Chapter 58: One, Two, Three

Swish—

The virtual screen abruptly deformed, stretching into a vertical rectangular page as photographs, student ID numbers, and names slowly emerged from the very bottom.

[Twentieth Place, Wu Youbing: 997 points]

The moment this row appeared, the vast majority of examinees let out heavy sighs. Failing to surpass this score, they were thoroughly eliminated.

Their emotions came quickly and went just as fast.

Having failed to make the list, they immediately began discussing the rankings. Some bragged that their sworn brothers had definitely made it into the top twenty; others made excuses, claiming that if they hadn't caught a cold today, they could have easily made the top twenty as well.

Even more people were enthusiastically debating the contenders for the top three.

Unlike the top twenty, which carried far less weight, securing a spot in the top three meant admission into the Magic Dao Academy was practically guaranteed.

Furthermore, they would be featured in news broadcasts and television reports, and would receive additional scholarships.

"Second place has got to be Tang Hongning, right? I remember when the firmament disappeared, Tang Hongning was holding the second spot."

"No, no, no. Zhou Yu is in second place! How could a girl possibly beat a strong, muscular guy? You must not have seen how fierce the fireball Zhou Yu can hurl with both hands is!"

"Why are you guys only discussing second and third? What about first? Is no one going to talk about first place?"

No sooner had this person spoken than the people nearby immediately cast looks of utter disbelief at him. "What kind of nonsense are you babbling? Does first place even need to be said? It's definitely Su Wumi!"

Ignoring the clamor of the examinees, the rankings continued to display at a frequency of one every two seconds.

[Nineteenth Place, Lin Feng: 1001 points]
[Eighteenth Place...]
[Eleventh Place, Li Hua: 1111 points]
[...]

During this time, some cheered while others felt disappointed, but none of the reactions were as sensational as the very beginning.

Until—

[Fourth Place, Zhou Yu: 1380 points]

A massive uproar erupted instantly through the crowd. Zhou Yu, whom they had expected to take second or third place, had actually fallen to fourth!

"Why?" The most devastated person of all was Zhou Yu himself. He stared blankly at the virtual screen above, refusing to believe his own eyes and ears.

Just as everyone was frantically guessing what dark horse had suddenly burst out of nowhere to snatch Zhou Yu's third-place spot, the next ranking displayed nearly caused their eyeballs to pop out of their sockets.

[Third Place, Tang Hongning: 1551 points]

"Third place is Tang Hongning?! Shouldn't she be in second?"
"With a gap of nearly two hundred points from Zhou Yu, she was surpassed too?"
"This second-place person is truly incredible, overtaking both Zhou Yu and Tang Hongning consecutively. I wonder who it could be?"

Amidst the eager and expectant gazes of everyone, the answer was soon revealed.

[Second Place, Su Wumi: 5503 points]

"!!!"

Giving the examinees not even a sliver of a second to recover from their shock, the name at the very top of the list floated into view.

[First Place, Zhou Ke: 50,0003 points]

When this name and score appeared, the crowd below fell not into a hubbub, but into a dead, tomb-like silence.

After a long moment of brewing, the compressed roar of noise rebounded across the entire examination hall, causing even the walls of wind and sand to tremble slightly.

"How—how—how much?!"
"Did someone accidentally type an extra zero?"
"You idiot, if they typed an extra zero, their score would be lower than Su Wumi's, so how could that be first place—wait, does that mean it's really fifty thousand points?!"

Everyone was spitting as they animatedly argued over this utterly unimaginable outcome.

If the threefold point difference between second and third place had left them awestruck yet feeling it was within reason, then the nearly tenfold point difference between first and second place was enough to cause their brains to short-circuit.

Few people bothered to ask who "Zhou Ke" was, considering they had already seen this name at the very top of the leaderboard during the early stages of the exam.

They simply never expected that after the exam ended, this completely unremarkable name would still be dominating the top spot!

To put it in another way, it was like having a teammate in League of Legends who scored a pentakill at level one and then went AFK.

He stayed AFK until everyone forgot about him, until the end of time, until his account was practically about to be banned—and then he logged back on.

Not only did he pull off another solo pentakill, but he casually demolished the enemy team's nexus crystal along the way.

For a situation like this to occur, there was only one possibility—

"He cheated! He definitely cheated! It's impossible to get that many points!"

Within the crowd, Zhou Yu was the first to cry out.

You had to hand it to him; his lungs were truly powerful, as his shout managed to slightly drown out the boiling roar of the crowd.

"It's absolutely impossible!" He trembled with rage, his face as dark as the bottom of a pot.

He had thought he would at least secure a spot in the top three, only to be shoved down to fourth place—and by a nobody, no less!

"That's right, it's rigged! We protest!"
"Cancel the cheating exam scores!"

Some of the examinees were instigated by Zhou Yu and began shouting along.

A portion of these people were within the top twenty, feeling that Zhou Ke's fraudulent insertion had dragged down their own rankings.

Another portion believed they were definitely ranked twenty-first, and that as long as Zhou Ke was pulled off his high horse, they could smoothly step up.

Yet another portion had no personal stake at all, driven solely by a sense of fairness and justice.

"This guy didn't put in much effort when it came to protecting his classmates, but he's full of vigor when it comes to targeting them," Tang Hongning observed from afar, casting a glance at the loudly protesting Zhou Yu with an exasperated expression.

She wasn't the competitive type, and getting squeezed down a single spot in the rankings didn't bother her emotionally in the least.

Supporting her waist with one hand, Tang Hongning turned around to look at Zhou Ke beside her.

"Speaking of which, aren't you going to make a statement as the person involved?"

The spot where they were teleported out was roughly the same as their position before entering the [Gate].

As members of the same squad, the two of them emerged shoulder to shoulder.

"Why make a statement?" Zhou Ke was currently letting out a sinister, eerie chuckle. "Let them make a fuss. The louder the uproar, the better—let this matter spread like wildfire across the entire city!"

Having finally attained genuine protagonist treatment, he was too happy to care.

"This plot device is not bad. I'll write it into my book when I get back."

"Ew." Thoroughly disgusted by Zhou Ke's warped sense of thrill, Tang Hongning hugged her chest in utter aversion.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the examination hall.

Su Wumi silently gazed at the published rankings. "He isn't second place? This is different from the [Future] Mei Ling prophesied?"

"Then what about his future..."

Her crystal-clear eyes continuously flashed with various calculation algorithms, but the symbols outlined in the end were nothing but pure confusion.

A moment later, she pressed a finger to her slightly throbbing temple and murmured, "Let's go, Jasmine."

"Eldest Miss, aren't you going to stay and check whether that guy actually cheated?" Jasmine felt a bit resentful inside.

In her heart, Eldest Miss was forever a genius among her peers! No one could ever compare to her!

"Do you think the chief examiner would publish scores obtained through cheating?" Su Wumi's calm counter-question jolted Jasmine awake.

"Oh, right!"

Realization dawning on her, Jasmine hurried to catch up with the former, their figures gradually fading into the exit of the examination hall.

They departed as peacefully and quietly as if nothing had happened at all.

Only the five fingers Su Wumi quietly clenched inside her sleeves hinted that her inner self was not as tranquil as her outward appearance suggested.