High School of Demon Hunting

The eligibility assessment on Friday night did not encounter any unexpected events.

The experimental subject Edge No. 7, controlled by Zheng Qing, did not lose control, the Ancient Leather Giant he was tasked to hunt did not mutate, and no clueless crows emerged from the depths of the Silent Forest.

It was simply a straightforward ’departure—hunt—return’ process.

So much so that when Zheng Qing’s consciousness left the experimental subject and returned to reality, feeling dizzy as he left the resonance room and lay on the examination chair next door, he unexpectedly felt a vague sense of emptiness and loss.

"...Is that it?"

A few minutes later, as he looked at the experiment report Alex handed him, he still found it a bit unbelievable—even the physical examination was unusually uneventful, with the Dark-Skinned Wizard merely poking him a few times with a thin metal rod, quickly marking the form, and then having him sign it.

Alex looked up confusedly and glanced at the young assistant.

"Is there a problem?"

Zheng Qing was stumped by this quite reasonable counter-question.

Right.

Is there a problem?

For others, of course not, but for him—not that he was self-deprecating, it was purely because he had too many dark histories. For instance, the first time leaving home he encountered a hijacking by a Female Demon; casually joining a school hunting competition and faced a wild dragon’s roar; following his own hunting team’s night training, he accidentally wounded a popular student from a neighboring academy; even just being idle in the academy he somehow got involved in the Black Prison, and then shattered the Black Prison Stronghold that the school tightly protected with one strike.

Completing a project smoothly and steadily?

Simply too suspicious!

Of course, he couldn’t talk about these with the unfamiliar wizard in front of him.

"No... no problem."

Zheng Qing stuttered a bit, shaking his head quickly, and then a question really did pop out: "I mean, what exactly does this assessment test?"

"The assessment tests your adaptability to experimental subjects and the stability of resonance under combat conditions."

The Dark-Skinned Wizard, focused on the experiment report in front of him, only gave the young man a bald head view: "In short, the former tests whether you can manipulate the experimental subject to walk, jump, squat, stand, run, fight, and other basic actions, the latter monitors the fluctuation of your resonance during this process."

Zheng Qing immediately recalled some data he glimpsed when he was signing just now, feeling a bit uneasy: "Uh, my resonance seems not high... can I pass the assessment?"

"A low score is a good thing."

Alex flipped through the data, looked up at the young man a bit surprised, and muttered: "To maintain at sixty percent throughout? No wonder they previously wanted you to retest the resonance... With this data, I think the project group might even ask you to participate in the eligibility assessment again."

Noticing Zheng Qing was also looking puzzled, he shook his head, continuing to mark on the experiment report while casually explaining: "—As I told you before, too high a match may lead to loss of control, or bring the risk we call ’assimilation’; too low a match means being unable to resonate with the experimental subject, and the eligibility tester might not even manage basic test actions. And under combat conditions, your resonance might wildly fluctuate due to your mental state change—I mean, under normal circumstances, most people will have changes—Do you know about the Norse Berserkers? During combat, they might lose control as their berserk bloodline is triggered. Although their combat power increases dramatically in the short term, the backlash after the fight is also very strong, and severe cases might even lead to death."

Saying the last sentence, he looked up, giving Zheng Qing a meaningful glance, and added: "I feel with the stability level of your resonance, there’s a good chance you can become a real..."

His words came to an abrupt halt.

It was clearly not voluntary.

Because as he swallowed the ending of his last word, he touched his neck with his hand, his face suddenly turning a shade of coffee, which for a dark-skinned wizard, this expression was equivalent to ’pale’—this is a warning reminder most Silence Contracts have, causing the wizard to undergo a choking-like reaction, to warn him not to overstep boundaries.

Zheng Qing was instead itchy at heart from that ’real’ part.

Only he wisely didn’t continue to pursue this, rather pretending not to see the Dark-Skinned Wizard’s awkwardness, naturally asking another question: "—I remember this project is led by Edge Academy?"

"Mm." The Dark-Skinned Wizard answered muffledly, lacking enthusiasm.

"But I heard that the other wizards who became the suitability testers are all older than me, and either have special talents or are senior registered wizards, and there’s even a Big Wizard." He tried to sort out this strange matter: "If this project is to support the basic combat power of Edge Academy, why do our identities as eligibility testers not seem to be from Edge Academy?"

The Dark-Skinned Wizard gave him a surprised look.

"You sure know a lot." He muttered, pointing out another identity of Zheng Qing instead of directly answering the question: "If the data is correct, you’re a teacher of Edge Academy, right?"

...

...

"The Edge Academy is too shallow in its foundations."

Korma sat behind the bar of the Sakura Pub, saying this with a smile while raising the Sea Monster Langmu in her hand: "—Are you sure you won’t have some?"

The Gem Cat, crouching on the bar, gloomily slapped its tail.

"I’m just a stone, taking in alcohol will only make my body fragile... and all that dye in the Sea Monster Langmu, it would taint my pure black!"

It was already Saturday noon.

After returning to the dormitory last night, Zheng Qing eventually couldn’t suppress his curiosity and decisively recalled the Gem Cat, sending it to meet Sister Korma in the North District of Beta Town to see if it could ferret out any inside information.

However, the Gem Cat stayed at the Sakura Pub overnight and did not encounter the North District Great Wise Person.

It wasn’t until noon the next day, when it was sleepy while lying on the bar, that Korma returned to her Jini Cottage. She seemed somewhat surprised at the arrival of the Gem Cat.

Since the accident during the Festival of Forbidden Magic, Zheng Qing hadn’t been to her pub for a long time.

Thus, for the questions brought by the Gem Cat, she answered with great pleasure: "—You’re partaking in the ’baseline type’ experimental subjects, and the purpose is to verify whether related theories are correct. So we’ve been very inclusive about selecting the initial batch of suitable candidates—only sufficiently rich material can verify various possibilities."

As she spoke, she raised the bottle in her hands to the Gem Cat, gulping down a mouthful.

The pale blue liquid clung to her bright red lips, glimmering in unusual colors.