Chapter 7: Nerve Reaction

Yang Tong stood in a bow stance, throwing both fists. He threw ten punches within five seconds.

“Average punch force 310 kilograms, explosive force superior. Very good, excellent,” the teacher recording the grades praised. “Next.”

Yang Tong then went to line up at the speed testing area.

After a while, Feng Xiaobo finished his strength test and lined up behind him. He said enviously, “You’re really amazing. Your strength increased again.”

“How much did you get?” Yang Tong asked, though he hadn’t shown his full strength.

“Average punch force only 240 kilograms, explosive force medium,” Feng Xiaobo sighed.

“That’s not bad either. At least it’s enough to graduate,” Yang Tong said. The graduation requirement for the elementary academy was an average punch force of 200 kilograms (max 300), medium explosive force (highest is superior), speed of 70 (max 100), endurance of 70 (max 100), and nerve reaction of 70 (max 100). Except for endurance, which was tested every grade year, the other items were all tested today. Of course, the graduation requirements for the intermediate academy were naturally much higher.

“Of course. If I couldn’t even graduate, wouldn’t these past few years have been a total waste?” Feng Xiaobo said proudly. Although he wasn’t as good as Yang Tong or Di Xuanluo and others, he wasn’t bad among this batch of classmates.

Yang Tong smiled and didn’t say anything more.

After a while, it was his turn to test speed. The speed tester was a treadmill. It would give accurate data based on a person’s running speed.

Yang Tong got a high score of 90 on this item, which also wasn’t his full strength.

Finally, it was time for the nerve reaction test. Nerve reaction was actually a very abstract piece of data. Yang Tong never expected this world could accurately test it. It showed how uniquely advanced this world’s technology was.

“Put on this helmet,” the teacher testing nerve reaction handed over a helmet. This helmet looked a bit like a motorcycle helmet from his previous life. But the helmet had an antenna-like thing on it. In front of him was an unfamiliar machine, like an arcade game machine from his past life, with a clear screen glowing faintly.

Yang Tong put on the helmet. Everything went black before his eyes. Then he found himself as if standing on a stone bridge only two meters wide. In front was a straight path, he couldn’t tell how far it went.

“Tester, in a moment, many obstacles like stones will come flying towards you. Use your fastest speed to dodge them,” a mechanical voice sounded.

As soon as the voice finished, countless stones and wooden stakes of various sizes came flying towards him.

Yang Tong’s first reaction was to dodge. Then he realized his dodging speed was much faster than before. He then understood this wasn’t the real world. It seemed to be a virtual world. Here, how fast your nerve reaction was determined how fast you could dodge, unaffected by the body.

Dodging obstacles wasn’t simply about dodging. You also had to think about where to dodge from to more easily handle the next obstacles. This required extremely fast mental processing.

He didn’t know how long it passed. Yang Tong finally reached his limit and was hit. He didn’t feel any pain. His vision returned to normal. He heard the testing teacher’s voice: “You can take off the helmet now.”

Yang Tong took off the helmet and handed it to the teacher.

“Your result is very good, actually 260. That’s more than double the maximum value. Truly astonishing,” the testing teacher said. “The score report will stay with me. You can leave now. Find your homeroom teacher and then collect your number for the practical combat assessment.” This teacher’s attitude couldn’t help but become a bit more respectful.

Yang Tong took his scores and left. He didn’t feel anything was wrong, just a bit surprised his result was so good. He didn’t know the value of 260 was truly terrifying. One must know, for a Novice Third-Level Warrior, a nerve reaction of 80 was considered excellent, 90 was a genius, 100 was a genius among geniuses. Those exceeding 100 were rare in history.

Yang Tong’s other data showed he was only a Novice Third-Level Warrior. Yet he had a nerve reaction value of 260. What did this represent?

Put it this way: those rare historical figures, as long as they awakened, eighty percent became Mind Masters! Data like Yang Tong’s was unprecedented!

“No, I must report this to the school administration,” the testing teacher thought. He actually called another teacher to temporarily take over the following tests for him. He himself turned and rushed toward the principal’s office holding Yang Tong’s score report.

Principal’s office. To become the principal of the Eastern District Academy, one’s strength naturally wouldn’t be weak. In fact, the Eastern District Principal was a long-established Earth Rank Warrior. He had been principal for a hundred years.

Oh, right. The average natural lifespan of humans on the continent was extremely high. An ordinary Novice Ninth-Level Warrior had a natural lifespan of around 130 years. This fell within the range of normal humans. However, after awakening and becoming an Earth Rank expert, the lifespan would double to around 300 years. Furthermore, each level an Earth Rank expert rose, not only would their strength increase, their lifespan would also increase slightly. An Earth Ninth-Level Warrior could reach a natural lifespan of 400 years. So, this principal serving for a hundred years wasn’t considered long.

“Principal Long, it’s Tie Bing. May I come in?” The nerve reaction testing teacher arrived at the principal’s office door, knocking and calling out.

“What is it? Come in,” a steady voice came from inside. Simultaneously, the principal’s office door opened by itself.

“Principal, I found a student. His nerve reaction is actually 260. He’s just a twelve-year-old primary graduate, only at the Novice Third-Level Warrior stage,” Tie Bing reported excitedly.

“Really?” The originally steady Principal Long couldn’t help but be shocked. A Novice Third-Level Warrior having a value of 260 was truly astonishing. This had already set a new historical record for the Royal Feather Kingdom!

How long was the history of the Royal Feather Kingdom? The Royal Feather Kingdom existed since the continent’s opening, possessing a long history of over seventy million years! This historical depth was enough to make Yang Tong’s previous worldview collapse completely. On Earth, the ethnic group with the longest history only had over seven thousand years, and there were breaks in continuity. The Royal Feather Kingdom was ten thousand times longer, without any breaks in continuity.

Yang Tong possessed the consciousness of a 21st-century modern person. But he truly couldn’t understand how such a long history developed. Could it be there was absolutely no class conflict between the upper nobility and the lower populace?

“Absolutely true! Here is his score report.” Tie Bing handed Yang Tong’s score report to Principal Long.

The principal took the report and looked. He sighed, “Huh, it really is. But, what a pity, ah…” With such talent, if he awakened, there was almost an eighty percent chance he could become a Mind Master. If the Eastern District Academy could teach a Mind Master, it would become famous. And he himself could receive rewards from above. Unfortunately, awakening had a probability. Not every talented person could definitely awaken. Although Artificial Awakening had been achieved, the cost of this method was extremely high. There was simply no possibility of it being widespread. The Royal Feather Kingdom didn’t have such technology. Even if they did, they couldn’t possibly use it on this youth with no background.