Monday.
Marineford Marine Academy, inside the classroom.
On the podium, Vice Admiral Tsuru sat in a chair, her hands clasped on the table. Her gaze was calm, yet it held a hint of concern as she looked at the area below the podium.
Among the thirty Military Academy Students, some were sound asleep, slumped over their desks, snoring loudly. Some held pens, daydreaming as they stared at the exam papers on their desks. While others, with furrowed brows, wrote furiously, trying to beat the clock.
The exam questions were worth a total of one hundred points. Sixty percent consisted of basic knowledge taught in class, thirty percent were questions requiring deep thought and calculation, and the remaining ten percent were more difficult questions designed to differentiate scores, requiring the integration of military theory and navigation skills taught in class to answer them.
Looking at the students below the podium, Vice Admiral Tsuru could only sigh inwardly. She strongly doubted whether the number of students who would pass this time would even fill one hand. Less than five minutes after the exam began, twenty people were already asleep at their desks. Most of the remaining students frowned and hesitated, racking their brains, unsure how to even begin writing.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling...!
When the dismissal bell rang, the Military Academy Students who had been sound asleep instantly woke up with a burst of energy. After collecting the exam papers, Vice Admiral Tsuru turned and left the classroom, ready to grade the papers.
Tokikake, sitting not far away, asked the silver-haired youth across from Smoker, "Hey! Sephiroth, how did your exam go?"
"It felt ordinary!" Sephiroth replied casually, as if the exam was nothing more than a minor annoyance.
"Ha~! Exams are truly annoying!" The unruly student Smoker yawned widely, stretched, and voiced his opinion without filter. After speaking, he casually pulled out two cigars, lit them, and put them in his mouth, puffing out smoke comfortably.
"Hehehe! I thought this exam was very difficult. I thought about many questions but couldn't solve them," Tokikake said with a grin, scratching his head.
"Hmph! It's your own fault for not listening carefully in class. Much of the material on the exam paper was actually explained by Vice Admiral Tsuru. Only the last question was relatively difficult and took up more of my time." Kong Ming, sitting in front of the three, turned around smugly and flaunted his intelligence to them, a proud smile on his lips.
"Hehehe! This exam was indeed quite challenging! Right, little Tina..." Gion, sitting behind the three of them, chuckled softly and stretched out her hand, continuously rubbing Tina's small face.
"Hmph! Tina is very angry, and the consequences will be severe! Tina warns Gion to stop this behavior immediately!" The pink-haired girl said with a dissatisfied expression, her lips pouting cutely.
"Alright, alright! Be good, Tina, don't be angry." Gion retracted her hand with a smile, no longer teasing her, allowing Tina to breathe a sigh of relief.
Amidst their lighthearted conversation, the short class break soon ended.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling...!
Soon after, the dark-skinned, large-bodied Shuzo entered.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Shuzo raised his large, fan-like hand and slapped the podium loudly several times before shouting out, "Wake up everyone! Class is starting! Whoever dares to fall asleep again will go outside and run two hundred laps around the field!"
As soon as those words were uttered, the effect was immediate. Those who had been asleep instantly became wide awake, their eyes bulging as they looked at the fierce Shuzo on the podium.
"In this class, we will continue to discuss the principles of firearms..."
Amidst the booming lecturing voice of the large, long-armed man, the gazes of the Military Academy Students below the podium gradually became vacant, entering a state of listening with one ear and letting it out the other. It was as if Shuzo's voice was merely a passing breeze.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling...!
After a long and seemingly tedious hour, the class dismissal bell finally rang. Shuzo also stopped teaching on time, but he didn't leave immediately; he remained standing on the podium, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth, as if there was something he was enjoying.
Soon after, the expressionless Vice Admiral Tsuru walked into the classroom. After placing a thick stack of exam papers on the podium, she turned and left immediately, as if unwilling to witness the ensuing chaos.
"Hehehe...! The exam results are out. Those whose names I call will come up and collect their exam papers." Shuzo, with a clearly mischievous smile, began to call out the names of everyone below the podium, one by one.
"Smoker... 0 points!"
Hearing Shuzo's slightly teasing voice, Smoker's eye twitched slightly, and his face couldn't help but flush a little. Letting the whole class know he got zero was truly embarrassing!
"Maynard... 0 points!"
"Freyr... 0 points!"
Before long, Smoker didn't feel awkward anymore. There were many people who got zero like him, and he immediately felt much calmer. He even felt that he could perfectly blend in with the entire class, as if zero was the new norm.
"Tokikake... 53 points!"
"Ah! As I expected, I didn't pass?" Tokikake scratched his head slightly in annoyance, yet there was a tinge of relief on his face. He walked to the podium and took his exam paper back from Shuzo.
However, he suddenly realized that everyone in the class was looking at him with different gazes. He even felt emotions like surprise, awe, and praise among their stares.
Tokikake: "..."
What's with this feeling of standing out from the crowd?
Fortunately, after Shuzo called out a few more scores, he felt that odd, out-of-place feeling quickly dissipate, replaced by a more familiar atmosphere.
"Domino... 50 Points!"
"Tina... 59 points!"
"Gion... 72 points!"
"Kong Ming... 95 points!!!"
When Shuzo read this score, his tone couldn't help but betray a hint of surprise, as if amazed by the outstanding result.
"Wow!"
"He actually got such a high score."
"Unbelievable! I only got 12 points, but he got 95 points!"
More than twenty Military Academy Students exclaimed in unison, almost all of them turning their gazes towards Kong Ming, continuously whispering and discussing among themselves. Awe and a hint of envy were evident.
"Hmph! Who knew! Who knew! It turns out I didn't get a perfect score..." Kong Ming kept shaking his head and sighing softly, but the satisfied smile on his face, which almost reached his ears, couldn't be hidden at all. It was a pure smile of pride.
After leaving his seat, walking to the podium, and collecting his exam paper, he puffed out his chest, looking proud and dashing, then walked back to his seat.
"We're all classmates. If there's anything you don't understand in the future, you can ask me, okay! I'll definitely tell you everything I know, without hiding anything." Kong Ming held up his exam paper, waving it back and forth in front of Sephiroth, Tokikake, and the others, flaunting his highest score, leaving everyone speechless—mostly from unsaid annoyance.
"Masterson Father... 42 points!"
"Karl D. Sephiroth... 100 points!"
Hiss~!
The sound of people taking deep breaths suddenly echoed within the classroom. All the Military Academy Students stared at Sephiroth in shock. No one expected that they thought Kong Ming's 95 points would be the highest score, but now there was a perfect score of 100.
"This is illogical!"
"Unbelievable!"
"Terrifying!"
Amidst the crowd's exclamations, Sephiroth walked to the podium and collected his exam paper, a faint smile etched on his face. He knew perfectly well what he had just achieved.
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