Chapter 17 - The End of the Month Examination (2) (1/2)
The End of the Month Examination (2)
The bell rang through the speakers once, and the test papers started to be distributed.
The cadets in front let out their frustration after taking a look.
“Sigh…”
In subjects like Phenomena Analysis and Monstrosity, the problems included in examinations are very difficult, and the test papers remained blank, filled only with fingerprints.
“Look at the test paper, Mr….” someone muttered in a small voice.
It was the kind of a test paper where the question is not even if you can solve the problems on time, but whether you could even read through half of the problems before the duration ends.
‘Are you saying this is a test?’ someone else in the room uttered.
It was too easy for me, though.
Immediately after reading one question, I wrote the answer in the sheet next to it, then on to the next problem.
There was no need to check, and no further review is needed.
At times, just reading the first line reminded me of what the problem was and what the answer would be.
I wondered if I should get a perfect score.
I must leave a good impression in Theory, but these are problems of difficulty…
[Is it appropriate to just read once and solve it quickly?]
The traveler at the back of my head burst into laughter as he said it.
Phenomena Analysis and Monstrosity – all 30 questions in the examination were all subjective.
Aside from stating a valid answer, I have to defend it with my own analysis and solution.
I’ll have to solve it as quickly as possible and get their attention with the speed of completing the exam, I decided.
In the still classroom, only the sound of my pencil crunch echoed. Some of the students were surprised by the sound and turned around and warned the instructor.
I didn’t care about that atmosphere, but when I finished the examination, I frowned.
I didn’t beat my record… ugh.
I also participated several times in the end-of-month exams in the past, and at finished quicker than I did today.
Some of these problems weren’t on the tests before, perhaps that’s why I took longer.
Well…
Grumbling a lot, I put down the pencil and arranged a total of 10 test sheets in a neat pile.
I raised my hand and stared at the instructor.
“I’m done with it; can I leave now?”
The mouth of the instructor slowly opened, and an outraged voice came out.
“What?!”
[The expression is really worth seeing.]
* * *
“You said there was a cadet who finished the test in less than 10 minutes?!” a professor scoring the Theory test exclaimed.
“What is the cadet’s name?”
“It’s Cadet Jeong Si-woo.”
The professor nodded thoughtfully after hearing the name. “Hmm… Jung Si-woo, a student…”
Soon, he wrote a score of ‘40’ on the test paper he was looking at and immediately searched for the Si-woo’s paper.
Initially, he worried that only a few students could finish the test at the given duration.
A student completing it in less than 10 minutes is unthinkable.
Phenomenon examinations were made to be the most difficult.
The professors reasoned that the higher the difficulty level, the more easily they could find who shined in that field.
Normally, very few could get passing scores, but there were quite a few cadets who can come up with unique answers or solutions to particular problems.
Sometimes, guild officials ask for the name of those cadets and take notes.
But a cadet who finished the examination in just 7 minutes?
‘Is it roughly solved, or is it real genius?’
The professor thought that Jeong Si-woo would be closer to the former.
No matter how talented a cadet is, the subjects of Monstrosity and Phenomenological Analysis could not be solved in such a short time.
Perhaps the cadet found the test too difficult and chose to skip most of the questions and try to make up for it on the next exam.
“Well, I thought it was worth looking forward to Cadet Jeong Si-woo, but a test in 7 minutes – I guess it’s going to have a bad result,” he murmured to himself.
Meanwhile, the other professors checking other papers were chatting around him.
“Yes? Perfect score? Probable professors and incumbent analysts have submitted problems that are considered high-difficulty…”
“He shouldn’t be at the cadet level. Even in the first grade, I was surprised to see the answers submitted to professors…”
“Prof. Sung-Hyun Lim also tried to transfer Jeong Si-Woo’s cadet from the hunting department to the analysis department.”
“He’d probably be scouted with ‘Oracle’ or ‘Monster Analysis Apparatus’…”
What audacity, the professor frowned.
Oracle was the world’s top-class guild in terms of analysis and information, while Monster Analysis Apparatus is where elite-of-elite analysts work.
There is no reason for them to scout someone in the second-grade, too far from graduating.
The professor finally traced the test paper of Jeong Si-woo.
He stared at it and…
“Wait, everyone, look at this!” he stood up and caught everyone’s attention.
The professors and guild officials were interested and approached him.
“Is this the cadet’s writing?” a guild official said after a quick look. He looked amazed.
Next came the answer from another professor. “I couldn’t even think of that answer, even if I wanted to…”
The crowd started to buzz around the test paper.
“Don’t skip it for a second. I haven’t read it yet…”
“Take with your phone camera. I read all the others, but…”
“Find out how many analysts remain in the guild. If so, prepare a contract. With the best treatment.”
In the minds of everyone who was there, the cadet named Jeong Si-woo is the most important at the moment.
* * *
“I don’t know how to deal with this,” I mumbled as I tapped on my little notebook.
I wrote all the information I could remember about Kim Hyuk-joon to prepare myself for fighting him, but it was too difficult to think about.
[What seems to be a lot of trouble. Is it about the information of the opponent you wrote in the notebook?]
“Yeah.”
[It’s no big deal. Just use what you have properly, and you can win comfortably.]