21: Chapter 21 Final Exam

The cultural subject final exams required the use of classrooms, and morning self-study was canceled.

Whether at home or at school, the competition was merely over a fleeting moment of light and shadow.

He quietly finished breakfast and returned to his desk, opening his books again.

The morning light outside the window outlined his profile on the pages.

[You study diligently for one hour, scholar experience + 6]

[Profession: Scholar Lv3 (229 → 235 / 400)]

...

"Hoo~" He let out a long breath of stale air and closed his book.

The time was calculated down to the second.

It was time to go to school.

Outside the Senior Three teaching building of Qingshi No. 3 Middle School, the intelligent security gate scanned silently, flashing a green light.

Li Wen almost rushed into the designated examination classroom right at the tail end of the last group of people.

As soon as he stepped through the doorway, the air still held the lingering echo of voices settling down; the invigilating teacher was distributing the thick answer sheets down the rows.

Just as he received the pure white answer sheet belonging to him, the examination paper, emitting the smell of ink, also landed on his desk.

"Jingle bells—!"

The sharp ring sounded like an attacking bugle call, abruptly tearing away the last bit of restlessness in the classroom.

Chinese examination.

Only one hundred and twenty minutes.

Li Wen placed his hand on the exam paper, his eyes sweeping downward like a hawk’s.

His target was locked in the first instant—all the foundational questions.

The rustling sound of his pen tip meeting the paper immediately became the main theme at his seat.

He entered a state like an efficiency machine: read the question, put pen to paper, fill in the answer.

Fill-in-the-blanks, memorization of ancient poems, basic reading comprehension... all the territories he was determined to conquer were taken down one by one at a steady pace.

The major questions requiring extensive time for entanglement and the obscure interpretations of classical Chinese were cleanly bypassed.

Time flew silently under his pen tip.

Forty minutes later, the desk was swept clean, leaving only a blank composition answer sheet.

Writing the composition—this was the only fortress and the only remaining stabilizer for the past Li Wen.

For argumentative essays, success relied on accumulated standard materials and neat handwriting to secure a safe, unremarkable score.

He took a deep breath and put down his pen.

His speed was deliberately controlled, striving for every character to be square and dignified.

"...The blade is sharp, yet its existence resides within the heart. If the heart holds a thousand fathoms, the edge is unmatched; if the ambition pierces the sun and moon, the blade can cleave the heavens..."

The eight-hundred-character argumentative essay on martial arts and ambition unfolded smoothly.

When the final period fell, exactly ninety minutes had elapsed.

Half an hour remained blank.

He put down his pen, his knuckles slightly stiff from continuous tension.

His gaze drifted toward the 'area yet to be conquered'—the bypassed major questions that required deeper knowledge and understanding to ascend.

Deep in his forehead, that familiar dull ache quietly resurfaced.

Absolute Focus was like a trump card yet to be played, but it was already overdrawing chips in advance.

Math: thirty minutes! Chinese, Foreign Language, History... every subject: fifteen minutes! The plan had been repeatedly refined in his mind.

The time used at the limit far exceeded the safety red line of one hundred minutes.

But what he was gambling on was the rest period between exams—especially that lunch break—and the potential for physical recovery.

"...Hiss! —"

The sharp whistle, like an ice pick, suddenly pierced the anxiety and restlessness gradually brewing and fermenting in the classroom!

The fifteen-minute countdown began.

The whistle had not stopped, but Li Wen’s eyes abruptly closed, and then snapped open moments later!

"Activate—Absolute Focus!"

The world disappeared!

The sound waves, the light and shadow, the dust motes in the air, the hurried breaths of nearby examinees... everything sank into an unfathomable sea of silence.

The center of his vision was occupied only by that exam paper and the mission to fill the blanks on the answer sheet.

The coordinates of the difficult problems, which he had previewed long ago, now transformed into the clearest input coordinates within his high-speed thinking processor.

Susu! Susu! Susu!

The pen tip raced across the answer sheet, the friction sound merging into one continuous noise; it was no longer writing, but a precise and swift output of commands.

The final two analysis questions for reading comprehension, the tricky translations of specific and abstract words in classical Chinese, the interpretation of deep imagery in ancient poetry... all the empty fortresses retreated in the face of his high-speed analysis, interpretation, and information integration storm, being crushed one by one under the firm strokes of the pen.

"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! —Exam over! Everyone stand up! Stop answering!"

The cold broadcast command and the sharp ending bell sounded like heavy hammers, instantly shattering the absolute silence barrier he had constructed.

Tap.

The pen tip left the answer sheet the moment the last punctuation mark was set, rolling onto the desk with a light sound.

Li Wen stood up with a calm expression, lowered his eyes, and strictly followed protocol, stacking the exam paper, answer sheet, and scratch paper neatly, from most important to least important.

Lifting his head, his gaze swept over Wei Wu, who had just turned his head in surprise in the row ahead.

That face expressing surprise with the words "Finished the paper?" left no trace in his heart.

He picked up the only document bag on the desk, his gaze fixed straight ahead toward the glaring sunlight filtering in through the classroom door.

Chinese was only the beginning.

The long battle of the remaining five subjects and six papers was about to commence, the battle drums were already beating.

...

Galaxy Calendar, Year 226, January 10th.

The morning sunlight sprinkled over the plaza of Qingshi No. 3 Middle School, but it could not dispel the excitement and restlessness lingering in the air.

The last day before the Senior Three winter break had finally arrived.

However, for the dense crowd of Senior Three students sitting on the plaza, divided by class, the allure of the vacation was far less than the main event about to begin—the Martial Arts Skill Assessment.

This was the day that every single one of them, whether a "Martial Student" aiming for the Martial Arts College Entrance Exam or a "Scholar Student" specializing in cultural subjects, had been eagerly anticipating.

It wasn't because the vacation was in sight, but because this would be their only opportunity in months to fight without restraint and to their heart's content.

Unlike the cautious, light-touch practice sessions on regular days, where they feared injuring classmates or themselves.

Here, within the projection of the virtual world, injury and death were merely cold System notifications that had no effect on their real bodies.

The long-suppressed Battle Intent and accumulated techniques finally had an outlet for release.

To ensure absolute fairness, just like the cultural subject assessment, every student faced standardized virtual enemies uniformly generated by the Central System.

The only difference was swapping the exam papers in their hands for the flashing swords and shadows in the virtual world.

The virtual pods, valued at hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands each, were limited to only four rooms in Qingshi No. 3 Middle School.

The entire Senior Three grade, comprising nearly a thousand students across twenty-one classes, obviously could not undergo the assessment simultaneously; staggered assessment had become the norm.

Thus, a special school rule also emerged—the remaining batches of students would gather on the plaza and watch the real-time live broadcast of the students currently being assessed on the super-large screen erected prominently in the center.

This served both to pass the time and as an invisible spur: no one wanted to lose face in front of the entire school faculty and student body.

The plaza was bustling with noise, almost everyone discussing the imminent slaughter.