Galaxy Martial God Temple - The Entrance Exam (4)
The day of the entrance exam had finally arrived. Since guardians were required to accompany the children, I went to school with Siwoo, while Cheon So-yeon went with her mother. Because we were neighbors and Siwoo had helped Cheon So-yeon's mother in many ways, we rode in her mother's car to the school.
The admission guide also listed the exam schedule, and the address wasn't too far from home. I gazed out the car window at the passing streets and said, "At this distance, commuting should be doable."
I had been worried I might need to move because of the school, but the address showed it was only about fifteen minutes by car. With my short stride, that translated to roughly an hour and a half on foot. Then again, now that I'd learned light footwork, maybe I could make it in twenty minutes? Still, I would probably ride in Siwoo's car for drop-offs and pick-ups until I grew a bit more.
We arrived at the school in no time, and the campus was enormous. Is this elementary school bigger than most universities? I thought as I looked at the school map near the entrance. It really was larger than a typical university campus. In fact, the grounds were big enough to fit an entire district inside.
At this scale, shouldn't they call it an academy city instead of an academy campus? The reason for such a massive site was that multiple schools shared the facility. Within the academy grounds were not only elementary, middle, and high schools, but universities as well—several of each. Because the campus was so large and housed so many schools, there were multiple entrances leading into the grounds.
"I knew advancement worked like an escalator system, but I didn't realize multiple schools were merged onto one site," I muttered.
After looking into it later, I learned that besides the direct-lineage exclusive school I would attend, there were also schools for collateral family members, children of retainer clans, and kids whose parents belonged to subordinate sects or martial forces under the family. There wasn't a single school for outsiders completely unrelated to the clan. This was practically a cartel.
"They told us to come to Cheonmu Hall… so it must be over there."
The 'Cheonmu Elementary School' I would attend had several separate halls despite being an elementary school. Cheonmu Hall was a colossal gymnasium—so huge it made me wonder if it had really been built for elementary students.
At the entrance, people who appeared to be school staff were collecting documents from the guardians. They were probably proof of family relations, health examination results, and various other test papers. The children who submitted their documents then stood on what looked like an InBody scanner for a simple check. The teachers immediately recorded something based on the values displayed by the machine.
So-yeon and I did the same as the other kids—submitted our documents, stood on the mysterious machine, and underwent the examination. After the brief check, a male teacher approached me and Siwoo.
"There are no abnormalities in the test results, so Cheon Jiwoo's admission is approved. Cases of failing admission are so rare they only happen once every ten years or so, so there's no need to worry."
The nameless teacher skimmed through the documents Siwoo had submitted and continued, "From now on, we'll proceed with the class placement exam. Cheon Jiwoo, you are in Test Group 3. You'll first take an intelligence and academic ability test in virtual reality, followed by a physical and martial arts evaluation. It says here that you've already learned martial arts and are at the 3rd-rate realm. If that's accurate, you'll likely be placed in Class 1."
Class 1 was for students who had already learned martial arts before admission, regardless of realm. Class 2 was for those who hadn't learned martial arts but had formed their dantian. Class 3 was for students whose dantian hadn't formed but who had consumed spiritual medicines that remained as latent potential. Class 4 was for those who had taken spiritual medicines yet retained no latent internal energy.
However, because there were so many new students this time, each class might be further divided into subgroups.
"Class 1 won't have enough students to require subdivision," the teacher explained. "The most populous group, Class 3, will probably be split into 3-A, 3-B, and so on."
"Even if you're in Class 1 now, things may change once you reach second grade. The growth potential of children in their developmental years is frightening."
The nameless teacher warned me and Siwoo to be careful not to fall behind in the competition, then guided me to the exam area. Really? Telling a newly enrolled preschooler not to fall behind in competition? Is that something a teacher should say?
Feeling dumbfounded, I sat down inside the capsule-shaped virtual reality device the school had prepared and connected to the system.
The space I entered looked like something out of a fairy tale, yet my mind registered with perfect clarity that this was not reality. Was this the effect of the reality-awareness device created under virtual reality regulations?
It was fascinating to experience virtual reality firsthand after only hearing about it. As I looked around, a panda character waved at me.
"Hello, Bao~! I'm Baobao, Bao~! Nice to meet you, Bao! What's your name, Bao~?"
"…Let's just start the test."
At my words, the panda character named Baobao looked awkward for a moment before immediately pulling out a chalkboard. From the reaction, it seemed someone was actually controlling the character.
I had expected something impressive since the test was conducted in virtual reality, but instead, cartoon characters for children danced, greeted me, and then displayed questions on the board. Just how little interest did kids have in exams that they had to go this far to make them take one?
The test covered language, mathematics, science, social studies, history, art, and music. At first the questions were at a kindergarten level, but the difficulty rose the more I solved them. In math, it started with simple addition like one apple plus one apple, then suddenly jumped to high-school-level logarithmic functions and calculus, and eventually even university-level math problems appeared.
Was this really considered elementary school material in the 50th century? Did that mean I, a person from three thousand years ago, was basically a caveman?
Unbelievable. I solved the problems with everything I had. Fortunately—or unfortunately—there was no time limit for solving them. The virtual reality world could stimulate the unconscious and cognitive areas to make time flow slower than in reality. However, legal restrictions limited the virtual reality speed to four times that of reality, and continuous use could not exceed five hours of real time.
The test ended if you got five consecutive questions of similar difficulty wrong in any subject.
"Ugh, I should have done some advanced studying."
Who would've thought astrophysics would appear in an elementary school science test? What the hell is the 'Four-Dimensional Black Hole Interference Theory' by Chow Ryung and Mardel Wu, you damn nerd! I'm a 21st-century person! Don't throw 30th-century scientific theories and equations at me!
It took three hours for the math problems, four hours for science, two hours for language, one hour for social studies, two hours for history, ten minutes for art, and twenty minutes for music. In total, I spent twelve hours and thirty minutes solving problems.
Since I had arrived at the testing site around nine in the morning, only a little over three hours had passed in real time.
When I emerged from virtual reality, Siwoo asked with a worried expression, "Are you all right, young master? The other new students came out after about twenty minutes, but you were inside for over three hours. The school only said there were no abnormalities, so I was debating whether to force an intervention."
"I'm fine. The test questions were ridiculously hard, so it just took me a while to solve them."
As a Korean, I couldn't run away from problems like a coward. Koreans have a racial trait that demands we find the correct answer when a question appears.
"The students who finished early already took their martial arts exam. Actually, except for those assigned to Class 1, most of the tests for the others were just pulse diagnosis or detailed physical examinations, so most have already gone home."
The once-crowded Cheonmu Hall, filled with new students and guardians, had grown quiet. Cheon So-yeon had finished all her tests but was sitting beside me, saying she would wait until I came out.
"Agh~ I'm exhausted from the test. Can't I just go to Class 2 and only do the physical check?"
My head hurt from overworking my brain, and I was hungry. Once fatigue set in, everything felt bothersome.
At my words, Cheon So-yeon cried out with a tearful face, "No! You have to go to Class 1 with me!"
Her sparkling eyes seemed to say 'Please~!' as she stared at me.
"Sigh, fine. I'll take the test. Ow, my whole body aches."
I groaned like an old man and stood up, then walked over to the middle-aged female teacher who had been waiting to administer my exam.
"Cheon Jiwoo. You look tired—would you like to do some qi circulation and breathing exercises first?"
"Yes…"
I was so tired that I didn't want to do anything. I sat down and performed qi circulation to relieve some fatigue. Normally, doing qi circulation in such an open place would be taboo in the Murim world, but Siwoo was right behind me, and Cheon So-yeon's mother was also present. The teachers I would rely on in the future wouldn't attack me either, so I simply did it.
After circulating my internal energy once through my body, I felt a bit more energized.
"Let's see, it says your main weapons are fist and sword. Which one would you like to be tested on, Cheon Jiwoo?"
After thinking for a moment, I picked up a wooden sword. "I'll use the sword."
"Good. Come at me with everything you've got."
The teacher also picked up a wooden sword. The middle-aged woman standing across from me simply took a stance and left herself completely open, as if inviting me to attack freely. It looked like she was confident she could block attacks from someone at my level—3rd-rate—without even needing to prepare.
Well, even though it was an elementary school, this was a school for direct lineage members. There was no way the martial arts instructors here would be at a low realm. At the very least they would be 1st-rate, usually at the Peak realm. Perhaps even Transcendental Peak, since it was a direct-lineage school. No, even then, someone at Transcendental Peak would be a squad leader in the family's martial forces, so maybe they wouldn't be teaching elementary school?
In major sects, the main fighting force usually consisted of those from the Profound Realm down to the Peak realm. In the Galaxy Murim world, 1st-rate martial artists who could use Sword Qi weren't even considered part of a major sect's combat power—they were treated as apprentices or rear support personnel.
Imagining the teacher's skill level, I took a deep breath and quickly closed the distance using light footwork.
Crack!
The teacher easily blocked my carefully timed surprise attack.
"Light body technique? It's not recommended to teach that to children under ten… Wait, more importantly, you've studied acupoints?"
Light footwork was a technique that couldn't be learned without thorough knowledge of the body's acupoints. Memorizing acupoints was part of the middle school curriculum, so learning light footwork was usually a middle school subject as well. Though even then, few people learned it properly these days.
I moved sideways using the footwork of Cheongmokbo and attacked the teacher with techniques from the Blue Wood Swordsmanship.
Clack! Clack! Clack-clack!
The teacher leisurely blocked all my strikes. I began to seriously reinforce my body with my 3rd-rate internal energy and moved even faster. Seeing me get serious, the teacher corrected her previously relaxed posture and deflected my sword.
Her extremely trained body was able to deflect the power of a six-year-old reinforced by internal energy without using any qi of her own. My qi-enhanced strength was certainly greater than the teacher's unaided power, but her experience and swordsmanship proficiency more than made up for the difference.
Being blocked so thoroughly ignited a stubborn desire in me to land at least one solid hit.
Fine. Let's really do this.
(To be continued in the next chapter)