Chapter 141: The College Entrance Examination
…Was it the way she opened her eyes that was wrong?
From the moment she woke up and didn't see her roommate, Tang Xinjue knew something was wrong.
But she hadn't expected it to be this serious.
What could be more terrifying than someone who had already attended college for several years, whose peak knowledge had been largely lost to compulsory education, opening their eyes and standing in front of the college entrance examination hall again?
For a moment, even the monsters in her nightmares seemed more familiar, giving Tang Xinjue a rare urge to close her eyes again.
"Hey, which school are you from? Are you going to get in yet? You're going to be late!"
More and more people outside the exam hall cast their gazes. Some suspected Tang Xinjue had heatstroke and started calling security. Some asked where her parents were. Some even started pushing her. The crowd surged forward like a wave, trying to push her directly into the exam room.
Before the college entrance examination, every action seemed unnatural, even legitimate and reasonable, making it impossible to find any flaws.
Especially after losing her supernatural powers.
Tang Xinjue retracted her fingers. She had just given it a quick try, but neither her mental power nor the toilet plunger worked. She was now dressed in casual clothes, in accordance with the Gaokao regulations. Her props and phone were gone.
She said nothing, quietly following the flow of people through the school gate. After a familiar series of checks, she stepped into the unfamiliar teaching building.
"Examination Room 37, 3rd Floor, Turn Right, Room 307."
The middle-aged female teacher in the hall glanced at her admission ticket and gave succinct directions .
With less than two minutes left before the first exam began, the corridor was nearly deserted, stretching quietly as far as her sight. Only her own footsteps could be heard.
This didn't make sense.
Tang Xinjue took a quick glance and understood.
In the real Gaokao, the corridors were constantly supervised by teachers; it was impossible for them to be so empty.
Despite the seemingly normal scene, she could still detect a subtle chill in the quiet passage.
The presence of something unusual reassured her.
After all, if she wasn't mad or dreaming, then she should be in a new exam dungeon right now.
Perhaps for some unknown reason, she'd entered the dungeon without waking up, missing the dungeon's information and rules and losing contact with her roommates.
Was it the dungeon's peculiarities, or was it the game messing around again? All she could do was respond as she went.
Pausing at the door of classroom 307, Tang Xinjue pushed it open, her vision filled with the slender, similar figures of two female teachers. They stood expressionless at the doorway, as if waiting for her.
After completing the final inspection, the classroom finally came into view.
From the classroom layout to the students, everything was identical to reality. Tang Xinjue couldn't help but wonder if she were now in a state of amnesia, she'd probably think she'd been transported back to the Gaokao in 2017.
"Don't look around!" a teacher suddenly barked, pointing a hand high up at the back row. "Hurry over, papers will be distributed soon. Let me repeat the exam rules. First—"
Even the sense of urgency felt incredibly real.
Tang Xinjue smiled and sat down, silently estimating the time it would take for the dungeon to reveal its true form.
Was it the exam room that had changed, or the exam paper?
Given the sheer volume of questions in the Gaokao, it wasn't possible to create a dungeon for each question like in classic movies. Predicting the precise form of danger was therefore difficult. But even
if the game was tricky, it wouldn't actually let them take Gaokao questions, right?
...
Two hours later, Tang Xinjue knew she was wrong, terribly wrong.
The game seemed to be truly intended for her to take the Gaokao.
In the air-conditioned heat, the young woman held her forehead to her chest, staring at the densely printed Chinese language paper, her gel pen silently twirling between her fingers.
For two hours, the exam room remained completely uneventful.
The biggest surprise was that when answering questions, you never knew how difficult the next one would be. Looking closely, the beautiful ancient poetry and classical Chinese texts seemed so unfamiliar, as if they had never appeared before in her life. The clean answer area seemed to define this blank period in her life.
Was this something a horror game student should be looking at?
"Thirty minutes left," the invigilator warned sternly.
Tang Xinjue stared at the invigilator, feeling for the first time a strong desire for the NPC to mutate quickly, in any way possible.
Unfortunately, the invigilator simply stared back expressionlessly, emphasizing, "Last thirty minutes!"
"..."
She resigned herself to her fate, retracting her pen and continuing to answer questions.
Without understanding the details of this dungeon, she couldn't risk passing up any opportunity—what if it was truly just a college entrance exam? With the amount of trolling in the game, it certainly wasn't impossible.
She gritted her teeth and wrote until the very last moment. Only when the bell rang did Tang Xinjue breathe a sigh of relief and put down her gel pen.
After the exam, she couldn't stay in the classroom. She followed the vast crowd of examinees out, searching for Zhang You and the others.
At best, they were simply assigned to different exam rooms within the same school.
Worse, they might not even be in the same school, the same district... or even the same province!
However, after walking and observing for a few minutes, Tang Xinjue quickly realized that because there were so many people, her vision was completely obstructed, and finding anyone was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
And every time she tried to leave in the opposite direction, the surging crowd squeezed her back like elastic tendons, pushing her all the way to the school gate, where it dispersed like Moses parting the sea.
It was impossible not to feel awkward suddenly returning to the state of an ordinary person without superpowers. Tang Xinjue cracked her knuckles, stood there for a few seconds, and then, after calming herself, stepped out again.
...
"Exam Room 37, 3rd Floor, Turn Right, Classroom 307."
An admission ticket flashed before her, and Tang Xinjue instinctively reached out to grab it. Behind the paper, a familiar face of a middle-aged female teacher appeared.
"Student, are you okay?"
A female teacher asked her.
Tang Xinjue saw her own reflection in the other's puzzled eyes. The girl in the reflection looked like she had just come back from a daze, a hint of confusion still lingering in her expression, subtly overlapping with her own current state of mind.
One moment, she had just stepped out of the school gate, still pondering and gathering clues.
The next, she was standing in the lobby on the first floor of the teaching building, encountering the exact same scene that had occurred two and a half hours earlier.
The same place, the same people, the same words, even the exact position!
Tang Xinjue took a deep breath and asked, "Teacher, what exam is this?"
The teacher looked at her curiously: "It's math soon."
Math was the second subject in the college entrance examination. According to the time of day, it should be 3:00 PM now. Since the Chinese exam ended at 11:30 AM, a full three and a half hours had vanished.
It was clear the copy didn't want her to leave the exam room.
"Ah, only two minutes left! Hurry, hurry, get over there!"
The middle-aged female teacher hurriedly urged, checking the time. When Tang Xinjue didn't move immediately, her voice trembled with anxiety, and she even reached out to push her. Tang Xinjue instinctively dodged, and suddenly a dozen figures appeared in her peripheral vision.
The previously empty hall was instantly half full. A dozen men and women dressed as invigilators appeared behind Tang Xinjue, their brows furrowed as they stared at her intently, urging her in unison:
"Hurry up and take the exam... Hurry up and take the exam... Hurry up and take the exam!"
They formed a circle, pressing towards Tang Xinjue with an oppressive air. If Tang Xinjue showed any sign of disobedience, the number of people in the circle would rapidly increase.
"...Exam... Exam..."
Seeing that forcible resistance was unlikely to succeed, and negotiations were futile, Tang Xinjue decisively went upstairs to the classroom, blocking out the mental contamination.
"Check!"
The two invigilators stood in front of her like gatekeepers.
…The real mental torture had just begun.
Despite missing half an hour, the math exam seemed even longer than the Chinese. Tang Xinjue picked out all the questions she could, then put down her pen and let herself go. She began to replay the dungeon from the beginning until now, trying to decipher its underlying logic.
First, this dungeon was unlike any other exam dungeon before: no superpowers, no items, no cell phones or contact information. Even calling the game in her mind didn't respond.
Furthermore, there were no levels, dangers, or prompts. The only clear direction was for her to take the test, and her movements seemed confined to the exam hall.
The few items she had: the test paper, writing implements, and the admission ticket—all examined countless times, confirming they were ordinary items.
But there was something about the admission ticket that still evoked a sense of unease.
Tang Xinjue cast her gaze upon the admission ticket on the corner of the table.
It didn't have a province marked on it, only the words "2017 Unified College Entrance Examination."
If the purpose of the dungeon was simply to make the examinees relive the fear of being dominated by the Gaokao, then the year here was superfluous.
The four of them in the dorm had originally taken the Gaokao in 2018.
"Half an hour left!"
The invigilator's thunderous reminder interrupted her thoughts. Several of the less advanced examinees even trembled, their heads burying deeper in their study amid the clacking of their pens.
Tang Xinjue, however, raised her hand.
Facing the invigilator's stern gaze, she said calmly,
"Teacher, I need to go to the bathroom."
"Ahhh, these math problems are too hard! I hate math!"
Amid the crowd pouring out, a petite girl clutched her head in frustration, her expression of despair blending seamlessly with the surrounding examinees, indistinguishable.
After a few dozen seconds, the girl gradually calmed down and whispered to herself, "It's okay. This isn't true anyway. I took the college entrance exam eight hundred years ago. As long as I can pass this time, it'll be fine. Even if I don't do well, Jue Shen and Wanqing will definitely be fine... Yeah, I can definitely do it!"
After that, she clenched her fists and walked towards the door, muttering to herself, "The next one is comprehensive. I'm good at this. There's absolutely no problem with it..."
The transparent exam bag in her hand shook, revealing the neat handwriting on the admission ticket:
2020 Unified College Entrance Examination
Name: Guo Guo
...
Just before stepping out of the door, Guo Guo suddenly paused, quickly turned around and grabbed a pole to stabilize her body. At the same time, she covered her ears and whispered in surprise,
"Is it you?"
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