Chapter 33: Actual Exam Questions from a Century Ago

"Are any missing?"

Lin Qi glanced at the hill of treasure chests, feeling a sense of disdain. Twilight of the Gods and his team should know better than anyone whether anything was missing. If even one were gone, that would be five hundred points lost. Lin Qi could easily imagine Twilight of the Gods and his companions searching the Unicorn Gold-Eater Rat nest with ten times the meticulousness they used when cleaning their own homes.

"Forty-three chests in total. That will be 21,500 points. I hope you continue to work hard and keep bringing glory to the Martial Arts Hall," Lin Qi said, gritting his teeth as he accepted the chests from the earnest-looking Twilight of the Gods.

"That's great!" Twilight of the Gods exclaimed, his face lighting up with excitement upon hearing the reward. "I knew it was a dungeon! Running dungeons really is the most profitable activity. If I can find a second one underground, I’ll be well on my way to getting the intermediate volume of the God-Shocking Breathing Technique!"

Fang Zhen, having just respawned, looked on with envy as he watched Twilight of the Gods receive a twenty percent share of the dungeon rewards. "You’ve got great luck, kid. I’ve been digging for days and haven't found a single dungeon, but you found one right away. This dungeon is incredibly profitable. It’s a shame it’s a one-time thing; looks like I’ll have to spend some time searching properly."

"Brother Zhen, if you're looking for dungeons, I recommend digging deeper," Twilight of the Gods said generously, sharing his experience with the intrigued Fang Zhen. "I kept digging down because I wanted to see how deep this game would let me go. I never expected to find a dungeon."

"I have to say, the gameplay in this game is quite well-hidden. On the surface, it makes us dig holes and farm, but underground, they’ve already designed other mechanics. Based on my estimates, there should be many more dungeons down there; it just depends on our excavation progress."

"True, this game has always been full of secrets. The Grizzly Mine back then had plenty hidden away, and the vast wilderness map is the same. It looks like I’ll need to dig deeper from now on," Fang Zhen nodded, agreeing with Twilight of the Gods. "Once I find a new dungeon, I’ll be sure to share the benefits with you."

"Then I thank you in advance, Brother Zhen," Twilight of the Gods replied.

At that moment, Twilight of the Gods had an epiphany: he had discovered the casual way to play *Advent of High Martial Arts*. Perhaps running transport in the wilderness was lucrative, but digging tunnels underground was just as profitable. Especially for someone like him, who wasn't skilled at combat, excavating new dungeons was an excellent choice.

...

Lin Qi listened to their conversation. Though he wanted to dissuade them, he considered that someone had to handle the farming underground—it was, after all, a long-term, stable source of income—so he let it go. As long as they were happy, that was all that mattered.

Afterward, Lin Qi issued the main quest to the respawned members in the hall: repair the building. Three sets of repair tools were enough for ten people to work on different parts of the hall simultaneously. At the same time, Lin Qi used his smart wristwatch to order a large quantity of cement and building materials from a suburban factory, hiring one hundred drifters from the Waste Zone to repair the hall's walls and perimeter.

In an instant, the entire Obsidian Martial Arts Hall became as bustling as a marketplace. However, a strange trend began to emerge inside. Aside from occasionally repairing the interior, the players stopped thinking about expanding the land. Instead, they acted like madmen, digging up the entire underground area of the hall until it resembled an anthill—a maze of interconnected tunnels.

Each of them had managed to increase their proficiency in the Leopard Shadow Step by over ten percent; they had practically run themselves crazy.

Combined with the Blood Essence Rice planted in the tunnels from time to time, these passages provided excellent cover. It was safe to say that if anyone were to attack the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, they could simply hide underground, making it nearly impossible to be found. The defensive fortifications were top-tier.

As the sun slowly set over the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, the day came to an end.

"Opening these chests is just like opening blind boxes. What is all this stuff?" Lin Qi looked at the latest chest he had opened, filled with exam papers, and felt a headache coming on. He deeply wondered what kind of person would bury three years of high school exam papers underground. Burying them was one thing, but there were no answer keys—just page after page of red "X" marks. What were they expecting future generations to look at?

Thirty-nine chests! Aside from the occasional detailed explanation of basic martial arts, there was nothing useful.

Wait—that wasn't entirely true.

There were also things like "Thirteen Ways to Cook Monster Meat" and "True Explanation of Absorbing Monster Flesh"—all methods that taught students how to squander resources.

"These twenty thousand-plus points were a waste," Lin Qi scanned the piles of waste paper on the floor. Not a single page was worth selling. It was a total loss of over twenty thousand points. "Looks like I’ll only be using these for firewood."

Lin Qi didn't have high hopes for the remaining four chests.

"Well, well. It seems this person didn't make zero progress in their three years of high school. At least on these papers, there aren't just 'X's anymore; more than half are checkmarks. But why aren't these all the same person's name?"

"Damn! Is there even a point to this kid hoarding other people's exam papers?"

"And he hoarded so many!"

Lin Qi looked at the papers in the chest, nearly breaking down. He felt like the person who buried these had turned it into a whole supply chain. There were two full chests of other people's papers; who knows how much they had profited from this.

Seeing only two chests left, Lin Qi couldn't be bothered to look through them carefully and kicked one open.

"What the hell? A doll?"

Lin Qi stared at the mechanical doll sitting in one of the metal chests, completely stunned. Was this really hidden inside a box of exam papers?

"Wait, this looks a bit like the testing dolls in major middle and high schools." Lin Qi inspected the doll closely. The more he looked, the more it resembled the ones he had seen before. "It's out of power. I wonder if I can clean it up and use it."

Lin Qi had some impression of the testing dolls used in major schools; he had heard about them from Luo Qi. For over a century, major cities had included martial arts exams in their high school entrance exams, which included technical tests scored based on the level of skill. The mechanical dolls used to test candidates could accurately judge their skill level—or "skill rank"—based on their performance.

Rank 1 was about the level of an elementary school student in a major city.
Rank 2 was the standard level for a middle school student.
Rank 3 was the standard level for a high school student.
Rank 4 was the skill level of a college student, and also the level of many prospective martial artists.
Rank 5 was a major watershed, generally only reachable by true martial artists.

If this mechanical doll could still function, it could accurately calculate a practitioner's level. For a martial artist, it was a quite practical piece of equipment.

"With this, it's not a total loss."

Lin Qi then turned his attention to the final metal chest. It was distinctly different from the others; it contained no exam papers, only a "2024 College Entrance Exam True Questions and Explanations" book, and a chest full of detailed solutions.

"What is this? A 2214 true exam paper? A whole chest of explanations?"

Lin Qi was bewildered by the mountain of problem-solving methods. Just how many questions were on the 2214 college entrance exam? Was it designed to test students or to have them write a book?

When Lin Qi flipped open the 2214 true exam paper, his eyes widened in shock.

*How to achieve a Stellar Explosion?*

Were high school students a hundred years ago really that formidable?