NOVEL NEXT Chapter 208: The Rule of Downgrading!_2
Especially upon re-examining the information from the initial investigation, they noted that the speculated source of those footprints was a large number of summoned creatures, and the types of summoned creatures speculated included undead summon units. It wasn't just Skeleton Monsters that wore shoes among summoned creatures; humanoid ones like goblins and various spirits generally did as well. Therefore, no one had associated this incident with Chen Mo at that time. If they were to attribute it to Chen Mo now, it would seem almost too plausible. With all timelines and clues sorted, their belief in the truth of Chen Mo's words grew stronger. However, their doubts also grew larger.
This was because if Chen Mo was indeed responsible, as their current conclusion suggested, he would have needed to possess extraordinarily strong combat strength even before awakening his unique initial hidden profession. This point was truly mind-boggling. The Skeleton Mage was notoriously weak in the early stages. Yet, Chen Mo had demonstrated astonishing combat power early on. It was truly unbelievable. This indicated that even before Chen Mo awakened his initial hidden profession, he harbored unknown secrets—secrets potent enough to elevate his combat power to an astonishing level.
"This kid is willing to disclose information about his initial hidden profession, yet he won't breathe a word about this other secret. I suspect there's some hidden reason he can't speak of," Jiang Yun speculated, looking at the files related to Chen Mo before him.
"If it's some unique opportunity that can't be replicated, it's fine if he doesn't talk about it. At least for now, tracing back the timeline, all events related to his triggering of the sound of the great path line up. This basically confirms that everything he said is true," Belinda chimed in, arms crossed, as she examined the documents.
"So that's why the sound of the great path has been triggered so easily lately! It turns out one person was behind it all," Markus said with a helpless laugh.
"This kid has successfully gotten into a top-tier university this time. Should we ask Sky Science University to give him some special consideration?"
"There's no need. With his strength, he's capable enough to earn what he deserves without special attention. Extra care would seem too deliberate. Just let him grow naturally."
"If it's true that he has so many SSS-level rewards, as he revealed, then he indeed doesn't need our special care."
"With so many valuable treasures on him, no wonder he's so confident in his ability to stay alive."
"Speaking of which, this kid is quite interesting. 'What is real is unreal, and what is unreal is real.' By deliberately acting this way today, the Aliens will be even less likely to suspect him. Even we were trapped by our cognitive biases. Without knowing that initial star levels could be changed, we would never have considered him a suspect. The Aliens would find it even more unthinkable."
"No wonder we couldn't find a single clue after searching for such an 'obvious' target for two or three days. It turns out this target was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people!"
After retracing the clues, the three Alliance Hierarchs had now essentially confirmed the truth of Chen Mo's statements. They just didn't know what secret Chen Mo was hiding.
"Should we dispatch a fifth-transition expert to protect him covertly? It's just that our fifth-transition powerhouses are already stretched thin."
"Better not. Sending a fifth-transition expert might attract the Aliens' attention. These Aliens have some particularly bizarre assassination methods. If they were truly desperate and willing to pay any price, sending a peak fourth-transition expert to assassinate him, even an ordinary fifth-transition expert might not be able to guarantee his safety. It's better not to make him a more suspicious target."
It's very difficult for a fourth-transition to assassinate a fifth-transition. However, if a great price could be paid, killing someone right under a fifth-transition expert's nose is still achievable.
"Indeed. Let's maintain the appearance of sending people out to search. If the Aliens see us continuing large-scale searches, they obviously won't suspect this kid. Let's just assign a few people to watch over him covertly. After all, he made such bold claims this time. It's perfectly reasonable for us to assign people to protect him, and the Aliens wouldn't suspect anything if they see it. The key now is to use this period to completely eradicate this cancer—the Aliens."
"Lately, we've managed to uproot quite a few of them by 'following the vine to get the melon.' The Aliens must be at their wit's end by now. We need to be prepared for their desperate last stand. When they completely lose it, widespread devastation will likely be unavoidable. After all, the Teleportation Ground is now closed. Even if they wanted to retreat to their own planet, they have no way to do so; a dimensional stone would be useless."
"Recently, the Yongming Star System's activities in the Tower of Eternity have inexplicably slowed. I fear they're preparing to trigger our Disaster all at once at an opportune moment. Our Disaster cooldown period ended over a month ago."
A Disaster is a terrifying catastrophe where a large number of formidable and powerful monsters descend upon the non-safe areas of Life Planets within the affected Star System. However, once these monsters appear in non-safe areas, they will advance towards safe areas. If not dealt with promptly, they can inflict devastating damage on people living in the safe zones. This generally requires many powerful individuals to band together for extermination.
After a Disaster is triggered, there's a cooldown period; at least, two Disasters won't occur consecutively within 100 days. If internal troubles were to erupt suddenly when a Disaster strikes, it would truly be a case of being attacked from both front and rear. This is something we must guard against.
After discussing Chen Mo's matter, the three Alliance Hierarchs didn't immediately go to sleep but immediately moved on to handling other matters. Being the General Leader of the Global Academy Alliance was no easy task. There were numerous affairs to handle daily, making it an incredibly energy-consuming position. While they worked through the night until morning, Chen Mo was still enjoying a leisurely sleep-in after his high school examination.
Chen Mo only woke up at 8 o'clock, stretching lazily before getting out of bed. The first thing he did after getting up was to scan his surroundings with his senses. He discovered that the Academy Alliance had actually sent five people to watch over him. Chen Mo wasn't bothered by this; after all, he had already revealed everything he intended to. After freshening up, he prepared to undertake the Legendary Trial he had previously put on hold, as there wasn't much else to do these past few days.
Students in this world had very short holidays. After the high school examination, they usually only had about a week of rest for relaxation before university life began. However, this time, due to an error with the high school examination instance, this rest period was even shorter. Fortunately, the Academy Alliance issued a notice delaying the enrollment period for all universities by three days, giving everyone enough time to rest and choose their desired schools. However, since Sky Science University was the only top-tier university globally, Chen Mo didn't really need to choose. He just had to wait for the cutoff scores to be announced and then register directly.
After having breakfast and telling Sister Yiyi he was about to undertake a task that would take an entire day, Chen Mo returned to his room. With a thought, he summoned the Heavenly Path System and initiated the Legendary Trial!
[The Heavenly Path's Hint: You are about to enter the Trial Tower for the Legendary Trial. Regardless of how much time passes inside the Trial Tower, one day will elapse in the outside world.
For each Legendary Trial, you only have one attempt. Whether the attempt is successful or fails, your level cap will be raised.
However, please note: failing the Legendary Trial will cause you to lose all your current experience points. Furthermore, dying during the Legendary Trial, while not resulting in true death, will cause your Level to drop!]
Not only will I lose experience points, but my Level might also drop?
The concept of losing a Level in this world was similar to losing levels in games, but the rules were different. It wasn't as simple as dropping a few Levels and then earning experience points to regain them. After losing a Level, your current Level would decrease, and your attribute points would be reduced. However, the experience points required to level up again would not revert to those of the lower Levels. This penalty would persist until you regained your original Level.
For example, if you originally needed only 100 experience points to go from Level 1 to Level 2, and 500 experience points from Level 2 to Level 3. If you now dropped from Level 20 directly back to Level 1, the experience points required to go from Level 1 to Level 2 would be the same as previously needed to go from Level 20 to Level 21—a staggering 375,200 experience points. The same inflated requirement would apply for leveling from Level 2 to Level 3, and so on, until you reached Level 20 again.
This was just the scenario for dropping from Level 20. If you dropped from Level 40 or 60, the required experience points would be even more terrifying. Still, losing a Level and facing a massive increase in required experience points was far better than actual death.