Chapter 13 - Accelerate Time and Final Exam

Just after he learnt the Wushu Foundation Arts of Baiji-quan, Tang Ling was immediately kicked out of the world to return to reality.

"Huh ?"

[Log : Host has entered a secret uninterruptable event : Baiji Master of Lone Dawn.

As it cannot be interrupted, Time Acceleration (faster than normal) has been executed to let Host finish the quest.

Hidden Quest finished. Player has been awarded of Basic Understanding of Baiji and a manual

The Player will now be expulsed.

Note : the rebound of Time Acceleration is quite big so please do not overuse your body.]

"Time Acceleration ? It means that apart from the 1/2 time, the system can also accelerate time so I can finish special quests ?" Tang Ling frowned but his questions remained unanswered.

He then woke up but just the action to wake up was quite painful for him.

"Is that the side-effect of Time Acceleration ?"thought Tang Ling, it seemed like it. His body wasn't strong enough to handle more than 2 times acceleration from the Game World. If it was, he would always be in this state, where a small mouvement was difficult. Thank God that after a few stretches, it was possible to walk normally.

Tang Ling walked over the kitchen and as always, his sister already left. He sighed but still made some cereals for breakfast. In this breakfast, he realised that his appetite had grown larger. It was definitely because his body was stronger. As he didn't lack in basic studies, he knew that the stronger, bigger the organism, the more energy it required. That's why there weren't any big species, it required more energy for nothing. Beasts here would have small to moderate size but they were fast and strong.

Today as an 14 year old, Tang Ling could skip classes but this time he couldn't.

-The Final Exam and the Order Ceremony-

At the age 14, people could graduate from school. They could then choose to enter to society or go to university and learn new skills. No, college and university were only for wealthy and geniuses. Although the school teaches about everything to become a civil servant. Universities are for elites ,wealthy and the Orderers.

It didn't matter, he wasn't rich or a genius so he would graduate from school and with the Game World, he would become more powerful than ever.

At 9:00 AM, Tang Ling just left home and arrived to school.

The school could be said to be one of the most respectable buildings in Bao Feng City, only big bosses, mayor and some gouvernemental buildings surpass it. After all, it was built by the royal family so even if it was in the middle between the slums and 'presentable' side, it was good and the education was for everyone and was free.

The class Tang Ling was in was the {-Slum Part- Year 14yo}. Yes, the school was divided by two sections; one for the riches and poors. It was a sort of protection to slum persons to offend a powerful person while maintaining the dignity of those bullies.

Tang Ling would seldom see these rich second-generation spendthrifts, they would sometimes go bully one small slum child to sastify their sadistics cravings but most of the times, apart from the usual disdain, these spoiled children would do nothing to them.

"The Slums classes are in the back building." thought Tang Ling. The back building was where poor people studies and learn. This place wasn't that shabby either, at least it was better than his room.

He then saw Ducke at the entrance.

"Ducke, why are you here ?" asked Tang Ling. He was really surprised, wasn't it the time for him to work ? He already graduated, normally he didn't have the obligation to attend school right ?

"Hey, that's hurt, I can't visit you and my old school ?" Ducke said playfully

Tang Ling began to walk over the classroom and as he opened the door, he saw numerous familiar faces. Juliette, Mansha, Lorente, Camille, Funi... Wait you said why only the familiar faces are just girls ? Well... He was a guy, right ?

No seriously, Tang Ling was at most a loner. His friend consisted of Ducke and...

"Tang Ling, you're here ?" said a young baby-faced boy.

Ugh. This boy with a baby face was called Eric Marshall, he was a boy that was bullied by slummers because he had a pretty face. As he couldn't support the unjust daily treatements against Eric (he was young back then), he went against the three bullies and beat the shit out of them. It was then that he became friends with Eric.

"Yeah" Tang Ling said having a strange expression on his face. Even after many years, he didn't develop any acceptances for this baby-face Eric. Damn, sometimes he regretted that he helped him; but no matter what, Eric was now his friend.

"It is kinda sad that after we've finish this final exam, we would quit school and won't see each other often."responded Eric disappointed.

Who the hell wants to be with you ?! thought Tang Ling but he didn't show anything in his face.

Riing ! The class has started and a woman with a tired look came into the classes. It was normal in the slum classes, teachers of slummers were victims of tiredness due to inactivity of students and contempt of other teachers.

"Well, this is the Final Exam before graduation. Make sure to give your best as it can influence your next job." said Mrs. Di. This was the truth albeit most people would just become slummers, if the student performed extremely well, they could be recruited by a powerful family as an clerk or by the government.

But Tang Ling didn't want to become someone like that, entering the scheming upper circles wasn't his dream. His dream was to live safely with his sister, as long as she's safe, he would be fine.

Mrs. Di handed the thick question sheets and the exam begun. It was just simple calculation and geometry-thing in mathematics. The exam emphasized more in history and traditions, it seemed more like a brainwash than anything. It was also because of it that his mathematics were mediocre(only LV1). But with the sometime more challenging parts of the question sheets, Tang Ling could feel a breakthrough in his thoughts as he had more clarity in his mind.

[Congratulation to Host to level up Mathematics to LV2]

[Mathematics LV2 : Simple questions are too easy for ya, with some time and concentration, math problems and mental calculations can be done.]

...

After two hours or so, Tang Ling and the rest finished and handed their papers. The exam itself was easy after all, beside the fact that the royal family cared their reputation, the government could scheme so that their kids could graduate to university and inherit their position.

The world was corrupt and still existed.

After finishing the easy full-course exam, Tang Ling exited the classroom. It should take about a few hours or so before the result is shown. Brokang Empire was endowed with advanced technologies. If it was a normal exam, it would have taken about a few days but the Final Exam was graded by an A.I and an expert. This process was extremely quick, the senior that said that the Final Exam process was fast was right !

Tang Ling took a bottle from a vending machine after paying a quarter of credits. Typically, everyone here was a slummer so few would be spend money for an 'useless' thing like drinking soda. This situation was also that Tang Ling had. When he was younger, he couldn't afford to pay the vending machine. But as he grew up and gained some credits, he could sometimes afford to get one in a few days to relax his mind. After all, he wouldn't perform well if he was stressed, more stress meant less money !

After two hours (for slummers, it was easy to last that long without complaining), the school released the score of the students. The result was projected and Tang Ling could easily find his name.

16th place : Tang Ling 352/400

There were a lot of hardworking students that wanted to change their lives and Tang Ling didn't belong to them but still had a great results. 16th place to 400 persons was really good. But 'unfortunately', rich young masters would only take notice of the first top 10 and recruit them. The others would need to scram and maybe work for an unknown shop for a meager amount of money. Tang Ling didn't take pity on them, this was the trend of slums; sympathy is not needed in this cold place.