Noon.
Close to one o'clock.
Quite a few trainees had gathered in the spacious hall on the top floor of the Nine-story Tower. There were trainees from the European Union, Soviet Russia, America, and China.
According to the training camp's rules, the Trial Tower opened after one o'clock. Many trainees with no classes or no way to go out and hunt monsters would come to the hall early to line up.
"What's going on? Teacher Xia has been in there with those two Chinese people for an hour already. Why haven't they come out?" A trainee kept checking his communication wristwatch, frowning.
Some trainees from the European Union immediately sneered. "Chinese people are so slow."
Quite a few Chinese trainees glared at them. Competition in the training camp was fierce, and the Chinese faction had always been at odds with the European Union faction. The main reason was that the European Union faction often bullied Chinese newcomers.
"Johnny, use that pig brain of yours. Teacher Xia brought those two here for trainee testing. If I remember correctly, the siblings had just reached Beginner General and High-level Warrior respectively. With that kind of strength, they should have come out long ago. But since an hour has already passed and they still haven't come out, it means they passed the A-level test and are taking the B-level test, which is why it's taking so long," a woman among the Chinese trainees said softly.
She was Wang Ning, who had helped Zhou Hao and the others earlier.
As soon as she said that,
not only did the European Union trainees burst into laughter, but the Black trainees and the trainees from Soviet Russia and America also roared with laughter.
"Wang Ning, you're at least a top-eighty trainee and have been at the training camp for over a year, yet you think these siblings can pass the A-level test? I think you're the one with a pig brain," one of Johnny's friends mocked.
Wang Ning wanted to argue, but a friend beside her pulled her back.
"Don't argue with them. It's pointless."
"Right. We met Zhou Ying'er and her brother last night. They really aren't that strong. I think Teacher Xia must be using this hour to let them train their abilities."
"Exactly. Besides, the siblings have already joined the HR Alliance. Even if they fail the test, they'll still be specially recruited. We don't need to worry."
Only after hearing her friends did Wang Ning snort coldly and stop arguing with Johnny and the others.
One o'clock soon passed.
The trainee at the front of the line could no longer wait and headed straight for the innermost passage.
Johnny and the other trainees wanted to watch the show, so they followed.
"We're going too. Don't let them bully Zhou Ying'er and her brother," Wang Ning and the others immediately followed.
Before long,
trainees filled the area outside the room at the end of the passage.
"What are you doing?" Xia Jing rebuked them.
"Teacher Xia, it's my turn for the trial from one to two. The time has already passed, so shouldn't they leave the Trial Space?" The one who spoke was a trainee from Soviet Russia.
Only then did Xia Jing check the time. "It has indeed passed. I've already applied to Director Zheng for a ten-minute extension. Today's Trial Tower operating time will also be extended until ten in the evening, so you don't need to worry."
The Soviet Russian trainee nodded. "All right, then. I'll wait here."
Xia Jing looked at the other trainees.
Johnny and the others immediately said, "We'll wait here too."
Xia Jing frowned but said nothing. After all, the training camp had no rule requiring trainees to line up in the hall.
The ten minutes slowly passed.
Xia Jing and Zhou Ying'er both grew tense.
Then, as soon as it turned one ten,
Zhou Hao, wearing a dark blue helmet, suddenly opened his eyes.
"How was it? Did you pass the first floor's B-level test?" Xia Jing stared at Zhou Hao and asked impatiently.
The group of trainees outside the room froze when they heard that.
"What? This four-year-old kid actually passed the A-level test?"
"Didn't they say he was only a Beginner General and hadn't trained in movement techniques or other secret manuals?"
Many trainees whispered among themselves.
Wang Ning, Yang Kuo, and the other Chinese trainees were also astonished. When they had first joined the training camp, they too had spent quite some time before passing the A-level test.
Inside the room,
Zhou Hao stood up from the sofa and stretched his body before replying, "I passed."
Xia Jing's eyes immediately lit up. Suppressing his excitement, he tried to keep his voice calm. "So you failed the C-level test? That's perfectly normal. Being able to pass the B-level test means you have some talent in movement techniques and blade techniques..."
Zhou Hao nodded. His childish voice was somewhat unwilling. "The second floor's C-level test was indeed a bit difficult, but the main issue was that the time was too short. If I had a little more time, I should have been able to pass."
The limit of the third level of the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade was actually the second floor's A-level test. Yet, with his Perfect-grade Movement Technique and War God Limit neural reaction speed, he had forcibly cleared the B-level test. In the end, because of the time limit, he had only managed to kill one hundred Desert Low-level Beast General Iron Armored Scorpions in the C-level test before being directly kicked out of the Trial Space.
Xia Jing froze. "Wait, did you just say you failed in the second floor's C-level test?"
"Yeah." Zhou Hao blinked, looking utterly adorable.
"You... tell me, what exactly was the second floor's C-level test?" Xia Jing's voice began to tremble.
Zhou Hao immediately explained the test's difficulty.
After he finished speaking,
the entire room and the corridor outside fell so silent that a pin could have been heard dropping.
Xia Jing was dumbfounded.
Johnny, Wang Ning, and the other trainees were dumbfounded as well.
Since the Global Elite Training Camp had been established, there had never been a case of someone passing the second floor's B-level test on their first entry into the Trial Tower.
Even that European Union super genius from eight years ago, who had entered the top one hundred of the rankings in his first month, had achieved only the first floor's C-level test on his first entry into the training camp's Trial Tower.
But now, that record had been broken.
A four-year-old child from Jiangnan Base City had passed the second floor's B-level test on his very first try. Such a result was simply unimaginable.
However, no one suspected Zhou Hao of lying.
After all, it was far too easy to expose such a lie. The stone pillars on either side of the Trial Tower entrance could easily display Trial Tower results, and Director Zheng, who was in charge of the Trial Tower, could also easily look them up.
"Haha, Zhou Hao, you're a genius—a true genius!!" Xia Jing snapped out of his daze. Unable to suppress his excitement any longer, he burst into loud laughter.
Having spent ten years at the training camp, he knew very well that to pass the Trial Tower's second floor B-level test, one's Punch Power level had to be at least 2.5, one's movement technique had to reach advanced Micro-level mastery or even touch the level of a Perfect-grade Movement Technique, and one had to have cultivated any secret manual worth at least ten billion to at least the third level. Otherwise, it was fundamentally impossible to pass.
Among the nearly two hundred trainees currently in the Elite Training Camp, more than half could not meet those requirements.
In other words,
based on Combat Power amplification alone, Zhou Hao could rank among the top one hundred!
If Zhou Hao had reached this level after joining the training camp for a year,
Xia Jing would not have felt excited at all.
But the key was,
Zhou Hao had only just joined the training camp, and he was only four years old!
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