HISD Chapter 29 The Federal College Exam, Sudden Upheaval
Yi Meng entered the exam hall assigned to him for the Federal College Entrance Exam.
By coincidence, Dream Tifa was in the very same room. Their seats were less than five meters apart.
Tifa winked at him, raised her admission ticket, and stepped inside first.
"Well, isn't this convenient."
Yi Meng grinned, handed over his own ticket for verification at the door, and sat down with the other students who were waiting for the exam to start.
Each classroom held thirty examinees, with about two meters of space between each seat.
Not only were there armed agents stationed outside the school, but patrols were also present in the hallways.
Each classroom had three proctors, with cameras placed in every corner for total surveillance. On top of that, the exam had been fully digitized into an online test, making cheating virtually impossible. This alone showed how seriously the Star Dragon Federation took the entrance exam.
But in Yi Meng's eyes…
This was basically his home field.
Not that he had any need to cheat anymore.
…
The time reached nine o'clock in the morning.
Ding!
With the second school bell, the screens on every student's desk lit up with the test page, along with a countdown of 360 minutes.
Yi Meng, having gone through more than a dozen mock exams, was unfazed.
The Federal Entrance Exam only lasted a single day. It was a full-subject integrated paper covering eight disciplines: language, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, philosophy, and art. Students had six hours to finish everything.
Six hours, eight subjects—it tested not only intelligence, but also mental and physical stamina.
Yi Meng, used to the exam system of his previous life, had struggled with it at first. But now he showed no fear.
If he couldn't even handle an exam, how could he still dare to dream of becoming an artificial intelligence avatar?
In less than three hours, Yi Meng finished answering everything. He had deliberately slowed down; otherwise, it would have looked too much like an AI auto-solving questions.
All around him, other students were still buried in their screens, wracking their brains.
What surprised Yi Meng was that Tifa, a few seats away, had already taken her hands off her keyboard.
No way… did she finish too?
Yi Meng flicked a thought. A thread of invisible red static sparked from his brow and seeped into her computer.
Just a quick check.
His eye twitched slightly. He had thought maybe he could help her if she got something wrong.
But no—her answers were flawless. Not only had she finished, she had already submitted everything with near-perfect accuracy!
Now that was a true academic powerhouse.
Yi Meng shook his head. He had relied on his AI traits to get this far—without them, even if he lived a second life, he couldn't have reached her level.
Sighing inwardly, he clicked submit himself.
After the halfway mark, answers could be submitted, but rules required everyone to stay until the six hours were up.
It was, after all, the last moment of high school life. Yi Meng didn't mind waiting.
After the exam, he still hadn't fully decided what path to take.
…
By midday, sunlight spilled golden and bright through the halls and windows. The entire campus was quiet.
Meanwhile, at the Supernatural Division, alarms blared—the satellites had detected an incursion.
And then—
The sunlight over the high school vanished, as though blotted out by a heavy cloud.
The struggling students, the patrolling agents, and even the proctors dismissed it as nothing unusual.
Except Yi Meng and Tifa, who had already submitted.
Yi Meng in particular felt static ripple through his mind. Red sparks flickered around him as his senses spread out. Something was wrong.
A subtle pressure weighed down from above!
Yi Meng shot up from his seat.
"Candidate, you are not allowed to stand during the exam. Please sit—" one of the proctors began sharply.
But before he could finish, every monitor in the room flickered and cut to black with the words: "No Signal."
The students froze. What the hell was happening?
Not just Yi Meng's room—the entire building lost all network and communication at once!
At the school gates, a guard glanced upward, and his eyes went wide in horror.
A massive, dark-gray metallic structure blotted out the sky—a circular giant descending rapidly, covering the entire campus in shadow!
"Run! Run!" the guard screamed in terror.
But it was already too late.
Inside the exam hall, Yi Meng reacted instantly. He lunged from his seat, tackling the black-haired girl beside him, shoving her hard beneath a desk.
BOOM!
The massive object slammed into the ground right beside the school, shaking the entire city for dozens of kilometers. The shockwave tore through the area, hurling dust and debris. The school building, caught at point-blank range, shattered as windows and walls exploded inward!
Students screamed, but their voices were drowned out by the deafening crash. Ears rang, the world fell silent.
Five seconds later, the noise faded.
"Yi Meng, are you okay?!"
Tifa scrambled up from the ground, supporting the boy who had shielded her. Thanks to him and the desk, she hadn't been hurt by the blast.
The others weren't so lucky. As the ringing in their ears faded, screams and sobs filled the ruined hall. Blood and dust were everywhere.
"I'm fine," Yi Meng coughed, inhaling dust.
He realized, with some surprise, that his once seemingly useless ability—hair hardening—had actually saved him. A shard of glass had slammed into the back of his head, but the hardened strands had blocked it.
With Tifa's help, Yi Meng stood and quickly scanned their surroundings. The exam site was now a wasteland.
The blast alone had killed or maimed countless students. Not a single desk or computer was intact. Survivors writhed in the rubble, their cries mixing with the heavy scent of blood.
Tifa rushed to help a crying girl pinned under a desk, lifting it off her.
Yi Meng focused on gathering information.
Networks were jammed, cutting off outside contact. But his AI traits could bypass interference. He tapped into intact hallway cameras—and froze.
What he saw nearly made his heart stop.
The giant object that had crashed down… encased the entire school building within its hollow center.
An alien spaceship.
A massive O-shaped craft with bizarre design. The school stood in its hollow center, which was why it hadn't been crushed.
And more than anything—
The sight of this ship stirred something deep in Yi Meng's memory. He had seen it before, somewhere.
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