"Hey, little one, hand over your badge."
While Lin Xiaolu was still immersed in her own thoughts, elsewhere in the exam hall, Emerald Sparrow was facing three candidates alone.
The reason things ended up like this is a long story, but if we skip all the details, it can be simply summarized as: she got separated from her two teammates.
The three had originally entered the Cloud Realm together, but their luck was too poor, as they soon encountered a man-made magic power air current. In this Cloud Realm, whether it was that the Magical Girl's weight became lighter, or the power of the airflow was enhanced, the Magical Girl, who could originally travel freely in the storm, found herself unable to control her own movements in this turbulence.
Emerald Sparrow managed, with exquisite control of her magic power, to emerge unscathed as if nothing had happened, but due to limited visibility, she couldn't grab onto Dogtail Grass and Tu Dinggui in time, and these two teammates were blown off to unknown locations.
Following that, she encountered the current scene—a trio of candidates came across Emerald Sparrow, who was looking for her teammates solo, and approached her with the mentality that "it doesn't matter what the number is, getting an extra badge is never bad."
What should she do?
Emerald Sparrow couldn't help but fall into thought.
If she directly knocked down these three candidates, it would undoubtedly affect their exam scores. Their current behavior was merely a natural choice to earn more points and wasn't wrong. Stripping them of their combat power would be too much. But if she handed over her badge, it would be too irresponsible for Dogtail Grass and Tu Dinggui, who were still taking the exam seriously. She certainly shouldn't be dragging them down.
After thinking it through, it seemed she had only one option left.
——"Hey, why aren't you saying anything? Don't blame us for bullying the weak. If you don't hand over your badge soon, we'll have to make a move," said the leader of the three Magical Girls.
"Yeah, yeah! If you don't want any trouble, just be obedient!"
"You two, isn't this a bit too harsh? Don't scare the little kid to tears..." her two teammates chimed in.
Emerald Sparrow listened to their lively chatter, sighed slightly, and softly said, "Sorry," then waved her hand.
"Hmm? Did she just say something?"
"You must've heard it wrong. It should be just the wind—whoa ahhhhh!"
"What's happening? Why are you suddenly—whoa hey hey hey!"
With Emerald Sparrow's action, the candidates' words turned into screams.
——Because Emerald Sparrow used threads to tie their feet together, ensuring all three were linked, then packed them up with magic power and tossed them out.
Thanks to the venue, normally throwing someone out with threads would be inefficient in terms of magic power, but now, she only needed a bit of strength to effortlessly fling these candidates away.
The force with which she threw them wasn't too strong, so they shouldn't land too far away, but it was enough for her to escape. Whatever happens to them next was none of her concern. Whoever they want to fight in the future is their business, as long as they don't come after her again.
After a brief pause to determine the direction, Emerald Sparrow continued to sense the magic power of Dogtail Grass and Tu Dinggui as she moved forward. After that, she began to frequently encounter other teams, whether due to bad luck or some other reason.
Most of these teams were trying to score some easy points seeing she was alone—these people were all thrown out by Emerald Sparrow. There were also a few who were filled with a sense of charity, seeing Emerald Sparrow as a lost child and wanting to take her along—Emerald Sparrow could only politely refuse.
Afterward, the odd rumor of the "beanbag kid" began to spread among the candidates, but that's another story.
...
...
Xia Liang's situation wasn't particularly great either.
Although she was indeed with her teammates and hadn't been caught in any major incidents, and even found a small Sky Island, she discovered another issue: her magic armor ability, for some reason, was ineffective against the clouds here.
Almost instantly, she recalled the magic armor assessment from a few days ago. After Yue Ji got her magic armor data, for some reason, Yue Ji gave her a somewhat mysterious smile.
"Are we really adults if we fuss over such things..." she mumbled, dumbfounded.
Obviously, her magic armor had been specifically targeted in this assessment.
Since the clouds in the Cloud Realm are essential for limiting visibility, mixed with the Sky Island, they tested the candidates' ability to investigate their surroundings and hid the position of the Sky Island. Candidates had to get quite close to determine which clouds had formed Sky Island and which were just simple clouds.
Undoubtedly, Xia Liang's magic armor should have still been useful here, not just for seeing through the clouds to observe the surroundings, but also for distinguishing between Sky Island and clouds from a distance, greatly improving exploration efficiency. Further, she could have moved the clouds with her magic armor to hide from other teams... but now all these applications were prohibited by Yue Ji.
Although, theoretically, if Xia Liang's magic armor couldn't affect these magically formed clouds, other candidates' magic armors likely wouldn't be effective either, which was fair. But the whole affair gave the impression that Yue Ji was being a bit petty.
Perhaps she was just overthinking it.
Xia Liang told herself.
After a long flight, she, along with Shan Dan and Juan Dan, finally found a small Sky Island. The three gathered together, waiting for their magic power to recover while discussing their next tactical move.
"I think we need to take the initiative and get as many other badges as possible."
Xia Liang analyzed, "Though just keeping our own badge would give us a considerable score, if we want to beat those teams with an S Level, a conservative strategy won't win."
After she said this, Shan Dan raised a hand, and Xia Liang gestured, signaling him to speak: "Free to speak, Team Member Shan Dan."
"Question! Xiao Jin, you speak so nonchalantly, but can we really win?" Shan Dan asked curiously.
"We don't actually need to win." Xia Liang said.
"If we can't win, how do we grab the badges?" Shan Dan asked, even more curious.
"Well, that's obviously up to you two." Xia Liang grinned, "Didn't you notice? The gravity in this exam field, or rather the weight of objects, is much lighter?"
"Indeed, it feels that way." Juan Dan remarked, "Flying consumes less magic power, but it takes more effort to stabilize in the wind... The examiners probably considered that flying for a long time without finding a Sky Island would overly deplete magic power and might even cause candidates to crash out, so they made this adjustment, right?"
"What's your magic armor ability, the two of you?" Xia Liang continued to ask.
"Of course, it's wind... ah." Juan Dan realized.
"W-wind, so what?" Shan Dan still didn't get it, "You mean we can blow people away?"
"No, what's the use of blowing people away if you can't grab their badges?" Xia Liang waved her finger, "However, we can combine our magic armors. Say, if I gave you a mirror and you placed it behind you, then blew wind towards another mirror, what would happen?"
"Er... I don't know." Shan Dan tilted his head.
"Ahem, let's put it this way." Seeing that Shan Dan still didn't understand, Xia Liang explained in a somewhat exasperated tone:
"Have you ever heard of a robber's tactic called the Flying Car Gang?"
