Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

In this world, technological civilization is extremely advanced, with nearly 98% coverage of the Sky Network and a holographic network realism reaching 99%.

Although interstellar travel is convenient, distances are vast and costs are high. Therefore, entrance examinations for new students at various prestigious institutions in the Gus Empire are conducted online.

Naturally, the Xuan Gu First Military Academy is no exception, as not everyone can access the densely populated Capital Star.

Previous examinations for the Xuan Gu First Military Academy consisted of both written and martial tests. Ruo Manni reviewed this year’s announcement and found that the process was the same as in previous years, with no special changes.

The written examination lasts for 4 to 5 hours, while the martial test takes about three days, roughly 8 hours each day.

Although Ruo Manni had never taken the exam before, with the information provided by Mentor Fang and her research on past examination procedures online, she felt prepared and confident.

With her current abilities, if she put in the effort, there was a good chance she could secure a top position in the mecha manufacturing program.

On the day of the examination, following Mentor Fang’s instructions, Ruo Manni logged onto the Sky Network half an hour early, entered the Xuan Gu First Military Academy interface, and input her student ID. This ID is bound to her genetic sequence, ensuring that no one can impersonate her.

Thirty seconds later, Ruo Manni received the easily memorable candidate number 0001000, indicating she was assigned to the fifth classroom. She was then immediately transported to a brightly lit classroom, where five other candidates were already seated.

Apart from their candidate numbers, no usernames were displayed above each candidate’s head, and their faces were deliberately blurred, making them difficult to recognize.

However, some distinguishing features were still noticeable, such as hair length and color, and general face and body shapes, allowing one to tell whether a candidate was male or female at a glance.

Ruo Manni estimated that if Aoi Dan were in this classroom, she would be able to recognize her, but she definitely wouldn’t remember any strangers.

A few minutes later, an additional 44 candidates joined, bringing the total to 50. Ruo Manni felt the entire space seal off, and the buttons for offline communication turned gray.

This was a common measure to prevent cheating, as communicated by the school instructors and the Sky Network. None of the candidates appeared panicked, nor did anyone talk; everyone quietly awaited the start of the examination.

In front of each candidate was a nine-inch light screen. Before the exam began, it was gray, displaying only essential examination information.

When the familiar mechanical voice of the Sky Network announced the start of the exam, Ruo Manni’s light screen flickered and changed to a new interface.

She almost exclaimed, “What?!” Five hours of assessment, four thousand questions, with an average of less than five seconds to think about each question. Thankfully, all questions were multiple choice; otherwise, even the fastest fingers wouldn’t be able to complete it.

But even so, the sheer volume of questions was truly overwhelming; indeed, high-stakes exams are a nightmare for candidates in any world.

Candidates who could apply to Xuan Gu First Military Academy were all top students in their schools. As soon as the questions appeared, everyone immediately dove into answering them without hesitation.

Ruo Manni barely had time to observe how others were doing; she had to press the selection button as quickly as possible, or she definitely wouldn’t finish all four thousand questions.

Although all were multiple choice, the subjects covered literature, math, music, astronomy, geography, history, and more, making the breadth of knowledge daunting even for top students.

Fortunately, while Lin Kexin was stuck in the original host’s body, her extreme boredom made her more focused in her studies than the original host, allowing her to learn much more.

Once Lin Kexin became Ruo Manni, her powerful mental strength enabled her to remember everything at a glance. After three months of studying, her knowledge had nearly doubled, so despite the variety and difficulty of the questions, she could answer them almost without thinking.

When Ruo Manni finished the last question, she realized her hands were numb. She rubbed her wrists and, once the soreness subsided a bit, looked at the exam timer.

At that moment, she heard two beeping sounds, and the exam screen in front of her flickered, turning into an uneditable gray format.

Unbeknownst to her, five hours had already passed. Only now did Ruo Manni start to feel fatigued. She relaxed her body against the chair and quietly listened to the surrounding candidates, who had forgotten their initial unfamiliarity, discussing among themselves:

“Ah! I still have 10 questions left, and I don’t even know how many I got wrong. These questions are too difficult…”

“I only have five questions left, but I’m unsure about the answers to more than ten. I have no confidence…”

“I didn’t finish either. This exam is so damn twisted—five hours for 4,000 questions; it’s killing me! My hands are so sore…”

“The writing assessment for Xuan Gu First Military Academy is notoriously difficult, but I’ve heard that in previous years, someone scored a perfect score…”

“Right, I know; it was one of our…”

After listening to the gossip for a while, and hearing other candidates say they hadn’t finished, Ruo Manni certainly wouldn’t brag about completing all the questions herself.

Summarizing the information, she felt confident she could pass the written exam and relaxed a bit. When she saw the exit button turn green, indicating she could leave freely, she chose to log out.

Except for entering the war realm, she was usually in a conscious state when using the net. After the intense five-hour test, stepping out of the holographic game pod, Ruo Manni felt utterly exhausted and her stomach was growling with hunger.

That evening, she received a notification from Xuan Gu First Military Academy, instructing her to log onto the net for the physical exam at 8 AM the next morning.

Looking at her score, with each question worth one point, she had 3,088 points, which meant she got twelve questions wrong. Surprisingly, she ranked third on the leaderboard.

Before Ruo Manni could fully process her results, Mentor Fang had already seen them and sent her a message praising and encouraging her.

However, the next day, when she was teleported to the exam location, she sensed something was off. She suspiciously gazed at the dense trees of the jungle in front of her.

She had never heard of the mech manufacturing exam taking place in such a setting. In this environment, without a workbench or mech parts, how was she supposed to assemble a mech?

As Ruo Manni was filled with doubts, she suddenly sensed an attack coming from her left. She quickly dodged, narrowly avoiding an attack from a boy.

However, the boy was fast and immediately turned to pounce on her again. This time, she barely managed to evade him; it was clear that his physical skills were much higher than hers.

“Why are you attacking me? Wait, do we have to fight before entering the mech assembly phase of the exam?” Ruo Manni asked urgently as she narrowly avoided a heart-piercing punch.

Hearing Ruo Manni’s unexpected question, the boy paused his attack, sized her up, and then replied, “This is the battlefield for the mech combat assessment.”