Zoe Pierce got up and stretched. "I’m fine, just tired from yesterday."

She was fully recovered after a night’s sleep.

Miles Sherman’s hand had just been on her forehead. She was fine. Seeing her get up, he didn’t say anything more.

Glancing around, Zoe Pierce’s gaze swept over the group. Besides Ethan Grant, who still looked haggard, Miles Sherman and the others seemed completely unaffected by the previous night. They all looked perfectly normal.

Breakfast today was energy bars that tasted almost no different from compressed biscuits. Erin Xavier handed two to Zoe Pierce, but she felt stuffed after just one and couldn’t eat any more. She put the other one directly into her backpack.

Ethan Grant ate one as well. After he finished, he took the initiative to ask, "What’s the plan for today?"

The locations of the supply points on the Intelligent Brain had been updated.

They could do what they did last night: go straight to a supply point and hunt other contestants for elimination.

Miles Sherman asked, "How many points does your team have?"

Hearing this, Ethan Grant sighed again. "I don’t know why, but we can’t find any Xenobeasts. Our team only has 30 points so far."

That was indeed a low score.

Erin Xavier and Chase Shaw both frowned.

After a team slays a Xenobeast, the points are displayed on their Intelligent Brain. Only by eliminating an entire enemy team can all of that team’s points be transferred to your own.

They had eliminated so many people yesterday. Two teams were completely wiped out, and all their points were transferred to Miles Sherman’s team.

In total, the number on their Intelligent Brain read 355.

They only needed another 145 points to win the entire competition.

Without a doubt, the rest of the competition wouldn’t be too difficult for Miles’s team. They just had to eliminate a few more squads to secure the final victory.

However, this joint examination was progressing much faster than previous ones. In the past, contestants would lie low and farm Xenobeasts for a while first. This time was different. Judging from the exchange between Miles Sherman and Nathan Lockwood, it was clear that neither side’s focus was on scoring points from Xenobeasts.

It was on hunting and eliminating other contestants.

It was either the Federal Military Academy eliminating students from the First Military Academy, or vice versa.

It also seemed like many of the surrounding Xenobeasts had been culled before this round even began. Nathan Lockwood had done his research before the exam; even in the final plunder phase, the Xenobeast population shouldn’t be this low.

He was surprised that Miles Sherman and Zoe Pierce had even encountered so many Xenobeasts yesterday.

Now, hearing Ethan Grant’s answer all but confirmed his suspicions.

It wasn’t just their team that couldn’t find Xenobeasts; other squads like Ethan Grant’s had probably seen very few as well.

Nathan Lockwood worked backward from the results and quickly made a connection. He thought of the Xenobeasts in the cave, and the one Chase Shaw and Ethan Grant had encountered that could cause a person’s spiritual power to spiral out of control.

Xenobeasts like that were undoubtedly too dangerous. If left unchecked, even the academies might not be able to regain control in time.

Therefore, the most likely answer was that the academies had already secretly culled a wave of them.

They had killed and removed the problematic Xenobeasts, leaving only the harmless ones.

And given the timeframe, there wasn’t enough time to deploy large, high-level Xenobeasts. At most, they could only release some smaller ones.

These types of Xenobeasts were low-level and worth very few points—only five or ten each.

The end result would be that no team could accumulate many points. With Xenobeasts being scarce and worth so little...

...the contestants would be forced to turn on each other, like in the making of a Venom King, eliminating one another until only the victor remained.

If the insiders at the academies knew that Nathan Lockwood had figured out what they’d been doing for days in just a single day, they’d likely be astounded.

’And the reason for all this was the live broadcast.’

’If Xenobeasts with clearly abnormal spiritual power appeared on the live broadcast, forget representing The Federation—the academies themselves would face a massive public backlash.’

’That’s why, ever since Miles Sherman’s team sent their report, a special unit had been dispatched to investigate the matter.’

Nathan Lockwood had analyzed nearly every angle of the situation.

The goal of hunting other contestants was still to get points, but when the effort-to-reward ratio was completely skewed, everyone would naturally look for other options.

"The other supply points are probably in the same state as they were yesterday," Nathan Lockwood said, glancing at the Intelligent Brain.

All of last night’s supply points had vanished from the map.

All the supply points had been relocated, which meant that at their previous locations, there had probably been at least ten skirmishes of various scales, all ending in eliminations.

The remaining squads were fewer but stronger, and at the same time, everyone would be more cautious.

"After everyone has resupplied, the probability of running into another squad at a supply point today is pretty low."

The contents of their supply crate alone were enough to last two to three days.

Once a team fought and won their supplies, the likelihood of them taking another risk at a new supply point, like everyone did last night, would be much lower.

"So, I’m more inclined to directly target the people from the First Military Academy," Nathan Lockwood said, a slight smile touching his lips.

Erin Xavier thought Nathan Lockwood was a bit ruthless, but he was very pleased with the idea. He followed with a smirk of his own. "In that case, I have a suggestion too."

"Why don’t we go straight for that group from the First Military Academy we ran into yesterday? Their Omegas weren’t with them, so they must have been gathered somewhere. The area should be somewhere they could reach after the supply crates appeared."

They zoomed in on the map on the Intelligent Brain. After ruling out the unclimbable cliffs and considering the direction from which Miles Sherman and Zoe Pierce had been followed, the search area shrank considerably.

"With Omegas in tow, they probably didn’t get very far," Erin Xavier said, turning his body slightly. It was almost a compliment. "After all, not everyone is a Zoe Pierce."

So, this seemingly far-fetched proposal was actually quite plausible.

Chase Shaw’s gaze fell on Nathan Lockwood and Zoe Pierce. "I have no objection."

With the entire team moving together—with Nathan Lockwood, Zoe Pierce, and Erin Xavier—there was no reason for him to refuse.

His gaze then shifted to Ethan Grant, whose figure was mostly cast in shadow. "Just don’t get in the way."

Hearing this, Nathan Lockwood also looked at Ethan Grant. "There’s no more White Grass."

So, if Ethan Grant overexerted his spiritual power to the point of needing comfort again, Nathan Lockwood wouldn’t waste points on him. He would eliminate him personally.

They had already saved him too many times.

Ethan Grant understood completely. He was a world away from the person he’d been at the start of the joint examination.

He was no longer so naive; he now understood cruelty.

Once the discussion was over, Zoe Pierce and Miles Sherman took the lead, heading toward the spot where they had felt something was off the day before.

Rain could wash away many traces, but a multitude of footprints could still be faintly visible under the sunlight.

This was especially true at the cave where the two of them had briefly stopped. Zoe Pierce immediately spotted many new footprints inside. Perhaps because their group was large, making it difficult and time-consuming to cover their tracks, Victor Vance and his people hadn’t bothered to hide their trail at all.

She could see where they had first spotted her and Miles Sherman without even needing to use her spiritual power.