Gene Aptitude Test

Jincheng, Ninth High School, Class 7, Senior Year 3.

Although the college entrance exam was over and everyone already knew their scores, at that moment they all watched their homeroom teacher, Yu Zeping, with eager anticipation—and a hint of nervousness.

The announcement Yu Zeping was about to make would largely determine their futures.

Sunlight streamed through the windows, gilding the tense, youthful faces and casting shadows across them.

"Joint announcement from the Blue Star Alliance Huaxia Region Gene Committee, the Huaxia Gene Committee, and the Huaxia Ministry of Education."

Yu Zeping had barely named the three official bodies when all forty-six students in Class 7, Senior Year 3 sat up straight and listened.

Many interlaced their fingers. Some even held their breath.

What was about to be announced mattered more than the nationwide college entrance exam a hundred years ago, which people had called "one exam that decides your whole life."

This exam could decide your whole future!

"The 2137 college entrance exam score for the Dual Gene Excellence Line is 597. The First Gene Excellence Line is 483, and the Gene Admission Line is 395."

Yu Zeping read out the three cutoffs quickly and clearly, just as he always did.

Yet his words landed like three bolts of thunder, turning many students deathly pale.

Others let out a long breath, their faces relaxing.

Seven or eight students sat there stunned, as if they'd been struck by lightning.

"Three hundred and ninety-five?"

"How did the Gene Admission Line go up by twenty-two points from last year?"

"I—I was one point short!"

One boy tried to hold back, his lips trembling, but in the end he couldn't control himself. He collapsed onto his desk and burst into tears.

Several other students who hadn't met the Gene Admission Line began to sob as well.

One cutoff, and their futures were set.

Hearing his classmates cry, Xu Tui felt awful. He wanted to comfort the students weeping behind him, but didn't know what to say.

He also felt a little relieved.

One cutoff, just three digits, had all but decided the futures of nine of his classmates.

Before the exam, their homeroom teacher Yu Zeping had put it bluntly: if you couldn't meet the Gene Admission Line, the only thing left for you in life was to scrape by. You'd have no hope of anything else.

But at this moment, Xu Tui suddenly felt that what their homeroom teacher had said back then was nowhere near as cruel as the reality before them.

At the lectern, Yu Zeping watched the students who had failed to meet the Gene Admission Line break down in tears. His lips were pressed tight, and his throat felt constricted.

This wasn't his first time teaching a graduating class. He'd been through the same thing six times before.

But each time, the weight in his heart was beyond words.

For these eighteen-year-old kids, the consequences of missing the Gene Admission Line were almost too much to bear.

Without thinking, Yu Zeping looked out the window, his gaze seeming to pierce the void. Damn those invaders!

If it weren't for those cosmic invaders, the Gene Admission Line wouldn't be so unforgiving.

Time could heal all wounds.

The crying and sobbing in the classroom gradually stopped over the next fifteen minutes.

Yu Zeping took a deep breath. "Those of you who didn't meet the Gene Admission Line, don't lose heart.

"There are many roads that lead to Rome. Keep working hard, and you may still be able to get your hands on an E- or D-grade Gene Liberation Potion.

"Anything is possible on the path of genetic evolution. There are precedents for this. I won't say more."

That was all he could do to comfort them.

"All right. Those who didn't meet the Gene Admission Line, report to the Vocational Education Department and decide on your next course of study as soon as possible.

"Everyone else, assemble at Training Ground No. 4 within fifteen minutes!"

Yu Zeping's gaze sharpened. "Your Gene Aptitude Test is only just beginning!"

After a brief farewell at Training Ground No. 4, the remaining thirty-seven students from Class 7, including Xu Tui, had all arrived.

They gathered in small groups, discussing their scores. They were hopeful, but also a little worried.

"I got 471. Not enough for the First Gene Excellence Line."

"I got 534, just over the First Gene Excellence Line. I just don't know how many Gene Points I'll be able to activate."

"I got 603. Little Leg, what'd you get?" Cheng Mo suddenly asked.

"Old Cheng, you should be called Big Leg," Xu Tui said.

"Why?"

"Because I scored one point higher than you."

"Just one point higher?"

"One point higher still makes me the Big Leg. Pow!"

A loud slap suddenly cracked against the back of Xu Tui's head. His eyes widened, and he was about to blow up.

"Damn it, who— Huh, the homeroom teacher's here!" Xu Tui's face shifted from fury to a grin in an instant.

A shameless grin.

Yu Zeping ignored Xu Tui's grin, pushed through the crowd, and strode straight up to the reviewing stand.

"I understand that some of you got high scores and are feeling on top of the world.

"But I want you to understand this: a high score on the college entrance exam only gets you a ticket to the Gene Aptitude Test.

"Whether you get into a good Gene University,

"whether you strengthen or even evolve your genes and become Gene Warriors, become Cosmic Experts—that still depends on your own effort!"

As he spoke, Yu Zeping looked straight at Xu Tui.

Xu Tui grinned, showing off his pearly whites, and gave an awkward laugh.

As Yu Zeping shifted his gaze away from Xu Tui, he roared at the students in Class 7, Senior Year 3.

"Now, training continues!

"Three times the usual workload!

"Punishment drills are now fully authorized, with no limits on severity!"

The sturdy, broad-shouldered Yu Zeping snapped a thin whip through the air.

Fear showed on the faces of the students, even the ones who usually feared nothing—including Xu Tui.

Their homeroom teacher normally only used half his authorized punishment-drill allowance, and that was already enough to make them howl like ghosts.

What would it be like with the restrictions completely lifted?

Nobody wanted to find out!

In the next instant, Xu Tui shot off like a rabbit.

The first event was a five-kilometer run.

No, wait!

Five kilometers was the usual workload. Three times that meant fifteen kilometers!

No one complained.

And no one wondered why.

For one thing, everyone there understood the reason.

For another, after three years of being put through the wringer by their homeroom teacher, the physical education instructor Yu Zeping, they'd long since gotten used to it.

That was right. Their homeroom teacher, Yu Zeping, was their physical education teacher.

These days, every high school homeroom teacher was a physical education teacher!

They were also called Physical Training Directors!

Daily training.

That meant training every single day.

They'd been doing it for three years.

Yes, including the whip.

The thin whip cracked against Xu Tui's butt with precise, steady force.

"If you're so tough, try scoring one point higher in physical training!"

The whip sent a welt swelling beneath Xu Tui's uniform, and he let out a sharp yelp.

"Today's goal is to push you to your limits, so you'll get the greatest possible benefit from taking the Gene Liberation Potion!"

The thin whip snapped through the air in Yu Zeping's hand. Its cracks rang in Xu Tui and the others' ears like thunder, and they all sped up instinctively.

Many students lengthened their strides and easily overtook Xu Tui and the others, taking the lead.

Xu Tui picked up the pace too, but tried to keep it steady as he focused on controlling his breathing.

This was a fifteen-kilometer run, not a five-kilometer dash you could get through just by gritting your teeth!

After that, there were eighty push-ups, fifty burpees, eighty frog jumps, ten sets of interval runs, fifty pull-ups, a three-hundred-meter obstacle course, ten minutes of limb coordination training, and ten minutes of reflex training.

Yes, three times the usual amount!

The students, who were used to having physical education teachers as homeroom teachers, had long adapted to this kind of training.

But when the workload suddenly tripled, Yu Zeping's thin whip soon had them utterly exhausted.

When the teacher announced, "Rest and rehydrate," they all sprawled on the ground like dead dogs.

They gulped down the Energy Water the school doctor had prepared, its taste a little strange, and lay gasping like dead dogs.

"Anyone need to take a leak?"

Xu Tui staggered to his feet. His thigh muscles ached so badly that he limped.

Seeing this, Cheng Mo scrambled up and threw an arm around Xu Tui's neck, half-hanging his weight on Xu Tui, who was already grimacing in pain. He grinned.

But before Cheng Mo could finish laughing, he was the one who let out a scream.

The hundred-kilogram Tang Ting followed suit, flinging himself onto Cheng Mo.

One after another, they piled on, their laughter and shrieks blending together.

Under the sun, a bunch of grimacing teenagers linked arms and hobbled into the restroom.

Watching one of them from behind, Yu Zeping narrowed his eyes.

After relieving himself, Tang Ting, who weighed a hundred kilograms, stopped.

"Come on, guys. Let's perk ourselves up and shake off the fatigue!"

Tang Ting handed one around, then tossed one to Xu Tui as well. After that, he fished something out of a gap in the restroom wall as if by magic.

Eight boys had gathered inside when a burly figure suddenly barged into the restroom.

Those little punks were quick. Almost as soon as the first warning went up, they tossed what they were holding into the toilet. Cheng Blackie immediately stepped on the flush pedal.

Xu Tui, who'd just taken a drag, was annoyed—but a moment too late.

With no other choice, he gritted his teeth and stuffed everything he'd just inhaled into his mouth, clamping it shut!

"What's that strong smell? What were you doing?" Yu Zeping demanded.

"Taking a leak!"

"Teacher, we were taking a leak!"

"Mm. And letting out a few farts!"

Cheng Blackie chimed in, clearly asking for trouble.

Yu Zeping glared at Cheng Mo, then fixed his gaze on Xu Tui, whose mouth was clamped shut. "Xu Tui, what about you?"

Xu Tui kept his mouth shut.

The thin whip in Yu Zeping's hand rose and cracked through the air.

"Answer me!"

With the whip threatening him, Xu Tui had no choice.

"I'm angry!"

Three wisps of white smoke puffed from Xu Tui's nose and mouth as he opened it.

It was what he'd just held in.

The boys burst into laughter at the sight.

Yu Zeping brought his palm down hard on the back of Xu Tui's head.

"Angry?

"Look at you, acting all tough!

"You're so angry you're smoking?

"Why not just ascend to immortality?"

"Go. Add another half of the usual workload!"

Xu Tui immediately looked like he'd rather be dead, while Tang Ting, Cheng Mo, and the others grinned at him.

"You lot too!" Yu Zeping added.

Tang Ting, Cheng Mo, and the others' grins immediately turned into wails.

"Homeroom teacher, what a sharp eye!"

Xu Tui walked out of the restroom, grinning from ear to ear, and gave Yu Zeping a thumbs-up!

In the glow of the setting sun, the sweat-soaked teenagers left the training ground with their arms around each other's shoulders and headed home.

Yu Zeping, their Physical Training Director, was still bellowing behind them.

"For the next few days, you'd all better behave yourselves!

"If I catch anyone touching that trash again and messing up the Gene Liberation Potion's effects, I'll whip you until you're calling for your mommy!"

"Make sure you get plenty of protein when you get home, and let your muscles recover."

"Tomorrow, bring your electronic IDs, the accident-liability consent form signed by your parents, and your insurance forms."