The Exam Begins, Popularity Soars

It was a pity that Lu Chong still had no opportunity to run a promotional campaign to drum up support before the College Entrance Exam.

The personal promotion campaigns flooding the various self-media platforms were mostly paid services, and the costs were far from cheap.

Lu Chong did not want to see his meager savings go down the drain.

Besides, he wasn't trying to become an influencer; why be in such a rush to build a persona?

Fortunately, the official media of Guanyun City was relatively impartial, releasing some videos and student rankings from the previous mock exams, which inadvertently helped Lu Chong gain a wave of popularity.

But the public's memory is short, especially on these virtual platforms.

Therefore, even with the title of first place in the mock exam, Lu Chong's popularity was still far behind those candidates who had engaged in massive promotional campaigns.

For instance, Xiang Yueya, known as the successor of the Xiang clan, currently enjoyed popularity that far eclipsed Lu Chong's.

Being a second-stage Martial Artist, a stunningly beautiful school belle, and having released several eye-catching personal showcase videos—who wouldn't pay attention to such a figure?

Xiang Yueya's promotion didn't just reach the two million residents of Guanyun City; it extended across the entire province, attracting a massive wave of followers in just two days.

Well, mostly male.

On the night before the College Entrance Exam, Xiang Yueya's follower count had already surpassed two million. She was the most prominent figure in Guanyun City, and the calls for her to take the provincial top spot were the loudest.

Then there were Zhao Longfei, Huang Junyan, Xue Cheng, and others whom Lu Chong was more familiar with; most of them had also leveraged media power to gather hundreds of thousands of fans.

Even that guy Chen Yufei had managed to accumulate over a hundred thousand followers in two days.

He hadn't posted videos of himself performing Martial Skills or sparring; instead, he had released some classic clips of himself playing virtual war games.

Good grief, he actually had quite a few followers.

Chen Yufei took this opportunity to advertise for Lu Chong on his account, calling on his fans to follow Lu Chong, the soon-to-be provincial champion.

This caused Lu Chong's popularity to rise slightly, barely breaking the hundred-thousand mark by the eve of the exam.

It wasn't a lot, but it wasn't exactly pathetic either.

The key was that the young people who followed Lu Chong through Chen Yufei mostly left numerous skeptical comments under Lu Chong's only video, which was a Martial Skill tutorial.

"Looks pretty ordinary. Why is he so confident about aiming for the provincial top spot?"

"Is this really a top-tier seed? Aside from being a bit handsome, his strength seems rather mediocre."

"Don't you dare say that! I just love his handsome, masculine face, and his physique is so good. Love it, love it..."

Facing the wave of skepticism, Lu Chong couldn't be bothered to respond. When the College Entrance Exam arrived, he would naturally have the chance to prove it to these people.

On June 7th, the national College Entrance Exam officially kicked off. The grand exam, lasting a full eight days, would capture the attention of the entire nation.

Even those powerful figures standing at the top of society would be watching the exam through virtual platforms.

Why did students who weren't short on money spend huge sums on promotion to attract popularity?

They weren't like Lu Chong, who was doing it to earn resources for cultivation.

For these students, the primary goal was to gain the attention of certain big shots.

If they could be remembered by one of the powerhouses and taken on as a disciple, it would truly be a leap to the heavens.

This wasn't just a pipe dream; it happened every year.

After all, those powerhouses also wanted to take on disciples to pass down their mantle.

And the annual national unified exam was the perfect opportunity to scout for good talent.

The cultural subject exams on the 7th and 8th were relatively calm, and there wasn't much attention on them.

On the night of the 8th, Lu Chong's cultural scores and rankings were released; he was only thirty-five points shy of a perfect score.

In the cultural subjects, Lu Chong ranked first in the province and fifth in the entire country.

This result was displayed directly on his personal account, which brought another wave of attention to Lu Chong.

Some official accounts of top-tier liberal arts and science universities even began recruiting in his comment section, offering extremely generous terms.

Lu Chong certainly didn't look down on these schools, but his ambitions lay elsewhere, so he didn't pay them much mind.

As for the mixed bag of fan comments, Lu Chong ignored them entirely.

He was now just waiting for the live-streamed combat portion starting tomorrow; that was when he would truly show his stuff.

However, starting tomorrow, all candidates would enter closed-off exam venues for six days, during which they would be unable to see the status of their personal accounts.

"I hope that when I return from the exam, I'll be met with a pleasant surprise." Lu Chong took a deep breath, adjusted his state of mind, and prepared to face the real exam beginning on the 9th.

He would not underestimate any opponent, because based on the information exposed over the past few days alone, there were no fewer than twenty official Martial Artists among the provincial candidates.

There were surely other Martial Artist candidates who didn't want to reveal themselves, and they were all Lu Chong's competitors.

Of course, Lu Chong wouldn't belittle himself either; he had only one goal now: the provincial top spot.

On the morning of June 9th, all candidates began the Martial Arts Foundation assessment.

It was from this point on that the national public began to flood into the platform, paying close attention to the candidates' performances.

National live-stream accounts, provincial live-stream accounts, municipal live-stream accounts, and numerous self-media channels all began broadcasting the exam's progress, showing the action to the audience from various angles.

In an instant, parents of candidates, powerhouses of all levels, and onlookers poured in.

According to statistics, from this day on, the number of people flooding into the various live streaming platforms for the College Entrance Exam in Huaxia exceeded six hundred million, and the numbers remained high.

Some watched the official broadcast, others followed the personal streams of individual candidates, and many more watched across multiple screens simultaneously.

By the time the results for the Martial Arts Foundation were released that morning, platform traffic began to shift on a massive scale, surging toward the personal accounts of students with outstanding scores.

At this moment, Lu Chong was unaware that after his perfect scores in all four foundation categories were posted, his account had gained over a million followers within an hour, and the number was still climbing.

Everyone knew what four perfect scores signified.

It was the symbol of a formal Martial Artist.

The upper limit for the Foundation Assessment was 400 points, representing a perfect score across all four categories.

Even if you were a level three Martial Artist, the foundation section would not award any additional points.

This was actually done to protect the candidates' privacy and prevent their base data from being leaked.

That day, the official live stream for Hedong Province announced that there were fifty-one candidates who had achieved perfect scores this year.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the official host was still announcing with great passion—

"These are the top contenders for the provincial champion title this year. Of course, there is no shortage of dark horses who might achieve a breakthrough during the Practical Combat Exam."

"Who will ultimately take the crown? Let us wait and see."

Following this official spotlight, Lu Chong's account was flooded with another wave of followers, bringing his total to over three million.

It was also at this time that his personal live stream feed was opened, allowing people to clearly see his every move in the upcoming practical assessment.