After Lilith left, Wang Yue fell into deep thought.
A two-point gap… all she could do now was leave it to fate.
In any case, she had to aim for a perfect score on the final test.
The Prowling test concluded quickly, taking only about fifteen minutes. The scores were highly polarized; many students—not just Dorothy—had fallen off and received zero points.
But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that only one person could walk away with the dried fish.
Without any break, the next exam began.
After reshaping the terrain, Teacher Vida pulled a dozen toy mice from her equipment box. She infused them with mana, sending them scurrying across the arena. These mice could sense the terrain and ran in erratic, lightning-fast patterns. The moment they were touched, they would stop.
The students needed to hit ten mice in the arena to stop them. They had a one-minute time limit, with two points deducted for every second over.
Facing the final test, the students reacted differently, though they generally fell into three categories: Lilith was full of confidence, Wang Yue was determined to do her best, and Dorothy treated it like a fun game.
…
…
“Time’s up!”
The three tests were over!
The cats returned to the center of the arena. Vida stood on a high platform to give her closing remarks.
“The examination ends here. Your scores are tied to your effort. Slacking off and playing around today will only turn into regret and tears when the results are posted…”
She paused before continuing.
“I will now announce the first-place winner of this quiz—Lilith, with 298 points!”
The corner of Lilith’s mouth curled up. Hmph, the dried fish is mine after all. I’m just too strong!
“Wang Yue, 298 points! A tie for first!” Vida added immediately.
Lilith’s smile instantly vanished. She shot a look at Wang Yue, her voice full of defiance. “If I hadn’t hesitated because I thought those mice were gross, I would have definitely had a perfect score. You know as well as I do that the last test was too easy.”
“Oh, if they’re so gross, why didn’t you just quit? Eating fish after touching mice? Eww…” Wang Yue intentionally tried to gross her out.
Though she acted tough, Wang Yue had to admit that Lilith was ridiculously strong. The pressure she exerted was immense. One only had to look at the scores of those trailing behind them: Medeili had 292 points, and Lulu’anna had 288.
Now the question remained: there was only one dried fish. How should it be divided?
“Half each,” Wang Yue suggested.
“Another match!” Lilith wasn’t about to settle for half a fish.
Lilith suddenly lunged in front of Wang Yue, staring intensely into her eyes. Her voice carried a strange excitement. “You’re afraid!”
Wang Yue averted her gaze, her heart skipping a beat. It was true; her suggestion was a subconscious sign of avoiding competition.
No!
She couldn’t back down when dealing with a sadist like Lilith. Once she showed weakness, her mental fortitude would crumble, and she’d easily be turned into the girl’s plaything.
“Heh heh.”
Vida’s gaze shifted between the two cats. Both young witches were exceptionally talented. Even second-year witches might not score above 290 on the same test.
“Perfect. I’ll let you see what the upper-year Felidology curriculum looks like! We still have plenty of time. I’ve already hijacked the next PE class anyway,” she said shamelessly.
With Teacher Vida leading the way, the cats followed. The large group of felines left the Simulation Classroom and arrived at an indoor arena.
Seeing trampolines, pools, swinging ropes, steep slopes, rope nets, vertical poles, and mechanical walls… Wang Yue was stunned. This… isn’t this an obstacle course?!
The students began to chatter excitedly.
“It looks so hard! Is this really the curriculum for high-year students?”
“How are we supposed to get past those suspended bars and tiny supports? It looks terrifying. Won’t it hurt if we fall?”
“Dummy, you’re a cat! Cats always land on their feet!”
“Oh, right…”
“Hey, look at those vertical poles! How do you get past that section? Can a cat even climb those?”
Before the students could finish expressing their shock, Vida suddenly spoke. “What are you all staring at? This is the curriculum for your next semester. The high-year content is further back. Follow me!”
“What?!”
The students cried out in unison.
They followed their young teacher away from the junior arena and through a door at the back of the building. The view suddenly opened up—they were in a massive arena the size of a professional football field!
An incredibly wide obstacle course was laid out in the center. Compared to this, the indoor track they just saw was like a narrow alleyway versus a six-lane highway!
The Great Wheel!
The Uneven Staggered Pillars!
The Rotating Cylinders!
The Articulated Discs!
The Tipping Labyrinth!
Falling Dominoes!
The Iron Chain Forest!
The cats fell silent. The young witches all stared with wide eyes, unable to utter a single word.
“Ahem,” Teacher Vida cleared her throat. “This is Balor Academy’s famous mega-course: the ‘Ninja Cat Challenge’! It’s usually used for time trials and head-to-head matches… Wang Yue, Lilith, you two understand the drill, right? I’ll put the dried fish at the finish line!”
A time trial meant a contestant challenged the high-difficulty obstacles alone to compete for speed and completion rate. A head-to-head match was a solo duel where two cats sprinted toward the finish line simultaneously, the first to arrive being the winner.
Lilith licked her paws in excitement, her eyes narrowing into two eerie, blood-red slits. Finally, she had a chance to crush Wang Yue fair and square. She would pin her to the ground in front of everyone and rub her face in the dirt—over and over again.
“Go for it, Master!” Dorothy scrambled to Wang Yue’s side. “Don’t lose to her!”
Wang Yue glanced at the course and felt a shiver run down her spine. Just looking at it made her feel a little dizzy. This definitely wasn’t designed for humans; some of the suspended footholds were barely the size of a teacup.
She glanced at her opponent. Lilith was beautiful, agile, powerful, and wild.
Wang Yue knew she was at a disadvantage, but she didn’t give up hope. Her advantage lay in her experience; before transmigrating, she had watched many obstacle course game shows.
She hesitated for a moment on whether to use her Puppet Mystic Art but ultimately decided against it. While observing the track, she had spotted a chance for victory. If she timed it right, she might be able to pull off an upset.
“Positions! Ready—”
Teacher Vida’s clear, ringing voice rose into the air.
At the starting line, the two black cats crouched low, their hind legs tensed and ready to spring! At the end of the countless complex mechanisms and bizarre terrain sat a square box. The dried fish was inside!
“Go!”
At Vida’s command—whoosh! Two black shadows shot forward!
At the same time, using a voice-amplifying spell, she took on the role of commentator.
“Oho! Both students are neck-and-neck on the approach track! Neither is giving an inch! Coming up is the first stage: Aerial Acrobat! They need to jump to the perfect height, hook their claws onto the rings suspended by ropes, and swing across! They must clear twelve consecutive rings before landing on the mats for the second stage!”
Her tone grew heated.
“Is the difficulty too high? I hope they don’t fail at the very first stage… Look! They’ve jumped! Lilith has hooked the first ring! Her body drops with the weight, but she’s stable! She hasn’t fallen! Wang Yue isn’t faring badly either; her ‘White Gloves’ overlap with the white rings, making it look like she doesn’t even have paws!”
“Good move! Lilith has swung through three rings consecutively! Wang Yue is a beat slower, having cleared only two. A gap is forming… but they don’t know that by the fifth ring, the tangential force won’t be enough to carry them to the next one! They’ll need to react in time and perform an extra pendulum swing, or they’ll fall and have to start over!”
“Incredible! Lilith realized it! She felt the loss of momentum! She didn’t take the risk and took an extra swing! It looks like Wang Yue won’t be able to capitalize on an opponent’s mistake to overtake her, but it’s a long way to go. As long as she isn’t shaken off, there’s still a chance!”
“Alright! Wang Yue also realized it—or perhaps she saw Lilith’s move… being behind has its perks; you can use your opponent as a reference to plan a better route!”
“The first six rings were just a warm-up! The difficulty of the last six spikes sharply! The distance, height, and ring size are all different. If they mistime their release, they’ll catch nothing but air and land in a pathetic heap!”
“Unbelievable! Both students have exceptional dynamic vision! They’re catching the rope rings in high-speed motion. Especially Lilith—she’s like a ghost, a blur of shadows. Even though this is her first time, she’s navigating this with a terrifying sense of familiarity!”
Vida thought to herself: Is… is she really a freshman?
She had expected a cheerful process of trial and error. She imagined two cats, hesitant and anxious, frequently falling off the track due to their lack of knowledge and impetuous moves, causing rounds of laughter as they restarted until they slowly gained some proficiency.
Instead…
Hey! Is Lilith trying to set a new record?! Why are you so skilled at this?!
It was bad enough having one freak of nature, but Wang Yue! Why are you keeping up so closely? Why does it look like you’re about to overtake her?!
