After watching the video of Wu Tiancheng killing the Rat King, Lin Zichen continued searching for related news.

Soon, a wanted notice about the remaining Rat God Cult members caught his eye.

The news said nine followers were still on the run, but the security authorities had already identified them and made their information public, asking citizens to provide clues to help with their capture.

There was a reward for tips—depending on the importance of the lead, bounties ranged from 5,000 to 500,000 yuan.

Lin Zichen glanced over the wanted photos and memorized the faces of the nine remnants.

Each of the nine was a walking 500,000—worth remembering.

Still, the bounty was secondary; safety came first.

If he knew their faces, he could recognize them and get away quickly if he ever ran into them by accident—then pass the tip to the authorities once he was safe.

“Xiao Chen, are you still not up? It’s already six o’clock! If you don’t get up now, you’ll be late for school!”

He was engrossed in the article when Zhang Wanxin’s voice came from outside his door.

“Got it—I’m getting up!”

Lin Zichen answered, then got out of bed and got dressed.

He washed up and went downstairs for breakfast.

* * *

About half an hour later.

Lin Zichen left home and headed to school with Shen Qinghan, who had been waiting for him outside.

On the way, Shen Qinghan, unusually, didn’t chat with him. She hummed softly instead—her singing was becoming more practiced, more beautiful.

Lin Zichen found it enjoyable to listen to.

Before, he thought she would surely place alright in the late-December competition. Now, he felt she would take the championship.

In under ten minutes, they walked through the school gate.

As they walked along the campus path, many people pointed at Lin Zichen and whispered about what he’d announced yesterday.

Because he had declared on the field the previous afternoon that he would challenge the entire school, he was now famous campus-wide.

Exaggerating a little, even stray cats and teachers’ dogs might know him.

But the fame wasn’t exactly good.

Among the second and third years—especially the third—most seniors and upperclasswomen took offense, aside from a few who judged with their eyes rather than their brains and just fawned over him.

They felt a first-year like him was too arrogant, that he had deeply offended his seniors.

Lin Zichen ignored the pointing and whispering, acting as if he neither saw nor heard anything.

It was hard, though, on Shen Qinghan beside him.

She already had social anxiety at school and now, walking down the path, she kept getting hit by the glances aimed at Lin Zichen. She didn’t dare lift her head, keeping it down the whole way.

Hearing the constant gossip around her made her so uncomfortable she could hardly walk properly—every step felt awkward.

Seeing this, Lin Zichen felt helpless.

His childhood friend really lacked confidence—always timid and seemingly easy to bully at school.

Who knew when she would become confident.

* * *

Noon, twelve o’clock.

As soon as the bell rang, Lin Zichen skipped lunch and headed straight to the gym.

He had already eaten a little during the break—a rice ball Zhang Wanxin had made.

It was convenient, quick and didn’t require washing a lunch box.

Seeing him go to the gym, Shen Qinghan hurried to the office to heat up her meal so she could eat at the gym and accompany Lin Zichen through the challenge.

She wanted to capture every memorable moment on her phone and compile all his student-era highlights into a slideshow as a gift.

Meanwhile, Lin Zichen had already stepped onto the ring.

The gym was empty at first—no one yet.

Students had just gotten out of class and wouldn’t arrive that fast.

Two or three minutes later, people began to trickle in.

These students skipped the cafeteria, grabbed bread from the campus store and came specifically to watch the first day of his personal challenge event.

There were classmates.

Onlookers.

Fangirls.

Eager challengers.

And students who simply wanted the lottery ticket.

To encourage participation, the principal had included a “reward for participating” in the plan: any student who challenged him would receive a raffle ticket.

The prizes were generous—various cutting-edge electronics.

“Zichen, the top student in the second-year elite class has his eye on you. He said he’ll grind your face into the ring and beat you so badly your own mom won’t recognize you!”

Below the ring, He Yu munched on bread while mimicking the second-year elite class tyrant’s tone, stirring the pot like a snickering errand boy.

Wang Shujie scoffed, “Just some trash with one extra year of practice. Not even worthy of being compared to Lin Zichen.”

Lu Gang added, “Those upperclass frogs in a well have no idea how strong Lin Zichen is.”

At that moment, the two Nanguan City prodigies stood firmly with Lin Zichen, united against the second-year elite’s top student.

After repeated shocks and crises of faith, they now fully acknowledged him as number one.

Even though he hadn’t yet faced the best of the second and third years, they were certain.

They trusted a genius’s intuition.

“Xiao Chen, good luck!”

From a corner below the ring, Shen Qinghan smiled and called out, cradling her freshly warmed lunch.

Li Chuxin also shouted, “Go, Zichen!”

He smiled and waved back at them and the rest of the class.

About ten minutes later, the teacher acting as referee arrived.

Not wasting a second, Lin Zichen looked at the crowd and asked, “Everyone, we can begin. Who wants to spar first?”

“Me!”

With a delicate cry, a twin-tailed girl hopped onto the ring.

She was from a regular first-year class, even weaker than Shen Qinghan.

She was mainly there to get some physical contact with him.

Lin Zichen didn’t go easy on her just because she was a girl. To save time and fit in more matches, he ended it in under three seconds.

Natural Selection progress +1!

“Me!”

“My turn, my turn!”

“And me!”

In the following minutes, fangirls rushed the stage one after another, all seeking contact with Lin Zichen.

In less than half an hour, he had defeated nearly a hundred of them, boosting his achievement progress by dozens.

In under thirty minutes, it had gone up by ninety-five. At this rate, he felt he could finish Natural Selection within the week...

Another half-hour passed and the supply of fangirls was nearly exhausted.

By then, the cumulative progress had reached 309!

Up by 190 in just one hour!

That was more than the last few years combined—ridiculously efficient.

Some fangirls wanted another round after losing.

Lin Zichen refused—no rematches for the defeated.

Natural Selection only progressed by defeating different opponents.

“Any other challengers?”

Having ‘used up’ the fangirls, Lin Zichen looked to the rest.

“Here!”

Hands shot up immediately.

A challenge meant a raffle ticket afterward.

Students queued eagerly.

* * *

Another thirty minutes later, Natural Selection progress reached 419—nearly halfway.

Meanwhile, the prize pool had climbed to 2,000 yuan.

“Anyone else?” he asked.

By then, the fangirls were done and the raffle-chasers had had their turn.

“Me!”

A senior from a third-year honors class leaped onto the ring—a two-meter-tall wall of muscle, like a mountain.

He had his eye on the 2,000 yuan.

“Freshman, I know you’re strong, but challenging the whole school is way out of line. I’ll teach you a lesson.”

He stripped off his shirt before the crowd, flaunting exaggerated pectorals that bounced powerfully as he flexed.

Ten seconds later—

Bang!

He went flying off the ring.

“Next!”

After the instant KO, Lin Zichen called to the crowd.

No one stepped up.

Seeing a top third-year get wrecked, everyone knew better than to humiliate themselves.

Not everyone cared about a raffle ticket.

Just as Lin Zichen thought the day was done, a stir rose from the crowd.

“Yan Shaoxuan is here!”

“No way—he actually came? He must really hate that freshman and wants to crush him.”

“This’ll be good.”

Most students had come precisely to watch Yan Shaoxuan put Lin Zichen in his place.

After waiting so long, the second-year elite’s overlord had finally arrived.

‘Who’s Yan Shaoxuan?’

Hearing the murmurs and following the crowd’s gaze to a boy walking toward the ring, Lin Zichen felt curious.

He turned to He Yu, the resident news-hound.

Knowing exactly what he wanted to ask, He Yu quickly explained, “Yan Shaoxuan is the top student in the second-year elite class—the one I mentioned. They say he can lift a 560 kg barbell one-handed and runs the 100 meters in 6.38 seconds. Overall, he's in the top five in the entire school.”

Lin Zichen nodded, unfazed.

Just then, a tall, lean figure vaulted from the crowd!

He soared nearly four meters high—and landed on the ring with a thunderous thud, like a god descending.