Rise of the Zerg in the World of Gods

Time passed quickly as they wandered around. After eating a nutritional meal provided by No. 1 High School, the afternoon soon arrived.

Compared to the points matches, the afternoon was actually the main event.

Individual battles better showcased personal strength and attracted more attention.

The three grades were divided into three parts, with competitions happening simultaneously.

Each grade had 380 people. The first round would select 190 winners, then choose ten from the losers to make up 200 people.

For 380 people of the same grade from 19 schools, one round required 190 matches. It seemed like a lot, but in the preliminary round, with 20 matches happening simultaneously, it would proceed very quickly.

Individual battles didn't last long, and with ten groups competing, it naturally wouldn't take much time.

These people's rankings were completely random, directly paired for battle.

Some were fearless, while others were very nervous.

Those with middling strength were the most anxious, hoping to meet someone weaker than themselves, yet worried about encountering someone stronger.

The strong ones didn't care who they faced, and the weak ones didn't care either.

Names appeared on the battle projection, then all names were scrambled and paired, with all three grades proceeding simultaneously.

Afterward, each student's personal assistant received their battle information.

[Match 178, No. 6 High School's Xu Luo vs. No. 8 High School's Fang Zikai!]

Oh?

Seeing his battle information, Xu Luo frowned slightly. He was actually second to last to appear.

This ranking had a big impact on popularity.

Because the earlier battles would surely be exciting, and unless one was particularly outstanding, it would be hard to attract attention later on.

However, Xu Luo didn't plan to go down the path of a star fighter, so popularity and such didn't matter to him. As for being outstanding, with his strength, he didn't need to consider this issue.

"Old Xu, which match are you?" After learning his opponent, Cha Lei, who had been hanging around Feng Xiaoxiao and the other cheerleaders, squeezed through the crowd.

"Not going to find your Feng Xiaoxiao?" Xu Luo looked at him with a half-smile.

"Hey, why talk about that?" Cha Lei chuckled, his good mood evident. He must have made some good progress.

Come to think of it, Feng Xiaoxiao and Cha Lei were quite compatible. Their family conditions were similar, their grades were about the same, and their personalities were both decent.

Under Cha Lei's offensive, Feng Xiaoxiao had obviously softened a bit.

"My opponent is Bai Song from No. 3 High School. That guy, heh, he's just giving away the win!" Cha Lei boasted.

"So confident?" Xu Luo didn't quite believe his words.

"Don't you know what I do? I'm called the know-it-all. I know Bai Song, he's just a pushover. I can't believe No. 3 High School actually let him participate."

Cha Lei smiled confidently. He was among the top in No. 6 High School after all. Aside from Xu Luo in a league of his own, and Xiang Xun and Wang Xiaoling being stronger than him, there really wasn't anyone who could say they'd definitely beat him.

"It's good to be confident, but don't underestimate others," Xu Luo cautioned.

It was only because their relationship had improved that he bothered to say this. Previously, he wouldn't have even cared to comment.

"I understand!" Cha Lei nodded.

"Once the competition starts, all sorts of hidden talents emerge. Many who seemed average before might show great increases in strength. It's always been like this."

Usually, families let their younger generation develop on their own.

Firstly, the elders in each family had their own development to focus on, and secondly, it allowed the younger ones to grow independently.

But not helping much usually didn't mean they never helped at all!

For important matters like this that affected future development, they would spare no effort in providing assistance. It's just that they couldn't directly provide large amounts of faith power or gift units, otherwise everyone would probably be at Gold-tier.

After all, once the elders became Gods, sending things from the God's Continent or the Star Realm to novice Divine Domains was incredibly costly.

Xu Luo hadn't thought about these things. He had nothing to rely on anyway; the Overlord system was his foundation.

If only the Leviathan had appeared, he would have tried out the newly emerged function.

With the collected gene bank inventory exceeding 1,000, the Overlord system had unlocked a new function.

By directly investing evolution points and faith power, using existing genes as a base, it could directly evolve new Zerg.

However, because it was random, the final result wasn't fixed. It might directly produce a Gold-tier creature, or it might be Bronze tier 1. The invested faith power and evolution points wouldn't be refunded.

Now that he was evolving the Leviathan, he temporarily couldn't use this function.

"Oh, Xiaoling sent a message. Her opponent is from No. 12 High School, called Zhang Lei. Let me find him," Cha Lei said, quickly searching through his recorded database.

"Found him. Zhang Lei, unit: Abomination, performance..."

Living up to his nickname as the know-it-all, Cha Lei quickly found the relevant information and sent it to Wang Xiaoling, who was far away.

"I'm in the third match, Xiaoling is in the fourth. Old Xu, when are you up?"

"Ninth," Xu Luo replied calmly.

He was actually quite satisfied with his current life.

Although this world had a fast-paced life and enormous survival pressure, these things didn't have much to do with him. Now he could fully enjoy his campus life.

In this world, he didn't have to worry about 996 work schedules, mortgage or car loans, or marriage dowry issues.

He didn't have to exhaust himself like a dead dog every day, begging for appointments and investments.

Sometimes, he felt like he was in a dream.

Life now was good, so he behaved ordinarily in reality, just interacting normally with his classmates.

As for starting to establish the Umbrella's embryonic form in God's Domain and forcibly "protecting" aliens as the domineering Zero, he'd let that persona live in God's Domain.

Every day, he attended classes on time, joked around with classmates, and sometimes went out to play together.

As he became more familiar with this world, Xu Luo wasn't so resistant to going out anymore.

This world was actually quite interesting. Technology was advanced, and compared to his era, although the standard of living had decreased, the residents' happiness index wasn't low.

If not for the sudden collapse of the Starriver Group, people in this era would have had quite good lives.

"This appearance order isn't very favorable!" Cha Lei frowned.

"But it's just the preliminary round. With your strength, you can quickly advance to the main competition. Then you can show everyone the power of our No. 6 High School's new king."

Cha Lei quickly comforted him.

"It doesn't matter," Xu Luo didn't care about these things.

It didn't matter when he appeared; he just needed to win.

The three grades were divided into three parts, with forty people going up at a time, connecting with opponents according to the system's assigned names. Others not competing could choose to watch students they were interested in.

"She's going on stage so early?" Xu Luo was surprised to see Qianqian among those appearing.

He hadn't expected to see her in the first group.

"This girl is still very impressive!" Cha Lei acknowledged her strength when he saw her.

"Mm," Xu Luo nodded. This girl's Goblin technology level was a bit low now, but given her creativity, as she continued to develop, she would be terrifying in the future.

"She was unlucky to face me, but against others, she'd likely have no challenge."

"Tsk tsk tsk!" Cha Lei looked Xu Luo up and down.

"Old Xu, you're being a bit arrogant! What do you mean she was unlucky to face you?"

Xu Luo smiled but didn't respond.

As the students entered the game pods, the competition began directly.

When students engaged in individual battles, they could choose their own battle mode.

Qianqian's opponent knew this girl's personal strength was terrifying, so he directly chose possession battle.

He was self-aware that he was no match for Qianqian in unit battle, so he could only choose the option most favorable to himself.

Unfortunately, his strongest unit was only Silver tier 5, and the one with fanatical faith was only Bronze tier 9.

Facing Qianqian's Kobold gunners, along with her personal strength bonus, even though she only deployed a Silver tier 1 Kobold, the opponent had no resistance when facing her. He was resolved in three moves, easily defeated.

This was also the first battle to end.

"The gap is too big," Xu Luo shook his head. He had wanted to see something different, but unfortunately, Qianqian's opponent was too weak and didn't force out anything useful.

Xu Luo still didn't dare to underestimate Qianqian.

He wasn't worried about unit battles or possession battles.

For units, his Zerg army was unstoppable. In possession battles, he could possess his strongest believer, as long as their faith level was above fanatical.

Xu Luo had Vivi, a Gold-tier Monarch with a faith level of Sacred Spirit.

He was basically invincible.

Xu Luo's only weakness was his Demi-God strength.

Vivi was obviously a being with terrifying Demi-God strength.

So Xu Luo wanted to know himself and his opponent to be prepared.

However, he was naturally disappointed now.

In individual battles, victory and defeat were decided quickly.

At the beginning, there might be significant strength disparities between opponents.

During battles, for those who lost, the main brain would give a score based on various aspects such as experience, combat skills, command ability, etc., when facing opponents, then give a comprehensive score.

Finally, the ten people with the highest scores among all losers would advance to the winners' bracket.

This was also a chance given to the losers.

After all, there was a possibility that two strong students might face each other early on.

This was equivalent to giving them one more chance.

If they couldn't seize this opportunity, they couldn't be considered impressive students.

The first group's matches ended quickly, followed by the second group.

There was nothing worth noting, so Xu Luo glanced at it and went to watch the second and third-year matches nearby.

As he switched screens, he happened to see Xu Chengzhi directly punch his opponent flying, winning the victory.

Seeing this person, Xu Luo always felt a sense of familiarity but couldn't remember where he had seen him before.

However, he had to admit this was a formidable expert.

If nothing else, the fact that he dared to take the path of an ascetic monk was not something ordinary people could compare to.

Soon another group of matches ended.

"Old Xu, I'm going over now!" Cha Lei said goodbye and headed towards the game pods on the arena.

"Good luck!" Xu Luo patted his shoulder, encouraging him.

Come to think of it, although this guy usually seemed to be joking around without seriousness, his strength was actually quite good.

Because his family situation was good, he had quite a bit of pocket money. However, he was frugal, not willing to drink soda, but instead saved his pocket money to exchange for faith power to strengthen himself.

As far as Xu Luo knew, this guy had almost bought all the Kobolds he sold to the school logistics department.

Afterwards, he gradually bought many Silver-tier Kobolds.

Besides increasing the quantity and quality of Kobolds, he spared no effort in improving their strength.

Additionally, he equipped them with various weapons and armor, and specially hired people to train the Kobolds' abilities.

In the novice city, there were people who specialized in this, and the prices were exorbitant.

In fact, in God's Domain, besides directly having believers provide faith power, selling Divine Domain products was one way, selling units was another method, and if subordinate believers had additional skills, that was also a way to make money.

For example, top-level skill masters could be rented out in the novice city, and those in need would naturally seek them out.

For races like Kobolds, they could also accept various construction orders and manufacturing orders.

Building a Divine Domain wasn't an easy task. Some people found it troublesome and directly had Kobold engineering teams handle it. Prepare the materials, or directly pay faith power, and all matters could be resolved.

Or place orders for things like manufacturing starships.

Anyway, there were various ways to make money.

So Cha Lei, who had additionally purchased many Silver-tier Kobolds, was quite capable.

This guy paid a lot of attention to his Divine Domain.

Now facing Bai Song, it could really be said to be an easy win.

Looking at all the first-year students from the 19 high schools in Tianhai City, based on what Xu Luo had seen before, Cha Lei's strength was in the middle.

Out of over 300 people, he could definitely make it into the top few dozen.

He had a good chance of making it to the top 64, but going further would depend on luck.

As the duel began, Cha Lei, not waiting for Bai Song to speak, shrewdly called for a unit battle.

Then it was a battle between their units.

Cha Lei's Kobolds weren't seen at first. By the time Bai Song's units discovered them, the Kobold army had already surged out from underground and directly engulfed the opponent.

In close combat, the Silver-tier Kobolds began to show their might.

After all, they had been cultivated for so long and a large number of resources had been invested. Especially when Cha Lei explored plane worlds and discovered magic crystal mines, Kobolds were the best miners. He directly took the Kobolds to mine.

He didn't sell the obtained magic crystals but used them to forge equipment for the Kobold army. This was the first time they were put to use.

The result was obvious and the effect significant.

Under the charge of Silver-tier Kobolds, with Kobold priests providing support from behind, and the Kobolds' armor being difficult to penetrate, Bai Song lived up to his name and directly gave away the win.

Cha Lei easily took the first match.