Chapter 15: The Limit Score (Part 1)

On the northwest side of the Kulantin Academy stands a grand, square building with 24 floors. The building is tiered, narrower at the top and wider at the bottom, and its walls, a mix of orange, red, and white, make it stand out even more. Although it is not as tall as the Great Blue Crystal Tower, it is quite different from the surrounding buildings. In the empire, there are not many buildings as tall and magnificent as this one, which is the administrative office for the teachers of Kulantin Academy.

In a large office on the 13th floor, dozens of teachers were continuously reviewing the test papers that were being delivered in batches. These papers had already been preliminarily screened, and those whose total scores from the written and martial arts exams were absolutely impossible to reach 800 or more had been eliminated. Only these papers would be carefully graded, from which the 44,000 most outstanding candidates would be selected.

The chief examiner, Dewey Hubble, was also there, but he was not grading papers. Instead, he was lazily lying in his chair, his somewhat plump body relaxed, and he was casually tallying the total scores and rankings of the papers that had already been graded with two other colleagues.

After he had recorded the scores of a dozen or so papers, he sighed lightly, "Sigh, the overall performance of the candidates this time is quite good. They have made significant progress compared to last year's candidates. I believe this year we will be able to admit some excellent students."

"Yes, that's true," said a beautiful silver-haired teacher with gold-rimmed glasses. "I graded some papers and found that a few candidates answered the questions very well, with detailed and specific responses. I just graded Dolores K. Selt's paper."

"Oh, a member of one of the five great families," said another middle-aged teacher in his forties or fifties. "Sophina, how did he do? He shouldn't have done poorly, right?"

Sophina adjusted her glasses. "He scored 496, which is a very good score."

The surrounding teachers exclaimed in admiration. "Wow, that's impressive, a rare high score since the founding of Kulantin."

The middle-aged teacher finished grading the papers in his hand and handed them to Hubble, who was sitting diagonally across from him. He smiled and said, "Haha, Sophina, that's the same score you got when you entered the academy nine years ago. I heard that the children of the Dolores family are well-trained. You topped the entrance exam with a total score of 972 back then, and this year it might be his turn."

"Not really," Dewey Hubble said, pausing his work. "Three of the five great families have children applying to Kulantin this year."

"Really? That's quite a spectacle. They either don't come at all, or they all come at once," another teacher interjected.

Sophina smiled. "The three who came are the so-called 'Three Princes of the Capital': Dolores K. Selt, Alesia Ursula, and Christian Bimoye. I was quite surprised when I saw the number of applicants."

A teacher with white hair and a white beard changed his expression. "The Bimoye family is here? They have never sent their children to our academy before. They are usually trained by royal tutors and their own family members. Why would they come to Kulantin this year?"

Dewey Hubble said, "That's why I said 496 might not be the highest score. There might even be someone who scored a perfect 1000. I couldn't help but think of the child with the magic hat who submitted his paper almost simultaneously with Bimoye."

"Perfect 1000!" All the teachers were shocked. The middle-aged teacher said, "If someone really scores a perfect 1000, that would be a significant achievement. In the thousands of years since Kulantin was founded, only your grandfather, the current Grand Mage Dust Vashirb, scored a perfect 1152 in the entrance exam 67 years ago. The only other person to score 998 was Crowell 400 years ago. There have been many who scored over 970, but very few have scored over 990."

Another teacher also said, "Yes, a perfect 1000 is almost impossible!"

Sophina suddenly asked, "Hey, Hubble, I heard that on the first day of the exam, Christian Bimoye and someone else submitted their papers within four hours? That caused quite a stir."

Hubble nodded. "Yes, that's true."

"Wow, that's impressive," said a teacher with a dark tan.

"Submitting early doesn't necessarily mean they did well. Maybe they just wanted to draw attention to themselves," the dark-tanned teacher shook his head.

At this moment, a few teachers who had done the initial grading came in with several stacks of papers in paper bags.

The middle-aged teacher quickly took the papers and flipped through them, asking, "Is Christian Bimoye's paper in there?"

The teachers shook their heads. One of them laughed, "We have so many papers to grade, we don't have time to pay attention to these things. If there are no other issues, we'll be going."

"Go ahead, go ahead," the middle-aged teacher waved his hand and distributed the stacks of papers to the dozens of teachers. "Everyone, take a look and see if Bimoye's paper is among them. I want to see if this so-called 'First Genius of the Capital' is really as capable as they say or just a fraud."

Everyone started searching through their stacks of papers.

"Christian Bimoye, found it, found it," a teacher suddenly shouted.

The middle-aged teacher quickly said, "Open it, open it."

The teacher opened the paper bag with Bimoye's name and exam number. Inside, in addition to a stack of ten papers, there was a martial arts exam score sheet. The teacher first looked at the score sheet and was immediately stunned!

The other teachers, seeing his reaction, were anxious and asked, "What's wrong? What's the score?"

The teacher shook his head. "No... no score..."

"Huh? No score, how is that possible?" The teachers were stunned, and even the usually calm Sophina stood up. "That's impossible. How could a paper without a score be sent here?"

The teacher who was grading the paper stared at the score sheet with wide eyes. "It's... not that there's no score, but no... official score. The suggested score is... 600 points!!"

A teacher who was drinking coffee spat it out. "600 points!!?"

"Uh... are you sure? Did you see it wrong?" The others couldn't believe it.

The teacher carefully looked at the score sheet again. "No, no, it's 600 points." He showed the score sheet to the others, and the suggested score was clearly written in red: 600.

The middle-aged teacher was speechless. "This... this... this is impossible. Could they have made a mistake? How could there be a 600-point limit score?"

The teacher holding the score sheet looked at the reason for the score. "No, they didn't make a mistake. It says here that at the beginning of the exam, the examiner, Jilgil, was hit by Christian Bimoye at a speed he couldn't react to and was knocked out of the arena. Therefore, they couldn't score the subsequent items. They wanted to ask Bimoye to retake the exam, but he seemed unwilling, and it would have been unfair to the candidate, so they didn't insist. The examiner Jilgil requested a score of 100, so we suggested a score of 600, believing that such a performance deserves a perfect score."

"Ah, I see," the middle-aged teacher sighed. "The teachers who scored this were a bit hasty, giving 600 points just for that is excessive."

Sophina smiled. "They weren't hasty. After all, it's just a suggested score. But with such ability, not giving a high score would be unfair, wouldn't you agree, Hubble?"

Hubble, the most composed of them all, had been sitting in his seat the whole time. He nodded. "Considering the historical strength of the Bimoye family and their contributions to the empire, Bimoye should have the ability to score high. Of course, we can't give him points based on his family background, but considering his performance in the martial arts exam, which was difficult to score, and his family's history, he should have very high ability and can score high. However, we should still look at his written exam to make a final decision."

The middle-aged teacher said, "Even the strictest teacher, Hubble, who is known as the 'Devil Teacher' by the students, says this. Let's see how his written exam goes, but I will personally grade his paper."

"Sure, sure," the teacher holding the paper bag handed it to him and laughed. "You're almost fifty and still so meticulous."

The other teachers chuckled.

A few minutes later, Sophina had already graded a paper and saw that he was still grading. She asked, "Teacher Dain, how is the paper?"

"Hmm..." Dain made a muffled sound, not saying whether it was good or bad.

The other teachers looked over. "What's the verdict?"

"Hmm..."

"What are you mumbling about? Let me see," the dark-tanned teacher walked over and picked up the paper. "Is it graded?" He flipped through the pages, and his expression changed as he went. "This... Ah... Uh... All... All correct!!"

"No way!" The teachers gathered around Dain to see the paper.

"How is this possible! Damn, not only did he answer everything correctly, but if we add 1 point for every 5 additional answers in the short-answer questions, the 600-point limit... is not enough to add!!"

Sophina was still standing by her chair, but her expression was full of surprise.

"No," Hubble, still lounging in his chair, said, "It's not that the limit is not enough. Adding 1 point for every 5 additional answers is for a few candidates on the edge of admission. According to the normal scoring method, most candidates can only get 1 extra point per question. I didn't explain this to the candidates to encourage them to answer to the best of their ability and to see their true capabilities. Although this method may mislead many students, causing them to waste too much time on a single question and not get more points, and thus not finish other questions they could have answered, our academy selects the best. Those who are not selected can only blame themselves for not being good enough. The short-answer questions that can be scored are only 100, so even if someone tries their hardest, the maximum score they can get is 600."

"Ah, right, I forgot that part in the excitement," a teacher breathed a sigh of relief. "So, does that mean Bimoye will definitely get the 600-point limit score?"

"Um," Hubble lit a cigarette and muttered, "The Bimoye family has produced a monster."

Sophina walked over to Hubble, took the cigarette from his mouth, and extinguished it in the ashtray on the table. "There are ladies present, don't you know manners? And now is the time for grading, don't do anything you'll regret." Her voice was cold, almost like a command.

Hubble smiled lazily. "You're still as impolite to me as ever."