Everyone here was a ruthless character at the True God level. Yue Shi was strong, but he wasn't so confident that he believed he could simply crush everyone.
He was also afraid of making a careless mistake and failing miserably.
The people who could make it here likely had very dominant personalities. He had long anticipated that conflicts might arise, but he hadn't expected one to come quite so soon.
When he was confronting the Wave Messenger just now, had he shown even a hint of weakness, it would likely have invited much more trouble later on.
It was like campus bullying; it would lead to a broken window effect.
If one person is bullied and falls into a weak ecological niche, then more people will join in on the bullying.
One person throws a stone, then two people throw stones, then a whole crowd throws stones while another group watches with cold indifference—until the person being pelted falls and can never get back up again.
Yue Shi didn't know exactly how much weight the people present carried, so he had to settle the matter quickly just now.
He couldn't let others see the depths of his abilities, he couldn't let them know his weaknesses, and most importantly, he couldn't let them think he was an easy target.
Therefore, he had to use the most clean-cut, inscrutable method possible to kill the first provocateur.
He needed to establish dominance and maintain an air of mystery. He wanted everyone to have a question mark in their minds—just how strong was he? What other trump cards did he have? Did he have even more terrifying methods he hadn't used yet?
That was why Yue Shi chose to use that arrow.
Thanks to the gift from the Zhongzhou Central Supernatural Management Bureau, this arrow possessed extreme lethality against divine beings, and it could lock onto a target for a guaranteed hit.
It was the perfect tool to deal with a True God-level opponent.
The actual results were excellent. That move had intimidated many people. For the time being, no one would likely dare to move against him lightly.
The Wave Messenger had dropped an ocean authority after his death, which was a good thing. Since it had been delivered to his doorstep, Yue Shi accepted it with a smile.
He casually popped the water droplet into the snow leopard's mouth.
The people still watching from the sidelines looked at the patch of ground where the Wave Messenger had vanished, all of them pondering a more important matter.
Someone had killed another person in public on the playground, yet they hadn't received any punishment!
At least, there was no punishment on the surface.
This was not a good sign. Once the majority of people realized this, the law of the jungle would take effect. Every person here would become prey, and every person would be a hunter.
...
The school had not issued any mandatory orders yet. Like many others, Yue Shi was observing the environment.
He first took a slow walk between the teaching buildings. The corridors were quiet, and the classrooms were filled with empty desks and chairs.
Then he walked to the edge of the playground and stood beneath the perimeter wall.
The wall wasn't high, but the world outside was a hazy gray, nothing that could be described with words.
It seemed this world was only as large as the school itself; everything within the walls was all there was.
After a while, the broadcast rang out again, echoing in every corner of the campus: “Freshmen, please enter your assigned exam rooms based on your student ID numbers to participate in the opening placement test.”
A placement test?
Those words elicited various reactions from the crowd, though the majority seemed eager to try.
Everyone standing here was a hardened veteran. What kind of scene hadn't they witnessed? How difficult could a mere exam be?
Yue Shi noticed that the information on his student card had changed. A small line of text had appeared next to his student ID—
【Exam Room: Building 3, Room 0218. Seat: 23.】
After a moment's thought, he headed toward Building 3.
There were already many people in the corridors of the teaching building, moving in groups of twos and threes. As Yue Shi walked past them, the crowd automatically parted to make way for him.
He found Room 0218 and pushed the door open.
The classroom wasn't large, seating about forty people.
On the wall above the blackboard hung a banner that read: “Test with integrity; cheating is shameful. Violations of school rules will result in a score of zero.”
Yue Shi walked to Seat 23 and sat down. The snow leopard flickered its tail restlessly, while the ghost shrank into a button on his collar, remaining silent.
The classroom filled up with more and more people. The atmosphere wasn't particularly tense; everyone was waiting patiently.
They were waiting to see what this so-called ‘placement test’ actually was.
The proctor arrived. He was a gray-haired old man. He didn't walk in through the door but simply spawned directly onto the podium.
The crowd stole a few extra glances at the teacher. This was the first living organism they had encountered in this world.
“The exam begins,” the proctor announced coldly.
Test papers appeared on the desks, manifesting out of thin air just like the teacher had.
Yue Shi glanced at the paper.
【Multi-World Joint Higher Vocational School Entrance Placement Test - Comprehensive Paper】
Below that was a dense array of questions.
Before Yue Shi even had a chance to read the questions, he felt a malicious gaze fall upon him.
Looking up, he found the proctor staring right in his face, shouting angrily, “You! Violation!”
Yue Shi pointed at himself in confusion. “Me???”
In the next second, the ghost hidden in his button was forcibly yanked out.
“Bringing pets and information lifeforms into the exam room is a violation of school rules. You must accept punishment immediately,” the teacher announced viciously.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Yue Shi had already been removed from the exam room.
He and his two pets were thrown out of the teaching building simultaneously.
Shink!
Yue Shi's head was severed.
It wasn't a strike from a sharp weapon, but rather a high-priority rule attacking him. His neck felt as if an invisible wire had passed through it, and his head fell off.
Yue Shi reached out and caught his own head, his expression twisted in a grimace.
The loudspeakers cheerfully made a school-wide announcement: “A freshman has been found in violation of the rules during the placement test. They have been given a score of zero and have already received severe punishment.”
In another exam room.
“I’ve never even been to school, damn it!” a man with a face full of scars cursed under his breath. He would rather be fighting on a battlefield than sitting here taking an exam.
His hands were already gripping the edge of the desk, ready to flip it. Since no one had been punished for public murder on the playground, flipping a desk to refuse an exam shouldn't be a big deal.
Then he heard the announcement over the speakers.
‘A score of zero? Severe punishment?’
His hands froze.
The murderer wasn't punished, but a rule violation in an exam resulted in severe punishment?
Is that right?!
His Adam's apple bobbed as he slowly released the desk. He honestly picked up his pen and opened the test paper.
Even though he had never been to school, there were multiple-choice questions. Maybe he could guess a few correctly and get a point or two.
Even if he guessed everything wrong, he would still get a zero. But a zero from failing the test was likely different from a zero for a violation.
In yet another exam room.
A perpetually cold and domineering Dragon Aotian type was uncharacteristically showing a look of distress. He had taken the Gaokao and attended university.
While it wasn't a top-tier prestigious school, the fact that he had fought his way through that stampede across a single-log bridge was enough to prove his IQ was up to par.
The problem was that it had been a very long time ago. The moment the Gaokao ended, he had returned all that knowledge to his textbooks.
After transmigrating, he had spent every day killing monsters to level up and running for his life.
At this moment, he was basically no different from an illiterate!
Rate on N.U.
