Chapter Eighteen: Astonishing Beauty

“33.3 meters!”

A collective gasp swept through the hall, and then silence fell so thick that a pin drop could be heard. Everyone was stunned. The girl standing before them, unremarkable in appearance, had just displayed a speed that bordered on the monstrous.

In just the first semester of her freshman year, she had already shattered the thirty-meter barrier, reaching an astonishing 33.3 meters per second. She was only 6.7 meters away from the forty-meter mark. At this rate, with her age and innate talent, she might very well break through to become a true speed-type mecha warrior within three months.

How could a student like this not have been recruited as an elite?

That was the unspoken thought running through the minds of every student and homeroom teacher present. As for the students of Class 12, they stared with wide eyes, even more shaken than the others. They knew that just last month, Angel’s test result had been 22.3 meters. An eleven-meter leap in a single month? This was simply unnatural!

With measured steps, Angel descended from the speed testing machine. She met the room’s stunned gazes and let her eyes rest, deliberately taunting, on Class 3 and Zheng Bowen before returning to stand beside Shangguan Luohua. Ever clever and sharp, she understood the earlier embarrassment her class had suffered; facts were the only way to silence ugly rumors. Though, in truth, she hadn’t even shown her full abilities.

Shangguan Luohua, coming back to her senses, realized she had underestimated Angel. She had expected perhaps 28 meters at most, even with Angel’s abnormal state. But this? With such a result, Shangguan Luohua’s confidence in claiming this year’s top spot soared. Ecstatic, she urged, “Mr. Liu, let’s continue the tests!”

“Ah… Angel, speed result: 33.3 meters! Ex…cellent! Next, Xiao Ying!” Liu Wen’s voice trembled as he announced the score.

In the center of the hall, students and teachers from the eight classes felt their heads buzzing, especially Zheng Bowen, who just moments ago had been mocking Class 3. Now, his face was livid. Staring at Shangguan Luohua’s radiant smile, a surge of anger welled up within him. He never expected that the always-bottom-ranked Class 12 would produce a terrifying girl who instantly surpassed the best in his own class.

“Hmph! So what if she’s at 33.3 meters? Let’s see if you can produce five students with excellent ratings in the subsequent tests!” This time, he didn’t say it aloud, but muttered it inwardly.

With Angel’s crushing result, no one dared mock Class 12 anymore. An uneasy peace settled over the testing hall, lasting for over an hour.

“Li Fei, failed! Next, Le Han!”

When Le Han’s test ended, Liu Wen announced the conclusion of the second round of speed testing and moved the students on to the final nerve reflex test. Nangong Yuchen, meanwhile, continued to be ignored, as if Shangguan Luohua had forgotten his existence entirely. None of the eight other classes noticed this omission—among dozens of unfamiliar faces, who would realize one student hadn’t taken the test?

Only three girls were an exception.

“Kexin, what’s going on with your brother? Why hasn’t he gone up for the test?” Xia Ruli peered through the crowd toward the northern testing area, her eyes landing in a small corner where Nangong Yuchen stood, her face full of confusion.

“Yes, it’s already the second round. I remember your brother’s physical abilities were impressive—last time at the Star Emperor Tavern, he took on a whole group by himself. Is that Class 12 teacher crazy not to send him up for the test and earn some points?” Chu Huiyan whispered in agreement.

Nangong Kexin shook her head anxiously. She had no idea what was going on either. She was angry, resentful, and affectionate toward Nangong Yuchen all at once: angry that he had dared lay hands on her last month; affectionate, because he was the brother she had grown up with; resentful, because his actions had torn their family apart.

Yet another lingering mystery gnawed at her, one that had only arisen after her recent speed test. She realized that ever since she’d started living with Yuchen, her daily training felt less exhausting, sometimes leaving her even more energetic. Coupled with her unbelievably improved speed—nearly doubled, reaching a fearsome 29.4 meters—she couldn’t help but suspect her brother’s secretive behavior was somehow involved.

By now, it was past four in the afternoon, and the nerve reflex tests for Classes 9 through 12 were nearly finished. In those rounds, Classes 9, 10, and 11 each produced five students rated as excellent. For Class 12, aside from Angel’s third excellent rating at 33.3 meters, they had yet to see a fourth.

As the final nerve reflex tests neared their end, it seemed the year-end results for the twelve classes were all but settled. Yet, none of the mockers, led by Zheng Bowen, dared speak up. The monstrous performance of that girl in the previous round had left them too shaken.

Inside the nerve reflex testing chamber, Angel’s agile form twisted and dodged the piercing lasers. Minutes passed, and what had started as a single laser now became two firing at once. The students outside watched in awe as her performance grew ever more astonishing.

“Damn… this girl is a freak! That’s eleven now!”

“Yeah, even our best in nerve reflex can’t match her!”

“Look, that’s twelve! She’s about to surpass Tuoba Feng!”

The students outside stared in disbelief. Not only was this girl terrifyingly fast, but her nerve reflexes were also superhuman.

“So this is Angel?” Only now did Nangong Kexin realize that the girl who came to her house every week for dinner was such a monster. If it hadn’t been for her own inexplicable burst of speed this past month, she would have had nothing to compete with Angel except perhaps her looks. Even so, with her speed now at 29.4 meters, the gap still felt immense.

While she stood in a daze, the lasers inside multiplied. That only happened when nerve reflexes reached a score of fifteen or higher.

A whoosh of red lasers shot out: “Left shoulder, directly above at ninety degrees!” “Right leg, upward at seventy-two degrees!” “Left side of the chest, zero degrees!”

Five red beams crossed in a deadly lattice, converging on Angel’s position. But she had already dived forward the instant they appeared, twisting her body and flipping to the side with her left hand, narrowly evading all five.

A second later, six lasers fired from different angles. Angel’s mind clearly sensed the incoming red dots; without hesitation, she bent backward, planted her hands on the ground, and sprang upright, once again slipping past the deadly beams.

“Teacher, that’s enough!” After passing the sixteenth round, Angel quickly raised her hand toward the glass in signal.

The door swung open, and she stepped out. “What’s going on?” she asked, only now noticing every eye in the hall fixed on her in stunned disbelief. For a moment, the entire hall fell silent once more, so quiet that even a pin could be heard dropping.