Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 362 Intermission of the Assessment
After successfully escaping the labyrinth, all the candidates participating in this year's White Card Examination were given a day of rest. This day served several purposes: it allowed those still trapped in the labyrinth more time to recover; it was also a necessary preparation period for the Examination Institute to set up the examination venue and facilities; and it was to allow the magical girls who had exhausted too much magic power in the labyrinth to recover.

Most candidates chose to use this day to catch up on sleep, making up for the sleep they had missed the previous day while running around the maze—after all, the first assessment alone had already exhausted them. But not everyone was willing to rest peacefully; considering there were still three assessment items to go, now was clearly not the time to relax.

Candidates with similar thoughts are making the most of their time: some are practicing extra, some are reviewing their performance, and some are developing battle plans for the next assessment. Of course, some candidates are also having a celebratory dinner.

"—Then, let's raise a toast to Xiaojin for winning first place in this assessment."

As the lark offered her toast, the Fangting City team members sitting around the table raised their glasses. Under the bright yellow light, the glasses clinked together with a crisp sound.

"yeah!"

However, Lin Xiaolu's cheers were surprisingly the loudest, an unusual situation that surprised everyone else.

"...What's wrong?"

The subtle expressions on her companions' faces made Lin Xiaolu wonder if she had done something wrong, and she subconsciously withdrew her hand. But after thinking it over carefully, she was sure she hadn't done anything wrong, so she straightened her back and said, "Aren't we celebrating?"

The other three were speechless for a moment. They thought to themselves, "We couldn't very well just say, 'We thought you'd be upset,' could we?"

This suspicion is completely unfounded.

Right now, "Who is Xiao Jin?" has become a hot topic among this year's candidates. Some people are curious and amazed by this suddenly emerging number one, while others are naturally dissatisfied with it.

In other words, there are quite a few people outside who are dissatisfied with Xia Liang right now.

Nearly ten hours had passed since the end of the assessment. The vast majority of candidates had either already escaped the maze or had voluntarily given up due to feeling lost. It could be said that, with the exception of a very few magical girls who were still trying to scavenge for some bonus points in the maze, all the candidates already knew the results of the maze assessment and had inevitably noticed the code name "Xiao Jin".

Xia Liang's escape from the maze was clearly seen by everyone on the viewing platform, so it was no secret at all. Naturally, this became a hot topic of discussion among the candidates. Even many candidates who should still be preparing for the exam and had not yet started their tests participated in the discussion. In no time, the name "Xiao Jin" became widely known, and various criticisms of her also arose.

"After all, Xia Liang, you're my teammate. My teammate got first place, so what's wrong with me being happy for you?"

Perhaps gradually realizing something, Lin Xiaolu quickly turned the conversation to Xia Liang: "Although the way you got first place was a bit... well, weird? But isn't that also your skill?"

"Ha... well, thank you very much."

Xia Liang gave a dry laugh in response to Lin Xiaolu's "praise," but her smile vanished within seconds: "Sigh, if I had known it would attract so much attention, I should have run a little slower."

"This is just one stage of the assessment; there's no need to care too much about what others think right now."

Cui Que didn't quite agree with her idea, so she advised, "There are still three more assessments to go. If you can still achieve excellent results, then others will naturally start to recognize you and see the first assessment as a sign that you are different from others. If your subsequent results are mediocre and you gradually become ordinary, then they will only say a few sarcastic remarks and will no longer regard you as a rival."

"Ultimately, the main reason why people criticize you now is that they don't understand you yet. They don't know whether you are a real dark horse or just a lucky opportunist."

Cui Que swirled the juice in her glass, then raised it slightly to Xia Liang, gesturing to her: "But we, your teammates sitting here, all know your strength. We all believe that this first place is just the beginning of your fame among the magical girls of your year. All the criticism is only temporary and will disappear as others see your strength. That's why this is something to celebrate."

"Your words, junior, make me feel even more stressed, to the point that my stomach hurts..."

Xia Liang gripped the handle of the cup in her hand, looking quite restless: "My accounts on the carrier pigeon platform are being bombarded with private messages. Besides some gossiping, there are even people challenging me to a one-on-one match in the second assessment... What am I going to do?" "Of course, fight them all back!" Lin Xiaolu said with a grin.

"You think I'm going to be exhausted?" Xia Liang rolled her eyes.

The "one-on-one fight" she mentioned was not a private duel started by other candidates, but rather part of the process in the second assessment.

Yes, when most candidates had escaped the maze and the first assessment was about to end, the examiners from the Examination Yuan announced the content of the second assessment from the viewing platform.

Unlike the first assessment, the Examination Board did not conceal the main content of this project, but rather stated quite clearly that the evaluation criterion for this assessment was magic armor.

This can be considered a routine practice in the national assessment over the years.

The practical assessment items change every year, and sometimes the theme and format are different from previous years, but the assessment of magic armor is the only one that is held every year.

This is unavoidable, as a large part of a magical girl's abilities rely on her magical armor, and the power of the magical armor is the foundation of many of a magical girl's combat methods. Therefore, the practical assessment of magical girls is destined to be inseparable from their magical armor.

According to the Examination Yuan, this year's magical costume assessment was divided into two parts.

The first part involves the examiners testing and scoring the magical girls' magical abilities. The examiners will test the candidates' development and mastery of their magical abilities from multiple dimensions, and then give the candidates a preliminary rating.

The second part gives candidates who are dissatisfied with their ratings an opportunity to improve them.

The specific manifestation of this opportunity is actually quite simple: if you feel that the examiners have misjudged you and that your magic equipment is better than they say, then let your performance in actual combat speak for itself.

Candidates can challenge opponents whose magic armor rating is one level higher than their own. During the challenge, both sides can only use basic abilities and magic armor abilities, and are prohibited from using spells, wonders, or other means.

Based on the outcome of the battle, if a B-ranked examinee challenges and wins against an A-ranked examinee, her magic armor rank will increase from B to B+, while the A-ranked examinee will drop to A-. After that, if the B+ rank examinee challenges and wins against an A-ranked examinee, her B+ rank will rise to A.

However, if a candidate with a B rating loses to a candidate with an A rating, half of the points she would normally earn as a B-rated candidate will be given to the opponent. And when a candidate loses all her points, she loses the right to continue challenging for higher ranks.

This explains why some candidates challenged Xia Liang to a duel beforehand. They believed Xia Liang had "stole" first place in the maze challenge solely through the special abilities of her magical armor, implying her armor's rating was inevitably high. Their way of expressing their dissatisfaction and disagreement was naturally to challenge Xia Liang and lower her rating.

Admittedly, Xia Liang could choose not to accept the challenge, but a little thought would reveal that under such rules, a candidate who never engages with others is destined to have no chance of achieving a particularly good ranking.

Even if a candidate manages to get an A grade right from the start, but then gives up and runs away with only that score, other candidates who accept the challenge and earn points will climb over them. And among thousands of candidates, there are probably hundreds who can get an A grade, plus those B-grade candidates who are truly skilled and can climb to A... In the end, this cowardly A-grade candidate will likely only rank outside the top 100.

If a magical girl with little fame and ambition could manage to get an A rating and rank in the top 100 or 200, she would probably be satisfied. But Xia Liang, a person who is in the spotlight, just won first place in the first assessment, and then completely avoided the second assessment. She might really be looked down upon.

This is why, when Xia Liang refuted Lin Xiaolu, she only said she would be "exhausted" but never mentioned that she "couldn't beat her."

Clearly, she also defeated several challengers to prove herself.

(End of this chapter)