Starting Unlimited Evolution from Grinding

Chapter 287: A Shocking Change in the Rankings: The Unexpected Number One

Thinking of that person, Elvish's heart immediately felt less anxious.

Moreover, even without Lin Mo, that child Eve was someone they, the academy instructors, had watched grow up. They also had a certain degree of confidence in Eve's strength.

Even if they were both level 10, even when facing opponents who could access resources superior to her own, Eve might not necessarily lose.

"In short, let's first look at the current specific results."

As these words were spoken, everyone immediately stopped those meaningless arguments and focused their gaze on the top ranks of the list.

The number of people in the top hundred was still somewhat pessimistic for the Doria Kingdom.

Out of 100 people, the Doria Kingdom only occupied 25 spots, an even worse proportion than the previous overall list.

Moreover, most of these 25 people were within the 51st to 100th places, occupying a full 17 spots.

This meant that only the remaining 8 people had barely squeezed into the top 50 of the list.

"This one is from our academy. His usual performance isn't great, I didn't expect him to make it into the top 50... not bad, not bad...""This 46th place is my disciple's disciple, haha, his performance is still quite good."

"..."

Listening to the instructors from the academies of the other kingdoms constantly discussing the people on the list who belonged to their respective academies, Elvish felt somewhat uncomfortable inside.

"Eh, isn't this someone from your Doria Kingdom?"

Finally, at the 43rd place, the Doria Kingdom's emblem appeared.

Elvish glanced at it; it seemed to be a student from the Warrior Academy. If he remembered correctly, he should be in the same team as Eve.

This gave his originally low spirits a bit of comfort. As expected, Eve did not disappoint him. Someone in her team could reach the 43rd place on the list, so it was conceivable that her current score must be very high.

So he also smiled and said, "It's him. I ran into him at the academy a few days ago and gave him a little encouragement. He really didn't let me down."

Immediately after, at the 39th, 37th, and 35th places on the list, people from the Doria Kingdom appeared one after another.

But the smile on Elvish's face gradually faded.

There were only 8 people in total who entered the top 50. The more there were in the later ranks, the fewer there would be in the earlier ones.

The representatives from the other academies naturally also realized this, so they all superficially praised him, while inwardly sneering, thinking to themselves that it was indeed just a small kingdom that couldn't stir up any waves.

Soon, at the 29th place, the Doria Kingdom's emblem appeared again behind the contestant's name.

"Lin Mo... is this also someone from the Doria Kingdom?"

"Haven't heard of him before, it seems."

"29th place... hiss... not bad strength! The score has already reached 909 points."

Everyone looked at Elvish.

"How come we haven't heard that your academy produced such a talent? Hiding him, are you?"

Reid, the representative from the Lisad Kingdom next to him, patted his shoulder.

Elvish smiled somewhat awkwardly, but was very puzzled inside.

How could Lin Mo only be 29th?

Logically speaking, with his strength, it shouldn't be like this...

Could it be that he encountered fewer monsters?

After all, the competition had started for less than a day. If luck was bad, this could indeed happen.

In the end, by the time they saw the 21st place on the list, the Doria Kingdom had already appeared 5 times, leaving only the last 3 people.

20th place, 19th place, 18th place...

At this moment, Elvish instead hoped not to see his academy's emblem.

Unfortunately, it soon appeared.

17th place, Milun.

Elvish still had a deep impression of this top-notch excellent student from the Magic Academy. Although she was still far behind his own student Flora, it couldn't be helped. A genius like Flora didn't come every year. Milun had already done quite well. Not long ago, her level had also increased to level 8, which was quite impressive.

She was the undisputed second-in-command in Eve's team, so whether it was the contributions made or the points allocated, she would get a bit more. In the end, she ranked 17th with a score of 1697 points.

How to put it? This result was actually quite good.

If it weren't for the interference of many people from other kingdoms this time, in the past, even in last year, which was called the most fiercely competitive year before today, a score of 1697 points in half a day would have been enough to rank in the top five.

But this year, it could only make it into the top 20.

Only the last two people remained. The most important one was undoubtedly Eve's result. Whether she could enter the top three, and exactly what rank she was in, was quite significant.

Although it was only half a day's result, seeing the big from the small, this ranking might change later, but barring accidents, it probably wouldn't differ too much.

Satt's final result was 8th place with 2485 points. For someone who had just reached level 9 not long ago, it was a decent, standard performance.

And the higher up you went, the greater the gap between scores became.

This was because the higher the level of the monster, the more exaggerated the points it provided would be.

For example, level 7 monsters generally ranged from 500-700 points, with some special ones reaching close to 1000.

But a level 8 monster was worth at least 2000 points!

A level 9 monster was worth a whopping 5000 points each!

It's just that the competition hadn't started for long yet. Even those with the strength to kill these monsters wouldn't act rashly.

After all, even level 10 Professionals had to be careful when dealing with level 9 monsters. If the monster had some slightly weaker companions around, dealing with it would be very difficult.

Once injured, it would inevitably affect subsequent actions. The Hunting Competition lasted a full 10 days. In the early stages, stability was still the priority. Even very strong Professionals mostly chose to operate in the outer or middle layers of the areas, not rashly entering the core zone of any area.

Those powerful monsters with abundant points were for the final two-day sprint...

In short, those whose strength reached level 9 or 10 could relatively easily handle level 6 or 7 monsters, so their scores generally reached one or two thousand points or higher.

Those with strength only at level 6 or 7 dared to only look for trouble with level 3 or 4 monsters at first, or riskily go after level 5 monsters. Although the number they killed might be relatively higher, their scores were only a few hundred points.

Normally, this was the case, with basically no exceptions.

Satt's result somewhat surprised the people from the other kingdoms.

After all, this result was already quite good, and this wasn't even the Doria Kingdom's ace. It seemed the Doria Kingdom wasn't as pathetic as they had imagined.

For Elvish, Satt's result was also quite satisfying. Although he didn't like this student much because of his poor character, at least at this moment, he had earned some face for the academy.

The ones appearing next were basically all people from the other kingdoms.

7th place was a contestant from the Lisad Kingdom. The score was actually similar to Satt's, only 2534 points.

6th place was also a contestant from the Lisad Kingdom, but this score was much higher, directly reaching 3013 points, leading the 7th place by quite a bit.

But the representative from the Lisad Kingdom didn't look good.

Because this was already the strongest contestant they, the Lisad Kingdom, had brought this time.

A contestant who had reached level 10 was only ranked 6th?

5th, 4th, and 3rd places, three people in a row, were all contestants from the Lonia Kingdom, with scores of 3394, 3704, and 4088 respectively.

The score gaps were the kind that were relatively large, but not overwhelmingly so. Killing one more high-level monster could lead to an immediate overtake.

The person in charge from the Lonia Kingdom was somewhat surprised by this, but it wasn't unacceptable.

After all, the three they had brought this time were only the 8th to 10th ranked contestants within the kingdom. There were still a full 7 people stronger than them in the kingdom.

For these three to rank 3rd, 4th, and 5th was also quite good.

But this made him even more curious about the top two contestants. He had a relatively good understanding of the strength of his own three contestants. So by observing, the scores of the top two who surpassed them could roughly judge how strong these two people really were.

2nd place, the much-anticipated Eve finally appeared.

When he saw Eve's name, Elvish's mood was somewhat complicated.

Indeed, although Eve was undoubtedly a rare genius in their kingdom, this world was never short of geniuses. There was always someone better. The Doria Kingdom was, after all, just a small kingdom. This time, talents from three additional kingdoms had joined in. Not getting first place was actually quite normal.

That being said, there was still a bit of disappointment.

2nd place, Eve, point total 4365.

It was originally 4242, but during their chat, it seemed she had killed another monster.

"Truly worthy of being the famous swordsmanship genius of the Doria Kingdom. This strength is indeed something to be proud of."

The representative from the Donis Kingdom clapped his hands with a smile on his face. At this moment, only he could praise so freely.

After all, the person currently ranked first was from their kingdom.

In fact, this representative from the Donis Kingdom had put some thought into this aspect. He had anticipated that the Lisad Kingdom and the Lonia Kingdom probably wouldn't send their truly top-tier geniuses over, so he specifically brought the currently second strongest student from their country, just to seize the top spot in this Hunting Competition.

After all, the upcoming Academy Grand Competition, although undoubtedly more important than this one, would have opponents next year that couldn't be compared to now. Forget about winning the championship; even if their kingdom's students could make it into the top hundred, they would have to thank their lucky stars.

After all, that was a competition led by the Empire, involving geniuses from one-third of the entire continent's territories.

At that time, it wouldn't be easy to show off anyway, so it was better to earn face now, put on a show, enjoy the early bragging rights...

The 1st place's score was an unexpectedly high number, directly over 700 points higher than Eve's, exceeding 5000. It could be said that this 1st place was completely well-deserved, with a considerable lead and quite high credibility.

After some mutual flattery among the several academy higher-ups, the Donis Kingdom representative who took first place unsurprisingly earned plenty of face.

However, right at this moment, the results list before them suddenly changed.

A name climbed at an extremely fast speed, so fast that even these academy representatives didn't react. By the time they came to their senses, it had already charged all the way from its original 29th place, breaking through ranks, and killed its way to 1st!

"This..."

The representatives from the other kingdoms were already dumbfounded, including the representative from the Lonia Kingdom. After all, the speed of this point change was really a bit too fast.

And...

"7934 points?!"

An increase of nearly 7000 points all at once, isn't this a bit too outrageous?

Such a rapid point change could only come from killing a high-level monster, and most likely also included its kin that were around that high-level monster.

"A level 9 monster... it seems this person entered the core zone of some area."

The representative from the Lonia Kingdom quickly analyzed calmly.

"So early?"

The representative from the Lisad Kingdom shook his head. "A bit too young and impatient. Going head-to-head with such a powerful monster so early, even if he wins, so what? The resulting consumption, or even injuries, will inevitably affect his subsequent performance."

"Being able to kill a level 9 monster, this student named Lin Mo is indeed very strong. If he didn't choose such an aggressive action, he might have been able to enter the top 5 of the overall ranking in the end. But now... although he's currently ranked first, in a few days he might very well fall out of the top 10."

Elvish listened to their well-reasoned analysis and could hardly hold back a laugh.

He finally understood why Lin Mo's previous score was so low. It wasn't bad luck at all, but because he was going for the big game.

As for the so-called consumption, injuries?

Joke. A mere level 9 monster, if it could even touch Lin Mo once, the academy's instructors would all be so ashamed they'd bang their heads on the ground.

But he wasn't in a hurry to burst their bubble either. Let the magic missiles fly for a while longer. They would eventually start doubting their lives...

On the other side, Eve, who had just hunted a monster, looked at the suddenly changed points list. She smiled, unsurprised, but her eyes also held a strong fighting spirit. "Let's go. Everyone's rested enough, right? Time to set off again!"

"? But we just rested for 5 minutes..."

Someone wanted to object, but Eve paid no attention, having already walked out dozens of meters.

"Wait for us, Sister Eve!"

...

At this moment, in the core zone of Area 5, Lin Mo's team was also resting for a bit.

But they weren't in a hurry at all. After moving away from the foul-smelling goblin village, they found a clean spot, sat down to bask in the sunlight, and even had time to make a meal. They didn't look like they were here for a competition at all, more like they were on a vacation camping trip.

Lin Mo opened the map and took a look.

Hmm, the next target is Area 13.

The points list, Lin Mo had seen it.

Regarding that first place, his heart held no particular fluctuation. After all, in Lin Mo's view, it was just a matter of course.

All of this was nothing more than a little interlude on his path of grinding monsters and leveling up, just going with the flow.