All the teachers leading the high school teams in the monitor room and the employees from the education department in the region shuddered.
Many of the top students from the other key high schools had finished killing the monsters by then.
This was especially the case for Construction High School. Many of them had finished killing the monsters faster than Meng Chao.
But after they did so, they sat down in their respective stances and entered a deep meditative state to stabilize their mental strength index.
None of them were like Meng Chao, who hummed with his eyes crinkled in happiness. He even swayed his head around while he cut the monster carcasses into pieces!
As he took joy in his work, everyone finally understood why Ning Xueshi of Agricultural University’s resource course would come to him.
The arrogance on the teacher from Construction High’s face faded away, but he could not hide the shock in his eyes.
The teachers from the other high schools cast Ninth High School’s teachers complicated gazes.
Demon Yan still had a dark look on his face, because that might have been something he inherited from his ancestors. Even so, his eyelids twitched a little. ‘That boy is constantly dishing out surprises.’
Once the first group of failed examinees were ejected from the virtual reality exam room, those who remained all had firm hearts.
More monsters came in the second wave, and they were even fiercer and uglier.
The outstanding students who had been gathering their strength opened their eyes and started engaging in an even fiercer fight.
Meng Chao also swung his saber and jumped to his feet.
And then, he died.
When he died a few times, one of the teachers made a comment. “This Meng Chao from Ninth High School doesn’t seem to be good at fighting.”
The mental strength test only tested the examinees on their mental strength index. It did not test the students on their fighting skills. Regardless of how many times they died, they could be reborn. That is, if they could endure the pain of it.
Meng Chao was reborn repeatedly and rushed forward without batting an eyelid. He swung his saber in a rather clumsy fashion and died repeatedly.
His death count was among the highest among all the examinees.
The teachers from the other schools sighed in slight relief.
But that made sense. His mental strength was ridiculously good. If his fighting skills were also outstanding… There was just no way Ninth High School could produce such a monster.
But the more Demon Yan watched, the more shocked he became. His eyes gradually went wide.
He noticed two things.
First, regardless of how many times Meng Chao died or what great pain he felt, his mental strength index only fluctuated minimally, at a range of 10%.
Second, Meng Chao was not clumsy when he used One Hundred Saber Techniques; he was extreme. The brat was using many of the moves they had discussed a few days ago. They were incredibly extreme and filled with uncertainties. They were all skills that had not been proven useful through experience.
Since Meng Chao was not used to them and his body could not bear the burden, looked clumsy when using them.
‘Is he… practicing a saber in such an important exam?’
Demon Yan was first flabbergasted. Then, he felt his skin crawl.
Many of the best teachers from the key high schools watched Yan Qiu. After observing him for a long period of time, they started pondering what they saw, and their puzzlement changed to shock.
“The One Hundred Saber Techniques from Ninth High School seem different from the ones we teach. It seems like it’s pretty strong.”
“I heard that Second High School gathered a few saber experts and promoted an upgraded version of One Hundred Saber Techniques in private. Did Ninth High School come up with their own version as well?”
“I know a bit about Second High School’s version, but I think… it’s not as fierce as Ninth High School’s version!”
“Ninth High School has been rising in power over the past few years. Principal Sun might be dozing off, but he has been doing a lot of things in the dark, including hiring Yan Dongxing, a former subordinate of his from the military. He went to Ninth High School to reform the education system there. Could it be that Yan Dongxing brought this One Hundred Saber Techniques from the military’s secret forces?”
One Hundred Saber Techniques was one of the most important cold weapon techniques that was taught during the students’ compulsory education.
So the observant top-grade teachers were naturally able to tell just how extraordinary Meng Chao was.
The more they thought about it, the more interesting they found it.
They were even able to gain epiphanies from his movements.
Hence, while Meng Chao was busy killing in the virtual reality battlefield, he saw a series of notifications pop up before his eyes.
[One Hundred Saber Techniques V7_3_5 is currently spreading among elite citizens. The Dragon City teachers and students in the future will be able to master even stronger saber techniques. The overall strength of Dragon City has been increased. Contribution points increased by 11, 13, 12…]
Meng Chao could not help but whistle.
He had made the right guess.
There were quite a number of top-grade teachers at the same level as Demon Yan paying attention to him in the exam room.
Not only were they elite citizens, they were also in charge of teaching people. If he could spread the future One Hundred Saber Techniques through them, they could spread this technique to others very quickly.
He became even more excited as contribution points nourished his mind. He waved his arms and pounced on the monsters. And he died more than one hundred times.
Did it hurt? Of course it did. But the epiphanies he gained every time he died and the contribution points he acquired allowed him to gain a more thorough understanding of One Hundred Saber Techniques. His Skillfulness with it jumped by leaps and bounds.
When Meng Chao thought about how the Monster War was going to get more intense soon and how Dragon City was going to be at the brink of destruction at any moment, he could endure any bone-crushing pain that was thrown his way.
He remembered what Demon Yan had said.
“The greatest humiliation to a soldier of the Red Dragon Army is to die in his sleep. Since a person is going to die either way, I hope that I can die in a monster’s stomach, and before my consciousness fades away, I will use my very last bone to pierce the monster’s heart.”
This was the best way to die for every Dragon Citizen and every Earthling who fought hard in the Other World.
“You want to eat my flesh? Then I’ll take your life!”
Meng Chao was torn to pieces by two monsters.
Before his consciousness faded, he actually brandished the bone spike of his nearly severed limb and stabbed a monster’s heart. He jabbed it viciously at the creature.
Time passed bit by bit, and two-thirds of the examinees were eliminated.
The remaining one-third passed.
The mental strength test continued on, but its goal changed to just forcing the examinees to their limits. If they could not last, they could retreat at any moment and still be considered to have passed.
The examinees from Ninth High School woke up.
The ones who managed to last until then had rather strong willpower. They just needed to rest for a while before they could recover from the shock.
They eagerly looked at the list of students who had passed on the screen. Once they found their names, they swung their fists excitedly.
The results of those from Ninth High School were pretty good.
Among the one hundred and fifty examinees, more than eighty passed the second test, which meant that more than half of them had passed.
It had to be known that only forty percent of the examinees from Ninth High School had passed the second test last year.
“We’re really good this year… We almost surpassed the two key high schools in the city.”
“Big Brother Xiong, your overall score is so high. You managed to get into the top five hundred in the whole region. You’re awesome! How did you train?”
The students cast Chu Feixiong curious and envious gazes.
Chu Feixiong smiled boyishly. “I didn’t train much. Just now, when I saw all of those ugly monsters, I was terrified as well. But just when I was about to pee my pants, for some reason, I suddenly remembered the two seniors competing for Meng Chao. I pasted Meng Chao’s face on the monsters’ heads, and in an instant, I was overcome with fury. I was so angry that I immediately rushed forward and punched the monsters.
“All of you did the same as me and pretended that the monsters were Meng Chao, that’s why you were filled with fighting spirit, right?”
The students looked at each other at a loss. Someone then said in embarrassment, “I wasn’t as ruthless as you. I just became numb because of the shock I went through before I went into the virtual reality battlefield. Ace Student Chao dealt ten thousand cuts to my heart, so no matter how terrifying the monsters looked, they were just adding another cut to my heart, so there was no difference.”
“Same here. The image of the two seniors fighting for Meng Chao just now was branded deep into my heart. After seeing something so unbelievable, there was no monster that I couldn’t face.”
“That’s right, with how much shock Ace Student Chao dealt us, my heart is now as calm as water. I won’t be thinking about all those ridiculous things anymore. I just want to study properly and conquer the Other World.”
As the students spoke, they noticed that Meng Chao had indirectly increased their mental strength. They could not help but gasp in surprise.
“Wait, where is Ace Student Chao?” The students suddenly noticed that their topic of discussion had not spoken up.
They looked around and discovered to their shock that Meng Chao was still surrounded by monsters.
“No way.” Chu Feixiong sucked in a breath in amazement. “When I got out, the number of monsters had already increased to the point that more than two hundred of them spawned in each round. They could tear the examinees like me in a minute. My mental strength index plummeted because I couldn’t stand the pain anymore. I didn’t get out because I was afraid. And Meng Chao can handle it?”
“The ones remaining to the end of the mental strength test have always been the children of aristocratic families who have been practicing secret techniques since a young age. Meng Chao is the same as them?”
“Wait, look at Meng Chao’s expression carefully. Is he… smiling?”
The superbrain could only cover half of the examinee’s face.
Even though his classmates could not see his eyes, they still noticed that his lips had curled up a little. He did not seem to be in fear and despair at all. He looked like he was eager for a fight.
For a period of time, the students felt a chill running down their spine.
“Just what did he see?”
The students’ expressions were complicated. “Could it be that we didn’t actually enter the same virtual reality exam room. While our exam rooms were filled with monsters, Ace Student Chao’s exam room is filled with senior sisters, and it’s actually testing him on the stability of his mind?”
They waited for around eight minutes before Meng Chao woke up leisurely.
He was in high spirits, and he could even remove his superbrain on his own. He did not look like the others when they got out of the virtual reality battlefield. He was not dazed, his muscles did not spasm, and he did not foam at the mouth. In short, he did not look pathetic.
Chu Feixiong could not help but ask, “Meng Chao, you couldn’t handle it too?”
“Yup, I decided to stop playing.”
Meng Chao’s mental strength index had been stable throughout the test. If he wanted to continue playing, he could have.
But the number of monsters just kept increasing, and the place was already so crowded that he felt like he was trying to fight his way into a subway at peak hours against hundreds of monsters. He did not have any space to practice his saber technique or harvesting skills.
He might not fear death, but he was not a masochist. It was not fun to be brutally murdered by monsters. So he calculated his marks, and he decided that he would have definitely scored enough marks. Besides, he had already obtained so many contribution points that his contribution point wallet was full. So he got out on his own with his pockets full of rewards.
“Play?”
When the students heard the words he used, they could not help but be shocked. ‘Play with monsters? This guy really knows how to have his fun, huh?!’
“Look at Ace Student Chao’s ranking”
Suddenly, someone pointed at the monitor.
The mental strength test for Tiger Forest Region had already ended. The examination division of the education department of the region immediately projected the end results on the monitor.
The first to have their names projected on it were the top one hundred scorers for the two tests.
Ninety among them came from Construction High.
The other nine slots were the outstanding students from the key high schools.
Only Meng Chao alone was ranked among those from the key high schools that were not key high schools in the city.
But this single person made his way beautifully to the top thirty with an unbelievably high score. He managed to leave behind many of the elites of Construction High.
“How is this possible? Many of the top one hundred of those from Construction High have superbrains and virtual reality training systems at home. Every night, before they go to sleep, they fight against monsters. Are you saying those monsters can’t win against Meng Chao?”
For a period of time, the students could not tell just who was the real monster—Meng Chao or the elites of Construction High.