Prelude to the Exam

That powerful reasoning left Li Hanyi somewhat speechless, but since she had agreed, she could not go back on her word. Still, all of that would probably have to wait until after the exams. After all, the most important thing now was the major exam, along with the upcoming entrance exams.

The two chatted idly, but Li Hanyi's change in attitude drew the attention of some observant people. After all, who had ever seen Li Hanyi display such an attitude over the past two years?

"Holy shit, Little Xu, what's going on? Didn't they say Cao Xiaochun awakened as a Gu Master? This doesn't look right. Since when did he get so close to Li Hanyi?"

"Pan Yuanyuan seemed to have a thing for him even before he awakened. Now that he has awakened, even Li Hanyi is acting like this. Could it be because of that handsome face of his?"

"What the hell does it have to do with you, you damn sissy? They've been desk mates for over two years. What's wrong with saying a few words?"

"And even if he's a Gu Master, does that affect Xiaochun's position as the second most handsome guy in class?"

Xu Laoba rolled his eyes, clearly impatient with his effeminate desk mate. Obviously, he was the most handsome guy in class, but his luck was terrible. Other people got to sit next to beautiful girls, while he had to sit beside a damn sissy!

"Oh, don't be so fierce. I'm only kindly reminding you because I know you two are close. Even if they get married tomorrow, it's none of my business. It's not like I like women."

"But Li Hanyi has plenty of admirers throughout the school. You know this major exam is taking place in a dungeon controlled by the school, and everyone will be acting together then. If they pull any tricks in there, your brother might have a hard time."

Li Wenbin did not care about Xu Laoba's attitude at all. Instead, he slung an arm around his shoulder and lowered his voice as he spoke gently.

"They dare? Do they think Xu Laoba is dead?"

Sure enough, upon hearing Li Wenbin's words, Xu Laoba's eyes widened as he shouted loudly.

With me here, who dares bully my brother?

"Don't be so confident. Haven't you noticed that a lot of people in class are already looking at him differently?"

Li Wenbin smiled faintly, continuing to remind Xu Laoba.

Xu Laoba turned and looked around. Sure enough, many people were looking in Cao Xiaochun's direction and whispering among themselves. The gazes of many boys toward him seemed distinctly unfriendly.

Seeing this, Xu Laoba immediately wanted to go over and warn Cao Xiaochun. But just then, the homeroom teacher slowly walked into the classroom. With only a few light coughs, the previously noisy classroom instantly fell silent.

"Mm, not bad. Nearly ninety-five percent of the class has already reached Level Four. This makes me very pleased. It proves that during these seven days of vacation, you entered dungeons and trained hard."

After roughly scanning everyone's information with Detection, Li Hao was very happy. Although only twenty of the forty-two students in his class had awakened combat professions, even those with non-combat professions had trained diligently during the break. That was what mattered most.

In this era where the game had descended upon the world, no matter who they were, no one should give up on themselves!

As for the remaining five percent of students who had not reached Level Four, that was within his expectations. These students did not come from well-off families, so it was clearly unrealistic to expect their families to buy experience potions for them. Naturally, Li Hao could not say much about it.

In fact, ever since they had awakened, Li Hao had applied to the school for a batch of experience potions to be allocated to these impoverished students.

After his unremitting efforts, the school had agreed to subsidize a batch of potions.

After all, even in dungeons controlled by the school, there were some unpredictable factors. If anything truly happened to them, aside from their parents, the person who would suffer the most would be him, their homeroom teacher.

"At ten o'clock, gather on the field and prepare to enter the major exam dungeon."

"Let me add one more thing. Since you'll be staying inside for seven days, make sure you keep the resource packs distributed by the school safe, and under no circumstances are you to stray from the location marked on the map!"

"If you encounter danger, immediately abandon the exam and teleport back! Safety always comes first!"

"I know that when all of you entered a dungeon for the first time, you had either hired teams or your family's guards beside you. But for this exam, you can only rely on yourselves or the classmates you team up with. So don't let your guard down. Do you understand?"

Li Hao's expression was exceptionally stern as he spoke. He even used the pressure of his profession, all so that the students would take his words to heart!

"Understood!"

As Li Hao's words fell, a thunderous response erupted from the classroom!

Although this major exam was a test, was it not also the first step toward their independence? Thus, all the students were exceptionally serious. After all, whose youth did not have a period of passionate, fiery ambition?

"Good. Since our class has exactly forty-two people, we'll split into seven teams. Each team will have two combat profession holders leading four non-combat profession holders."

"Here, I hope the combat profession holders can take good care of their classmates. Can you do that?"

"Yes!"

Because of Li Hao's words, a strong sense of responsibility suddenly surged within the combat profession holders. They had only just awakened, yet they were already able to protect their classmates. That responsibility, combined with the feeling of being a strong person, made them exceptionally excited!

Other than Li Hanyi and Cao Xiaochun, the remaining combat profession holders raised their arms and cheered. They were all students—who could refuse such glory?

"Good. Then divide yourselves into teams. Class monitor, collect the list of names. Line up at the field at 9:40."

"And the impoverished students, come with me for a moment."

Li Hao smiled. After offering a few words of encouragement, he slowly left.

The moment Li Hao left, the classroom erupted into discussion. Every student with a non-combat profession was looking for someone who could take them along. After all, for the next seven days, those people would be their only support.

The largest number of students crowded toward Li Hanyi. Everyone knew that she had awakened as a Demon Contractor, a high-level rare profession. With someone like her to rely on, they would surely be able to achieve good results.

People also surrounded the other profession holders, eagerly promoting themselves.

Cao Xiaochun's side, however, was somewhat awkward. Although his Gu Master was technically a combat profession, everyone seemed to ignore him. After all, who in this world did not know that Gu Masters were a weak-as-hell profession?

Cao Xiaochun did not care about this. Instead, he gave up his seat for others and watched the show from the side.

"Do you want to be in a group with me? I remember the teacher said that two combat profession holders can be together."

Before Cao Xiaochun had sat for long, Li Hanyi ignored everyone else's attempts to promote themselves and instead came to his side, inviting him expectantly.