Guān Zìzài roared, "What are you waiting for? Attack!"
The sixteen people immediately stopped their internal squabbles and launched their attacks on the ducks, knowing that if they didn't, their points would be wiped out, or worse, they'd be forced to quit the competition. None of them wanted to quit now, especially with more than an hour left. Currently ranked in the top seventy, they'd surely be pushed out by two or three hundred positions if they gave up now.
No! They couldn't afford to quit!
In a panic, they attacked the ducks relentlessly.
"Stop hiding! If we don't get past this wave, we're all doomed here! How are we supposed to compete with Lan Bing and the others?" Zhang Jun shouted.
The others, equally anxious, knew the stakes. After all, they'd all witnessed the dismal fate of Li Yujie, who had exited with zero points.
The sixteen fighters went into overdrive, hitting the ducks fiercely. But the ducks fought back just as fiercely, launching a barrage of fireballs. When their energy reserves ran low, the ducks retreated, using their comrades' bodies to shield their weak points.
"Wait... how do they know how to retreat? And coordinate like that?"
"Maybe there's a more powerful yellow duck BOSS nearby," someone suggested.
Damn it, a BOSS? Wasn't this supposed to be the second stage of the exam? Why did it feel like they were facing a third-stage challenge?
Their morale was beginning to crack, but they gritted their teeth and pushed on.
Minutes passed. The ducks were gradually thinning out, but not without casualties. And then, Zhang Jun suddenly took a hit. His mind raced: Why were all the ducks focusing on him? Was he the target?
Damn!
He tried to strike back at the biggest duck with three absurdly messy feathers on its head, but no matter what he did, smaller ducks kept intervening to shield it. Every time he landed a hit, a whole flock of ducks swarmed to retaliate.
Zhang Jun took the brunt of the damage, retreating step by step. Meanwhile, he noticed that Yuqin's team was handling things much more smoothly than his. They were far steadier. And that Mac, he didn't trust him—there was something underhanded about him.
Zhang Jun quietly moved toward Yuqin's side, hoping they could cover him. But as soon as he approached, Yuqin shifted away.
"They're targeting you more than me. Stay away, don't get close," she said bluntly.
She was so direct!
Zhang Jun's face darkened. But he stubbornly followed her anyway. One had to have some thick skin to play the villain. What use was a cunning mind without the right audacity?
Suddenly, a massive, fat yellow duck flew out of the crowd, launching a missile directly at the back of Zhang Jun's head.
It was a perfect hit, clearly predicting his movement towards Yuqin. Then... surprise attack!
In fact, Zhang Jun had no idea this duck had mastered the art of hitting the back of the head. He felt a sharp pain and the world spun as his head was hit. The dizziness lasted for just a second, but it felt like an eternity.
Then, the weight of the ducks crashing on him was overwhelming. It was like a strobe light at a disco, dazzling and chaotic. He was overwhelmed by the ducks' constant attacks, his points plummeting.
"I'm out! I'm out...!"
He tried to shout, but before he could finish, a duck had planted itself right on his mouth, its broad webbed feet slapping his face with resounding force.
Smack! Smack!
And just like that, his points were wiped clean.
It was over.
Zhang Jun's head buzzed, and he never opened his eyes again. He had been knocked unconscious.
When Mac and the others saw Zhang Jun's miserable state, they couldn't help but picture their own fate. Some of them snapped, shouting, "I'm out! I'm quitting!" In rapid succession, two more people dropped out.
Now, only twelve people were left. The pressure was mounting. Finally, Mac and the others couldn't take it anymore. They were about to leave when—
Boom! A massive explosion erupted from the duck swarm, scattering a group of ducks in all directions.
Mac and the others froze. "What the...?"
Yuqin, too, was stunned.
Before they could react, a few dozen ducks had been wiped out in an instant. This hadn't happened before—those ducks had been incredibly difficult to defeat, often dodging attacks or countering with relentless fire. But they had failed to anticipate an internal explosion, one that devastated the ducks from within.
"What just happened?" someone murmured.
The ducks, now disoriented, scattered in chaos, and the survivors surged towards Yuqin's team, screeching in fury.
"We didn't do it!" they all yelled, fearing they might be the next victims.
"Hold on, don't quit yet," Yuqin suddenly stopped them. "I've figured it out. There's something wrong with one of the ducks."
Which one? The biggest one, of course.
As the dust settled, they finally saw it. The massive duck was sitting triumphantly atop a pile of dead ducks, glaring at them with an almost sinister gleam in its eyes.
"Don't touch it," Yuqin shouted, seeing the threat. "That one is different."
But before anyone could react, Mac launched an attack at the fat duck. It was a moment of pure chaos, but the massive duck evaded and retaliated instantly.
"Impossible... how did it—" someone gasped.
And then it happened: the duck revealed its true form.
It was a shape-shifter, a clever mimicry of the ducks, but more cunning. The creature had analyzed its enemies, recognized the leader, and used that knowledge to direct the attacks.
For a moment, the exam had shifted from a battle against ducks to a deadly test of survival.