011 Town's Exam-Grinder Li Aoz

"Hey! Rio, what are you doing?"

When Jenny saw her beloved being bullied, she quickly went to help him and asked with concern, "Are you alright, Luther? Are you hurt?"

Luther rubbed his backside, slowly straightened up, and quickly went to check his bundle. He wasn't injured, but the neatly packed herbs were all roughly wrapped together, the branches and leaves torn, and strange herbal juices seeping out, clearly damaging their appearance and quality.

"My herbs," Luther said sadly, "The dew on them is still fresh, what a pity..."

Seeing this, Jenny immediately became furious. She put down her basket, pointed at Rio, and accused him, "What's wrong with you? Do you have to take this spot?"

"This is my first time setting up a stall, can't you let me have a turn?"

Li Aoz shrugged. Seeing that even a little girl had stood up to criticize him, and in the spirit of maintaining his public persona, he crossed his arms and joked:

"Hey, why are you hiding behind a young girl? Is it because you can't speak properly, or because you don't have the guts to stand up?"

"Don't go too far! What kind of behavior is this, bullying Luther like this?" Jenny rushed up, grabbed Li Aoz's arm, and dug her sharp nails into his skin.

"None of your business." Li Aoz casually tossed Jenny aside. He was from the Frostplate Sect and treated men and women equally without any ambiguity.

"Ouch!"

Jenny was thrown outside by Li Aoz, her shoulder scraped and bleeding. The sharp pain spread instantly, and she couldn't help but bring tears to her eyes.

"Jenny!" Luther shouted angrily upon seeing this, "Rio, are you even a man? How could you hit a woman?"

"What makes you think women need protection? That's male chauvinism, a revival of patriarchal thinking. What makes you think women are a vulnerable group? That's a stereotype and implies discrimination against women."

Li Aoz showed no mercy, unleashing a set of Frostplate local boxing techniques. Luther was taken aback; although he was intelligent, his brain still momentarily froze when faced with this Frostplate specialty.

He considered his words carefully and immediately realized, "Then you can't just hit someone. If you think my location is good and want my stall, can't you reason with me and discuss it?"

"Is it possible that I was retaliating passively and that I didn't hit anyone, but just gave her a light push, and that she lost her balance and fell and got injured?"

Li Aoz shrugged, putting on an innocent expression:

"This is perfectly legitimate self-defense, don't try to frame me."

"You're clearly just making excuses!" Luther gritted his teeth, his anger rising, and charged forward, throwing a punch at Li Aoz.

Smack

Li Aoz raised his hand, casually brushed aside Luther's fist, then pried open his fingers with his other hand, pulled hard, and grabbed his index finger. With a slight press of his palm, the intense pain made Luther scream in agony.

"So what if I'm just being unreasonable?"

Li Aoz casually remarked, glancing at the combat stats—even such a weak Luther had Gamma-rank; he felt sorry for the scumbags on Azure Planet.

He pondered for a moment, and based on Rio's original background and psychology, he said sarcastically, "A carefree little brat like you, with both parents and someone to love you, is like a cream bread, soft and without any chewiness. You just rely on your sweetness and appearance to attract girls. You don't really think you're working hard, do you?"

"Uh—let go!"

Luther's face turned purple, and he felt a pang of hurt when he heard Li Aoz's words.

He has already taken the Magic Aptitude Test three times. As a student who has been studying full-time, even though his grades have improved each time, he still hasn't passed the exam. Every year he misses a year means more financial pressure for his family.

Li Aoz didn't make things difficult for him. He let go of Luther's hand, Luther quickly bent over, clutching his fingers in pain. Li Aoz immediately followed up with a kick, stomping on his stomach and sending him flying.

"Luther!" Jenny exclaimed.

"Go back to your mother and complain about your grievances. This stall is mine from now on. If you dare to come here even once, I'll beat you up. You hear me, you idiot?"

After saying this, Li Aoz sat cross-legged on the ground, closing his eyes to meditate while waiting for someone to come and buy the fox.

Luther glared hatefully at Rio's arrogant figure, his expression incredibly complex, the parts of his body still throbbing with pain from the blows.

"Luther, are you alright...?"

Jenny quickly comforted her:

"Let's not come here again. Let's go, we should go to the reading club."

"... Why is he targeting me?"

"Luther?"

"I didn't do anything!"

Luther muttered to himself, his eyes blazing with fury, and immediately rushed forward, his hands moving rapidly in various hand gestures, as if weaving some kind of pattern in the air.

" —Luther?! No, you can't use destructive magic in the village!"

"Get out of the way!"

Luther shouted, shoving through the crowd, and aimed at Li Aoz, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground. The pattern in his hand immediately took shape.

Whoosh! A violent gust of wind swept in instantly, engulfing Li Aoz in a flash, and the high-speed airflow overturned and scattered the stall on the spot.

Where did the wind come from?

"Holy crap, this is Elemental Magic! Is he trying to bury us all alive inside?"

Li Aoz sat motionless. Apart from her hair fluttering slightly, she felt no strong wind at all.

"How could this be?"

Luther was stunned and stood there frozen in place.

"[Strong Wind Assault] is a destructive spell possessed by a formally trained apprentice; how could it be completely useless—"

When he came to his senses, he saw ' Rio ', who had been sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, slowly open his eyes.

Didn't I already say that?

Li Aoz began by saying:

"If I see you again, I'll beat you up every time."

Luther's pupils contracted, and the next moment, his fist slammed into Luther's face. He rolled a few times before Jenny helped him up, apologized repeatedly, and then led him away.

"This is outrageous..." someone muttered. "Being associated with someone like this is a disgrace to our village."

"As expected, he was born of a mother but not taught by a father. Rio is incapable of taking the exam himself, so he bullies those candidates who come from wealthier families than him."

"I will definitely not buy his stuff again. Never in my life, not even in the wildest dreams."

Li Aoz's senses were keen; he could detect whispers and disdainful glances everywhere.

[Great! Judging from the reactions of those around me, my performance was very accurate; there was no OOC (Out of Character).]

Li Aoz nodded secretly. This was a good performance. People disliked him, so when he left Blue Chrysanthemum Village, no one would want to mention him, making it even harder to find fault with him.

This body will eventually return to its original owner. If it suddenly disappears, it will definitely arouse suspicion. If someone with a keen eye follows their own growth trajectory, they will eventually discover that from a certain point in time, the character ' Rio's' behavior has been inconsistent.

The main body aims to create a perfect persona to negotiate with Narrative-level Civilization. It should have as few flaws as possible, and leave the dirty and tiring work to other implanted bodies. The main body should just be an idol.

To Li Aoz's surprise, the fox was eventually sold. It seems that even a bad reputation couldn't save it from a low price of 250 Dina.

With the money in hand, Li Aoz immediately began preparations.

Players will need at least three months to enter the game. During this time, he can monitor player opinions through the forum. Many players who did not get beta access are excited about this.

People were discussing his amazing space adventure, and many realized that the Four Nations of Azure Planet were not as simple as they were portrayed, especially the GTB organization, which seemed harmless and could purchase advanced weapons and equipment—who would have thought that a bank actually monopolized the quota of extraordinary knowledge and energy from the universe?

Thanks to Li Aoz, many players became disillusioned with the Four Nations and chose to join the Outland, helping its Outland People resist the Four Nations ' encroachment and destruction.

This is undoubtedly a good thing. In their previous life, when they carried out the evacuation of immigrants before destroying the planet, the Outland was too loosely organized, and at least 30% of the people did not receive the notification and were directly destroyed in the stardust along with their home planet.

If there were more players, perhaps these unnecessary tragedies could be minimized.

250 Dina wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough for Li Aoz to buy the complete Magic Textbook. From what he understood, the Magic Aptitude Test consisted of two parts:

First is the qualification test, which will check whether you have the basic qualifications of Spellcasters and whether you can generate magic power in your body. Generating magic power is not enough, and it cannot be of the violent and disordered type. The examiner will give you several magic models, and you must pass the magic power through the pipes of the models within a specified time to pass.

Li Aoz is satisfied with this aspect. The Thanatos Human Race are basically qualified to Spellcasters. Setting up this part of the test is somewhat similar to the physical examination for college entrance examination. They are worried that there may be problems with your magic power, so that you cannot go to some special industries, such as aviation, alien colonization, medicine, alchemy, military departments, etc.

As long as you're not classified as 'disabled,' Li Aoz estimates that everyone can go to school—that's one of the good things about Interstellar Civilization; the entry requirements are relatively low.

However, if the physical examination is easy to pass, it means that the written test for the other part will be very difficult.

Li Aoz bought three textbooks that were required for the exam: "A Brief History of Magic," "Basic Principles of Magic Construction," and "Rune Formula Studies," which accounted for 70% of the exam content.

There are also two elective textbooks: "Magical Common Sense" and "Basic Worldview," which account for the remaining 30% of the questions.

Among them, no subject in the compulsory subjects can be failed. The total score is 500, and you need to get 380 points to study at the Magic Academy. If you only get a score of 300, you can only become a full-time student in the Magic Workshop. Even so, the latter is much better than the status of an ordinary magic worker.

As for how difficult these teaching materials are...

When the courier delivered the books to Li Aoz, the system immediately displayed that one of the five books was at the [Basic] level, three were at the [Advanced] level, and the book "Rune Formula Studies" was even at the [Professional] level.

If you put these things directly onto Azure Planet, the Four Nations will fight over them.