Over fourteen hundred candidates are taking part in Jiang City's martial-arts college entrance exam, so constant shifts in the rankings are normal.
But a sudden leap—or drop—of more than ten places almost always happens only in the lower brackets.
There the students' strength is similar; a tiny score change can bounce them a dozen spots up or down.
Those who crack the top fifty, however, are genuinely powerful, and the gaps between their scores are much wider.
Even when their ranks do move, it's usually by no more than one or two places.
A single jump of more than ten spots is extremely rare.
So when it happened, not only Chen Fan noticed—every teacher from No. 2 High saw it and began talking excitedly.
"Hey, Astret's rank just shot up—he's hit 25th place!"
"What the—?! Twenty-fifth? Seriously?"
"We just went for lunch—how did the board change this much?"
"He's really from the regular track? That's insane."
"…"
At that moment, nine students from No. 2 High had squeezed into the top fifty of the Jiang City martial-arts exam.
Apart from the 18th and 22nd places, the next highest was Astret at 25th.
"He jumped from 32nd straight to 25th, and his score leapt from 328 to 372."
Down in front of the stands, Principal Zhao Yao of No. 2 High narrowed his eyes.
A mind-type C-rank awakener, though only first-order, he could memorize every name on the leaderboard.
He paid especially close attention to his own students.
Astret's score change was as clear to him as daylight,
yet it still felt unbelievable.
By the scoring rules, killing a peak non-tier beast earns 6–8 points.
Killing a low first-tier beast earns 14–16.
The smartwatch tallies kills roughly every four seconds.
Astret had just gained 44 points—in other words, within four seconds he'd slain five peak non-tier beasts or three low first-tier ones.
Either way, it proved his terrifying strength.
"That level might not match the very top group like Zhou Mingyang, but it's definitely top-ten material."
"Since when did our school produce such a monster?"
Principal Zhao Yao was bewildered.
Under national rules, every high-school principal and every city education-bureau chief and deputy must be at least first-order awakeners.
Though Zhao Yao hadn't seen Astret fight, the instant jump in rank let him estimate the boy's power.
The other two principals and the bureau chief saw it too.
"Principal Zhao, looks like your school still has some talent.
This Astret must have been holding back; the moment he got serious, his rank soared."
Bureau Chief Zhang Wenshan nodded slightly.
"Your student is easily top-ten level,"
added Principal Liu Hang of No. 1 High.
"By the way, what ability did he awaken? How come we've never heard of him?"
Zhang Wenshan was puzzled.
A candidate this strong shouldn't be unknown.
"To be honest, Astret only exploded today during the exam. I'll have to ask his homeroom teacher for the details."
"Teacher Chen, come here a moment."
Facing the bureau chief's question, Zhao Yao called over Homeroom Teacher Chen Fan.
Under the envious gaze of the other staff, Chen Fan sat beside the principal.
To an ordinary teacher like Chen Fan, awakeners such as the bureau chief and the principals were absolute big shots.
Their attention made him visibly uneasy:
"Principal, Bureau Chief, as far as I know Astret only awakened an E-rank ability—Weak Electricity."
"E-rank?!"
Principal Zhao Yao frowned. "Teacher Chen, are you sure?"
"I'm certain. Before the exam I even advised him not to take the martial-arts track."
Chen Fan smiled wryly.
He himself wondered whether the ability registration had been wrong back then.
"To reach this level with only an E-rank, the boy must have other extraordinary qualities."
Zhang Wenshan mused, "Pity he's not in the top ten yet—we can't view his fight footage."
The live system for the martial-arts exam runs on a provincial program even he can't override.
Searching thousands of fixed-camera feeds for Astret would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Let's wait. With his strength he should break into the top ten soon."
Though Astret's case was unusual, the bureau chief had patience.
"Then we'll just have to wait."
Principal Zhao Yao agreed, then beckoned to Chen Fan, who was about to return to his seat. "Teacher Chen, stay here."
Chen Fan's face lit up—not every teacher got to sit this close to the bigwigs… Time ticked by, and the rankings kept shifting.
Among the ever-changing names, one kept climbing.
25th, Astret… 21st, Astret… 16th, Astret… 12th, Astret… 9th, Astret… In less than an hour he had crashed into the top ten!
"He did it—Astret's in the top ten!"
Homeroom Teacher Chen Fan was ecstatic; a mere regular-track teacher, he'd never dreamed a student of his would crack the city's top ten.
"Top ten!"
Principal Zhao Yao exhaled in relief.
Being outdone by No. 3 High had been a blow to his pride.
"Now we'll finally see how he clawed his way in."
Bureau Chief Zhang Wenshan looked expectantly skyward; moments later the virtual projection for 9th place flickered.
It was replaced by the figure of a tall young man.
Clad in black battle gear, his face resolute, his gaze sharp and steady.
In his hands he held a two-metre-one black spear, its tip razor-sharp and stained crimson, adding a savage edge to the weapon.
At his feet lay several beasts already drained of life.
Nearby, another beast cowered, too afraid to advance.
Black clothes, long spear, fierce beasts—the scene radiated raw, overwhelming power.
Then—
the youth moved; the lance shot out like a dragon. In an instant
the last beast hadn't time to react before the spear pierced it dead!