My Wife is a Hidden Big Shot-Chapter 34: Proctor Beta Morgan, Character Creation
Thanks to Alvin Morgan’s intervention, the news of Aurora Sinclair beating up Glenn Lockwood didn’t spread throughout Kingsford.
On Monday, she was able to go to school as usual without being harassed.
Senior Class 6.
Leon Barron walked into the classroom holding the student list for the district joint exam.
"The joint exam is on Wednesday. Its difficulty is comparable to the college entrance exams, and seating will be randomized for all students across the district. I’m handing out your admission tickets now. They have your name, exam location, and candidate number, so make sure to keep them safe. The proctors will check them every time you enter the exam hall..."
After getting her admission ticket, Luna Jennings was immediately disappointed. "Aurora, why aren’t we at the same school? I was hoping we could go shopping after the exam!"
Aurora Sinclair’s exam was at First City High School, while Luna Jennings would be taking hers at their own school.
Very few students from Class 6 were assigned to First City High School—only three or four. The majority would be taking the exam at their own school.
During the break, Jean Quincy ran to Class 6 to ask where Aurora Sinclair was taking her exam. When she saw it was First City High School, she was just as displeased as Luna Jennings.
"Ah! Why wasn’t I assigned to the same exam center as you guys?"
Luna Jennings asked curiously, "Who else is in the same exam center as Aurora?"
"My idiot brother!"
Luna Jennings was speechless.
Zeke Quincy had only barely scraped into Kingsford No. 1 High School because an appendicitis attack had prevented him from writing the essay on his entrance exam. For the past three years, however, his scores had dominated every test, earning him the title "Academic God" from his entire grade level.
’If he’s an idiot, what does that make them? The idiots of all idiots? The ultimate idiots?’
***
On the day of the exam, Butler Sinclair specially prepared a "perfect score" breakfast for Aurora Sinclair: one fried dough stick and two fried eggs, which together looked like the number 100.
But Tanner Sinclair shot back, "The language, math, and foreign language exams are all out of 150 points."
"Then eat three more slices of bacon!"
Tanner Sinclair was at a loss for words.
’Fifty points per slice of bacon? Why do I feel so flustered?’
Before she left, Tanner Sinclair imparted some of his vast exam-taking wisdom to Aurora Sinclair.
"My dear niece, based on your uncle’s years of test-taking experience, when you hit a multiple-choice question you don’t know, if three options are long and one is short, pick the shortest. If three are short and one is long, pick the longest. If all four are the same length, pick C. You’re guaranteed to ace the foreign language exam today..."
Master Sinclair couldn’t help but glare at him. "With your pathetic grades, stop feeding my granddaughter all this nonsense!"
Then he said kindly to Aurora Sinclair, "Aurora, don’t be nervous. Any score you get is fine..."
Aurora Sinclair nodded firmly.
’Grandpa wants me to get an 80!’
***
「7:00 AM」
A low-profile black sedan turned into the gates of First City High School.
A short, stout man in a suit quickly jogged to the side of the car as it came to a stop.
"Mr. Morgan, this way, please—"
With a deadpan expression, Beta Morgan gave the man a slight nod and followed him into one of the academic buildings.
Fifteen minutes remained before the foreign language test, the first subject of the joint exam.
Aurora Sinclair slowly walked into the exam room, holding the clear pouch for her test materials. Her eyes suddenly widened, and she stared blankly at the man on the dais for a moment. ’Why is he here?’ she wondered.
Beta Morgan smiled and held out his hand toward Aurora Sinclair. "Miss, your admission ticket!"
Aurora Sinclair said nothing.
"Miss, your seat is the third one in the third row. Please go take your seat."
Aurora Sinclair glanced at him again before slowly walking to her assigned seat.
Beta Morgan marveled inwardly at Aurora Sinclair’s composure. She had only been surprised for a moment upon entering and had already returned to her usual calm.
’My master is really going all-in on this worried-father routine,’ he thought. ’He was so concerned that Aurora Sinclair wouldn’t be comfortable with Kingsford’s mixed-school exam format that he insisted I come to First City High School to act as a proctor.’
As the exam bell rang, the district joint exam officially began!
Taking the opportunity to walk around the room, Beta Morgan went over to Aurora Sinclair’s desk and glanced at her test paper. He felt a pang of anxiety seeing her unhurriedly writing her name, school, and candidate number.
The listening comprehension section had already begun. While the other students were busy reading the questions, she was somehow still writing her name.
’Her writing speed is just too slow!’
What surprised Beta Morgan even more was that after finishing writing this information, Aurora Sinclair actually completed three listening comprehension questions in a row.
He immediately glanced at the papers of a few nearby students. Their answers were roughly the same.
’Is she just guessing?’
’Her accuracy is impressively high!’
***
Students were allowed to turn in their papers early for the district joint exam. Most of the candidates in the room had already left, but Aurora Sinclair was still slowly writing her essay.
Beta Morgan looked at her answer sheet. He had to admit, her handwriting in the foreign language was the neatest and most beautiful he had ever seen. He could just imagine the graders seeing her paper and happily giving her extra points for presentation.
Over the next two days, Beta Morgan noticed that in addition to her slow writing, Aurora Sinclair also had a habit of leaving questions blank. She left many of the major problems completely unanswered.
He clearly remembered that she had encountered some of these questions during her tutoring sessions and had gotten them all right. Logically, she shouldn’t be leaving them blank.
’Could her nerves be so bad during exams that she’s forgotten everything?’
Beta Morgan reported this to Alvin Morgan, but he just smiled and said nothing, not at all worried that she would do poorly.
’Alright then! The master certainly has a strong heart!’
***
The final subject of the district joint exam was the comprehensive science test. To Beta Morgan’s continued bewilderment, Aurora Sinclair was once again the last to turn in her paper, having left a significant number of questions blank.
Just as she stepped out the door, she saw Zeke Quincy standing outside the classroom waiting for her.
Zeke Quincy looked a little awkward when he saw her. "How’d you do?"
This science test was brutal enough to make a whole cohort of seniors cry. The test-setter was from the S-group of the national science olympiad, so it included many competition-level problems and even questions that were outside the official curriculum.
Zeke Quincy estimated his own score would only be around 260.
Unexpectedly, Aurora Sinclair said, "There were two questions I didn’t know how to do..."
Zeke Quincy froze. ’Only two she couldn’t answer? Is she serious?’
He stared at her in astonishment for a good while before finally sighing in resignation. ’This cousin of mine really has a different level of confidence!’
"The exams are over. Do you want to go relax a bit?"
Zeke Quincy felt a pang of guilt as he asked. Someone had invited him to play games at an internet cafe, but Jade Sinclair never allowed him to go to them.
So he came up with a devious plan: rope Aurora Sinclair into going with him.
That way, even if Jade Sinclair found out, she wouldn’t be able to say much. Besides, he’d already told their grandfather he was taking Aurora Sinclair out to de-stress after the exams. Their grandfather had readily agreed and even offered to pay for their time at the cafe.
"How about I take you to an internet cafe to play games?"
Aurora Sinclair thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
A rare smile spread across Zeke Quincy’s face. He even bought her a pack of yogurt drinks, a popular choice among girls, at the school gate.
"Young Master Shawn, is the Campus Belle coming to the internet cafe with us too?" the speaker, one of Zeke Quincy’s classmates, asked.
The moment he saw Aurora Sinclair, his eyes widened in amazement, practically sparkling. He’d long heard the guys from Class 6 talk about how incredible she was at games.
Zeke Quincy laughed and gave him a light smack. "What are you staring at? Go save us some spots!"
"You got it—"
The internet cafe wasn’t far from First City High School. The group arrived after a ten-minute walk.
They rented a small private room directly, which had a total of six stations. It was on the second floor, and the environment was much quieter than downstairs.
Zeke Quincy patiently taught Aurora Sinclair how to use the computer, leaving the other three boys completely dumbfounded.
’Holy crap! The Campus Belle doesn’t know how to use a computer?’
Zeke Quincy looked up and saw three stunned faces. He explained helplessly, "She lived on a mountain before and never used a computer..."
Aurora Sinclair cooperatively nodded. "Never used one."
The three of them were speechless.
’The Campus Belle really is one of a kind!’
***
*Battle for Glory* was Veridia’s most popular online multiplayer and esports game. Nearly every internet cafe advertised it, and its icon was always the first one on the desktop’s game launcher.
"Campus Belle, what’s your game ID? Let’s add each other!"
Aurora Sinclair shook her head. "I don’t have an account!"
"What? Then how did you boost Alex Warren’s rank?" one of Zeke Quincy’s classmates asked, his jaw practically hitting the floor.
’A gaming god without an account? What the hell is that about?’
Zeke Quincy continued to explain to them, "She doesn’t play games at home. She only helps Ethan Lowell and a few others at school, and she uses their accounts."
"Damn! Are you serious?"
"Campus Belle, you should make an account right now! I’ll help you level up!"
Zeke Quincy then showed Aurora Sinclair how to register for an account.
When they got to the character creation screen, he clicked on one of the professions and started explaining.
"*Battle for Glory* has Seven Great Professions: Mage, Swordsman, Healer, Archery, Knight, assassin, and Summoner. You can try them all out, pick a profession based on what you like, and then create your character..."
As Zeke Quincy introduced them, he clicked on each character class with the mouse. The boy across from them asked curiously, "Campus Belle, which profession are you going to choose? Healer or Summoner?"
In *Battle for Glory*, those two professions were the most popular among female players. First, their skills were simple to use, allowing them to stay in the back and be protected by the rest of the team. Second, the female character models for these two professions were considered the most beautiful, appealing to the aesthetic preferences of most girls.
Aurora Sinclair tried out all seven professions, and finally chose the assassin profession.
Everyone was speechless.
The assassin was considered the most useless of the Seven Great Professions in *Battle for Glory*. Not only was it difficult to play, but it was also a "glass cannon"—extremely fragile. Aside from its high speed and burst damage, it had no other redeeming qualities.
Someone had once even posted a poll on the forums to vote for the most difficult profession to play in *Battle for Glory*. The assassin had received three times as many votes as the runner-up, the Mage, soundly "winning" the top spot.
Zeke Quincy glanced at her Level 1 character, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Are you sure you want to play an assassin?"
Aurora Sinclair nodded.
On the screen, her assassin character was clad in a sleek black outfit, with only a pair of eyes visible. She held a sharp dagger in each hand and looked incredibly cool.
"Actually, you can re-select your profession before Level 10..."
"Not changing." Aurora Sinclair was unusually firm.
Seeing this, a boy across from them gave Aurora Sinclair a thumbs-up. "Campus Belle, you’re awesome!"
"Alright, you guys go run a dungeon first. I’ll get her to Level 10!"
Zeke Quincy was too embarrassed to ask his classmates to help power-level Aurora Sinclair. The assassin class was notoriously slow to level up in the early stages.
This was mainly because the assassin’s base stats were low health and weak defense; a single tap from a low-level monster could be fatal. Consequently, players leveling an assassin almost always had to team up and get power-leveled to Level 10 just to leave the starting zone.
"Aurora, just stick close behind me in a bit. Don’t let the red monsters catch up to you."
Aurora Sinclair nodded.
