Yun Ning was the last to alight from the car, closing the door with a decisive click.
“Junior Huang, all the best!” he quietly wished.
“Alright!” Huang Xiu nodded emphatically.
For this re-examination, she could conceive of no reason for her defeat, nor would she ever allow herself to lose.
After a brief exchange, Professor Yuan, accompanied by Yun Ning, departed first and entered the examination hall.
As one of the re-examination proctors, he was required to enter in advance.
Huang Xiu watched as Yuan Fei and Yun Ning walked into the dilapidated building adorned with the flag of the Great Xia Nation.
‘The re-examination. I am here!’ she silently declared in her heart.
Then, taking a deep breath, she strode purposefully towards the entrance.
In stark contrast to its ramshackle exterior, the building’s interior was surprisingly well-maintained.
The walls were coated in pristine white plaster, the lights shone with a new, clear brilliance, and even the floor was laid with gleaming beige tiles, polished to a mirror-like sheen.
It was clear that it had been renovated quite recently.
To the right of the office building’s ground-floor lobby, a wooden desk was set up, draped with light blue velvet. Behind it sat a woman in a business suit, spectacles perched on her nose.
She had been engrossed in writing something, but upon hearing Huang Xiu’s footsteps, she immediately looked up and spoke softly.
“Are you here for the re-examination?”
“Yes,” Huang Xiu nodded, approaching the desk.
“May I trouble you to show your ID card? I’ll register you here.”
“Of course, just a moment.”
Huang Xiu began to retrieve it from her pocket as she spoke, but just as she pulled out her ID and prepared to hand it over, she let out a small gasp of surprise and froze.
Her ID card hadn’t been updated… the photo on it still depicted her former male self.
However…
‘Professor Yuan used my ID for my registration yesterday, so there shouldn’t be any issues, right?’
With that thought, Huang Xiu ultimately handed over her ID card.
“Please wait a moment,” the woman in the suit said, taking the ID card. She glanced up at Huang Xiu, then down at the photo on the card.
This back-and-forth gaze happened several times. Just as Huang Xiu began to wonder if Professor Yuan might need to be contacted, the woman in the suit suddenly handed the ID card back, then pulled a sheet of paper from the desk and offered it to her.
“Please sign next to your name.”
She pointed to the preceding column on the form with her left hand, while her right hand offered another sheet. “Please fill out this form as soon as possible; it’s crucial for the re-examination.”
“Ah, yes, alright,” Huang Xiu responded, taking back her ID card with a palpable sense of relief. She quickly grabbed the pen, signed her name, then, clutching the form and pen, hurried into the elevator under the woman’s guidance.
Pressing the button for the third basement floor, the elevator doors slowly closed.
The silver-gray elevator doors, like a polished mirror, reflected the young girl’s face.
“Phew.”
She patted her chest, remarking, ‘Professor Yuan was surprisingly reliable this time.’
Evidently, Professor Yuan had communicated with the Jurisdiction Bureau; otherwise, her registration for this re-examination would have been an immediate failure.
****
The elevator slowly descended, the red numbers on the floor indicator panel ticking down at an exceptionally slow pace.
This indicated that the third basement floor was even deeper than she had imagined.
Taking advantage of the descent, Huang Xiu decided to pick up the form, which was supposedly crucial for the re-examination, and began to read it.
“A brief introduction to one’s awakened ability, its application directions, foreseeable growth…”
She murmured the keywords listed on it, quickly grasping the form’s purpose.
This was a form designed to collect information about the examinees’ awakened abilities, serving as the first test of the re-examination.
It assessed the examinees’ understanding of their own abilities.
What was the essence of their ability, which situations was it suited for, and what were its primary applications?
Was it for combat, control, exploration, support, logistics, or something else entirely?
Examinees were required to define their ability, clarify its future development trajectory, and predict the areas in which it could foreseeably grow.
The elevator had already reached the third basement floor.
She put away the form and stepped out.
Outside the elevator stretched a long, grayish-white corridor that twisted and turned, yet offered no branching paths.
This peculiar design left Huang Xiu grumbling inwardly.
After walking for a while longer, she arrived at her destination—an enormous, silver-white room.
Or perhaps, a plaza?
This plaza, from its floor to its walls and its exceptionally high ceiling, was entirely silver-white.
The texture felt like metal, though Huang Xiu couldn’t identify the specific type.
Round incandescent lights were embedded in the ceiling, providing the sole illumination within the plaza.
By now, a considerable number of people had already gathered there.
The young girl quickly scanned the crowd, seeing heads layered upon heads, estimating at least two hundred people.
The incessant chatter and clamor filled the air, making the entire plaza resemble a bustling marketplace.
“So there are this many Awakened individuals for the re-examination?” Huang Xiu couldn’t help but be astonished, her mouth slightly agape.
A soft female voice suddenly chimed in from beside her. “Of course. Yunshang Province boasts a population of seventy million; it’s a major province within the Great Xia Nation.”
Huang Xiu turned her head to see a petite young woman, roughly 1.62 meters tall, standing behind her with her arms crossed.
She sported twin pigtails, a lollipop dangling from her mouth, and a pair of panda-themed headphones resting on her head. Her attire was distinctly athletic.
She wore a blue sports bra on top, paired with denim hot pants over black athletic leggings.
However, her feet were clad in a pair of blue canvas shoes.
“Hello there, I’m Liu Lu, as in ‘dewdrop’ Lu. It’s a pleasure to meet you, lovely big sister.”
As she spoke, she extended a small, fair hand towards Huang Xiu, a charming smile gracing her face.
“Ah, hello, I’m Huang Xiu.” Huang Xiu quickly reached out, clasping the girl’s soft, seemingly boneless hands.
Thanks to Senior Sister Li, Huang Xiu had developed a certain immunity to honorifics like ‘Junior Sister’ or ‘Big Sister’.
“Huang Xiu.” Liu Lu’s cute nose scrunched up. “Are you *that* player?”
“Eh? You know…”
Huang Xiu paused for a moment, her words unfinished, when a sudden, immense force gripped her right hand.
Immediately, a searing pain shot through her.
“You dog, prepare to die!” Liu Lu shrieked, her left hand abruptly clamping over her right, both hands combining to squeeze with all her might.
“Ow! Ow!” Huang Xiu’s face contorted instantly, the form clutched in her left hand slipping directly to the floor.
She tried to yank her right hand back, but it wouldn’t budge. She attempted to push with her left hand, yet found it equally immovable.
“What are you doing?!” she cried out in anger, a hint of undeniable grievance in her tone.
She didn’t even know this person named Liu Lu!
This was utterly baffling!
“What am I doing? Heh heh,” Liu Lu sneered, as she forcefully pinched and twisted Huang Xiu’s right hand. “It seems you’ve forgotten. That’s right, let me jog your memory.”
She bared her sharp canine teeth, savoring Huang Xiu’s agony, and slowly said, “If you’re bad, practice more. If you can’t handle it, don’t play. Do you still remember that phrase?”
This familiar phrase instantly jolted Huang Xiu’s memory.
“You’re *that* Jin?!” she exclaimed, her face a mask of shock and pain, though bewilderment was the dominant emotion.
How did this Liu Lu know that she was *that* Yasuo!
Could she have deliberately crashed into her car that day? Huang Xiu could only conceive of this one possibility.
“That’s right! I’m *that* Jin!” Liu Lu let out a series of strange, cackling laughs. “I tried to explain nicely, but you wouldn’t listen, and then you mocked me and called me ‘noob’!”
“Since that’s the case, don’t blame me for taking this offline and showing you the ‘truth’!”