You Left No Margin for Error

The screen displayed the countdown to the exam. Song He waited silently, his eyes closed as he recalled the knowledge he had studied.

He opened his eyes. There were exactly three seconds left until the exam began!

3, 2, 1!

The exam began!

The questions appeared on the screen. The difficulty was moderate, and they were still multiple-choice questions with multiple answers.

After doing mock exams these past few days, Song He had figured out the pattern. The scope of knowledge tested by each question was fixed, as was the score assigned to each set of materials.

Thus, he found the questions easy to handle. He could accurately predict the general scope of the next question, almost as if he were playing a game and memorizing its patterns.

Missiles, Armored Units, Information Warfare, logistics, intelligence...

Before he knew it, he had finished most of the questions. The difficulty began to rise, and he entered the final stage of challenging questions!

Song He slowed the hand clicking the mouse. His expression turned solemn, as if he were a bomb disposal expert weighing which wire to cut.

Over the past two days, he had studied a great deal of additional knowledge to solve the difficult questions. But the more he studied, the more confused he became. The relevant theories seemed endless, and it was hard to happen upon exactly what the questions tested. He could only rely on improvisation and luck.

Relying on a vague feeling in his heart and far-fetched calculations in his mind, he finished the last question drenched in sweat. There were still five minutes left, but there was nothing worth checking. He submitted the exam!

Your score is 78 points!

Comment: You have gained a certain understanding of military operations and can command a battle in a proper manner. However, you occasionally expose fatal weaknesses. Perhaps the things in books can no longer teach you much. What you lack is knowledge beyond the books.

In the past few mock exams, he had scored around eighty points each time. This time could be considered a normal performance.

But he did not dare relax. He hurriedly opened the rankings!

The screen was bustling. One classmate after another submitted their exams, and scores kept flooding in, causing the rankings to change repeatedly, rising and falling.

As soon as the exam time ended, the screen shook violently before settling down!

At the very top, as usual, was a string of perfect scores. They were arranged in neat rows, radiating overwhelming pressure!

Song He rapidly scrolled down with the mouse and found his ranking. He immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

410th! He had advanced this week!

He searched for Xiang Xiaotong's name next and soon found it. Her score had actually risen to 92 points, and her ranking had surged to 237th!

The gap was rather large. Song He could not help scratching his head. Looking forward from his own position, he could see only a mass of dark heads, and there was no sign of Teacher Xiang at all.

A message popped up in the group.

Xiang Xiaotong: "The exam is over. Check the rankings. Those in the bottom one hundred, please leave the group on your own. @Everyone"

A few seconds later, the group's membership plummeted like an avalanche. The number changed every second, dropping from 600 to 500 in just half a minute!

Although it was only happening in a group chat, as Song He watched the membership decrease, he somehow had the illusion that the cramped space had become more spacious, like a crowd pouring off a bus when it reached a stop.

Cruel. Far too cruel!

But this cruel elimination had only just begun.

After all the eliminated members left the group, Xiang Xiaotong sent another large batch of study materials.

Compared with the materials from the previous week, the newly issued materials had a higher level of confidentiality. They included after-action reports from several small-scale exercises. Most of them dated back thirty years, yet even so, the tactics employed in those exercises were astonishingly varied. They would be enough to study for a long time.

Xiang Xiaotong: "This round of study will focus on tactics and methods of warfare. The exam will begin next Wednesday at seven in the evening. The bottom one hundred will still be eliminated. I ask everyone to give it your all!"

On Saturday, Song He took the first mock exam of the second round.

The number of multiple-answer questions had been halved, and large questions requiring program input had appeared.

The large questions resembled the Electronic Sand Table. They provided a local map and displayed intelligence on both sides, requiring the test taker to draw an offensive route according to a specific method of warfare, then enter commands such as fire-support orders in sequence.

It was Song He's first time trying one, and he was utterly at a loss. It felt like trying to write a program for the first time after finishing a C language textbook. The theory was in his head, but once it reached his hands, he had no idea how to operate it.

His score plummeted to 42 points. Most of those came from the multiple-answer questions; his performance on the large questions was disastrously poor!

On Sunday, he took another mock exam. Having finished studying the new materials, Song He took five exams in a row, practicing through repetition. The results were striking. His score rose slightly with each exam, eventually settling at 67 points!

On Monday, he tested himself furiously for the entire day, desperately drawing all kinds of offensive routes and tirelessly issuing attack commands. His highest score rose to 73 points!

On Tuesday, he spent another full day taking exams.

In the morning, after finishing each mock exam, Song He was still deep in thought.

By the afternoon, however, his expression grew increasingly grim. He even could not resist smashing the mouse, glaring furiously at the computer screen in helpless rage.

After working on mock exams until eight in the evening, Song He finally could not take it anymore. He pulled out his phone and sent Teacher Xiang a message:

"Teacher, I'm very confused. Can I come over and ask you about some questions?"

"Come over."

Song He rose and left the dormitory. He knocked on the door next door. Xiang Xiaotong opened it, still wearing pure white cotton pajamas, with a snow-white facial mask covering her face.

"Teacher, can I look at this week's mock-exam rankings first?" Song He asked nervously.

"You're ranked 351st, so you're relatively safe." Xiang Xiaotong sat down at the computer desk and clicked the mouse to open the rankings.

Song He carried over a small stool and sat beside her, curiously examining everyone's scores. The top 150 were still a group of ironclad perfect scorers, practically a gathering of immortals. Teacher Xiang was not far from becoming one herself. She was ranked 180th, with 97 points!

"Teacher, I don't understand!" Song He asked in confusion. "For those large questions where we draw offensive routes, I clearly follow the requirements in the materials. Why do I never get full marks? Why do they always deduct a few points?"

"I can't directly see your questions from here. Do one on the spot and let me take a look." Xiang Xiaotong clicked the mouse and quickly brought up a mock exam, opening a large question.

Song He took a deep breath. His eyes swept rapidly over the question, and a plan quickly formed in his mind. He rapidly struck the keyboard, entering his combat commands.

"I see. You left no margin for error!" Xiang Xiaotong narrowed her eyes and thought for a moment before speaking.

Song He froze. His pupils trembled slightly, and his expression suddenly showed that he understood!

"Although you're doing a simulation on the computer, you still have to simulate while taking real-world circumstances into account." Xiang Xiaotong began her lecture.

"For example, in this question, although the intelligence indicates that the enemy's Electronic Warfare capability is utterly pathetic, you have to consider the possibility that the intelligence is wrong. What if, halfway through this high-risk, turn-based operation of luring out the enemy's fire, they suddenly pull out Electronic Warfare equipment and begin jamming you?"

"Did you consider changes in the weather? Did you consider malfunctions in unmanned weapons? Sometimes even something as simple as traveling can cause weapons and equipment to break down repeatedly. So you must leave plenty of margin for error to ensure everything goes smoothly!"

"Also, our exercise model has always been to give the enemy the benefit of the doubt. Last year, the Blue Army could determine the trajectory ten seconds after you fired, calculate your position simultaneously, then adjust its firing parameters and fire within another ten seconds. The only time you'd have to escape would be the projectile's flight time. No one on this planet can move that fast at present, but that is the requirement in the exercises. You have to follow that requirement when answering the questions, too."

Xiang Xiaotong continued explaining at length.

Song He suddenly understood. It felt as if someone had enlightened him, opening his mind completely!

"I understand, Teacher. My problem is that I calculate everything too precisely. I always try to achieve the greatest results at the lowest cost, but this mindset of saving resources instead leads to even greater waste." Song He nodded repeatedly, his face lighting up. "I get it, Teacher! I feel like I can break ninety points now!"

"Getting ninety points isn't something you can do just by saying so." Xiang Xiaotong smiled. "The exam is tomorrow night. It's too late to change your approach now. I suggest you use your old method for the exam, advance steadily, and worry about developing new habits next week."

"It's fine, Teacher. I'm quick at changing habits. One day should be enough!" Song He stood up, his expression confident.

"You really want to take the risk?" Xiang Xiaotong said. "Don't blame your teacher for not warning you!"