Jia Xiu's Epic-Level Understanding

"What secret mission are you carrying out?"

The city guards raised their spears and pointed them at Jia Xiu.

Jia Xiu calmly explained, "That man is the Devil's child! His eyes are red, and his whole body reeks of sulfur! If you let him continue his evil deeds, all of you will be buried in the fires of hell—you, your families, everyone!"

The guards quietly listened to his explanation.

They were utterly shocked.

Then they arrested Jia Xiu.

He had no choice but to leave Phantom World and make a run for it.

One-star review. It was nowhere near as free as he had imagined, and it didn't even have his favorite trash-talking dialogue system.

Fortunately, today was not the official exam, so he could exit whenever he wanted. Once he entered again, he would return to the place where he had first entered.

Moreover, Phantom World would not remember anything he did. Every time he entered, he was a brand-new outsider.

Over the next several attempts, Jia Xiu tried committing crimes openly, then fighting back and fleeing.

He ultimately concluded that fighting back was impossible. The city guards seemed invincible in Phantom World, and none of the spells he knew had any effect on them.

Escaping, however, was somewhat possible. He might not be able to get away completely, but he could ensure that the guards would not immediately catch up and arrest him.

Jia Xiu wrote this down in his little notebook.

Perhaps it could serve as a way to pass the test.

When he entered Phantom World once again, he decided to conduct a more rigorous test.

Back when he had been the lead programmer at a game studio, the startup phase had been desperately short on manpower. There had been no dedicated testing department, so once a new feature was completed, the testing fell to the designers or programmers themselves.

So Jia Xiu had some experience in this area.

He went to the place he should have visited first in the standard exam process: the Caster Association.

According to the academy, he was supposed to complete his class registration here and obtain the necessary magical items.

It really was a highly realistic adventuring process.

What Jia Xiu needed to confirm now was exactly how realistic it was, and whether the registration process could be used to test out some unusual options.

He walked up to the Caster Association counter.

"I want to register as a warlock."

"Please fill out this form."

The staff member did not verify Jia Xiu's actual class and simply took out a form.

Jia Xiu accepted it without filling it out, then continued asking questions.

"I want to register as a warrior."

The staff member answered with a smile.

"This is the Caster Association. Warriors cannot register here."

"I want to register as a goblin."

"Sorry, I cannot understand your question."

"I want to register as half a mage."

"Sorry, I cannot, cannot..."

Seeing the slight stutter in her response, Jia Xiu smiled faintly. He had found a loophole.

The mage who had created Phantom World might have been powerful, but when it came to understanding users, there was no way he could surpass Jia Xiu.

Jia Xiu pressed on.

"I want to register as the president of the Caster Association..."

More than ten minutes later, the staff member behind the association counter still wore her standard smile.

Who would have guessed that she could barely get her words out after facing Jia Xiu's questions?

A fake world really was nice. If she had been an actual Caster Association employee, she would have lost her temper long ago after being questioned like this.

Although the fake staff member before him was nearly broken from all the messing around, Jia Xiu was still not satisfied.

After thinking for a moment, he asked one final question.

"I'd like to order a plate of egg fried rice."

The poor staff member was completely unable to find a matching answer for that question and froze.

"Whew—"

Jia Xiu let out a long breath. Now he was satisfied.

Next stop, the Adventurer Association...

Meanwhile, at the Saint Delro Academy examination center.

Margaret sat in the conference room, waiting for the leader of the second round of exams to explain the key points the proctors needed to keep in mind.

Because the situations that could arise during this round would exceed the Eye of Detection's capacity for comprehension, more proctors were needed to take turns watching over the examinees.

Each person would be responsible for roughly twenty students.

While waiting, she spotted Professor Piyede.

Come to think of it, it was strange. She had not seen Professor Piyede for several days. The last time had probably been during the written exam.

The professor had called out that he was going to see Jia Xiu, and then he had never returned to the examination center.

She had no idea what he had been doing all this time.

As a result, Margaret had never gotten the chance to ask how his conversation with Jia Xiu had gone.

Even stranger, the professor who had reappeared seemed like an entirely different person.

He had originally been a neat little old man who cared greatly about his appearance.

His hair was usually combed perfectly flat.

He even styled his beard into two exquisite curls.

But now, Margaret had not even recognized Professor Piyede at first glance.

His hair was a complete mess, as if he had been struck by Lightning Strike, and his scalp was faintly visible through it.

She did not remember the professor having so little hair before.

His beard had lost its shape as well. It looked as though much of it had been pulled out, dense on one side and sparse on the other.

From the moment he entered the conference room, the professor had sat in a corner with a stack of manuscript paper in his hands, each page densely covered in all kinds of mathematical symbols.

Margaret was also a mage, but she was not particularly skilled at mathematics. She was still better than ordinary people, but when she looked at the pages in Professor Piyede's hands...

Her head spun. It really spun.

She felt that if she looked at them a few more times, she would have a headache until nightfall.

Margaret walked over, intending to show some concern for the professor. Of course, she was mainly concerned about his recruitment progress.

"Ahem, Professor Piyede, are you..."

"Shh—"

Before Margaret could finish, Professor Piyede interrupted her with a gesture for silence.

"Do you hear it?"

Margaret was baffled.

"Hear, hear what?"

"The notes of mathematics, echoing through the air. I hear a wonderful melody of truth. Oh, that is a brand-new inspiration for a proof. This line of thinking must be correct..."

The professor muttered mysteriously.

After saying that, he tore off a blank sheet of draft paper and began writing lines of equations that Margaret could not understand.

What was going on?

What had Jia Xiu done to the professor? He had not gotten himself into some kind of trouble, had he?

Just as Margaret was at a loss, the leader of the second round entered the conference room.

"Alright, I'll go over the key things we need to pay attention to in this round of exams.

"My original intention in setting this round was because our academy's students have declined somewhat in actual combat ability in recent years. Many have also forgotten the fine traditions of spellcasters. We grew through adventure after adventure, battle after battle, so I hope that starting with this class of students, we will once again place importance on real combat.

"In short, there are three things to assess: combat, combat, and combat..."

In an ordinary inn in Larven.

"I believe this exam absolutely cannot be testing only combat."

Jia Xiu declared with complete confidence.

"Today in Phantom World, I already discovered plenty of loopholes. The academy's mages could not possibly have made it this crude, so there is only one possibility: it was intentional."

"That's awesome, Boss."

Influenced by Bubu and Ram, Mia had also started calling him Boss.

"Didn't get it, Boss."

Ram scratched his head.

"It's fine. You don't need to get it. In short, this exam definitely deliberately left behind some special ways to pass, waiting for the examinees to discover them. And students who use those methods will definitely score higher than those who earn thirty krona in the dungeon, because what the academy truly wants to assess is our ability to identify problems. That is a spellcaster's most valuable quality. I've completely seen through the exam committee's intentions."

"Then what should we do, Boss?"

Jia Xiu lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "First, we do this, then that, and finally that. If it doesn't work, we still have these backup plans..."