Chapter Thirty-Four: The Examination Begins

PS: Another week without recommendations—how frustrating… But the monthly new book ranking is about to expire, so starting today, I’ll update twice a day. After all, I’m already prepared to push forward with two hundred thousand words and go live without any guarantees.

...

“The written exam was that easy?” Feng Xue scratched his head as he walked out of the testing hall, hardly able to believe it. The exam questions were even simpler than the elective assessment he’d taken when learning Ripple Breathing. Feng Xue didn’t even need to estimate his score; he could judge immediately that he’d at least reached the excellent level. If nothing went wrong with the subjective questions, he might even get a perfect score.

“Of course. After all, being a traverser isn’t exactly a profession where knowledge determines your worth. The written test is really just a way to give those who can’t pass the practical a shot at the subsidiary academy. If you can’t even pass this, then it means you didn’t pay attention in class at all—those people can be expelled on the spot.” Xia Mi suddenly appeared, cutting into the conversation and startling Feng Xue out of his self-talk.

“The practical’s this afternoon. Got any inside info?” he asked.

“How could I possibly have any? The practical exam tests adaptability. Even if the numbers you draw are like ‘World One’ or ‘World Two,’ you have no idea what scenario you’ll end up in until you enter. Otherwise, people could just buy targeted items beforehand—what would be the point of the exam then?” Xia Mi curled his lip. He’d been at the Central Traverser Academy for eight years and had never seen anyone get inside information before an exam.

...

“Everyone, come up and draw your lots!” Wang Dachui produced the lot box again, wrapped in some kind of power that prevented abilities from penetrating it, making the process seem fair. Still, every time Feng Xue saw that box, he couldn’t help but recall drawing lots at the Temple of Gourmet Forest.

“Heaven knows if this is rigged…” Feng Xue grumbled to himself. He wasn’t wrong to think so—the draw only determined their numbers, and they’d have no way of knowing which world they’d be assigned until the results were announced.

“World Four, who has World Four?”

“World Six—damn, only two people got World Six?”

“I’m World One. Who else got World One?”

Amidst the chaos, the seventeen students of the Exceptional Class were divided into six groups, with the sixth group only having two members due to the odd count.

This was the usual format for the exceptional-level exam—a so-called team mission, with three-person groups tackling a demi-plane together. The student IDs would record all experiences within the demi-plane, and scores would be assigned according to various standards. Even if the mission failed, a good score might still earn an excellent evaluation.

As always, the Central Traverser Academy sought prodigies with the potential for godhood, not heartless villains. If you couldn’t even develop team spirit, you were better off leaving.

Feng Xue’s luck was decent—he didn’t end up in the two-person Group Six. But to say his luck was truly good wouldn’t be accurate either, because both of his teammates were special admissions students.

One was Xia Mi, whom he was already familiar with. The other was Mu Qianrou, whom he hadn’t seen in some time.

Once again, Feng Xue couldn’t help but suspect that the lot box was somehow rigged.

It wasn’t that special admissions students were bad—on the contrary, only true geniuses with absolute advantages in a particular field could be admitted this way. But their skills were usually limited to a specialized area. Xia Mi, for example, specialized in cultivation, specifically in music-based cultivation. As for other worlds, he wasn’t exactly clueless but was only average. Even Feng Xue, a hardcore otaku versed in ACG, was lacking when it came to TV dramas and movies. He couldn’t compare to those from prominent families who’d had access to archives and task strategies since childhood, let alone know the family secrets that circulated only among the elite.

The Central Traverser Academy did have a library of sorts, but every visit cost a hundred credits for admission. For a newbie like Feng Xue, who’d just entered the world of the extraordinary and hadn’t even taken an external assignment, the price was far too steep.

“Let’s hope for an anime-based world…” Feng Xue could only pray.

...Cold, trembling...

When Feng Xue awoke again, he found himself lying on a cold stone bed. The room’s furnishings were sparse—just the bare essentials, with only a single set of table and chairs. It seemed like a place seldom visited. More notably, it was a completely sealed room, lit only by candles, with no windows and a tightly shut door—enough to make anyone with claustrophobia faint.

The clothes at the bedside were unremarkable: a T-shirt, straight-legged pants. The sandals on the floor seemed oddly familiar, but he couldn’t immediately associate them with anything from his memories of two-dimensional worlds. Was it really so hard to translate style from anime to reality?

Though the room was sealed, it was obviously not a prison or punishment cell. Feng Xue could sense clear signs of ordinary life in the surroundings; this had to be the “home” his previous self lived in.

“A basement, maybe?” Feng Xue scratched his head and looked at his student ID, which was still blank. There was nothing to be done; that was just how the graduation exam worked. Until you identified the world and entered it into your student ID, you’d receive no hints—after all, recognizing the world was part of the test.

“So, should I look for Xia Mi and the others first, or…” As Feng Xue pondered, he suddenly heard a bell ringing. He didn’t know what it signified, but the sound wasn’t jarring, so it clearly wasn’t a fire alarm or anything dangerous.

Either way, he decided to head out and take a look.

With that, Feng Xue quickly put on the ordinary but surprisingly convenient clothes, opened the door, and, as expected, found himself in an underground facility. Just like the hallways in mid-rise buildings of his previous life, doors were opening one after another, and teenagers—some fashionably dressed, others not—stepped out. Feng Xue’s sharp eyes immediately spotted Xia Mi and Mu Qianrou. They noticed him too, but out of caution, the three only exchanged nods and refrained from talking.

Still, it seemed most people knew what the bell meant, as the boys and girls made their way down the wide corridor in one direction.

Following the crowd, Feng Xue soon arrived at a spacious hall. There stood a middle-aged man with purple eye shadow and strange clothing. In that instant, Feng Xue felt a chill run down his spine, as if a viper had coiled around him. At the same time, he realized exactly where he was!

“Naruto?!” The moment he realized it, his student ID registered his awareness, and a string of prompts appeared—

Mission Objective: Participate in the Chunin Exams and advance at least to the second round.
Time: Three months before the Chunin Exams.
Location: Sound Village, Land of Fields.
Identity: Genin of Sound Village.
Evaluation Criteria—
Passing: Advance through the second round of the exam.
Good: Pass the preliminary round of the third stage.
Excellent: Defeat any one of the Konoha Twelve after the second round and survive until either the Konoha Crush plan succeeds or fails.
Note: You may not leave Konoha before the start of the third stage of the main exam.