The Town Exam Ace (Please Follow! Please Follow!)

"Silence!"

"You really were hiding here."

Corazon snapped his fingers softly when he found Luo, immediately creating a soundproof barrier around them.

In the corner of a familiar alley, Luo sat with his knees drawn up, leaning against the wall. There was an indescribable sadness on his face.

"Corazon, am I really that useless?"

"Abel and I are in pretty similar situations, but by comparison, Abel learns everything quickly and has plenty of talent. I'm just a dead last, struggling with wooden posts every day. Even Baby 5 and Buffalo are better than me."

"At the rate my training's going, I probably won't accomplish anything before the day I die!"

Corazon was a little surprised when Luo suddenly opened up to him.

But he was very happy that Luo could bare his heart like this.

It meant their relationship had grown closer.

So Corazon tried to reassure him. "You know, Luo, the sea has never been short on geniuses. A little setback now and then doesn't mean anything. Plenty of strong people have relied on hard work, taking one step at a time and steadily making their way to the top!"

"You might not be as good as Abel and the others now, but I believe you'll achieve more than anyone in the future."

"Because you're one of the legendary Clan of 'D', a 'God Enemy' destined to stir up a storm across the seas!"

After listening to Corazon, Luo's expression improved considerably, though he still put on a disdainful look and scoffed. "There you go again with that nonsense. If the so-called Clan of 'D' were really so amazing, my dad wouldn't have died in a hospital in Freyvans."

"Don't worry, Luo. I'll find a way to cure your illness. Then you have to listen to me and get away from Doflamingo right away."

"Big words again. Make it happen first, then you can make demands."

"I'm planning to take you out to sea tomorrow to find a doctor. The world is huge. There's bound to be someone who can cure you. What do you think?"

"I don't like it. I'm not going! I'm staying here to keep training. Doflamingo already promised Abel and me he'd keep an eye out for Devil Fruits. Instead of trusting those useless quacks and wasting time going all over the place, I'd rather make the most of the time I have now."

Luo was adamant. No matter how much Corazon tried to persuade him, nothing worked, and in the end, he had to let the matter drop for now.

But he had already started asking around for doctors with exceptional medical skills.

When Luo returned to his room, he found plenty of food still warm on the table, along with a note Abel had left behind.

It read: "Eat up, then go to bed. If you don't want me to leave you too far behind, bring your all to training tomorrow and every day after that. Let's see who becomes an officer first."

"That idiot."

Luo sat down looking annoyed and began wolfing down the food. But for some reason, as he ate, he started to smile.

It seemed he found his earlier self-pity and sensitivity amusing.

The next day, Luo was finally back to normal. He trained hard, no longer looking dejected.

"It won't be long before I catch up with you, Abel. You'd better watch out!"

Seeing this, Abel couldn't help smiling. Then he replied with a hint of smugness, "Go to bed early, Luo. You can have anything in your dreams! You're still a hundred years away from beating me!"

"We'll see about that!"

Luo's competitive spirit was roused, and he refused to believe he was really that useless.

The truth proved that human potential was limitless. It all depended on whether you could push yourself to draw it out.

At least, Luo's performance that day left everyone impressed.

After finishing a day of training, Abel returned to his room alone.

[Begin searching for Wish Orders?]

[Current searches: 1 (free)]

...

[Searching for Wish Orders. Search complete!]

[Obtained one Basic Wish Order]

[Order description: Naruto is taking the written portion of the first round of the Chunin Exam. Faced with the incredibly difficult test paper, he looks completely lost. He wants to start writing but has no idea what to do, and it seems he can only hand in a blank paper.]

[Order details: The entire test paper has been copied. Please help Naruto complete the exam.]

[Basic order rewards: Talk no Jutsu (single-use consumable), 200 Trading Points]

[Time remaining: 29:59]

...

It was another pretty bizarre order.

Abel was speechless.

But there was nothing for it. He could only grit his teeth and start answering the questions.

Then the first question immediately left him completely dumbfounded!

Question one: Decipher the following coded message.

Looking at the densely packed, strange code, Abel was totally lost. He didn't recognize it, and it didn't recognize him.

How the hell was he supposed to answer this?

Question one: skipped!

Abel decisively shook his head and looked at the second question.

Okay, he recognized this one.

The second question was a physics problem. It showed a parabola and asked for the maximum range of a shuriken.

It was a classic projectile-motion problem.

Abel breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, he'd studied science in his previous life, and he'd been pretty good at physics. Otherwise, he'd have been screwed again.

"It's time to show off my small-town test-taking skills!"

He got to work, and after a flurry of furious calculations, he finally came up with an answer.

He had no idea if it was right. That was the best he could do.

The third question was an English Q&A, the fourth was math, the eighth was chemistry, and the ninth was history.

By the time Abel put down his pen, he'd nearly pulled all his hair out!

Good grief, it was just the written portion of the Chunin Exam. Was it really necessary to make it this hard?

And they'd only given him thirty minutes to answer the questions.

Even the top scorer on the college entrance exam wouldn't get a perfect score on this paper!

After all, the very first question had been impossible.

He'd guessed his way through it, barely managing to submit the test to Naruto in the final few seconds.

He was probably the first—and last—person in history to cheat like this!

Even if the examiners worked themselves to death, they'd never figure it out.

[Confirming order item. Beginning transfer.]

[Basic Wish Order completed. The client gave a three-star rating (good)!]

[Comment: I got a lot of questions wrong, but I passed. Woohoo!]

[The full basic Trading Points reward has been issued for the three-star rating. The remaining rewards have also been issued automatically. Please check them yourself.]

...

"Well, I should be grateful I didn't get a two-star rating. This is already better than I expected!"

Abel wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, hoping he'd never run into another [Wish Order] like this one. It had really taken it out of him.

This was just like making me take on something impossible!

Fortunately, he'd gotten the 200 Trading Points, giving his already meager "wallet" just a little more heft.

There was also that strange additional reward.