That final sentence was incredibly rousing, instantly igniting the fighting spirit of every candidate. One by one, they departed. Without exception, each of them glanced at Thora before leaving, and anyone who still had recovery items left everything behind for her. Once most of the candidates had dispersed, only Thora, Draven, and Tristan's group remained. Draven smiled at them, his unremarkable face now carrying a hint of mystery. "Thora, I look forward to seeing you at the military academy." With that, he gave a salute as a form of acknowledgment. Thora had long suspected his true identity and nodded in response. Draven cast one last glance at the group. The moment he turned, his body became transparent at a visible rate, ultimately dissolving into a stream of data and vanishing from this world.Without the threat of the virus, the assessment game returned to normal mode. Once Thora had mostly recovered, she prepared to start farming points again—with her current score sitting at zero, she'd be eliminated if she didn't push hard to catch up. After Draven had brought Thora back from the monster horde, he left her some recovery items and mysteriously disappeared again, vanishing without a trace as he always did. Draven, Darius... Thora's eyes narrowed as a certain suspicion in her heart grew clearer. ... After recovering, Thora told Tristan and the others to continue with their own quests. Their scores were already secure enough that their admission was practically guaranteed. They wanted to stay with Thora, but she refused—traveling in a group would only slow down her point-farming efficiency.Once she split from the group, Thora went into full-on farming mode on her own. She killed every monster in sight and farmed every player she encountered. Everywhere she went became a slaughterhouse, fully cementing her reputation as a player killer. Other players ran the moment they spotted her in the distance, internally complaining—her stats had dropped to nothing and she was still this fierce? And the ones with the best equipment and highest stats were all on her side. But even when they got eliminated, they couldn't really be mad—losing to someone this strong, they accepted it willingly. By the end, players in the game couldn't even be bothered to do their own quests anymore. Instead, they watched Thora's score rocket up from dead last, more invested in her climb than their own farming. ... Meanwhile, inside the downtown building. Draven walked straight into the control center on the 12th floor, glancing at the bodies of officers and soldiers scattered across the ground. His gaze turned cold. He walked to where the computer had originally been placed and pressed his fingertip against the wall. A blue holographic screen instantly materialized. His fingers moved rapidly across the virtual screen, quickly pulling up the profile for the player "Ash". A faint smile curved at the corner of his lips. His fingertip gently brushed against Thora's lips on the screen, then he pulled up her character parameters and began rapidly modifying them. The game footage of his location had long since slipped beyond system capture—no one could see what he was doing. ... Elsewhere, while Thora was farming, she clearly felt her strength and speed were greater than before. Her displayed stats still showed she was at rock bottom, yet her actual combat ability had risen instead of fallen.Luke sat on a high rooftop, waiting for Thora while staring at the data on his computer and muttering, "That's weird..." "What?" Shirley immediately asked. Tristan looked over as well. Luke shook his head. "Nothing." He'd noticed something off with the data, but after digging deeper, he couldn't find any leads. His eyes swept toward the leaderboard. Thora's ranking had already climbed to 56th place—just a little more to go. By now, quite a few players were close to collecting all 12 cards. Tristan and the others were only one or two cards short themselves, but they wanted to wait for Thora to catch up before pushing the main storyline forward. Just then, a server-wide system announcement rang out. "Congratulations to player Ashley for successfully collecting all 12 cards. She is about to obtain the 'Tears of Gods' and purify the apocalypse!"The 12 cards floated before Ashley, rotating and radiating golden light. The system automatically played the background cutscene. Ashley yawned, not bothering to pay attention, but her gaze kept drifting toward the leaderboard. Watching Thora's ranking continue to climb, the smile on her lips deepened. The moment she gave the command to activate the "Tears of Gods," the game would end immediately. In other words, whether Thora got in or not was entirely at her mercy.