Their firepower only reached the first hundred feet. Beyond that range, there was nothing more they could do. All they managed was clearing the front as much as possible, making the opening stretch less lethal for the four pushing ahead. Thora and Draven stayed at the front. Ashley and the blond man guarded the rear. A crushing wave of monsters swallowed them almost instantly, yet the four forced their way through with raw strength. Explosions bloomed behind them as grenades flung bodies into the air. Gunfire snapped clean through skulls. Anything that closed in was cut down on contact. They moved like four blades driving forward in perfect rhythm, all aimed at the same destination. The moment Thora passed the hundred-feet mark, the support fire behind her vanished.But Draven, Ashley, and the blond man stayed glued to her sides, taking on most of the pressure and easing her load. They still had several cards left. On top of that, Draven and Ashley had strong stats, solid equipment, and real combat skill. For now, the situation stayed under control. What caught Thora off guard was the blond man. Luke had boosted his attributes, but he carried no equipment at all. No weapon, no cards. Yet inside a monster swarm this dense, he took no damage. He was clearly experienced. Every close-range movement killed cleanly. His positioning was flawless, each step landing in the weakest seam of the horde. Before long, the four leveled out, spreading the pressure evenly. Even so, Thora remained at the center, almost screened by the other three, and the strain on her dropped further. Monsters continued to surge. Corpses stacked into mounds. Nothing slowed their progress. Soon, they had pushed a full kilometer forward, their figures swallowed by the swarm until they vanished from sight. Outside the game. Every examiner held their breath, eyes glued to the feed, hearts pounding as they tracked the four advancing figures. There was no in-game sound, but between Luke's screen and the movements on display, their objective was obvious: they were heading straight for the virus. Several examiners leaned so close their faces nearly touched the display. Watching the four carve through the monsters made their skin crawl. These four were already far beyond the norm. Their combat ability rivaled the academy's top five. They were easily the strongest prospects of this assessment. "Roxen started as a fresh character with base stats at zero. How is he this powerful?" one examiner asked in disbelief.Sergio answered calmly, "You forgot. Number 235 broke into the core earlier. While they fought the boss, he adjusted Roxen's attributes." The room froze. They all remembered that hacker. In the second round, he breached the monitoring system and escaped the island first. Just now, he had cracked the firewall and accessed the game core. No one had expected he could alter player stats. "Then why didn't he boost everyone?" Roman asked, confused. "If they moved together, this would be way easier." Valen replied flatly, "Pull one block from a structure and it might hold. Pull too many, and everything collapses." The game's firewall and logic layers were tightly bound together. Changing one or two players might slide by. Expanding that change would crash the entire system. Even if Number 235 could modify everyone, he would never take that risk.The examiners understood immediately. Sergio let out a slow breath. "Didn't expect this level of tech talent in this year's intake." This assessment had drawn an absurd number of gifted candidates across every field, and the examiners were already anticipating the academy's future. But for now, all attention stayed locked on the four figures fighting through the screen. Watching the brutal advance, their expressions grew heavier. These four had to survive.