Chapter 73: Performance of an Ace Student
The poor performing students had expressions that said “Regardless of whether I crane my neck or hunch my shoulders, I’ll end up beheaded”. They looked death in the eyes with firm gazes and went to their execution grounds—No, they went to the exam area.
Meng Chao remembered that he had the same expression in his previous life, and he could not help but smile.
The written test lasted for a total of five hours, but they were only tested on one subject. It was a comprehensive test that combined biology, physics, chemistry, maths, strategic a.n.a.lysis, and other subjects. It was incredibly hard.
Besides, the test did not provide any chairs. The exam table had a computer on it, and based on the examinees’ height, it was adjusted to an awkward height where they could not stand nor squat comfortably.
Only when the examinees’ stances had reached a certain standard were they able to somewhat position themselves into a comfortable stance and focus on completing the test.
They were allowed to go out to take toilet breaks, but the toilet was located on the other end of the exam hall, and if they went to and fro, they had to waste a lot of time.
This was a test on the youngsters’ control over their organs.
In the past, there were many examinees who did not have smooth blood flow after they stayed in a position where they half stood and half squatted. Their legs became numb, and they fainted.
Even if they gritted their teeth to persevere, they could not concentrate, and they did not manage to get good results.
When the examinees walked into the exam area, they immediately let out loud wails.
The difficulty of the exam had increased to the least year. The exam area was not flat. Instead, the left side of the hall was elevated, creating a twenty-degree slope while the exam desks and computers were screwed in place by screws.
The examinees had to stand in their stances on a twenty-degree slope. They could ignore it for some time, but it was way too much to focus on a comprehensive test for five whole hours in that position.
Meng Chao could not help but snicker. He remembered it now. In his previous life, he was one of the wailers.
He really did not know which immoral invigilator had thought of such an exam area.
Naturally, his current self was not afraid of this small difficulty. Based on his student number, he walked to his seat as if he was walking on flat ground and scanned his fingerprint and iris.
Two screens rose slowly by his side to envelope him in an isolated s.p.a.ce. He could only see the heads above the shields, but not others’ screens, keyboards, or movements.
[Please put on your earphones.]
A notification popped up on the screen.
Meng Chao put on the earphones and heard rustling sounds. Soon, loud howls echoed by his ears. It was as if the gates of h.e.l.l had been opened. He also heard the sounds of fierce beasts crunching on meat and bones.
It was a listening test.
It was not as insane as the mental strength test, but it lasted for a long time. With all sorts of monsters hara.s.sing the students, it became difficult to concentrate for five hours.
Of course, the students could adjust the volume. In fact, they could even turn the sounds off.
But they would be marked based on the volume. If they muted the sounds, their score for the listening test would be zero, and they would be a.s.sessed as not having firm willpower and could not register for any professions that required a steady mind.
Meng Chao casually moved the volume to the max. As the creatures screeched in his ears, he swayed his head and even whistled.
Thud, thud, thud.
Someone knocked on his screen.
When he looked up, he saw an invigilator, who was staring at him in disbelief.
“Hmm?”
Meng Chao removed his earphones in puzzlement.
Deafening roars from monsters could still be heard from his earphones.
The invigilator heard them, and his gaze turned even stranger. He whispered, “Don’t make any noise. You’ll affect the other examinees.”
“Oh, sorry.” So Meng Chao shut up and reentered the zone. He saw a timer on the monitor.
Half a minute later, the first question popped up on the screen. It was a picture of an Iron-armored Rhinoceros.
The examinees needed to draw the main organs of the Iron-armored Rhinoceros and point out its weaknesses.
This was not a problem for Meng Chao. He immediately started moving his pen over the drawing tablet.
The second question was about the five great types of crystal engines. He was to draw their basic structure and fill in the spirit energy conversion formula.
The third question required him to list out the key characteristics of the nine great stances as well as the eighteen breathing techniques and meditation techniques.
The sixteenth question was a comprehensive application question.
[If there is a Demonic Halberd Pig King weighing 9989kg rushing at you at the speed of 180km/h and you’re a normal soldier who is 1.75m tall, weighs 82kg, has an even distribution of muscle ma.s.s, and who has activated the heavy defense mode in a strengthened Type 2 Sword Shield exoskeleton, how far will you be knocked away by the Demonic Halberd Pig King? Will the strengthened exoskeleton be damaged? Will you be injured?
“If the strengthened exoskeleton is damaged, it might need to be repaired. How might you repair it?
“If you’re injured, what sort of treatment will you need to go through?”
This sort of comprehensive question gave the students a lot of room to answer. As long as their answer was logical, it was fine.
Meng Chao moved his hands in a flurry. Tapping sounds rose continuously from his keyboard; he never stopped typing.
The examinees in the cubicles nearby could no longer withstand the monster roars in their earphones, and they shut down the listening test.
But the sound of the ace student hitting the keys like a raging storm was even more of a shock to these poor-performing students who could not think of a single word to write even if they scratched their heads b.l.o.o.d.y.
They thought about it and decided to put on their earphones again. They would rather be tormented by the monsters instead of the ace student.
Meng Chao tackled the questions smoothly. He used a little more than two hours to arrive at the last essay question.
[Describe the development process and style of firearms after Dragon City transmigrated.]
This was a major question.
Meng Chao thought about it for a while before he started typing his answer.
[Half a century ago, when our ancestors transmigrated to the Other World, they were flabbergasted by the various unbelievable physics and chemistry phenomena.
[Metals that were originally as hard as steel lost their toughness and ductility after being outside for a night.
[The alloys that were supposed to be stainless started rusting.
[Lead and bronze were supposed to only have one characteristic. They were stored inside, but they turned into new materials with all sorts of strange characteristics that were never seen before on Earth.
[Even though most of the materials went through slight changes, it did not cause a lot of trouble to our ancestors’ daily lives. Even if the failure rate of public-issued computers and complicated machinery increased by leaps and bounds, it was not as if they were completely unusable.
[But the firearms industry required great meticulousness, and they paid great attention to the stability of materials. If their key materials shrank by even a hair’s breadth, or their toughness or ductility changed by 1%, it would have disastrous effects.
[If one component of a supersonic fighting jet’s jet engine changed, it could cause the fighting jet to explode in the air.
[If a component in the gyroscopes of a surface-to-air missile swelled or shrank by 0.01mm, we would lose the missile. In fact, it would even change its target.
[Our war fortresses were welded together using unique solders, and they looked as if they were impenetrable, but if the characteristics of the solders changed, our war fortresses might collapse at any point, and all our soldiers would be buried in them.
[In the beginning, our scientists could not understand this phenomenon. They said that it was a demonic art or witchcraft. They suspected that we had transmigrated to the legendary magic world or cultivation world.
[But even magic and divine arts could not stop Earthlings from searching for the truth. Soon, we discovered the super energy source—spirit energy.
[Spirit energy is a very active energy. It can invade the molecular level of any material and interfere with the atomic nucleus.
[The newest scientific research stated that the protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus form a sphere-shaped vibrational energy level from the two balancing forces inside and outside the atomic nucleus.
[On Earth, no radiation could interfere with the vibrations of the energy level in the atomic nucleus. Hence, protons were believed to be unable to break down. When countless protons were stacked together, they could form a skysc.r.a.per, and it was impenetrable. At most, we could only perform changes at the neutron level.
[But in the Other World, spirit energy crashed against the atomic nucleus, and it became very easy to change the proton or neutron’s sphere-shaped vibrational energy level. An elemental change thus occurred on a proton level.
[We came to a general understanding of the reason behind the change in our materials, but it was useless in solving the crisis.
[The scientists then used the crystal materials unique to the Other World. They took the crystals, crystal cores, crystal essence, or crystal liquid to create a relatively stable top-grade material.
[It also helped to develop our biochemical technology. We learned to use monsters to fight monsters. In fact, we even changed our civilization into a biochemical civilization, which is completely different from Earth’s civilization.
[As we continue to explore spirit energy technology, one day, we will use it to attack the atomic nucleus and master the technology to change protons and neutrons. At that time, we will be like the legendary wizards or cultivators. We will master the ability to turn stone into gold, and turn grain into soldiers.
[But this is what will happen in the future. We need a lot of precious resources and the even more valuable time to do so.
[For now, our understanding toward spirit energy is not great. Crystalized materials are also very rare and expensive. They are not suited to be refined into consumable ammunitions.
[As we faced the aggressive monster h.o.a.rd, aside from using reusable cold weapons made from crystalized materials and letting martial artists shine with their past glory, we also needed firearms that could be created at a low cost in large quant.i.ties, easily used, and which were minimally affected by spirit energy!
[Hence, a genius idea was born.
[If we couldn’t create extremely stable, accurate, and expensive high-precision weapons for the time being in the treacherous environment in the Other World, could we do the opposite? Could we increase the weapons’ fault tolerance rate and pressure resistant capability and create large amounts of clumsy weapons?
[Since we could not prevent the minor changes in the core structure of firearms, which also happens to be their most sophisticated component, their volume, density, hardness, and ductility, we have to simplify the core structure and create weapons that would not affect our ability to fight even when 1% changes happened to the critical components.
[Even if we fire artillery and components keep falling off, it would not affect us from firing the second shot or even the hundredth shot. Was there a way for us to create such weapons?
[Reality showed that not only did the possibility exist, our ancestors were very skilled in this style of fighting.
[Two hundred years ago, our ancestors and our ancestors’ teachers on Earth employed the thought of creating clumsy, durable, and cheap weapons to arm their armies.
[At that time, they could change a random tractor factory to a tank factory, and these factories had to withstand the enemy firing shots at them day and night. In fact, they could even engage in a fierce war at the entrance of the factory itself.
“The production factory workers were all newbies who had just been trained for a few weeks. Even so, this did not stop them from creating clunky-looking tanks. They were driven down the production line with loud rumbling sounds and charged straight to the frontlines. Then, they reduced the enemies’ exquisite equipment into sc.r.a.p metal.
[The environment in the Other World is terrible. It is even worse than the all-out wars that Earth went through.
[Hence, the scientists temporarily set aside the research for high-precision weaponry and brought down the skill level until it was at the level of weapon productions two hundred years ago. They used multi-turreted cannons to increase their firepower and dense rivets to prevent the solders from changing. They continuously increased the thickness of axles and their rigid suspension. This was to prevent the failure rate from all sorts of complicated suspension structures.
[Even though their weight definitely surpa.s.sed similar weapons on Earth, the great output from the crystal engines made it possible for these steel monsters to run rampant on the battlefield.
[As technology continued to develop, all sorts of biochemical brains and superbrains were produced. We also copied the brainwaves of heroic spirits and created AIs with high degrees of freedom.
[We could also carve runic symbols and created new armor that could absorb spirit energy to form spirit energy magnetic fields.
[With this equipment, the steel monsters might appear to be old, crude, and clumsy, but in truth, they are war trucks and armored airships that can think on their own. Their fighting efficiency is far greater than that of similar weapons on Earth, and they became Earthlings’ mightiest weapons in our development in the Other World!]