26: Chapter 26 The Exam Begins: A Test by a Ninth-Tier Powerhouse?

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu took a deep breath and lowered his head.

"When you make a fool of yourself in front of the entire internet—don't blame me for not warning you."

He turned and strode back toward the queue. His back looked a bit weary in the morning breeze.

In the corner, Su Bai resealed Kyubey back into its card. With a flash of pink and black light, the ragdoll cat obediently shrank back into that pink magic card.

[Su Bai, he seems to care about you quite a bit.]

"Mm."

[But his emotional state is very unstable. If you need, I can help him calm down—for example, by directly turning him into a soul gem. Once he loses his physical body, his emotional fluctuations will drop to zero.]

"Don't do anything."

[Understood.]

Su Bai put away the card and walked out from behind the bus.

At the corner, he ran into someone.

Lin Xiao was leaning against the side of the bus; she had already returned the Han Shuang, the Master of the Ice Prison longbow to its card. She held her phone, and the screen displayed the chat interface of the three-person mutual aid group—she typed a line of text, deleted it, and repeated the process over and over.

"What are you doing here?" Su Bai was slightly surprised.

"It's too stuffy on the bus, and I wanted to see what Deputy Commander Zhou Mu was up to." Lin Xiao put away her phone. "Deputy Commander Zhou Mu's expression was really scary just now. What card did he stuff into your hand?"

"Blazing Staff, a D-rank card."

Lin Xiao hummed, "This is the school's safety net card. After all, this Monthly Exam is too high-profile; it's to ensure students with poor grades don't embarrass themselves. Although the school says they will eliminate the bottom-ranked students and send them to the battlefield, it's mostly just intimidation.

However... if you're really worried that no one can test the Magical Girl, using this safety card isn't bad. Later, you can reveal that Spatial Circuit of yours. Both Zhao Dahai and I will vouch for you, and getting a B-rank evaluation will be more than enough. A B-rank is already enough to get quite a few signing invitations."

Su Bai thought for a moment. "But what I made is SSS-rank."

Lin Xiao fell silent for a beat, and then a tic mark appeared on her forehead. It hardened. Her fist hardened!

"...Are you serious?"

"Serious."

Lin Xiao looked at Su Bai. Then she stuffed her hands into her uniform pockets and turned to walk toward the bus. She walked a few steps and then turned back.

"Zhao Dahai is still waiting in the queue. He almost rushed up to fight Li Haoran earlier, so I stepped on his foot. Comfort him when you go back; this guy is about to explode with anger."

Su Bai couldn't help but chuckle.

"Boss, shouldn't you control your strength when you step on people?"

"...Don't call me Boss!!!"

Lin Xiao walked away quickly without looking back, the tips of her ears slightly red.

On the bus, everyone returned to their seats.

Zhao Dahai sat by the window, his chubby face flushed red. Seeing Su Bai return, he immediately leaned in and lowered his voice, "Su Bai, are you okay? That dog, Li Haoran—"

"Calm down. Fatty, calm down." Su Bai pressed down on his shoulder. "In the upcoming Monthly Exam, let your results do the talking."

Zhao Dahai gritted his teeth and slammed his mace heavily onto the floor. "Fine. I believe in you. Even though that cat of yours looks cute—it's definitely a beast. Otherwise, I'd be the first one not to believe it."

"Why are you suddenly so confident?"

"Because I just saw with my own eyes a ragdoll cat asking a forty-two-year-old retired veteran in public if he wanted to be a Magical Girl—and it even had transformation BGM prepared for him."

Zhao Dahai's expression was extremely complicated. "Although I can't understand the circuit of that card, if nothing else—just based on that audacity, your cat is not simple."

Su Bai was speechless and thought for a moment. "By the way, aren't we taking the exam nearby? What's the use of the bus?"

Zhao Dahai shook his head. "I don't know."

Seeing this, Lin Xiao sighed, "You'll know soon enough."

"Oh?" Su Bai was actually quite curious about this.

Soon, Deputy Commander Zhou Mu got back on the bus. Seeing everyone in their seats, he cleared his throat and said, "Sit tight, we're ready to depart!"

As he finished speaking, the bus slowly moved forward. Su Bai looked out the window and discovered that the bus wasn't heading toward a road or anything like that, but toward the center of the plaza.

...They can't be planning to charge into the center of the plaza, right? Just as Su Bai thought this. Boom!

The space in front of them suddenly fluctuated, and a brilliant gate appeared out of thin air, swallowing the entire bus.

Instantly, the inside of the bus shook. Su Bai only saw the scenery outside the window begin to distort rapidly. In the blink of an eye, the surrounding space had completely changed.

Skyscrapers dozens to thousands of meters high stood before them. A single billboard looked like it was dozens of meters tall. Everything nearby was so huge and terrifying. Su Bai soon saw that beside the distant podium, the vice principal, also dozens of meters tall, stood up and cleared his throat.

"The 237th Armament Card Monthly Exam—"

"Chief Examiner: 9th-tier Supreme, Founder of Spacetime Theory, Master Li Qingyue!"

Thunderous applause. All the students in the venue were stunned.

"What's going on? Is this the land of giants? Did we come to the land of giants!?"

"It's not the land of giants; it's that we've shrunk!"

"This is a Rank 9 card, Mustard Seed Containing Mount Sumeru! My god, I've only ever heard rumors about the power of this card. I never expected to encounter it today..."

"What!?" Mustard Seed Containing Mount Sumeru? A Rank 9 card? Su Bai's pupils constricted slightly upon hearing this.

In other words, they were currently inside a card?

The vice principal seemed to have anticipated the students' panic and smiled faintly. "Students, there is no need to be nervous. This Monthly Exam is different from previous ones. Master Li Qingyue has activated a spatial card to specially open up an exam venue for you. Within the exam venue, everything will be under Master Li Qingyue's control. Now, I will continue to introduce the other teachers."

"Assistant Examiner: Rank 7 Card Creator Grandmaster · Vice President of the Jinghai Cardmaker Association, Vice President Wu Molin!"

"Assistant Examiner: Abyss 7th Legion, Minister of the Armament Evaluation Department, Colonel Tie He!"

The names of the three examiners echoed over the plaza. Holographic projection towers magnified their faces so that the entire plaza could see them clearly.

On the holographic projection screen, Li Qingyue's face was magnified to the height of a five-story building. That youthful face, appearing to be about twelve or thirteen years old, featured a pair of cold, crimson eyes, and her long silver hair rippled with faint spatial distortions on the holographic screen. She looked at the dense crowd below and curled the corners of her mouth slightly.

That smile, embedded on a loli face—yet it had not a shred of cuteness to it. It was as cold as the permafrost glaciers at the edge of the abyss.

"Let's begin," she said softly. As her voice fell, Deputy Commander Zhou Mu immediately led everyone off the bus and quickly guided them to familiarize themselves with the entire environment.

In the exam waiting area, Su Bai found a corner and sat down. Zhao Dahai plopped down on his left, and Lin Xiao sat on his right. The three sat in a row, like prisoners waiting for roll call before execution.

"By the way, I just thought of a question," Zhao Dahai suddenly said. "How will your cat be tested?"

Su Bai was silent for a beat. "...You're only thinking of this now?"

"Duh, I was too busy being angry earlier!" Zhao Dahai widened his eyes. "I mentioned it in the group chat before, but until now, it seems you haven't found a suitable test subject, right? You can't exactly ask Master Li Qingyue to test it for you, right?"

Lin Xiao calmly followed up, "The problem is that once signed, one will turn into a soul gem. No one will risk their life just to help you test."

Su Bai buried his face in his palms. Here we go again. This topic.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." He finally squeezed out an answer that had absolutely no practical meaning.

Zhao Dahai patted his shoulder sympathetically. "Brother, no matter what, you were able to say 'I'll have a use for it later' right in front of Li Haoran today—just based on that one sentence, you are already SSS-rank in my heart."

Lin Xiao nodded, for once. "Although I don't want to admit it. But it's true. It was quite cool."

"Can you guys stop talking in such a farewell tone? It's not like I'm going to die."

"Pretty much." The two said in unison. Su Bai: "..."

The exam venue's broadcast suddenly sounded. "The 237th Armament Card Monthly Exam, officially begins. Will the first contestant—"

"Wait." Li Qingyue's voice suddenly interrupted everyone. "For the first round, I will test it personally."