Bai Pu almost spat out his food.
"That's because you're a hopeless romantic!"
Li Ling cut off the communication screen on her personal terminal with a "beep" and said to Bai Pu, "Sorry, I've contacted several schools for you, but none succeeded."
"No success?" Bai Pu was slightly surprised and thought for a moment before asking, "What did they say?"
"You didn't graduate from middle school, so you're not qualified for high school, let alone directly entering senior year."
Li Ling obviously sneered at this reason, "It's ridiculous. You applied for the Combat Squad, not the Cultural Class! You've already successfully awakened, and you still don't qualify? That's clearly just an excuse!"
"It really is unusual." Bai Pu swallowed a bite of roasted meat, wiped the corner of his mouth, and said, "It must be that the Superpower Group is using their connections to retaliate against me."
In the schools of the Spiritual Era, because of the existence of Combat Squads and Combat Majors, there is a high demand for Spiritual Points and Spiritual Items.
Although there is educational funding, it's just a drop in the bucket; to create a powerful Combat Major, social donations are needed.
The only ones who can afford to donate resources for cultivating Awakened are the major local powers.
The Superpower Group is such a major local force, deeply rooted in the Jiangnan Region, a powerful local influence.
For certain interests, the Superpower Group often donates money and goods to schools, hospitals, and other public institutions and has considerable influence in schools across the Jiangnan Region.
Recently, the Superpower Group accused Bai Pu of grand theft, causing a huge uproar, and Bai Pu's fame in the real world even reached C-level. The leaders of schools in the Jiangnan Region must have all heard about it.
It doesn't even require a directive from the high-ups of the Superpower Group. The schools in the Jiangnan Region naturally would shun Bai Pu to avoid offending this financial giant.
Li Ling is a Captain and part of the Divine Strategy Army. She often represents the Great Tang Group in business negotiations and has some influence in the Jiangnan Region.
However, the Divine Strategy Army has a military background and has virtually no connections in local civil administration and educational departments, so its influence is minimal; its donations to schools can't compare to the Superpower Group's.
Anyway, without a middle school diploma, rejecting his admission is beyond reproach.
"Sister Ling, which schools did you ask?" Bai Pu inquired.
"Jiang University Affiliated Middle School, Xicheng First Middle School, West Lake High School..." Li Ling listed off seven or eight school names with a blank expression.
"Those are all good schools." Bai Pu recognized these familiar school names, as many of his classmates had aspired to these high schools back in middle school.
"Your cultural foundation is too weak, so of course, I tried to find you a good high school."
Li Ling rubbed her temples, "The college entrance exam, even the 'Awakening Scroll', includes cultural subject scores. There's less than two months left until the exam... Maybe you should consider taking it next year?"
"That's an option. Little Bai Pu is 17 this year; he'll be 18 next year, not over the age limit." Su Xiaoxiao agreed and turned to Bai Pu, "With your high comprehension, you should learn quickly, and the possibility of getting into a good university next year will definitely increase significantly!"
"Ladies, there's one thing you're not clear about..." Bai Pu shook his head and said, "I'm not taking the college entrance exam to get into university... It's because of the threat from the Superpower Group that I'm taking the exam! After all, assassinating an ordinary Awakened is completely different from assassinating a top scorer in the college entrance exam. There's no point in waiting a year, the Superpower Group will still act recklessly against me during this year!"
"But if you participate this year, you have less than two months to prepare. Can you really become the top scorer? Every year, there are no fewer than a hundred thousand Awakened taking the exam! The competition is unimaginably fierce."
Li Ling shook her head, "I think it's more feasible to find a way to help you apply for ongoing public relations resources to increase your world fame."
Su Xiaoxiao muttered, "Public relations resources are one of the rewards that can be exchanged for with Honor Points, and they must be approved by higher-ups. Without Honor Points, directly diverting public relations resources will surely cause objections from others. Unless Little Bai Pu joins the military and becomes a professional soldier, but then he won't be as free in the future."
For an organization to grow and strengthen, it must have rules and regulations. The Divine Strategy Army is not a small family-run Awakened organization but a large organization capable of competing in the A-level league. The possibility of making an exception for Bai Pu is slim.
"There are probably more schools in the Jiangnan Region than just those."
Bai Pu did not want to lose his freedom, so he shifted the topic back, "Actually, I just need to qualify for the college entrance exam; it doesn't matter which school I enter."
"Are you so confident?" Li Ling looked at Bai Pu with skepticism, "Don't think that just because you're Awakened, you can easily become the top scorer in the college entrance exam. Awakening before 18 is already rare, but considering millions of Combat System students in Huaxia, how many such geniuses do you think exist?"
The Spirit Realm trials are eliminative in nature, with the difficulty increasing by 30% for the next attempt after a failure, so Combat System students are cautious about taking the Awakened trials. Not only must their abilities meet the standard, but their minds must also be mature, and they need to have knowledge, strategy, and vision!
Most Awakened individuals succeed before entering university, around the age of 20. Only a few young geniuses have the confidence to attempt awakening before the college entrance exam, so those who succeed before 18 are indeed rare.
But the large base of candidates can't be ignored!
With the development of the Spiritual Era, an effective system for cultivating Awakened has long been established. Especially those "elite second-generation" students, many of them reach a Critical Value of 20 points in their four-dimensional Total Attributes by the age of 16 or 17!
With such a large base, each year, there are over a hundred thousand genius candidates who awaken early—though most are of standard template ordinary professions.
The truly intimidating ones are the elite second-generation students. They've been carefully nurtured since childhood, with teachers for resilience, knowledge, and strategy. When their attributes are up to standard, they also receive great equipment from their families!
Being fully armed both inside and out, their awakening is naturally smooth, and the chance of failure is very low. The goal of elite second-generation students isn't merely to pass the trial, but to obtain a better advancement template and start at a higher point than others.
The Awakened candidates can absolutely crush ordinary Combat System candidates in terms of strength during the college entrance exam.
Therefore, under the college entrance exam system, Awakened and non-Awakened take two completely different "tests." Non-Awakened take the "Ordinary Scroll," while the Awakened take the "Awakening Scroll."
The Awakening Scroll isn't just a simple test; it includes simulated combat subjects and even Spirit Realm exploration subjects, besides cultural subjects!
Of course, the top scorer can only come from the "Awakening Scroll." Even if a non-Awakened student excels on the "Ordinary Scroll," they cannot become the top scorer since it isn't ranked alongside the "Awakening Scroll."
This isn't unfair because being able to awaken early already proves the excellence of Awakened candidates!
"I understand. I'm just giving it a shot." Bai Pu smiled.
"The feeling you give me isn't just a shot at it..." Li Ling muttered, then thought for a moment and said, "If you just need a college exam qualification, you might as well enroll in my alma mater. Just a heads-up, my school isn't a prestigious one."
"It doesn't matter if it's prestigious or not, as long as they let me join mid-term and get the college exam qualification." Bai Pu confirmed again, "Sister Ling, which high school is your alma mater? Doesn't it need to curry favor with the Superpower Group?"
"Ha, a rural high school isn't even on the Superpower Group's radar."
Li Ling said, "The school's name is... Xicheng No. 17 Middle School."
...