I Don't Need To Log Out

The exam day arrived faster than anyone expected.

By the time Friday morning came, the academy was tense with anticipation.

The usual lively energy of students moving through the halls was replaced with quiet focus and nervous determination.

For the players, it was just another day—except this time, they were walking into an exam they barely had a week to prepare for.

One by one, they logged in and left their dorm rooms. After gathering together, they moved toward the first exam's classroom, blending into the sea of students doing the same.

The players had plenty of ways to cheat.

Their systems provided them with unfair advantages—ways to store and retrieve information instantly.

Most of them would probably use it, too.

After all, they had already saved every kind of study material they could find into their systems, making it easier to reference key concepts and formulas.

And in a way, wasn't that just another way of studying?

Of course, that only applied to questions with clear, factual answers. For anything requiring analysis, reasoning, or creativity, their system wasn't going to help much.

Arlon, however, didn't need it.

He walked with quiet confidence, his gaze fixed ahead.

For him, there was no reason to cheat. He already knew he could get full marks on his own.

After all, he hadn't just studied from the academy's material—he had memorized an entire book of magic theory from a legendary figure.

As they neared the classroom, Zack exhaled loudly. "Alright, let's get this over with."

Evan smirked. "Feeling nervous?"

"Nah," Zack grinned. "Just mentally preparing for the moment I realize I forgot to study half the material."

Pierre sighed. "You literally have the entire syllabus in your system."

Zack shrugged. "Doesn't mean I read it."@@novelbin@@

Arlon ignored their chatter as he stepped into the classroom. The exam was about to begin.

And he was ready.

---

The moment the first bell rang, a shift swept through the academy.

It was subtle, but Arlon noticed it immediately—the way the casual murmur of students faded into focused silence, the way movements became sharper, more deliberate.

The energy in the air wasn't nervousness. It was readiness.

The students at Cardon Academy had spent years training for this.

The players, on the other hand, had spent a week.

Arlon walked into the first exam room alongside the others, scanning the space.

Rows of desks were neatly arranged, the classroom much larger than their usual theory rooms to accommodate the entire grade.

Professors were already present, standing at the front with stacks of exam papers in hand.

Some students had already taken their seats. Others were still trickling in, finding their assigned spots. The players blended into the movement, taking their places without drawing attention.

Zack dropped into his seat with a sigh. "So, do we get a ten-second countdown or what?"

"Just be quiet and wait," Pierre muttered.

The second bell rang.

A professor stepped forward, eyes scanning the room. "You will each receive your first exam now. As you know, once you complete it, you will move to the next assigned classroom for your next test. There are no breaks in between. Answer carefully and efficiently."

With that, the exam officially began.

---

Arlon barely glanced at the title of the first test before he got to work.

The exam itself wasn't difficult for him—he had already mastered everything from Agema's book, A Magician's Secret. The real challenge wasn't the content; it was the time pressure.

Students weren't meant to sit and ponder every question at their leisure. The exam was designed to test not just knowledge, but speed and clarity of thought.

Around him, he could already hear the soft scratching of quills against paper. The academy students worked quickly, their training evident in their steady hands and focused expressions.

Arlon matched their pace effortlessly. Facts, theories, equations—they all came easily.

For most of the players, though, the experience was very different.

Pierre glanced at a question and discreetly flicked his eyes toward his system interface, scanning for the notes he had saved.

Since the system would help with anything, searching for an answer wasn't hard.

He wasn't alone—many of the players relied on their system to make sure they didn't fall behind.

But, it would still take time to check things on the system and then write it. Explore stories on My Virtual Library Empire

Of course, they were subtle about it. The professors were watching, and while the players had advantages, they weren't foolish enough to draw suspicion.

Zack, meanwhile, looked like he was fighting for his life.

"Why do we even need to know this?!" he mentally screamed to himself as he tried to recall a formula he was pretty sure he had skipped while studying.

Evan, sitting a few seats away, was working efficiently—not because he had studied properly, but because he had already pulled up the relevant pages from his system.

The first exam ended fast for some and painfully slow for others.

Once a student finished, they stood up, submitted their test, and moved immediately to the next classroom for the second exam.

The cycle repeated.

Test after test.

No breaks. No pauses.

By the time Arlon reached his final written exam, he could tell that he was one of the faster ones.

He was alone in the last classroom together with Alia and Mei. These three were the fastest ones.

June, one classroom behind, rubbed her temples, muttering something under her breath before forcing herself to focus.

Zack had his head down, concentrating so hard that he barely noticed when Pierre nudged his chair to remind him to keep moving.

Arlon, however, was completely fine.

By the time he set down his quill on the final test, he was certain of one thing—he had scored full marks except for the one essay he had to write.

And that essay's mark depended on the professor.

---

By the time Arlon, Mei, and Alia finished their final written exam, the classroom was nearly empty.

The other students were still working through their tests, meaning the three of them were the first to move on to the next phase.

Without waiting, they left the exam hall and walked through the academy's corridors toward the designated mission evaluation area.

Unlike the written exams, which required sitting in a classroom, the individual mission assessments took place in different locations, depending on the nature of the task.

Professors had stationed themselves across various training halls, research rooms, and practice arenas, ready to judge each student's progress.

Since no one else had finished yet, Arlon thought that the halls would be silent. But it was filled with students changing classrooms.

As they arrived at the evaluation area, one of the professors—an older magus with graying hair and sharp eyes—looked up from his notes and nodded.

"First ones here," he remarked. "Expected."

Neither Mei nor Alia looked surprised. They had always been among the fastest in written tests.

Arlon, of course, had barely noticed.

The professor set his notes aside. "Alright. Let's not waste time. You know how this works. One by one, you'll present the results of your individual mission. You can choose any professor here."

Mei stepped forward first.

The professor gestured toward the open practice area behind him. "Then let's see it."