Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 477 - 114. Oz Ying Gao Falls from Grace

Chapter 477: 114. Oz Ying Gao Falls from Grace

After classes for a week, Li Aozi’s credits, as expected, were deducted to -121, and now his legend had spread across the entire first year. Almost everyone knew there was an academically clueless freshman who had lost over a hundred credits in a week, setting the fastest record since the school was founded four hundred years ago.

The noble son from the Morodia family, who had once mocked Li Aozi—was his name Andifa or Aniya? Anyway, he wouldn’t even glance at Li Aozi when he passed by afterward.

To others, Li Aozi’s rapid loss of points in such a short time totally exposed his apparent strengths as mere façades, and many even questioned his entrance exam scores.

However, looking on the bright side, since Li Aozi’s credits were now negative, naturally no one came to challenge him to a duel.

Of course, this was not a solution.

His credits continued to be deducted, while other students’ scores were generally on an upward trend, and as the knowledge gap between the students grew larger, the courses became deeper. Eventually, even Hobbs and Lucite wouldn’t be able to look after him.

There was no helping it; the negative effects of the "Echoer" were quite severe. No matter how Li Aozi studied, he couldn’t integrate the knowledge effectively.

The Magic Application Academy’s management of students was basically negligible, but it was quite strict with grades and teaching. After copying his classmates’ homework for two days, Li Aozi was caught by a professor. After some reprimanding, Li Aozi had no choice but to rely on repeated machine translations to complete his assignments.

Li Aozi’s unusual performances were soon reported to the Department of Education. Balkmon and Atkez, two executives, were initially plunged into doubt upon seeing them.

"Could his original entrance scores really have been obtained through cheating?" Atkez couldn’t help but wonder, "But that essay..."

"Yes, multiple-choice questions can be cheated on, but how about subjective questions?"

Balkmon unsealed the original test paper of Li Aozi and reread it, arriving at the same conclusion:

"Leoz truly possesses divinity; there is no doubt about that."

"Since you have already confirmed that, I have a thought: maybe he just happened to reveal his divine side during the test. His current state might be Leoz’s normal condition..."

Atkez’s remark was not finished when Balkmon, growing impatient, interrupted:

"But then how do you explain Leoz’s impressive performance in Valenkov? According to our information, during the attack on Valenkov Autonomy, Velazquez Corporation lost 24 senior managers. Even the ’Crown Prince’ Andrew Velazquez, who had come to inspect, was threatened, one warship was dismantled, the crews of two warships were incapacitated, and even Velazquez Building in Valenkov was blown up."

Balkmon rubbed his head in frustration.

"I admit that there must have been misinformation and exaggeration in the transmission of these reports, but the vast majority of the information is true. Velazquez even compiled a detailed economic loss report. You can question the abilities of the attackers, but why would the victims degrade their opponents? Wouldn’t that make them look even more incompetent?"

Atkez was left speechless.

In fact, whenever discussing Leoz’s situation, one inevitably encountered this contradictory fact.

On one hand, his performance during the exam was stunning, greatly exhilarating the Department of Education. On the other hand, since Leoz returned from Valenkov, he hadn’t shown any remarkable abilities.

"I think, Leoz must be hiding something."

Atkez thought for a moment and then said:

"The report from the surveillance states, ’Leoz is well aware and very cooperative with our plan, acting discreetly. However, he has never shown anything significantly different from a mortal, and even his progress on the pathway has stagnated at the Gamma Rank level.’"

"He is still only at the Gamma Rank now?"

"The level of advancement on the pathway can be directly detected through biological frequency, as you know, and there is almost no way to hide or fake this signal."

Balkmon crossed his arms and fell into deep thought.

After a long while, he shook his head as if realizing something:

"I always trust my judgment, but... perhaps it was indeed a subtle coincidence at the very beginning."

"What should we do now?"

"What else can we do? Given his current performance, it won’t be long before he will be advised to leave the school. Stop the surveillance on Leo. Let’s focus our resources on meaningful things."

Balkmon waved his hand over the magic projection, and Leo’s student file was immediately switched to that of a golden-haired, golden-eyed Dragonborn girl:

"Fortunately, we have more than one option. Besides Leoz, Baizhu Star has attracted quite a few talents sympathetic to the Crystal Tower Civilization — Atkez, concentrate fully on their educational training. In five years, I will personally lead the team to assess them."

Atkez felt a heaviness in his heart, his gaze fluctuating as he looked at his superior:

"Your Excellency, are we finally starting that plan... "

"We have no choice, the Galactic Eye Campaign is an absolute meat grinder. Only by deploying a decisive battle weapon to disrupt the balance can we change the fate of this war."

Balkmon raised his hand, watching the distorted space and light in his palm, his gaze resolute:

"In five years, I will lead the elite students of Baizhu Star to descend into the Boundary Abyss, breaking through the barriers and obtaining a blessing."

......

"Thanks to Sage Meliweir’s improvements to the output formula of the magic circle, we have now abandoned outdated magic wands and clumsy robes. Semi-automatic magic firearms like revolvers, bolt-action rifles, and crystal armor have become the standard for the modern mage. However, you need to understand that the magic wand has not completely left the stage of history; in many places, it still serves as a practical weapon... That’s pretty much it, class dismissed. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend."

After the large Saturday class ended, Li Aozi packed up his study materials. Hobbs and Lucite had already earned enough credits for this elective and had attended another, leaving him alone in this general studies class.

Just as Li Aozi turned to leave, suddenly, the professor called out from the podium:

"While most of you need not worry, I, this old fool, must reiterate: Monday’s test will determine whether you can pass this course. If some of you think you can scrape through with only a few group assignments, then I can only say: welcome to the makeup test."

Several students beside Li Aozi immediately laughed, and everyone’s gaze fell on him.

Clearly, he was one of the "certain people" the professor had mentioned.

"Is it that kid? The one who lost over a hundred credits in a week?"

"He must have cheated on the exams to get into this school, and now he can’t hide it anymore."

"He has a good-looking face, but who knows what methods he used to get in. Ha-ha, some people get in through connections, through the back door, and yet others... through the back door."

Li Aozi didn’t care about these matters. After a week of hard thinking, he had solidified the implementation of the strategy he saw during the version 3.16 in his mind, which had been dug up by some down-and-out self-media outlets.

"The content is still a bit vague, I need more specific details... I’ll have to seek the help of a magic potion."

Luckily, he had been inquiring about deeply buried memories and the like all week, and he had arranged a meeting this afternoon. He planned to skip class to meet with them.

As he passed the back row of desks, three students with frivolous expressions saw that he was alone and immediately had some evil thoughts, standing up to follow him.

"How about it? Want to tease this kid?"

"Usually that armored breed of catfish people is around, which really is a bit intimidating."

"What’s there to be afraid of? Didn’t you see that during the practice class, he couldn’t even cast a magic missile!?"

The three of them followed closely behind, but Li Aozi, oblivious to the external affairs, kept walking on his own. One of the students shouted at him,

"Hey, Bai Fumei."

As he walked and thought about how to approach the upcoming discussion, he completely failed to notice that someone was calling out to him from behind and continued walking forward. Seeing that Li Aozi had not reacted at all, the three immediately got irritated, ran up behind him, and reached straight out to grab Li Aozi’s shoulder:

"I’m talking to you, are you deaf!!?"

Before his hand could land on the shoulder, Li Aozi suddenly stopped moving up ahead.

Just then, as Li Aozi arrived at the gate, a strong wave of impact washed over him like a flood beast, immediately capturing his attention.

He looked up and immediately saw a horrifying scene: about twenty students lying on the ground, with violent magic energy radiation swirling around in the air, surging thermal energy melting the ground, dragging several students deep into the molten iron—only those of Gamma Rank quality barely survived.

This had already been an act of mercy by the perpetrator,

Still, even so, their bodies were almost completely charred, their skins broken and flesh burst open, with even a strong rancid smell of burning fat and charred flesh permeating the air, which was quite terrifying.

The instigator of this destruction, a girl, was holding a clueless spellcaster by the throat; the latter was struggling hard, stabbing wildly with a magic dagger in his hands but failing to pierce the seemingly delicate and fragile skin. With every clash between the blade and the faint dragonscale pattern on the skin, apart from sparking brilliant sparks, there were no other consequences.

"Uh ah—you monster—"

What a joke, twenty-one Gamma Rank mages couldn’t even break her skin.

The spellcaster was lifted above the girl’s head, his body burning with intense fire, his face clearly displaying terror, his resilient albeit feeble resistance seeming utterly pointless under her merciless grasp, more relentless than a golem.

"You’re just too weak; don’t demonize the enemy to excuse yourself."

Dialan flipped her wrist casually, tossing the student aside as if he were trash. Facing the crowd’s stares, she remained unbothered. However, sensing something, she slightly turned her head, her gaze meeting with Li Aozi, who had just walked out of the academic building.

"Yo!" Li Aozi casually greeted, "What a coincidence, you’re in this class too."

Although he had only met her twice, it still seemed appropriate to greet her out of politeness.

Dialan glanced at Li Aozi for a moment and said,

"This is a freshman general education course."

"I know, just needed an excuse to strike up a conversation," Li Aozi glanced at the gloomy sky, "The weather is really nice today, isn’t it? Have you eaten yet?"

Dialan shook her head lightly, not picking up on Li Aozi’s conversational cues, but instead, advised him,

"Do not let temporary setbacks lead you to permanent downfall."

After saying this, she casually swept her gaze over the few students behind Li Aozi, her look as sharp as a bayonet cutting through their fragile self-esteem, leaving them immobilized on the spot.

Dialan turned and left without another word, leaving Li Aozi feeling somewhat puzzled.

He turned his head and looked at the three students behind him:

"Did you want something?"

"No—not at all!"

The three students quickly waved their hands,

"We just wanted to remind you not to forget you have class this afternoon."

"Haha, I didn’t know you were that close with Dialan."

"We have something else to attend to, we won’t chat longer, see you later."

Li Aozi watched as the three students, like defeated jesters, scampered away, and he stroked his chin.

"What a pity, didn’t provoke those three into action."