Chapter 11: Has Xu Jingming Been Hiding His Strength? The Curious Homeroom Teacher

"The top-ranked student, Zhou Mingyang, scored 412—it seems he's already been slaughtering across the central region."

"His Light Wind Technique is indeed excellent for travel; his speed rivals even those in the provincial capital's Wu Ke Gaokao."

"Speaking of which, Principal Liu is truly impressive—almost all of the top ten are from your school."

"......"

Outside the ruins town, on an open field, there were ten massive projection screens.

These were live feeds tracked and recorded by military drones, showing the top ten candidates currently.

Beneath these ten massive projection screens were thousands of tiny projection screens, densely packed.

Those were captured by fixed cameras placed throughout the ruins town, only enlarged to the main screen when needed.

Beside the projection screens was a ranking list, detailing each candidate's score and rank.

On the temporary spectator seats built beneath the projections, education bureau officials and principals and teachers from various schools were commenting on the students listed.

Among them, a middle-aged man in a suit with short hair was the center of attention.

He was Liu Hang, principal of Jiangcheng No. 1 High School.

Of the top ten on the Wu Ke rankings, all except one student from No. 3 High School were from No. 1 High School.

"Zhou Mingyang is our city's ace; this Wu Ke Gaokao, he should break into the top 100 of Jiangnan Province."

In the front row of the spectator seats sat a short, stout middle-aged man.

Watching Zhou Mingyang on the first screen ruthlessly cutting down monsters, he nodded slightly.

He was Zhang Wenshan, director of the Jiangcheng Education Bureau.

"It's been many years since Jiangcheng last produced a student who made the Jiangnan Province top 100."

Liu Hang, principal of No. 1 High School, sitting beside the education bureau director, also felt a pang of nostalgia.

Jiangnan Province is one of Daxia Nation's most populous provinces, containing 24 prefecture-level cities and nearly 34 county-level cities.

Jiangcheng lies in the remote northern tip of Jiangnan Province, with scarce resources and economic development ranking among the lowest of the 24 prefecture-level cities.

As a result, the annual education funding allocated by Ning'an City, the provincial capital, is minimal.

Because of this, Jiangcheng has never achieved strong results in the annual Wu Ke Gaokao.

The best historical result was seven or eight years ago, when a student awakened an A-rank ability and broke into the Jiangnan Province top 100.

Since then, though Jiangcheng has produced other A-rank ability users, none have managed to enter the top 100 again.

But this year's Zhou Mingyang has reignited their hope.

"I've always been quite satisfied with the education at No. 1 High School."

Director Zhang Wenshan nodded, "Also, No. 3 High School did well—finally someone made it into the top ten."

"But No. 2 High School fell short—their best student is only ranked 18th."

Jiangcheng No. 1 High School is the best middle school in Jiangcheng.

Compared to No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 High Schools are far inferior.

In past Wu Ke Gaokao, the top ten were always monopolized by students from No. 1 High School; students from No. 2 or No. 3 never appeared.

"This year, we did have several students with relatively strong talent."

The principal of No. 3 High School wore an uncontainable smile.

In contrast, Yang Yao, principal of No. 2 High School beside him, looked embarrassed.

Normally, No. 2 High School always outperformed No. 3.

This year, the situation seems reversed.

'But our school's performance this year really has been poor...'

Principal Yang Yao searched the score rankings for a long time and found only eight students from No. 2 High School in the top fifty.

'Li Ming, Yang Jian, Tang Ju... these are all students from Class One's Rocket Class—but who is Xu Jingming? I've never heard this name before.'

Wu Ke Gaokao scores directly determine each middle school's education funding allocation.

Therefore, Yang Yao had some familiarity with his school's top students.

Yet he had never heard the name 'Xu Jingming.'

'Probably a hidden student from another parallel class—ask the homeroom teachers later.'

Yang Yao didn't pay much attention to it.

After all, with so many students at No. 2 High School, it wasn't unusual for one or two to conceal their true strength.

Principal Yang Yao didn't care much, but in the back row, Chen Fan, homeroom teacher of Gao San Class 5, was stunned.

He knew Xu Jingming perfectly well.

The boy was merely an E-rank ability awakener—how could he break into the top fifty?

And now, Xu Jingming was the highest-ranked student in their entire Class 5!

It was simply unbelievable!

'Could he have concealed his true strength?'

'But no matter how much you conceal it, an E-rank ability is still an E-rank ability—can it suddenly become an S-rank?'

'Then how did he get such a high score?'

Homeroom teacher Chen Fan couldn't fathom it.

The Wu Ke Gaokao involves real, direct combat against ferocious beasts—there can be no cheating.

Unfortunately, the main screen above only showed the top ten scores; the thousands of fixed cameras below were too dense to distinguish clearly.

Chen Fan had no chance of finding Xu Jingming's feed among them!

Unable to see the footage, unaware of how Xu Jingming achieved such a high score, homeroom teacher Chen Fan.

Felt like a kitten that smelled catnip but couldn't reach it—itching with unbearable curiosity...

In the ruined town, after half an hour of sprinting, Xu Jingming finally entered the central zone.

"Roar~~"

"Howl~~~"

Compared to the outer zone, the central zone had far more ferocious beasts.

As he walked, Xu Jingming could hear the roars and bellowing of ferocious beasts in the distance.

The air seemed saturated with a scent of blood and savagery.

"Crack—"

Xu Jingming gripped his long spear, a nutrition bar clenched between his teeth, his combat boots crushing a broken plastic basin by the roadside.

Once tough plastic, after decades of wind and rain, had become as brittle as instant noodles, shattering into fragments under a light step.

As he walked, Xu Jingming observed his surroundings.

The former Weiyuan Town, before its ruin, had held nearly 100,000 people.

When the ferocious beasts breached the city's defenses, many had not yet evacuated; nearly fifty to sixty thousand perished in the beasts' maws.

In the outer suburbs, there were still no particularly striking traces.

But once he entered the area equivalent to the ruined town's urban district,

he could see the abandoned cars left behind, the dark red, dried bloodstains on the cracked ground,

and the scattered, partially fossilized human skeletons—evidence of the bloodshed and cruelty of that time...