Chapter 334: Chapter 208: The Rule of Downgrading!_1
That evening, Chen Mo slept soundly. However, the three Alliance Hierarchs at the Global Academy Alliance Headquarters found it entirely impossible to sleep. After all, they had received groundbreaking news from Chen Mo. The initial profession’s star level could actually change, and there was even a possibility of it being promoted to a never-before-seen five-star initial hidden profession. This news alone was enough to keep them too excited to sleep. However, this wasn’t the only reason they couldn’t sleep; it was also about Chen Mo.
After their daytime conversation with Chen Mo, they found him very credible. Yet, the more credible he seemed, the more questions swirled in their minds. So, that very day, they urgently gathered all information related to Chen Mo and the sound of the great path. The more they investigated, the more confused they became.
If what Chen Mo said was true, then all other events that occurred after he awakened his initial hidden profession could be reluctantly attributed to this initial hidden profession being extremely powerful. However, the current situation wasn’t that simple. The three of them reviewed the clues before them. Based on the sequence in which the sound of the great path was triggered, they established a timeline. Assuming everything Chen Mo said was true, the most definite chronological marker and turning point was when he awakened his initial hidden profession and triggered the sound of the great path. But this raised several questions.
The first question: according to Chen Mo himself, to acquire this initial hidden profession, one first had to complete an SSS-level hidden mission with an extremely high mortality rate. Before completing this incredibly difficult task and obtaining the initial hidden profession, wasn’t he just a two-star Skeleton Mage? A two-star Skeleton Mage completing an SSS-level hidden mission with a high mortality rate? Even a five-star professional wouldn’t dare attempt such a mission without risking death. If he managed to pass, how unbelievably lucky would he have to be? Finding someone like that would be like finding a needle in a haystack, a one-in-a-billion chance!
However, they considered that Chen Mo had coincidentally encountered the Rift Dungeon when it transformed into the Stars Dungeon. If he hadn’t chosen to flee immediately, he likely faced rules restricting Teleportation. Furthermore, the level 15 sound of the great path hadn’t even occurred by then, meaning Chen Mo was at most level 15. Encountering the Stars Dungeon under such conditions, unable to teleport, was a death sentence. In a desperate, life-or-death situation, it would be understandable to risk a high-difficulty mission with an equally high mortality rate. After all, dying in a challenging mission was preferable to being killed by Aliens. This point seemed implausible, but the three Alliance Hierarchs temporarily attributed it to outrageously good luck and moved on.
However, the subsequent questions couldn’t be explained away by mere luck. Specifically, before Chen Mo awakened his five-star initial hidden profession, the sound of the great path had occurred three times: once for a level 5 SSS-level Realm Breakthrough Assessment; once for the hidden achievement, The Lonely God of War; and once for a level 10 SSS-level Realm Breakthrough Assessment. The level 10 SSS-level Realm Breakthrough Assessment could be provisionally dismissed, as it could have been completed using sweep scrolls obtained at level 5. They focused on the first two instances of the sound of the great path. These instances were fraught with incomprehensible elements. Yet, amidst all these perplexing points, the details in the investigative reports aligned with this possibility with striking consistency.
According to the investigative reports they had gathered: On the day the sound of the great path for a level 5 SSS-level Realm Breakthrough Assessment was triggered, Chen Mo had also undertaken his level 5 Realm Breakthrough Assessment, challenging an S-level or higher difficulty. This was known because he had vanished from his spot at the time. Disappearing like that indicated he was attempting an S-level or higher Realm Breakthrough Assessment, which required entering a specific instance and would cause one to vanish from their original location. After he emerged, the Principal mistakenly believed he had attempted an S-level Realm Breakthrough Assessment and reprimanded him. And shortly after Chen Mo exited the Realm Breakthrough Assessment Space, the sound of the great path resonated. At the time, since everyone knew Chen Mo was merely a two-star Skeleton Mage, no one had connected it to him. Such an event was considered impossible by conventional understanding. But now, cross-referencing this with the information Chen Mo himself had revealed, it all fit together perfectly!
And that wasn’t all. Soon after, the incident involving The Master of Mutation occurred. According to the report, Chen Mo had gone deep into the forest to warn his classmates, who were undergoing their novice assessment, and subsequently got lost for a considerable time. He was eventually found and brought out by a level 20 professional dispatched by the county-level Academy Alliance. The level 20 professional reported hearing sounds of battle when she entered the area. However, by the time she drew near, The Master of Mutation had already been killed; she only saw chaotic footprints on the disturbed battlefield. It was initially assumed that an elite team had killed The Master of Mutation and then departed using Group Teleportation.
However, after Auditor Ling Yu examined the scene, she felt something was amiss and ordered a re-examination. The final conclusion was that many of the footprints did not appear to be human. But with so many footprints, who at the time would have imagined that a Skeleton Mage below level 15 could summon such a large number of Skeleton Monsters? Consequently, Chen Mo was overlooked once more. Everyone was merely curious as to which level 20 elite team could possess so many summoned creatures. What was overlooked then, when re-evaluated now, revealed a crucial detail: after The Master of Mutation appeared, Chen Mo was the only one present within the rule-generated barrier. If Chen Mo possessed immense combat capabilities even back then, it wouldn’t have been impossible for him to kill The Master of Mutation single-handedly and trigger the sound of the great path.