Su Hao hadn't expected to be this popular.
The moment he stepped into the rest hall, numerous gazes immediately fixed on him.
It felt like being the center of attention.
Pretty satisfying, pretty satisfying.
Above his head, the silkworm lay sprawled, its front half raised, waving its little hands.
The examinees, along with the few spirits that hadn't been sent for treatment, quickened their pace.
"Guno? Gunono?"
Don't go, let's chat, let's chat, guno~!
Su Hao swept his gaze across the room.
Awkwardly enough, wherever his eyes landed, the examinees sitting there either looked away or, if they didn't leave, turned their heads aside.
"Come on, is it that serious? I only eliminated like twenty, thirty, forty people?"
Su Hao rubbed the tip of his nose, feeling a bit helpless.
If it weren't for the battle with Ice Condensation damaging the silkworm's condition, he would've racked up way more points.
No way it'd be just twenty or thirty.
But the silkworm and the little fire crow had nearly exhausted their spiritual energy.
He was worried about running into another top-tier player, Lin Mingzheng.
"Ice Condensation was that strong, and Lin Mingzheng, who's on par with her reputation, definitely isn't weak either. Running into him in my current state wouldn't do me any favors."
The number of examinees he could still score points from was dwindling.
Su Hao decided to head to the finish line early.
Scanning the rest hall, aside from those he'd eliminated, the people Su Hao actually knew were few and far between.
Only a few classmates from No.1 High, whose names he couldn't recall.
He didn't go over to them. Instead, he walked straight to the ordering counter and glanced over the menu.
His mouth twitched.
"...So it's just noodle soup?"
He said to the old man at the counter, "Three bowls of wide noodles, large bowls, one without chili."
One for himself, one for the silkworm, one for the little fire crow.
The one without chili was for the silkworm.
The old man dropped the cooked noodles into bowls. Beside him, a massive soup pot had its broth automatically rise, splitting into three streams midair, each wrapping around a few slices of meat before flying into the bowls.
The broth shimmered, tracing a graceful arc through the air until the last few drops landed in the bowls.
Not too much, not too little—exactly ninety percent full.
Su Hao: "???"
He blinked, then noticed in the corner behind the old man a giant, multicolored conch.
A rainbow-like barrier covered the conch's opening, as if sealing the door shut.
"That's..."
[Fairy Conch: Elite++] [Ability: Moisturize (Click to view)] [Learned Moves: Water Flow Manipulation...] [Evolution Path: Small Conch → Overflow Conch → Fairy Conch] [Bio: Don't call me, I don't want to go out!!]
Su Hao hadn't expected the unassuming cafeteria old man to be a skilled expert.
The noodle bowls were pushed in front of him, but Su Hao was stumped.
No tray, only two hands—how was he supposed to carry three bowls?
"Silkworm, it's up to you."
The silkworm tilted its head, slowly forming a question mark.
Su Hao said, "If you can use silk to lift a computer, then using silk to carry noodle bowls is perfectly reasonable, right?
"As a spirit of the new era, you need to learn to fully develop your move applications. Look at that Fairy Conch senior over there, mastering the Water Flow Noodle Soup Technique with such skill. That's what you still need to learn."
But the silkworm was thinking about something else.
That... kind of makes sense, actually.
In the end, Su Hao didn't have the silkworm perform a noodle-bowl juggling act. He was afraid it'd drop them and get a life lesson from the cafeteria old man on the spot.
Instead, he had the silkworm weave a few strands of silk into a net, harden it into a mesh tray, and he carried the three large bowls to an empty table.
"Slurp~ Slurp~"
"Guno~ Guno~"
"Yaya~ Yaya~"
After finishing one large bowl of noodles, Su Hao was nearly full.
He'd grabbed enough supplies, so he wasn't as starving as the other examinees, but one bowl of noodles still left him feeling much more relaxed.
Once he finished eating, Su Hao leaned back in his chair, half-closing his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
The silkworm lay on the table, looking left and right.
No computer.
No phone.
No TV either.
Boring.
It was bored for two seconds, then crawled onto Su Hao, curled up, and fell asleep too.
Only the little fire crow stood on the back of the chair, fulfilling its guard duty.
After who knows how long, Su Hao woke up refreshed and... ate another bowl of noodles.
What else could he do when noodles were the only option here!
He glanced at the sky outside, which was gradually darkening.
"The joint exam is supposed to be three days, but it's really just two and a half. The cutoff time is eight tonight."
Staying half a day longer would yield the same result.
The forest at night was pitch-black; even Su Hao wouldn't dare travel through it, let alone the ordinary examinees.
By now, the rest hall had many more examinees.
But only a few had successfully reached the finish line. Most had been eliminated in the latter half of the forest and brought here by the referee team's spirit masters.
The travel-worn trio of Liu Ren walked in from the rest hall entrance.
Among the three, Liu Ren looked the most exhausted. He slumped onto a chair as soon as he entered, then suddenly caught the scent of noodles and drifted toward the ordering counter like a sleepwalker.
Li Songting, as energetic as ever, muttered, "I feel like I could go a few more rounds..."
Gu Lingyao walked in, her eyes sweeping across the hall.
"There are so few examinees from our No.1 High..."
She murmured.
Then her eyes lit up as she spotted Su Hao sitting alone over there.
She walked over briskly, sat down, and waved her hand in front of him.
Su Hao, in the middle of eating noodles, looked up and saw a bright smile.
He knew Gu Lingyao and the other two must have done well.
Their scores wouldn't be too bad.
"How did you guys do? Run into any tough opponents?"
"Um..." She counted on her fingers. "We met someone with two spirits—Liu Ren said he used to be from our school... and another from Xingyuan High, who seemed to have a grudge against Liu Ren.
"But we drove them off in the end.
"Our total score is almost two thousand now, so about six hundred each.
"Su Hao, Su Hao, what's your score?"
Su Hao had forgotten, so he glanced at his spirit bracelet.
"Four..."
"Four?"
"Over four thousand."
Gu Lingyao: "..."
This conversation is impossible!
...
As the time neared eight, the last batch of examinees to reach the finish line finally entered the rest hall.
The hall buzzed with noise.
Su Hao looked at a boy surrounded by a crowd.
Beside him followed a humanoid spirit with a wind-up device on its back.
But it was only the size of a five- or six-year-old child.
A wind-up doll!
Also at the entry level.
Compared to many spirits that looked visibly exhausted, the wind-up doll was full of energy, with no injuries on its body.
Lin Mingzheng wore a confident smile on his lips.
When his gaze swept to the corner and saw Ice Condensation's white seal wrapped in medical bandages, his smile grew even more assured.
Eight o'clock sharp.
A melodious tune began to play.
Led by King Zhou, the referee team and teachers from various schools descended from upstairs into the rest hall.
"Time's up. The joint exam is over.
"Now, I will announce the final score rankings."