<h4>Chapter 60: Origins of the Monthly Exam</h4>


    The sun hadpletely descended below the horizon, leaving only a few reddened clouds.


    “Before this, let me talk to you a little bit about science andw.” Song Jung pondered for a moment to construct his sentences and said, “The sun rises in the east. Flowers bloom and wilt. There’s growth, aging, sickness, and death... These naturalws are calledws. We are very much familiar with thesews on Earth and we take them for granted. When the pioneers set foot on Norma, they unexpectedly discovered that they could forcibly change thosews when their power was strong enough and when they reached a certain level. Of course, changing thesews is extremely difficult, and ites with an even heavier price. The only one who has been confirmed to have sessfully changed thew is our predecessor, who created thew of immortality for colonists all over the world.”


    “Then what is the w of thew of immortality?” Xiao Lin asked.


    “Don’t you already know the ws? True immortality is impossible to achieve. Thisw only gives colonists a chance to resurrect. On Norma, where thew has taken effect, all colonists branded by the academy only have their lifespan deducted by twenty years.”


    “Wait!” Xiao Lin hurriedly stopped Department Head Song, and asked curiously, “It’s only ten years, wasn’t it? Why twenty?”


    Song Jung replied helplessly. “Let me finish talking... I’m referring to Norma. Although it’s impossible to achieve true immortality, thisw is also sufficient in handing us an advantage when we colonize other worlds and fight against other natives... It was not untilter that everyone found out thew is not only effective in Norma, but also on Earth, in Dawn Academy, and even when we conduct simtion exercises, which is the so-called monthly exam. Thisw for the deduction of one’s lifespan remained valid, even in all those ces! Everyone, even the predecessor who created thisw, was quite surprised with that unexpected result.”


    After a moment of silence, Xiao Lin tried to digest all that mind-boggling information aboutws. It was still very foreign to him, prompting him to ask, “What if the mark is erased? Can’t we just temporarily erase the mark during a simted battle?”


    Department Head Song smiled bitterly. “It’s not that simple. When the freshmen undergo the initial physical examination, they will actually be automatically engraved with the soul mark. Thew affects anyone who has that mark, but a person only has a once-in-a-lifetime chance of ever getting that soul mark. Once erased, it can never be engraved again. Those who are sent back to Earth will only get one chance to live, even if they one day return here.”


    Xiao Lin was still puzzled. “Why do we still have the tests then?”


    Song Jung exined, “When this amazing result was first discovered, Dawn Academy immediately terminated all mock exams in order to protect the students who had not graduated. More than ten yearster however, Dawn Academy suffered even more losses in the New World. Even the limited amount of lifewater was slowly failing to keep up with the rate of lost lives, and we saw our highest number of casualties during Dawn Academy’s war with the orcs!”


    “Casualties?”


    “Yes. Death! Ridiculous, isn’t it? Dawn Academy’s deaths increased even more after the resurrectionw existed!” Song Jung shook his head and sighed, “After counting the casualties suffered during the war with the orcs, it was found that more than seventy percent of the deceased were students enrolled after the mock examination was terminated. I’m sure you can guess why.”


    Xiao Lin smiled bitterly. “Is it the gap between new recruits and veterans?”


    “Correct. New recruits will always make up thergest number of casualties during a war. Everyone knows that because it’smon sense, but no one is willing to bring it up. It’s as though those who trained in the academy for a few years finally stepped out of their ivory towers. They’re just students. They can’t even be considered as soldiers! Even if there was a chance at resurrection, they would quickly waste away their lifespan because they had zerobat experience. Eventually, they died at the hands of the orcs.”


    The expression on Department Head Song’s face became slightly more solemn as he mentioned that. “Ever since that war, Dawn Academy officially resumed the simtion exercise system, which ismonly known as the monthly exam. There is no such thing as dying in a simted battle or dying in the New World. The difference is that Dawn Academy is located in an independent space, and the influence of thew is not as strong than it is on Norma. That is why only ten years of life will be deducted if you die here. If you’re on Norma, twenty years of your life will be deducted!”


    A cool breeze struck them and thest afterglow of the setting sun sunkpletely in the darkness. Night had fallen, and the two moons—onerge and the other small—rose into the night sky.


    After hearing about the origins of the monthly exam, Xiao Lin had a mix of emotions. The sky was already dark when he snapped back to his senses and he smiled wryly. By then, the dormitory was surely already locked.


    “Spend the night here then!” Song Jung got up, patted the dirt off his body. He smiled. “I can’t help you in the exam tomorrow. After all, as I just said, it’s better to die once or twice here than dying in the New World in the future.”


    “I understand.” Xiao Lin sighed.


    “But I can give you some advice.” Department Head Song turned around, thought for a while, then said, “The difficulty of this exam has been reduced in order to give the freshmen a helping hand. As far as I know, most of the enemies you’ll have to face won’t use any skills, but your individual strength is still too low, hence the difficulty! The point to note here is that many of you don’t have any experience, so sh*tty teammates are sometimes more dangerous than a strong opponent.


    “Remember your core mission: reconnaissance overbat! Be sure to avoid confrontation, because you can’t hold your own against those enemies, even though their strength has been significantly reduced. The key here is to save your life.


    “This task is assessed based onprehensive strength, wisdom, and teamwork. If your tactics are on point, you don’t even need to fight at all. I think the student union prepared maps for you after weighing the difficulty of your first monthly exam. You must study that map and memorize it. In fact, the difficulty was reduced by at least half after the map was provided.”


    “Didn’t you say that you’ve never taken a test with this simtion?” Xiao Lin could not help but mutter.


    Song Jung touched his nose and said somewhat begrudgingly, “Ahem, I haven’t. But this is America’s ssic battle, and when I was a guest at Judge Academy, everyone there droned on and on about it for almost a week. It’s hard not to remember it.”


    “Thank you!” Xiao Lin was slightly touched, because being able to say all that was more than enough for him.


    Song Jung waved his hand, murmuring as he walked, “If you die, where would I ever find such an obedient candidate for my experiments in the future?”


    ...


    Having declined the diet meal Department Head Song offered, Xiao Lin prepared to go to bed early, but he tossed and turned, finding it difficult to fall asleep. Department Head Song’s words shocked him tremendously and made him think about many things. Hey in bed as his thoughts wandered. He thought about himself, the New World, Gu Xiaoyue, and his first monthly exam.


    He was wracked with insomnia that night.


    The exam started at eight in the morning, and Xiao Lin, who could not sleep for most of the night, woke up at seven. Once again, he firmly rejected the strange breakfast prepared by Department Head Song, and went back to the dormitory to pack his dagger and his new wand. Then, he arrived early at ss Seven’s public ssroom.


    There were already a dozen people in the ssroom, many of them with dark circles in their eyes. It appeared that Xiao Lin was not the only one who suffered from insomnia the night before. The pressure of death and deduction of their lifespan made everyone look incredibly nervous. Each person tried to strike up a conversation with those around them and attempted to calm their nerves by talking.


    Xiao Lin silently went to a corner and ced his weapon on the table. He took out the data and map that was given the day before and studied it carefully. The monthly exam system forbade all that information from being brought into the actualbat environment, which meant that he had to use all his brain power to quickly remember the topographical map of Sunset Canyon.


    Xiao Lin had actually gone through it the night before and was just revising it a couple more times to remember it better. At the same time, it also served to pass the time.