College Entrance Exam Reform

[Your player level has increased: Lv.1 → Lv.2!]

["Setting: Personal Reality (Lv.1)" has advanced to "Setting: Personal Reality (Lv.2)"]

["Setting: Fantasy Dissolution" has been enhanced due to the advancement of your Personal Reality.

Its resistance to the mysterious has doubled, allowing it to dissolve the effects caused by higher levels of the mysterious.

At the same time, its durability has increased, allowing it to dispel more mysterious phenomena without collapsing.]

Not only had Personal Reality improved, but even [Fantasy Dissolution] had been enhanced because of it?

Ron immediately opened the detailed page for [Fantasy Dissolution] and found that this Setting, which had just been damaged and should have had 100% damage, was now at 50%.

In other words... after advancing, [Fantasy Dissolution]'s durability had doubled?

Combined with its improved ability to "dissolve the mysterious"...

Ron fell into thought, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.

It seemed that [Fantasy Dissolution] now probably had the power to affect Superpowered above Sequence 7.

That meant that even if he failed to become Lv.3 and remained only Lv.2, he would still have some confidence in returning to the "Potion Era."

After all, for the time being, the strongest enemy he needed to defeat was only a Sequence 7.

If he could defeat those dozen or so Flame-Chasing Knights empowered by the War Overseer's Beyonder ability without using [Fantasy Dissolution]...

No, that would be pushing things too far.

He would only have a chance of winning after playing every card he had... it was still too risky.

Before the next time [Beyonder Loss of Control] affected his advancement, and before he acquired more trump cards, he had better not return to the "Potion Era."

With that thought, Ron cast the matter of the "Potion Era" aside and eagerly looked at his palm—

Compared to the "Potion Era," what he cared about more now was how much stronger [Vector Manipulation] had become after he reached Lv.2!

He closed his eyes and silently sensed his Personal Reality.

The Personal Reality that had just been steadily expanding finally calmed down. Ron's Personal Reality was now clearly much stronger than before.

After Ron put on the "Ability Limiter" and restricted the output of his Ability Model to below 10%, his Personal Reality could only affect an area roughly a dozen centimeters across around him.

That was why, when using [Vector Manipulation], he had to personally throw pebbles or wait for others to get close...

But now, all that was in the past.

His Lv.2 Personal Reality had expanded severalfold, now covering a circle one meter in diameter around him.

A Personal Reality range like this was already enough to support many things Ron had been completely unable to do before!

For example, like right now—

With a thought, the cup on the table floated into the air...

He controlled the cup and violently splashed its contents toward himself.

The water froze in midair, then reflected back the next moment, neatly falling into the cup without a single drop touching him.

He could control the direction of most forces within the range. The reflective field had also expanded, and it lasted longer.

And most importantly...

Ron raised his head and looked at the light in his room.

The lamps of Ideal City had been upgraded and iterated who knew how many times. Even cheap goods like this were guaranteed to function properly until the service life designated by the corporation was reached.

The voice-controlled light in Ron's home had been replaced not long ago. It was still months away from the corporation-designated end of its service life—meaning the time it would inexplicably break down—so there should not have been any problems with it now.

It would emit a steady, gentle light, but...

Ron took a deep breath and ran his Ability Model at full force.

The light began flickering for no apparent reason, and the circuit conducted abnormally—

"Click."

The breaker tripped.

Just as expected...

Ron reset the breaker, a smile curling across his lips.

After reaching Lv.2, [Vector Manipulation] clearly had a much broader range of applications!

After all, [Vector Manipulation] could affect far more than gravity and momentum...

All vectors fell within its scope of control!

Electromagnetic force was naturally included as well.

It was just that after being restricted, Ron had been completely unable to bring out the full potential of [Vector Manipulation].

Only now, relying on the strength of his Lv.2 Personal Reality, could he finally carry a portion of the power [Vector Manipulation] was supposed to possess.

Still... his control over electromagnetism did not seem particularly strong.

Judging from it now, this degree of control was far inferior to that of a pure electromagnetic-type ability user...

For example, An Hui, as the user of [Magnetic Field Rotation], had far greater control over electromagnetism than Ron did now.

Perhaps once the ability restrictions were loosened to a certain extent, and his control over [Vector Manipulation] improved further, it would become stronger...

Ron silently pondered this as he casually used his ability to toss his cup through the air, precisely catching it with his power—

But suddenly, he failed to catch it.

The cup shot out like a fully loaded bullet, smashing into the ceiling and exploding into fragments.

...What was going on?!

Ron stared at his palm in shock, only to suddenly discover that the indicator on the "Ability Limiter" around his neck had turned bright red.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

An urgent alarm rang out, and Ron immediately realized what had happened.

No wonder... no wonder he had become Lv.2 the moment the suppression from [Beyonder Loss of Control] was lifted!

It turned out that the "Ability Limiter" had suffered a degree of overload due to his more active Personal Reality...

And now, because Ron had used his ability too many times in the "Potion Era" and during his recent tests, the "Ability Limiter" had completely overloaded!

The Dimensional Update Manual issued a crisp notification:

[Detected that the player has successfully overloaded an Lv.2 superpower. Extracting hidden Setting—]

[Setting extracted: Ability Overload

The limits of humanity are the boundaries of ideals.

Only by surpassing one's limits can one forge an "ideal."

"This time, I will stake my life... to alter a reality you are powerless to reach!"

—Absolute Ability User, Moen Commerce Chief Executive [Alpha].]

[This Setting is bound to Superpowered. Loading this Setting will overload the Beyonder ability you are using, unleashing its full potential and optimizing its Ability Model.

However, when you overload a superpower beyond what your computational capacity can control, you will be unable to control the Ability Model, triggering computational overload.]

Why was this another negative Setting like [Beyonder Loss of Control]?

Ron furrowed his brow tightly and tried to control his [Personal Reality], which was gradually exceeding its controllable limit—

But the ability that had once been completely under his control slipped through his fingers like fine sand, returning once more to how it had been when he had tried to break through to Lv.2 without resolving [Beyonder Loss of Control].

Everything around him grew restless, and the formerly soft, steady light began flickering between bright and dim.

Ability Overload, computational overload... all of it was right before him.

As expected, things like this could not be solved through so-called willpower and confidence...

Damn it, you forced my hand!

Unable to bear it any longer, Ron tapped the tiny minus sign beside [Ability Overload].

In an instant, every fluctuation in his abilities vanished.

Everything that had been restless returned to normal. The unstable lights glowed steadily again, as though nothing had happened...

The "Ability Limiter" around his neck also stopped beeping its alarm, though its red indicator remained lit.

Ron tried to use [Vector Manipulation] again, but the moment he attempted to grasp a wisp of wind, the "Ability Limiter" around his neck sounded its alarm once more—

The next moment, [Ability Overload] automatically loaded and appeared in the Dimensional Update Manual again!

Sure enough, if he could not repair the completely overloaded "Ability Limiter" and properly restrict the Ability Model...

No matter how Ron used [Vector Manipulation] now, the intensity of the Ability Model would immediately overload his ability.

...Too bad it was too late.

Tomorrow, he would go to the Ability Training Center and ask Teacher Deng Yin to repair it.

Ron sighed and began cleaning up the mess caused by his Ability Overload.

The next day.

Ron strolled through the commercial street of District C, only to suddenly see an unfamiliar GG appear on a giant screen—

A beautiful young woman in revealing clothes sat in an examination room, writing furiously. Suddenly, the examinee seated in front of her stood up and abruptly reached toward her...

The next moment, flames appeared in his palm and surged toward the young woman's exam paper!

Clearly, he intended to burn her paper outright, causing her to receive a zero in the academic subjects for failing to submit it!

But just then...

The pencil case on the young woman's desk suddenly stood up, extending and transforming like a miniature mech into a little steel figure that shielded the test paper—

It projected an energy barrier, directly blocking the flames from the examinee in front!

Meanwhile, the young woman continued writing furiously. The crisis that could have ruined her test paper was resolved with ease, having no effect whatsoever on her exam.

On the screen, after finishing her test, she picked up the pencil case, which had returned to normal, and smiled at the camera.

"Examination rooms carry risks. Take your exams with caution."

"Sunshine Stationery safeguards your exams and helps you soar to success!"

"Buy the [Protector] pencil case and [Attacker] gel pen set now for only 9,999 Credit Points..."

...What the hell was that?!

Ron looked at the screen, speechless. Why did it make the Ideal City College Entrance Exam look like a battlefield?

They were even protecting test papers now...

After all, although the major corporations of Ideal City had never treated people particularly well, and there were all sorts of bonus-point factors outside the College Entrance Exam that affected candidates' rankings, the exam itself had always been fair and serious—

At the very least, anyone who damaged another candidate's test paper in the same examination room would be immediately arrested by Patrol Bureau officers. Unless they paid more than 100,000 Credit Points, they could forget about getting out of prison...

As for innocent victims whose exams had been affected, they would be taken away and assigned to a separate makeup examination room, where they would retake the exam using a backup paper.

What a bizarre GG...

Ron pushed open the doors of the Ability Training Center in exasperation. Deng Yin was waiting there for him.

"You're here? Today... hm? What's wrong with your Ability Limiter?"

Deng Yin immediately noticed the Silver-White Collar around Ron's neck. Seeing the flashing red light, his expression instantly turned grave.

"My ability broke through its limit and rose to Lv.2, directly overloading it..."

Ron offered a simple explanation, earning a stunned look from Deng Yin.

"You... your ability can actually break through the limiter?! And you can break through to Lv.2 while restricted?"

For a moment, the usually composed old man seemed dazed. He braced his cane against the ground and shook his head faintly.

At last, after a long silence, a bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He looked at Ron with a trace of emotion in his eyes.

"Perhaps... your ability has far more development potential than I thought.

I misjudged your potential... forget it. Let us not talk about that."

He shook his head, no longer voicing such sentiments, and led Ron into the basement.

Before long, they reset the "Ability Limiter" and adjusted the restrictions on Ron's ability.

"The effects brought by your advancement are significant... the controllable range of your ability has increased quite a bit."

Deng Yin put on his glasses and came over with the data records.

"I've adjusted your ability restriction to 11%—it may be a little difficult to control, but I believe you can handle it."

He opened a data display and pointed at the records on it.

"Your ability has already undergone a temporary breakthrough beyond its limit once, so for now, we cannot determine exactly how much you must control the Ability Model to become Lv.3...

However, based on a simple estimate, I suspect that you may have a chance to touch the threshold of Lv.3 when you control the Ability Model to 35%."

Thirty-five percent?

Ron sensed the slightly unruly ability within his palm and could not help shaking his head.

To loosen the Ability Model's restriction to 35% without collapsing, who knew how long he would need to train...

At the very least, if he relied only on gradual effort, it would likely take a year for Ron to raise both his computational capacity and Personal Reality enough to withstand 35% of [Vector Manipulation].

It seemed impossible for him to become Lv.3 before the College Entrance Exam...

Still, there had only been a handful of people in Ideal City's entire history who had managed to become Lv.3 during the College Entrance Exam, so Ron was not too concerned.

If he remembered correctly, every monstrous genius who had reached Lv.3 before the College Entrance Exam had eventually earned a unique "ability title" and become an Lv.5 standing at the pinnacle of Ideal City...

Lv.2 was already enough—even if he could not seize first place in admission to Moen University, Ron definitely had a chance to compete for the top ten!

As Ron thought this to himself, he followed Deng Yin out of the basement when he suddenly heard him say:

"By the way, with your ability overloaded, I imagine you were not in the mood to follow the news... did you see the GG playing on those big screens outside?"

GG?

Ron immediately thought of that Sunshine Stationery GG and curled his lip.

"I saw it, but it felt strange. It made the College Entrance Exam seem like a battlefield..."

"So you really do not know..."

Deng Yin sighed. "Those GGs are actually not a problem. Though the content looks rather strange, they are indeed special products made for this College Entrance Exam."

"For some reason, the city government has raised the proportion of combat capability in this ability test while reducing the share of points allotted to academic subjects.

"And this time's ability test has been changed into an ability competition open to investment from all corporations."

"In other words," he said solemnly, "the College Entrance Exam has been reformed."

"The direction of the reform... is combat!"