The Genius Union was in chaos since the wee hours of the morning as there was an unfamiliar name that popped up on the leaderboard. It was normal for the rankings on the leaderboard to change and it was not that surprising when a black horse appeared occasionally. However, the unfamiliar person that everyone was buzzing about was a person who was stuck on the 21st checkpoint on the Stairway Tree. To those on the 50th to the 60th checkpoints, anyone who was stuck on the 21st checkpoint must be a weakling. It was ridiculous for such a person to obtain more than eight million points overnight and rank No. 2 on the leaderboard.
"Since he"s so shameless, why didn"t he get No. 1 instead?"
"Eight million points overnight! Wouldn"t he be a G.o.d if he"s given a year on the tree?"
"This kid is too much! I"m on the 59th checkpoint, and I can"t get 800,000 points if I were to kill monsters for the entire night. How could he get eight million points?"
"I"m not going to say anything anymore. I"ve reported him!"
"Report +1. This kid is waiting to be suspended!"
…
The only topic in the Genius Organization that was on everyone"s lips that day was Lin Huang. The same happened in the virtual world whereby everyone was talking about how Lin Huang cheated to get his acc.u.mulated points. Up to tens of thousands of people reported the issue, asking the Genius Union to suspend Lin Huang. Some of the geniuses from Divisions 1 and 2 even humiliated the entire Division 3 and the Sweep Alliance, saying that there must be more cheaters besides Lin Xie. It caused an uproar between Divisions 2 and 3 while the safe zones outside of the core zones were enjoying the show.
It was past noon when Lin Huang woke up. He set his communication page to silent mode since he ended the call with Yao Lan. He noticed there were five missed calls when he checked his device. Three were from Yao Lan, one was from Huangfu Hao, and there was one unknown number. Lin Huang ignored all of the calls as he knew that Yao Lan and Huangfu Hao must be contacting him about the Genius Union while the unknown number must be a mistake.
He took a shower and had a sumptuous lunch while he relaxed. He then logged into the virtual world after returning to his room. As he appeared on the 21st checkpoint on the Stairway Tree, Lin Huang noticed that many people were gawking at him. He figured that it had to do with his ranking on the leaderboard. After all, he was now ranked No. 2, so it was natural for people to stare at him. Although he had helped many of them during the monster hordes last night and they had witnessed Lin Huang leading the teams to kill the third monster horde for the very first time, most of them still thought that he had cheated to obtain more than eight million points overnight.
Lin Huang did not care about what people thought of him. The truth was the truth. No matter how the rumors were spreading like wildfire, time would reveal the truth. As soon as he logged in, he did not plan on staying on the 21st checkpoint. He walked towards the gathering point where Zhao San"s team was so that he could bid them farewell. As he arrived at the gathering point, he noticed all six of the hunting teammates there. They walked towards Lin Huang when they saw him.
"No matter what other people are saying, I, Zhao San, believe that you"ve never cheated!" Zhao San declared directly.
"Although I"ve no idea how you did it, I know you didn"t cheat." Jiang Xin looked at Lin Huang in all seriousness with her beautiful eyes.
"Those who are doubting you will realize that they"re wrong one day."
All of the teammates chose to believe that Lin Huang did not cheat. It was out of his expectations because he was unfamiliar with Zhao San and the rest after all. He did not even know some of their names. He only knew them by the nicknames that Zhao San called them. However, these people, who had only spent a night with him, chose to believe him while the rumors were rife.
"Thanks." Lin Huang felt a warmth flooding his heart. He did not say anything else after thanking them.
"I"m leaving the 21st checkpoint."
"Make yourself known. Show everyone that you deserve to be ranked No. 2 on the leaderboard!" Zhao San patted his shoulder.
"What I want isn"t No. 2." Lin Huang raised his eyebrow. Zhao San was surprised to hear what Lin Huang said and gave him a thumbs up.
"All the best. I believe you can do it!" Jiang Xin was his little fan.
After bidding farewell to them, Lin Huang returned to the Stairway Tree"s main branch and started climbing again. It was not difficult to go through the 21st to the 29th checkpoints. Lin Huang had pa.s.sed through the nine checkpoints before 6 p.m. and arrived at the 30th checkpoint where many geniuses were stuck. However, Lin Huang did not hear anything about this checkpoint when he was on the 21st checkpoint.
Standing on the Mighty Ape"s shoulder, Lin Huang looked up when he arrived at the 30th checkpoint. There were dark clouds above him that seemed similar to those on the second checkpoint.
"Is it going to be another snow storm?" Lin Huang still remembered the chilly weather on the second checkpoint.
As the Mighty Ape climbed up, it started to rain. The higher they went, the stronger the torrents.
"If it"s just rain, no one should be stuck here for too long. There should be something else." Lin Huang knew that the checkpoint would not be this simple or else, tens of thousands of people would not have gotten stuck on this checkpoint.
Soon, Lin Huang found out what was so tricky about this checkpoint. As the Mighty Ape climbed less than 1,000 meters up, the rain poured down like a waterfall. The higher they went, the stronger the water flow. Due to the constant wash of water, the cracks between the barks became slippery, which caused the Mighty Ape to slip occasionally. As the waterfall was pouring down like a tsunami, the Mighty Ape held tightly onto the bark. It was already difficult enough for it just to stay put.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang held the Dark Mirror in his hand to prevent himself from falling off the Mighty Ape"s shoulder.
"It seems like we can"t just go through it this way." Lin Huang knew that the Mighty Ape was already doing its best and he should not go on with this anymore.
He then held the Dark Mirror on top of the Mighty Ape"s head as he shook his head to form a giant umbrella. The water that was pouring down was blocked entirely out now, while the steady flow of water poured on the other side of the mirror where Lin Huang was bearing less than 1% of the flow. The Dark Mirror had solved the issue that caused so many others to be stuck on this checkpoint easily. Soon, the Mighty Ape pa.s.sed through the clouds in less than five minutes, and they made it to the 31st checkpoint.