Chapter 474 Interpretation of the Joint Examination Rules
“This time, there aren’t many teaching assistants who took the initiative to apply to contribute to the joint examination. You are the teaching assistants assigned to our first-year group.”
“This time, the academy doesn’t require you to do many things. Your primary objective is to patrol the Bobapop Islands examination venue, whether it’s to guide eliminated students or arrange for special material drops. None of these are the focus.”
“So what is the focus?” Li Feiya immediately raised her hand to ask.
“As I mentioned earlier, the focus is to patrol the examination venue and prevent cheating.”
“Cheating? Wait, how can there be cheating in a practical test? Moreover, the rules this time are quite relaxed. Even teaming up with other academies is allowed. What could possibly be deemed as cheating?”
“This time, extraordinary-level instructors are not allowed to participate in the test. Apart from maintaining the necessary examination environment and ensuring the stable operation of the false world grand magic, you teaching assistants are the biggest unstable factor in this joint examination,” Teacher Lina said, her gaze reflexively darting towards me, then realizing something was off, she redirected her attention to Li Feiya.
If there is someone who stirs up trouble, it’s definitely her.
“Teacher Lina means that during the assessment, we teaching assistants are actually allowed to go down and help the students, right?” Li Feiya asked.
“According to the rules of the joint examination, teaching assistants are not allowed to provide any assistance to the candidates. This includes behavior such as information transfer, physical assistance, tactical planning, resource concealment, unjustified large-scale indiscriminate attacks, terrain alteration, etc. The specific rules of prohibited behavior will be distributed to you later,” Teacher Lina shook her head and purposefully listed many activities we were not allowed to engage in.
Upon hearing so many restrictions, Li Feiya immediately lost interest, “Is it that boring?”
“In this joint examination, candidates do not have the authority to directly report teaching assistants, but candidates do have the right to report other teaching assistants, and you also have the obligation to accept these reports.”
With these words from Teacher Lina, the four of us naturally understood the underlying rules: maintaining the principle that no report means no violation… as long as one doesn’t have a moral compass, others can’t criticize you!
Sure enough, it was similar to what Sister Bai had said to me before…
“After receiving a candidate’s report, if you find no evidence of wrongdoing, you can ignore it, and the reporting candidate won’t be held accountable; if there is solid evidence, the reported teaching assistant will receive one warning, and each teaching assistant can only be warned three times; on the fourth warning, they will be forcibly removed from the examination venue and subjected to penalties. The penalties will be determined through discussions among multiple school instructors.”
“If a candidate reports and finds solid evidence of wrongdoing by the teaching assistant, they may receive rewards within a certain range, as this is allowed under the rules. This is aimed at compensating for the unfair actions caused by a violating teaching assistant but the rewards cannot exceed the stipulated limits and will depend on the impact caused by the violating teaching assistant. Also, rewards are not mandatory and can be skipped.”
“Moreover, if a candidate maliciously reports, and it is clear from the evidence that the reported teaching assistant did not violate any rules during the reporting, the candidate may face punishment. The severity of the punishment depends on the content of the report and cannot be a physical punishment that causes injury or any form of mental punishment. Of course, punishment can also be skipped, and the reported student will be placed on the joint examination dishonesty list, and teaching assistants will be released from obligations after being reported.”
After explaining the main rules, Teacher Lina glanced at me with an expectant look, as if observing our reactions, with a slight smile on her lips.
In fact, what she described were not strictly the rules but rather interpretation of the rules; the rules themselves were there, and anyone could interpret them from any angle. This was the interpretation of the Witch Academy.
Though we had no formal communication, we understood the unspoken rules: the candidates have their battlefield, and the teaching assistants have their own struggles.
The candidates are probably the hardest-hit here, as they would best report issues to their own academy’s teaching assistants.
If the teaching assistant one wants to report has conflicts with the encountered assistant…
Then the so-called report might just be we could present solid evidence, and the other party would turn a blind eye, the less scrupulous may even retaliate, and besides… Teacher Lina indeed hadn’t mentioned any counteracting rules for teaching assistants.
So whether our candidates receive fair treatment depends on our assistants’ capabilities.
“Additionally, I want to point out that after being removed from the examination venue due to violating rules and undergoing the multi-school discussions for penalties, a review conference will be held, and many students will come. If you get caught, you will have to undergo a deep reflection in front of many candidates from different schools.” At this moment, Teacher Lina added one more thing.
I noticed that Li Feiya subconsciously shivered… Oh, so you’re already planning how to stir trouble before the joint examination even begins, huh?
Just imagining it made her tremble in guilt. What is Li Feiya up to?
However… such a shameful action is most likely also a restriction on teaching assistants, telling us that this is a joint examination, don’t go overboard.
After all… the true protagonists of this joint examination are those Children of Fortune in the script.
“Huh? Is there such a procedure? Who suggested this?” Li Feiya was the first to question.
“You need to understand one thing; this is nominally an examination test for lower-grade students, not your chance to shine. Li Feiya, your participation is the most troublesome part for me. Um… Xiao Han, you should also restrain yourself a bit; you wouldn’t want to be up on stage reflecting in front of so many students from different academies, right?”
“Uh… I am quite restrained.” Suddenly called out by Teacher Lina, I was a bit surprised. Do I look like someone who stirs up trouble?
I haven’t caused any trouble in the academy lately!
And from Teacher Lina’s tone… it seems she is quite certain that Li Feiya will be on stage reflecting?
Has Li Feiya gotten to such an extent?
From my interactions with her so far, she merely seems a bit lively.
“I hope so.” Teacher Lina recalled the incident during the dream exchange competition when she was still a student and caused such trouble; now… who knows?
“Does anyone have further questions about this matter?”
“As far as I know, this joint examination will involve the Earth Vein Technology from our Witch Academy for live broadcasting and streaming, right? Does this relate to the Geomancy Information Direction Query Technology? Is there a time limit for reporting?” At this moment, Lin Yi opened her mouth, pointing out some key issues.
“This time, the Earth Vein Technology we authorized for the joint examination is limited to live-streaming the Earth Vein visuals and does not involve specific Geomancy Information Direction Query Technology. However, the live stream visuals can also be used as evidence; if you dare to publicly cheat on the live stream, you won’t even need a student to report you; we instructors will directly warn you.” Teacher Lina explained to Lin Yi and us, deliberately reminding us.
“As for the time limit for reporting, reports can be made as long as the joint examination is ongoing; however, if too much time passes resulting in insufficient evidence, then the report will not be successful. A report on the same incident only counts as one, but multiple teaching assistants can work together to verify.”
After understanding the general situation, Lin Yi indicated that she didn’t have many other issues.
But I did.
“Teacher Lina, are there limitations on methods during a minor evidence verification? Can I use the academy’s so-called Geomancy Information Direction Query Technology?” I asked.
“Principally, no. This technology is embedded in the large facilities of the entire Witch Academy; if you want to use it, then others will have reason to request to use it too. Do you understand?” Teacher Lina smiled and said as she looked at me.
The meaning was clear: if the Witch Academy brings this out, there won’t be any controllable space left.
I actually don’t fully believe that. Streaming the Earth Vein visuals isn’t pretty much the same as this?
“Understood… then using my own magic abilities should be fine?” I asked again.
“If you have spellbooks for things like past replays, stone memory, etc., then those are your methods and naturally fall within the usable range. However, regardless of the method, you must have objective evidence that can be presented to prove it. Otherwise, if you insist, the instructors might subject your verbal evidence to a lie detector test. Similarly, if you report false accusations, you will also be warned.”
“Got it, got it.” I nodded, it seems this Geomancy Identification Technique can be used.
I’m not worried about exposing such an ability; after all, how else can I promote it if I don’t expose it?
How can I harvest the information from the Earth Veins?
Moreover, this ability exists in the Witch Academy as well; I’m just “miniaturizing” it. Later, I can put some restrictions to make this identification technique an acceptable ability.
…
After this, the four of us discussed some other minor issues and precautions with a witch, finally ending this topic.
Once this topic concluded, Teacher Lina became quite casual with her subsequent remarks and just pointed out some precautionary measures.
So… the main focus of this meeting was still about the first matter, right?
Even if Teacher Lina pretends to be afraid we’d cause trouble, her every word implies that we should stir something up!
In fact, I somewhat admire Teacher Lina.
However, she didn’t bring up anything about possible surprises during this assessment, just like Sister Bai mentioned, this “little surprise”—is even the teaching assistants kept in the dark about this?
But I have my own speculations, though I can’t be sure yet; at least I won’t be startled by unforeseen circumstances during the joint examination.
After all, that “little surprise” requires an extraordinary witch to suppress it; otherwise, it will turn into a little scare.
And it seems there are not many who can accomplish such a thing, like… an Abyss Demon intruding?
After all, the Abyss Demons have been given a ticket to enter and only need a reasonable reason to make an entrance.
Later, during the conversation, I tentatively asked Teacher Lina if there would be any surprises during the joint examination, and her answer more or less corroborated my speculations, indicating that she did not rule out such low-probability events.
Low probability… if added to the script, it could almost be deemed an inevitability!
Unfortunately, my veiled probing did not catch the attention of the other three, not even Lin Yi.
The concept of fate, the Children of Fortune, and the scripts were propagated in the Witch Academy and even other extraordinary academies, evidently, many people don’t take this seriously.
Soon, this small meeting ended with Teacher Lina wrapping things up.
As the new student grade director, she was quite busy, and after announcing the meeting’s conclusion, she bid us farewell.
Aside from the rules discussed at the beginning, the subsequent matters were essentially trivial, such as the theory finals that the Witch Academy would conduct next, where we teaching assistants were directly recruited to serve as invigilators.
Should I say it was surprising or not surprising at all?
Clearly, I’m no longer a student, yet I feel busier than the students.
Fortunately, I don’t have to grade the papers; the essays for the Witch Academy require very few manual corrections; everything else, having straightforward answers, can just be mechanically checked for correctness.
Because of such efficiency, the Witch Academy always has quick turnaround times for exam results.
“Since everything’s settled, I’ll be taking my leave.” At this point, Lin Yi stood up, appearing quite hurried.
“Mm, see you.” I simply bid her farewell.
“Since there’s nothing left, I should also be on my way.” Aidalin said, glancing at me, “Xiao Han, right? If you have some interest in alchemy, you can come find me. Having been in school for half a year, it’s sufficient to have the capability of becoming a teaching assistant and having learned some alchemical skills shows you have some talent in it, but still, it doesn’t match mine, hmph~ It’s not shameful to humbly seek advice from others.”
“Mm, I will definitely seek out my senior for a thorough discussion on the skills of alchemy next time.” I politely responded.
Watching her leave, only Li Feiya and I were left.
“Xiao Han~ now it’s just the two of us left~ do you want to have a deep discussion with me~”
“There’s no need for that.” I looked at Li Feiya and outright refused.
“Oh come on~ don’t be so heartless. Just look at where I don’t meet your aesthetic standards. Don’t you want to have a sweet…”
“No thanks, I have a girlfriend.” I directly interrupted her flirtation.
“Huh? You have a girlfriend? No worries, that just makes me like you even more~”
“I advise you not to make a move, or you won’t know what hit you one day.” I continued to block her in front of me.
“Cut down? How is that possible? With my strength, your girlfriend can’t possibly be an extraordinary witch, right? Uh… is she?”
“Mm-hmm~”
“Oh my, I didn’t expect the rumors to be true? Xiao Han is truly lucky~ Then… I wish you both a hundred years of harmony~ I was just joking, come on, I would never want to break up a pair of girlfriends! That’s just too immoral! I swear to resist such things.”
