The Race

Appearing in the place of the principal was an examiner who started speaking, "Hello, students; the physical exam will consist of 3 events, and there are only 3 official grades in the event. Starting from highest to lowest in terms of performance is excellent, passing, and failing. You must get a minimum passing score in each event to pass the physical exam. However, if you fail in 1 of the 3 events, there is still a way to pass the exam. If you receive an excellent grade in the other 2 events, that will also pass you in the exam. Also, for the first time since the academy's founding, there is now another grade above excellence."

The students were slightly stunned by the examiner's last sentence, including the people watching in the stands. The grading system they were familiar with had been in place for centuries, and it's been such a long academy tradition that people in the solar system often refer to the academy's grading system for other schools. However, their academy had clearly changed the system around.

The examiner allowed the crowd a brief time to take the news in before continuing, "the principal will be nominating an MVP from each event, making it a total of 3 chances to receive an MVP grade. The principal has stated that there is no official reward for receiving an MVP title. However, receiving an MVP title from the principal displays that he believes the student has great potential."

The students listening didn't have to be told the significance of receiving the title. Although they wouldn't receive an official reward it goes without stating that the title is the reward itself. Obtaining a title from the legendary Lyon would automatically make companies and business groups want to recruit that person into their ranks and offer tremendous benefits. It displays that the principal favors them and that they may become influential figures in the future.

Hearth couldn't help but be moved by this title and the other students. If he could receive the MVP as Terra and himself, he would be guaranteed the slots for the future galactic sector tournament. Although the examiner has not mentioned if MVP titles would get the positions, he knew they would. If he didn't receive the MVP titles, he'd have to get the remaining two slots while competing with everybody else.

The examiner let the students calm down before continuing his speech, "like every year, the courses change each time. This year the first exam will be a racing competition with speed bikes!

Cheering erupted from the crowds of spectators eagerly anticipating the event. The examiner didn't need to talk about it, but it goes without saying that these yearly events were a significant source of entertainment. Initially, the series of competitions to fight to become a student at Pandora were a severe affair that generally was only witnessed by families of the students. However, some academy's used the event to turn it into a competition and get money from spectators. Over time with encouragement from the Federation leadership and businesses eagerly wanting to advertise or sponsor students, this event quickly turned into a yearly sport.

The final tournament to Pandora was practically the equivalent to ancient humanities Fifa tournament scaled to an unimaginable scale to the human mind. Every year the last match for Pandora is said to draw in at least 90% of the people living in the Federation. That viewership total has only ever been toppled by the senate's 100-year state of the Federation address.

Considering all these factors, it makes sense that almost the entirety of their solar system was watching this tournament, with about 32 billion people tuning in or spectating from the stands.

"The racing competition will have students from their classes face off against each other until there is only 1 representative left from each class to face off against the other class representatives. The rules are simple." The instructor waved his hand to the side and displayed a virtual screen to the rest of the students. The ginormous screen showed a massive racing course through a vast urban city with AI-generated beings sprawled across the system, ready to cause chaos. "Anything goes between the students, with the only rule being that a student's performance should come from their own abilities. Any outside influence, such as armor, potions, magic, external communication, etc., will automatically result in a failing grade and disqualify a student's physical exam. Depending on the severity of the cheating, the student might be expelled from the academy and blacklisted from future academy events.

The students gulped in fear. The effort and amount of time the academies put into anti-cheating measures were insane. Nobody dared to face the consequences and due to a strict policy people sometimes would be paranoid that they were cheating without recognizing it. It goes without saying that cheating has rarely been an issue throughout the entire series of tournaments.

The examiner zoomed in at the start of the race and started speaking again, "this race has 4 sections you must survive through. You will begin at the city's outskirts and make your way through the perilous urban sprawl while avoiding booby traps and cartels attempting to eliminate you. You also have to keep in mind that students.

The examiner waved his arm again, and the screen swiveled over to a large barren mass, "If you can make it through the city, you will have to get through the desert while dealing with its various inhabitants." As he finished his last sentence, a giant mandible erupted from a sand pit, devouring a surprised giant scorpion.

Even the most emotionless students felt a slight shiver go down their spines. Pain reception in the game was diluted to an extreme degree, and death would feel like a pinch and an explosion into pixels. However, it still needed to be a fun experience for the imagination or the experience of getting eaten.

"Moving on from the desert, you will proceed to a jungle track where you should be wary of false paths and veering off course." The examiner showcased an overhead view of the jungle, which was incredibly dense. The proctor didn't allow the image to stay up too long before moving on to the course's final section.

The last image presented was a steep incline that opened up into a mountainous region. Chills spread throughout the students' hearts immediately. The examiner acknowledged their fears, "The last area doesn't have any booby traps, inhabitants, or any obstacle put in place. The environment itself is more dangerous than any of the other courses. Narrow spaces, and corners, making a wrong turn, and going too fast or slow can result in you falling to your death. And with you having to worry about your fellow peers attempting to sabotage you, the race will become extremely dangerous.

Many students felt like enormous pressure was crushing down their shoulders. The first section of the race was already dangerous, let alone the final section; how were they supposed to pass?

As if sensing the student's disparity, the examiner spoke again, "before you feel helpless, due to the race's extreme risks, it is faster to receive a passing grade. If you pass the first section of the race within a certain time limit, you will automatically receive a passing grade, albeit barely. If you pass the 2nd and 3rd sections, you will receive an excellent grade depending on your time. Finally, the last section of the race is whoever reaches the last destination first will receive an MVP title."

The people listening felt hunger and greed overwhelm them. Since you could receive an excellent grade without passing the 4th section of the race, most people were planning on stopping there. However, now that it was 100% clear that the first person to reach the end would receive MVP, everyone was gunning for it. Even people with little chance of success figured it was worth giving it a shot.

Hearth's eyes were blazing with passion and anticipation. He knew without a doubt that he needed to make it to the end.

The examiner nodded in satisfaction seeing the passion of the students rise up. "The classes will start from lowest to highest; you will have 10 minutes to discuss plans with one another." The school had already prepared the connection to the student's virtual space and the various classes of lower students were transported to a waiting room.

Hearth was among the people transported, and he immediately eyed some of his fellow classmates. His class was generally unremarkable, and there weren't any actual noteworthy figures except Simion. He wasn't a genuine issue, but keeping a neutral agreement with him was still good because he had a small gang of lackeys that could cause some problems for him. Besides Simion, no one else was deeply concerned about it. A couple of male and female students were either jealous or mad at him that he would have to look out for, but nothing too serious.

He decided to sit down on the couch and chill out for the next 10 minutes. Each race had at least one commentator for each event and a female narrator was commenting on Hearth's class. "Some students think that they're too good to work with others, but remember it's essential to have good communication skills," she spoke. Unfortunately for Hearth, the narrator commenting on his race was a female teacher who had dealt with his shameless antics at the academy and was biased against him. Seeing him lazily sitting down on the couch while the other students were discussing, she couldn't miss the opportunity to get a couple digs in on Hearth.

Hearth, unknowing that he had drawn the attention of a vengeful commentator, continued to act poorly on camera. He dug his pinky into his ear and flicked away the wax causing the female commentator to go off again. More people tuned into Hearth's event due to the commentator's chatter, and more people were exposed to Hearth's shamelessness. In record time, Hearth's class stream numbers had shot up to millions of viewers.

Without realizing it Hearth had caused what should have been a stream limited to family viewership to millions of people tuning in to see the chaos.