Brother Night, Did You Cheat?

The table was arranged by total score, from highest to lowest.

Everyone's eyes immediately focused on the top of the list:

1. Li Weiwei: Total score 966

2. Zhang Zhen: Total score 898

3. Zhao Lin: Total score 824

4. Zhao Qiang: Total score 762

5. Zhou Qian: Total score 745

6. Wang Hao: Total score 733

7. Lin Ye: Total score 725

725 points, seventh place!

Lin Ye stared at his score, breathing a little faster.

He'd thought he'd done pretty well, but he hadn't expected to land in seventh place.

He quickly scanned his scores in each subject: 345 in cultural studies, 15 points lower than on the January Grand Exam. Most of the drop came from History of the Star Alliance, where he'd lost 5 points. Lin Ye guessed he'd mainly lost points on the essay questions. He'd also scored lower in Basic Physics and Star Alliance Common Language, down 7 points in the former and 3 in the latter.

That cultural studies score was only on the lower end of the upper tier in his class. He glanced at Zhang Hao and Wang Tao's scores, too. The former had reached a terrifying 380, while the latter had scored 351.

There was no need to mention Zhang Hao, a genius at academic subjects. But even Wang Tao, who kept saying his cultural studies were hopeless, had still scored quite a bit higher than Lin Ye. Looks like he'd been quietly putting in effort, too.

Still, Lin Ye was fairly satisfied with his score. He'd spent most of his time training in martial arts lately and had rarely studied for his academic subjects. He'd gotten by on what he'd learned before, along with the occasional review of key topics. He was pretty content to have maintained this score.

Besides, even though he'd lost 15 points, cultural studies only counted for one-seventh of the total Martial Arts Stream score. In the end, that meant a drop of just over 2 points. The time and effort he'd invested had been well worth it.

Next came Blood Qi Value. According to the scoring rules, a value below 100 earned 0 points, while every point above 100 was worth 0.6 points. After rounding, he'd been awarded 131 points—nowhere near Li Weiwei, Zhang Zhen, and the others. This was his biggest weakness.

He'd earned 219 points in Virtual Combat, which was somewhat unexpected. He'd received 39 performance points for the fourth stage, just one point short of the maximum. Looks like the teachers who'd graded him really were pretty nice.

Lin Ye felt quite grateful to those Martial Dao teachers who'd reviewed his performance.

He'd also earned 30 extra points from the Ranking Tournament on the third day, bringing his total to 725 and placing him seventh in the class.

While Lin Ye was feeling rather pleased with his results, the classroom filled with a chorus of chatter and gasps.

"Holy crap, the class monitor got 966!"

"Holy crap, Lin Ye... seventh?"

"Wait, wasn't he twenty-fourth in the class on the last exam?"

"Yeah, how did he go from twenty-fourth to seventh in just a few months?"

"That rate of improvement is terrifying!"

Wang Tao looked at the results, then turned to Lin Ye, his eyes wide as saucers. "Brother Night, did you cheat?"

Lin Ye: "..."

"If you didn't cheat, how could you improve so insanely fast?"

Wang Tao muttered under his breath, "You were only twenty-fourth on the January Grand Exam, and now I can't even see your taillights."

"It's fine. We're not even running in the same race."

Lin Ye consoled him, unable to help thinking that Wang Tao had guessed pretty accurately.

"That just makes me feel worse."

Wang Tao kept muttering quietly. "You're a monster. How can you improve so fast? I want to train in martial arts, too."

Seeing Lin Ye's results, Li Weiwei, who was sitting in the front row, turned around in surprise. She'd expected him to make a big improvement this time, but the final result still caught her off guard.

Zhang Zhen was just as surprised.

Zhao Qiang, sitting by the window on the right, looked troubled. He'd also expected Lin Ye to make a big improvement, but now Blood Qi Value was the only category where he'd scored higher than him. He'd fallen behind in every other category, and his sense of crisis surged once more.

"Quiet!"

Hearing the classroom roar like a marketplace, Chen Guo'an tapped the lectern. Only then did the room quiet down again.

"I'd like to give special recognition to Lin Ye." His gaze fell on Lin Ye. "In three months, he's gone from twenty-fourth in the class to seventh. That's the biggest improvement in the class, and puts him among the top three in the entire school. It proves one thing—"

He paused, raising his voice a little. "On the road to the High School Entrance Exam, talent matters, and resources matter, but what matters most is perseverance—the sweat you shed day after day."

Applause broke out. It wasn't thunderous, but it was sincere.

Lin Ye sat at his desk, his expression unchanged, but his attention had already caught on his homeroom teacher's words: "among the top three in the entire school."

If our homeroom teacher's right, then I should be in the clear this time.

Lin Ye thought to himself.

"Also,"

Chen Guo'an added, "after reviewing the results of this exam, the school has decided to select five students for its special development program. The final list will be published on the school website tomorrow morning. Those who might be selected should keep an eye out for relevant notifications today."

Chen Guo'an's words fell like a stone into a still lake, and the classroom filled with chatter once again.

"The special development program? Five people?"

"I think they had one two years ago, too. I heard they give you quite a lot of resources..."

"Five spots... do you think someone from our class could get one?"

"I think Lin Ye has a pretty good chance. His improvement has been huge."

"Definitely. Old Ye should be able to claim one of the spots."

After homeroom teacher Chen Guo'an made the announcement, quite a few people in the class looked at Lin Ye. But his expression didn't change at all, disappointing many of them.

"All right, that's it for class today."

Chen Guo'an turned off the projector. "The score sheets have been sent to the group chat. Tomorrow's the weekend, so when you get home, take a good look at your results and figure out what you need to work on. There are only two months left before the High School Entrance Exam. Whether you keep moving forward or stop here is up to you."

"Also, Lin Ye, remember to go to Teacher Zheng Huai's office during lunch break. He has something to tell you."

"Yes."

"Class dismissed!"

A moment later, the bell rang, and homeroom teacher Chen Guo'an left.

At the same time, a crowd got up from their seats and gathered around Lin Ye, congratulating him one after another.

Wang Tao squeezed over, too, and slung an arm around his shoulders. "Brother Night, you're treating us! You absolutely have to treat us this time!" Zhang Zhen walked over, smiling. "Not bad, Lin Ye. Your Virtual Combat bonus is really high. Looks like the reviewers were impressed with your performance in the fourth stage."

Li Weiwei came over, too, and simply said, "Congratulations."

Zhou Qian blinked. "Congrats, Lin Ye. You're seventh in the Martial Arts Stream, and I'm fifth... Looks like you're about to overtake me."

"Shouldn't I be the first one you expect him to overtake?"

Even Wang Hao, who usually wasn't very close to Lin Ye, came over to offer his congratulations.

Zhao Qiang stood off in the distance, watching Lin Ye surrounded by everyone. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He and Lin Ye didn't have any real grudge between them, and by now he'd accepted that Lin Ye would surpass him someday. But for some reason, he still couldn't bring himself to step forward and congratulate him. Instead, he turned and walked out of the classroom to get some fresh air.

Facing everyone's warm congratulations, Lin Ye responded politely to each of them. His tone seemed calm enough, but his thoughts had already drifted to the special development program his teacher had mentioned, hoping his name would be on the list.