Yuel and Howard discussed the various issues plaguing the entrance exam. Namely, the issues of the first two tests: the one-kilometer run and the quiz.

Every time, Yuel brought up and issue and Howard defended against it. It’s like they became a duo of prosecutor and defense attorney.

“Objection,” Howard said. “Regarding the race, despite what we say on stage we actually accept everybody who makes it to the finish line. It doesn’t matter whether they run, walk or even crawl. As long they reach the goal, it’s fine.”

“I see,” Yuel nodded while jotting down notes. “So, when you said that those who do poorly will fail, it was all part of testing their resolve.”

“A nice trick, right? Haha.”

Yuel had mixed feeling about it. Yes, it was much better than failing people for poor fitness. But, was it forgiving enough? If Yuel hadn’t met Lars and hadn’t started jogging, how would he have reacted to these rules? As motivated as he was to play Classmancers, he might have given up midway along the race.

It’s impossible to know for sure now, but there’s a chance he would have failed and that worried him. Testing resolve was good and all, but it shouldn’t come with the risk of filtering out talented players. Yuel shared his concerns.

“That’s not a bad line of thinking,” Howard said. “Except, we can’t discover these ‘talented players’ before we start the exam, right? If we could, we wouldn’t need an exam in the first place.”

“That's true...” Yet again, a clash between theory and practice. Yuel knew what had to be improved but didn’t have a practical solution. The goal of the exam was to discover the highest caliber players, which meant the exam should ensure the talented players don’t fail. But, there’s one big problem: the examiners didn’t have any magical way to discover said talents ahead of time, so there’s no way to ensure the exam will suit them.

“I wonder,” Yuel said. “Wasn't there any way for me or Lars to prove ourselves before we got to the first test? Anything that stood out about us?”

“Among the hundred candidates? Not really. Though, I believe you were the only ones in Platinum at the time.”

“Ah, that’s it!” Yuel jumped. “We can use ranks! Say, we can let anybody who is Gold or higher skip the first test. And, maybe even the second test.”

“Not a bad idea,” Howard nodded. “We can ask them to confirm their ranks by telling us their IDs, so there won't be any cheating. It’ll be a little pain to go over all these accounts and write them down, but I’m sure you can handle it.”

“No problem. Okay, so that’s it,” Yuel jotted down the idea in his notebook and drew a big circle around it. “Players ranked Gold or higher skip the first test and maybe the second test too.”

“I’d even consider lowering the requirement a little. You picked Gold because it’s one below Platinum, right? So, it catches those who played as much as you and a little less.”

“Pretty much. It’s also the division Gregory and Taison had at the time.”

“Just so you know, that’s rare on these exams. You not gonna have more than a handful of kids who reached these ranks, or even reached Ranked at all.”

“So, maybe anybody who hit Lv. 50 in their accounts?”

“That's an option. I’ll leave the specifics to you. There’s still plenty of time to decide till the exam.”

“That’s true,” Yuel wrote down “Consider lowering the requirement from Gold. Maybe being Lv. 50 is enough.”

With this, two of Yuel’s biggest gripes about the exam were partially resolved. No matter how terribly unfit a candidate was or how bad they were at quizzes, they’ll easily make it through if they played Classmancers enough and reached Ranked.

The next issue was the way the quiz was handled. The examinees weren’t given any time to prepare and it could easily fail anybody who was terrible at taking exams. For example, Lars and Taison. Letting examinees skip this stage based on account level was a good start, but it’s not enough. Not giving them any tools to prepare for the quiz was outright unfair.

“We can hand out example sheets,” Howard suggested. “I actually thought of this idea last year, but it slipped my mind until it was too late.”

“Examples are great, I agree,” Yuel nodded. “But, the format of the quiz is also an issue. It’s too arbitrary,” he referred to the big pool of possible multi-choice questions on the USB device Howard handed him. To compose a quiz, all they had to do was to pick some random questions for each role. It’s a simple and efficient approach for creating a quiz, making the examiner’s life easy.

However, it’s not exactly friendly toward the examinees. What they received was a bunch of arbitrary questions in a random order. As a result, the examinee had no way to find questions relating to topics they were most confident in. And, that’s assuming such questions even made it into the exam in the first place during its random generation.

Long story short, it was a terrible exam for those who weren’t good with quizzes. Some students knew to leave the tough questions for last and focus on what they knew best, but not everybody had that wisdom. Especially, not a certain goof who nearly blew the exam by mulling over questions outside his field of expertise.

Lars wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knew Classmancers. No matter how bad he was with quizzes, he shouldn’t have been in the “barely passed” group. If the quiz did a better job guiding him to the topics he knew, he would have scored much higher.

“Maybe add categories?” Howard suggested.

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking too,” Yuel nodded. “First, split between ‘general’ and ‘role-specific’ questions. Then, further divide them into subcategories and make sure each of them has about the same amount of questions. Say, like this.”

“Looking good. You sure know how to handle these things. It’s like you’re a teacher.”

“I helped some classmates before, so I saw what kind of weaknesses they had and where the exams stumped them.”

“The genius student, huh.”

“You really like using that word, don’t you?”

“Just because you always react to it.” Howard snickered.

They discussed the questions and categories some more. To give each category equal weight, it’s necessary to put the same number of questions in each of them. However, that led to an overall increase in the number of questions.

“Isn’t that bad?” Howard asked. “They won’t have enough time to answer everything.”

“They don’t have to. We’re going to pick the top scorers anyway, right? So, it doesn’t matter what their actual scores are. What matters is how they fared relatively to each other.”

“That’s true,” Howard nodded. “Say, you ever considered becoming a teacher?”

“No way. Imagine dealing with brats like Lars in class.”

“Haha, I feel you.”

By the time they wrapped up the discussion, it was already evening. Yuel stayed here far longer than he expected, but it was fruitful. They couldn’t have possibly resolved this many issues if they did this over a phone call.

“I’m hooooooome!” A voice echoed from the entrance. Was that...!?

A young woman wobbled into the living room, taking needlessly big strides and nearly tripping over her own foot. Her face was tinted red and she had a weird expression, something between laughing and crying. It was quite the scene.

She looked... drunk. Completely hammered. Was this Howard’s sister? A pro player?

“Oh no,” Howard facepalmed and shook his head.

“Wardy, Wardy~” The woman somehow made her way to Howard without crashing. “Listen, listen. These freaking Falcons! We almost *hic* them! We were thiiiiis close. But noooo, of course they had to *hic* some shit on us at the last moment! They organized kinda well in the late game and I made one bad rotation. One! Just one! But that helped them win and everybody *hic* it’s my fault! Can you believe this!?” She shook Howard’s shoulders nonstop.

“Alright, alright.” Howard patted her head as she sobbed. It’s hard to tell who was the older sibling here. “Just how much did you drink?”

“I ain’t didn’t *hic* anything! I’m tooootally sober!”

“Yeah of course,” Howard nodded and led her to the sofa. “Here, sit down.”

“Thanks, Wardy~ You’re so *hic*. You’re the only one nice to me. Waaaa!” She started wailing all of a sudden. What was even going on...

“It’s alright,” Howard patted her back. “It’s just one match. You’ll get your revenge.”

“But, it’s the Falcons! We always beat them! We really needed these points! I hate them! I soooooo hate them! We hafta *hic* this damn season so they call me to A-League already! I don’t wanna be stuck in B-League forever! Waaaaaaa!”

“No biggie. I’m sure you’ll earn enough points in the next matches-”

“No! It’s over!” The woman crashed on the coach and flailed her arms like a protesting baby. “We even lost to the Falcons! We’re fucked! I don't wanna! Don't wanna! That's it! I’m quitting this *hic*!”

“It’ll be okay,” Ellen crawled toward the woman and gave her a pat on the head. “You’ll get them next game. The season isn’t over yet.”

“Elly sweetie...” The woman sniffled and wrapped her arms around Ellen. “Elly, you’re soooo *hic*. Right, maybe it’s not over yet...” She apparently consoled herself by petting Ellen like a kitten.

“Yes, yes,” Ellen nodded with a smile but secretly threw a glance at the guys, rolling her eyes and squeezing her nose to say “She reeks something serious.”

“You’re right!” The drunkard exclaimed. “We still got one more match against the Falcons this year! We’ll *hic* ‘em!”

“Yes, yes. Get your revenge.”

“Yeaaaaah! We gonna wiiiiin! ...But we lost today. We lost today! To the Falcons! Waaaaaaa!” The woman rubbed herself against Ellen like she was a stuffed animal. Howard took this opportunity to step back and enlighten Yuel about what the flipping heck was going on right now.

“Sorry,” Howard said. “Sis isn’t usually like that. She just gets a little salty after dropping a match, then she goes to drink and... well, you see the result. Not exactly the ‘amazing pro’ you imagined, right? Haha...”

“Yeah...” Yuel wasn’t sure how to respond because Howard looked embarrassed by this scene. In truth, it was a huge disappointment. Ignis was supposed to be a cool person and a skilled player, not... this. The whole scene was too awkward to bear. “I think I should go.”

“I agree,” Howard escorted Yuel toward the door. Yuel wanted to get the heck out of here and Howard also wanted him to get the heck out of here. Therefore, he should definitely get the heck out of here. QED.

“Heeeeey,” Ignis called out. “Who’s this kid?” She squinted her eyes, studying Yuel from head to toe. Or, at least she tried to do so but her head was tilting from side to side the whole time. Just how many shots did she have...

“He’s a friend from school,” Howard said.

“Huuuuh. Haven’t seen him before. Doesn't look like one of the usual guys.”

The “usual guys”? Yuel stopped. Did Ignis refer to StormBlitz’s first string? Well, it’s not surprising she knew them since they trained here together over the summer. Trained here together, without saying a word.

“He’s not on the first string,” Howard explained. Anyway, it’s already late so he’s leaving-”

“Waaaardy, watcha doing wasting time with him then? You gotta train your guys! You gotta *hic* ‘em to nationals!”

“I know. Don’t worry, he's leav-”

“Hey, kid!” Ignis pointed at Yuel. “Don't *hic* Wardy’s time! He ain't got no time hanging out with some nobodies! He gotta train hard so he can join the Sweepers and beat Exodus!”

“Sis, please,” Howard sighed and whispered to Yuel. “I swear she doesn't mean it. She got no idea what she’s saying.”

“It’s okay, I understand,” Yuel didn’t appreciate being disregarded as a nobody, especially not by a pro, but Ignis clearly wasn’t in the right state of mind right now. Just let it pass. Let it pass.

Uuuuugh! it’s so infuriating, though! Yuel was a competitive player too! Ignis just never met him here as one of the “usual guys” because he wasn't on the first string yet.

Wait, can it be she was helping with the first string’s training? Considering how much Ignis seemed to care about Howard’s success, it’s quite possible. In fact, it’s almost a given.

In other words, the first string had been secretly training here together with a pro, that’s probably why Howard wanted to keep hush about it. While Yuel had to nag people to visit the club so he could hopefully form a five-man team for Ranked, Howard was consistently training with the best players in the club and with a pro to boot. Damn, this was so unfair!

“I don’t like that look,” Ignis scoffed. “Got a problem with me, eh?”

“... no. Not at all.”

“You even play Mancers, kid?”

“Of course I do,” Yuel clenched his fists and stared straight into Ignis’ eyes.

“Wait, don’t-”

“Just so you know,” Yuel continued. “I’m the vice-captain of the club.”

“Well, shit...” Howard facepalmed for some reason.

“Oh, so you’re that kid.” Ignis nodded to herself. “Heard you playing Support like Wardy?”

“Yes, I am.” Did Howard tell his sister about Yuel? Why? Well, it’s not like Yuel was complaining. Now, this drunk woman knew Yuel wasn’t some nobody.

“You’re the vice-captain now? Huh, trying to *hic* Wardy’s captain position, eh?”

“Um, not quite.” For some reason, every time Yuel was somebody’s vice-captain, somebody had to accuse him of trying to steal the captain position. Why? Was there something weird written on his face? It’s true that becoming the captain was a great honor, but that wasn’t even on his mind right now. “My first goal is to get a spot on the first string. Anything else is secondary.”

“But you play Support, right? Ha! It means you trying to *hic* Wardy’s place!” Ignis pointed at him and her reddish cheeks became even redder. She was like an angry tomato.

“Well,” Yuel contemplated over his words for a moment, then straightened his back. “Yes, I plan to get into the first string and to do that I must beat Howard.”

“......” Howard stared at him for a long moment, then turned away. “You’re digging yourself a hole...”

Hm? What’s that supposed to mean?

“Aha!” Ignis jumped. “I knew it! You think you’re some hot stuff, right? Come here and fight me!” She clenched fists and threw out some punches. An invitation to a drunken brawl!?

“Wait,” Yuel protested. “I’m not into violence.”

“Silly kid, I meant this,” Ignis waved a game controller. “Fite me 1v1! Let's see whatcha made of!” She nearly slipped off the couch while talking in excitement. Was she really okay? She definitely should catch some sleep instead of playing, but...

“What should I do?” Yuel whispered.

“Too late,” Howard sighed. “This shit always happens. She cries her eyes out, then vents on somebody in 1v1. Good job provoking her, genius.”

“Ah,” Maybe Yuel really said a bit too much. Ignis was clearly out of it and overreacted to every little thing, so mentioning stuff like “beating Howard” and “taking the Support role” was probably not the smartest move ever.

Nevertheless, Yuel didn’t regret it. He was going to defeat Howard, he had to make that clear. He wasn't just “some kid playing Support”, he was “the one who’ll play Support on the first string”!

“Come here already!” Ignis waved her controller. “I’mma *hic*yo ass reaaaaal good!”

“So,” Yuel turned to Howard. “What do I do?”

“Yout got no choice,” Howard placed a hand on Yuel’s shoulder. “You have to play her, that's the best way to calm her down. Eventually, she’ll say she wants to sleep. Probably. You gonna have a really bad time, but blame your big mouth for that.”

What can be so bad about it? Yuel tilted his head. Wasn’t this a rare chance to play against a pro? It’s great! The only unfortunate thing was that it’s 1v1, so Yuel won’t be able to fully display his skill. Still, he reached Gold IV in 1v1 while researching lane matchups, so he should be able to put on a fight.

“I’ll play,” Yuel nodded. “But, I have no intention losing on purpose. Is that alright?”

“Don't worry,” Howard said. “She’ll still kick your ass anyway.”

“Even though she’s wasted?”

“Especially because she’s wasted.”

“Huh?” That made absolutely no sense, but okay. A drunk pro opponent was a fair handicap for somebody who didn’t play 1v1 much.

“Here you go,” Ellen handed him a controller and freed space on the couch. “Good luck,” She saluted for some reason as if Yuel was a departing soldier. Just what was the deal here?

Well, no matter. This was a rare opportunity to test his mettle against a pro. This match should show how much closer he came to the pro scene. A drunk pro should be no problem. Yuel will win for sure and prove he had what it took to rival Howard!