177: True 288

“Gulp.”

Someone, no one knew who, swallowed with difficulty, the sound of his Adam's apple bobbing so loud in the extreme quiet it was like a drumbeat.

“Tea… Team Leader…”

The Young Teacher’s voice was dry and trembling. He pointed at the screen, his finger shaking like a leaf in the autumn wind, “Is… isn’t this… a misplaced decimal point?”

No one answered him.

Because everyone saw very clearly that it was a complete integer, without any decimal points.

“System error!”

The Man with Gold-Rimmed Glasses suddenly stood up, his chair scraping backward with a harsh sound.

He adjusted his glasses and said decisively, “It must be a system error! The College Entrance Examination system has been running for hundreds of years, and a bug of this level has never appeared! How could the difficulty coefficient for a solo mission break two digits?!”

His words were like a stone thrown into stagnant water, instantly stirring up a thousand ripples.

“Right! It must be an error!”

“I knew it! Two hundred and eighty-eight stars, what kind of international joke is that?!”

“Quick! Contact the technical department! Tell them to investigate immediately! If this gets out, our entire Ministry of Education will become a laughingstock!”

The conference room instantly erupted.

Panic, doubt, and a sense of absurdity intertwined, with “this is unscientific” written all over everyone’s faces.

Only the old team leader, the white-haired old professor, remained in his seat.

He didn’t speak, just stared intently at the name “Lin Yu” on the screen.

He was just talking about him… The old team leader slowly raised his hand and, amidst the noisy discussions, pressed a red button on the table.

That was an internal emergency communicator, directly connected to the highest supervisor of the technical department.

“This is Teacher Gao Zhengguo.”

The old professor’s voice was calm, terrifyingly calm.

“Question-setting department conference room. Check a candidate’s data, highest authority.”

“Name, Lin Yu.”

He announced the name, and the entire conference room instantly fell silent again. Everyone held their breath, watching him nervously.

The other end of the phone seemed to be operating rapidly. A few seconds later, a puzzled reply came.

The old team leader listened, the wrinkles on his face unmoving.

“Difficulty coefficient, two hundred and eighty-eight stars. Is there any abnormality in the data?”

The other end of the phone fell silent.

A long, suffocating silence.

Everyone in the conference room could hear the frantic beating of their own hearts.

Finally, a voice came from the other end of the phone, incredibly hoarse, as if squeezed out with all his might.

“…Old Gao, the data… is normal. All checks passed, logical consistency, system judgment… valid.”

Valid.

“Clang!”

The old team leader hung up the communication.

He looked up and surveyed the petrified faces in the conference room.

“It’s not a bug.”

He said, enunciating each word clearly.

“The data is real.”

Boom!

If the previous discussion was a commotion, now, the entire conference room had completely turned into a boiling oil pot.

“Real?! How is this possible?!”

The Man with Gold-Rimmed Glasses was the first to exclaim, “The calculation formula! Bring up his calculation formula! I want to see how this damned number was calculated!”

“It’s up!” The Young Teacher had already finished operating. He pointed at the screen, his voice changing pitch, “Basic mission, nine stars… he chose a nine-star mission in solo mode!”

“Solo nine stars? Is he crazy?!”

“Not just that! Look at his individual difficulty correction coefficient… thirty-two times! A full thirty-two times!”

“Nine multiplied by thirty-two… equals two hundred and eighty-eight… Holy crap! The formula is fine! There’s something wrong with him!”

“A thirty-two times correction coefficient? What kind of monster is this? What was the highest record in history again?”

“Thirteen times! That was the record set by the ‘Sword Saint’ thirty years ago! Thirty-two times… Is this even human data?!”

The entire question-setting team, these old hands who had seen countless geniuses and prodigies and believed their hearts were as still as water, completely lost their composure at this moment.

They were like primitive people seeing a car for the first time, surrounding the “288” and uttering exclamations of unknown meaning.

The Young Teacher’s finger was still trembling. He unconsciously scrolled down the list, wanting to see what kind of immortals were ranked below Lin Yu.

Then, he froze.

Second line:

Applicant: Zhao Tianyang.

Mission Type: Solo.

Mission Difficulty: Nine Stars.

Third line:

Applicant: Lin Yao.

Mission Type: Solo.

Mission Difficulty: Nine Stars.

“…”

The Young Teacher opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.

Solo nine stars.

In any previous year, this would have been top news, enough to ignite all media and cause major universities to fight over candidates.

It was a legend among legends.

But now… above these two names, beneath that blood-red “288.”

These two unremarkable “nine stars” seemed so… unpretentious.

“What year… is this exactly?” a female teacher murmured to herself, “First five solo challengers, then a two-hundred-and-eighty-eight-star… Is the world changing?”

The Man with Gold-Rimmed Glasses plopped back into his chair. He felt his worldview being repeatedly crushed, reassembled, and then crushed again in a matter of minutes.

“Two hundred and eighty-eight stars… How do we set questions for this? What do we use to test him?”

This question, like a basin of ice water, was poured over everyone’s heads.

Yes.

How to test?

A nine-star mission was already extraordinary. As a test escort team, it usually required a well-equipped, well-coordinated elite team of five, with extensive intelligence and resource support from the rear, to reasonably set the questions.

Two hundred and eighty-eight stars… What kind of concept was that?

Throw a meteorite into the examination room?

Or release an ancient god sealed in another dimension to let him wander around?

“Reject! It must be rejected!” a teacher stood up excitedly, “This is not an examination at all! This is a death wish! We cannot approve it!”

“It can’t be rejected.” The Man with Gold-Rimmed Glasses pushed up his glasses, his eyes behind the lenses dull, “Article 3, Section 7 of the ‘College Entrance Examination Implementation Regulations’ states that the question-setting team must design the corresponding assessment environment according to the candidate’s finally confirmed difficulty coefficient, and shall not reject or artificially lower the difficulty for any reason.”

“This is to prevent rent-seeking and ensure absolute fairness!”

“But how the hell is this fair?! This is not a task that humans can accomplish at all!”

“But rules are rules!”

The conference room erupted into a quarrel, divided into two factions.

One faction believed that the sanctity of the rules must be upheld.

The other faction believed that this had already exceeded the scope of the rules and was an emergency that needed to be dealt with.

Just then, a strong smell of tobacco suddenly permeated the air.

Everyone stopped arguing in unison, following the scent.

They saw the old team leader, Teacher Gao Zhengguo, at the head of the table, pulling out a crumpled pack of cigarettes from somewhere and lighting one with trembling hands.