Chapter 157: Can You Be Any More of an Extra?

Once the rules were announced, no one had any further objections.

Thus, everyone began to relish watching how the examinees answered the questions.

They watched the faces of those who finally made up their minds to give up, only to be told they could only receive thirty points, collapsing in despair...

They watched those who bravely pushed forward but unfortunately fell into the water, ultimately experiencing the relief of the aftermath upon learning they still managed to pass...

They watched the thrilling moments of those being chased by masters, with no road to heaven and no door into the earth, fleeing in a panic like wild boars pursued by wolves...

It was practically like being at the scene of a mega-scale variety show, with waves of applause following one after another, and cheers rising and falling like adolescent restlessness, never stopping.

It had to be said that, apart from the students' immediate parents, watching this group of students tackle exam questions that made them doubt their lives and faiths was really... quite refreshing.

Even Alpha Ji gave a rare high evaluation: *Seriously, how epic is this gameplay! Shoutout a big six to the big shots!*

"The gaokao questions are different every year, constantly renewing their tricks, and classic questions often appear, but this year's question, no matter how you rank it, would definitely make the top three since the calamity!" commentators chimed in one after another.

"What top three? It has to be number one!" Cui Zeze finally found his opportunity, his passionate and grand face filling the entire screen.

"To those who are weak and conservative, tell them that in the face of layer upon layer of traps, sometimes one must simply have the courage to forge ahead bravely!"

"To those examinees who care little for the feelings of others, tell them that friendship comes first, competition second, and in this cold world, we human beings must ultimately unite!"

"It has difficulty when needed, intensity when needed, and significance when needed! This question is simply flawless!"

The guest beside him tugged at Cui Zeze's sleeve, signaling him to pay attention.

After all... among the examinees who cared little for the feelings of others, there were two whose fathers were sitting on the highest podium with gloomy expressions.

Cui Zeze hesitated for a moment, but decided to bounce around a bit anyway.

After all, this was the final round, and if he didn't bounce now, today was his last chance; if he wanted to bounce again, he would have to wait until next year.

He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the microphone went limp, the screen shifted, and a plain-looking official female anchor made her debut with a face full of surprise.

Cui Zeze's screen time for this year: completed.

Whether he would have any screen time next year was hard to say...

On the podium, Li Jingao gave this direction a casual glance: *Our child is already in that state, and you're still kicking them while they're down? That's going too far, huh!*

Regardless of how heated the discussions were among the audience outside, or how the trajectory of life had deviated, the exam continued.

A dozen minutes later, after experiencing agonizing choices that made them question their very existence, the final exam results were somewhat unexpected.

At the junction of the first and second stages, thirty people were ruthlessly eliminated, including Fang Ju.

Everyone felt that the difficulty was obviously far beyond the first half, so the elimination rate should be very high.

However, out of the 335 examinees—

109 people, including Ye Chao and Xu Tiange, advanced directly to the second half;

Out of the 163 examinees who encountered traps, a total of 107 successfully passed, while only 56 chose to give up or failed the obstacle course;

Out of the 63 examinees who encountered interceptions, 48 had points deducted and were let through, two successfully escaped pursuit and entered the second half maintaining their original scores, and only 13 met them head-on and were eliminated;

Unexpectedly, as many as 263 examinees successfully entered the second half!

"Truly worthy of our Golden Generation! Facing such exam questions, they actually managed such a high passing rate!"

"Just now, I thought that even with those who entered the second half directly, having two hundred people pass would already be pretty good..."

A triple-digit number of newly minted three-star candidates, a record-breaking number of four-star examinees, an additional 120 gaokao admission slots, countless Jiangcheng records refreshed and rewritten, and all sorts of unexpected, outstanding performances...

Before anyone realized it, the title "Golden Generation of Jiangcheng's 51st Level and 54th Batch" had spread by word of mouth, becoming a sort of consensus.

Anchors and audience members cheered, debated, argued, and reasoned.

The examinees, having experienced the distortion of human nature and the degradation of morality, finally converged in a disheveled state with those who had arrived earlier.

The gathering point was a circular plaza.

The younger generation of Jiangcheng might not remember much of it, but most of the older folks above twenty held deep impressions.

Although it currently looked narrow, low, and dim, hardly deserving to be called a plaza—at best just an inner hall, much like a person reaching middle age who gets fat, sags, and goes bald, with their looks seemingly slashed tens of thousands of times by a butcher's knife, utterly stripped of any handsome appeal...

Back in the day, when Jiangcheng only consisted of the Lower District and the Underground Layer, this was Jiangcheng's most popular public venue.

At the center of the plaza, those spots that now looked dirty and dilapidated like haunted houses, currently occupied by examiners temporarily forbidding examinees from entering, used to be the inner-ring shopping mall and amusement city.

Every time work let out, it was genuinely shoulder-to-shoulder, making it hard to take a single step—far more popular than the lip-sync concerts of any traffic-generating idol star.

Even the management had to issue regulations stricter than odd-even license plate driving restrictions—every single person only had one opportunity per week to enter the plaza for leisure, entertainment, and shopping.

Even so, it remained a sea of people!

In front of the old shopping mall—now a building slated for demolition—the late-arriving examinees and those who arrived earlier exchanged greetings. They quickly figured out a few things, and the joy of passing vanished into thin air, replaced by burning indignation: since they were all examinees, why was the treatment so vastly different?

However, there was hardly any time to complain before the examiners in front of the demolition building began announcing the rules for the next stage—

"Having weathered numerous hardships and dangers, tests of life and death, and trials of blood and fire, you have finally caught up with the last of the fugitives. However, they are also the twelve most powerful thugs! And they still hold extremely crucial hostages in their hands!"

"They dare not kill the hostages easily, because once killed, they will have nothing left to use as leverage."

"Nor will they surrender easily. As for what exactly they will do? ... We do not know either, because this is a strategy devised by the twelve thugs themselves. Please judge the situation prudently and make your own choices."

Once the examiners finished reciting their lines, twelve people—varying in height and weight, men and women, walking out from every direction (southeast, northwest) of the demolition building—appeared. Bold characters clearly marked on their clothes displayed their identities: "Thug"!

"The rules for this round of testing are..."

Just as the twelve thugs began speaking their lines, the audience seats erupted into chuckles and laughter. Countless people gave thumbs-up, applauded, and cheered, their excited, thrilled, and expectant emotions instantly reaching their peak.

Why?

Because the audience knew these twelve people very well!

The Twelve Heroes of Jiangcheng!

The twelve individuals among Jiangcheng's new generation who received the most attention, held the highest expectations, and possessed the greatest potential. All of them were four-stars, and the crucial point was their age: the oldest was twenty-three, and the youngest was currently twenty-one.

Among the 51st Level Golden Generation, Xu Tiange had already advanced to four-star, qualifying him to compete among the Twelve Heroes, while everyone else still lacked a bit of seasoning.

This could be said to be a direct dialogue between Jiangcheng's most outstanding young people from the past few years and this year's batch of the Golden Generation!

Topic Index: MAX!

Expectation Index: MAX!

Splendor Index: Unknown!

"Pfft, hahaha..." The audience burst into applause and cheers, while Alpha Ji was left rolling with laughter, rocking back and forth, entirely unable to contain herself as tears streamed down like a water gun.

"Calling someone one of the 'Twelve Heroes' might have been trendy back in the Ming Dynasty, but this Qing Dynasty has been dead for a hundred and some years..."

"Even martial arts novels don't use names this cliché anymore! Can you get any more extra-like than this?!"