"What... S... S... S... SSS-Rank?"
The announcement shocked everyone present.
In the hall, a boy who had just finished his assessment and received only a C-Rank rating had his mouth open wide enough to fit an egg inside.
He rubbed his ears hard, then turned to his companion, stammering as he spoke.
"What's wrong with you? I don't remember you having a stutter!" his companion asked in confusion.
"What stutter? Didn't you hear? The announcement just said Lin Luoluo got an SSS-Rank rating!"
"What?! Three S's? You've got to be kidding! Wasn't S-Rank supposed to be the highest rating?"
"How should I know? But that's what the announcement said!"
As the last notes of the announcement faded, the assessment center's hall instantly erupted.
Everyone who had heard the announcement, without exception, was stunned.
Questions, cries of surprise, and disbelieving discussions broke out on all sides.
"SSS-Rank? What kind of rating is that? When did the Federation's assessment system get an upgrade?"
"It has to be fake! The announcement system must have malfunctioned! How could someone who contracted a Slime get an SSS-Rank rating?"
"Exactly! Geniuses like Chu Feng and Hu Yue'er came out looking like dead dogs. What gives someone in a wheelchair the right to get it?"
Even Liu De, the town mayor standing nearby, had no idea what had happened!
He knew Lin Luoluo well.
Because of her family's circumstances, she hadn't received extensive, expensive professional training from a young age like children from well-off families.
She had even less money to buy items that could help a Contract Spirit fight.
What was more, she had contracted a Slime, a Contract Spirit widely recognized as ornamental.
Although it was a mutant, Liu De thought that, with Jiang Ruoxue deliberately targeting her, coming out of the assessment room safely would already have been an enormous stroke of luck.
After all, Chu Feng's example was right before them: he had come out with only half his life left!
Yet now the announcement said that Lin Luoluo had actually received an SSS-Rank rating?
Liu De racked his brains but couldn't make sense of it.
Could this be another of Jiang Ruoxue's schemes? Was she using this to humiliate Lin Luoluo? But what would be the point?
Or was the announcement system really malfunctioning, as the people around him were saying?
He instinctively looked toward the VIP seats.
With a single glance, most of Liu De's doubts vanished, replaced by an indescribable sense of hope and satisfaction.
Jiang Ruoxue's face, which had previously worn an elegant smile, had now gone completely dark.
She stood there stiffly, the corners of her mouth twitching incessantly.
Seeing her like this, Liu De felt a strong surge of hope.
Could it... be true?
Just then, Liu De suddenly remembered something and slapped his thigh.
"That's right! Luoluo has an S-Rank talent! Could her talent have kicked in?!"
Jiang Ruoxue's mind went blank.
The rating was... SSS-Rank!
How was that possible?
How could this be possible?!
She stared fixedly at the three dazzling letters, SSS, beside Lin Luoluo's portrait on the big screen, feeling as though her worldview was collapsing.
Just then, the communicator on her wrist suddenly vibrated violently.
The piercing ringtone jolted her out of her daze.
She looked down to see the word "Father" flashing on the screen.
With a trembling hand, she pressed the answer button.
"Ruoxue!" Her father's voice came from the other end, more urgent than she had ever heard it.
"I heard a genius got an SSS-Rank rating in today's assessment! When did a monster like that appear in our Underground City?!"
Jiang Ruoxue's lips moved, but before she had decided how to answer,
Jiang Yuanfeng continued pressing her urgently from the other end of the call:
"Xiaoxue, I remember you took the assessment today too, right?"
"Go make contact with this genius immediately."
"At all costs, you must successfully recruit her into our Jiang Family! This is the family's highest directive. Do you understand?!"
"Even in the Upper City, geniuses of this caliber are extremely rare. Since one has appeared in our Underground City, we absolutely can't let her slip away!"
"The other factions certainly won't let her go either. You go make contact first; I'll be there shortly!"
"Beep... beep... beep..."
It was clear that Jiang Yuanfeng was extremely excited and elated.
Jiang Ruoxue held the disconnected communicator, her gaze vacant.
An SSS-Rank genius? Where had an SSS-Rank genius come from? Wasn't she the only S-Rank participant in today's assessment, the one who had taken first place?
But then an absurd thought sprang to mind.
The SSS-Rank genius Father was talking about... surely it couldn't be Lin Luoluo!
What an outrageous joke!
She was just a cripple who had contracted a useless Slime and couldn't even move her legs! Just a piece of trash who struggled even to get by! What gave her the right?!
How could she possibly be SSS-Rank?
"There must be something wrong with the equipment!" Jiang Ruoxue clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her palms. She didn't even notice the blood seeping out.
The trap she had laid for Lin Luoluo in this assessment flashed through her mind.
It was so difficult that even she couldn't have made it through. She refused to believe Lin Luoluo could really have passed it without a hitch!
"I was clearly the one who took first place in this assessment!"
"I'm going to expose her trick! I'll expose that fraud in front of everyone!"
Mad with rage, her eyes bloodshot, Jiang Ruoxue completely overlooked the fact that she alone had brought about the inconceivable scene before her.
"Look, the door's opening!"
Someone in the crowd shouted.
"Come on, hurry up and see what's happening! We'll find out right away whether the system malfunctioned!"
"Right, right! Let's see if that Lin Luoluo has lost an arm or a leg!"
Soon, unable to contain their curiosity and egged on by the crowd, a large group of people surged toward the entrance to the corridor leading to Assessment Room Three, blocking it so tightly that not even water could have trickled through.
Jiang Ruoxue followed them. Her brain had stopped working normally, and she moved almost entirely with the flow of people.
She wanted to see for herself. She wanted to see what trick that piece of trash had pulled!
Amid the crowd's chatter and shocked gazes, the heavy metal door of Assessment Room Three was slowly pushed open from within.
"Xiao Bai, I heard that once you're certified as a First Tier Star-Hidden Contract Spirit Master, you can get a subsidy of 100 silver coins every month! What do you want to eat tonight? I'll make something tasty for you and Chuchu!"
"There's a subsidy too? Nice, nice... But surely we won't spend that much just buying ingredients?
"With the money left over, why don't we buy you and Chuchu a few new outfits?"
"But..."
"No buts. We'll have more money than we can ever spend sooner or later anyway, so it's settled."
Bai Chen, who had returned to his Slime form, bounced his way out. There was a comfortable hollow in his springy, soft body, and Lin Luoluo sat securely inside it, in an extraordinarily good mood.
But the moment they pushed the door open, they came face-to-face with a solid wall of people.
Dozens of people, some assessment participants and others merely onlookers, craned their necks with all manner of expressions, staring fixedly at them as though they were monsters.
"What the heck?!"
Bai Chen was startled by the sight, his body stiffening for a moment.
"S-so many people!"
Lin Luoluo's delicate body trembled, and the smile that had just been on her face instantly froze. Her social anxiety had flared up again.
So embarrassed that she didn't know where to look, she wished she could immediately shrink into Bai Chen's body and hide herself away.