#24Chapter 24: First Place in the Monthly Exam for Three Consecutive Times
Fat Tiger didn't think the doppelganger would be so foolish. After all, he was a Silver-ranked professional. It was hard for an idiot to survive to the Silver rank.
Your doppelganger didn't argue. He just asked Fat Tiger to gather as many smugglers willing to join them as possible and form an underground gang with smuggling as its primary source of income.
"What's the gang's name?" Fat Tiger asked.
"Just call it Nightingale." Too lazy to come up with a name, the doppelganger copied the name of the gang Fat Tiger had created in the last simulation.
Hearing the gang's name, Fat Tiger felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if his destiny was tied to the words 'Nightingale'.
In the following period, besides single-handedly challenging the level 10 dungeon 'Knight Town' when his weekly protection value recovered, your doppelganger devoted most of his energy to supporting Nightingale's growth.
With the doppelganger, a Silver-ranked professional, personally supporting them, Nightingale's smuggling scale increased by more than 50% in less than a month. In contrast, Nightingale began to come to the attention of the police. When your doppelganger traveled between Donghua University and Nightingale's gang headquarters, he keenly noticed that he was being followed.
Although your doppelganger easily shook off the trackers with his extraordinary physique as a professional, he knew that the real trouble had just begun.
In November, as in the previous simulation, Lin Qingyu found your doppelganger, hoping he would protect her during the Iron Blood Society's core member assessment.
But unlike the previous simulation, the current doppelganger had the ability to say no to Lin Qingyu. Lin Qingyu could no longer boss him around as she had in the previous simulation.
The reason for this change was simple: this simulation's doppelganger possessed the Silver-ranked talent Ember of the Undying Phoenix! As a T0-level talent among Silver ranks, your doppelganger's potential was comparable to that of ordinary Gold-ranked talent users.
Secondly, your doppelganger took first place among the freshmen of Azure Dragon Academy with absolute strength in the monthly academy assessment! Even Shangguan Lingwei, the academy's pride with a Sky-ranked talent, was defeated by your doppelganger. Your doppelganger was now famous within Azure Dragon Academy. Many teams and clubs wanted to recruit him, including Earth- and even Sky-ranked ace squads. Although Lin Qingyu possessed a Gold-ranked talent, the mere one-level difference in talent was no longer enough to widen the gap between her and the incredibly strong doppelganger.
As long as your doppelganger didn't want to, no one in Azure Dragon Academy could force him to do anything! Although Lin Qingyu was an extremely realistic woman, she wasn't stupid. Therefore, she behaved very gently, with a hint of a white moonlight that struck people's hearts.
Fortunately, your doppelganger had a strong will and none of the boring desires of ordinary creatures. If it were the main body, a man ruled by his lower body, he probably wouldn't have lasted a single round and would have been easily taken down by this woman.
"Hey, hey, hey, do you think I can't see what you're thinking? And I'll say it again, I'm not the one ruled by my lower body, it's someone else in this world!"
Lin Ke tried hard to correct the doppelganger's misunderstanding of him.
Unfortunately, the doppelganger in the simulation clearly didn't take Lin Ke's explanation to heart.
Your doppelganger's mind was clear.
Seeing through Lin Qingyu's tricks, the doppelganger refused Lin Qingyu's request without hesitation and told her mercilessly that he was no longer the simp he used to be, telling her, that bitch, to stay away from him, or he would let her taste a fist the size of a casserole!
Lin Qingyu didn't know what the word 'bitch' meant.
But she understood the doppelganger's attitude and hostility from his threat of force. Lin Qingyu, who had always been doted on by the main body, couldn't accept the doppelganger's drastic change in attitude for a moment. In a fit of anger, she no longer cared about reason or interests and immediately began to curse at your doppelganger.
Your doppelganger didn't show any weakness and cursed back. The intense quarrel between the doppelganger and Lin Qingyu quickly attracted countless students to watch. In their exchange of insults, the little secret between you and Lin Qingyu quickly spread throughout Donghua University. Even the upperclassmen began to gossip about this juicy scandal.
Affected by this, your doppelganger and Lin Qingyu's reputations at Donghua University were slightly affected, but your doppelganger didn't care at all, nor did he care about Lin Qingyu's future possible revenge.
She was just a female creature with a talent only one level higher than his. Could she keep stepping on his head forever?
"No, you're really getting cocky." Lin Ke was completely broken when he saw this: "How long do you think you can maintain your advantage as a level 21 Silver warrior? At her rate of leveling up 15 levels in a semester, she'll probably surpass you in a year."
"You dare offend her like this. When her strength surpasses you, you'll be crying!"
But the doppelganger in the simulation didn't respond to this.
With the appearance of a simulation message, the conflict between the doppelganger and Lin Qingyu was lightly glossed over.
December 14th, your doppelganger successfully cleared the level 10 dungeon Knight Town. In this dungeon, your doppelganger spent a great deal of effort to successfully kill the dungeon BOSS Knight Lord, who was as high as level 15, and obtained a total of more than 150,000 Federal currency in spoils.
On the 15th, you ordered Fat Tiger to transfer the funds that the Nightingale gang had accumulated over the past two months to your account. Combined with the dungeon income from the previous two months and the 200,000 scholarship for taking first place in the monthly exams twice in a row, your doppelganger's total assets came to 1.5 million Federal currency.
Your doppelganger purchased a Silver skill book: Jade and Stone Burning Together and a Bronze skill book: Life Return.
Jade and Stone Burning Together: Silver-ranked skill for warriors. Consumes 20% of your maximum health to deal a powerful fatal blow to the target. The power depends on the health lost and the user's constitution and strength attributes. Cannot be used when health is below 30%. Cooldown time: 60s.
Life Return: Bronze-ranked skill for warriors and knights. Restores your own health. The amount of recovery is affected by your constitution. Cooldown time: 30s.
Your doppelganger's strength has been enhanced to some extent...
December 30th, relying on the devastating damage of Jade and Stone Burning Together, your doppelganger once again defeated Shangguan Lingwei in the monthly exam and successfully defended his title as the first-year monthly exam champion of Azure Dragon Academy!
But your doppelganger didn't feel happy.
Because compared to the ease with which he had defeated Shangguan Lingwei in the previous two times, the power Shangguan Lingwei had unleashed this time was no less than that of your doppelganger. If it hadn't been for the explosive damage of Jade and Stone Burning Together to determine the victory, your doppelganger didn't even doubt that he might have been overturned.
The advantage brought by talent was truly enormous! The gap between Sky-ranked and Silver-ranked talents was even more significant. If this continued, your doppelganger would have no chance of winning against Shangguan Lingwei in the next monthly exam.
Taking advantage of his reputation as the monthly exam champion, your doppelganger finally decided to form his own team!
That's right, form a team, not join a team.
The strength of the BOSS in this world was too outrageous. Even the most fragile dungeon BOSS could not be dealt with by professionals of the same level. As for the more terrifying wilderness BOSS, named BOSS, and even the lord, ordinary professionals had no chance of resisting alone.
Without the support of a team, it was impossible to defeat the BOSS, and the speed of growth would be as slow as a snail, making it difficult to improve. In this world, even a Star-ranked professional needed to rely on the strength of teammates to help themselves grow, and your doppelganger was no exception.
But joining other people's teams meant following the rules of those teams, which was unacceptable to the doppelganger, who had too many secrets. So your doppelganger could only find another way and decided to form his own team with himself as the core.
Unlike joining other people's teams, the doppelganger, as the initiator of the team, could choose members who were willing to abide by his rules and could unconditionally obey him according to his own wishes, so as to achieve the purpose of protecting his secrets and maintaining his mystery.
Your doppelganger posted a recruitment post on the academy forum's team formation board.
Thanks to his amazing performance in winning the monthly exam three times in a row, the post quickly attracted countless people's attention as soon as it was released.
Hearing the news that your doppelganger was going to form his own team, even the mentors of Azure Dragon Academy took the initiative to recommend suitable candidates for the doppelganger. Countless new professionals who had not yet found suitable teams or were interested in joining new teams came flocking, and your private mailbox was filled with all kinds of resumes, even including the figures of Gold-ranked professionals!
But the resume that really shocked your doppelganger was still Shangguan Lingwei!
This person, who had been defeated by your doppelganger three times in the decisive battle of the monthly exam and could only rank second in the grade, the de facto number one person in Azure Dragon Academy, actually wanted to withdraw from her ace team, which was composed entirely of Sky-ranked and Earth-ranked talent professionals, and become a member of your team.
Fortunately, your doppelganger finally knew his own limitations. He understood that the reason why Shangguan Lingwei wanted to join him was only because she had been defeated by him three times in a row and had developed a wrong perception of him.
He knew very well that the advantage he had accumulated in the previous simulations had reached its limit, while Shangguan Lingwei, as the owner of a Sky-ranked talent, had only just begun her career as a professional.
The doppelganger's advantage over Shangguan Lingwei could only be maintained until the start of the next monthly exam at most. If he was really so dizzy that he dared to accept Shangguan Lingwei into his team, the final outcome would only be that his true level would be exposed by Shangguan Lingwei, and then he would be devoured alive by the angry Shangguan Lingwei.
In order to avoid this terrible consequence, your doppelganger decisively rejected Shangguan Lingwei's request to join the team and instead chose five unremarkable, and most importantly, poor new professionals from countless resumes.
Poor families meant that when there was an opportunity to make a lot of money in front of them, they were more likely to break through their bottom line.
Unremarkable meant that they did not have much qualifications to bargain with the doppelganger, could not object to the doppelganger's decisions, and were more likely to blindly follow the doppelganger's orders.
Of course, although they were said to be unremarkable, the guys who had the confidence to submit resumes to the doppelganger were at least Silver-ranked talent owners. Among these five 'lucky ones' selected by the doppelganger, there was even a swordsman who had awakened a Gold-ranked talent. In the eyes of outsiders and even Bronze-ranked teams, they could also be high and mighty 'geniuses'.
Your doppelganger named this team Xuanhei, which corresponded to the team Chihong that abandoned him in the previous simulation.
Your doppelganger began to announce his team rules to the members of Xuanhei. The general idea was that the distribution of spoils would be decided by him, the captain, and he, the captain, would have the priority to dispose of all the spoils in the team and the absolute right to speak in the team.
Although such domineering rules caused a burst of discomfort among the team members, the prestige brought by winning the monthly exam three times in a row played a key role at this moment. The members of the Xuanhei team only rioted for a moment and did not raise any objections.
Your doppelganger breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time, this also meant that the Xuanhei team, which absolutely obeyed your doppelganger, had taken shape.
In order to quickly improve the strength and level of the Xuanhei team.
Your doppelganger directly led the Xuanhei team to challenge dungeons above level 15. In order to avoid high experience penalties, your doppelganger would let the team members clear the mobs in the dungeon, and he would not interfere in the battle himself. Only when facing the dungeon BOSS that the team members could not resist would your doppelganger intervene in the battle and try to minimize his output ratio in order to maximize the reduction of the experience penalty he brought to the team.
In addition, your doppelganger would also take the members of Xuanhei into the wilderness to sweep the monsters in the wilderness. The importance of having teammates, especially scout professional teammates, was revealed at this moment. You could use the high agility and high vision of the scout professionals to determine the level and danger of the monsters in an area, so as to avoid wilderness monsters that were not easy to mess with in advance and train relatively safely in the wilderness.
Although this actually could not completely avoid the dangers in the wilderness, it was still a professional team with all members possessing Silver-ranked or higher talents. This kind of team had already widened the gap with civilian professionals. The wilderness, which was full of crises for civilian professionals, was not that terrible for Xuanhei. As long as they were careful and cautious and did not rashly go deep into the wilderness.
Although this actually could not completely avoid the dangers in the wilderness, it was still a professional team with all members possessing Silver-ranked or higher talents. This kind of team had already widened the gap with civilian professionals. The wilderness, which was full of crises for civilian professionals, was not that terrible for Xuanhei. As long as they were careful and cautious and did not rashly go deep into the wilderness.
In one month, through challenging dungeons and wilderness training, your clone successfully raised its level to 22. The members of the Xuan Hei Squad also broke through to level 12. Although there was a huge gap compared to elite student organizations like the Iron Blood Society, whose core members had been participating in wilderness training since their first month after awakening and had an average level as high as 15, your clone believed that as the Xuan Hei Squad's teamwork improved, the gap between the Xuan Hei Squad and similarly leveled teams from the Iron Blood Society would gradually decrease.
Amidst your clone's confident expectations, your clone's first semester at Donghua University finally neared its end.
In the last monthly exam of the first semester, your clone lost to Shangguan Lingwei by a single move without revealing his Silver Aura, ending his semester-long dominance of the monthly exams.
Although he lost the 100,000 Federation Credit scholarship, using two Silver-level skills simultaneously would undoubtedly reveal to everyone that he had already become a Silver-level professional.
Becoming a Silver-level professional in one semester was still too exaggerated for a clone with only Silver-level talent. In any case, he had already achieved his goal of forming a team, so there was no need to continue coveting the honor of being first in the monthly exams.
Moreover, although second place in the monthly exam didn't come with a 100,000 credit scholarship, it still had a 50,000 credit incentive award, which was much better than the few hundred credits he could only earn each month in the previous simulation.