Andrew went home that night defeated. He made sure to train 3 times harder than usual out of spite and a little bit of jealousy.
He knew he couldn't truly go against the causality of this world. He could go against his own causality, but he couldn't go against the system.
Andrew did his nighttime routine, loaded up on even thicker, semen-like protein shakes to support his body's recovery, and knocked out.
Upon awakening, Andrew quickly got ready for the day and headed to the school.
"Today's the day, I need to show out a bit to make sure I won't get fucked, but I can't show off to such a degree that I end up getting questioned or potentially retested."
Andrew sighed, he had a feeling it was gonna be a long day.
Upon arriving at the school, he walked towards the gymnasium located at the far end of the campus.
This was where the placement exam was supposed to be held.
Andrew walked into the gym, quickly scanned the crowd of students who had gotten there early, and walked over to his friend Dylan who was sitting on the side wall.
"Yo, what's going on, what class do you think you'll get placed in today?" Andrew said with a tired voice.
"What's good, honestly I'll probably end up in the genius class. I'm pretty confident in my strength and endurance stats, so I'm sure I'll be fine…"
"But what about you, Andrew? I know you're quite strong and all, and you've had kind of a crazy transformation over the past year, but do you think you'll get stuck in academia?"
Andrew had an expression on his face that said he didn't really give a shit.
He honestly had no worries about this placement test, his stats were probably more balanced than anyone else in the school to begin with.
Unlike most students who only focused on one thing, he made sure to train everything equally to be an effective martial artist.
"I mean, I guess we're gonna find out today." Andrew replied with a light smirk.
After everyone had arrived, including the 3 rich kids and Zachary, who came on time today, the proctors for today's exam didn't waste any time.
"Okay everyone, let's get this over with so I can go get drunk and cheat on my wife… as you all know already, just hit the metal panel with all your strength, no advanced techniques allowed for this one, this is to test your max strength you can sustain."
"For the agility section, you will be asked to hop in the testing room designated for reaction time and foot readiness. This is to test your ability to actually apply your agility in a practical way."
"As for endurance, you will have to take body shots from a combat puppet, each 5 hits will increase the strength value by 5 points with a 3 second rest in between each mode switch. If at any point you feel like you can't go on, say stop or fall to the ground."
"The intelligence test is gonna focus on your comprehension, you'll be given 3 hours max to learn a low grade martial arts manual and whatever level you achieve will correlate with your ranking."
"Hope you all understood that, because I won't be repeating it again, so good luck and I'll call you up one by one…"
Everyone looked at this test proctor with a weird expression.
They didn't pay any attention to this though, as for right now their attention needed to go towards another.
"…did he just say he was gonna cheat on his wife?" Andrew asked Dylan with a side eye.
"Haha, who cares bro, he's definitely a character. All we gotta focus on right now is the tests ahead of us, don't worry about these small things." Dylan responded.
"I feel like I'm the only one who thinks that shit was weird as hell to say to a bunch of teenagers…" Andrew thought, still a bit confused as to what just happened.
However, Andrew didn't dwell for more than a few seconds. Dylan was right after all, right now they had priorities to attend to.
The proctor quickly started the tests, starting off with the strength test.
Students went up one by one, the machine measured in terms of kilograms of force.
The student average was typically around 100 kg, most students that went ended up achieving about 100–150 kg.
And then the three top students went.
Maya ended up going first, she shifted into a somewhat unorthodox stance, with her guard very open, but supreme lightness on her feet.
The fighting techniques taught by the top families were different than just boxing or Muay Thai. They involved taking advantage of an open guard but high levels of mobility in order to deliver decisive blows.
After Maya got into her stance about a foot away from the metal panel, she exploded with a ferocious power nobody would expect out of a girl her size.
She struck the panel, causing a slight sound of reverberation.
[450kg] displayed on the measurement device.
The students responded with surprised expressions, this was about 4.5 times the average power for other students in their age group.
"Goddamn, she's a little ferocious…" Andrew thought to himself.
Maya walked away with an expression that said, 'what else would you expect?'
Next up was Ron, he approached the panel with a confident smile.
He got into his stance, and struck the panel even harder than Maya did, causing even longer lasting reverberations. His punch even carried a hint of fiery explosive power thanks to his talent.
[600kg]
Everyone agreed it was a tyrannical blow, as expected of someone of his status.
However, even with the expectation, it didn't stop the surprised expressions of the onlookers.
Next was Michael, he stepped up and as soon as he was within view of the entire student body, girls started to go crazy.
"Oh my god, he seems to get more and more handsome every time we see him!"
"His talent boosted his appearance even more it seems like, now he has an electrifying aura…"
"God damn it, why does this guy have to be so handsome!" said Dylan with a sigh.
"You're but a drop in a vast sea, my friend…" responded Andrew, not holding back.
"Hmph! Well we'll see what the reactions are like when I step on stage…"
Michael quickly got into position and took up a tighter stance, with a lot more distance between his legs compared to the other two though.
"Oh, quite interesting, seems like he's gonna make use of his superior agility to deliver a powerful blow…" thought Andrew, watching the scene.
Michael quickly exploded with a powerful punch, his hand moving too quickly for a majority of the students to even react to.
[800kg]
Seeing this, people were past the point of being too surprised anymore. Shock was still evident though within some of the students.
Dylan was called up to the stage next.
Before Dylan could take more than 2 steps though, Andrew decided to give a quick word of advice.
"Yo, when you hit the target make sure you use your front two knuckles, and push your first two fingers into each other using the side of your thumb… you can thank me later."
"Uh, okay I guess, if I break my hand though it's on you."
"Shut up, this is a top grade alloy meant to absorb as much force as possible, you won't get injured, especially with your durability."
Dylan walked up to the stage with a smug expression, determined to take first place this time around.
Thankfully, he believed he had a slight advantage in strength compared to the others. Although he didn't have the craziest talent, he believed in his training from early childhood.
At least he knew he wasn't gonna do any worse than these prodigies in this one.
Taking up his stance, Dylan pulled his hand back with all he had, and then launched it forward, rotating his hips as fast as possible and allowing his hand to fully follow through.
He didn't forget Andrew's words from a second ago either, he was determined.
A loud boom erupted, it sounded like someone dropped the entire machine on the ground from 10 feet up in the air.
The reverberations were incessant, Dylan was even surprised he exploded with that much power.
The number that displayed on the testing machine almost made everyone's jaw drop, even the proctor was surprised.
[—kg]
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