A condition for the upgrade made Lin Mo's heart skip a beat. The first condition wasn't difficult, especially during this time of war.
"Eliminate three Chunin 0/3."
"Construct a simple automated workshop."
The second one was a bit more difficult. A workshop wasn't a problem, he had one now. The challenge was the "automation" part.
Automation wasn't as advanced as it sounded. Ultimately, it was about minimizing manual labor and letting machines handle complex procedures like "forging gun barrels." For anyone with the right expertise, this wouldn't be a difficult task.
The problem was, Lin Mo had no knowledge of this area. He could only take things one step at a time.
With this new development, the Chunin instructors temporarily adjusted their lesson plans to focus on battlefield experience. Although it was a last-minute effort, Lin Mo listened carefully. The battlefield was constantly changing, and he didn't want to become a casualty.
A week passed by quickly. Most of the students looked excited; they hadn't realized what graduation truly meant.
The current graduation exam was different from the one in Naruto's era. In Naruto's time, the exam was more of a formality. As long as you had chakra, you could basically graduate. The rest could be learned later during various D-rank missions as a Genin.
A time of war didn't allow for such leisure.
The graduation exam was divided into two parts: a written test and a practical test. The written test mainly assessed how one would handle different situations on the battlefield. This determined whether you would become simple cannon fodder or cannon fodder with some potential for future training.
These were things the teachers had discussed in class, but simply memorizing the material wouldn't guarantee a good score. However, this wasn't a problem for Lin Mo. In his past life, he was a military enthusiast who spent a lot of time on military forums. When it came to war, he was an expert at "armchair strategy."
After the written test came the practical test.
During the practical, Lin Mo's performance wasn't outstanding. He was just as good as a typical top student. He didn't use firearms. Their lethality was too high; one shot would either kill or injure. He didn't have the leverage to turn against Konoha yet, so he had to show some restraint.
The test wasn't too challenging, just a simple skirmish involving shuriken and the Three-Body Jutsu. It was also just students from the same class fighting each other. Lin Mo had been looking forward to fighting Minato Namikaze, but unfortunately, Minato was a year ahead of him.
The papers were graded not by Genin, but by Chunin. They had more battlefield experience and could assign the cannon fodder to the places where Konoha needed them most.
While they were grading the papers, one Chunin was surprised.
"What's wrong?" his companion asked.
"This kid named Lin Mo is interesting," the Chunin said.
"What's so interesting about him?"
"His combat mindset is clearer than some of the Genin who have already been in battles."
The other Chunin was silent for a moment before asking, "How does he compare to Minato Namikaze?"
Although Minato was a newly graduated Genin, he had already caught the attention of many ninjas. It seemed that Jiraiya, one of the Third Hokage's disciples and an elite Jonin, was considering taking Minato on as a student.
The Chunin pulled a paper from the fourth-grade pile. After comparing them, he said, "In terms of combat proficiency, this kid Lin Mo is even more outstanding than Minato Namikaze."
"Another genius?" the other Chunin's eyes gleamed.
The grading Chunin didn't nod. Instead, he took Lin Mo's profile from another table and sighed.
"Not exactly..."
"His practical skills are slightly inferior to Minato's. Although they both ranked first in their classes, Lin Mo's battles weren't as overwhelmingly dominant as Minato's."
"Also, according to this intelligence report I have, unlike Minato who focuses on studying jutsu, this Lin Mo is always fiddling with some steel pipes."
The other Chunin was surprised. "Steel pipes?"
He nodded. "Yes, I don't know what they are, but they've taken up a lot of his time. If he hadn't spent time on those things, he might be as outstanding as Minato is now."
"Oh, that's a shame."
"I know. But even so, he's still excellent among this group of Genin. He's worth a little bit of training."
"So, should we put him on Minato's team?"
"No, Minato's team is special. Lord Third specifically said that the Hokage himself is in charge of that team."
"Then just assign him to a Jonin?"
"That's all we can do."