The danger of the fourth test to each examinee is relative, but this relativity won't appear if there is no one around to come the danger to.
They saw this happen almost three hours into the test. Thompson was skulking through the forest trying to find shelter or a group of people to work with when he encountered a horde of beasts chasing someone.
The person had at least a thousand performance points, as seen from the cluster of light on their head with seven rings of light.
A thousand points is impressive because it means that this person has earned an average of 300 points in each of the three previous tests. This person can be said to be above average.
The target of the beasts had more points than Thompson, so they ignored him. But then a python jumped out from a tree in front of the target and bit the target before coiling around them and crushing them.
That eliminated the target with the highest priority. So the beasts turned their attention to Thompson.
Thompson was already far away because he was already running in the opposite direction of the previous target when he saw the beasts. But the beast at the tenth transformation still caught up to him.
This beast was a leopard. It was very fast. It caught up to Thompson quickly and jumped on him.
Screams of pain were soon heard. Blood and flesh were seen scattering into the environment and spilling onto the ground. Then the screams disappeared, and the screen went dark.
Geltra, who was watching this with her eyes wide open in shock, closed her eyes all of a sudden and fainted. Her body lost its support, and she fell towards the ground.
Fortunately, she didn't hit the ground. Lady Delia caught her and helped her into a seat.
The atmosphere became gloomy. No one was saying anything. Even the boisterous Tyson was silent.
Arthur sighed and said, "This is too dangerous. It is a slaughterfest. Why would the sects hold a test like this?"
Lady Delia shrugged and said, "The test is mostly to test luck. Luck is a talent too. It is a very important talent. It can be said that those who will survive this test will be very lucky."
Lady Vena added, "The test also exposes the examinees to danger and sees how they will perform. Many of these people have never killed one person in their whole lives. They have never bled before, and some of them have been pampered their whole lives."
"These people need to see the danger of the world because the situation of the test is the situation they will get themselves into if they decide to join sects. But most importantly, this test forces the examinee to come to the conclusion that led to the creation of sects."
What she said interested him. He turned to her and asked, "What's the important conclusion?"
She replied, "Unity. Unity outside of a family."
"It is easy for a family to unite. It is more difficult for strangers to unite. But the situation compels them to."
He nodded and said, "I see. The examinees will be surrounded by enemies who will try to kill them for performing well. And the enemies don't have any scruples. They can band together to chase an examinee, and they can even ambush them. The examinees will have to unite if they want to survive."
Lady Vena agreed. "Exactly. The game has been rigged. The more successful someone is, the more danger they will face and the faster they will die. So the examinees must come together and work together for survival regardless of family and background."
"It is impossible for one to choose which family one would be born in. But one can choose which sect they will be a part of. And from the looks of things, sects are more successful than families. There has to be a reason for that."
"I know I say that one shouldn't depend on others, and I still believe that. But hear me out. You're strong on your own, but imagine if you had a group of equally strong people to back you up. Imagine what you will be able to achieve."
He imagined what she said. Then he nodded in agreement.
Lady Delia chose that time to interject. She said, "The test is dangerous. But you must not forget that one forced these people to participate. So the sects can't be blamed."
Lady Vena rarely agreed with Delia, but she agreed with her this time around.
She nodded and said to Arthur, "This is the way of the world. They had the choice to live in mediocrity or risk it all for greatness. They chose to risk it all."
She looked at him as if to impress on him the importance of what she was saying. Then she said, "Trying to achieve greatness is a gamble. Once you start on this path, you must know that death is around the corner and the road is paved with the corpses of ambitious people like you. So you have to take it seriously and never slack off. You must never slack off."
He nodded and said, "I know."
He really did know that sometimes, being powerful on his own is not enough. Of course, that's because he is not powerful enough.
But if he wants to become powerful enough and be independent, it is a good thing to receive help from others, just like he received help from his mother in terms of pills and resources.
In his current situation, the entity he needs help from is the sects. And while he loathes working together with weaklings who would only drag him down, he is looking forward to working with the best of the best who have the same goal as him.
"I guess Thompson will never be one of those people now."
He sighed, feeling pity about Thompson's death.
He only felt it was a pity. He would have certainly felt more pain if he could still run his dojo and needed Thompson as a helper and a source of karma.