Worldwide Class Change: Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward!

Next Morning...

A knock came at five forty-three in the morning.

Lin Yi knew it was Wang Hao before he opened his eyes. The knock had a particular rhythm to it, enthusiastic in a way that communicated both urgency and zero awareness of how early it was. He sat up, ran a hand through his hair, and opened the door.

Wang Hao stood in the hallway looking like he had been awake for at least an hour, fully dressed with his scout blade at his waist and a bag over one shoulder. Beside him, Su Qinghan stood, composed and unhurried, as though standing in someone’s dormitory hallway before six in the morning was a perfectly ordinary situation.

Lin Yi looked at Wang Hao. Then at Su Qinghan. Then back at Wang Hao.

"You came to disturb me this early... explain yourself."

Wang Hao immediately raised both hands. "Brother Lin, I want you to know I advised against this. Strongly. I said, Qinghan, this is the room of the Jianghe tournament champion, you cannot simply show up at this hour unannounced. I said it clearly." He shook his head with the expression of a man who had done his best and been ignored. "She insisted."

Su Qinghan gave Wang Hao a brief, unimpressed look. Then she turned to Lin Yi. "Morning."

"Morning," Lin Yi said.

"I thought it would make sense for the three of us to head to the bus together," she said, in the tone of someone explaining something self-evident. "Do you find that strange?"

Lin Yi stepped back from the doorway and began gathering his things from the desk. "Not strange. It would have been considerate to send a message first."

A short pause. "...Noted."

Wang Hao pointed at her from behind her shoulder with an expression that said see, I told you, while simultaneously ensuring she couldn’t see him doing it. Lin Yi picked up his bag, glanced once around the room, and walked out into the hallway.

Wang Hao fell into step immediately. "Brother Lin, I also want to formally suggest that in whatever dormitory you get assigned in Celestial City, you establish a clear policy about unannounced morning visitors. A policy that is posted on the door. Perhaps laminated."

"Walk faster," Lin Yi said.

"Yes, Champion."

Academy grounds.....

The academy grounds were already busy despite the early hour. Students in various states of readiness moved toward the east gate from every direction, bags over shoulders, weapons secured, some still eating breakfast while walking, others already deep in conversation about the exam.

The bus was already running when they arrived, a long, reinforced transit vehicle parked just outside the east gate with the academy crest on its side and a driver who looked as though he had made this trip enough times to stop being impressed by it. Several students were already boarding. Others stood in loose groups nearby, the kind of clusters that form when people are nervous and don’t want to stand alone with their nerves.

Principal Zhou stood near the front of the vehicle, speaking with two instructors. When enough students had gathered, he raised a hand and the remaining conversations tapered off.

"Before we depart," he said, his voice carrying easily in the open air, "I want to share information that reached the academy late last night regarding this year’s examination format."

The group went still. Wang Hao straightened slightly beside Lin Yi.

"The Celestial City Regional Examination will take place within the Dragon God Tower," Principal Zhou said. "One hundred floors. Each floor presents a combat challenge scaled in difficulty according to level. Clearing a floor earns ten points. Every floor you clear adds ten to your score. The ceiling is one thousand points, for those who can reach it." He paused. "I will not tell you that reaching the top is expected of you. I will tell you that the academies watching the results will draw their own conclusions based on where you stop."

Murmurs spread through the gathered students. Principal Zhou continued. "The examination permits team formation. A team may consist of a maximum of three participants. When teaming, each member of the team receives the full score individually. There is no split. If your team clears forty floors, every member of that team carries four hundred points." He looked across the group with steady eyes. "Choose your teams carefully. A strong team benefits everyone in it equally. A poorly formed one does not slow your score. It slows your progress."

He let that settle for a moment."That is all. Board when ready. We depart in ten minutes."

The groups began moving. And then, almost immediately, the chaos started.

It began with a third-year student Lin Yi didn’t recognize, who turned from where he had been standing, walked directly toward him, and said, without any preamble whatsoever, "Lin Yi. I want to be on your team."

Before Lin Yi could respond, someone else spoke from his left. "I called it first!"

"You didn’t call anything, you just turned around at the same time I did."

"Lin Yi, seriously, I’ve been watching your matches since the qualifications. Our classes complement each other extremely well."

"You’re a shield user! He has a Mythical weapon. He doesn’t need a shield user!"

"Everyone needs a shield user!"

Wang Hao stepped forward with his arms spread wide, physically inserting himself between Lin Yi and the growing cluster.

"Okay! Okay! Back up, all of you. Back. Up."

He used his most authoritative voice, which was considerably more authoritative than his usual voice. "What exactly is happening right now? You all want on his team?" He looked around at the faces. Several of them nodded. Wang Hao’s expression shifted into something between disbelief and genuine offense.

"That is fascinating. That is truly fascinating, because I distinctly remember some of you—" he pointed at a student near the back, "—and you—" another student, "—laughing when this man awakened an E-Rank Laborer class. I remember it. I was standing right there."

The students in question had the decency to look slightly uncomfortable. Wang Hao pressed on. "Now you want a spot on his team? Now that he’s the tournament champion? Now that he broke the speed record and defeated an S-Rank in the final, suddenly everyone is very interested in being his teammate?" He shook his head with exaggerated sorrow. "The audacity. The sheer, breathtaking audacity."

More students had gathered now, drawn by the commotion. The cluster around Lin Yi had grown to somewhere between fifteen and twenty people, a semicircle of hopeful faces at various levels of desperation. A girl near the front with a dual-blade setup said, more reasonably than most, "Lin Yi, I’m not asking to carry me. I have a B-Rank class. I can hold my own. I just think a balanced team with your strength at the center would be competitive for the upper floors."

"He already has a team," Wang Hao said firmly.

"Does he?" someone asked. "Has he said that?"

Everyone looked at Lin Yi. Wang Hao also looked at Lin Yi, with the particular expression of a person who was ninety percent confident but wanted that confirmed.

Lin Yi looked at the crowd for a moment. Then he looked at Wang Hao. Then at Su Qinghan, who had been watching the entire scene with the calm, detached observation.

"Wang Hao," Lin Yi said.

Wang Hao straightened immediately. "Present."

"Su Qinghan."

Su Qinghan nodded once.

"Three-person team," Lin Yi said. "We’re done."

The crowd absorbed this. Several people looked genuinely disappointed. The dual-blade girl exhaled through her nose. The shield user muttered something that might have been "worth a shot." Gradually, the cluster dispersed, students drifting back toward the bus and toward each other.

Wang Hao watched them go with the satisfied expression of a man who had defended something important. Then he turned back to Lin Yi and dropped his voice to barely above a whisper.

"Obviously it was going to be us. Obviously." He tilted his head very slightly toward Su Qinghan. "Though I will note, Brother Lin, that of all the highly skilled, strategically valuable teammates available to you at this academy, you chose the one who showed up uninvited at your door at five forty-three in the morning." He paused. "I’m just saying. Make of that what you will."

Su Qinghan, who had clearly heard this, did not turn around.

Lin Yi began walking toward the bus. "Get on."

Wang Hao jogged two steps to catch up and fell in beside him, leaning slightly closer. "She’s your woman, isn’t she," he whispered. "You can tell me."

"I will leave you here."

"I’m already on the bus!"

They boarded, and the bus pulled out through the east gate of Jianghe Hunter Academy, joining the early morning road that led north, toward Celestial City, toward the Dragon God Tower, and toward whatever waited on the other side of one hundred floors.