CHAPTER 57: CHAPTER 57: INVISIBLE SHOW-OFF IS THE MOST DEADLY! DON’T YOU THINK SO?_1

The long convoy of buses, carrying hundreds of First Middle School students, slowly made its way to the City Gymnasium.

Along the way, Su Yan, sitting cross-legged on the bus roof alone, attracted the attention of many passersby.

Among them, some clueless pedestrians, thinking he was a student representative from First Middle School, cheered him on:

"Young man, you’re pretty cool!"

"Holy shit! Dude! Incredible!"

"Good luck on the Evolutionary Assessment!"

Many other parents seized this opportunity to lecture their own children. See that young man on the bus roof? A student representative! A dragon among men! You must study hard like the young man on top of the bus and strive to become a student representative. Bring honor to the school, bring honor to your parents, make your ancestors proud and illustrious.

Facing the passersby’s praise, Su Yan initially felt quite pleased with himself. He smiled, waving to the left and then to the right, almost blurting out, "Comrades, you’ve worked hard!"

But as the bus entered the city proper and the number of pedestrians flanking the road increased, he began to feel overwhelmed and couldn’t take it anymore.

Pretty much every passerby who saw him would cheer for him and call him incredible. One "Incredible!" was high praise. Two "Incredible!"s were overwhelmingly so. Three "Incredible!"s were explosively so. But five, six, seven... As the "Incredible!"s piled up, Su Yan almost felt sick from it all.

He couldn’t stand it any longer. He stood up, climbed in through the window, and returned to his seat inside the bus.

Just as he settled back into his seat, a flurry of conversation immediately reached his ears.

"Ruoxi, do you have any confidence in beating Zhang Nan from Class One in the upcoming Physical Assessment?" a polite-looking student with glasses smiled and asked Lin Ruoxi.

Asking about her confidence was just a pretext, of course; he really just wanted to chat with the beautiful top student.

"I don’t think so. I scored quite a bit lower than him in the last mock assessment," Lin Ruoxi replied with a modest smile.

She and Zhang Nan from First Middle School’s elite class were known as the "Twin Stars of First Middle." One was perpetually in first place, the other an eternal second, and they were often teased about it.

Although she consistently secured second place, Lin Ruoxi was well aware of her actual standing. It was true they were only one rank apart, but the score gap between them was vast, a difference of several tens of points. In other words, their strengths weren’t even on the same level. With what could she possibly beat him?

"I think Ruoxi can definitely win. After all, you’re the pride of our ordinary class," the bespectacled boy offered mindless encouragement.

It wasn’t because he was trying to curry favor with her; rather, he found the constant arrogance of the elite class students deeply unpleasant. Thus, he genuinely hoped Lin Ruoxi could outperform the elite class’s top student. To knock them down a peg. It would also show them that students from the ordinary classes could be amazing too; with effort, they were no worse than those from the elite class.

Faced with the boy’s effusive praise, Lin Ruoxi simply smiled without saying anything in reply. Because such mindless praise was frankly difficult to handle.

Accepting it would make her seem like she lacked self-awareness. But refusing it would seem impolite. It was a no-win situation.

For a while after, the bespectacled boy repeatedly tried to initiate conversation, but Lin Ruoxi showed no desire to engage with him. No matter how he tried to chat her up, she just responded with noncommittal hums and haws. After a few such exchanges, the bespectacled boy lost interest and turned to chat up other girls instead.

Similar scenes were plentiful on the bus. Su Yan just listened quietly from the back seat to get a general idea about the upcoming Physical Assessment. He also wanted to see if there were any well-known top students, which would help him choose a reference point for showing off and making a grand impression when the time came. His first reference point for showing off was provisionally set as Zhang Nan from the elite class.

「Ten minutes later.」

The long line of buses finally arrived at the City Gymnasium, and the students disembarked one after another.

Following the crowd, Su Yan entered the Physical Assessment building of the City Gymnasium. He found it packed with people, yet the student groups from various schools were clearly demarcated. As the city’s largest Evolutionary Assessment testing site, the assessment building was impressively spacious. Even with 2,200 students gathered inside, it didn’t feel crowded at all.

During the assembly, many surrounding students began to whisper among themselves.

"No. 2 Middle School and No. 3 Middle School are so strong! Together, those two schools have over a thousand Evolutionary Assessment candidates. It’s like their entire student bodies enrolled in the Evolutionary Track!"

"Well, they are key high schools, after all. Especially that Xu Haolong from No. 2 Middle School. I heard he’s already a Half-step Rare Level Being."

"You have to admit, indeed, the level of those arrogant pricks from the key high schools is just ridiculous."

"Speaking of Half-step Rare Level Beings, No. 3 Middle School seems to have one too. And I hear she’s a great beauty. Can’t wait to see her in person."

A few students from third-tier high schools—dubbed the "black iron patients," so to speak—were enviously discussing the top prodigies from No. 2 and No. 3 Middle Schools, their eyes glinting.

"Can’t you just queue quietly? Why all the endless chatter and complaints?" a student from a second-tier high school frowned, his tone dripping with superiority. After all, as students from a second-tier high school, they were better than the worst but not as good as the best, so they could only find a sense of self-importance by looking down on students from third-tier schools.

As for the two ultimate key high schools, No. 2 Middle School and No. 3 Middle School, they were surprisingly quiet at the moment.

Su Yan couldn’t help feeling curious and glanced sideways at the students from No. 2 and No. 3 Middle Schools. The student groups from these two high schools stood in neat, uniform formations. Everyone wore matching attire, giving them an imposing air.

Several other high schools also had groups in matching outfits. However, these weren’t school uniforms but rather custom class outfits. Some wore Peppa Pig designs, others had ’All Villains’ themes; they were flashy and eye-catching, but utterly impractical.

Su Yan’s gaze returned to the students of No. 2 and No. 3 Middle Schools, noting the aloof, arrogant expressions on everyone’s faces.

Although, considering the whole Nanjiang Province, these two city key high schools wouldn’t rank very highly or be considered top-tier. But that didn’t matter; for some students from these schools, being the best in Luo City was enough. Their motto was "when the tiger’s away, the monkey reigns supreme." They loved to show off in front of students from ordinary high schools in the city whenever possible. Wasn’t it satisfying? Otherwise, they would feel they weren’t living up to their status as students from key high schools.

Of course, everyone was in their senior year of high school, and a large portion were adults, knowing full well that subtle flexing was the most devastating. So often, their boasts were veiled, and it was up to you to perceive them. They would casually, yet intentionally, reveal they were students from a key high school.

And if you politely complimented them with, "Wow! You’re from a key high school? Incredible! Truly incredible!!" they would humbly reply, "Actually, our school is just average. We might not even outperform you in the college entrance exams. I think many students from ordinary high schools are quite impressive."

If you actually took this seriously and agreed with them, saying something like, "That’s true, you’ve got a point," they’d be cursing you out internally: "Does this bottom-tier high school loser even know their place? Give you an inch and you think you’re a ruler, huh? How shameless!"

In truth, everyone could understand this mentality, since showing off is a fundamental human trait, differing only in degree. After all, they’d worked so hard to get into these key high schools; not allowing them to flex a little would be too unreasonable, wouldn’t it?

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