Chapter 117
I Thought You Were All Geniuses
The classroom atmosphere turned awkward, but soon Principal Merlin’s voice echoed throughout the first-year area.
“Greetings, dear students. How are you feeling after that exhilarating battle just now?”
Hearing Merlin’s voice, the students looked at each other.
They didn’t feel particularly good about this pop quiz.
Especially after seeing their companions die before their eyes, that instant surge of fear had overwhelmed them, leaving them no will to resist.
If not for some mentally resilient classmates reminding them, they might have died the moment they landed inside the Memory Fragment.
“I have good news for everyone. The pop quiz just now will replace your grades from the Dungeon test. The academy will grade each student and use this to determine your school ranking.”
The moment these words were spoken, all the freshmen erupted.
Some clenched their fists in excitement, while others wore expressions of indignation, demanding an explanation from the principal.
“How can this be! Before the test, you told us it was just a small quiz. Now you say it’s a graded exam? That’s so unfair!”
“Exactly! We weren’t prepared! If we had sufficient time to prepare, we wouldn’t have been eliminated so quickly!”
Such complaints were plentiful, with noisy protests coming from every class.
However, Reina, looking at the students in her class, did not intervene. Instead, she crossed her arms and watched the drama unfold with interest.
“Oh? It sounds like many students are dissatisfied.”
Merlin’s laughing voice made many freshmen feel he wasn’t taking them seriously.
“Is Principal Merlin’s personality really this awful?”
“Anyway, I can’t accept this result!”
But soon, Merlin’s voice sounded again.
“I’d like to ask the dissatisfied students: what are your reasons?”
An image suddenly appeared on the blackboard in the classrooms, showing one of the freshmen.
The student seemed to realize he was now visible to all the freshmen and looked flustered.
“This student, tell us, what is your reason?”
“I… I just wasn’t prepared, that’s all! If I had taken it seriously, I definitely wouldn’t have been defeated so quickly.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the image on the blackboard suddenly switched to a battle scene.
The same student who had just spoken so boldly was now shown collapsed on the ground. Upon seeing the wolf pack, he was so frightened he fell onto his backside, scrambling backwards.
His claim of being ‘unprepared’ was simply him being scared witless by the suddenly appearing monsters, without even the will to fight back.
Instantly, the student’s face flushed bright red, feeling as if he had been slapped hard across the face.
“If that counts as being unprepared, then what about these two students?”
The image changed again, this time showing Ruf and Hebeth.
Hebeth, upon encountering the wolf pack, wasn’t frightened. Instead, she took the initiative to attack, suppressing the wolves’ encirclement. Then, when Ruf appeared, the coordination between the two drew sighs of admiration from many.
Anyone could see that these two weren’t particularly strong individually, but their cooperation and on-the-spot judgment were excellent, and they didn’t flinch at all when facing the monsters.
They were leagues better than the ‘all-talk’ student from before.
Seeing that student fall silent, Merlin’s voice drifted out again, light and airy.
“Well then, are there any other students who want to come up and explain? I have plenty of precious recordings here to use as material~~”
Although Merlin’s voice sounded kindly and amused, everyone could hear the threat underlying his words.
No one wanted their embarrassing moments broadcast publicly, so the previously vocal students unanimously shut their mouths.
“My, my, students, no need to be disheartened. It’s just a ranking test, no big deal. After all, you only lost your ranking, not your lives, right?”
The students silently bowed their heads, not daring to retort against Merlin.
“It’s just that I never expected so many students would take their own lives so lightly, unable to even mount an effective counterattack when facing danger. I originally thought you were all geniuses…”
A sigh could be heard in Merlin’s voice.
These words were like a slap, striking hard across the faces of these self-proclaimed geniuses.
They had been called geniuses since childhood, but never thought they would fail in such a simple pop quiz.
Their excuses were mercilessly exposed by Merlin, while those down-to-earth students who took it seriously demonstrated far better performances.
Some reflected, some felt ashamed, and some still thought Principal Merlin’s method was improper.
But none of that mattered.
Their attitude today would become a boomerang that came back to hit them in the future.
“I am somewhat glad that today only involved students entering a Memory Fragment to experience the presence of a powerful enemy. If next time you enter a real dungeon, the intelligent monsters there will kill you just like today. By then, you won’t have the chance to stand here shouting about fairness and such nonsense.”
The amusement faded from Merlin’s voice.
All the freshmen listened quietly to Merlin’s lecture.
“On the battlefield, no one will wait for you to slowly chant your spells. If you need an example, I happen to have one right here.”
After speaking, an image suddenly appeared on the screen, showing Henry and Luning during the Assessment Exam.
Luning was instantly defeated by Henry’s sword before he could even finish chanting his spell.
Luning, who had just managed to stand up, saw this humiliating footage. His blood pressure skyrocketed, he spat out a mouthful of blood, and then passed out completely.
Seeing this, Sidney, ignoring Merlin’s lecture, picked up Luning and rushed towards the infirmary.
“If this were a battlefield, your outcome would be the same as this student’s: dead on the spot. This student provided an excellent demonstration for you all, yet surprisingly, you still haven’t developed any vigilance.”
“Taking every pop quiz seriously is being responsible for your own lives, children.”
The image suddenly switched to a long list of names.
It listed various names, and some students saw the names of their relatives there.
But they all shared two common characteristics.
First, they were all students of Saint Nad Magic Academy.
Second, they were all deceased.
“Let me say something cruel. In the not-too-distant future, some of you will appear on this list of casualties. When that time comes, the academy will mourn you and place a flower upon your tombstone.”
Not a single freshman wore a smile now.
They stared solemnly at the casualty list. The densely packed words made their skin crawl.
Some suddenly realized: if the test just now had been real, they would already be on this list.