Chapter 58: 58. The Withdrawn Little Fox
Audrey unconsciously bit the end of her pen, her delicate and charming face wrinkling up. After a long while, the Little Fox looked up at the ceiling, her mind a complete blank.
Who am I? Where am I? What was I supposed to be doing?
Boohoohoo, this question is too difficult! She really doesn't know how to do it.
In the past, Audrey had always considered herself somewhat of a genius. After all, everyone around her praised her as such, and she always learned the skills her two mothers taught her with ease.
While such aptitude certainly wasn't as extraordinary as others claimed, she thought it shouldn't be too bad; among her peers, she could definitely be called excellent.
And because of her timid and reclusive nature, she spent her time at home reading. Therefore, she was quite confident in her knowledge base; even her older sister didn't know as much as she did.
So now, who can tell me why I can only answer half of these questions?
Audrey looked at the large blank spaces on the test paper in her hand, her eyes growing more confused.
So, Second Aunt, are you sure you didn't pick up the wrong test paper? Is this really a freshman entrance exam, and not some sage's introductory scroll?
Looking at this test paper, which encompassed almost all categories of knowledge from the nine major factions, the Little Fox was truly bewildered.
Had she been cooped up at home for too long? Had times changed? Could it be that Little Witches nowadays needed such a broad range of knowledge, requiring mastery of all factions from a young age?
But such a doubt was immediately rejected by Audrey's reason.
After all, mastering all factions was something only sages could achieve. If anyone could do it, then sages wouldn't be worth much.
In any case, the Little Fox roughly estimated that with her talent, if she were to study continuously without eating, drinking, sleeping, or resting from birth, then theoretically, at sixteen years old, she should be able to score a perfect mark today.
But who could possibly do something like that? It's impossible for anyone to do that, right???
Audrey shook her head, originally wanting to stop herself from overthinking, but as she turned her head, she inadvertently saw the student next to her who was also taking the exam.
To be honest, she didn't really like this classmate, and could even say she was a little afraid. After all, this classmate's attire was exactly what a textbook problem student would wear, practically screaming 'I'm a bad student'.
This was clearly the type of delinquent girl who didn't study well, only knew how to fight, skip classes, and date all day.
Even normal Witch students would keep their distance from such delinquents, let alone someone with social anxiety and withdrawal like Audrey.
In fact, when she impulsively ran over and sat down next to this classmate to start the exam, she had already begun to regret it. It was only later, when the difficulty of the test paper captured her attention, that she temporarily forgot.
However,
the delinquent classmate opposite her seemed to be working on an experimental question. Besides the normal written questions, this test paper also had two experimental questions: one required the student to create a basic mechanical puppet, and the other required the student to command the puppet to construct a small architectural model.
For Audrey, making a mechanical puppet was not difficult; she was already very skilled and easily completed it. But commanding a puppet to build a house?
She was an artist who spent her days learning dance and singing; what did she know about architecture?
Puppet shows originally required stage setups, and prop making would grudgingly involve some basic architectural knowledge. However, Audrey was a Nine-tailed Fox and succubus hybrid; her illusionary talent was maxed out, allowing her to handle any stage with a single illusion. Thus, she didn't need to prepare any extra props at all.
Audrey used to be proud of her illusionary talent, but now, facing this architecture exam, she was completely dumbfounded. In desperation, she could only command her puppets to build haphazardly.
The puppets, which were so lively during her song and dance performances, were now clumsy when building a house. She was thinking of building a floating villa estate, but the final product...
The Little Fox looked at the perfectly square matchbox in front of her and fell into contemplation.
Where exactly did I go wrong?
And then she turned to look at the delinquent classmate next to her.
Hiss, wait, what did I just miss?
It was just a moment ago; the delinquent classmate was just about to start making the puppet, but now the experimental table next door had already become a construction site.
Dozens of miniature versions of the giant divine construction puppets she had seen in the main hall earlier were bustling about, carrying bricks on the small construction site.
And looking next to the construction site, dozens of small Alchemyfurnaces were already neatly arranged. Although these Alchemyfurnaces, clearly made on the spot, looked a bit rough on the outside, their effects seemed quite good. As the small Giant Divine Mark IIIs, transformed into vehicles, dumped various building materials into the furnace entrances, flames quickly erupted within the furnaces, and then various bricks, glass, and other building materials emerged from the furnace exits.
So, I only zoned out for a dozen seconds, and what did I miss?
Audrey looked at the bustling construction site next door, then at the multi-story matchbox in front of her. A string of question marks immediately popped up in her little head.
And then she turned to look again.
Good heavens, the construction site had changed again.
The delinquent classmate seemed to dislike the low efficiency of the small puppets that could freely switch between vehicle and humanoid forms. So, those puppets were dismantled, and the metal materials used to make the Giant Divine puppets were thrown into the Alchemyfurnaces and refined into conveyor belts.
Then, the overly cumbersome armor of the Giant Divine Mark IIs was completely removed, making the unburdened Giant Divine Mark IIs much more agile. As for the dismantled armor, it was remelted and reformed into a series of sorting machines.
Sorting machines were set up at the exit of the Alchemy furnaces. The sorting machines sent the refined materials onto conveyor belts, which transported the materials to the construction site. Finally, the agile, unarmored puppets on the construction site took the materials and began working.
And some strange machines were created by the delinquent classmate, such as strange vehicles with two super large solid wheels, strange vehicles with flexible mechanical arms, tall, strange towers with long arms and grappling claws, and so on.
Several small mechanical puppets crawled into these strange machines, then operated them to begin work.
Breaking ground, laying foundations, flushing mud, compacting soil, pouring concrete, erecting frameworks, setting up scaffolding, covering with dust cloths...
When the commotion inside the dust cloths subsided, and the cloths were pulled away, an entire miniature palace appeared before the Little Fox's eyes.
And the mechanical puppets that had completed their work were now queuing up to jump into the Alchemy furnaces. After a burst of fire, one enchanting beauty puppet after another was reborn from the Alchemyfurnaces.
They began to enter the palace, each taking on their respective roles: some sat on the throne, some acted as ministers, some played the role of concubines, and some performed songs and dances, presenting a vivid scene of a miniature kingdom.
Ah, this...
Audrey, who had witnessed all of this, felt as if she had seen a deity. Her small mouth opened, and her charming fox eyes widened until the voice of the delinquent Witch reached her, bringing her back to her senses.
"Teacher, I'm done. Submitting the paper."
She heard the delinquent classmate say this.
This made Audrey instinctively look at the other's test paper, but the delinquent classmate also noticed her gaze at that moment and immediately covered the paper with a wary expression, as if afraid she would peek.
Audrey: "..."
The Little Fox, experiencing this for the first time in her life, no longer cared about being angry, because in that hurried glance, she had already seen the dense writing covering the other's test paper, with no empty spaces at all.
So, the other person knew how to answer all the questions?
Impossible, how could that be? She must have just written random answers.
But...
Looking at the lifelike miniature kingdom on the other's table, Audreyfell silent.
After a long while, the Little Fox looked up at the ceiling again.
She began to think that her family had definitely been lying to her all these years. She was probably not a genius at all; on the contrary, she might be an idiot. Otherwise, how could she be inferior even to a delinquent girl, and by such a despairingly large margin?
The Little Fox is withdrawn.