Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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That evening, after Bai Yue returned to his temporary dormitory, his three roommates still seemed a bit strange.
He had clearly seen them shirtless, even picking their toes, the moment Bai Yue opened the door. But as soon as they saw him, they all instantly put on their clothes, sat up straight, and acted as if they were in a formal setting.
Bai Yue: “…”
Anyway, the night passed peacefully.
The next day, after Bai Yue left, the three temporary roommates, with dark circles under their eyes, exchanged glances and sighed in unison. Although they had only known each other for a short time, they acted like brothers in distress, patting each other on the shoulder in respect.
The exam the next day was held in a classroom inside the Imperial First Military Academy. Led by senior students, they were finally able to enter the gate they hadn’t been able to break through the previous night, stepping into the Imperial First Military Academy for the first time.
Although they couldn’t freely tour the place, just looking at it from afar filled them with envy.
The teaching buildings of the Imperial First Military Academy were meticulously designed, tall and beautiful. Students hurried by, stepping on their military gear and leaping past like the wind.
“Waaah, I want my own military gear too!”
As they ventured deeper, the candidates’ attention was drawn to the buildings.
“Oh my god, that ‘giant egg’! I’ve seen it on TV!”
A huge, inverted semicircle lay on the ground. This was the arena exclusively for Imperial First Military Academy, open only during competitions. It was one of Imperial First’s iconic landmarks.
“The shooting range! Wow, that’s so cool!”
A class of students in uniforms was having a lesson inside. The shooting range was semi-open, designed to acclimate students to various weather conditions for shooting practice.
Each time they passed a location, the candidates exclaimed excitedly, unable to quiet down for a long time. This short walk further solidified their determination to enter the military academy. Meanwhile, those admitted through special admission programs outside of Imperial First could only watch with envy, secretly praying that their own school’s environment wouldn’t be too bad.
Leading everyone to a building, the senior student stopped and turned back, saying, “This is the exam room. You can’t bring anything in except paper and pens. Is everything clear?”
A student raised their hand and handed over their phone.
“What should I do? What should I do?” Lu Ke stood beside Bai Yue, his legs trembling. “I’m getting more and more nervous.”
Bai Yue reassured him, “Don’t worry, it’s just a written exam. You’ve studied quite well, haven’t you?”
Lu Ke nodded. He then took a deep breath, suppressing his nervousness.
Seeing that no more students were coming forward, the senior student said, “The exam starts in 20 minutes. Once inside, find your seats and sit down as soon as possible. Please note, cheating is strictly prohibited.”
“If cheating is discovered, your exam qualification will be revoked, and you will permanently lose the opportunity to apply to a military academy.”
This punishment was quite severe. All the candidates swallowed hard.
The senior student smiled, “Well then, I wish you all the best in your exam.”
The doors opened, and the candidates entered in an orderly fashion. From the outside, the building looked no different from an ordinary teaching building.
Bai Yue and Lu Ke were not in the same exam room and had separated midway.
When Bai Yue entered his own exam room, he paused.
The classroom was divided into many small cubicles, each with its own private space, perhaps to prevent peeking.
Names and exam numbers were posted outside each cubicle. Bai Yue found his spot, and as soon as he entered, the cubicle seemed to sense his presence and automatically closed the door behind him. Even when he tried to pull it open again, he couldn’t.
After this unsuccessful attempt, Bai Yue’s gaze returned to the desk.
The small space contained only a chair and a desk. On the desk was a stack of exam papers and a note—”Please answer after the exam begins.”
There were still ten minutes until the exam started.
The cubicles were completely enclosed, and no one could see inside from the outside.
However, Bai Yue quickly spotted a security camera on the ceiling after scanning the area.
He pulled out the chair and sat down.
A moment later, he heard the doors of the two cubicles beside him close, and students from the next cubicle went in.
Time ticked by.
Soon, the urgent bell rang throughout the sky— time’s up, begin answering!
At the same time, the sound of exam papers being turned over echoed in the classroom.
Bai Yue looked at the paper, densely covered with writing.
Without much thought, he answered each question one by one. But after finishing one page, a strange feeling arose in his heart.
All of them were common sense questions. This seemed… too easy.
In the original college entrance examination, there would be at most one or two such questions. Although this was a joint test, would Imperial First lower the difficulty of its own school’s exam to accommodate students from other schools?
He turned to the next exam paper.
Blank.
Bai Yue was stunned and continued to turn to the next one.
Blank, blank, blank.
In the end, the remaining dozen or so exam papers were all blank.
This exam was to last for four hours, it was impossible for them to finish with just one exam paper.
Was it a printing error?
He looked up, intending to report it to the proctor. However, what came into view was the cold, dark blue wall.
In this narrow cubicle, almost no light could penetrate. Only the miniature camera hanging from the ceiling seemed to be staring at him.
There wasn’t a single proctor present for this exam. Those people were observing their every move through that cold lens.
Bai Yue lowered his head again, looking at the blank exam paper.
This meant no communication. Isolating them in a confined space was a way of hoping they would find the answers on their own.
This exam was definitely not a simple written test.
Bai Yue spread out the exam papers one by one on the table. Except for the first one with text, the others looked like simple scratch paper.
And now the only clue was this common-sense question filled with answers.
Bai Yue’s gaze fell on the paper.
[Q: What period does everyone go through after adulthood?]
[Q: What are the characteristics of pheromones for alpha, beta, and omega?]
….
and so on, all questions about “pheromones.” If this was intentionally guiding them to do something, then it wasn’t impossible to try.
Although he had reflected on the issue of releasing pheromones last time. However, if it was only for a moment, it shouldn’t be a big problem.
Besides, the examination room specifically provided each person with a closed space, which didn’t seem to be solely to prevent cheating.
Bai Yue closed his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, S+ pheromones exploded instantly!
At the same time, in the monitoring room, dozens of examiners sat.
Four enormous screens were set up in the four cardinal directions, each further divided into countless smaller screens. They were monitoring the movements of every examinee.
The first exam paper was simple. However, most examinees were confused after discovering the blank spaces at the end.
Some pointed at the monitors, trying to talk to the examiners and request a replacement; others simply stared blankly at the paper.
Examiner A shook his head, scoring on the grading sheet: “This year’s students are lacking in quality.”
Examiner B: “Hasn’t anyone noticed?”
The purpose of this written exam was twofold: to assess the students’ knowledge and, more importantly, to test their observation and concentration.
First, they needed to find a way to make the exam paper appear— a method that was practically written directly on the paper.
But the real challenge lay ahead.
These exam papers were made of a special material; the higher the pheromone concentration, the more content was displayed. In other words, even if you discover this method, you still won’t be able to answer many questions if your gene level is relatively low.
Moreover, releasing pheromones while concentrating on answering questions was a major challenge for these novice candidates.
However, as future soldiers of the empire, they would have more needs to use pheromones in combat in the future. Fighting, thinking, and skilfully controlling pheromones at the same time.
What the students were doing now was just the most basic. But even so, very few candidates could get high scores.
“This person noticed.”
Examiner A marked on the score sheet, “Du Qin, A-level?”
Someone next to him added, “This student’s performance in the first exam was also quite good.”
As he spoke, he seemed to notice something and turned his gaze to a candidate with light gray short hair: “Another one…”
He stopped mid-sentence.
He stared in disbelief at the scene on the screen.
In front of that candidate were rows of open exam papers.
At this moment, lines of text appeared on the paper, densely arranged from left to right.
Despite being in a closed space, the exam paper was trembling slightly, as if experiencing a tremendous shock.
Even the examiner, separated by a screen, seemed to feel this powerful pressure and froze in place.
What… what was going on? All the questions from over twenty exam papers had appeared? Even he himself wasn’t sure he had this ability; who was this candidate?!
Then, he saw the boy on the screen open his eyes. After seeing the newly appeared questions on the papers, he even glanced at the security camera.
The examiner met those light gray eyes. Knowing the other person probably couldn’t see him, he still involuntarily swallowed.
However, the other person seemed to only glance at him unconsciously. He quickly lowered his head and began answering the questions.
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