The Goblet | Can four violations get him recruited as a colleague? I don't want to invigilate him anymore.

922: "...Could it be that there were too many words and the system crashed?"

No sooner had the invigilator spoken than the answer wall changed. Two blood-red circles appeared amid the long-winded answer.

Yu Wen peered through his fingers.

One of them was around what he had written: refractive index.

The other was around Yu Yao's last-minute addition: the extremely simple diagram of refraction.

Two numbers appeared beside the red circles:

1

2

Everyone stared at the numbers, not yet understanding.

The answer wall changed again. All the discarded answers that had earned no points vanished. A line of red text appeared in the space they left:

Points awarded: one person out of thirteen died, satisfying the question's requirement, 6.

Bonus: all examinees survived, 2.

Total for this grading: 11 points.

The cabin fell silent for a long moment. Then Yu Wen let out a howl. "Fuck!!!! Eleven points! I thought we were dead for sure! But we actually got eleven points!"

"Bro!!! I got one point! Did you see that!!!"

Amid the examinee's deafening shouts, 922 gaped at 154 and asked, "Has the system gone crazy?! You get fucking bonus points for killing the question?!"

Seeing that 154 was just as bewildered, he turned and glared at You Huo.

This big shot, who had been tied up for over twenty minutes, had earned eight points with a single foot.

You Huo coldly admired his expression for a moment, then held out a good-looking hand to him. "Give me your head to celebrate."

922: "..."

After calculating the total, the system might have thought it had gone crazy too.

After holding it in for ages, it finally produced another line:

Paper presentation: -2.

The total flickered, changing from 11 points to 9.

Student Yu Wen, who had written so furiously, had gained 1 point, then lost 2, for a total of negative one.

Congratulations were in order.

Just as the examinees and invigilators in the cabin were all going crazy, the question on the answer wall changed again:

Question: Only twelve guests and twelve sets of tableware remain in the hunter's cabin, one set per person, so there will be no more fighting over them. But the secret in the tableware remains, hidden beneath the light. The person sitting before the conspiracy will face a curse. Will that person be you?

Requirement: Find the special set of tableware (but do not damage it).

Knowledge tested: optics.

Chapter 10: The Goblet | Can four violations get him recruited as a colleague? I don't want to invigilate him anymore.

The question had just finished updating, and everyone was still standing there in a daze, when a sound suddenly rang out in the room...

Like sharp fingernails scraping across a wooden board.

"Who-who's there?"

Everyone's hair stood on end as they searched for the source of the sound.

In a terrifying setting like this, no one wanted to be alone, and no one was willing to leave the group to search. They could only crane their necks and look around wildly.

Then someone suddenly broke down, crying out, "Behind me, behind me! Right behind me! Help..."

The one crying out was Baldy.

He was the only person who hadn't gone over to the answer wall to join the excitement.

The whole time, he had stayed by the dining table all alone, huddled in the seat he had chosen, as if he were paralyzed from the neck down.

Baldy had been scared unconscious by Hunter A earlier, and now the scraping had frightened him awake.

Tears and snot streamed down his face as he cried in panic, "It's right behind me! Help me! Save me, save me!"

"But there's no one behind you..." Yu Yao said softly.

"That's right, there's no one..."

Hearing that, Baldy cried even harder.

No one quite dared approach him, so they could only wave desperately at him and say, "Don't just sit there! Come over here first! Hurry!"

"I can't move! This chair... I can't move, it's pulling me!" Baldy was so panicked that he was incoherent.

"You mean once you sit in this chair, you can't get up?"

"Yes, I can't get up... It wants me dead, it wants me dead!" Baldy sobbed.

Everyone was so scared that they stayed a great distance from the dining table, but You Huo walked over alone.

"Bro?" Yu Wen called.

He had intended to stop You Huo from taking the risk, but after thinking about his brother's performance, and then his own spectacular negative one point, he decided to follow him instead.

They went around behind Baldy and finally discovered the source of the sound-

Wood shavings fluttered down from the back of Baldy's chair, as if an invisible hand were scraping away its surface, revealing the pale wood beneath.

Yu Wen: "It's writing?!"

"Mhm," You Huo said.

This big shot had more patience for "ghosts" than for people. He simply folded his arms and waited at the side.

The examinees in the room hesitated for a moment, then hurried over and huddled behind You Huo.

"Twelve! It wrote twelve!" the tattooed man shouted.

Immediately afterward, the sound of fingernails scratching came from another chair nearby.

You Huo took two steps toward it, and the entire crowd surged after him. He stopped, and the crowd came to an abrupt halt as well.

"..."

You Huo suspected that they weren't being tested on physics, but playing eagle catches chicks.

The sound of fingernails scratching continued for five minutes, and every seat at the dining table acquired a number.

One through twelve, one for each seat, and their purpose was obvious.

If they found the set of tableware, they only had to write its number on the answer wall.

Yu Wen ventured, "Sister Yu Yao's answer and mine were circled and awarded points, and they both had to do with refraction. So does that mean... we need to use refraction to find the set of tableware?"

"That should be it," everyone chimed in. "But what's refraction?"

Yu Wen: "..."

The way he froze was so funny that Yu Yao couldn't hold back a snort of laughter.

She was always crying, fragile and sorrowful. This was the first time she had shown an expression other than tears, and even she was taken aback for a moment.

She stood there in a daze for a moment, then suddenly walked back into the crowd and patiently explained what "refraction" meant to the elderly people.

Yu Wen thawed from his frozen state and looked up to find You Huo lost in thought.