Written Examination

The two quickly began to strike up conversation. With Leylin’s experience and knowledge, duping a youth was an extremely simple matter. Xavier had soon lost all traces of jealousy in his heart, feeling like this Ley was a talkative and humorous person.

“Mm, so you have a little sister. Thousand Bears City’s little bear biscuits are favoured by many girls. I should bring some with me when I come to visit,” Leylin said with a smile.

“You coming over to visit is already enough. You don’t have to be so courteous,” Xavier replied. But just as he was about to continue, a sharp bell sounded out.

Drawn in by the urgent sound of the bell, the crowd streamed towards the main gate in waves, like a limitless sea of people.

“Mister Ley, the examination is about to begin! Let us continue our chat later…” With Xavier’s physique, he was involuntarily swept away by the surging sea of people, leaving Leylin behind.

“Of course!” Leylin smiled. This sort of scene seemed to bring back a rather nostalgic feeling, and he also entered the examination hall.

“The examination has been split into 2 sections— a written examination and an on-site test. Candidates AS1 to SD100 please proceed to examination hall 3,” a mechanical voice echoed in the hall. Leylin followed its prompts, arriving at an exam hall.

At the destination were several silver-grey nutrition cabins. The metallic surface shone brilliantly, looking like something out of science fiction.

“Your written examination will be conducted in the nutrition cabins, so please find your seats.” A staff member with a blue exam badge entered the hall, scanning the crowd with a piercing eagle-like gaze.

“The exam will take a long time, but don’t worry about your const.i.tution. We will prepare enough nutrient liquids for you.” The blue-badged staff member monitored them all and Leylin found his own nutrition cabin.

“Beep! Scan has been completed. Welcome, candidate GF87.” Ice-cold and solid… This was Leylin’s first impression of the nutrition cabin. Even he felt nauseous with the influx of nutrient liquid, so it would definitely be a form of torture for normal people.

A light flashed before his eyes suddenly, and a virtual exam room appeared. The room itself was limitlessly vast, but it only had a single hardwood desk with paper and pen on it.

“A virtual environment? Mm, this can eliminate cheating, and allows the examinees to be given different questions each. Unless one can break through their cabin’s lock, they can’t possibly cheat.” Leylin sat down, sweeping his eyes across the questions on the table.

His ability to gather information was shockingly quick. He’s crammed hard last night, so none of these questions could trouble him one bit.

“It’s a written examination, but many things can be tested in a virtual environment. It absolutely won’t be limited to just these unlimited questions…” Leylin smiled to himself before answering the questions at rapid speed.

In this environment, ordinary candidates were completely unable to perceive the pa.s.sing of time. Leylin was of course the exception. After completing over ten examination papers, the surrounding environment began to change. He was taken to an operating workshop.

‘Question 35— Use the given materials to repair this Rapid Shadow wrist.w.a.tch.’

Leylin looked at the lathe here, and saw a broken wrist.w.a.tch upon it, with several electric pens and other items scattered around it. Its screen had been smashed to pieces.

‘This must be the on-site test,’ Leylin stroked his chin, ‘Unless the on-site tests directly open the limits of authority, and evaluate the use of mid-ranked spells?’

The current empire did not have sufficiently advanced virtual reality technology to simulate magic. Only Leylin’s A.I. Chip was able to do something on that level. After all, the flesh and soul were the same as spiritual force and matter. It was an extremely difficult matter to fuse the two together and a.n.a.lyse all their mysteries.

It was only with the s.p.a.ce-time travel that his A.I. Chip had abandoned physical form. It had fused with his soul, and even then it took multiple advancements to reach its current level.

Crowley had changed into a well-ironed uniform, walking into the control theatre of the examination hall. His eyes sparkled as he saw a fair-haired beauty and greeted her, “Oh, Miss Bobbi! Did you discover any useful seedlings?”

“Your job is to patrol the examination hall, Proctor Crowley,” the beauty rejected him without hesitation. It caused all the other proctors to smile.

“Alright, alright! I’m impatient too. If we discover an outstanding mechanic, we’ll get a reward as well,” Crowley looked at Bobbi with a pitiful look in his eyes, “I think we need to discuss it.”

Bobbi looked at the monitor screen and then at her wrist before she finally agreed. “Five minutes, then…”

The other exam proctors kept their calm in the face of something so unexpected. An amorous glint immediately appeared in Crowley’s eyes, and he followed Bobbi outside.

Although on the surface it seemed as if there was melodrama here, with one person pursuing the other, their conversation was transmitted to the rest through secret means.

“Let’s have dinner tonight? A new restaurant opened up recently in the Champs Elysees,” Crowley spoke non-stop, his performance making the other proctors knit their brows and turn away.

In secret he’d sent a short message to the woman, ‘I see that TY13 and the others are quite good. They’re worth recruiting and nurturing…’

“I don’t have any time tonight.” Bobbi said with a cold expression on her face, replying using their secret code, ‘Pay attention to them and protect them. The best thing is to fail them in their written exams, or chase them out of the examination hall. Don’t give them access to the on-site tests. Other than that, you seem to have missed one of them…’

‘I’ll take responsibility for Xavier, don’t interfere.’ Crowley’s expression changed..

‘I know, I know, but the thing is…’

‘As long as you understand. Let’s not say too much, the surveillance from central intelligence and the Weave is quite serious.’ Crowley finished his final message and then fell to the ground to release a heart-piercing cry, “Oh, Bobbi, my Bobbi…”

The fair-haired beauty smiled coldly and returned to the control room under the surveillance of many guards and onlookers.

‘What happened?’ She’d originally expected a lot of busybodies to circle her, but she was rather stunned to see all the proctors surrounding the screen. The melodrama from earlier did not attract any attention whatsoever.

‘Did my acting skills fail? Or am I under suspicion?’ Bobbi’s heart twisted. She saw a proctor come over to her with an extremely solemn expression on his face, as well as a look of ecstasy. “Bobbi! Come and take a look.”

“Mm?” Bobbi leaned against the wall with a curious look on her face. In her heart, she secretly sighed in relief, ‘I wasn’t discovered!’

Afterwards, she saw an examination paper with a perfect score broadcasted on the screen.

“Ah, so such an exceptionally intelligent seedling appeared,” Bobbi sucked in a breath of cold air. She looked at the candidate’s information column. “So his name is Ley? It seems like he answered everything correctly, this is really…”

“Everything must be compared. Look at this,” the proctor produced another record. That was Leylin’s progress in repairing the Rapid Shadow wrist.w.a.tch. Every movement flowed like the movement of clouds, filled with a unique sense of beauty.

“He does not hesitate in the slightest before committing to every action. This youth has already grasped the techniques of 2-dimensional objects. His intuitive use of materials and his confidence are monstrous…” Bobbi bluntly put it, her words full of praise.

“Mm. Xavier and Rambo aren’t much compared to him…”

“Are you ready to directly recommend him to the empire?” Bobbi asked.

“No, the written examination is the most basic part. What we need is a talented person with keen spiritual force, sufficient willpower, and tenacity to manipulate high-ranked spells…” The proctor’s words were very reasonable. After all, there were many good examples of those with a good foundation but terrible spell execution.

“Then let’s wait and see,” Bobbi said with a smile. There was some hesitation in her heart, however. ‘This Ley… Nothing was strange about him before, and even Crowley didn’t discover anything. He has this sort of intelligence, how abnormal…”

With a desperate round of eliminations, less than a hundred candidates remained for the second. Xavier was amongst them, his face filled with curiosity and excitement as he looked all around him.

“Oh, Xavier!” Leylin arrived by his side and clapped him on the shoulders.

“Mm, Mister Ley has also pa.s.sed?” Xavier said with a smile.

“I just got lucky, haha…” Leylin scratched the back of his head and replied courteously.

“You’re too modest. Just got lucky? You topped the entire examination!” Crowley arrived, dressed in the official uniform of a proctor. The candidates made way for him.

“Brother Crowley! Let me introduce you. This is Ley… Wait, what did you just say?” Xavier suddenly seemed to feel a little dizzy.

“I said that your friend isn’t as simple as you thought. He placed first in the written examination!” Crowley smiled as he shook hands with Leylin. His eyes, however, were filled with unconcealed warning.

‘He feels rather nervous, and he has a similar bloodline aura…’ Leylin looked at Crowley then at Xavier, his smile deepening.

“Oh, this really is amazing,” Xavier made a big fuss. Crowley had to quiet him down forcefully, “Take note of the exam hall’s rules!”

‘You’re the one who disrespects the rules the most…’ Xavier protested in his mind, but he lowered his voice a little in the end.