Xu Jingming Had Hidden His Strength? The Curious Homeroom Teacher

"Zhou Mingyang, ranked first, has 412 points. Looks like he has already started a killing spree in the Central Area."

"His Light Swift Wind is indeed great for traveling. Even in the Martial Arts College Entrance Examination in a provincial capital, his movement speed would not be inferior to anyone else's."

"Speaking of which, Principal Liu, you're still the impressive one. Nearly all of the top ten are from your school."

On the open ground outside Ruined Town stood ten enormous projection screens.

They were tracking feeds filmed by military drones, showing the current top ten candidates by score.

Below these ten enormous projection screens were several thousand densely packed smaller projection screens.

Those had been filmed by fixed cameras placed throughout Ruined Town and would only be enlarged onto the main screens when needed.

Beside the projection screens was a ranking list displaying each candidate's score and rank in detail.

On the temporary spectator stands beneath the screens, officials from the Education Bureau, along with principals and teachers from various schools, were commenting on the students on the rankings.

Among them, a middle-aged man in a suit with short hair was the focus of the discussion.

He was Liu Hang, principal of Jiang City First High School.

Among the top ten on the martial arts rankings, aside from the sole student from Third High School, all the others were from First High School.

"Zhou Mingyang is Jiangcheng's trump card. In this Martial Arts College Entrance Examination, he should be able to break into the top 100 in Jiangnan Province."

In the front row of the spectator stands sat a short, stout middle-aged man.

Watching Zhou Mingyang slaughter his way through the first projection screen, he could not help nodding slightly.

His name was Zhang Wenshan, the Education Bureau Director of Jiangcheng.

"Come to think of it, Jiangcheng hasn't produced a candidate who made it into Jiangnan Province's top 100 in many years."

Liu Hang, principal of First High School, who sat beside the Education Bureau Director, was also somewhat emotional.

Jiangnan Province was a populous province of Great Xia Country, with twenty-four Prefecture-level Cities and nearly thirty-four county-level cities under its jurisdiction.

Jiangcheng was located in the remote northernmost part of Jiangnan Province. Its resources were scarce, and its economic development ranked near the bottom among the twenty-four Prefecture-level Cities.

Consequently, even the education funding allocated each year from Ning'an City, the provincial capital of Jiangnan Province, was minimal.

Because of this, Jiangcheng had never achieved particularly good results in the annual Martial Arts College Entrance Examination.

Its best historical performance had been seven or eight years ago, when someone awakened an A-Rank Ability and managed to enter Jiangnan Province's top 100.

Several years had passed since then. Although more A-Rank Ability users had appeared in Jiangcheng during that time, none had ever made it into Jiangnan Province's top 100 again.

But this year's Zhou Mingyang had allowed them to see hope once more.

"I've always been quite satisfied with the education at your First High School."

Education Bureau Director Zhang Wenshan nodded. "Third High School isn't bad either. At least someone managed to squeeze into the top ten."

"But Second High School is lacking somewhat. Its best result is only eighteenth place."

Jiang City First High School was the best high school in Jiangcheng.

Second High School and Third High School were far inferior in comparison.

In previous years' Martial Arts College Entrance Examinations, the top ten had been monopolized by First High School students. Students from Second High School and Third High School could not be seen at all.

"There really are several students with rather good talent in our year."

The principal of Third High School wore an uncontrollable smile.

Compared to him, Zhao Yao, the principal of Second High School beside him, looked somewhat awkward.

After all, in previous years, Second High School had always ranked above Third High School.

This year, the situation seemed to have reversed.

But our high school's performance this year really doesn't seem that good...

Principal Zhao Yao searched through the score rankings for quite a while and discovered that only eight Second High School students had made it into the top fifty.

Li Ming, Yang Jian, Tang Ju... they're all students from Class 1's Rocket Class. But who is this Xu Jingming? Why have I never seen this name before?

Martial Arts College Entrance Examination results directly determined the allocation of educational funding for each high school.

Therefore, Zhao Yao had some understanding of the outstanding students at his school.

But he had never heard the name Xu Jingming before.

"Maybe he's a hidden student from one of the other regular classes. We'll know once we ask the homeroom teachers later."

Zhao Yao did not pay much attention to it.

After all, there were so many students at Second High School. It was not strange for one or two of them to have hidden their strength.

Principal Zhao Yao did not think much of it, but Chen Fan, the homeroom teacher of Second High School's Class 5 in the back rows, was dumbfounded.

He knew Xu Jingming's situation perfectly well.

Xu Jingming was merely an E-rank metahuman ability Awakened. How could he have charged into the top fifty?

And now, Xu Jingming was the highest-ranked student in their entire Class 5!

It was simply unbelievable!

Could he have hidden his strength?

"But no matter how he hid it, an E-rank metahuman ability is still an E-rank metahuman ability. Could it suddenly turn into an S-rank metahuman ability?"

"Then how did he get such a high score?"

Homeroom teacher Chen Fan could not make sense of it no matter how hard he thought.

The Martial Arts College Entrance Examination involved genuine face-to-face battles against ferocious beasts. There could not possibly be any room for fraud.

Unfortunately, the main screens above only displayed the top ten students by score. The thousands of fixed camera feeds below were so densely packed that they were impossible to make out clearly.

For Chen Fan to find Xu Jingming's feed among them was simply impossible!

Unable to see the footage and not knowing how Xu Jingming had obtained such a high score, homeroom teacher Chen Fan—

—was like a kitten that had smelled catnip but could not eat it, its heart itching unbearably...

Inside Ruined Town, after half an hour of rapid travel, Xu Jingming finally entered the Central Area.

"Roar~~"

"Awwoo~~~"

Compared to the Outer Area, the Central Area clearly had far more ferocious beasts.

As Xu Jingming walked down the road, he could hear the roars and howls of ferocious beasts in the distance.

The air seemed to be filled with the scent of blood and Berserk violence.

Crack—

Xu Jingming carried his spear, a nutrition bar clenched between his teeth, as his Combat Boots stepped onto an old plastic basin by the roadside.

The once-tough plastic had become as brittle as dry instant noodles after decades of wind and rain. With the slightest step, it shattered into fragments.

As he walked, Xu Jingming observed his surroundings.

Wei Yuan Town, the former site of Ruined Town, had once possessed a population of nearly one hundred thousand.

When the ferocious beasts breached the city's defensive line, many people had not had time to evacuate. Nearly fifty or sixty thousand people had been devoured by the beasts.

There were not yet any particularly obvious traces in the outer suburbs.

But after entering the area equivalent to Ruined Town's urban district—

—from the cars that had never been driven away, the dried dark-red bloodstains on the ruined ground, and the scattered human skeletons that had yet to weather away, he could see the bloodshed and brutality of that time...