After the news of Zhang Tie's accident had spread to Wild Wolf Castle, Captain Kerlin, Zerom, and the other six teachers and instructors had come to the place where Zhang Tie had been killed to investigate the scene.
Zerom was the best at judging the clues at the scene. He had walked back and forth twice from the place where Zhang Tie had dropped the mining basket to the edge of the pitch-black hole. He had even squatted in the bushes where the wild wolves were hiding for quite a while. Finally, Zerom returned with a weird expression.
"How is it, Zerom?" Captain Kerlin's face slightly darkened. He still remembered Zhang Tie. Among the graduates of this year, Zhang Tie was one of the few who had left an impression on him. He had never imagined that it was this guy who had been killed, causing Captain Kerlin to feel bad. Zhang Tie's accident reminded him of the days when his comrades-in-arms and friends would leave this world after a battle. This made Captain Kerlin's mood even worse.
"Scary, very scary …" Zerom's face turned solemn.
"Of course it's scary. Packs of wild wolves haven't attacked students attending this survival training within 5 km of Wild Wolf Castle for over ten years. During the non-survival training period, the guards of the castle would often sweep the area around the castle, and the wolves were all scared of them. I wonder why a pack of wild wolves would appear so close to the castle this time." A female teacher glanced at the two dead wolves on the ground and slightly shook her head. "What a pity. Judging from the wounds on the dead wolves and the descriptions of the students who witnessed this, this student called Zhang Tie is a promising talent. He's brave, decisive, and quick-witted. He was able to kill three wolves by himself. His fighting strength could even be ranked at the top among his peers …"
"I'm not saying that it's scary. I'm saying that this student called Zhang Tie is very scary …" Zerom shook his head.
Zerom's words attracted the attention of all the teachers.
"What's scary about this student?" a teacher asked.
Zerom faintly smiled. Instead of answering this question, he turned to Captain Kerlin and asked, "How's Zhang Tie's performance at school? Is this person recommended by your students this year? "
"This guy's performance at school is very average. In the past three years, he didn't have any outstanding performance. He's just a bit smart and has a good temperament …" Slightly frowning, Captain Kerlin answered truthfully, although he was not used to Zerom's way of speaking. "Oh, this guy is also very good at escaping and seeking benefits for himself. As for the recommended students, everyone is optimistic about Glaze and a student called Burwick. This guy's performance at school has not met the requirements for the recommended students. Zerom, why would you ask such a question? By the way, what did you mean by 'this student is very scary'? "
"Such a person is actually not a recommended student from your school?" Zerom watched Captain Kerlin with an amazed look. Closely after that, he revealed a smile, "How could you ignore such an excellent person? I've carefully surveyed the route from that meadow to this black hole and calculated it inside. Do you know what I've found?"
"What?"
"The moment that student saw the seven wild wolves drilling out of the meadow, he decided to jump into this deep hole to save himself?"
"Is it strange?" One of the teachers asked doubtfully, "I don't see anything strange about this place. If you're not strong enough, it's human instinct to run when you encounter a wild wolf …"
"Of course it's strange …" Zerom said calmly, "It's human instinct to escape in the face of danger, but it's terrifying to know how to escape in the face of danger. This black hole is about 200 m away from where he met the wild wolves, and it's the only place where he could escape from the wolves. Many people would choose to escape towards Wild Wolf Castle or somewhere crowded with people, but this guy chose to escape towards this black hole and chose the best escape route. This is why he's terrifying. The moment he escaped, he had already calculated the possibilities of escaping in every direction. He even calculated the time when he would be caught by the wolves and the distance he could run within this period of time …"
Seeing that someone didn't understand what he was talking about, Zerom directly drew a point on the ground with the twig in his hand. "This point is where Zhang Tie encountered the pack of wolves …" Zerom drew a circle around this point. "This is the furthest he could move before the pack of wolves caught up with him, about 200 m …" After drawing this circle, Zerom pointed at the edge of the circle. "This is the black hole, which is also where we are now. This is the only place where he could escape from the wolves. Aside from this place, he could find the only way to escape from the wolves in such a large area. This is why I said that this student called Zhang Tie is terrifying. In such a short time, there were thousands of possibilities before he was caught up by the pack of wolves, yet he was able to find the only way to escape. This kind of acute judgment and ability to escape are really terrifying!"
This time, everybody understood what Zerom meant. Looking at the two points in the circle drawn by Zerom, everybody's heart slightly pounded. Like what Zerom had said, starting from the center point, there were indeed numerous possibilities to escape and be caught up by the wolf pack. However, among the numerous possibilities, when a person encountered seven wolves, this was the only one that had a bit of hope.
"This … could it be a coincidence?" A teacher asked after hesitating for a second. Even many teachers might not be able to make such a good judgment, not to mention students.
"Don't forget, according to the students, this guy took a pickaxe with him when he escaped …"
"What does that mean? Isn't it natural to take a weapon when encountering a wolf? "
"His weapon is his dagger, not his pickaxe. The pickaxe is a burden when he's running away. The only reason he's running away with the pickaxe is because he wants to use the pickaxe to fight for a chance of survival when he jumps into the hole. The hole dug by the Gold-Devouring Python can't be completely perpendicular to the ground forever. As long as the slope of the hole decreases, he can use the pickaxe to slow down his falling speed …"
"Does that mean Zhang Tie might still be alive?" Captain Kerlin asked in disbelief as he looked at the black hole and then at Zerom with his mouth widely opened.
"In my impression, it's very difficult for such guys to die. Their vitality is even stronger than that of cockroaches!"
"I want to go down there!" Captain Kerlin said.
"When the ropes from the castle arrive, I will accompany you down there to take a look …" Rubbing his chin with one hand, Zerom was filled with curiosity towards Zhang Tie. It was really rare to see a student who could still calmly find a chance to survive in such a desperate situation.
The ropes from the Wild Wolf Castle were soon sent over by more than 20 on-duty students and teachers. These ropes were the standard strong ropes purchased by the military of Blackhot City. They were as thick as a thumb and were both slippery and wear-resistant. They could even be used to hang items weighing two tons. When all the ropes were connected, they were more than 400 m long.
"This is the longest rope that we could find in Wild Wolf Castle. Nobody knows how deep the gold-eating boa's hole is. If we can't find it after surpassing the length of the rope, we won't be able to do anything!" Zerom said as he looked at Kerlin.
Captain Kerlin nodded. "If that's the case, we can only blame this guy for being unlucky. We just have to try our best. If I don't go down there to take a look, I will feel guilty."
After tying one end of the rope onto a huge rock which was as high as a person over 20 m away from the entrance of the cave, Captain Kerlin and Zerom fastened a safety buckle on the rope respectively. After that, they each put on a green fluorescent stick and jumped into the pitch-dark cave one after the other...
In such a bottomless hole of the Gold-Eating Boa, neither of them dared to be careless.
Seeing the two of them jumping into the hole one after another, the surrounding students all exclaimed out loud...
After descending over 20 m into the cave, all the light in the cave had been illuminated by the fluorite luminous sticks in the hands of Captain Kerlin and Zerom. With the help of that senior fluorite luminous stick, Zerom kept staring at the wall of the cave. When the first buffer and bend appeared in the cave, Zerom became spirited as he pointed at the fresh mark on the wall. There would always be weird spiral grains on the wall of the cave. Among these spiral grains, a straight mark was very obvious, which could be easily identified by its degree of age.
"This is the falling point of the pickaxe. This is the mark drawn downward from the falling point. Do you see it? That little guy called Zhang Tie really used the pickaxe to escape. His mind is really terrifying..." After confirming his guess, Zerom's eyes shone as he became more interested in Zhang Tie.
Captain Kerlin was also very excited. He didn't expect that this guy not only dared to talk, but also really knew how to escape.
At the sight of the mark, the two of them became spirited and slid down along the rope. Along the way, the marks on the wall almost never broke. Some were deep while some were shallow. The fresh marks were like road signs. Although there were some branches at the entrance of the hole, the two of them slid down along the marks towards the place where Zhang Tie had fallen...
The people at the entrance of the hole could not see what was going on inside. They could only watch the rope being swallowed by the black hole like a noodle. 20 m — 30 m — 50 m — 80 m — 100 m — 120 m — 150 m — 170 m —
As the rope slid down, the people at the top of the hole became gloomy. How could Zhang Tie survive such a deep fall?
The rope finally stopped at 190 m. After a few minutes, according to the prearranged signal, the rope below was pulled three times in a row. Then, the people at the top of the hole started to pull the rope together. Although it was very slow to pull the rope down, it was much faster to pull it up. Especially for powerhouses like Captain Kerlin and Zerom, as long as there was a place for them to borrow strength, they would be able to climb up easily...
A few minutes later, when the rope was about to be completely pulled back, a long roar drifted from the cave as Captain Kerlin and Zerom flew out of the cave like two huge birds. The moment Captain Kerlin landed, everybody's eyes focused on the figure on his back.
"Zhang Tie is still alive. He just fainted..."
Captain Kerlin shouted out of excitement. Among the onlookers, the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood almost jumped up. All the onlookers cheered. For them, this was simply a miracle. A guy who had fallen into a 200-m deep black hole was still alive. His vitality was even stronger than that of a cockroach...
With a "Pa" sound, Zerom threw the dead wild wolf and the pickaxe onto the ground. Only then did everyone realize that this guy, who had fallen into so many holes, was not only tougher than a cockroach, he was also a very powerful guy who could kill three wild wolves by himself …
The dead wolf on the ground was as soft as a child's toy. Rubbing his chin, Zerom thought that Zhang Tie was even more powerful than he had imagined. Not only did he think of using the pickaxe to save himself, he even used the dead wolf as a buffer to protect himself. Without the dead wolf, Zhang Tie's bones would have been broken. However, besides the wounds on his legs and some abrasions and bruises on his body, Zhang Tie had not broken a single bone. Instead, he had fainted. What a miracle! Such a student was really rare...
While all the onlookers were cheering, two people at the edge of the crowd didn't feel happy when they heard that Zhang Tie was still alive. Instead, their faces changed as they silently retreated from the crowd.
As Zhang Tie was still injured and in a coma, Captain Kerlin decided to take him back to Wild Wolf Castle.
What he had seen in the black hole made Captain Kerlin look at Zhang Tie in a new light. Captain Kerlin knew that if he had jumped into such a hole at the same age as Zhang Tie, he would definitely have been killed. How could Zhang Tie think of taking a pickaxe with him when he escaped? If not for the pickaxe, he would have lost most of his bones at the end of the slope which was more than 100 m deep.
From the moment he had rescued Zhang Tie and announced that he was still alive, Zerom had been silently observing the onlookers outside the cordon. Finally, when he saw two people sneaking away amidst the cheers of the onlookers, Zerom narrowed his eyes and immediately remembered their figures...
… …
Half an hour later, in the mountain cave where Glaze's group was staying, everybody was dumbfounded after hearing the news brought by Zuhair and Garner.
"You mean Zhang Tie is still alive? How could that be? Even if the pack of wolves didn't kill him, how could he still be alive after jumping into that 100-m deep black hole? Is that guy made of iron? How could he still be alive?" Sharon cried out.
"Everybody saw that Captain Kerlin and that teacher called Zerom personally went into the hole and brought Zhang Tie out. They only managed to pull him out after the rope was lowered for about 200 m …" Saying this, Zuhair also felt scared. "That guy is really lucky. I really don't know how he survived after falling into such a deep hole."
"F * ck!" Thinking that he had spent so much effort to set up such a trap, yet he still couldn't kill such an ordinary guy, Glaze couldn't help but become furious. "Zuhair, what do you think we should do now? Can we find another way to kill him?"
Zuhair's face turned slightly pale. "This incident has already attracted the attention of the Temporary Supervision Committee. Once what we did is known by others, we won't have a good ending. Additionally, I feel that Zerom, who was responsible for the investigation at the scene, has discovered something. If we do something to Zhang Tie now, it will be too obvious and dangerous …"
"You mean we should just let it go?" Glaze asked unwillingly. The moment he thought of the two times he had been defeated by Zhang Tie, he felt that it was the greatest shame in his life.
"That's all we can do now. Zhang Tie is too eye-catching. Let's teach him a lesson first. As long as you can become a LV 3 warrior and obtain the recommendation of the school, we can deal with him when we return to Blackhot City. If we take such a big risk for him now, we will lose a lot for a little bit!"
No matter how unwilling Glaze was, he could only agree with Zuhair's words. "Fine, let him live for a few more days. When we return to Blackhot City, we will deal with him …"
Since he had failed to kill Zhang Tie, Glaze couldn't help but feel a bit scared of Zhang Tie, whom he had never cared about.
Thankfully, this guy called Zhang Tie would never be able to catch up with him. Glaze comforted himself, "Dad is right. In this world, strength and fists are always the most important. As long as I have the strength to defeat that guy and make him feel hopeless, then one day, I will be able to deal with him however I want."
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