The hallway led us into a bright room, lit by an electronic light panel on the ceiling. It appeared to be a locker room of some sort.

Ms. Cai looked around. "Take a seat anywhere… this explanation won't be short."

​​

I immediately went over to a corner and sat in it, with the girls all gathering around me like a human fort. The rest of our classmates sat on the other end, too nervous to sit beside the beauties.

Once we all settled down, Ms. Cai cleared her throat and began explaining the rules and contents of this special exam.

"First of all, there will be a short four-way duel between the class representatives of each class to determine who gets to choose their opponent. Killing and crippling is not allowed in the duel."

Oh? I expected it to be allowed… then again, there may be some students who just aren't apt at direct combat but are extremely talented in other areas. It makes sense for the school to want to protect them.

"Next, every class rep will need to fill in a form with rows labeled from 1 to 25. In each row, you are to fill in the name of one of your class members. There cannot be any duplicates. The number the class member receives will be correspondent with their opponent from the other class. Simple enough, correct?"

"You guys don't have to worry about anything," Long Lu spoke up. "I'm the class representative, so this is all my job. You guys just have to focus on your matches."

"Indeed," Ms. Cai said. "Speaking of… listen closely. I will now explain the contents of the obstacle courses."

As she turned around to operate the digital whiteboard in the room, I took advantage of this time to send Ming Hao a message.

[Numbers: Weakest = 1.]

I kept the message as simplistic as possible since there wasn't much of a time window for me. Hurriedly stuffing my phone back into my pocket, I managed to succeed right before Ms. Cai turned back around.

"Now, as you can see… the obstacle course will be split into three main sections: physical, intelligence, and magic. The physical portion will come first — this will just be a normal obstacle course, involving jumping, sliding, hand-eye coordination, and speed. It is the easiest part of the course, so you should try to beat this part as fast as possible."

The screen displayed the silhouette of a long, jagged rod of some sort, outlined in pink. As Ms. Cai said this, the first portion of the 'rod' was revealed, depicting various obstacles we had to jump over.

"I cannot tell you the specifics on what you will be facing in this portion of the exam, as your adaptability and quick reaction skills are part of what's being tested, but the school has judged the average speed of completion on this part to be 1 minute and 33 seconds — no magic is allowed."

Ha… there goes the happiness on so many faces.

She then tapped on the next section of the rod.

"The second portion of this obstacle course will be testing your intelligence and mental skills. It involves a puzzle you will have to solve to get past. Again, the specifics won't be revealed at this time, but uh… good luck. There's a dumb way to solve it, and a smart way to solve it. The dumb way takes a lot of time, so if you can spot the smart method, you're in luck."

Da Bao, as usual, raised his hand. "What subject will the puzzle be in? Mathematics? Science?"

Ms. Cai sighed in exhaustion. "Like I said… I'm not allowed to tell you the specifics right now. Just know that anyone who paid attention to academics in elementary school should know how to solve it."

So it's an easy problem… just that 99% of students are too focused on their magic to actually pay attention in any other class.

"And finally, the magic portion. This will require you to break a series of barriers set in place, one by one. The barriers will be escalating in strength — the final one will require five Level Three spells to break. Every time you break one barrier, the rest will become invulnerable for five seconds. However, you can break multiple with one spell — as long as you have the strength to do so."

After seeing all of us remain silent, gazing at the screen, she closed it up and folded her arms.

"Now… any questions?"

For a second, she looked like she was a proper teacher. But the black circles underneath her eyes ruined that image near instantly.

"Alright… I'll take that as a no. You have five minutes to discuss your tactics. Class Rep… uh, Long Lu, was it? Come out and find me when you are done."

Saying this, she exited out of the locker room, leaving us alone. Long Lu immediately turned to me, and I stood up, walking over to him.

As our classmates made idle chatter, completely unworried about this exam, I leaned in to Long Lu's ear.

"For the battle in a second, do everything in your power to help Class A's leader win. His name is Ming Hao."

"Got it… what about the numbers…?"

"Put me, you, Da Bao, and the girls with me as numbers 1 through 12."

"Alright, understood."

After confirming he had received my instructions clearly, I backed away and waited patiently for the exam to begin. Long Lu put up an act of rallying the class together, cheering them on and encouraging them to win their battles.

Soon after, he left to go see Ms. Cai outside, and the doors to the locker room shut tight. Neither the teacher nor him came back. The screen, however, flickered back to life, and now displayed the Arena in astonishing 4k quality.

Within it stood four students, all wearing red uniforms. Long Lu, Ming Hao, another dude, and a girl. They looked ready to fight, each standing in a corner of the stage.

The buzzer buzzed three short times, then a long time to signal the beginning of the fight.

The dude I didn't know the name of struck first, smashing the ground and sending a earthquake in Ming Hao's direction. However, he simply jumped up into the air and hovered there, before preparing for his next attack.

If I remember correctly… he had Gravity Magic…

As if on cue, he pressed down seemingly at nothing but thin air, but immediately, both the dude who attacked first and the girl who was allied with him were forced to kneel, unable to withstand the crushing weight of the gravity.

He's grown stronger since the last time I saw him… by quite a bit. He can probably beat any Advanced Mage I've met in the past, if I'm being honest. Even my mother and father may be beaten by him… not that it mattered now.

Long Lu didn't let this perfect opportunity go to waste, leaping up into the air and performing a sideways 360-degree rotation as a circle of fire formed around him and his reared-back fist.

"Level Three Fire Magic… Fist of the Coiled Dragon!"

He smashed down in the ground right between the two suppressed targets, with Ming Hao letting go of his gravity control right as the impact hit them to send the two flying away, out of the Arena.

Long Lu then turned back to face Ming Hao and lunged upwards. Even though I told him to let Ming Hao win, putting up an act like this was still necessary. I mean… just look at our classmates.

"Go, class rep! You got this, you got this!"

"Take him down!"

"Get that triple! Get it!"

They had no idea of our plan, and there wasn't any time to explain it to them now anyway. So, we were left with no choice but to still put up a fake yet believable fight. Ming Hao was somewhat surprised by this, but he soon realized Long Lu wasn't using his full strength. Casting his Gravity Magic once more while remaining in the air, Ming Hao forced Long Lu to the ground and finished him off by stepping on him lightly.

Long Lu played along and acted as if the weight of Ming Hao's foot was crushing, collapsing onto the floor.

[Winner: Class 1-A]

The text was broadcasted by an unknown AI system and also displayed on the screen.

"Aw… so close…"

"Man, if it was me, I could've won that!"

"Shut up already, you arrogant bastard. You ain't gonna do shit!"

As our teammates complained in disappointment, Long Lu lumbered back to the locker room after taking a healing elixir. Qing Yue could've healed him, but this was better as this way, we didn't have to use her limited mana.

Ms. Cai returned to the room soon after that and handed the healed Long Lu a sheet of paper along with a pen.

"You placed second in the four-way duel. Not bad," she said briskly, before exiting again. "Come back to me when you are done with that form. Don't forget the pen too, that's my favorite one."

Long Lu nodded in confirmation and went to work, ignoring the looks our classmates were giving him — some of pity, some of condescension, and some of encouragement.