"Bang"
With a heavy thud sound, the machine compressed back into itself. The digits on the screen started to rapidly shift. Eventually, the digits slowed down and stopped.
⌜￣￣￣￣￣
4,536 kg
___________⌟
" Whoa, he increased his strength by over 500 kg in only two weeks!?"
"Insane!"
"What's so impressive about that? He has only reached the fourth layer's intermediate stage."
"Jealousy isn't attractive, you know."
"Lay off. Can't be envious and supportive at the same time."
"Yeah, sure. Our class rank will surely go up now. What was our class rank at?"
"If I recall, we were ranked 5th on the leaderboards. Now that Tian has exceeded the barrier, we would at least rank fourth this time. Maybe even have hope to reach the third rank."
As his classmates cheered and chatted, Tian Qingfeng grabbed his data terminal and headed back towards his friends. He looked down at the data displayed on the terminal.
⌜￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
[Tian Qing Feng] [Age: 15]
[Martial Progress: Muscle Strengthening Fourth Layer]
[Strength: 4,536 kg]
[Speed: N/A]
[Martial Combat Proficiency: N/A]
__________________________________________________________⌟
'There are only two more to go.'
Looking up, he saw Fei Baixue looking at him. She gave him a slight smile. He gave her a nod before heading back towards Chen Zhiyu and Lu Tai.
"Dang," Chen Zhiyu whistled. "Five hundred in two weeks is insane. How'd you do it?"
"He he," Tian Qinglong gave him a sheepish chuckle. "Hard work?"
"Extreme humbleness is of the utmost arrogance, old Tian." Lu Tai grumbled
As the three chatted, the last person completed his test. Teacher Su brought them to the speed test area.
In front of them was a long track strip, about 100 meters long, set smack dab in the middle of the gym. Along the track were multiple arches set along the track, allowing ten people to participate at a time.
Teacher Su walked up to the main terminal and placed her tablet into the indicated slot.
"Alright, the first ten, please go to a gate and get ready."
The first ten students went up to the main terminal, slotted their data terminals in, and then proceeded to the arch that their slot corresponds to.
"Hey, six of our class's top ten are up first."
"Who do you think will be the fastest?"
"Obviously, it has to be Fu Lihua. She is the strongest of the group, and we haven't been taught any movement arts yet, and movement arts are not allowed for our first assessment anyway."
"True, true."
After all the students had entered their designated spots, a holographic projection began counting down. After the timer reached zero, the 10 students dashed out and reached the other side in under 2 seconds. Screeching to a stop, they turned to look at their results on the screen attached to the arch on the other side of the track.
On the display board attached to the main terminal, their speeds appeared for a brief second, ranked from top first to last, before they disappeared.
As expected, Fu Lihua was the fastest with a top speed of 55.1 meters per second. Followed by Yu Ling at 54.99 m/s, Hong Wuhao, who was only marginally slower by 20 milliseconds, at 54.97 m/s, Tang Qixia at 54.02 m/s, Wang Zhengyi at 53.94 m/s, Hong Ling at 53.76 m/s, and the rest below 48 m/s.
After the first group retrieved their data terminals, Teacher Su called out.
"Second Group, you're up!!"
The other ten students, including Tian Qingfeng, walked forward and placed their data terminal into the main terminal and headed to their designated arch.
Tian Qingfeng reached his designated arch and looked down the track. Focusing on the other end of the strip, he got into position.
When every student was in place, a holo-projection materialized and started counting down.
As the count reached 3, Tian Qingfeng tensed his glutes, calves, and core.
At 2, he leaned forward, balancing on the balls of his feet.
As the timer reached 1, he focused on the destination.
Once it reached zero, Tian Qingfeng and the other 9 students dashed out with an explosive display of speed. The track zipped by in an instant, and then they were finished.
Tian Qingfeng looked at the screen to his right, attached to the arch. The speed of all ten students running was displayed. As expected, he was still in last place, but at the very least, he wasn't ten m/s behind his friends this time. He was catching up, slowly but surely, after breaking past the bottleneck.
He resumed perusing the leader board to check on everyone else's times.
Fei Baixue, as the top student, was unsurprisingly at the very top of the list with a top speed of 55.28 m/s. Followed by her friend Su Ling at 54.98 m/s. Then came Lu Tai and Chen Zhiyu at 51.26 m/s and 49.53 m/s, respectively.
After a few more names, at the very bottom of the list sat Tian Qingfeng at 45.84 m/s. This was to be expected, though, as his physical capabilities were the lowest within the class.
After retrieving his data terminal, the teacher brought the class over to the final test. As they headed over to the final testing location, Tian Qingfeng took a look at his data terminal.
⌜￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
[Tian Qing Feng] [Age: 15]
[Martial Progress: Muscle Strengthening Fourth Layer]
[Strength: 4,536 kg]
[Speed: 45.36 m/s]
[Martial Combat Proficiency: N/A]
__________________________________________________________⌟
There was only one test left. The previous three tests were dependent on his martial cultivation since they didn't have access to any decent martial arts, nor were they taught how to maximize their strength yet.
But this next test was different. Although it tested their combat ability, their martial cultivation wouldn't be nearly as pivotal as it was in the last three tests.
That's because this test was going to occur in a virtual world, where their physical stats were limited to a maximum strength of 4,500 kg and a speed of 45 m/s. What really mattered in this test was their decision-making skills in a fight and their mental reaction times.
As they arrived at the final testing site, they saw an array of capsules set up in several neat rows.