114: Aoz Yinggao Falls from Grace

After a week of classes, Li Aoz's Credits lived up to expectations, successfully dropping to -121. Now, his legend spread throughout the entire freshman year. Almost everyone knew that a good-for-nothing freshman had lost over a hundred Credits in just one week, breaking the school's 400-year history record for the fastest loss.

The young nobleman from the Morodia family who had previously mocked Li Aoz— was his name Andy or Anya again? In any case, he didn't even glance at Li Aoz when he passed by afterward.

To others, Li Aoz's rapid deduction of points in such a short period of time completely exposed his weakness, and many even questioned Li Aoz admission scores.

On the bright side, since Li Aoz's Credits had all gone into the negative, naturally no one came to challenge him to a duel.

Of course, this can't go on forever.

His Credits kept being deducted, while the scores of other students were generally on the rise. As the knowledge gap between students widened and the subsequent courses became more and more advanced, even Hobbes and Lucite would eventually be unable to take care of him.

This is unavoidable; the Negative Effect of the [Echo] are quite severe, and no matter how much Li Aoz studies, he cannot integrate the knowledge.

The Magical Application Academy barely managed its students, but it was extremely strict with grades and teaching. After copying his classmates' homework for two days, Li Aoz was discovered by the professor and reprimanded. Li Aoz then had to rely on repeated machine translation to complete his assignments.

Li Aoz's unusual behavior was quickly reported to the education department, and executives Barkomon and Atkesz were also suspicious after seeing it.

"Could it be that he really cheated on his entrance exams?" Atkesz couldn't help but wonder. "But that essay..."

"Yes, you can cheat on multiple-choice questions, but how do you answer subjective questions?"

Barkomon unsealed Li Aoz's exam paper and, after rereading it, reached the same conclusion:

"Lioz possesses divinity, that much is beyond doubt."

"Now that you've confirmed that, I have an idea: perhaps the divine side was just a chance occurrence during the exam. This is Lioz's normal state now..."

Before Atkesz could finish speaking, Barkomon impatiently interrupted him:

"But how do you explain Lioz's outstanding performance in Valenkov? According to our information, in the attack on the Vanlenkov Autonomous State, the Verrazzi Company lost 24 senior managers, and even the 'Crown Prince' Andrew Verrazzi, who came to inspect, was threatened. One warship was dismantled, the entire crew of two warships were disabled, and even the Verrazzi Building in Valenkov was destroyed."

Barkomon rubbed his head, looking troubled.

"I admit that there must have been some distortions and exaggerations in the process of spreading this information, but the vast majority of the information is true. Verrazzi even compiled a detailed report on the economic losses. You can question the strength of the party who attacked, but why would the party who was attacked belittle their opponent? Doesn't that make them look even weaker?"

Atkesz choked back tears.

In fact, this contradictory fact is inevitably discovered whenever the problem of Lioz is discussed.

On the one hand, his performance in the exam was astonishing and greatly encouraged the Ministry of Education; on the other hand, after returning from Valenkov, Lioz never showed anything particularly remarkable again.

"I think Lioz is definitely hiding something."

Atkesz, then said:

"The monitor's report reads: (Lioz) He was well aware of and cooperated with our plan, keeping a low profile. But he never showed anything different from ordinary people again, and even his progress on the path stagnated at the Gamma-rank level."

"He's only at the Gamma-rank now?"

"The level of one's progress in the Dao can be directly detected using biological frequencies. As you know, there are almost no ways to conceal or forge such frequency signals."

Barkomon crossed his arms and fell into deep thought.

After a long while, he shook his head, as if he had figured something out:

"I have always believed in my judgment, but... perhaps it really was just a subtle coincidence."

"What do we do now?"

"What else can we do? With his current grades, it probably won't be long before this epic bottom of the class is expelled from school. Stop monitoring Lioz. Put our manpower into something meaningful."

With a wave of his hand, Barkomon projected a magical image, Li Aoz's student file was instantly replaced with that of a blonde, golden-eyed dragon-blooded girl:

"Fortunately, we have more than one option. Besides Lioz, White Candle Star has attracted many talents from the Crystal Tower Civilization to join us— Atkesz, we will do our best to train and educate them. Five years later, I will personally lead the team to inspect them."

Atkesz's heart sank as he stared at his superior, his gaze wavering. "Sir, so you're finally going to launch that plan after all...?"

"We had no choice. The Galaxy Eye Campaign was a complete meat grinder. We needed to deploy a decisive weapon that could break the balance to change the fate of this war."

Barkomon raised his hand, gazing at the distorted space and light in his palm, his eyes resolute. "Five years from now, I will lead the elite students of White Candle Star to descend into the Abyss, break through the shackles and boundaries, and receive the blessing."

"Thanks to Sage Merylville's improvements to the magic circle output formula, we are now able to discard outdated staves and foolish, tattered robes. Semi-automatic magic firearms, such as revolvers, bolt-action rifles, and Crystal Armor, have become standard equipment for modern mages. However, you should note that staves have not completely disappeared from the historical stage. In many places, staves are still a practical weapon... That's all for now. Class dismissed. I hope you all have a pleasant weekend."

After the large lecture on Saturday ended, Li Aoz packed up his study materials. He had already earned enough Credits for the Hobbes and Lucite course and went to take the elective, leaving him alone to attend this general education course.

Just as Li Aoz turned to leave, the professor on the podium suddenly shouted:

"Although most students don't have this worry, this old man still wants to reiterate: next Monday's test will determine whether you pass or fail this course. If some people try to get a passing grade by doing a few group assignments, then I can only say: welcome to retake the test."

The students next to Li Aoz immediately burst into laughter, and everyone's eyes turned to him.

Clearly, he is one of the people the professor was referring to.

"That kid? The one who lost over a hundred Credits in a week?"

"He must have cheated on the exam to get into this school. He can't hide it anymore now."

"With such a handsome face, who knows how he got in? Heh, some people pull strings and use back channels, while others actually get in through connections..."

Li Aoz didn't care about this. After a week of hard thinking, he had already fixed the practice of seeing that Walkthrough in his mind. It was information that a certain bumbling self-media had dug up during version 3.16.

"The information is still a bit vague. I need more specific details... I'll have to seek help from potions."

Fortunately, he had been inquiring about information such as deep memory extraction all week, and he had already made an appointment with someone this afternoon. He planned to skip class to meet the other party.

As he passed the tables behind him, three frivolous students, seeing that he was alone, immediately hatched a wicked plan and got up to follow him.

"How about we tease this kid a bit?"

"I'm actually a bit scared of that Armored Species Catfish People usually."

"What are you afraid of? Didn't you see during the practical lesson that he couldn't even cast a magic missile?!"

The three followed closely behind, Li Aoz ignored everything and walked on by himself. One of the students called out to him.

"Hey, Bai Fumei."

He walked on, pondering how to conduct the negotiations, completely unaware that someone was calling to him from behind, and continued walking. Seeing that Li Aoz didn't react at all, the three men immediately became angry, jogging up behind Li Aoz Li Aoz grabbing his shoulders:

"I'm calling you, are you deaf?!"

Before his hand could land on his shoulder, Li Aoz suddenly stopped.

Just then, Li Aoz reached the doorway and a strong, overwhelming force hit him, like a raging flood, immediately catching Li Aoz attention.

He looked up and immediately saw a horrific scene: about twenty students lay sprawled on the ground, the surrounding air filled with violent magical energy radiation, and the surging heat was melting the earth, dragging several students deep into the molten iron lava—only those with an average Gamma-rank aptitude managed to survive.

This is already a result of the perpetrators showing leniency.

Even so, their bodies were almost entirely burned to a crisp, their skin torn and bleeding, and the air was filled with a strong smell of rotten chicken fat and charcoal, which was quite terrifying.

The culprit in this incident was grabbing the neck of an ignorant Spellcasters. The opponent struggled fiercely, stabbing wildly with his magic dagger, but could not pierce the seemingly delicate and tender skin. Each time the blade collided with the faint dragon scale patterns on the skin, it only produced brilliant sparks, but had no other consequences.

"Ugh—you monster—"

What a joke! Twenty-one Gamma-rank mages couldn't even break her skin.

The Spellcasters was lifted above the girl's head, his body engulfed in flames, his fear evident in his expression. His persistent yet feeble resistance was futile under the grip that was even more merciless than that of a golem.

"Don't demonize the enemy to excuse yourself because you're too weak."

Dia Lan casually tossed the student aside as if he were trash, completely unconcerned about the stares of the crowd. Sensing something, however, he turned his head slightly, his gaze meeting that of Li Aoz, who was walking out of the teaching building.

"Hey!" Li Aoz greeted casually, "What a coincidence, you're in this class too."

Although he had only met the other person twice, it was still appropriate to greet them out of politeness.

Dia Lan's gaze met Li Aoz's for a moment before he spoke:

"This is a general education course for first-year students."

"I know, you have to find an excuse to strike up a conversation." Li Aoz glanced at the gloomy sky. "The weather is really nice today, have you eaten?"

Dia Lan shook his head slightly, not responding to Li Aoz's words, but instead said as if offering advice:

"Don't let a temporary setback drag you down forever."

After saying that, she casually glanced at the students behind Li Aoz, her gaze like a sharp bayonet, cutting through their fragile self-confidence, leaving them frozen in place.

Dia Lan turned and left without saying another word, leaving Li Aoz completely bewildered.

He turned his head and looked at the three students behind him:

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

"No—no!"

The three students quickly waved their hands. "We just wanted to remind you that you have class this afternoon."

"Haha, I didn't expect you to be so close to Dia Lan."

"We have something to do, so we'll have to go now."

Li Aoz watched the three students, who looked like clowns, slink away, and stroked his chin.

"What a pity, it didn't attract the attention of these three."