I am guided by Eliot through the beautiful hallways of the facilities and am soon taken to the waiting room. After waiting a few minutes in the waiting room, a professor came, and his face did not look very happy.
After all, to him, I am just a "poor thing" who hopes to pass the exam and enter the school with a perfect score. There have only been 2 cases of students who have already entered through this exam with 1000 correct answers.
Basically, it's practically impossible, and that's why this professor is in front of me, he's just wasting time having to work an extra shift at night, especially since the exam takes a long time.
In other words, even when his shift ends, he can't go home since the one who started the evaluation needs to finish it, so he has to keep evaluating me while I take the exam.
Of course, there are cameras and other security measures to prevent cheating, but I trust the cat did a good job.
Since he knows that if I don't get into the school, I'll reduce his payment specifically for spending a lot of time watching my sister from the top of a building.
While thinking about the exam, I am guided by the professor to a specialized room for the test.
"Okay, I don't think I need to explain the rules, but still, it's part of the protocol," he says in a tired voice.
"If you cheat on the exam, you're out. You can go to the bathroom once every 4 hours with a supervisor, without using any electronic devices other than medical support."
"No help, you must always remain silent in the classroom, without asking questions, you cannot leave your seat and walk around the room..." He continues to list a bunch of rules that I ignore.
I know everything I can and cannot do, I don't need to listen to this bunch of nonsense he's telling me, I just hope the demon has really done his part.
After all, if I fail here, I can't retake this exam, so I'll have to wait until next year and try to enter the admission swarm like everyone else, but passing here will give me certain advantages.
For example, I can choose which room I want to be in, after all, getting 100% on this exam means a talent that the school doesn't want to waste, in fact, if you get 90% next year, you have certain advantages when taking the exam again.
Showing that the higher your intelligence, the more advantages and freedom the school offers you, this encourages students to try to improve, in the end, it's a carrot and stick trick, just in a more refined version, so to speak.
"Okay, now that you know the rules, I'll give you the exam. Please only open the exam when the timer starts, and you can decide if you want to leave the questions for another day every 4 hours."
"You have 1 month to finish it..."
"Any problem?" I raise my hand to politely get his attention.
"One month won't be necessary, I'll do it without breaks and I think I can finish in 18 hours," I say. It will be almost a full day of exams, it's simply too much time, but I have "help", so it's possible, and as a magic girl, I have the stamina for it.
The professor rolls his eyes, looking at me with disapproval. To him, I must seem like a naive and arrogant girl who thinks she can easily pass something that millions of people can't.
"Okay, the decision to pause is yours, but know that you can only take one break to continue another day every 4 hours, and you will have to stay on our premises so we know you didn't get the answers from the internet or someone else."
This is another point about the exam when the exam is paused and you go "home" to come back another day, you don't really go home, you'll stay in some government facility or hotel with limited technology.
To ensure 0 cheating, as the school absolutely doesn't accept cheaters, there's a strict system of punishments for those who dare to try to cheat.
"Yes, I understand completely. Could you please start handing me the exam?" I ask politely. The professor just sighs, goes to the desk, and presses some buttons.
Soon, what is supposedly a normal "board" emits a faint beep, and a compartment with the exam is released. This machine that held the exam ensures that there will be no cheating involved in the test.
Everything in the exam is analyzed, even the material of the paper and pen is evaluated, and you can only use the materials provided to take the exam, which will be a pen, 1 pencil, and an eraser.
This exam does not use the answer key system, it simply analyzes the answers placed on the paper. The reason for not having an answer key is obviously to prevent cheating.
"...Here it is," the professor comes to me and places the exam along with the pen, pencil, and eraser. He sits at the desk in front of where I am and prepares to press the timer button.
As soon as he presses the button, a timer starts. I quickly open the package where the exam is and take out the pages. The paper is warm, showing that it was literally just made and analyzed.
I hold the pen and look at the paper, and soon I feel like something is guiding me. It's not like I'm being controlled or anything, it's more like someone is placing their hand above mine and trying to guide it to the correct answer.
I let myself be guided, marking and reading everything at an extremely fast pace. The professor's gaze towards me is "bad," I feel like he's looking at me with anger as if I'm trampling on the efforts of others.
After all, from the outside, it just looks like I'm reading superficially and marking anything, but it doesn't matter. I knew that practically 80% of the professors would be dissatisfied with me.
But he'll change as soon as he sees the results of this exam. In fact, he'll be shocked when he sees that my performance was 100%.
"..."
"..." 4 hours have passed, and I've answered almost 280 questions. There are some questions that I end up taking 30 to 40 seconds on, just to not seem extremely suspicious.
But basically, I think I can finish the exam before 18 hours. My hands hurt a bit from the speed at which I had to mark and read the questions.
Not to mention the calculations I scribble on the blank side of the exam. These calculations are precise so that I can demonstrate not only having answered correctly but also having shown how I arrived at the result.
It's really easy, just time-consuming. The demon did an exceptional job, which unfortunately also means he'll charge an exceptional service from me.
"..."
"..." Another 10 hours have passed, totaling 14 continuous hours of the exam. I've already managed to answer 870 questions. My hands hurt quite a bit, and the professor's gaze remained practically the same.
Each question consumes a certain amount of time, but it turns out this is exhausting me more than expected, not a physical fatigue, but a mental fatigue. Doing so much work for 14 straight hours is really difficult.
It's precisely because I'm working a lot with my mind. Maybe if I stopped reading, it would help, but I keep reading and forcing my brain to keep up with the written questions and answers.
Basically, I'm purposely exhausting myself. I want to see how far this girl's body can hold out. My body in terms of physical exhaustion is perfect.
I don't feel sleepy, I'm not hungry, and I'm not tired. It's just mental fatigue from having answered and read so many questions without any breaks. If I at least stopped to go to the bathroom and drink water, I'd be better.
The professor is also showing signs of fatigue, as he can't sleep. He's keeping himself awake on coffee and energy drinks he brought in a special bottle provided by the school.
"..."
"..." 16 hours have passed, and I'm done. I must say it was "easy," after all, I'm cheating. I'm slightly tired, as I've really strained my head, but with this, I have a perfect exam.
Perfect enough for me to be able to choose the class I'm going to study in, after all, I wouldn't be satisfied being in a different class from my sister.
"Yes?" I raise my hand to get the professor's attention, as I'm not supposed to speak without prior permission.
"I'm done," I say. When I say this, the professor can't hide the dissatisfaction and irritation on his face. He comes to me and takes the exam in a not-so-polite manner.
"...Okay, wait 30 minutes so the machine can analyze your result," he says, going to the machine that delivered the exam and putting the exam inside.
The machine quickly closes and starts processing my exam, while the professor sits down and we wait in silence.
I stare coldly at the professor, to the point where he shows a certain discomfort. When the machine announces that the exam analysis is complete, he sighs in relief and goes to the machine.
He picks up some papers and makes a shocked face, looking at me with surprise. Of course, he doesn't suspect that I cheated, as that's impossible, and this machine that evaluated the exam is state-of-the-art technology.
So the only answer is a student who took the exam in 16 hours and got a perfect score. I wonder what he's going to say.