Chapter 145: College Entrance Examination (Gaokao)
Why were the clues to the key clue so hard to find?
Why were the rules of the dungeon so insurmountable?
Why couldn't she contact her roommates?
If this was a looping dungeon, then everything was clear.
For a normal college entrance exam, four exams were enough. But what if they had to take more than one?
The dungeon's true strength might have just been revealed.
Tang Xinjue walked forward calmly, ignoring the calls of the woman behind her.
Once she entered the school gates, she would be trapped in a cycle of endless teleportation and exams, with no chance of escape.
After her first teleportation, she realized that her only chance to move outside the school gates would be to return to the time before everything began, before she even entered.
That was the moment!
Pushing through the crowd, a T-junction connecting three straight streets appeared before her.
Rows of houses lined the road, and a street sign stood in the middle, visible from a short distance.
The sign leading to the left read "Food City," and the street was lined with colorful signs: Delicious Soup House, Highway Coffee Main Store, Candy Claw Machine, Heavenly Burger, Hell Canteen...
The street on the right was "Commercial Street," where the buildings were more modest: University Part-time Job Agency, Old Man Zhang's Repair Shop, Huancheng Hostel, Affordable Cell Phone Store...
The central street leading forward was deserted, with nothing on either side except the sign: "Night Market Street."
What all three streets had in common was a complete absence of a single person, creating a stark contrast to the densely packed shops.
This was even more evident at the school gate. The bustling crowd behind her and the street in front of her were almost distinct, as if they were divided into two worlds. And that other world was only a few dozen meters away.
Tang Xinjue took a quick glance, memorizing all the information, and continued walking.
Countless gazes seemed tangible, and the shouts grew louder and louder, finally surging like a rising tide, threatening to drown her.
Just as the crowd was about to catch her, Tang Xinjue suddenly stopped, looked at the street before her, and smiled: "Oh, I forgot I have an exam."
Then she turned naturally and headed back to the school gate.
Crowd: "..."
Stepping through the gate again, the movement behind her seemed to have stopped, leaving only the quiet exam environment.
Everything was exactly the same as when she had first entered the dungeon.
Tang Xinjue walked in with ease, without a moment's hesitation.
She wasn't naive enough to believe she could successfully enter those streets, or even safely exit once inside.
Furthermore, some of the shops and architectural elements looked incredibly familiar.
So familiar that the moment she laid eyes on them, she knew exactly where they belonged.
Thanks to this cycle, otherwise, she might never have discovered this—
This remote college entrance exam dungeon was actually located in the legendary University Town.
No, saying "located" wouldn't be accurate either. Tang Xinjue recalled the scenes she had just witnessed and realized something else:
This place was both within the University Town and a separate dungeon space, likely disconnected from the inside.
However, for some unknown reason, even the boundary lines of this dungeon were sloppy, if not completely absent. Therefore, from the edge of this "unfinished" dungeon, she could clearly see outside, that is, the interior of the university town.
…Such a low-level loophole was uncharacteristic of a game dungeon. Perhaps it was intentional?
"Classmate, how can I help you?"
Stepping into the first-floor lobby, a familiar face greeted him with a friendly smile.
Tang Xinjue raised her left hand and shook it, returning a shy smile: "No thanks, teacher."
She raised and lowered her left arm flexibly, without a trace of discomfort.
Indeed, as the highest-ranking female invigilator had said, her arm would be "healed" after the Gaokao.
Rather than a cure, she preferred to think of it as a "refresh." With each refresh, the examinee would face the exam in peak health, just like the first time.
However... Tang Xinjue lowered her eyes slightly.
Besides regaining her health, her condition seemed to have undergone another change.
—Da.
The thoughts about the invigilator's indestructibility were interrupted when Tang Xinjue's ears caught a faint sound. All her attention quickly focused, and she faced the source of the sound.
—Da, da, da.
It was still on the fifth floor. But this time, the sound was no longer that of a heavy object being overturned, but rather the sound of glass beads tumbling to the ground, one by one.
Tang Xinjue slowly walked around the corner of the stairs, listening carefully.
Until the rolling sound of the last bead died down, there were 13 in total.
Then the voice vanished, as if it had never appeared, leaving no trace.
"Student, your exam room is this way."
Several invigilators were already stationed on the third floor. Without further ado, they took Tang Xinjue's exam bag and quietly blocked the stairwell.
Tang Xinjue raised an eyebrow, but this time she didn't confront them, nor did she spare a glance.
Because even now, even without observing them, she could still sense the number of invigilators, their movements, and even their distribution—even with only one-tenth of her mental power restored.
Taking her seat calmly, Tang Xinjue observed the invigilators' every move while quietly channeling her mental power.
Five minutes later, she finally confirmed that the invigilators were imperceptible to her mental power. Even when she used this extra "vision" to cover other people's exam papers, they showed no reaction.
Sure enough, the Gaokao wasn't the true purpose of this dungeon.
If the Gaokao was truly the only purpose, she wouldn't have automatically recovered some of her abilities during the second cycle. Because even the slightest bit of special ability would undermine the fundamental fairness of the Gaokao, rendering the exam meaningless.
So, what exactly is the purpose of the dungeon?
She raised her eyes to the ceiling. Two floors away lay the direction of Examination Room 509. If her mental power were restored to 30%, she could penetrate those two floors and depict the scene in that classroom; if it were restored to 50%, she would have a complete understanding of everything happening in Classroom 508.
But she hadn't yet found a way to restore her special abilities, and her condition was only slightly better than that of an ordinary person.
—Now wasn't the time to cause trouble.
Shaking her head, she restrainedly put down her pen, raised her hand, and said to the person in front of her, "Teacher, I need to go to the bathroom."
…
Since the information was insufficient, she would proactively find a way to complete it.
After the examination room director's eleventh attempt to refuse her failed, Tang Xinjue once again met the kindly-smiling female invigilator.
"I'm sorry, Tang, but we have to tell you some sad news. All the restrooms in this building are under repair, so please bear with me."
The female teacher, gentle as always, firmly rejected Tang Xinjue's request.
The girl, despite being rejected, showed no sign of frustration. She appeared very easygoing: "It's okay. Restroom repairs during the Gaokao are perfectly normal and understandable. I'll come back to you if I feel unwell later."
The female teacher smiled and nodded: "I'm glad you understand. It's not uncommon for candidates to vandalize restrooms. We will work hard to catch and punish the perpetrators and prevent this from happening again."
Tang Xinjue looked shocked: "All destroyed? That's unfortunate! You've all worked so hard. As an ordinary student, there's not much I can do to help. I can only hope you all get used to it quickly. So, I'll try to postpone my discomfort for five minutes to give you more time to rest."
Other invigilators: "..."
Other candidates: "..."
Is this a conversation they can hear?
Is this something a mortal could say?
After the interpersonal conversation ended, the female invigilator was the first to break down. She sternly ushered Tang Xinjue back inside and immediately replaced all the invigilators on the entire floor.
…
"No matter what happens, order must be maintained in the exam room. We must not let what happened on the fifth floor happen again."
With her back to the tightly closed door of exam room 307, the woman's gentle and kind face took on an eerie green hue.
For the first time, her voice took on a raspy, raspy quality that belied her appearance. The corners of her mouth, which had always remained at the same angle in Tang Xinjue's memory, now inadvertently split upward, revealing mouthparts densely packed with blood vessels beneath her cheeks.
The mouthparts rasped, "From now on, force may be used if necessary."
The author has something to say: ------
The art of language:
The examinees fell silent upon hearing this, while the invigilators wept.
NPC: I've been in the underworld for so long, and I've never heard such dark words.
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