Chapter 490: Don’t You Think This Joint Exam… is Quite Bland?
Seeing the expressions of these two, I naturally felt no particular emotions about it.
Thinking back to how they had taken my storage card without hesitation back then, it actually made me laugh in anger. However, as time passed, I grew too lazy to care about them. To be honest, the so-called online public opinion they once generated against me on the academy’s forum had almost zero impact.
A group of people engaged in self-amusement; I didn’t intend to correct them. Faced with those who had insufficient information, they couldn’t analyze right from wrong. In their own unsatisfactory lives, they vented their emotions on the academy website, and no one would use their remaining sanity to help someone unrelated to them analyze things rationally.
This gamble would have been faced by the other party even if I didn’t bring it up. The only reason I offered this opportunity was simple curiosity: under what circumstances and to what extent would someone who knows they’ve done wrong go to gain forgiveness from others, or might they never be forgiven at all?
In fact, during the time when “cyberbullying” was directed at me, what disappointed me most was Tan Han. She completely lost control of her support group, and even her own words seemed weightless. However, now during the joint exam, everyone had gathered again out of interest, presenting themselves as Tan Han’s followers, standing by her side, enjoying the protection provided by the strong and the sense of belonging that comes from the core group.
This contradiction did not shatter Tan Han’s indulgence; she had not realized—or perhaps she did but chose to “consider the bigger picture.”
The two I just contacted were, of course, Knowledge Shadows, and I was observing the situation not far from them.
Using this method primarily facilitated my escape and made it less likely to be directly caught. Even if I were caught, I had done nothing wrong; it would just be quite troublesome when proving my innocence. I dislike trouble.
Now that this trivial matter was settled, it was time to get down to business. Although I had earlier checked in on the Wizard Academy and found nothing particularly interesting, I did gather some intelligence that I felt was worth noting.
Regarding the situation of the candidates from the Wizard Academy.
Just as the Witch Academy relies on its powerful Magic Source and Spellbook to demonstrate strength, elves have their own bloodlines, and the Beast Academy is similar.
With so many Extraordinary Academies, newly admitted students wanting to master Extraordinary Powers need more than just Mental Power; they also need a kind of “talent” that instinctively drives their Extraordinary Powers. Most Extraordinary Academies rely on their bloodline strength to drive instinct, but the Wizard Academy, self-proclaimed as the “orthodox of humanity,” has no Extraordinary bloodline to wield Extraordinary Powers, much less resist the suppression of the Great Weakening Spell on the Main World.
Thus, Mental Power + Knowledge + Witch Weapon is the standard means for wizards to harness Extraordinary Powers.
Wizards are the type of people best at leveraging external tools since they have to choose this way.
However, this is the general case; in reality, the methods used by the Wizard Academies appear to be far more terrifying than those naive girls from the Witch Academy grasp.
For the average person, underhanded tactics like poisoning, breeding insects, setting traps, and arson are the most common.
Poisoning a water source at a resource point you cannot occupy, or after killing a large number of monsters, poisoning the leftover meat to prevent anyone who tries to take advantage from eating it—this is game over.
Breeding insects is another “playstyle,” belonging to high-end tactics within the Wizard Academy.
Early on, nurturing mother insects to develop continuously and then directly flooding the field is effective; if these insects are poisonous, it’s even harsher.
Poisonous insects engineered through witchcraft are even more terrifying, growing exponentially in later stages, consuming resources at an alarming rate, devouring all vegetation, and even sparing no monsters.
This breeding of insects is even more frightening than arson, as the spread of swarms is faster than wildfires and difficult to eliminate unless large-scale spells are employed to wipe them out.
One must understand that even a large-scale wildfire can be extinguished gradually using water system shaping spells, but once the insect swarm breaks out, it won’t be long before it reappears, consuming all resources on the Bobapop Islands.
There’s no doubt that the Wizard Academy could have such terrifying methods. They can. It’s not even difficult, as long as one of them brings along a mother insect.
So… Witchcraft is quite extraordinary, right?
Luckily, this time the joint exam takes place in a virtual world; otherwise, if these methods made their way to the outside world, it would be unimaginable and a massive blow to the ecosystem of the Main World.
So the purpose of my visit is to relay this information back. Such matters must either be snuffed out in their infancy or be prepared for potential assaults ahead of time.
It can be said that nearly every student from the Wizard Academy has their own schemes. Compared to the students from the Witch Academy, they are much more specialized.
As for those without much strength in the Witch Academy, once they use up their single-use Alchemical Items, many of them will undoubtedly fall into a state of weakness in terms of strength.
Rather than saying they came to participate in the joint exam, it would be more accurate to say they came to score enough to pass.
Time quickly passed into daylight.
I continued to diligently fulfill my role as the patrolling teacher, wandering about, returning some eliminated students back. This was truly quite boring.
Especially after I had marked the entire Main Island and other subsidiary islands for teleportation, I could quickly reach anywhere I wanted.
As the candidates from the Witch Academy dispersed, the figures of witches began to broaden across the Main Island, and my role gradually diminished—just as I had hoped. After all, I couldn’t keep getting busier towards the end, could I? Planning is meant to reduce hassle, not to take on more burdens that leave me unable to stop. Otherwise, what was the point of my previous busyness? I wasn’t here to work.
I have to say, Tan Han’s earlier establishment of an intelligence exchange group on the subsidiary islands played a significant role at this moment. Using phones and group chats, I could almost grasp the entire situation on the Main Island as well as the changes in circumstances.
Moreover, the people from the Witch Academy had basically interacted with various other academies, with some suffering losses, some confronting each other, and others falling directly into traps. These events continued to unfold on the Main Island.
Overall, there were both losses and gains.
I found myself enjoying a rare leisurely moment.
The live stream cameras typically didn’t focus on teaching assistants intentionally, so I took the opportunity to enjoy myself thoroughly.
“You’re indeed here; I didn’t expect you could sunbathe so leisurely.”
“The rules don’t restrict me from goofing off. Do I have to be busy to be happy? If I were busy, others would have to worry,” I jokingly replied. Even without turning around, I recognized the voice belonged to Lin Yi.
“Is that so? Still got beach chairs? I want to lie down for a bit too.” Lin Yi approached and said.
“Are you planning to goof off like me? The beach chairs are over there; just grab one,” I lazily pointed in a direction.
“Thanks… I’m not here for much else; I just wanted to chat with you. I find I can’t quite see through you; I don’t know what exactly you intend to do.”
Before long, Lin Yi also lay down beside me.
“With the joint exam developing for almost two days, the situation is progressing more rapidly than we expected. The number of candidates has sharply decreased to less than half of the original total, monsters are nearly wiped out, and the only means left to score is occupying resource points. Even the competition among students from the same school is quite fierce…” Lin Yi spoke while turning her head to look at me, seemingly curious about any changes in my expression. However, she would be disappointed.
“It’s a normal progression, after all, you know the Witch Academy has the most students, and most of them have very mediocre strengths. This is unavoidable.”
“Then, has the development of events exceeded your expectations?”
“Hmm… Out of expectation but in line with reason. I’ve noticed you all seem very focused on my thoughts; do you have any preconceived biases against me? Clearly, you should have done a lot yourselves, right?”
“Just joking. We’ve only done what we should do; we haven’t done what we shouldn’t.”
“Well then, what if I say there’s no live perspective here right now?” I smiled and asked, then turned to look at Lin Yi, curious about her reaction.
“Can you see?”
“Yup… Can you guess?”
“I won’t guess.”
“Okay then.”
Our simple conversation seemed to reveal a lot of information, while also seeming to say nothing.
However, the topic afterward was lighter between us.
As we chatted, I returned to this joint exam.
“Do you think this joint exam will last a week? Given this development, might they end it early?”
“I think they might.” The further it goes, the more advanced it becomes; for ordinary students, this joint exam could be described as an expansion of their knowledge while also getting a taste of bl**d. The comfortable atmosphere in the academy has groomed the students to be a bit too delicate.
Of course, there might be another more important factor…
But excluding that factor, in the current environment of the joint exam, it is those candidates from the Wizard Academy who often shine the brightest. Just look at what they have done these past two days?
They have nearly burned several large forested areas on the Main Island, forcing elves to retreat from their best field, the forest.
Wherever there’s a resource point within reach, especially places where desalinated seawater is obtained, they have definitely poisoned the water sources. As the individuals from the Wizard Academy spread out across the Main Island, a large number of these resource points’ water sources were contaminated. Even if cleaned and diluted, voodoo could still cause someone to suffer from stomach issues.
As monsters are gradually eliminated, if food sources aren’t sufficiently stocked, hunger will ensue.
If you happen to come across a well-preserved monster corpse beside the road, it’s highly likely a trap set by someone from the Wizard Academy. Poisoning that monster is just the least of their tactics; after all, they have plenty of means—curses, insect manipulation, all of it.
No one wants to endure torment from curses to the point of withdrawing, nor do they want to see disgusting insects burrow into their bodies, devouring their flesh.
And all of this is just a part of what the Wizard Academy has done.
In comparison, the Witch Academy appears “harmless,” and the large elimination of ordinary students also gives candidates from other academies the illusion that “the students of the Witch Academy are at this level.”
“So who do you think will win?”
“I think… there will be no winners,” I said after some thought.
“No winners? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t you think this joint exam is quite bland? Perhaps it’s because I haven’t participated in it myself, so it feels a bit bland.”
“Bland?”
Lin Yi was taken aback by my statement. If this type of academy confrontation could be called bland, then what would be exciting?
Should it be that one blows up the entire Bobapop Islands and triggers a dormant volcano?
“I sense you’re confused about my evaluation? I’m merely sharing my personal feelings. Lin Yi, you should know about the concept of the Child of Fortune, right?”
“I know, wasn’t that all the rage for a while? How could I not know? Even without that period of buzz, I had come to understand a bit about it beforehand, though not in great detail.”
“I see.” Recalling Sister Bai from earlier, she too had learned of related secrets and had even been forced to sign a contract barring her from disclosing them.
But then again, plans can’t keep up with changes, can they?
This matter was made public.
“So… Do you think this joint exam is a confrontation between schools… or a confrontation between Children of Fortune?” I continued to ask.
Earlier, when I mentioned there was no live perspective nearby, I wasn’t lying, and Lin Yi had come to understand my point of view.
“This…” Lin Yi hesitated for a moment.
She didn’t know much about concepts like fortune or scripts. She only became slightly more informed after those prior events hit her in the face. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe it or wasn’t interested; she recognized she wasn’t a Child of Fortune. Therefore, she rationally refrained from overanalyzing what didn’t belong to her, knowing that seeking what doesn’t belong to her could deepen her mental exhaustion.
“To be honest, I really hadn’t thought about it. Xiao Han, what do you think? I remember the academy forum said you were also a Child of Fortune, yet you personally destroyed that so-called Fortune Seed?” Lin Yi candidly acknowledged this, then tossed the question back at me.
“Roughly speaking, yeah~ But returning to the previous question, I’m more inclined to see it as a battle for fortune, a struggle among the protagonists of this world. However, I won’t deny the efforts of those who are not Children of Fortune.”
“Because I’m proving that even if I’m not a Child of Fortune… Apologies, let’s ignore that last statement,” I said, one hand on my forehead, leaving the last sentence unfinished.
The key word in that last sentence triggered me; I was even implying that I was trying to prove something.
Prove what?
Prove that I could do better than the Children of Fortune, even if I wasn’t one?
To whom would I prove this?
What’s the point?
Why even prove it?
In just a few self-questions, I realized… I was trying to prove to myself, because deep inside, I still unwillingly recognized the strength of the Children of Fortune, and thus I needed to validate myself.
But self-validation is usually foolish and unnecessary, and it seemed I had discovered a form of inner conflict within myself…
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. I just suddenly came to understand some things. Let’s continue chatting about other topics, but I should warn you beforehand that I don’t have much talent for conversation and have earned the title of conversation ender.”
“Is that so? Then congratulations.”
Lin Yi didn’t mind the latter part about being bad at chatting; she just felt a bit envious that someone could suddenly come to grips with something while chatting away. That truly is a remarkable talent.
