Break out of the courtyard

Peace College, Hong Kong Island, Sports Centre.

Tens of thousands of teenagers who took the test found that their phones were black and could not be turned on became restless. Some even stood up and asked loudly, or looked around anxiously.

However, with thousands of bodyguards and security guards armed with stun guns watching them, no teenager has dared to leave their seats yet.

There were no examiners, no one read out the rules, and no one explained the problem of the phone screen going black.

The bodyguards and security guards scattered in the aisles of the audience were like invigilators. Although they did not move, their eyes roamed over the candidates around them.

However, as time went by, more and more teenagers looked around blankly with their black-screened phones, and the original noise gradually turned into unrestrained shouting.

Some asked their companions from a distance, while others protested loudly...

Seeing that the bodyguards around them were not restraining their shouting, some of the teenagers finally tried to get up from their seats and start looking for their companions.

Even so, the bodyguards still did not stop them.

At this point, these teenagers finally understood just how open-book exams really were.

However, with so many people moving around, some friction and arguments are inevitable.

It is at times like these that the bodyguards demonstrate their importance.

In particular, after some bodyguards pulled the triggers of stun guns, hitting some pushing and pulling teenagers with the lowest level of shock intimidation, tens of thousands of young test takers once again took seriously the status of the bodyguards and security guards around them.

While the young test-takers inside the gymnasium were changing seats, the test-takers outside were still slowly entering, trying to wait until everyone had finished answering the questions from the World Internet Forum before they could enter the gymnasium to take the exam.

However, Zhang Heping's second round of assessments would not have left such a large loophole.

When five groups of young test-takers, thinking themselves clever, called their companions to leave the audience seats and try to enter the spacious arena in the middle to answer questions as a team, something they would later regret happened.

As they left the stands without hindrance and entered the queuing area, bodyguards inside pointed stun guns at them and forced them to leave the stadium.

Behind these five groups of teenagers, there were naturally followers.

However, the entry check outside the stadium was stopped because these five groups of teenagers left.

As a result, those candidates who were still waiting outside for the answers lost their eligibility without even receiving the sponsored mobile phone.

With the entrance closed, the situation inside the stadium was then shown via video on television, the internet, and a giant combination screen outside the stadium.

In the publicly shown video, many young test-takers were seen leaving the stands and returning to the passage they had come from.

However, as time went on, no candidates appeared in the arena in the middle, and the situation gradually subsided.

Then, in the audience, people were seen in groups of a few or a dozen, chatting about something. It was rare to see hundreds or thousands of people gathered together.

Rare, but that doesn't mean nonexistent.

There were large groups of test takers from Japan, Europe and the United States, as well as mainland China.

……

"Tan Zhichao, Zhang Yu, and others from our class have been eliminated. Teacher Qin is bringing them over!" A female assistant teacher said, holding up her phone. She glanced instinctively at Secretary Chen and Director Wang by the window, but neither of them turned around to pay attention to the matter.

Another team leader, after finishing his call, said in a deep voice, "Eight students from our class were also eliminated because they left the audience seats and wanted to go to the arena in the middle, but were ordered to leave the examination room by the bodyguards in the passageway."

"What exactly does Dean Zhang want to assess these teenagers for?" A teacher who hadn't answered the phone sat in front of his computer, watching the video in the gymnasium, and asked doubtfully, "With so many teenagers gathered together, piecing together answers from each other, how can we possibly select the real geniuses?"

"Not necessarily!" Another team leader put down his phone after finishing a call. "I just asked the candidates, and their phones didn't have SIM cards inserted or any signal."

"But at 10 o'clock, every candidate received a text message with a link, prompting them to click the link to answer the questions!"

"However, all the phones that clicked on this link went black and couldn't start, as if they were infected with a Trojan virus."

"Virus?" one of the team leaders asked in confusion, "Is this the first test question?"

“Not entirely!” an IT teacher interjected. “Based on what Teacher Li just said, the first test question should be how to obtain a signal source for a mobile phone!”

"What does it mean if a phone without a SIM card receives a text message with a link even when there is no signal?"

A female teacher responded, "This means that this connection is very likely a signal source!"

"That's right!" the IT teacher continued, "If your phone is infected with a Trojan and the screen goes black, you can use the power button and volume button to access the background, restore factory settings, and then answer the questions again!"

The team leader, whose students had been eliminated, asked anxiously, "The candidates' phones weren't taken away. Can Teacher Peng crack that text message link?"

"If possible, could we help the students inside from outside the venue?"

Secretary Chen turned to look at the teacher who was still trying to help cheat, and frowned, saying, "Teacher Yang, do you think Dean Zhang would leave such a big loophole for you to help the candidates cheat?"

After Secretary Chen finished speaking, he looked at the large screen in the stadium.

From this distance, although the view isn't very clear, you can still vaguely see students huddled together answering questions.

boom!
A firework suddenly shot into the sky and exploded, creating a cloud of colorful smoke.

Immediately afterwards, a notice came over the loudspeaker in the stadium:
Congratulations to Pierre Mitterrand-Monuriy for being the first to answer a question. Please leave the audience within one minute, otherwise it will be considered a forfeit!

"So fast!" A teacher in charge of the group looked at his watch and exclaimed in surprise, "10:18, only 18 minutes into the exam!"

……

Peace Wisdom Technology Co., Ltd., Internet Supercomputing Center.

"He only got 56 out of 100. Is this Pierre a lone wolf?" Zhang Bei asked after hearing Tang Wei's report.

Because he cracked the SMS link and helped Zhang Feng and Zhang Long obtain the signal source, the five siblings worked together to find information and answer all 15 questions.

While looking at his phone, Zhang Hu replied, "If he really completed the exam independently, that's impressive!"

"They're really good at information technology, at least!" Zhang Long nodded in agreement.

"Question 16 is based on the Riemann Hypothesis. If you want to prove it, you have to prove the Riemann Hypothesis first!" Zhang Feng said with a furrowed brow, then glanced at his father sitting beside him with his eyes closed, wondering why he had given such a question. Could he possibly prove it? "Then there's no way around it. Give up on question 16!" Zhang Bei said, and then moved on to the next question without hesitation.

"The second candidate to finish the questions has appeared, with 51 points!" Tang Wei said casually, but he was secretly reminding Zhang Bei and the others to hurry up.

Before Zhang Bei and the others could react, a young staff member excitedly announced, "President Tang, the third candidate to finish the test scored 85!"

"Who's so fierce?" Zhang Hu couldn't help but get up and run behind the young man to check the candidate information on the monitor. "Cao Jian, 13 years old, from Shenzhen?"

"The teenagers who come from the mainland to take the exam all leave their addresses in Shenzhen," Tang Wei explained from the side.

……

"Which class is Cao Jian in?" Secretary Chen heard the prompt from the gymnasium and turned to look at the group of teachers and assistant teachers.

Having just figured out how to get a signal source for a mobile phone in the first test question, Ms. Li, seeing the sudden silence around her, nervously raised her hand and said, "Our Class 2!"

Secretary Chen looked at Teacher Li and asked, "What's the situation with this student?"

Teacher Li, unaware of Secretary Chen's thoughts, assumed that Secretary Chen was blaming Cao Jian for not helping the other students, and after considering her words, said:
"This student comes from a merchant family in Suzhou. He has autism and loves to play on his phone. Even we teachers can't communicate with him normally."

“His mother came with him to take the assessment this time.”

Secretary Chen frowned and asked, "Who registered him?"

"His mother!" Teacher Li answered without hesitation this time.

Secretary Chen nodded and then said, "Please ask the assistant to pick up the mother and child and bring them over to rest."

"Okay!" Teacher Li replied, then took out her phone and answered the call that had been vibrating. It was the assistant teacher from Class 2 calling.

Seeing that Teacher Li had finished his phone call, the teacher next to him hurriedly asked, "Teacher Li, I remember that Cao Jian's name wasn't in the top ten of your class's mock exam."

"No!" Teacher Li shook her head and said, "This student doesn't use pen and paper to answer questions, but his score was good when he answered questions on his phone afterwards, so he has never been eliminated."

"Answering questions on a mobile phone?" A teacher nearby asked suspiciously, "Teacher Li, did you hide something? Did you not include Cao Jian's mobile phone quiz score in your class's grades?"

Teacher Li shook his head again and explained, "Cao Jian used his mobile phone to answer questions. His mother begged us to give him a chance when he was about to be eliminated. After that, it was Teacher Qian who tutored him. I was just a nominal teacher."

Upon hearing that Professor Qian was providing special guidance, the group of team leaders suddenly remembered the rumors circulating in the college and immediately shut up, ceasing their discussion of this matter, which might involve confidentiality regulations.

……

In the gymnasium, Pierre, the first French candidate to finish the test, was sitting at the corner of the disembarkation lane, his black hoodie pulled up over his head, quietly playing on his sponsored phone.

In this situation, the bodyguard captain in charge of this section consulted with his superiors and then left the other party alone.

If an outsider saw Pierre's behavior, they would most likely assume that he stayed there to give the players on the field an answer.

In reality, Pierre's phone was kicked out of the fake base station's access list as soon as he finished answering the question.

If he wants to access the fake base station again, he has to crack the fake base station's security system from the front, instead of simply going around it like before.

The French boy discovered this situation and wanted to prove his hacking skills in the passage, but he hasn't succeeded yet.

His delay caused the bodyguards outside to explain to Pierre's team leader five or six times. The French team leader only stopped when Pierre ran out of battery on his sponsored phone and had to come out.

Pierre's phone battery drained so quickly because he had been studying it ever since he got the phone and entered the site; otherwise, he wouldn't have been the first to sneak into the fake base station and obtain a signal source.

Even so, many students' sponsored mobile phones in the gymnasium were running out of battery.

However, what worried them even more was that the loudspeakers around the stadium kept announcing to the candidates who had finished answering the questions.

In particular, after the 129th candidate finished answering the question, the announcements continued without interruption, one after another, which annoyed many candidates present!

At noon, although the stadium's loudspeaker had not yet announced the number of 500 students, the students who had not yet left noticed that there were one-third fewer examinees in the stadium.

In addition, many people's mobile phone batteries were running out, forcing them to hand in their papers and leave the examination room early, which exacerbated the loss of the number of test takers.

By 1 p.m., the number of examinees in the gymnasium had decreased by 9%, and even most of the bodyguards and security guards had left.

However, apart from the stadium's loudspeakers mechanically announcing which candidate had finished answering the questions, there was no other sound urging those who hadn't left yet.

The second round of assessments was announced to have ended at 14:36 p.m. after a bodyguard captain reported that only a little over a thousand Japanese island examinees remained in the gymnasium.

The Peace Group offered no explanation whatsoever in the face of the protests from the Japanese test-takers.

These Japanese islanders, sitting there with their phones off, taking turns turning them on to check messages on the World Internet Forum, hoping for answers from the outside world, may be considered shameful by many, but it is undeniably a very effective method.

However, they were taking too long to find the answer, and Zhang Heping didn't have the patience to wait for them.

Furthermore, since the second round of assessments did not specify an end time, the right to interpret everything rests with the Peace Group.

With the conclusion of the second round of assessments, the list of the top 505 successful candidates first appeared on the official website of the Peace Group, and was subsequently reprinted by various websites and reported by relevant media.

It's worth noting that the top 5 were not named, but only shared the same exam score of "87 points" and a similar answering time.

The sixth place went to Cao Jian, who was the third to finish the questions, with 85 points!
Pierre, the French boy who was the first to finish answering the questions, scored 56 points and ranked 67th.

The third round of assessments only recruits 50 gifted teenagers. Those with discerning eyes, after reviewing the list from the second round and eliminating suspicious individuals with similar scores and application times, roughly estimate that among the 505 candidates, fewer than 80 are truly gifted enough to compete for those 50 spots!
Passing the third round of assessments will not only grant you a Lifespan Potion Advance Card, but also personal training from Zhang Heping in the virtual dream game.

The allure of the Lifespan Potion Advance Card is clearly greater than that of the Virtual Dream Game.

However, the main purpose of the delegation sent by developed countries such as Japan, Europe, and the United States was to investigate the actual hardware and software of the virtual dream game.

Therefore, when the Peace Group announced that the first 505 candidates and their companions could apply to experience the virtual dream game during the 10-day waiting period before the third round of assessment, many candidates who originally wanted to go home chose to stay, wanting to explore the mysteries of the virtual dream game up close.

Of course, there were also many candidates who were unwilling to accept their fate.

For example, those teenagers who couldn't even get into the exam hall... (End of Chapter)