“Unfortunately, you are disqualified, but you can watch the rest of the examination before leaving the compounds of the sect if you want.” The pagoda master announced to the failed volunteer who was extremely dispirited at the moment.
If he had failed in the previous evaluation, he might have not been this disappointed, but now that he had passed the first evaluation, as he was filled with hope… he failed, and to him, this felt like descending from the heaven to hell as all of his hope was crushed to smithereens, thus making it a lot harder for him to bear.
“I will leave…” So as he was too downcasted at the moment, he turned around as he left the library.
Soon, the second bloodshot volunteer who was a girl volunteered to enter the examination.
So, she went inside, but her result too could be only considered a complete failure as the orb showed that she had achieved fifteen-hundredth of a percent… she was even worse off than the previous volunteer as she cried and tears kept pouring down her face.
Also, she too, like the previous volunteer decided to leave.
Most of the other disciples, especially males, couldn’t help by feel bad and sympathetic for the girl, but there was nothing they could do for her, so they just watched everything happening.
Next, the male volunteer who seemed to have some hostility toward Virus went through the door as everyone watched him.
He was the first person to state his doubt out loud about Virus cheating in the first evaluation.
Everyone was expecting this to be just like the previous volunteers. But on the contrary, the percentage of knowledge kept increasing quickly as it soon reached nineteen-hundredth of a percent while it was in the third book.
Not stopping there, it slowly but surely increased once more as the number changed to two-tenths of a percent, much to the surprise of other disciples present.
But, they were even more surprised when the number kept increasing until it hit twenty-three-hundredth of a percent when it finally stopped, no longer increasing any longer.
Soon, he exited the room with a proud smile on his face as the pagoda elder announced, “You are qualified to enter the sect, what rank you will have and which section of the guild you go will be determined after the examination is done, so wait.”
Then, changing his line of sight, while looking at Alice and Virus, he asked, “Which one of you two wants to go first?”
Listening to the question, Alice looked at Virus to see if he would go before her, but seeing him show no reaction whatsoever, left with no choice, she could only raise her hand and volunteer.
“The genius from the Ilon family? Good, come on in.” The pagoda master announced.
Astes was almost bored at this point, but after hearing the whispers about Virus, she knew he was the one who had made the orb turn white, but she also heard about his madness, which made her frown at first, making her not to know what to expect anymore.
Nevertheless, she decided to wait for his turn, and other than that, she didn’t pay any attention at all to anyone else other than directing her gaze at Virus from time to time.
As Alice went inside, just like the other volunteers, the bar and the image of a book appeared on the orb as they began to increase, but the speed of this increase was much faster than the other volunteers by a huge margin.
“Oh, she achieved eight-hundredth of a percent with her first book!” One of the watching disciples said with surprise in his eyes.
Then the second book showed itself on the orb as the number of the percentage continued to increase with a very fast speed.
The second book, eighteen-hundredth of a percent…
The third book, twenty-five-hundredth of a percent…
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The seventh book, five-tenths of a percent!
The disciples at this point were amazed by the result Alice had achieved up to this point as some even began to compliment her, “She’s amazing…”
“Truly a genius… she is his sister alright.”
“Nothing less can be expected from a member of the Ilon family.”
But the number seemed not to want to stop as it continued to increase with almost the same speed as before.
The tenth book, Seventy-fifth-hundredth of a percent!
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.
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Fourteenth book, One percent!
At this point, the speed had obviously decelerated by a little.
Afterward, when she was finally done with her fifteenth book, half the time of what the previous volunteers had spent inside the door passed.
Even the pagoda master couldn’t help but nod his head in satisfaction.
Then the number of books kept increasing.
Sixteenth book…
Seventeenth book…
Eighteenth book…
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Twentieth book, One and a half percent…
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Twenty-fifth book, One hundred eighty-five-hundredth of a percent…
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And finally…
Twenty-seventh book, Two percent!
It was at this moment that the examination stopped and a girl came out with a proud look plastered on her face.
Seeing the result, others couldn’t help but admire her in louder voice wanting her to hear their compliments, “Wow, she achieved Two percent on her first try… what kind of genius is she?”
“She’s big brother’s sister alright?” A certain skinny young man uttered in deep admiration.
“She just needs to study for a while before ascending to the second floor… she’s a smart one… so envious.” One of the girl disciples said among the crowd.
“Okay… you over-qualify… truly a genius, now wait until the end of the examination.” The pagoda master said with a grin of satisfaction on his face as he nodded his head.
“Alright respected elder…” Replied Alice with a happy smile on her face.
“Now it’s your turn Vee junior… but by the whispers I hear, you don’t seem to have studied…” Looking at Virus, the pagoda master spoke.
“Oh… it’s that madman’s turn, he’s gonna disqualify immediately, just look.” One of the disciples uttered with a mocking tone.
“Of course he would disqualify! What else do you expect from a retarded madman, huh?” Another said.
Astes’ attention was finally drawn to the examination unlike the previous volunteers as she looked at him and the pagoda master.
“Sigh… My whole fortune! Why didn’t anyone let me know! Why??” voiced a special someone.
Seeing it was his turn at last, Virus began to walk toward the door and entered without any delays without bothering to respond to the elder.
Once he was inside and closed the door behind him, a puff of qi invaded his brain and mind, and soon, he saw himself standing in a completely white space alone.
‘Hmm, what’s this space?’ He thought.
As this notion passed through his head, these exact words appeared in front of him inside the blank page of a hovering book.
Witnessing this, he pondered, ‘So it works like this, whatever passes through my mind is written on the book… Good, this means there are no limitations on the speed of inputting the knowledge, it’s just the matter of how fast I can think…’
As he was thinking about this, a voice interrupted him by saying, “Name.”
‘Hmm… does the space wanna know my name?’ Wondering to himself, Virus thought, ‘Vee’ but nothing happened, so he decided to voice his thought for real as a test and uttered out loud, “My name is Vee.”
The moment he uttered his name, a five-day countdown of one hundred and twenty hours appeared high up in the white space, as he heard that voice again, “Start.”
