Soulless Players

"Let's start the oral examination."

The students around instantly became tense. They unanimously bowed their heads to their books, trying not to make eye contact with the professor.

Philip was confused about the strange and suffocating atmosphere. As he had no idea of what was about to occur.

'What is an oral examination? And why do they look afraid of the professor?' He then glanced at Miss Leffindor, 'Yes. She's kinda scary but is it enough for them…'

Philip stopped. No. More like he was forcibly stopped by Miss Leffindor's call.

"Elise Mcflurry. Stand up."

Philip didn't know why but when he heard her calling out names from her index cards, his body uncontrollably trembled.

"What is happening? Why is my instinct telling me to run?"

It was then Philip was about to experience all college students are feared of:

A graded and random oral recitation.

Elise stood up and hesitantly looked at the teacher. She tried to keep her fingers from shaking by holding them tightly with her sweaty hands.

Miss Leffindor took no notice of Elise's small act as all her sight was on the opened thick book on the table.

"What is the maximum spacing of vertical shear reinforcement for a beam of size 250 x 360 mm?" Miss Leffindor asked, her eyes still glued on the book and the index cards laid on the table.

Elise heaved a sigh of relief after Miss Leffindor finished her question and answered confidently, "270 mm."

"Good." Miss Leffindor took a pen and wrote something on the index card. Shortly after, she shuffled the index cards and called out a name,

"Adolf Hitter."

Elise smiled as she took a seat. Meanwhile, Philip heard a chair scratching the floor from behind. He glanced back and saw the tall and expressionless Adolf standing firmly as he was about to enter the battlefield.

"The width of stairs in a residential building should be at least…"

"900 mm." Adolf smiled menacingly. His usual expressionless face turned into a criminal satisfied with his kill.

"Correct." Miss Leffindor declared and continued calling out names.

Philip was dumbfounded. If he still doesn't understand what is happening, then he is an idiot!

'So this is an oral examination..' Philip quickly opened his book in panic and buried his head in it.

But when he saw what was inside, he felt like he was about to lose his breath and pass out.

'What sorcery is this?!' He asked internally. He finally felt what his classmates and all college students felt every time they had an important examination.

'I don't understand everything.'

It was understandable for Philip to know nothing about the subject. After all, he was focused only on Conrad's social circle and mannerisms. As for his course, he never studied it nor opened his book.

'What to do?' He asked himself nervously. The nervousness he felt was greater than when he faced life-and-death situations.

'Well, I can just say an incorrect answer and reason out an excuse for being absent for almost a month,' He pondered, trying to run away from the problem.

However, when he noticed his classmates answered every question Miss Leffindor threw, he somehow felt ashamed for not acting like Conrad.

Based on what Conrad had told him, while he was a loner in school, he had always maintained the first rank every semester. Meaning, that if he was Conrad, he would surely answer the question even if he was absent for a month.

'Today I am Conrad, not Philip. So I have to act like a real one.' Philip decided. He didn't want to risk Conrad's first place.

'Then, I think it's time to use this.' Philip said something under his breath, and an invisible screen panel immediately appeared before him.

______________

Stats:

Physique: 18 (+15) [>]

Mental: 13

Mana: 0

Spirit: 0

Attributable Points: 63

______________

Philip then focused his sight on his Stats and noticed his Mental increased to 13 from 12.

However, while he wanted to find the reason behind its increase, time limited him as anytime soon Miss Leffindor would call out his name.

He quickly allocated 5 to Mental, hoping to increase his intelligence.

[ Mental: 13 (+5) ]

Immediately, he tried its effects by reading and scanning his book.

After a short while, he cursed and groaned internally, 'I still don't understand.'

While Philip noticed his intelligence and memory retention improved, he still could not understand the subject.

After all, even if he became smarter, he still had no clue about the topic. And with no foundation, he would still be dumber than someone with an average IQ who dedicated one hour every day to study the subject.

Having realized this, instead of understanding the course, he only memorized what his brain could memorize.

Philip flipped his book so fast that his seatmate took notice of him. However, while the seatmate was bothered by it, she never stopped him as she had yet been called out and had to quickly review her notes.

This ridiculous action of Philip continued until he finally heard Conrad's name being called out by the professor.

"Conrad Davies. Stand up." Miss Leffindor said. Unlike earlier, her eyes weren't on her book but on Philip.

"You've been absent for nine of my sessions, Mr. Conrad," Miss Leffindor said sternly.

"While I understand you have a reason, it is still difficult for me to let you off the hook." She continued, "I wanted to fail you in my class, but you have always been at the top of our department that it's a pity to have you out…"

Miss Leffindor sat poker-faced, drumming the arm of her chair with her pen.

"So to give you a chance, I will ask you 10 questions, and if you answer everything correctly, then I will just forget your absences." She glanced at Philip and said with a smile,

"I hope you studied your missed lessons during your absences, Mr. Conrad. As you can see, I also don't want to fail the top one in my class."

"Yes, Professor," Philip answered slowly. His mind was still on the book, trying to recall every word and sentence he scanned.

He stared at Miss Leffindor with a hazy gaze, waiting for the first question she would throw.

"In an R.C. beam, the main reinforcement consists of 16 mm bars and coarse aggregate size used in 20 mm. The horizontal distance between two parallel reinforcing bars should not be less than?"

When Philip heard the first question, his mind quickly moved and materialized an illusionary book floating in front of him.

The book opened and flipped its pages, looking for the words 'R.C beam', 'Horizontal distance', and 'Parallel reinforcing bars' within.

Then a second later, the book stopped flipping and showed page 45 with a highlighted sentence.

"The distance between the two should not be less than 25 mm." Philip read the highlighted sentence out loud.

Miss Leffindor nodded as if she had expected his answer and said, "Correct."

She continued asking questions from the book, and Philip answered them correctly.

And when Miss Leffindor's eight-question was answered correctly, she could not finally control herself from letting out a smile.

"Good. Good." She complimented, her face beaming with joy.

All the students who had already called out were looking at Philip with proud gazes. While the students who weren't done with the recitation buried their heads even more in their book.

"Question 9," Miss Leffindor said, flipping the book even further.

When Philip saw her action, he froze. He knew what was coming and this was also confirmed by his system.

Ting!

______________

[Karma sees the player is doing well and chooses to make the player suffer.]

______________

Philip's eyes widened from the sudden System's notification and heard Miss Leffindor's next question.

"What is Characteristic strength?"

The students unanimously gasped as they quickly flipped their books.

Philip also looked deep into his memories. And when the materialized book stopped flipping to page 102, he realized the question was not in the pages he had memorized.

Philip trembled as he had no way of knowing the answer. Additionally, he felt pressured because if he could not answer it, Conrad might fail the class.

The students murmured noisily. They also didn't know the answer and quickly looked into their books.

"Quiet!" Miss Leffindor slammed the table hard, silencing the students around.

Philip remained frozen. He also wanted to look at his book. But with Miss Leffindor intently staring at him, he could not do so.

Philip noticed his seatmate stopped flipping and unconsciously glimpsed at him.

"Eyes on me, Mr. Conrad!" She scolded.

Philip quickly took his sight away and looked straight at the professor.

'I saw it…' He murmured. For less than a second, he managed to see what was written on the page.

'But aside from the bolded chapter title, Characteristic Strength, everything is hazy…'

"Mr. Conrad, please answer the question. What is Characteristic strength?" She asked once again, giving Philip no time to think of an answer.

However, no matter what Philip did, he could not remember what was written on the hazy part of his memory.

"10…9…" Miss Leffindor's countdown had pressured Philip more.

Philip gritted his teeth. He had already invested in this exam and did not want to fail.

Shortly, he glanced at his system panel and decided,

'+12 to Mental.'