Chapter 483 - 308: A Mysterious Little Specialty from the East

「Two and a half hours later, outside the examination hall.」

Craig gently crumbled.

From his somewhat dazed expression, it was easy to see that his spirit had been completely crushed by the exam paper.

He had encountered the Common Tongue exam in the Deepwater City testing center, where the tricky questions were as difficult as monsters, impossible to answer no matter how hard he tried.

Craig didn't understand why the Common Tongue exam was so strange.

It wasn't that he'd never been to school.

Of course, they taught the Common Tongue at the noble academy, and there were exams every semester.

Those Common Tongue exams were simple. They only tested knowledge from classic works, quizzed on famous poetry excerpts, and ended with a long-form essay.

It was all very reasonable.

Exams for the Common Tongue were like that at other schools, too. It had always been this way.

'I mean, it's just language arts. How many different tricks could there be?'

Yet in the one hundred and fifty minutes that had just passed, Craig had witnessed exactly how many tricks there could be.

There was an incredibly long news article, followed by several multiple-choice questions asking which statement was incorrect.

He felt that every option was incorrect, yet at the same time, they all seemed somewhat correct.

And that reading comprehension... oh, the comprehension was on another level.

Who knew from what angles the author was expressing their emotions?

He couldn't even tell what emotion the author was trying to express.

The poetry section no longer asked for direct recitation, but instead tested on the artistic effect of a particular word in a certain line.

But the real killer had to be the essay.

They gave a short story that resembled a fable. It was about a man whose horse ran away. His father said, "How do you know this isn't a good thing?" And sure enough, the lost horse returned with another horse.

Then his father said again, "How can you be sure this isn't a bad thing?" As it turned out, the man fell while riding and broke his leg…

Describe the associations and thoughts this story evokes in you.

Choose your angle, establish your theme, select a clear literary form, create your own title, and write no less than 800 words.

'What kind of thoughts could this possibly inspire?'

'That his dad is a really powerful Prophet Mage?'

Craig had never heard such a bizarre story. If a Minstrel told tales like this, they'd definitely starve.

By the time he started writing the essay, there wasn't much time left. He could only scribble something down based on gut feeling.

After finishing, he couldn't even tell if he had gone off-topic or not.

'Whoever came up with these questions must have a twisted mind.'

Craig cursed the test-maker wildly in his heart, but only in his heart.

As a loyal customer of the Zog Group, although he had no proof, his gut told him that Zog Benge was, in all likelihood, the one behind such a bizarre exam.

As he was spacing out, he heard the voices of other candidates from behind him.

"What did you pick for the first few text comprehension multiple-choice questions?"

"332, 412."

The multiple-choice options were marked with numbers.

"Was the fourth one option 4? I chose 1."

"1 is a correct statement. Option 4 says, 'Magic Energy Farming Tools are more feasible,' but the original text only mentioned that Magic Energy Farming Tools are feasible, without emphasizing 'more'."

"Oh, man, you're probably right. I chose the wrong one..."

It was a group of people comparing answers.

More and more passing candidates joined the answer-comparing group, their discussion growing heated.

Craig was stunned.

'What is wrong with these people? Comparing answers right after leaving the exam hall? Isn't anyone going to stop them?'

Weren't they afraid of discovering a mountain of wrong answers and having a mental breakdown that would ruin them for the next few exams?

Craig wanted to leave quickly, but the sound of the group's discussion kept drilling into his ears, slowing his steps.

Curiosity, a powerful curiosity, trapped Craig in a dilemma: run away, or stay and listen for a bit?

'Maybe I should listen for a bit, just in case I did okay.'

He ended up listening for quite a while.

Given that these questions were a "hometown specialty" of Zog's, they were a completely new type of question for all the natives of Feilin.

Therefore, aside from the multiple-choice questions, they couldn't reach a consensus on any of the others.

This went on until they got to the essay.

"Did you guys understand that essay prompt?"

"Not really. I wrote that one must learn to wield the power of Magic, so you won't be in the dark about whether something is a good thing or a bad thing."

"I think that's about the same idea. You have to work hard to control your own destiny, not leave everything to luck."

"I wrote the same thing..."

A strange thing happened. When it came to the essay, a lot of people shared the same idea.

Perhaps those who had written something different had already had their mental breakdowns in silence and didn't want to talk.

People like Craig, for instance.

He was filled with regret now.

'Why didn't I think of that? It was so obviously a story about striving to change your own fate.'

'It's over. I'm doomed.'

He had written that good and bad fortune might not be absolute, so one should maintain a positive mindset whether facing good times or bad.

That was definitely off-topic.

Was his path to higher education going to end in failure on the very first subject?

Craig ran from the examination site in frustration.

"Young Master, how was the exam?" His young attendant, who had been waiting outside, rushed forward to ask eagerly when he saw Craig emerge.

Craig didn't answer directly, just let out a helpless sigh.

He had never been one to hide his emotions.

"It's alright, Young Master," the attendant comforted him. "With your abilities, if you found the exam difficult, then everyone else must have found it difficult too."

"So?"

"So, let's assume—and this is just an assumption—that your score for this subject isn't very high. But this is a ranked exam. All you need to do is score higher than others. The difficulty was the same for everyone. If your score is low, theirs will be even lower."

Craig's eyes lit up.

That seemed to make some sense.

Seeing his young master was less dejected, the attendant continued, "There are still three subjects left, and those are your strong suits, Young Master. Even if you did a little poorly in the Common Tongue, you can definitely pull ahead with the other three."

The entrance exam schedule was packed—two subjects a day, all finished in two days.