The Power of Technology

Lord Cha’s answer was... brilliant! A precision strike straight to the soul!

Ren Yi and the others had an identical reaction.

Their necks, which had been stretched out in curiosity until their faces were almost touching Lord Cha’s, retracted instantly.

The sparkle in their eyes dimmed at a visible rate, as if doused with cold water. Even their breathing grew shallow.

Curiosity might kill the Anomaly—and they could just respawn—but curiosity leading to a hundred years of non-stop labor from 6 AM to 9 PM? Absolutely not! Not in a million years!

Ren Yi finally understood why the seniors were so persistent in warning them that "death is not a good thing" and to "never die easily."

Before, no matter what anyone said, he’d always been a little curious.

He’d thought "death" for an Anomaly was just a minor inconvenience, like taking a nap and waking up.

But Lord Cha’s simple analogy sent a chill down his spine, making him fully realize the gravity of the situation.

If he actually tried dying out of curiosity and ended up in "century-long labor mode," working every single day without a break...

Ren Yi was certain that his future self, exhausted and broken, would break the laws of space and time to travel back and beat his current, overly curious self to a pulp.

Of course, what death actually looked like remained a mystery.

After all, no one dared to gamble their hundred-year "vacation."

With their curiosity thoroughly extinguished, the trio began peppering Lord Cha with other questions about the exam.

This was about their promotion—and more importantly, about avoiding that "century of labor." They couldn't afford to be careless.

Lu Zihan was the first to raise his hand, looking panicked. "Does failing the exam mean you definitely have to die?"

"So the school sends at least half the students 'away' once per exam?"

The thought of a fifty percent mortality rate made his skin crawl.

"No, no, relax," Lord Cha waved a paw dismissively, his tone light. "You can fail while staying alive. You don't have to die."

Ren Yi’s lip twitched. "How is that relaxing? If we fail while alive, what happens next? We can't just keep taking it forever, can we?"

"Why not?" Lord Cha said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "If you fail, you retake it. Don't worry, our school's exams are available on demand, 24/7, all year round."

"You can take it whenever you want until you're satisfied with the result!"

"What happened to 'keeping the best and discarding the rest'?" Ren Yi facepalmed in despair. "This 24/7 exam system is the worst of the worst!"

Zhang Qiuqiu chimed in, "Will the exam tasks be the same? Can we team up? We could look out for each other that way."

"Of course not!" Lord Cha immediately shot that down, his tone stern. "What kind of misunderstanding do you have about these exams?"

"This is a practical combat assessment. You are required to complete your own tasks independently!"

The three of them instantly wilted. "Oh..." they replied in unison.

Their disappointment was palpable.

Ren Yi didn't give up. "Can we bring Anomaly Artifacts? They're our personal property, so that shouldn't count as cheating with outside help, right?"

"You can bring those. Not just Anomaly Artifacts, but any non-living object, like your phones," Lord Cha nodded and added.

"Sometimes, tasks involving observing human customs even require you to take photos and records. You couldn't do it without a phone."

"Oh?" Their eyes lit up again—they could bring their phones?

But without the Anomaly Web, what use was a phone?

Just then, Zhang Qiuqiu raised her hand, interrupting the conversation with a hint of mystery in her eyes. "Lord Cha, you just said... we can bring phones, right?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?" Lord Cha looked up at her, confused, with his paws on his hips.

"There’s just no internet. You can bring the phone itself; no one’s stopping you."

He couldn't help but snark, "But honestly, a phone without internet is just a brick. There’s no point in bringing it."

"You'd even have to worry about charging it. It's just extra trouble."

"Yeah, Monitor," Lu Zihan agreed, looking puzzled.

"If the exam takes a long time, even a power bank won't be enough. The phone will die eventually, and then it's useless anyway."

"No, no, no..." Zhang Qiuqiu waved her hand, a mysterious smirk playing on her lips and a glint of pride in her eyes.

"In this era of high technology, there are always some old-school masters who insist on hand-crafting black technology!"

"Huh?" Ren Yi and Lu Zihan were both stunned, their faces full of confusion.

Even the quick-witted Ren Yi couldn't grasp what Zhang Qiuqiu meant.

In reality, as mentioned before, a phone was essentially just a "camouflage shell" for an Anomaly.

Since the Anomaly Web could be accessed directly through a mental connection to exchange information and look up data.

Most of the time, they carried phones just to blend in in public places or out of habits from their past lives.

After all, if you suddenly looked up at the sky with a blank stare, appearing lost in thought, humans would definitely see you as "weird."

But if you looked down at a phone, immersed in the light and shadow of the screen, no "children" would say a word, even if you didn't move for hours.

Isn't that how all young people are nowadays?

So, when the Anomaly Web was down and there was no internet, a phone really was no different from a brick to them.

Seeing their bewilderment, Zhang Qiuqiu couldn't help but wiggle her eyebrows and boast, "Give me your phones, you two."

"Let me show you the true power of technology!"