Chapter 12: The Ring

Xie Sen sat in the passenger seat of Maine’s shuttle and thought about the examination schedule of the Plant Department. He said curiously, “Didn’t you take the graduation examination yesterday? Why do you have to go today?”

Maine set up the route, and replied with a partial movement. “The Information Department has to take the exam for three days.”

So he was in the Information Department, Xie Sen thought secretly, then he laughed, “Our Plant Department finishes the exam in one morning. It’s much easier than for you guys.”

Maine looked at him with complicated eyes. “Don’t you know that the Plant Department is the easiest of all departments in terms of coursework?”

Xie Sen laughed a little to cover it up. He could never forget. He never knew.

The shuttle landed in the school parking lot and Xie Sen said, “My exam room is in building number eight. What about you?”

“Number one, in the opposite direction.”

“So, let’s go separately. I need to check my shuttle first,” Xie Sen said. “By the way, let’s exchange contact information!”

Maine nodded, and after exchanging contact information, he went into the school first.

Xie Sen found the shuttle through the traffic program’s locator. The shuttle was light blue, the most common style on the street. He wrote down the location and went out of the parking lot. He opened the school map, located to the eighth school building, and followed the map towards the examination room.

When he walked into the school not long after, Xie Sen noticed that something was wrong. The students who passed by and saw him had a surprised expression, while most of those who had companions would look at him while they whispered about something.

He vaguely heard the words ‘not female, not male,’ ‘suicide,’ ‘loner,’ and ‘stay away from him.’

He rolled his eyes. I’m afraid these people don’t know that their words have made a man disappear from this world.

“Boy, how dare you roll your eyes at me!” A maroon-headed, six-foot-plus boy stepped in front of Xie Sen. His tone was angry. He was wearing a wide orange shirt with three buttons left unbuttoned, which revealed half of his chest, and his whole body was full of middle-aged gangster atmosphere.

He had a wolfhound beast tattoo on his chest, so it was clear that he was a male.

The man was too close, and Xie Sen was shorter than him. This position made Xie Sen uncomfortable, so he took a step back and explained, “I’m not rolling my eyes at you.”

This person had been walking opposite, and in front of him. His blank stare was for the crowd of people talking, not at all against an individual. This person probably happened to see it since he was in front of him, so he misunderstood that it was aimed at him.

“You don’t dare to admit it?” the boy said spitefully. “Don’t think that just because you tried to kill yourself, that I won’t dare to touch you. If people knew that you dared to roll your eyes at me, they would help me deal with you.”

Xie Sen was helpless. “I said I didn’t roll my eyes at you, but you don’t believe me. What do you want?”

“After the test, I’ll see you at the ring. I want to teach you a lesson in front of the whole school. That’s an open and fair battle. If you feel aggrieved enough to kill yourself afterwards, it has nothing to do with me!”

Xie Sen compared the size of the two of them. He had no chance of winning, but this person had an unrelenting look, so even if he didn’t agree, it would be difficult to get out of it. After he thought about it, he asked, “Do you have a contract beast?” 

“Of course. Who else is not female or male like you? You’re eighteen years old, and haven’t even awakened your contract beast.”

Xie Sen deflated. “If you can find a contract beast so early, it seems that your contract beast level isn’t high!”

The boy was questioned about his ability, and shouted angrily, “What did you say?” 

Xie Sen had seen all sorts of people who appeared fierce, while being cowardly at heart, during the apocalypse. As long as he didn’t do anything, he was basically not afraid. He said, “Anyway, you have awakened your contract beast, so you are more powerful than me.”

“You know so you’re afraid now, right?” The boy was pleased. “I officially put to you a sparring request. 12:15 at the school sparring platform to test our skills. Do you accept?”

“If I fight with you, and you have a contract beast, that’s equivalent to one against two. Even if you win, it’s not honorable.” Xie Sen sounded disdainful.

“To deal with you, I don’t even need to release my contract beast.”

“Is it because your contract beast level is low, and you are afraid that your contract beast will lose if you fight me?” Xie Sen provoked.

“Are you kidding? Afraid of losing to you? My contract beast can beat you even if I only use his front paws.”

“I don’t believe you.” Xie Sen shrugged. “Let your contract beast fight me, and I’ll take your request for a sparring session.”

“Okay. 12:15. Don’t run away!”

Xie Sen waved his hand. “See you at noon.”

He reacted so calmly that the boy stared at his back and froze, then looked back after a while and said angrily, “If you dare to underestimate me, I’ll show you my power at noon.”

Xie Sen didn’t know that the other party said harsh words behind his back. It was only ten minutes before the examination time, and he didn’t dare delay. He no longer paid attention to the pointing and whispering on the way, and quickly walked towards the examination room.

He froze when he swiped his bracelet at the entrance of the examination room to confirm his identity, and also when he entered. He realized, weren’t there too few people?

He had read the introduction to the exam and the graduation exam was a unified exam. He swept a glance around him. In a two hundred person classroom, only forty or fifty people at most were inside. Maybe they came at the same time as him, he thought to himself.

He found a seat and sat down, and the quiet classroom suddenly resounded with whispers. He looked over, and met the glance of a student to his right who was talking to the back row.

The student immediately withdrew his eyes, and returned to his seat, with the appearance of ‘I didn’t say anything.’

Xie Sen shrugged his shoulders, and ignored it.

“Is your body okay?” A teacher walked up to him, and asked in a soft voice.

Xie Sen hurriedly nodded. “Yes. Thank you for your concern.”

Surprise flashed in the teacher’s eyes, and he said in a warm voice, “That’s good. You can talk to Teacher if you need anything in the future. You are still young, don’t be impulsive.”

“Mn, I know.” Xie Sen nodded his head. He was a good student.

The teacher was relieved to see that his expression was calm, unlike the gloomy look of the past, and also not like the silent look he used to have when he talked to him, so he went to the podium to prepare for the exam.

Once the exam time arrived, all the candidates’ bracelets went into a state where they cut off the star network, then the test papers appeared on the LED screens in the desktops.

The candidates’ information had already been entered, and they could answer the questions directly.

Xie Sen looked at the exam questions. For some, he couldn’t believe that this was the Plant Department’s graduation examination. The test paper was divided into basic questions and harder questions, accounting for six to four points each.

The basic questions were all identifying plants by looking at the pictures. They were all common vegetables, fruits and various shrubs in modern times. With these kinds of questions, a modern elementary school student could probably answer half of them right.

The harder questions were a bit more difficult. They were about the planting conditions of cabbage, orange trees and moonflowers. Including climate, soil, water, light, etc.

Xie Sen had worked as a florist, so he has a good understanding of moonflowers, and gave a comprehensive answer.

Xie Sen didn’t have a single blank question.

After he checked his answers, he clicked on [Turn in] to confirm that he had successfully handed in his paper, and he got up to leave the classroom.

“Wow! He actually handed in his paper so quickly! Did he hand in a blank paper?”

“What nerve!”

The corners of Xie Sen’s mouth twitched. Young people just loved to think. His test paper was full. Where was the empty paper? Nonsense!

He looked at the time. It was only 11:30. He opened the map to find the cafeteria, bought ten star coins worth of fast food, and sat in the corner to eat.

“Did you hear that Scrap Xie of the Plant Department is going to have a sparring session with A’Meng of the Combat Department at noon?”

“Really? Is he looking for death?”

“It’s true. A’Meng posted it on the school forum, asking everyone who is free to go and watch. He’s ready to teach Scrap Xie a good lesson.”

“I bet Scrap Xie won’t dare to go!”

“I also bet that he won’t dare to go.”

“I heard that he promised himself. I bet he will go!”

“I’ll go to the forum to open a betting pool, and place a bet.”

Xie Sen’s eyes lit up. The opportunity to make money came!

He silently opened the forum, and found the forum betting module. When he saw the maximum bet of two thousand, it dawned on him that it was no wonder the school didn’t stop it. He checked his account, and saw he still had a balance of just over four hundred. He observed the forum for five minutes, looked at the odds of one to one hundred that was still rising, opened his address book and sent a message to the contact marked ‘Handsome.’

[Can you lend me 1,600 star coins? I’ll double it back for you this afternoon \\ (^o^)/~.]