Exam Eligibility

Time flew by.

During the final two days, Ron rested and recuperated while training his abilities and fobbing off the client behind the assassination commission on the Magician Forum.

Whenever the client urged him on, Ron said he was preparing and would carry out the assassination soon...

The last time, the client had sensed that Ron still had not made any move and came to confront him in a furious rage.

With a quick turn of his mind, Ron sent them a photo of himself lying in a pool of blood—

He had taken the photo using his phone's timer. The pool of blood was expired tomato juice bought wholesale at a low price from an online shopping platform, and the injuries had been sculpted with [Thousand Faces].

In short, after seeing that Ron was already "dead," the anonymous client was extremely satisfied. With a grand wave of their hand, they settled the remaining payment, adding five hundred thousand Credit Points to the old magician's account.

Unfortunately, although it was an immensely useful fortune to Ron, he did not dare touch a single Credit Point in it.

—What if they tracked him down through the spending records?

In any case, he had temporarily bluffed his way past the assassination crisis. Money was not that important...

After all, once he got into Moen University, why would he need to worry about money?

Filled with confidence and anticipation for the exam, the day of the College Entrance Exam soon arrived.

Under the normal College Entrance Exam schedule, candidates had always been required to finish all academic-subject exams on the first day.

Many people's journeys ended at that moment. Only the Superpowered could take part in the following five days of exams and fight for a new future through the ability tests.

Ron got up early, carefully tidied himself up, and strode into the examination hall with complete confidence.

He believed that even though he had not reviewed any academic subjects for half a month, his knowledge base would still be enough to earn high marks!

Ron looked proudly over the other candidates, ready to see what sort of opponents he had been matched against—

Then he learned what it meant for there to always be someone better.

"Damn rich people..."

Walking out of the examination hall, Ron cursed under his breath and snapped the gel pen in his hand in half.

He had expected it. He knew that in Ideal City, rich people could ignore the rules during exams—but was this not a little too outrageous?

They filed a request saying they needed to use the restroom. Fine, use the restroom—but what did it mean to bring the exam paper into the bathroom?

Then they came back and handed in their papers right away. Why not just give them full marks on the academic subjects?

There were stand-ins taking exams, people copying answers in the examination hall, and even people directly activating their brain-computer interfaces to use AI for answers...

One genius could not even copy the answers properly. His cheat sheet drifted right onto Ron's desk.

Ron was so angry he laughed. "Buddy, are you the only one taking this exam?"

Then he looked at some of the top-tier questions on the paper that he could not even understand and could not help laughing in resignation.

He felt that on the first day of the exam, he had not been fighting humans at all... They were all cheating dogs!

And this was only the examination environment in District D of Ideal City. Ron did not dare imagine what the academic-subject exams would become in District A or District B.

"Ron? You came out at this time... Did you hand in your paper early?"

A familiar voice reached his ears. Ron turned around and found Lin Shuyao, dressed in an invigilator's uniform.

Unlike before, this senior from Moen University had clearly made an effort to tidy herself up after putting on the invigilator's uniform.

She was not like last time, wearing faded clothes with her hair in a mess.

Now, Lin Shuyao's hair was smooth and tied into a high ponytail. In her invigilator's uniform, she had the crisp, capable air of a young teacher.

"...I had no choice. I couldn't understand the later questions at all, and I didn't want to watch the other candidates copy answers, so I just handed in my paper early."

Ron sighed, his voice full of resentment.

"Could the last few questions really have been written by humans?

I seriously suspect the question writers were so immersed in their own worlds that they had forgotten what heaven and earth even were..."

They had actually set a question asking candidates what the first Superpowered person, Moen Commerce CEO "Alpha," ate for breakfast on the morning of the third day of her eighteenth year and seventh month!

Who the hell would know that??

Hearing the faint resentment in Ron's voice, Lin Shuyao deeply sympathized with him.

"I understand you... I went through the same thing back then.

Those completely incomprehensible questions weren't written for us. They were bonus questions specifically for rich people—

Because of the College Entrance Exam reforms this time, the already-disregarded academic-subject exams are now receiving no attention at all, so these phenomena are more common than in previous years.

District D is still alright. The bonus questions are only a few final major problems. In District A and District B, ninety percent of the entire paper consists of bonus questions like these..."

As Lin Shuyao spoke, she patted his shoulder encouragingly.

"For ordinary people like us, getting a passing score on the academic-subject exams is already quite good.

And academic subjects aren't important. Under the revised scoring system, ability tests account for more than ninety percent of the total score.

If you can earn the highest score in the new ability tests, then even if you get zero points in the academic subjects, you can still become Ideal City's top College Entrance Exam scorer..."

Ron knew that after this College Entrance Exam reform, ability tests carried an extremely high weight.

He knew academic subjects were not important... But watching those people cheat so freely in the examination hall still left him feeling dissatisfied.

It felt as though his own hard work had been trampled on at will.

Still, it did not matter.

They could cheat in the academic subjects. They could rely on those bonus questions to write high-scoring answers...

But when it came to ability tests, when they truly had to use their abilities to fight—

What waves could those pampered pieces of trash possibly make?

No matter how many despicable tricks they used, they could never beat Ron...

Ron adjusted his state and heard Lin Shuyao say again.

"Since you've already handed in your paper early, hurry to the ability-testing examination hall...

As a friend, I have to remind you of one thing—getting there early will definitely benefit you."

A benefit?

Ron froze, confused for a moment.

According to the College Entrance Exam process, he knew that ability testing would begin seamlessly as soon as the academic exams ended on the first day...

But the contents of the ability tests had always been confidential, and no one knew what kind of testing method would be used now.

Why would arriving at the examination hall early be beneficial...

Ron could not figure it out, but he knew Lin Shuyao was a serious person. She would not say anything unreliable at a time like this.

So, riding his little electric scooter through the endless traffic flowing through the gaps of Ideal City, he quickly rushed to his examination hall—

His examination hall was a fairly large Ability Training Center. It seemed to have been requisitioned in advance by the city government and directly converted into a temporary examination hall.

After parking his scooter, Ron discovered that many people, like him, had already handed in their papers early and arrived outside the examination hall.

Yet for some inexplicable reason, although the examination hall's doors stood wide open, not a single one of them entered...

They were all blocked outside by two robots with GG signs on their heads, playing GG slogans, and formed a long line along the street.

What was going on?

Curious, Ron lined up at the end of the queue and suddenly felt a vibration in his pocket...

He pulled out his phone and was stunned to find a strange pop-up window had suddenly appeared on its screen—

[Sunshine Stationery: Claim Credit Point red packets every day and buy discounted stationery to your heart's content!]

[—Get up to 1,000 Credit Points off when buying stationery.]

Why had a GG pop-up suddenly appeared... Wait, did I lose a hair?

There was a strand of hair on the screen...

Just as Ron instinctively reached out to brush away the hair on the screen, he caught sight of the candidate in front of him doing the same thing, casually trying to brush away the black line on his phone screen—

But that black line was not a strand of hair someone had dropped. It was an actual black line, a hyperlink hidden inside the GG!

The display on his phone immediately switched to a payment page.

[Selected product: [Protector] and [Attacker] deluxe package x10. Total price: 99,999 Credit Points.]

[You have drawn a 5 Credit Point instant discount. Would you like to use the discount to purchase?]

[Pay now or cancel payment]

The candidate in front immediately tapped cancel payment, and another pop-up appeared.

[Time remaining to cancel payment: 7:59:59]

If that were all, it would merely be Ideal City's most classic kind of rogue GG.

At most, he would be unable to use his phone for a few hours. It would not have much impact at all, but...

Ron clearly spotted a line of tiny text at the very edge of the GG interface—

[This GG has been sponsor-branded and placed by the Moen City Gaokao Testing Association.]

[All candidates are prohibited from entering the examination hall until they have finished viewing the GG.]

No wonder this group had been blocked outside the examination hall and formed such a long line!

So they had all triggered these absurd GGs, lacked the money to pay, and could only remain stuck here...

Ron felt rather helpless. Learning from the candidate before him, he ignored the fake black line on his phone screen and carefully examined the "x" symbols at the four corners of the GG—

At last, he found an extremely tiny "skip" button in the top-right corner of the GG.

Of course... Under Ideal City's GG laws, manufacturers still had to provide a skip button.

Ron sighed in relief, tapped the tiny skip button, watched the pop-up GG disappear from his phone screen, and nodded in satisfaction.

Who said skipping a GG did not count as finishing it?

Heh heh, let me get ahead and enter the examination hall to see what this is all about—

But Ron had barely taken a step when a pop-up window suddenly appeared in his brain-computer interface...

[User detected skipping GG. We will now generate more precise GG placements for you...]

Then a barrage of familiar GG interfaces came rushing at him.

[I'll pay to awaken your ability! Still worried about being unable to afford experiment fees? Your 200,000 Credit Point reserve fund has arrived. Click to claim →]

[High-end ingredients often require only the simplest cooking methods. Sumeru Foods uses fresh ingredients in its prepared dishes. Just heat for three minutes to taste the finest delicacies...]

[Kaifeng Cuisine Crazy Thursday, starting from only 9.9 Credit Points!]

Without Ron doing anything at all, the GGs immediately switched to a new payment page—the exact same 99,999 Credit Points as the candidates before him.

If he did not pay, he would have to watch GGs for eight hours and stand in line here for a full eight hours!

What the hell happened to the GG laws?

How could these mega-corporations go this far just to make money...

They even wanted candidates to contribute this many GG viewing hours during an exam!

Ron cursed inwardly, but then he saw a luxurious floating car speed over. A meticulously dressed young man stepped out of it.

Unlike Ron and the others, he did not silently queue up. A GG popped up in his brain-computer interface as well, yet he had no intention of paying...

He simply walked up to the two GG Robots blocking everyone and swiped his admission ticket.

The next moment, the two GG Robots moved aside and let him enter the examination hall.

The candidate at the front of the line tried to seize the opportunity to rush in behind him, but a GG Robot's icy metal hand stopped him, nearly swatting him away with a single slap.

...Why was that?

Unable to figure it out, Ron patted the glasses-wearing candidate waiting in front of him.

"Brother, how exactly did that guy get in just now? Why didn't those two GG Robots stop him?"

"Stop him?" The candidate in front curled his lip, his tone sour. "You must've just started queuing, huh? Some people don't need to watch GGs or pay..."

"I heard their identity cards are tied to membership privileges with the companies placing those GGs. They get member benefits and can automatically skip GGs.

"And it's not just people like that. Some people with strong abilities can directly defeat those two robots and force their way in..."

As he spoke, he sighed. "Only ordinary candidates like us, with neither money nor combat ability, get blocked outside."

So he could force his way in by fighting... Judging by those two robots, their strength was at most barely Lv. 2. It felt like he could get in easily.

But membership privileges?

Ron fell into thought and suddenly remembered his [Good Citizen] medal.

According to Xia Zhi, whenever he needed to verify his identity, swiping it would earn him a certain degree of preferential treatment, right?

Considering that this seemed to be an exclusive medal many rich people could only buy with money...

Ron stepped forward and walked directly toward the examination hall entrance.

"Hey? What are you going over there for? If you don't have authorization, those two robots will beat you back... It hurts!"

The glasses-wearing candidate reached out, about to grab Ron and advise him, when he saw Ron swiftly walk to the front of the line and wave a golden five-pointed-star badge before the robots...

The next moment, he saw the two GG Robots move aside with even more humble postures and bow respectfully to Ron.

"Welcome, [Good Citizen], to the examination!"

Their mechanical voices rang out as they watched Ron enter the examination hall...

Tsk, this was the power of money.

I never expected to enjoy it myself one day...

Ron shook his head and entered the examination hall, only to find that the Ability Training Center had been completely emptied. The classic training equipment had all been removed.

Now, only one Fully Immersive Pod and over a hundred AR Simulation Headsets piled together remained inside the training center...

More than twenty candidates who looked either rich or powerful—and likely possessed formidable abilities as well—glared at one another, the atmosphere taut with hostility.

An invigilator who was clearly not someone to provoke stood by a nearby wall. Beside him was a notice—

[This ability test is a Simulated Reality examination. Candidates must use Simulated Reality equipment to enter the examination scenario. Failure to do so will result in an automatic score of 0.]

[Examination equipment is provided by the examination hall. After selecting examination equipment, report it to the invigilator. You will be required to use that equipment for this examination.]

Looking at the barely one hundred simulation devices in the entire training center, Ron immediately realized what was about to happen—

The "battle" of Ideal City's exam reforms began at this very moment!

Every examination hall had at least a thousand candidates, yet there were only around a hundred pieces of examination equipment. Candidates also had to report to the invigilator and bind one device to one person—

If they failed to secure their own examination device among more than a thousand candidates, they could only receive zero points.

Those two robots were the first threshold, filtering out candidates with neither money nor combat ability. The examination equipment was the second threshold!

No wonder Lin Shuyao had told him it was best to arrive at the examination hall early...

The earlier one arrived, the sooner one could select examination equipment, report it to the invigilator, register and bind the device, and obtain examination eligibility.

Because Ron had arrived early enough, there were only a little over twenty people in the examination hall. He did not need to worry about lacking examination eligibility and could take an AR Simulation Headset to register the device at any time.

But...

Ron had no intention of doing that.

Over the past half month of ability training, Ron had used both the Fully Immersive Pod and the AR Simulation Headset many times.

The difference between them when it came to ability simulation was like night and day!

Although he did not know what exactly they would be doing in the holographic simulation for this exam, Ron knew that the only Fully Immersive Pod in the examination hall was definitely more useful than the other AR Simulation Headsets!

If he wanted to claim first place in all of Ideal City, he could not afford to fall behind others here.

Ron paid no attention to the wealthy examinees in the training hall, who were eyeing the Fully Immersive Pod in the center greedily and clearly had no intention of letting the only high-end equipment go.

"Teacher."

He calmly walked forward, patted the Fully Immersive Pod, and said to the proctor:

"Register my exam equipment. I want this one."