novelraw Chapter 659: Little Trickster
Chapter 659: Little Trickster
Examination room, separated by just a wall from the waiting room, stepping into the examination room, Ji You actually felt her heart that was once flitting about, truly settle down.
What’s there to fear?
Indifferent to life or death, rebel if you won’t accept.
It’s just a retest, isn’t it?
Cough cough...
Ji You, who initially didn’t care much, upon thinking of the hefty retest fee, immediately stopped acting carefree, wore a serious expression, and sternly commanded herself: You are only allowed to retake this once!
At this moment, the system issued a reminder: "Countdown——10, 9, 8, 7..."
"Start——"
Ji You furrowed her brows, but didn’t rush to move, nor did she, like other students, take a few probing steps. Instead, she stopped at the starting line, 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds... Everyone saw her standing still, all a bit bewildered:
"Is No. 4444 giving up deliberately?"
"Forfeit?"
"Doesn’t seem like her style."
...
After waiting for a few seconds, Ji You loudly said as all 9 students around her fell to the ground in unison, collectively crashing: "System, for the smooth progress of the examination, I request the runway be cleaned..."
After those students fell, the surface was left a bit pitted and uneven, plus there were a few students who couldn’t control their mecha, along with their mecha, hadn’t even crossed the starting line when they were tripped by their classmates—
Tripping also counted as failure.
The reason Ji You stood still earlier was firstly to avoid being dragged down by lousy teammates. Secondly, she also wanted to monopolize the runway.
However, as soon as Ji You made this request, it still rendered many students speechless; even Mu Jianling raised her head and glanced at her.
Ji You revealed a sly smile, "Teacher... Didn’t you tell me to clean up the trash? Cleaning before the exam is the same as cleaning after it. I assure you, I will definitely not mess up the surface during the exam later."
Mu Jianling let out a cold snort and said, "Activate cleaning function."
As soon as this was said, the examination room’s cleaning system immediately started working, and in less than 2 seconds, it filled up the pits created by the students’ collisions, making it as smooth as ever, not a speck of dirt to be seen.
Ji You immediately smiled obsequiously, "Thank you, Teacher, thank you so much."
Mu Jianling glanced at the time, "If you waste another half second, your examination qualification will be canceled."
Ji You dared not delay any further and immediately activated her mecha.
Whoosh——
Everyone only heard a faint sound, and then, the antique mech driven by Ji You suddenly bent its body, its mechanical arms took out two segments resembling sticks, and with both feet on a skateboard, she glided forward—
Everyone: "..."
"Damn!"
"Can it be done like this?"
"Skiing?"
Antique mecha was basic in functions, and the weapon store was extremely modest, but it did have some basic weapons and tools, such as knives, swords, bows, sticks, shields, and so on. These basic cold weapons did not require energy to use.
Shen Changqing’s energy exhaustion led to a tragic outcome, which Ji You witnessed with her own eyes. How could she not take it into account?
There were five stages in total. In Ji You’s view, the first one was undoubtedly the easiest and most manageable—no obstacles throughout, just need to steadily drive the mecha to the end of the runway.
Not wanting to end up like Shen Changqing, Ji You only had one method: minimize energy consumption.
How to minimize?
This first task was undoubtedly the easiest to cut down on.
In Ji You’s opinion, Shen Changqing spent about one third of the energy in the first round, which was way too extravagant! That really should not have been the case. Hence, in the first round, Ji You only intended to activate part of the mecha’s control systems, not touching anything else.
How then could she make the mecha move?
A clever idea struck her, which led to the actions described above.
However, while it might look simple to outsiders, the actual implementation was extremely challenging. First and foremost, it was necessary to maintain the mecha’s balance; the coordination of the limbs and torso movements came next. These were the key points, and a slight lapse of attention could lead to a nasty fall—
Ji You was completely focused, her gaze fixed on the monitor, her hands and feet deftly sliding—
At first, her movements were a bit rough, but after a brief period of adjustment and adaptation, she became faster and faster. The entire track seemed like her natural ice rink, as she moved with the agility of a monkey, leaping ever swifter, her speed not inferior to that obtained using energy propulsion. All the students, including Teacher Mu Jianling, perked up, craning their necks to closely follow Ji You’s movements—
As the distance to the second round drew nearer, everyone’s eyes widened more and more:
Would it work?
Wouldn’t it work?
Just as this thought emerged, with a sudden whoosh, everyone saw Ji You forcefully retract her stick, and in that moment, her antique mech performed a beautiful aerial side flip due to the massive inertia—
Leaping out, she directly flipped over the finish line of the first round and entered the second!
Everyone: "!!!"
Mu Jianling curved his lips upwards, wanting to curse out of habit, but in the end, he restrained himself, muttering softly instead: "Sly fox!"
Having entered the second round, Ji You immediately became alert, her nerves tense. As she passed through, she activated all of the antique mech’s functions—scanning, defense, weaponry...
Since the first round had not consumed much energy, the antique mech’s energy reserve was still at 98%, more than enough for Ji You to sprint into the third round.
Her face stern, she prepared for battle.
This simulated asteroid belt was vast and boundless. Countless small meteors and asteroids zooming by could cause a collision if one was not careful, demanding her utmost attention.
Ji You’s Six Spiritual Threads were on full guard in that moment.
Boss: [1,000 meters ahead.]
Second: [Another 500 meters.]
Third: [Attention, about to fly past—]
Fourth: [Coordinates above **, threat approaching within 10 seconds.]
Old Five: [On the left, 700 meters...]
Sixth: [On the right, 100 meters...]
Ji You required the Spiritual Threads to communicate concisely and seriously, not allowing any trickery at this time. Therefore, each Spiritual Thread gave clear and simple cues, and her task was to dodge these traps and then charge forward without stopping!
The second round had many obstacles, but the distance was not too long. With a full-throttle sprint, it was possible to clear it in at most one minute. At such a time, every second counted; reducing the time spent was naturally for the best, so Ji You did not skimp on energy, cranking the thrusters to the max—
All the students in the examination room stared wide-eyed:
"How did Ji You manage it?"
"She avoided every single obstacle each time."
"Incredible!"
"Holy cow, how did she make the antique mech charge like the ’Chasing Sun’?"
"Did we misjudge the antique mech?"
"Will she make it?"
...
At this very moment, all the discussions and doubts from the outside world were far from Ji You’s mind. The only thing in her eyes and heart was a single goal: to push hard and break into the third round!