(This chapter contains some problems—if you're not into that, feel free to skip!)
Even though Auron Vale deliberately reined in his pace, he still filled in the entire test paper in about forty-five minutes.
He checked it twice more. Finding nothing else to change, he finally lifted his head and glanced at the clock.
"Whew—five minutes left. Not bad."
Relieved, Auron started twirling his pen. When Auron spun a pen, it never made a sound, and he never dropped it.
After all, he had twenty years of finger memory for pen-spinning alone.
From primary school onward, he'd been twirling his pen whenever he could slack off; after graduating from university and joining the grind, he still twirled his pen to idle away a moment. By now, the motion felt carved into his DNA.
"Riiiing—riiing—riiiing—"
When the bell signaling the end of the exam sounded, Auron arched his back in a stretch while still seated. Only after the proctor collected the papers did he get up and head for the door.
"Sigh. What should I get for lunch?"
Auron raked his hair in mild distress.
"Forget it. No point overthinking. I'll see what my parents say."
Maybe because he'd already gone through the gaokao once before, Auron didn't feel particularly nervous about it this time.
He even felt a little relaxed. Compared to the other students exiting the school gates alongside him, Auron wore a clear smile, and his steps didn't drag as heavily as theirs.
Outside the gate, he trotted up to Ashen Vale and his wife. Auron and his mom spoke at the same time:
"How'd it go?"
"Mom, what are we eating?"
Both of them froze, and Ashen burst out laughing.
Auron's mom came back to her senses and asked, exasperated,
"Are you hungry?"
Auron shook his head. "Nope. I just wanted to ask what we're having, that's all."
His mom's brows shot up. She forced herself to smooth them down, then asked in a gentle tone,
"Alright—what do you want to eat? Come on, I'll take you."
Auron shook his head again. "I don't really know either. You two decide."
His mom drew in a deep breath, then squeezed out a single word:
"Fine!"
Cradling Eevee in her arms, she marched off toward the nearby food street with righteous momentum.
Watching her, Auron asked in confusion,
"What's up with Mom?"
Ashen stifled a chuckle. "It's nothing, nothing. Small stuff. You just focus on your exams—don't worry about her."
He knew perfectly well why she was acting like that.
She probably felt Auron's attitude toward the gaokao wasn't serious enough, but since they were in the middle of it, she didn't want to scold him. Hence…this.
Ashen didn't bother explaining it to Auron, nor did he try to talk his wife down. Smiling, he simply followed along behind her.
That's married life for you: one moment you tease each other into a huff, the next you coax each other back into a good mood—doing the same thing every day would be boring.
In the end, Ashen managed to cheer her up before the food arrived at the table. After all, it isn't good to eat while stewing in emotions.
Of course, that cheering-up process wasn't so pleasant for Auron, who sat off to the side. Mom might no longer be eating with a mood, but Auron was now the one eating with feelings.
Irritated, he shoveled down two big bowls.
He did rein himself in, considering he still had exams in the afternoon, and resisted the impulse to order a third.
After all, if you eat too much, drowsiness follows; if you stuff yourself, it feels even worse.
There were two sessions in the afternoon as well, though the afternoon schedule was a little longer than the morning.
From two to four was the "math-and-science" block—Mathematics and Geography—two hours total, worth 150 points.
Then a half-hour break, followed by History from four-thirty to six, an hour and a half, worth 50 points.
Add that to the morning's Pokémon Comprehensive at 150 points, and Civics at 50,
The Written Exam's total came to 400 points. The Combat Exam was the same—also 400 points.
Overall, the full score was 800. To make it into Shangqing, your total needed to be at least around 730.
Back then, if you had a perfect score in either the Written or Combat Exam, the top academies would consider admitting you at their discretion.
After all, with a Written Exam perfect score, even if your Combat score were zero, you could still do other things—jobs that didn't require training or battling.
Construction engineer, designer, network engineer—those were all viable.
Not to mention Pokémon researchers, scholars, lab personnel, and the like.
Conversely, with a perfect Combat score and a low Written score, the top academies would also consider whether to recruit you purely as a combat specialist.
After all, a pure battler might not excel in academics or even in theoretical Pokémon knowledge, but their combat instincts could be off the charts.
With solid training, fierce battle sense, even if they hadn't memorized the entire type chart, they always managed to turn the tables in a fight—winning against type disadvantages, punching up against stronger foes, and so on (see: Ash Ketchum for reference).
Of course, "won't study" and "can't study" are different things. They'd accept the former; for the latter…they'd think it over.
After lunch and a brief rest, it was almost time for the afternoon session. Auron and the others gathered their things and headed to the exam hall.
Same seat as before, same wait for the bell to ring.
"Riiiing riiing riiing—riiiing riiing riiing—"
At the sound of the bell, the proctor opened the sealed envelope in full view of everyone and passed out the papers one by one.
Auron glanced through his as soon as it landed on his desk. The multiple-choice questions up front weren't difficult, just a bit of a mental drain.
He finished the multiple choice and the fill-ins quickly. Next came the long-answer problems.
Lapras is a Water- and Ice-type Pokémon. Its height is 2.5 meters, and its weight is 220 kilograms. It is known that 1 foot equals 12 inches, which is approximately 3 decimeters; 1 kilogram is approximately 2.2 pounds. Based on the given data, answer the following:
(1) Approximately how many pounds does Lapras weigh?
(2) Approximately how many feet and inches tall is Lapras?
The Eon Pokémon Latias and Latios are the guardian deities of Alto Mare and can fly faster than a jet. A certain Latias and Latios are siblings flying toward each other from a distance of 5,000 meters in uniform linear motion. They meet after 12.5 seconds. At the moment they meet, Latios's flight distance is 50% greater than Latias's.
(1) Find the flight speeds of the siblings.
(2) After meeting, the siblings maintain their original speeds, but one of them reverses direction. Starting from the moment of their meeting, find the time elapsed when they are once again 5,000 meters apart.
In a Pokémon alphametic (cryptarithm), a single Pokémon represents a single Arabic numeral. Identical Pokémon denote the same digit; different Pokémon denote different digits. No number begins with the digit "0." Consider the alphametic problem shown in the figure (see comment section).
(1) If each expression represents a four-digit number A, find the value of A.
(2) n! denotes the factorial of n, that is, n! = n × (n − 1) × (n − 2) × … × 2 × 1. For example, 4! = 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24. Using the value of A from the previous sub-question, find the last non-zero digit of A! (For example, 10! = 3,628,800, whose last non-zero digit is 8.)
Deino has 1 head and 4 legs; its evolved form, Zweilous, has 2 heads and 4 legs; and Hydreigon, which evolves from Zweilous, has 3 heads and 0 legs. There are several Deino and Zweilous, with a total of 56 heads and 152 legs. Answer the following:
(1) How many Deino and how many Zweilous are there?
(2) Some Deino evolve into Zweilous, and some Zweilous evolve into Hydreigon. After the evolutions, the sum of the total number of heads and legs is 208. Find the ratio between the number of Deino that evolve into Zweilous and the number of Zweilous that evolve into Hydreigon.
Xerneas is the Life Pokémon, and its counterpart Yveltal is the Destruction Pokémon. Now Yveltal in the sky uses Oblivion Wing at a depression angle of 37° toward Xerneas, which is 50 meters away horizontally.
(1) Find Yveltal's height relative to Xerneas. (Take sin 37° ≈ 0.6.)
(2) Yveltal rises vertically while Xerneas moves horizontally toward Yveltal. If they travel the same distance, how many meters must each move to make the depression angle 68°? (Take tan 68° ≈ 2.5.)
(End of this chapter)