When the class president said this, there was not a trace of anger or ferocity on his face. Between his sword-like brows and starry eyes was still that signature air of righteousness.
From a distance, the students thought the class president was encouraging the underachiever ranked last in the class.
Who would have thought that Zuo Haoran had said, "You think you can get into the Undergraduate Program? In your next life!"
Meng Chao started to speak, then stopped.
Zuo Haoran continued smiling. "What, not convinced? Want to hit someone? Don't say I'm not giving you a chance to hold your head high. You're injured, so I'll give you one hand. Dare to do it, you piece of trash?"
Chu Feixiong strode over.
Zuo Haoran's eyes shifted. He patted Meng Chao on the shoulder and said loudly, "Student Meng Chao, it's your turn. Good luck! We're all behind you!"
He walked away with a smile.
His graceful bearing recovered a little of his image in the eyes of the students.
"What did Zuo Haoran say to you just now?" Chu Feixiong frowned. He knew that whenever the class president came over, nothing good was coming.
"Nothing. I'll handle it myself later. Is it my turn?" Meng Chao could not be bothered to take off his coat and slowly stretched his limbs.
"Meng Chao, go for it!"
"We're all behind you! Don't let Class 6 down!"
"Work hard, struggle on! You'll definitely get into a junior college!"
Since he had spoken up for everyone just now, the students were grateful and shouted encouragement for him.
"I'm not in good condition today." Meng Chao looked dejected.
He was not lying. He really was not in good condition.
He had worked on monsters all night yesterday and was exhausted, weak as a kitten. His old injuries had not healed either, so he could bring out at most half his strength.
The students secretly laughed. When had this kid been in good condition at any point over the last year?
"If you'd stayed behind last night and learned Super Raging Bull Force with us, that would've been great. But it's not too late to work hard now. During afternoon self-study, I'll teach you myself!" the chubby Wang Tao called out encouragingly.
He had just broken his personal record, and his confidence had exploded.
"You don't know Super Raging Bull Force?" Chu Feixiong asked quietly.
Meng Chao thought about it. If he used the Wild Bull Technique at a time like this, would that not be a bit too showy... or something?
"I've only studied the theory. I haven't put it into practice on myself yet. Super Raging Bull Force is so fierce and forceful, and my constitution is weak. I can't take it," he could only say in a low voice.
"Ah, there's only one week left. There's no time!" Chu Feixiong stamped his foot anxiously.
"Come on, Student Meng Chao is about to test his hundred-meter sprint. Everyone, applaud and cheer for him!" Zuo Haoran said loudly, taking the lead in clapping.
Scattered applause rose from all around.
Some people also came to their senses and felt that the class president was being strangely sarcastic. They did not know whether they should follow along and clap.
"I really am not in good condition. Stop clapping. The more you clap, the more panicked I get," Meng Chao said with a curl of his lip.
"Don't worry, Student Meng Chao. Everyone understands your situation. What matters most is overcoming yourself. Don't think about competing with us. If you can be even a little stronger than you were before, that's already very good." Zuo Haoran's smile was brilliant.
"Fine. My Raging Bull Force is really no good, but I've spent the past year using Ripple Force to heal my injuries. I'll try... Ripple, then?" Meng Chao muttered to himself as he stepped onto the starting line and dropped to one knee.
Most of the students did not expect much from him. They were only watching out of courtesy.
The homeroom teacher was not looking at Meng Chao either. Instead, he was bent over his tablet, happily studying how far the top students in his class were from the Rocket Class average.
Zuo Haoran, on the other hand, stood with his arms folded, wearing a half-smile.
Just then.
The wind rose.
The testing room did not even have any windows open, yet everyone felt a breeze brush across their faces.
No, it was not one gust, but wave after wave, each one higher than the last!
A startling blast of air spread from beneath Meng Chao's feet like layer upon layer of ripples.
"This is—"
The students were horrified. Following the source of the rippling waves, they discovered that Meng Chao's legs were clearly still in place, yet they looked blurred, filled with fragmented afterimages stirred up by the high-speed trembling of his muscles.
"Class president, move aside. I'm about to start," Meng Chao said flatly.
The future version of Ripple Force, Expert Level, erupted!
Whoosh!
Including Zuo Haoran, the students on both sides of the track only felt a bone-piercing gale sweep over their faces. Their eyes were stung shut, as though a tsunami had howled past them.
When they opened their eyes again, Meng Chao's feet had already devoured half the track.
"What powerful ripples!" The entire class was aghast.
The homeroom teacher jumped to his feet as well, dropping his tablet onto the floor.
Meng Chao's posture was somewhat strange. Unlike everyone else's Barbarian Bull sprint, he looked as though a huge wave were pushing him forward, effortlessly streaking out an afterimage.
"Beep beep, 9.59 seconds!"
Although he visibly slowed down in the latter half, relying on his outrageous starting speed, he still achieved a shockingly good result. He ranked third in the class, behind only Zuo Haoran and the speed-specialist "Zhao Xue Shen."
For a moment, the atmosphere was bizarrely silent.
Meng Chao gradually slowed to a stop, pinching his powerless legs as the corner of his mouth twitched.
Sure enough, he had not been showing off. He really was not in good condition.
"Damn it, this body is still too weak. A whole year of neglect can't be made up in a single day.
"9.59 seconds! My hundred-meter time is only 9.59 seconds! That's even 0.01 seconds slower than Bolt, the sprint king of the Earth Era!
"If I can't even outrun Bolt, what right do I have to apply for the Undergraduate Program?"
Meng Chao slammed his fist down hard, his face full of frustration.
Then, he noticed that the air had become rather stiff.
Looking up, he saw that everyone—including the homeroom teacher, the class president, the class beauty, and his best friend—was staring at him with mouths agape.
"What's wrong?" Meng Chao asked, puzzled.
"Your speed..." Chu Feixiong asked in disbelief.
"I know. It's pretty slow. I'm troubled by it too," Meng Chao sighed.
The students took a deep, deep breath, struggling with all their might, with great difficulty and pain, to suppress the urge to beat this show-off to death.
"Student... Student Meng Chao!"
The homeroom teacher was the first to react. He jumped three feet into the air in excitement. "Your injuries have healed?"
Heavens, Meng Chao had been first in the class throughout his first and second years of high school. If not for his severe injuries, he would absolutely have been Class 6's trump card.
If this trump card returned to health, together with Chu Feixiong and Zuo Haoran, the homeroom teacher would be set for life!
"They haven't completely healed, but I've diligently practiced Ripple Force over this past year and found some unconventional learning methods. You could say disaster had turned into a blessing?"
Meng Chao said, "If any of you need it, I can exchange ideas with everyone too. Just follow Chu Feixiong's standards and give me some Gene Serum, High-Energy Nutrient Solution, cell growth agents, monster materials, or cash instead. Anything works. I'm very easygoing."
The homeroom teacher and the students all drew a sharp breath.
Two upgraded force-generation methods—wouldn't the whole class take off?
Zuo Haoran's face, however, looked as though Meng Chao and Chu Feixiong had slapped it from both left and right with a crackling smack smack, swelling it up.
Meng Chao could not be bothered to look at him and walked straight to the Fist Strength Tester.
"Y-your Limit Fist Strength can't be as outrageous as your hundred-meter sprint too, can it?" Chu Feixiong asked.
"How is that possible? Do you take me for a monster? My fist strength is truly ordinary. Besides, I spent all last night helping my dad process monsters. Both my arms are sore, numb, swollen, and aching. They're practically useless." Meng Chao spoke honestly.
Harvesting monsters was hard physical labor, especially when one had to keep breaking down the toughest shells of armored monsters.
When encountering fragile organs such as venom sacs, one also had to work with the delicacy of a surgeon performing an operation. The muscles and nerves had to remain highly tense, which was mentally exhausting.
Right now, Meng Chao truly could barely even lift his arms.
He spent a long while regulating his breathing before finally placing his fist against the tester.
Seeing his pained expression, which did not seem feigned, everyone finally believed that his fist strength was probably truly unremarkable.
"With Meng Chao's top-three speed in the class, even if his fist strength is only 180 kilograms, as long as his shooting doesn't drag him down too badly, he'll be enough to enter the class's top ten. Ah, he has hope of passing the school test!"
After doing some calculations, the students cried out in surprise.
Going from last in the class to standing out in the school test—was that not monstrously gifted?
"Hard to say. I remember that in the last test, his Limit Fist Strength seemed to be only around 150 or 160 kilograms. That's a bit troublesome. After all, Ripple Force isn't suited for instantaneous output through the fist," someone else said, shaking his head.
Before his words had faded, Meng Chao erupted.
From his fist to his arm to his torso, everything blurred. Strength surged into the Fist Strength Tester wave upon wave, each higher than the last. There was none of the thunderous boom of Raging Bull Force punches. Instead, it was like raging waves crashing against the shore, driving layer upon layer of hidden force into the machine, stacking them higher and higher before exploding.
The value on the display rose in stages. It began at 120 kilograms, jumped to 150 kilograms, then 180 kilograms, broke through 200 kilograms, and still showed no sign of stopping. Finally, it came to a startling halt at 218 kilograms!
"..."
The students were horrified once more.
Chu Feixiong's Limit Fist Strength was 233.5 kilograms, Zuo Haoran's was 225 kilograms, and "Wu Xue Ba," another student renowned for his fist strength, had 223.6 kilograms. Meng Chao's 218 kilograms ranked fourth, even 2 kilograms higher than the chubby Wang Tao, who had learned Super Raging Bull Force and had just broken through his plateau!
More importantly, Limit Fist Strength and the hundred-meter sprint were usually like fish and bear paws—one could not have both.
Only rich second-generation heirs with abundant resources like Zuo Haoran could cultivate both.
For Strength-type students like Chu Feixiong, Wu Xue Ba, and the chubby Wang Tao, powerful Limit Fist Strength meant their speed was somewhat inferior.
For speed-types like Zhao Xue Shen, their hundred-meter sprint was excellent, but their fist strength was a little weaker.
Yet Meng Chao, like Zuo Haoran, displayed the trait of strength and speed going neck and neck. Not counting shooting, his overall results ranked second in the class, only a hair behind the class president!
"T-this is so outrageous?"
"Is Meng Chao even human? He recovered so spectacularly without making a sound, not even giving us any mental preparation. Wuwuwu, so terrifying!"
"Last year's number one in the class has returned!"
"Wuwuwu, I thought 'Wu Xue Ba' and 'Zhao Xue Shen' were the two greatest masters of showing off in Class 6. Only after meeting Meng Chao today did I understand that there are always greater people beyond people, and higher skies beyond skies. I've lost. Completely lost!"
Under the students' astonished, envious, furious stares, Meng Chao exhaled a breath of turbid air and stepped down from the Fist Strength Tester.
"Fei Xiong, I didn't lie to you, right? I really am not good at Raging Bull Force. Even the punches I throw with Ripple Force are all soft and limp, without much strength." He gave a bitter smile.
Even after using the strength of nine bulls and two tigers, his Limit Fist Strength had only reached the level of Tyson, the boxing champion of the Earth Era. Other than a bitter smile, Meng Chao could not squeeze out a second expression.
"..."
Chu Feixiong took a deep breath, then suddenly raised his hand. "Reporting to Teacher Wang, could you please step outside for five minutes? I want to beat Meng Chao!"
The entire class raised their hands with a whoosh. "We want to beat Meng Chao too! Beat this show-off to death!"