Chapter 58: The Limit of the Goldfish-Type Male God

Approaching 10:00 AM.

The waiting hall of the Adventurers Association was packed to capacity. A quiet atmosphere was interwoven with murmurs.

An indescribable sense of tension permeated the air, making it feel almost viscous and chilling.

Wang Xi noticed that most of the surrounding candidates appeared jittery. Some were taking continuous deep breaths, others were lightly stomping their feet, or slapping their cheeks to ease their anxiety.

He, however, felt nothing at all.

His mindset was tranquil, steady as an old hound.

Soon, at 9:50 AM, three staff members of the Adventurers Association in tailored suits arrived at the front of the hall. Speaking in flat tones, their voices carried through earpieces and spread via the hall's sound system:

"The first round of the examination is about to begin. Please enter the venue in an orderly fashion according to your assigned numbers."

The hundreds of people in the waiting seats stood up one after another. No one dared to speak; they simply followed the staff's guidance and moved forward down the corridors on either side of the hall.

Wang Xi's assigned number was 666, placing him almost at the very end. He went with the flow, entering an examination room at the end of the corridor.

The environment here was clean and bright, reminding him of the college entrance examinations from his past life. Each examination room accommodated only twenty people.

The first round was the written test.

After Wang Xi took his seat, the other candidates in the room sat up straight as well. He noticed surveillance cameras in all four corners of the room, with two patrolling drone cameras hovering overhead.

There were two proctors—a man and a woman, belonging respectively to the Adventurers Association and the Overlook Bureau.

Wang Xi glanced at them.

Both proctors possessed three-star proficiency.

He quickly withdrew his gaze as the test papers were handed out. After a quick inspection, he realized he knew how to answer most of the questions, which set his mind slightly at ease.

In truth, the written test was not overly difficult.

It was mainly designed to test candidates on their fundamental understanding of extraordinary phenomena such as labyrinths, disasters, the wilderness, and disaster zones.

To draw an analogy, it was roughly equivalent to the theoretical driving test from his previous life.

It was purely a matter of rote memorization.

And this happened to be Wang Xi's weak point. For no other reason than having a poor memory—such was the curse of a goldfish-brained idol.

Textbook knowledge was like a scoundrel's promises: ephemeral and fleeting, leaving one helpless with anger. He didn't consider himself a scoundrel, so the knowledge points certainly wouldn't make any promises to him.

So be it, he would just do his best.

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

Wang Xi gripped his pen, checking off the answers to the questions one by one.

"In what form do the entrances of labyrinths mostly manifest? What are their two usual forms? Are the internal scenes fixed?"

"B. Attached to existing entrances, fixed and temporary, no."

"Are the disaster level and category related to the labyrinth itself?"

Wang Xi rubbed the shaft of his pen, pondering for a moment.

Then he settled on the answer and marked his check.

Swish—

"C. Unrelated, but the lower the labyrinth number, the higher the probability of high-level disasters appearing."

"Why is the wilderness unsuitable for human habitation?"

"A. Affected by the reality distortion index, ordinary people exposed to it for long periods will go mad and die suddenly."

Wang Xi had deliberately looked up information on this particular question. Settlement cities like Gucheng built "electric towers" in every district. Not only did they possess immense firepower, but they also featured the special function of weakening reality distortion.

Therefore, only inside the high walls was relatively safe.

As for why disasters still randomly manifested within cities, no definitive answer had been found yet. But generally speaking, the probability of disasters occurring in the wilderness was far higher than in cities.

Before long.

Wang Xi finished answering multiple-choice question after multiple-choice question.

He reached the short-answer question section.

"What are the levels and categories of disasters?"

The very first question was a giveaway. Wang Xi was delighted, his pen moving as if guided by divine assistance:

"Five levels, five categories."

"Disaster levels from lowest to highest are: Relatively Stable (Grey), Regional Quarantine (Blue), Major Upheaval (Yellow), Sudden Cataclysm (Orange), Mobile Calamity (Red)."

"Disaster categories are: Legion, Monarch, Gemini, Colossus, Constellation."

Here, Legion referred to disasters appearing in a group format; Monarch was the opposite, consisting only of a single individual; Gemini was a variant of Monarch, possessing two primary individuals; Colossus, as the name implied, usually descended in the form of a gigantic entity; and the final one, Constellation, consisted of multiple colossi, possessing the greatest destructive power.

...

The 90-minute exam concluded quickly.

Wang Xi glanced at the clock directly in front of the examination room; it was precisely half-past eleven.

The staff came by to collect the papers.

After a brief wait, the male proctor announced the end of the first round, and everyone stood up, leaving in an orderly fashion.

Wang Xi noticed that almost everyone else wore smiles on their faces, clearly feeling they had done well.

'Doesn't matter, I did fine too.'

He chuckled softly, quite satisfied.

The second round of the examination was scheduled to start at 2:00 PM. According to past convention, both the written and combat tests would conclude on the same day, with results announced on the same day as well.

Therefore, the candidates would dine in the Adventurers Association's internal restaurant area, free of charge.

Although the taste was far inferior to "Fiery Sweetheart," the food was all-you-can-eat, so Wang Xi let loose and ate his fill.

Now that his 「Randall Body-Refining Technique」 had reached ultimate perfection, coupled with the enhancement of 「Voracious Devourer」, his appetite was staggering.

He easily consumed four portions of food by himself.

What Wang Xi did not know, however, was that his gluttonous binge was captured squarely by a drone camera.

On the live broadcast screen, a black-haired young man in the corner of the cafeteria held a bowl in his left hand and chopsticks in his right, clattering noisily as he shoveled rice. The tray in front of him was piled high with bones, fish spines, banana peels, and fruit pits, with more than a dozen empty bowls stacked in layers.

"No way, bro, you can eat that much?!"

"Whoa! Candidate 666! Truly fucking 6!"

"This Brother Six looks pretty handsome, and his build isn't bulky at all, but his appetite is something else, hahaha!"

"Wuwu, stop eating! If you keep eating, the Adventurers Association is gonna go bankrupt!"

"To witness such a powerhouse gorge himself like this, even dying would be worth it!"

Wang Xi put down his bowl and chopsticks for an intermission, preparing to continue shortly. The moment he pulled out his phone and opened the live stream, he was greeted by a barrage of full-screen comments.

He couldn't help but laugh. Who the hell was this guy? Looking so handsome yet eating so much, with oil all over his mouth looking rather cute...

The next second, Wang Xi's expression changed.

Holy mother of...

Isn't this me?!

He jerked his head up to look, and not far ahead in mid-air, a photography drone was hovering, with its lens aimed squarely at him.

At that moment, a single thought flashed through Wang Xi's mind—

I'm cooked!

I've made a fool of myself in front of all the citizens of Gucheng!

Immediately following that came a second thought—

Things have come to this, I might as well keep eating.

Wang Xi was a seasoned veteran of social seas with a rock-solid psychological fortitude. Facing the camera, he even flashed an elegant, brilliant smile and gave a thumbs-up. He put down his phone, ran back to the food service area, and grabbed two more pots of freshly cooked rice and dishes...

The clattering symphony resumed.

That nonchalant movement, that natural expression, that dedication to eating... simply left the viewers of the live stream dumbfounded.

"You're making me hungry, bro."

"I gotta say, Brother Six is genuinely handsome!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Hope Brother Six passes the exam!"

The comments flew past rapidly.

Although Wang Xi didn't get much screen time and was quickly cut away, this brief moment caused countless citizens to remember him—the handsome yet ravenous Brother Six, Wang Xi.

...

...

1:00 PM.

In the waiting hall of the Adventurers Association, the giant screen on the front wall scrolled through the rankings of the first round.

Every candidate in the hall stared intently at the screen.

Wang Xi was no exception.

Yet he stared with wide eyes for a long time.

None.

Still none.

The top 200 were almost all perfect scores, and even down to around the 400th place, scores remained above 90...

Wang Xi knew very well why.

Throughout the entire professional adventurer examination process, the use of wildcard cards was not restricted. Therefore, it was entirely normal for candidates to use cards to memorize knowledge, or to have taken memory-boosting potions beforehand.

If you wanted to talk about fairness.

Aside from death, there was no fairness in this world.

Even in the new era, even death had become unfair due to the existence of wildcard cards.

Wang Xi simply couldn't afford those exorbitant memory-boosting potions, let alone auxiliary memory cards.

While he felt a twinge of regret, he didn't consume himself with self-loathing.

Because the upcoming second round of the combat test was still to come, and that was the main event. The score weighting for the written and combat tests was 2:8, with the final total score determining qualification.

"Wang Xi, Candidate 666—First round exam score: 80, overall ranking: 678."

Wang Xi finally found his name at the very bottom.

He wore a speechless expression.

His rank was even lower than his assigned number.

And that was an 80!

He had burned out completely!

In the live stream chat at that moment, comments scrolled past:

"As expected of Brother Six, he really just came here to eat."

"Exam done, ate my fill, heading home."

"Eating your fill means no loss."

"Don't talk nonsense, Brother Six eats so much, he must be a ferocious fighter. He's gonna crush the whole arena in the combat test later!"

"Yeah, I'm already waiting with bated breath. He better actually crush them, or I'm gonna throw a tantrum."

At this very moment.

The Group 2 members, who had just finished dining at Cupid's Housekeeping cafeteria, had gathered in the hall's lounge area to watch the broadcast.

They had missed Wang Xi's cafeteria footage earlier, but now seeing the familiar name on the big screen, they couldn't help but look at each other in weird silence.

"So, aside from Miss Jiali,"

Zhu Yuhe opened her mouth, her eyes looking as though she had seen a ghost.

"Even the handsome guy went to take today's professional adventurer examination?!"

"Could it be a coincidence with the same name..."

Adventurers Association, Conference Hall.

The higher-ups of the Overlook Bureau, Public Security Department, Defense Force, the three major conglomerates, and numerous private organizations sat around a round table, watching the broadcast screen.

Discussions regarding the six seeded candidates rose and fell; without exception, they had all achieved perfect scores in the first round written exam.

At that moment, Yu Zizi and Ning Meng both noticed that the silver-haired girl sitting between them was wearing a smile.

Following Chu's gaze, they saw that name sitting at the very bottom of the rankings.

"Chu Nai, what are you smiling at?"

Ning Meng asked in confusion.

The silver-haired girl's smile faded, as fleeting as an illusion of a night-blooming cereus. She shook her head and said softly:

"Nothing."

Only Yu Zizi guessed the truth.

Section Chief Chu didn't seem to want that young man to pass the examination, so seeing his written exam score hit rock bottom must be why she was so happy.

In reality, Chu Nai was simply reminiscing about the past. Big Brother Xi's grades had always been this poor since they were kids.

As expected of you.

Her beautiful eyes shifted.

Time quickly ticked to 1:50 PM.

Those three staff members in tailored suits from the Adventurers Association arrived at the front of the hall once again. Their flat voices echoed from the surrounding speakers:

"The second round of the examination begins..."