The Author's POV

Lock, Class A-25

The sound of scribbling pencils rang out in the classroom. Almost all of the students present were hard at work preparing for the upcoming written exams.

"Argh…why do we have to go through this when we don't actually use this stuff in real life"

Of course, there was bound to be at least one or two students who hated studying.

...but well, what he said did make sense. Most of the stuff we learned wasn't even useful for those of us who didn't plan on pursuing such a career path.

"Exams are next week. Study hard, or you're going to have regrets when the results come out."

Turning around, a student replied.

"yeah, yeah, it's not like you'd understand my struggles..."

Being reprimanded, the student that complained could only grumble to himself as he went back to studying.

In the end, it seems like he was just venting out his stress.

Lightly glancing at the duo, I shook my head.

Regardless of what world you were in, there would always be a guy who hated studying and a guy who loved studying.

I was neither.

I didn't dislike studying nor did I love it.

I just studied for the sake of it...well, that was what I initially thought.

However, looking at the question that was presented before me, I couldn't help but slowly start leaning towards the no-studying group.

[Suppose a <D> ranked monster, Metal Fanged Magelodon attacked you in the middle of the ocean. How much force do they exert each time they bite, and point out their weak points on the diagram below. Extra point : What is the primary psyon flow of the Metal Fanged Magelodon and what is the fastest speed it can reach underwater?]

I was stumped.

I had no clue where to start. Was this really going to be on the exam?

...I don't even remember writing about this monster inside of the novel.

I mean, there were so many monsters that I had to remember that I could barely even think straight at this point.

I understand that they want us to learn this in case we actually met this monster in combat so that we would be able to deal with them accordingly if the situation presented itself.

...but with current technology, finding the information about the monster shouldn't be hard at all.

Just a quick cross-reference with the monster encyclopedia in the app and all the information would be presented before me.

...well in all fairness, I guess it did help in situations where the phone couldn't be taken out or that there was no battery left on the phone.

Dammit, world.

If you're going to write questions regarding monsters, at least make it so that I knew something regarding them. Don't give me questions on relatively unknown monsters.

Ruins the whole point of me being the author and using that as an advantage.

Ding dong—

In the midst of my rant, at that moment, the bell rang signaling the end of the class.

The class was technically a review class, but in reality, it was just a self-study class as there was no professor supervising the students. In any case, as soon as the bell rang, almost all of the students got up from their seats and left the class. It was evident that the majority hated studying.

I, of course, planned to follow them back to the dorm. What was the point of studying in a classroom when you had no friends?

In the end, apart from Kevin and a couple of other people, everyone left the class.

...

And like that, it was the day of the exams.

Surprisingly I wasn't nervous.

Apart from the fact that an artificial lake appeared beneath my feet, I really showed no sign of nervousness.

"Hey, man did you cram all night?"

"Yeah, I didn't sleep the whole night"

"How'd you think you'll do?"

"Not sure, hopefully, I'll pass"

Listening to the people besides me conversing, the butterflies in my stomach intensified.

...I didn't cram.

Not because I didn't want to, but from past experiences, I always tended to perform badly when I crammed.

Just wasn't something that worked for me...

7:55 A.M.

Glancing at my watch, I knew that I had five minutes left before the exam.

A long line had already started forming by the entrance of the classroom.

In front of them, a professor holding onto a tablet patiently waited for the students before doing the register.

Fidgeting with my hands, I nervously looked around in hopes of finding something to distract myself from the wait. Five minutes felt like an eternity

'If only I had something that could help me determine what was going to be on the tes-'

Pausing my thoughts, my eyes shot wide open.

...hold up.

Why didn't I think of this before?

Quickly rummaging through my bag, I took out a thick red book.

-Flip! -Flip! -Flip!

Without skipping a beat, I flipped through the pages of the book

[State the theory of unbounded monster relativity. Write down the proof as well]

As Kevin looked through the papers, without pause, he quickly compiled the answers on the white answer sheet in front of him.

[What degree of control would someone need in order to determine the circulatory flow of their psyon link in their body? How much was the link...]

"kukuku..."

Looking through the red book, I couldn't help but find myself laughing histerically. Almost like an evil dictator that had successfully completed his plan.

Instantly all of my worries washed away.

Cross-referencing with my phone, I quickly memorized everything that I could memorize in that short time frame.

It seems like the world had finally taken pity on me!

I now had a proper shot at getting a good grade.

"Student ranked 1550 Ren Dover?"

Five minutes on the dot, the professor called for me. Helpless, I could only put the book and phone away and say

"Present"

With that, I entered the exam hall, and as I did. I couldn't help but be reminded of the hellish days when I had to enter the exam rooms back in my previous world.

...

"How did you think you did?"

"I think it was alright. I'm confident in my chances of passing"

"I got a question on Valdev's law, I seriously forgot about it"

"You go that? I got a question on Zlorav's law"

Staring at the students happily conversing as they left the class, a defeated smile appeared on my lips.

Every step I took felt as if a solid thick piece of lead was stuck on them.

I miscalculated once again...

Just when I thought the world was finally answering my prayers, it went and fucked me over like never before.

Turns out every student had different questions.

...yeah

The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

Fortunately, I somehow managed to answer all of the questions. However, because I was caught off-guard, I lost some valuable time.

Now I really had to pray for a passing grade.

If I didn't, I'd have to redo the test again later in the summer.

...and honestly.

Wasn't too keen on doing that. Especially since I had a lot of things I needed to accomplish.

Sigh

In the end, after letting out a long and exhausted sigh, I went back to my dorm. The midterms were far from over

I still had to prepare for the upcoming practical exams.

fortunately, unlike with the theoretical exams, I knew what the next exams were about

dungeons...

Yeah.

We had to do a solo run of the school dungeon. The test scores were based on the time it took for students to complete the run...

The faster the run, the higher the score.

Unsurprisingly, in the novel, Kevin and Jin took the top spot. With timing that went along the lines of one hour and a couple of minutes.

A far contrast to the average of the other runners that took approximately 2-4 hours.

True monsters....