Chapter 153: College Entrance Exam (Gaokao)
Since Tang Xinjue was able to list them out, it meant that all three methods were feasible.
But comparatively speaking, the first two only treated the symptoms and not the root cause. Only the last one clearly pointed to a single outcome:
Solving all invigilator bosses from the source.
Zhang You did not know what clues Tang Xinjue had obtained on her side, but at the very first moment she heard this sentence, she thought of this Exam Rules Book.
This was one of the items she had slipped out of the second-floor storage room—along with the communicator currently being used to contact Tang Xinjue. It was just that she had not figured it out yet when she was discovered by the invigilators, and up until now she had not found any chance to make use of it.
Both logic and intuition told her that this rulebook was very important, but when she actually flipped through it…
Zhang You said honestly: “I didn’t understand it.”
Now she opened the rulebook again. Zheng Wanqing leaned over to look. Aside from the fairly proper and serious cover, on the few sparse pages inside, almost half of it was garbled text?
Of the small remaining parts where the writing could still be identified, aside from a few basic behavioral regulations, what was recorded were all kinds of strange requirements:
“Do not consume more than 50kg of food in the examination hall, do not make noise exceeding 200 decibels, do not swallow the invigilator certificate…”
The more Zheng Wanqing read, the more question marks filled her head: “Is this something humans could come up with as exam rules?”
Who would do these kinds of things in an exam hall?
Tang Xinjue tugged the corner of her mouth: “Of course humans couldn’t come up with it. But what if the object constrained by these rules isn’t human?”
If one only looked at the rulebook without touching any other clues, it would indeed be utterly confusing. Clearly, the clues obtainable in each examination hall were not the same.
As she spoke, Tang Xinjue knocked out two more invigilators and walked into a new exam hall. Under the stunned and terrified gazes of a crowd of examinees, she calmly opened her mouth:
“Everyone should already know—there’s been a terrifying accident. Today’s exam is canceled. You can all go home.”
“B-but, if we don’t take the exam, there won’t be any grades.”
A boy said softly.
Tang Xinjue smiled: “Isn’t that even better?”
“No exam, no grades. The responsibility and consequences will all be borne by the [external force] that destroyed the exam. Isn’t that fun?”
The expressions of the examinees gradually shifted from blankness to complexity, and within that complexity was a trace of irrepressible delight.
Right—wasn’t that better?
The quiet corridor did not take long to become crowded with people. Students rushed outward one after another, and all the invigilator forces were drawn over to intercept them.
But compared to the massive flow of students, even if the invigilators replicated endlessly, it was nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot*, and in the blink of an eye they were scattered into insignificant fragments within the crowd.
*"螳臂当车" is a Chinese idiom that originated in the book Zhuangzi. It refers to a mantis raising its forelegs in an attempt to block a chariot, illustrating the futility of attempting something beyond one's capabilities and the inevitable failure.
At the same time, the instigator of this chaos was sitting in the back row of the exam hall, quietly tuning the communication signal.
Lina Lü would extract a certain amount of power from dead examinees and invigilators. This was something Tang Xinjue discovered on the other party after two consecutive floors suffered indiscriminate attacks.
She had to wait alone until the exam ended to recover her state, while the other side had countless mobile “eyes” and free health potions—this was far too unfair.
Since stimulation was the goal, why not pursue it to the end? Wasn’t a 1v1 solo chase battle more fun?
While waiting for the pursuer, Tang Xinjue told everything she knew about the dungeon to the roommates on the other end of the communication, who clearly had much more free time.
Before speaking, she even specially reminded them: “Zhang You, control Wanqing first. What I’m about to say might make her emotions a little excited.”
Zheng Wanqing: “? Are you kidding me, I’m at least a mature examinee. These little dungeon matters can make me angry?”
One minute later.
The communication channel was crammed full of Zheng Wanqing’s furious voice:
“Trash dungeon! Trash exam! Trash NPCs! They actually made me take the exam as a substitute!!”
“I studied for twelve years to get into university. Three years of university grinding papers, competitions, and GPA day and night. Fine, I worked hard for over ten years just to enter a dungeon and return to square one—but they even f*cking made me take the exam for these brain-dead NPCs?!”
“Why doesn’t she come die in my place?!! Wuwu! Mmm-mmm-wu!”
Zhang You restrained her, then returned to the conversation, her tone clearly much more spirited: “So the problem lies with the admission ticket… I think I understand.”
She had never been so glad that she had swiped the communication prop from the storage room and found Tang Xinjue.
The revelation of the truth behind the admission ticket overturned her fundamental understanding of this dungeon:
That was that this so-called college entrance examination had absolutely nothing to do with the four of them!
At the same moment, Zhang You also understood the meaning of Tang Xinjue’s third method. That’s right—they neither needed to clear the dungeon through exams, nor through violence.
They only needed to let the people who truly should be taking the exam here return to their rightful positions.
Looking at the rulebook again from a brand-new perspective, they quickly found some key points they hadn’t noticed before.
“Exam Rule Article One: All examinees must carry an admission ticket to enter…”
“Exam Rule Article Three: Examinees must undergo identity verification upon entry. All examinees who pass the school gate inspection are considered verified by default. If any examinee misses this step, secondary verification may be conducted…”
When her ears caught the words “secondary verification,” Tang Xinjue’s brow jumped, and she directly called out to her roommates:
“Find the parts related to this rule!”
Zhang You immediately pressed on this exam rule, her eyes quickly sweeping downward line by line.
In the ears of both her and Zheng Wanqing, Tang Xinjue’s voice was clearly more urgent than before, at times seeming to break up intermittently as if in an area with poor signal. Occasionally, the hoarse shrieks of a strange female voice could also be heard.
“It’s fine.” Tang Xinjue replied calmly, casually tearing the blood-wiped towel into countless pieces and throwing them into rooms one by one. “I threw away all its rations. Now it’s throwing a tantrum.”
Zhang You: “…I found the specific implementation process for handling special situations!”
She read out the words in the book one by one: “Examinees undergoing secondary identity verification must have their admission ticket stamped with the Academic Affairs Office approval seal, and enter the examination hall with a valid admission ticket before the first subject exam. This will be regarded as verification passed.”
Zheng Wanqing suddenly understood: “Does that mean that as long as we make these people re-verify their examinee identities, they won’t have invigilator authority anymore?”
“No, it’s far more than that.”
Tang Xinjue looked at the mass of humanoid tentacles rushing over, wiped the blood flowing to the corner of her eye, and chuckled softly:
“But before that, we need to gather all the prerequisite conditions.”
——The conditions to perfectly implement the verification process and ensure that the four “invigilator teachers” are warmly received.
Fortunately, the rulebook was written clearly and explicitly. Even Zheng Wanqing could understand the specific components at a glance.
“Time and place.”
“Before the first subject starts, the exam hall corresponding to the admission ticket.”
“People and items.”
“Examinees, admission tickets, Academic Affairs Office approval stamp.”
After smoothly going through a question-and-answer exchange with Tang Xinjue, Zheng Wanqing confidently slapped her hand:
“Everything’s ready except—eh?”
Only then did she realize that one thing was still missing, and it was a crucial link:
“The Academic Affairs Office stamp? How are we supposed to get that?”
Tang Xinjue: “Whoever has time does it.”
Zheng Wanqing froze. But she and Zhang You were dodging the overwhelming waves of invigilators, and Tang Xinjue was escaping a ghost’s pursuit. No one could spare the time. That meant the only one who might possibly have time left was…
The three spoke in unison:
“Guo Guo!”
Guo Guo sat in the exam hall, anxious and on edge.
On the inside of her wrist, she still hid a small bunch of keys, hard and pressed against her sleeve cuff. So even when writing, she had to reduce the movement range of her wrist, afraid that a single slip might expose something.
If it were only the two stiff-faced invigilators in the exam hall, that would be manageable. What Guo Guo worried about most was still the “chief invigilator” who had yet to show herself.
Even though this ghost was no longer unfamiliar to them—one could even call her an old acquaintance—her heart still beat drums subconsciously.
Now Jue Shen wasn’t by her side, Wanqing and You jie weren’t by her side either. The main forces who could scheme against ghosts, kite ghosts, and violently beat ghosts were all absent. There was only her alone—lonely, weak, and pitiful.
What’s more, her ability was Yin-Yang Eyes!
She couldn’t just stare ghosts to death with her eyes!
Wait—could she?
The bell rang. In her tense and chaotic thoughts, Guo Guo handed in her paper, and only then realized with extreme sorrow: what had ended was merely the second subject exam.
That meant that even if she did nothing, she would still have to suffer through two entire exams at a snail’s pace before having a chance to escape the current situation… and then start the next exam cycle.
No, she couldn’t just sit and wait for death like this!
The small key in her sleeve was left behind when she was sent back, just before that mysterious short-haired girl surnamed Cai disappeared. Guo uo knew it must be able to open one of the doors in this building, otherwise the short-haired girl would not have left it for her.
But how could she get a chance to try it? What if the chief invigilator appeared in the next second?
Like this, she fidgeted uneasily through the math exam.
Then she nervously finished the comprehensive exam.
And then…
Before the final English exam began, Guoguo finally realized belatedly that the chief invigilator seemed to have no intention of coming out at all?
From beginning to end, what she saw were only stiff-faced invigilators appearing in groups, examinees like herself who racked their brains and still couldn’t solve the questions, and test papers that were harder than the last. Other than that, it could be called calm and uneventful.
Yet the calmer the outside world seemed, the more uneasy Guoguo felt, always thinking that the BOSS was brewing a big move in secret, even starting to recall whether she had offended it anywhere in the past.
After trying hard to remember in a big circle, her heart turned to ashes: with the “deep friendship” between 606 and it, talking about personal hatred values was already meaningless.
If it were her, being defeated by prey again and again, exploited, threatened, intimidated, having her hair plucked bald… and now having them fall into her hands again, she would definitely seize the opportunity to retaliate.
Stepping to the rhythm of the final exam bell, Guo Guo hugged the wall and walked as slowly as possible, trying to find the best hiding spot that could shelter her from wind and rain.
However, just as she reached a corner along the wall, the sudden sound that rang in her ears startled her into stumbling, and she directly crashed open a tightly closed door!
With a short sharp intake of breath, Guo Guo supported herself on the doorframe and looked up in panic, meeting eyes with a figure inside the room who was gnawing on a chicken leg—
Why did the other party look even more dumbfounded than her?
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