Typically, when a teacher says they're going to find the slowest student, they don't actually follow through to the very end.
Usually, they just identify the top performers and tell the rest, "That's good enough. Try harder next time." And the little competition would be over.
But Teacher Mao wasn't your average instructor.
After each student finished, he would call out their name and check it off on the control console.
Then he'd tell those who had finished, "You can continue practicing disconnecting and reconnecting in your mechas." To those who hadn't, he'd say, "Hurry up, I'm about to lock in the bottom three."
His determination to see it through to the bitter end made the remaining students panic, and they all scrambled to finish.
But no matter how frantic they were, someone had to be last.
Teacher Mao grimly announced the students in last, second-to-last, and third-to-last place, deducting 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1 academic credits from them, respectively.
