Chapter 19: The Official Exam – “As Expected of Imperial Star Academy, the Art of Conversation is Truly Sophisticated.”
About ten days later, the exam date set by Imperial Star Academy for Yu Xia finally arrived.
After that first mock proctoring session, Yu Xia felt like his friend “Qing Zheng” had flipped some sort of magical switch. He became obsessed with giving Yu Xia exams, claiming it was to help him get used to the atmosphere. He found a paper for him to do almost every day. Yu Xia wasn’t sure what he found so fun about it.
Thanks to him, Yu Xia was now extremely familiar with the papers for every subject. Whether they were difficult or easy, he felt confident.
Furthermore, according to what Qing Zheng had told him, this special exam wouldn’t be exceptionally difficult.
There were four subjects in total, and the exam would take place over two days.
On the day of the exam, Yu Xia arrived at the testing site early.
The place designated as Yu Xia’s temporary exam venue was a small lounge in the hospital. It was originally intended as a breakroom for the doctors on that floor, but a larger one had later been set up next to their office. This small lounge had gradually lost its purpose and become a storage room for small medical equipment.
Most hospital equipment had dedicated storage areas, so there wasn’t much in this room. Setting it up as a temporary exam venue for Yu Xia wasn’t a problem.
Most importantly, this place was far from the operating rooms and emergency rooms. Setting up a signal jammer here wouldn’t interfere with other hospital equipment.
Yu Xia sat in his seat and waited for a while. Then, he saw two people enter carrying a sealed bag, followed by Dr. Yu.
Once they stood before Yu Xia, the person in the lead reached out and took the sealed bag from the other. Using mental power, they sliced the bag open and took out the papers, placing them on Yu Xia’s desk. They said with a slight smile, “One and a half hours. You can submit early. Is that alright?”
Yu Xia nodded and took out the pen Dr. Yu had prepared for him.
He first skimmed through the entire paper to gauge the difficulty before starting on the questions.
Since he was the only student, the proctors didn’t need to scan every corner of the room like in a large exam hall; they only had to keep their eyes on Yu Xia.
Consequently, before long, one of the proctors found himself with nothing to do. He looked at the other proctor, who was fully concentrated. “Um, Major General Ning…”
Ning Qing heard someone calling her and retracted her gaze from the student. She looked up at the person who had spoken. “What is it?”
The man seemed a bit nervous. “Well, Major General Ning, you shouldn’t stare so intently at the student while proctoring. If the student’s mindset isn’t stable, it could easily cause them to underperform.”
Ning Qing paused and looked back at Yu Xia, who was focused on his work and seemingly unaware of his surroundings. “Would it? He doesn’t seem to be affected at all.”
The man scratched his head and looked over to confirm. He had to admit, “This student’s mindset is indeed quite good.”
Ning Qing nodded and went back to staring at the student.
The other proctor felt like crying.
His mindset might be good, but don’t you think it’s weird to stare at someone like that?
And what is there to see with just one student?
The proctor also looked toward the center of the room. The youth was twirling his pen occasionally while contemplating the next steps of a problem.
If nothing else, this young man was indeed quite good-looking.
Yu Xia finished the paper an hour later. Compared to the papers Qing Zheng had found for him in the virtual world, this one wasn’t too hard, but it wasn’t easy either. It seemed that even for a student with SSS+ mental power, Imperial Star Academy wouldn’t cut any corners for the Mechanical Department.
Yu Xia set down his pen and habitually checked the paper. Once he was sure there were no silly mistakes, he submitted it.
Those mock exams in the virtual world hadn’t been for nothing; he already knew exactly where he stood.
Looking at the early submission, Ning Qing raised an eyebrow. She looked at the young student and confirmed, “You’re sure about submitting? Have you checked it?”
Yu Xia’s eyes crinkled. “Yes, I’ve checked.”
Since the student said so, Ning Qing took the paper and stuffed it back into the sealed bag, handing it to the other proctor. “Keep it safe.”
“Yes, Major General Ning.”
Yu Xia looked at the woman before him and blinked. “You’re a Major General?”
Ning Qing nodded, looking at Yu Xia with interest. “Yes. The Mechanical Department of Imperial Star Academy is closely linked to the military, so it’s normal for them to send me to scout. Keep at it, young man. The Mechanical Department isn’t simple.”
As she spoke, she seemed to remember something and asked, “When you were testing, you kept twirling your pen. Is that a habit of yours?”
Yu Xia paused and then answered with some embarrassment, “No. I didn’t have that habit when reviewing in the virtual world. But the feeling of holding a pen in reality is a bit different. Occasionally, when I use too much force, there’s a bit of a sting, so I twirl it to relax my hand. Later, I just found twirling the pen to be quite fun.”
Ning Qing sighed. “I see.”
She remembered that this student was a Mental Power Disorder patient.
She had heard the news before coming here. She also knew that this youth named Yu Xia was a patient with a six-level gap in his Mental Power Disorder—a level that put him in the most critical state, where he could become a vegetable at any moment.
However, as he sat there doing his exam, he looked no different from any other young person. She had momentarily forgotten that fact.
She looked at Yu Xia and, thinking of a certain guy whose mental power had been off the charts since childhood, suddenly asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, are you an Omega?”
Yu Xia was a bit confused but nodded anyway. “Yes.”
Ning Qing was satisfied. She gave Yu Xia a slight smile. “Keep at it, young man.”
Yu Xia didn’t quite understand what the Major General meant, but he thanked her sincerely. “Oh, thank you.”
The first exam officially ended. The next one was in the afternoon.
Yu Xia walked out of the lounge to find Dr. Yu waiting. Seeing him come out, Dr. Yu walked over. “How was it? Did it go okay?”
Yu Xia nodded. “I think it was fine. The questions weren’t simple, but I could do them. No big problems!”
Dr. Yu didn’t know he had already tested himself in the virtual world, so he pressed further, “If you had to estimate, how many points out of 150? As long as you can get 110 per subject, plus your extra points, hitting 500 total shouldn’t be an issue. The Mechanical Department requires at least 500.”
“If I only need 500, then getting into Imperial Star is a sure thing! Don’t worry, Dr. Yu!”
Dr. Yu: ??
Is ‘only’ the right word for 500 points?
But at this moment, Yu Xia was more concerned with whether there was anything good to eat for lunch. “Dr. Yu, what’s for lunch today?”
“What do you want to eat? Since you just finished an exam, I’ll get you something good, but nothing too heavy.” Dr. Yu was being generous. “It’s on me these two days. Sigh, you’ll be discharged in a few days.”
Yu Xia was startled by this. His pace faltered, and for a moment, he felt that same lack of coordination he’d had a month ago. “I’m being discharged?”
Dr. Yu looked at him. “You didn’t know? Oh right, I actually haven’t told you. Your Mental Power Disorder is quite severe, so the school doctor needs to know the situation in advance. They’re already doing the handover with me. Once your exams are over, you can basically leave. You’ll head to Imperial Star Academy directly with the two proctors.”
Yu Xia was stunned by this sudden news. “How are they so confident that I’ll definitely get into Imperial Star?”
Dr. Yu shrugged. “Even if you don’t make it into the Mechanical Department, you can accept a reassignment. No matter where you’re reassigned, you’ll still be at Imperial Star Academy; they wouldn’t dream of letting you go elsewhere.”
True enough.
Seeing that Yu Xia seemed a bit down, Dr. Yu patted his shoulder. “You have to go to school eventually. Besides, it’s better if professionals at Imperial Star handle your physical training; their mental power experts are definitely more specialized than me.”
That said, Dr. Yu still warned him, “I’ve heard that the research institutes in schools like Imperial Star or Duxin Academy have quite a few research lunatics. There aren’t many Mental Power Disorder patients, and they lack samples. Since your gap is so large, you need to be careful once you get to school. If anything happens, send a message to your Director. He might not have other skills, but he’s good at rescuing you from others.”
Just as he was badmouthing the institution, the other proctor happened to walk out. He couldn’t help but cough twice. “Dr. Yu, you can’t go talking nonsense like that. Our school is very legitimate; we would never kidnap a student.”
Dr. Yu gave a dry laugh. “But someone at Imperial Star will definitely treat Yu Xia like a sample.”
The proctor was speechless.
That was a fact. Mental Power Disorder patients were rare; of course they’d want to observe and record every one they found!
The proctor promised Yu Xia, “Student Yu Xia, rest assured. Our school’s observers are very professional. I guarantee they won’t threaten your personal safety. They can even provide help in an emergency. Doesn’t that sound very secure?”
Yu Xia & Dr. Yu: …
Major General Ning Qing: “As expected of Imperial Star Academy, the art of conversation is truly sophisticated.”
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