The most shameless alchemist in history

"Hurry up and let Miss Ellie come out so I can see her. I don't even know what my future wife looks like yet."

"You're talking nonsense! How did Miss Ellie become your wife? She's my wife, you know that? You're asking for a beating, you know that?"

The contestants in the audience started arguing and some even looked ready to fight. Fortunately, staff members intervened in time to stop them, took them away, and disqualified them from registering. This calmed things down, otherwise, a fight would have broken out.

“Miss Ellie? Why does that name sound familiar?” Dure rested his chin on his hand, trying to recall. However, he didn’t remember knowing anyone named Ellie, so he could only conclude that he might have heard about her from a stranger.

After all, on the way here, the streets were crowded with people, and many of them were talking at once. He had a good memory and remembered what the passersby said, so it wouldn't be strange for Du Lei to have heard about Miss Ellie from someone.

"Please calm down, everyone. Let's compete with friendship first. Okay, let's get back to the main topic. Our second round is... a written test!" The staff member coughed twice and announced the content of the second round.

"What? A written test?" The staff member's words had barely left his mouth when they caused a huge uproar. At the same time, staff members began distributing pens and test papers, placing them one by one in front of the people seeking marriage.

"Are you kidding me? It's a written test? Let me look at these questions... No way, I don't even know the words. How am I supposed to take the test?"

"You can't even read, what are you doing here looking for a spouse? You should just go home and herd cattle. Let me see... Oh dear, this question is so difficult."

"As the exam master, let me tell you, you academic underachievers should go home now. This isn't your stage; it's my time to shine... Wait, I've never seen this kind of question before?"

The respondents reacted differently to the test paper, creating a noisy scene.

After all, many of the participants were in their twenties or thirties, and they really had no experience with things like exams.

508 Written Test

Regardless of experience, since the questions have been set, everyone has to bite the bullet and go for it. However, the originally confident contestants are now filled with despair, and the huge square has become much quieter, as everyone has to rack their brains to answer the questions on the test paper.

As for those who don't even know how to read, it's not like they can't find a way. Some people have been eyeing those contestants who write fluently for a long time. Some will spend money or something else to buy the test paper and then secretly replace it with their own in order to get away with it.

Those who are unreasonable take a more direct approach, simply snatching the paper and handing it in before the other person is ready. This can easily lead to disputes. However, for those contestants who cannot get past the second round, they at least have to give it a try. Du Lei and his group do not fall into either of these two categories.

They belong to the third type. There is a core member in the team who can answer the questions. Du Lei only glanced at them and quickly wrote down his answer. When Kotetsu, Hyobi, and Ape Arm encountered a problem they couldn't solve, they would look to him for help. Du Lei would then give them hints and help them in a way that was almost like cheating.

This was a helpless move by Du Lei. Anyway, he wasn't really aiming to become Ababa's son-in-law by participating in the matchmaking event. He was content as long as he could gather some information. As for whether it was against the rules, he didn't care at all. The written test ended quickly.

"Hey, Du Lei, are you sure you're okay with the answer sheet? I'm not really sure about it." After the competition ended, the contestants left one after another, and the once crowded square was suddenly much less crowded. It was obvious that most people had failed at this stage, and Leopard Tail was afraid that he would become one of them.

“As long as you answer according to my instructions, there will be no problem. Actually, these questions are very simple. They are all basic human geography and some history. You can’t even answer these?” Du Lei looked a little surprised and looked at Leopard Tail with a puzzled expression.

"So what if you can't answer? Is it amazing that you can answer questions?" Leopard Tail was hit where it hurt by Du Lei, and he said stubbornly.

"It's nothing special, but speaking of which, can they grade so many papers in half an hour?" Du Lei looked at the stage in the center of the square, where staff had collected all the papers and handed them to a few people on the stage for grading.

There were at least several thousand people participating in the written test, which means there were several thousand test papers to grade in such a short time. This was a huge undertaking, and Du Lei certainly didn't think he could do it.

"Do you think they pick up each document one by one and read it slowly? They all use magical artifacts to review them." After glancing at it from afar, Kotetsu replied casually, seemingly quite familiar with this process.

"Magic artifacts? What does that mean?" Du Lei frowned, as he didn't know much about things like grading exam papers.

"They're special glasses. Wearing them makes reading much faster and allows you to automatically filter out wrong answers. I once saw members of the Magic Energy Association using these special glasses to grade exam papers during a mission to escort them, so I know about them," Kotetsu answered truthfully.

"Wearing glasses makes reading much faster? If you wear them while reading, wouldn't you be able to read all the books in the library with ease?" Du Lei thought about another use for the magical artifact, since he was considered one of the fastest readers in Maple Leaf Academy.

After several months, I've only read one bookshelf's worth of books. Reading them all would be a huge undertaking.

"Reading books is different. When you use magic tools to review them, the answers are pre-set. I don't really understand it, but that's what those people seemed to say back then." Kotetsu thought for a moment. A long time had passed, at least six or seven years, so he didn't remember it very clearly.

"I see. It seems we can get results within half an hour. We need to think about what kind of questions they'll give us in the next stage to torture us." Du Lei nodded. He had originally wanted to get a pair of these magic glasses to improve his reading speed, but now it seemed like a bad idea.

"Want to think of the next topic? But haven't all the topics been graded yet?" Leopard Tail looked at Du Lei suspiciously.

"Don't worry, passing this stage is no problem. The second stage is a written test, and the third stage... do you think we'll be fighting one-on-one?" Du Lei didn't take the written test seriously at all, after all, the amount of books he had read was astonishing.

His current focus is indeed on what kind of problems he will face next. Although he didn't want to get involved at first, now that he has, he must complete them with the highest efficiency.

"A one-on-one fight? Heh heh, kid, if that's the case, you're probably going to get your teeth knocked out. Don't worry, I definitely won't hold back." Leopard Tail rubbed his fists together, eager to find an opportunity to give Du Lei a good beating.

It wasn't that he wanted to settle a personal score; he simply wanted to beat up Du Lei. He had this idea from the moment he met Du Lei, but he didn't seize the opportunity then. Later, a series of events led to Du Lei's rising status, making it even harder for him to make a move.

If he could find an opportunity here, he wouldn't mind giving Dure a good beating.

“No, there’s no arena here, so one-on-one fights aren’t realistic.” Du Lei looked around and shook his head, rejecting the guess, because normally a fight would require an arena and a series of props.

"What? I thought I could finally beat you up legitimately, but it turns out I still can't." Leopard Tail lost interest as soon as he heard that.

"Hey, stop thinking about beating people up, okay? If you're so eager to beat someone up, should I beat you up first?" Kotetsu glared at Leopard Tail and waved his fist. Leopard Tail had taken his fists many times, and he had even developed some experience in beating Leopard Tail.

"No, Boss Kotetsu, you can't do this to me. Hey, if you say it's not a fight, then what is it?" Leopard Tail quickly backed down. He didn't want to taste Kotetsu's fists. Kotetsu would never hold back when he beat someone up. He could only change the subject.

“Let me think… what are those people doing?” Dure never makes things up out of thin air; all his deductions are based on facts. So while he was thinking, he was also observing his surroundings. Soon he noticed that there were staff members moving around on the building nearby.

"Aren't those the same people wearing the clothes they were wearing before, handing out the test papers? What are those things they're holding? They look like... balloons?" Kotetsu glanced at them from afar and recognized that the staff members worked for Ababa.

Most people in the square were preoccupied with the written exam and didn't notice the actions of the staff.

"Balloons? Suddenly preparing so many balloons... it's hard not to notice." Du Lei thought carefully, connecting the balloons to the third round. What could he do with the balloons?

Operation 509 Balloons

Du Lei's confidence was not without reason. Half an hour later, the results of the written test came out as expected. The staff projected the list into the air above the square, and the contestants could see the text floating in the air like a water curtain when they looked up. Du Lei was not too unfamiliar with this kind of trick.

Because it was made using basic magical energy reactions, as long as he was given the materials, he could also make such a water curtain. After carefully searching for the name, Leopard Tail indeed found his name. Even Leopard Tail passed the test, so Du Lei, Kotetsu, and Ape Arm naturally passed smoothly as well.

"Kid, I didn't realize you were so capable. You actually passed the test, and you even eliminated quite a few people in the written test. Hehe, look at how listless those people look. Who told them not to read more books? They finally suffered the consequences of their lack of education, right?" Leopard Tail said smugly.

He completely forgot that if Du Lei hadn't helped him cheat, he probably wouldn't have been able to solve even a single problem.

"Alright, this is only the second stage. There's nothing to be proud of if you pass. We should focus on the next stage. Du Lei, have you figured out what their third stage is about?" Hu Che punched Bao Wei on the head, and after the latter cried out in pain, he became much more obedient.

Kotetsu hammered the leopard's tail out of habit; his main focus was on the third round of testing. As the saying goes, it's better to be prepared than not. After the baptism of the previous round of written tests, Kotetsu deeply realized the importance of being prepared.

"The content of the third round? No need to rush, they'll announce it in a few minutes anyway." Du Lei shrugged and said, calmly waiting for the third round to begin.

"Hey, didn't you just think about it for ages? How come you still haven't come to a conclusion? You're not as smart as you seem." Leopard Tail remembered that Du Lei had started thinking about what the next part would be right after the written test ended.

But now Dure is telling us to keep waiting without giving a clear explanation, so it's understandable that Leopard Tail is unhappy.

"Didn't I already give you a hint? You just didn't guess it, so why are you blaming me?" Du Lei retorted.

"Huh? You gave me a hint? When did you give me a hint? How come I don't know anything about this? Hey, if you don't know, you don't know. Don't try to be mysterious and act profound." Leopard Tail scoffed at this, thinking that Du Lei was just putting on airs again.

"Wait, Dure, the hint you just gave, could it be 'that'?" Kotetsu seemed to have remembered something.

“Yes, that’s it.” Du Lei nodded, confirming it.

"Hey, what are you two talking about? What's this and that?" Leopard Tail was completely confused and couldn't understand their conversation.

"If it's that, let me think..." Kotetsu rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought, as if he had grasped some clues.

"Boss Kotetsu, what are you talking about? Can you reveal a little bit, just a tiny bit?" Leopard Tail immediately leaned over to ask. If only Du Lei was saying this, he could understand that Du Lei was just putting on airs, but now even Kotetsu was doing it.

It's impossible that Du Lei and Kotetsu teamed up to fool him, right? Leopard Tail racked his brains, but couldn't come up with any clues!

“It’s a balloon, a balloon.” Seeing that Kotetsu was ignoring Leopard Tail, Du Lei told him again.

"Balloons? What's wrong with balloons? Aren't there lots of decorative balloons around here?" Leopard Tail was baffled. There were plenty of balloons around, and he didn't see anything wrong with them. He really couldn't understand what was so special about balloons.

“It’s true that there are a lot of decorative balloons around here, but didn’t you notice that staff have been preparing a large number of balloons around here since just now? Some of these balloons are orange, some are purple, and some are red…” Du Lei explained.

"I know, I know, there are pink ones, green ones, blue ones, can't you tell me something I don't know?" Leopard Tail urged impatiently.

“You don’t know… then let me ask you, do you know what kind of pattern is on the balloon?” Du Lei asked seriously.

"Pattern? Well... I haven't noticed that before." Du Lei was stumped by the leopard tail question.

"So the key is in the pattern on the balloon," Du Lei gave another hint.

"Can't you just say everything in one breath? You're so slow and deliberate, it's driving me crazy, you know?" Leopard Tail was very impatient.

“Okay, actually it’s just…” Du Lei didn’t intend to keep him in suspense any longer. He was just about to tell Leopard Tail what he had predicted about the third round, but at that moment, the staff member who had just announced the start of the second round came over, seemingly to announce something.

"First of all, congratulations on making it through the second round and arriving here. This is enough to prove that you are all very knowledgeable people. I believe you will find a lot in common with Miss Ellie. Now, please be patient and let's read out the content of the third round. As you can see, we have prepared a lot of balloons in the venue. These balloons come in all colors. Of course, that's not the point." He paused.

"Please listen carefully to what I'm about to say, because the important part is about to begin. Among the balloons of different colors, a small number have heart-shaped patterns on them. Please make sure to find the balloons with heart-shaped patterns. Finding them means you've passed the third round; otherwise, you won't be able to enter the fourth round. Please remember that these balloons are hidden throughout the City of Storms, and all the balloons will be released in half an hour. I hope you all hurry up and find them. Good luck!" After the staff member read out the specific rules, everyone was a little confused.

"What? After the written test, we're being asked to find balloons again? Isn't finding balloons just a child's game?" someone objected.

"Hey, are you sure this isn't a joke? There are at least tens of thousands of balloons in the entire Storm City, and they're hanging everywhere. Are you trying to find the balloon with a heart shape among them? Are you testing people's eyesight?" Some people thought it was absurd.

"Keep complaining, I'm going to go look for it, look for balloons, look for balloons... Where is the balloon with the heart shape?" Amidst the complaints, some people accepted the rules in the shortest amount of time and took off running, starting to search for the target balloon among the many balloons.

These people's actions quickly triggered a chain reaction. The runners who were just questioning the situation were unwilling to fall behind and started running as well.

"You bastards are too cunning! Don't even think about leaving us behind! Wait a minute, don't take my balloon! It's mine!"

"Who said this is yours? Do you even know its name? First come, first served. Hey, look, that balloon has a heart shape, there's no mistake. Don't try to take it from me, kid, do you want a beating?" Someone with sharp eyes spotted the target balloon immediately and was overjoyed.

"You... just because you're big doesn't mean you can't have it! If I can't get it, neither can you! Bang!"

Although someone had the advantage, a large man rushed up from behind, shoved his head down, and held the balloon firmly in his hand. This infuriated the person who had the advantage, and in a fit of rage, he rushed over and popped the balloon.

"You bastard, how dare you destroy my balloon? Do you want to fight?"

"Fight if you want, who are you afraid of!"

The scene immediately descended into chaos, with some people fighting over the balloon and others going to great lengths to find it.

"This, this, it really is related to balloons." Leopard Tail stood there stunned. At first, he thought Du Lei was just talking nonsense, but now it seems that Du Lei was right again.

"The scene is really lively." Du Lei hadn't expected it to turn out like this, and he was amazed.

"Hey kid, this isn't the time for sentimentality. What should we do now?" Hu Che asked Du Lei for his opinion.

"What else can we do? Of course we have to go find them!" Du Lei replied confidently.

Take action now!

510 Make a decision

As the third round of the matchmaking event commenced, Lan City was once again abuzz with excitement. Even though most of the participants were eliminated in the second round of written tests, hundreds of contestants still made it to the third round. Moreover, it wasn't just these few hundred people who participated in the third round.

Because the balloons are hidden throughout the entire Storm City, the area is too large. According to the requirements, anyone who finds a balloon with a heart-shaped pattern will be eligible. So, many people had a flash of inspiration and realized that even those who did not qualify could help find the balloons, although these people would not be eligible to continue advancing.

But they can give the balloons they find to others, such as teammates who have been eliminated, who can help their teammates. Even strangers can find balloons and sell them at a high price to those who urgently need them. What is this? This is a huge business opportunity!

"Holy crap, have all these people gone mad? I thought the crowd would finally thin out a bit, but look, look! There are still tens of thousands of people frantically searching everywhere in the city. They see balloons in the distance, but before they can even get there, they've already been snatched away."

Leopard Tail originally thought that his time to use his speed advantage had come, since speed was his specialty. He originally thought that as long as he could be one step ahead, he could easily snatch the balloon with the heart pattern, and then he could show his value.

Otherwise, Du Lei would have been the only one stealing the spotlight the whole time, which would have made him lose face. Now it was his turn to show off his skills, but after the third round officially started, he realized that he was indeed too naive, because speed was useless in the face of numbers.

There were just too many people. No matter how fast he was, he couldn't outrun the people who had been waiting by the balloons for a long time. The balloons that had filled the whole city were all gone in just a few minutes. Many people did manage to grab a balloon and move on to the next round.