章 28: Eight Minutes and Thirty-five Seconds
編集者: Tehrn
"My name is Wang Tong."
Hu Yangxuan stood still and asked, "Wang Tong, would you be able to exchange seats with me? Me and Ma Xiaoru are old friends, and..."
Without waiting for Hu Yangxuan to finish his request, Wang Tong had ignited every other classmate’s fury with his reply: "Yeah, absolutely, you guys catch up, I will move over there." Wang Tong picked up his pile of books and got up from his seat.
Hu Yangxuan packed the two boxes of letters into his space crystal as the girls outside of the classroom screamed again. "Some of those girls must be from building number 5," Wang Tong thought to himself.
Wang Tong felt speechless at those girls' obsession with Hu Yangxuan, a guy like Hu Yangxuan would toss away their letters without even opening them, just like he, himself, did not stand a chance with Ma Xiaoru.
Ma Xiaoru spared Wang Tong a glance and felt disappointed as she couldn't believe Wang Tong was so timid and had given up his seat so easily. "A man is allowed to be weak" thought Ma Xiaoru, "but he is not allowed to be afraid of standing up for himself."
Wang Tong couldn’t care less about what Ma Xiaoru thought about him. He packed up his books and moved to a corner of the classroom, continuing to plow through the confusing terminologies in the book. The monthly test was at the doorstep, he had to focus, and he had no time for infatuations.
Unfortunately for Hu Yangxuan, he didn't have enough time for a brief catch up with Ma Xiaru since the teacher had walked in as soon as he sat down. The rules of the classroom were the same for all students, Samantha had made sure of that.
The F class sat in agony while they watched their goddess sat side by side with someone who actually posed a real threat. Wang Tong felt safer in this corner than his previous seat since all of the malevolent glances were diverted to the new hot shot.
The next class was an open lecture on Zerg’s Anatomy, an open lecture was one that students from different classes would attend together, and it often sparked fierce competitions among the different classes.
Zerg’s Anatomy was a subject loved by many adolescent teenage boys who would love to break things apart, but it was deeply despised if not feared by girls, the girls wouldn't have attended the class if it was not part of the mandatory curriculum.
Students of all majors attended this class, and the goal was to let students study mankind's biggest enemy as well as to alleviate their fear when faced with a real Zerg.
The classroom was packed with over one hundred and fifty students from the D, E and F classes. The instructor's name was Gansus, a retired veteran. His left leg had been lost to a Zerg and was replaced with a mechanical limb, which he wore like a badge of honor that commemorated his bravery. Despite being the culprit of his lament, he considered the Zergs to be a "weak and useless bunch" as he had always declared with a loud and raspy voice.
"Today is the most important day in your life because you are going to witness the weakness in our enemy. Underneath those shells, these useless bugs are soft and fragile, and that is what they are, weak and soft! You boys and gals have learned enough on paper. Today is the day that you dissect your enemy and show them who they really are, with your hands!" Gansus snarled at the students, peremptorily as ever.
As Gansus gestured for the start of the dissecting session, a few students were jaunty, fewer were banal, and the rest were disgusted. Simply looking at the cadavers made one's skin crawl, and the grotesqueness was exacerbated by the stench that made one’s stomach churn.
Even though they had appeared to be unaffected by the gross scene, Ma Xiaoru and Hu Yangxuan could not hide the disgust in their eyes.
Gansus quickly noticed the student's reluctance, and he bowled out, "You bunch of miserable fledglings, don't think you can muddle around under my watch, no one will be allowed to leave the classroom until their Zerg has been dissected into eighteen pieces based on my instructions. And on a side note, today's exercise will count towards the monthly test, 99.9% of the total mark in your monthly test will come from your performance today."
That was Gansus's trump card, and it was extremely effectively. He handed over every student a hammer and a knife before he examined the time on his watch, "The best record so far was from the A class, one hour and eight minutes, I will give whoever can beat that record a 100%!"
"100%?" A fire lit up in Wang Tong's eyes; finally, he saw hope.
Gansus glanced indifferently over the roomful of skittish students as he announced, "Start!"
In one corner of the classroom, a male student struck the corpse with the hammer infused with his GN power, the shell of the dead Zerg crumbled as it was soft after days of decay, and the soft and mushy entrails splattered everywhere. Some girl puked instantly as the smell of putrefying death permeated throughout the classroom.
"Hurry now, whoever can't finish everything in three hours will get a 0%! Just an FYI..."
Gansus gave the students a ruthless warning as he had found the students of the battlefield commander faculties were noticeably softer than the previous group of students from the METAL fighter faculty. However, the battle-hardened Gansus knew that on the battlefield a commander needed to be even more indifferent to feelings than a bloodthirsty warrior.
None of the splashes of Zerg's bodily fluids had reached Ma Xiaoru since she had shielded herself inside of her soul power. She clearly had prepared well for this test as she deftly albeit curtly on a few gruesome occasions, separated and removed the Zerg's organs.
Hu Yangxuan had also managed to pry open the Zerg's shell and moved on to cleaning up the entrails, skeletons, and then the hardest parts, tissues, and glands.
Gansus watched the two of them and estimated that it would take at least one hour for the two best students to finish everything.Their speed didn’t have a lot to do with their combat strength, it more so was to test their emotional balance when faced with the gruesomeness of a battle, a difficult task especially to the girls, whose senses were easily overwhelmed.
Ma Xioaru's calmness had impressed Gansus, what impressed him further was her fluent usage of her soul power.
As for the rest of the class, Gansus found they still had a long way to go in order to catch up with those in the A, B and C classes. The best record of fifty minutes was set by one teenage boy in the A class from the METAL fighter faculty, who apparently had previous experiences in dissecting Zergs.
"Mr. Gansus, I am done!"
A raucous voice rose among the frustrated mumbles of hesitant students who were still struggling with their first incision; it came from the very end of the classroom.
Thinking someone was making a fuss in his class; Gansus strode toward the voice and was ready to restore order in the classroom.
When he reached Wang Tong's desk he was bewildered to see piles of tissue, bones, and organs set on the table, Gansus looked at his watch: Eight minutes and thirty-five seconds.
Gansus's knee jerk reaction was that Wang Tong had done it in a desultory fashion since it would take himself half an hour to do everything according to the textbook.
Upon closer inspection, Gansus saw eighteen piles of organs neatly arranged according to their shape, function, and texture with such meticulousness and with a unique artisan taste which rendered the grotesque entrails into a morbid but somehow pleasant sight to behold. It was beyond techniques of dissection, it was a masterful art crafted by someone who knew the Zerg's body inside out.
Wang Tong indeed knew the Zergs inside and out after an entire year of butchering the Zergs for food. Sometimes, when he was extremely bored, he would even catch and dissect one Zerg or two just for fun, a morbid habit that had by then turned into a life changing skill.
After he had noticed the suspicious stares from Gansus and other classmates, Wang Tong had realized he had overdone it as he had become too hot headed by the temptation of the 100%.
It would have been wiser if he had slowed down to around fifty minutes, which would guarantee his 100% but was still within a normal person's capability.
Ma Xiaoru and Hu Yangxuan were both shocked at Wang Tong's speed and reckoned that they had underestimated this seemingly no-account, if not loser.
"Good. Good. Good! 100%! Lad, you can take off now," Gansus patted heavily on Wang Tong's back as he praised him in front of everyone.
"You guys should look at this and learn. He should be your model to follow, now try harder!"
Gansus's eyes lit up with glee as he looked forward to his bonus for this record-breaking performance in his class.
Gansus looked at Wang Tong and changed his usual brusque tone and said softly, "Go now, make sure to wash your hands."
Wang Tong made a mental note to never expose his power again as he hurried across the classroom under hundreds of disbelieving stares.
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