The atmosphere in the square was incredibly tense.
Countless parents saw their children off at the other side of the cordon, constantly telling them things like, "Don't be nervous," and "It'll be fine."
Naturally, Lin Yi's father was no exception.
Lin Yi even saw his mother, Xu Qingfang, standing behind his father with red-rimmed eyes, tears streaming down her face.
After offering them a few reassuring words,
Lin Yi waved and smiled. "Just wait for my good news. Turn on the TV—maybe you'll see me on it this afternoon."
This wasn't blind confidence on Lin Yi's part.
It was the Forbidden Spell in his hand that gave him confidence.
No matter how difficult this exam was, surely one Forbidden Spell would be enough to deal with it, right?
After saying goodbye to his parents,
Lin Yi searched for a long time but couldn't find his school's gathering point.
"A'Yi!!!"
"Over here!!"
As Lin Yi walked, he suddenly heard a familiar booming voice. Turning around,
he saw the tall and burly Zhang Shan standing on tiptoe amid a distant crowd, waving and shouting in his direction.
Lin Yi no longer needed to keep looking. He quickly joined the main group from Jiangcheng No. 2 High School.
Then, the homeroom teachers of each class began speaking again.
As usual, they served everyone a huge bowl of motivational platitudes.
More than ten minutes later, an announcement rang out over the station broadcast.
"Attention, all candidates participating in the 3024 National Unified Entrance Examination for Higher Institutions for Class Users. All special exam trains have arrived. Candidates from every organization, please enter the station in an orderly manner!"
"The special trains will depart in thirty minutes. Candidates from every organization, please enter the station in an orderly manner!"
On this day, every other train service in Jiangcheng had been suspended for the entire morning, and only exam supervisors with work badges and candidates were allowed into the station.
So, although tens of thousands of people in Jiangcheng were taking the college entrance exam this year, the boarding process still went smoothly.
More than ten minutes later, Lin Yi and the other students had all boarded the special train and taken their assigned seats.
As soon as he entered the carriage, Lin Yi discovered that their class was actually seated together with a class from Minchang No. 1 High School, another fairly well-known base city in Dongjiang Province.
The front half of the carriage was occupied by candidates from Mianchang No. 1 High School, while the back half was occupied by the students of Class Eight from Jiangcheng No. 2 High School, where Lin Yi was.
Although the two homeroom teachers didn't know each other, they remained fairly courteous. Since they couldn't accompany the candidates to Tianhai,
they used the time before departure to offer a few final words.
"Students, I won't say much else."
"I'll just stress one last point, and it's extremely important!"
"You must thoroughly read and remember the examination rules printed on the back of your admission tickets!"
"You must follow these rules without violating even the slightest one. Great Xia is extremely strict about cheating and disciplinary violations. Once you break the rules, you will be disqualified on the spot!"
"If the circumstances are serious, you may even be permanently barred from taking the college entrance exam!"
Just as the homeroom teacher finished speaking, a staff member outside began shouting through a loudspeaker.
"All exam escorts, please disembark immediately! The special train will depart in five minutes!"
In the end, only fifty or sixty candidates remained in the entire carriage.
The atmosphere was somewhat tense, and coupled with the significance of the moment, no one chatted idly.
Five minutes passed in the blink of an eye.
Lin Yi heard waves of ringing.
A tremor came from beneath the train.
The doors shut completely, and the train slowly began to pick up speed.
After leaving Jiangcheng Station, a pitch-black tunnel appeared ahead of the train, leading straight underground.
When boarding, everyone had fastened their seatbelts as instructed. Once they entered the tunnel, the train's movement felt much like free-falling.
Or one of those drop towers Lin Yi had ridden in his previous life.
In any case, it was both novel and thrilling.
But the novelty came quickly and faded just as fast.
Because the scenery outside the train windows never changed.
There were only dim yellow lights and black walls within the tunnel.
Lin Yi chose to close his eyes and rest.
He had gotten up too early that morning and still hadn't slept enough.
However, the Class Eight students sitting beside him, as well as the students from Mianchang No. 1 High School at the front of the carriage, began talking among themselves.
Zhang Shan looked at Lin Yi, who was resting with his eyes closed, and swallowed. "I'm so nervous..."
"A'Yi, let's talk..."
"A'Yi, what should I do? My mind is completely blank right now. What if I mess up the exam later?"
"My dad will skin me alive!"
Lin Yi was utterly fed up.
He opened his eyes and slapped Zhang Shan on the head, snapping, "Can you fucking calm down? Your voice is so loud. Aren't you embarrassed?"
"You were nervous when you awakened your class, and now you're nervous about the college entrance exam too. How the fuck did you become a knight?"
After being scolded by Lin Yi, Zhang Shan didn't get angry. Instead, he smiled like a pervert.
He was only afraid that Lin Yi was pretending to sleep and would truly ignore him.
Zhang Shan lowered his voice and whispered, "A'Yi, what level are you now?"
"I heard from my dad that the specific difficulty of the college entrance exam is set according to your level when you take it. The higher the difficulty you choose, the more points you can earn, which is how you stand out in the exam!"
Lin Yi glanced at Zhang Shan and said helplessly, "How many times have you asked me since we got on the train? I don't want to tell you because I'm afraid it'll crush your confidence!"
Zhang Shan said, "Hey, are you looking down on me or what!"
"No matter what, I grinded like crazy for a long time while you were all emo, okay? Even if you seriously start leveling later, you'll definitely surpass me, but it can't be by that much, right?"
As he spoke, Zhang Shan actually cast a Basic Identification Skill on Lin Yi.
Then he let out a strange cry.
"Holy shit! Identification failed?!"
"A'Yi, don't tell me you're already level 20???"
Zhang Shan was currently level 15.
With ordinary Identification Skills, as long as the target was within five levels, information could generally be obtained.
Yet this time, Zhang Shan's Identification Skill had failed.
That meant Lin Yi was at least five levels higher than him!
Although Zhang Shan had lowered his voice earlier,
that startled shout immediately drew countless curious looks from everyone else in the carriage.
The students of Class Eight all wore astonished expressions.
"Huh? Lin Yi reached level 20??"
"That can't be possible, right!"
"Zhang Shan said that, that idiot!"
"Maybe he was mistakenly made!"
"Something's wrong. Zhang Shan is already level 15. If his Identification Skill failed, it can only mean Lin Yi is at least five levels above him!"
"Damn, that's way too insane!"
"I'm only level 14!"
"I'm only level 13..."
"Are level 12s beyond saving?"
"By the way, what level is the school beauty Jiang Ya?"
"I heard she's level 19. When she came back to school to pick up her admission ticket a few days ago, the teachers even praised her specially!"
"Then it looks like Lin Yi has her pinned beneath him again!"
"Ahem, tell us more about this pinned beneath him?"
"I kind of feel bad for her. On the day of the awakening, everyone thought she had finally beaten Lin Yi once. But now it seems she's lost to him in terms of level again..."
"Lin Yi, that Great Demon King, hasn't lost any of his old swagger..."
Jiang Ya listened to the discussions around her.
She had already calmed down considerably.
Because Lin Yi had entered the Global Dungeon Rankings Hall of Fame,
and aside from her, none of the other students present knew about it.
Compared to such a supreme honor,
what did it matter if his level was higher than hers...
But at that moment, the heated discussion in Class Eight actually drew mockery from the students of Mianchang No. 1 High School in the front half of the carriage.
"Is this the backward educational standard of a Level 5 Base City... How hilarious. And you people are actually showing off over level 20?"
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