or combat effectiveness. The heart-guard mirror integrating monitoring and defense, the various passivated modified weapons, and the numerous proctors were all safeguards just in case.

Of course, if a real accident happened, there was no helping it—much like a military exercise, killing and fighting always carried risks... If that happened, the person who caused the accident would basically have to say goodbye to the examination hall; these were unwritten rules.

Naturally, Ye Chao wasn't going to finish him off just because this fellow had almost broken one of his arms.

However... although he didn't finish him off, it was practically the same thing.

Chang Kongxin, having finally recovered his vision and wits, finally understood why he couldn't writhe anymore.

How could he possibly move?

He really was just like a bile-farmed bear, a fattened goose, and a pig on a chopping board—he had been locked inside a cage.

About seventy or eighty centimeters tall, built from alloy steel plates, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom like an Aztec pyramid, it was practically tailor-made for him.

He was sitting inside cross-legged, with a high-pressure gas canister pressed against his chest, leaving only his head exposed, unable to move even a fraction of an inch...

Who... who am I?

How long have I been unconscious?

What on earth have I been through?

Amidst his bewilderment, he heard Ye Chao say, "You nearly broke my arm, so you have to compensate me with something, right? Be a good boy, follow me, and provide me with firepower support. If you do a good job, I'll leave you two hours of exam time..."

"Clack, clack, clack..." As Ye Chao spoke, Chang Kongxin found himself involuntarily moving forward.

Only then did Chang Kongxin realize that his cage wasn't actually a cage, but a small vehicle. With metal treads and three barrel mounts, it looked just like a single-man mini-tank.

With the high-pressure gas canister hugged to his chest and three gas cannons mounted in front, leaving him a limited range of free movement, he was locked and loaded, ready to fire at any moment.

You can actually do this too?!

Chang Kongxin was dumbfounded!