Yvonne was staring at him with scrutiny and even a bit of hostility in her eyes, but he simply ignored like water off a duck’s back. He didn’t even bother looking into her background because it was unnecessary. The girl thought he was a powerful rival she needed to keep an eye out for, but in reality she had completely misunderstood the situation. He wasn’t an examinee, so no rivalry existed between them whatsoever.
Meanwhile, his roommates were doing their best to steel Chuck’s nerves, “There’s no need to be nervous, Chuck. It’s just a friendly competition with no stakes whatsoever, so just treat it like it’s a practice round or something. Relax, stay calm, be cool…”
Chuck really wanted to tell them he wasn’t nervous at all, but he refrained from doing so seeing as they only meant well.
Chuck knew that his greatest rival out of all the examinees was Yvonne bar none, and it wasn’t just because they shared the same expertise. They were nobles, so whenever they fought it was as if their families were clashing against one another. If he performed too poorly against Yvonne, he would surely be ostracized by his family members.
The training ground personnel briefly explained the rules to the examinees. Although this was just a warm-up competition before the exam, they invited three fairly experienced exam instructors to be the judges to ensure fairness.
The three instructors looked a bit standoffish at the beginning, but their attitude changed quickly when they spotted Cillin on the spectator’s stand. Shooters had much more discerning eyes than your average person, which was why they were able to spot him in a single glance.
Cillin smiled and nodded at them in acknowledgement before turning his attention back to the shooting line. It didn’t look like the young man was planning to blow his anonymity, so they pretended they didn’t notice him and went about their business as normal.
The three instructors weren’t just shooting enthusiasts, they were fans of Guan Feng, and they had access to more secrets than most due to their position. That was why they knew Cillin better than most people. They envied the boy a lot because he was both Guan Feng’s favorite pupil and the only one who was allowed to carry the PTS S.
The competition began soon after that. Although Cillin’s reactions were much tamer compared to the spectators, he had to admit that this term’s examinees were pretty entertaining. Some of them even managed to pull off some sick trick shots and win themselves a lot of cheers and support.
In the end, Chuck came out on top of the warm-up competition by a narrow margin. Just as Cillin had anticipated, the guy had acted like he was a completely different person when he stood at the firing bay. His eyes had turned cold and indifferent, and he had gunned down his targets with no wasted movement or emotion whatsoever. The transformation from a cute, shy boy to cold-blooded hunter was so drastic that his roommates almost couldn’t recognize him. It wasn’t surprising though. An ordinary person could never have qualified for the affiliated schools’ selection exam. It only made sense that everyone would have their own trump cards and specialties.
Chuck’s shyness returned in full after he holstered his gun and walked away from the firing bay, but no one was looking at him the same light as before. He didn’t care though. He didn’t even care that he won the warm-up competition. What was there to be proud about when none of the real experts had come out to play?
Cillin was planning to return to the hostel with his roommates after the competition was over, but a big-bearded man had seized him by the neck before he even took his second step. In fact, Cillin had sensed him immediately after he began approaching him, but he didn’t resist because one, it was a familiar face, and two, he didn’t sense any hostility from him.
“Why didn’t you tell us that you’re coming, kid? Anyway, if you’re free right now then let’s go grab a drink and chat a bit, shall we?”
The big-bearded man holding Cillin in a head lock was one of the three instructors who acted as the judges for the warm-up competition. Cillin could tell he had great control over his strength because the head lock was just tight enough to give him some trouble if he tried to escape, but not so tight that it would actually hurt him.
He was also a frequent visitor of Guan Feng. Cillin often saw him visiting his mentor for a favor only to be turned away for one reason or another.
Everyone standing around Cillin and the instructors in their vicinity felt their jaws hitting the floor at the same time. This was especially true for his four roommates. They watched in amazement as the instructor who had been commenting on their shooting skills with all the seriousness of an actual judge a while ago fooling around with Cillin like he was a teenager.
The young man had just enough time to signal his roommates to leave first before he was dragged away for a drink.
A lot of people saw this scene, and a small amount of them even recognized him. However, none of them said a word for fear of giving their competitors the chance to curry favor with Cillin. At the same time, they were confused by his presence: didn’t he pass the selection test last term? What is he doing here?
The instructor dragged Cillin out of the shooting range and into a lounge that was exclusive to exam instructors only. Then, they both ordered themselves some lunch. The big-bearded man couldn’t care less about the sumptuous meal on the table, however. He rubbed his hands subconsciously as he said in an excited tone, “Can you show me the PTS S, Cillin? Guan Feng’s not here, and if you don’t say anything, and I don’t say anything, then…”
Cillin delivered a slice of meat into his mouth and chewed slowly. After he was done swallowing, he replied in a polite tone, “Sorry, I cannot.”
“Come now! It’s not like you’ll lose anything if I take a single glance!”
“Sure, but there is a chance it might misfire, which would be bad.”
“Are you kidding me?! We both know that misfiring isn’t a thing for the PTS series!”
In the end, the big-bearded man wasn’t able to overcome Cillin’s defenses and get him to show him the PTS S.
Wheeze still wasn’t home when Cillin returned to the hostel. His roommates were there, and they were all shooting him weird looks here and there.
“Say Cillin, you’re not an elite or something, are you?” Harvin asked.
“No. I just know that guy is all.”
Is all, he says…
“Well, whatever. I won’t force you to say anything you don’t want to. However…” the young man moved closer to Cillin before asking in a quiet voice, “You must’ve gotten a lot of useful information out of your ‘acquaintance’, right?”
Cillin shot his expectant roommates a look before nodding. “I do know some useful information.”
He then shared some of the lessons he learned from his own experience with them. It didn’t count as cheating because not even the exam instructors knew what the examinees would be tested during the test, not to mention that no selection test was exactly the same as the other. He was merely sharing some of his experiences when he had taken his selection test with them.
Finding the info massively useful, the quartet thanked Cillin with all their heart before hurrying away to make the necessary preparations. Of course, no one was stupid enough to share their new found knowledge with the other examinees. They were technically competitors after all.
Meanwhile, Cillin had returned to his room to wrap up his report before uploading it into the server. Then, he lay down on his bed and spent the rest of the day thinking.
He had a feeling that he would gain something very useful out of this event, though he didn’t know what it was as a matter of course. It was just his intuition whispering to him as usual.
The next day, Cillin attended a meeting with his fellow exam instructors while his four roommates remained in their rooms to prepare for the upcoming test.
The meeting was nothing serious. It was just to inform your standard information sharing regarding the selection test and task assignments.
Finally, the selection test began amid a nervous yet excited atmosphere.
The first round was the written test, but unlike Cillin’s term the examinees only needed to deal with three test papers instead of an entire stack of them. However, none of the questions were easy, and Cillin discovered that a lot of them were trick questions. It was up to the examinees to spot and answer them accordingly.
Cillin wasn’t invigilating during the first round, so he hung out with the other exam instructors in the control room. The venue was designed so that the exam instructors could see the examinees clearly, but the latter could not see through the dividers at all. An invigilator could be standing right next to their cubicle, and they would never know it unless the invigilator themselves.
The last time he was here, he had participated in the capacity of an examinee. This time though, he was an exam instructor hanging out with his colleagues in the control room. Cillin found the experience quite interesting overall.
The second round of the test was a physical stress test, and a lot of aliens had revealed their true forms so that they could give it their all. They were the perfect example of the idiom “one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover”. Most of these people looked ordinary and even naive in their human form, but once they transformed their combat strength was at a completely different level.
The third round was the easiest round for most of the examinees. After all, a written test was stressful to the mind in general, and a stress test was designed to push a person to their physical limits.
However, when Cillin’s roommates made it to the shooting range, they suddenly froze as if they couldn’t believe their eyes. They weren’t the only ones either. The other examinees felt their jaws dropping to the floor as well. It was because Cillin was seated at the judging panel.
Harvin pointed a shivering finger in Cillin’s direction and stuttered, “M-m-m-m-m-my eyes aren’t fooling me, right? Is that our Cillin I’m seeing?!”
Chuck gulped audibly before forcing a smile on his face. “I think so.”
“Fuck… me! How the heck did he become an exam instructor?!”
Not only that, they knew for certain that he wasn’t replacing someone. Substitute exam instructors did not get to wear an identifying badge on their clothes.
No wonder he was so relaxed the whole time… no wonder he wasn’t moving with us… no wonder we didn’t see him getting wrecked by the first two tests…
Cillin shot them a friendly smile, but in their shock they interpreted it as a direct response to their inner thoughts, “Oh yeah, I’m one of the exam instructors”.
It would be an understatement to say they were swearing a million curses in their heads right now.