The weapons handed out by the school included firearms, but not many students chose them.
First, the Martial Exam lasted seven days. Carrying enough ammunition to last that long was nothing short of a pipe dream for high schoolers.
Second, firearms made too much noise when used to attack.
Whether they hit any Demon Monsters was another matter, but the gunshots could easily attract more of them.
So carrying a firearm was less convenient than simply taking a melee weapon.
Almost no one chose firearms for the Martial Exam.
Ji Ruo picked a Standard Issue Miao Saber.
He'd thought it might unlock an achievement like "One day, I'll have a saber in hand."
But it didn't.
So Ji Ruo picked up a sword, too, and crossed it over his back with the saber.
The teacher handing out weapons didn't stop him.
Every year, there were students like this. Maybe they thought that one more weapon meant one more chance of survival.
For a Martial Artist, only a weapon suited to them was the best one. But high school graduates were only Martial Artist Reserves.
Anyone who hadn't been baptized in blood couldn't truly be called a Martial Artist.
Class monitor Liang Shixian followed behind Ji Ruo. Seeing him carrying both a saber and a sword, he couldn't help asking, "Why take one of each? Either dual sabers or dual swords. Saber techniques and sword techniques aren't the same!"
Ji Ruo lifted his chin. "Do I have to report to you that I'm a Dual Master of Blade and Sword?"
He'd only done it to try to unlock an achievement, but nothing had happened.
The Achievement System seemed as good as dead.
Surely a kid getting his hands on a saber and a sword was enough to make his sense of achievement explode!
Ji Ruo wasn't sure how the system judged things.
Still, he'd already mastered Iron Sand Palm at the Entering the Hall level. As long as he was careful during this Martial Exam, nothing should go wrong.
It was a shame he'd had so little time. He hadn't managed to train it to the third realm, Pure Mastery.
His current proficiency was only barely at 536.
The basic techniques for using standard weapons were compulsory, and Ji Ruo's original owner had studied hard, so he'd mastered them long ago.
So it wasn't strange for him to carry both a saber and a sword. He knew how to use them.
Of course, calling himself a Dual Master of Blade and Sword was definitely an exaggeration.
Liang Shixian: "..."
The class monitor frowned and reminded him, "In any case, be careful once we enter the Examination Ground. Join up with our classmates as soon as possible. There's strength in numbers, and we'll be safer together."
"Don't worry. I understand."
What had surprised Ji Ruo over the past two months was that he hadn't run into the kind of clichéd bullying by classmates that transmigrators usually faced.
His classmates were all united.
The teachers were very responsible, too.
That much had been clear from the homeroom teacher's words three days ago and the principal's pre-exam pep talk.
The first priority was survival.
That suited him just fine. The Achievement System was geared toward children, and "showing off and slapping faces" probably didn't count as a children's achievement.
"Everyone, stay close!"
Once the whole class had collected their weapons, Liang Shixian called out softly and prepared to be the first to step through the Secret Realm Portal.
He looked calm and composed, but the hand gripping his saber was trembling. It was hard to tell whether he was excited or afraid.
Just then, Ji Ruo stepped forward with his saber and sword on his back. "I'll lead the charge!"
With that, he plunged headfirst through the portal under his classmates' astonished gazes.
No one noticed that, the instant he passed through the portal, both of Ji Ruo's hands turned red and their temperature shot up.
That was what it looked like when Iron Sand Palm was pushed to its limits.
There was a slight resistance as he crossed the portal, like jumping into water.
The next moment, Ji Ruo realized he'd left the school and arrived in a desolate wilderness overgrown with plants.
He cautiously hid behind a tree and immediately surveyed his surroundings.
"Hm? A random-assignment Martial Exam?"
Ji Ruo furrowed his brow slightly.
The Martial Exam didn't prohibit teamwork, but the exam format could change.
For example, there was the easy mode, where students from the same class or school appeared in the same place; the normal mode, where students were divided into groups of ten; and the hard mode, where everyone appeared in a completely random location.
The main purpose was to teach students that plans never kept up with changes. In short, it was meant to cultivate a sense of danger.
The Secret Realm teleportation was instantaneous. In normal mode, Ji Ruo should have seen the nine temporary teammates assigned to his group as soon as he arrived.
But there was no one, so this was the hard mode: completely random.
"This is gonna be tricky."
Frowning, Ji Ruo began studying the growth of the surrounding plants, intending to use them to figure out which way to go.
Just then, a cry of pain caught his attention.
Ji Ruo spun around and immediately grinned.
Liang Shixian had landed in the treetops. Caught off guard, he'd tumbled down and hit the ground face-first.
"Good thing I've got a teammate. It's not completely random."
Ji Ruo quietly breathed a sigh of relief, then went over and helped Liang Shixian to his feet.
"Class monitor, what a coincidence."
"Ji Ruo?"
Liang Shixian froze for a moment, then immediately looked around. "A random Martial Exam with pairs?"
"Looks like it."
Liang Shixian frowned. "We should try to meet up with the other students first."
"Sure."
Ji Ruo pointed at the plants. "I arrived a little before you and already figured out roughly which way is which. This way's west. I suggest we head this way."
Liang Shixian stared at him. "Why?"
Ji Ruo said, "Head west to slay demons and monsters; head east to return home in triumph. That's what they said in Journey to the West, right?"
Liang Shixian: "...We're heading east!"
Before the exam, the students of Grade 12 Class 4 had already made plans for some of the possible exam formats.
If it was a random-assignment Martial Exam, then after arriving, everyone had to head east, meet up first, and worry about everything else afterward.
Ji Ruo knew that, too. That was why he'd said what he did.
The two of them kept a wary eye on their surroundings as they headed east.
The magnetic fields in the Secret Realm were chaotic, so compasses were useless. They could only rely on the theories taught at school to figure out their direction.
The sun was no help, either. The Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm had day and night, but no sun or moon.
Most Secret Realms were like that.
Two hours later, they ran into another pair of students.
Judging by their uniforms, the two weren't from Cloud City No. 1 High School.
"Careful." Liang Shixian tightened his grip on the steel saber. In this Secret Realm, they had to watch out not only for Monster Beasts, but also for students from other schools.
The other students might not hurt them, but they might not help them, either.
And if circumstances were right, students from other schools might even try to steal the spoils from the Monster Beasts they'd killed. That was one of the criteria used to judge Martial Exam results.
Everyone wanted a good score.
That was why the teachers had repeatedly warned them to be careful about everything in the Secret Realm.
Liang Shixian wasn't wrong, but before he could finish speaking, he saw Ji Ruo wave warmly to the pair. "Hello, you two! I'm Ji Ruo, from Cloud City!"
Liang Shixian: "???"
Didn't I just tell you to be careful?!
The other pair hesitated at first. After a moment, one of them said, "We're from Sea City. I'm Zhang Quan."
"I'm Liu Neng."
Liang Shixian sighed when he saw this.
Ji Ruo's heedless nature really made him impossible to relax around.
No one noticed that, after the two students from Sea City responded to Ji Ruo, he suddenly froze. Then, smiling from ear to ear, he walked up and took Zhang Quan's hand while the other boy stared at him in bewilderment. "Meeting like this must be fate. How about we team up?"
"Ji Ruo, we still need to—" Liang Shixian hadn't finished when Zhang Quan said hesitantly, "...Sure. We'll split the spoils evenly."
Ji Ruo beamed. "Of course!"
Liang Shixian opened his mouth.
We're not going to look for our classmates anymore?
What he didn't know was that Ji Ruo had been so eager to invite them because, right after greeting them, he'd received a system notification—
[Congratulations, young host, on unlocking a functional achievement: First to greet an unfamiliar classmate in the new semester!]
[You have obtained the title: Diplomatic Spokesperson!]
[Title—Diplomatic Spokesperson: Increases the persuasiveness of your speech by 10%. The title's effect can be improved by greeting strangers.]
[Note: Conversation is an art~]
Now that he was a Diplomatic Spokesperson, it would be downright unreasonable not to team up!
Liang Shixian sighed. Seeing that Ji Ruo had already started "friendly relations" with the students from Sea City, it would be awkward to leave. So he introduced himself, too, and the group began working out a simple set of rules for dividing the spoils.
But before they could finish, a sudden change came over them—
"Hiss~!"
The sudden hiss made the students freeze for a moment.
Ji Ruo's gaze sharpened as five or six green shapes burst from the grass beside them.
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