Yuel and Howard discussed the various issues pguing the entrance exam. Namely, the issues of the first two tests: the one-kilometer run and the quiz.

  Every time, Yuel brought up and issue and Howard defended against it. It’s like they became a duo of prosecutor and defeorney.

  “Obje,” Howard said. “Regarding the race, despite what we say on stage we actually accept everybody who makes it to the finish li doesn’t matter whether they run, walk or even crawl. As long they reach the goal, it’s fine.”

  “I see,” Yuel nodded while jotting down notes. “So, when you said that those who do poorly will fail, it art of testing their resolve.”

  “A rick, right? Haha.”

  Yuel had mixed feeling about it. Yes, it was much better than failing people for poor fitness. But, was it fiving enough? If Yuel hadn’t met Lars and hadn’t started jogging, how would he have reacted to these rules? As motivated as he was to py Cssmancers, he might have given up midway along the race.

  It’s impossible to know for sure now, but there’s a ce he would have failed and that worried him. Testing resolve was good and all, but it shouldn’t e with the risk of filtering out talented pyers. Yuel shared his s.

  “That’s not a bad line of thinking,” Howard said. “Except, we ’t discover these ‘talented pyers’ before we start the exam, right? If we could, we wouldn’t need an exam in the first pce.”

  “That's true...” Yet again, a csh between theory and practice. Yuel knew what had to be improved but didn’t have a practical solution. The goal of the exam was to discover the highest caliber pyers, which meant the exam should ehe talented pyers don’t fail. But, there’s one big problem: the examiners didn’t have any magical way to discover said talents ahead of time, so there’s no way to ehe exam will suit them.

  “I wonder,” Yuel said. “Wasn't there any way for me or Lars to prove ourselves before we got to the first test? Anything that stood out about us?”

  “Among the hundred didates? Not really. Though, I believe you were the only ones in Ptinum at the time.”

  “Ah, that’s it!” Yuel jumped. “We use ranks! Say, we let anybody who is Gold her skip the first test. And, maybe even the sed test.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Howard nodded. “We ask them to firm their ranks by telling us their IDs, so there won't be any cheating. It’ll be a little pain to go over all these ats and write them down, but I’m sure you ha.”

  “No problem. Okay, so that’s it,” Yuel jotted down the idea in his notebook and drew a big circle around it. “Pyers ranked Gold her skip the first test and maybe the sed test too.”

  “I’d even sider l the requirement a little. You picked Gold because it’s one below Ptinum, right? So, it catches those who pyed as much as you and a little less.”

  “Pretty much. It’s also the divisiory and Taison had at the time.”

  “Just so you know, that’s rare on these exams. You not gonna have more than a handful of kids who reached these ranks, or even reached Ra all.”

  “So, maybe anybody who hit Lv. 50 in their ats?”

  “That's an option. I’ll leave the specifics to you. There’s still plenty of time to decide till the exam.”

  “That’s true,” Yuel wrote down “sider l the requirement from Gold. Maybe being Lv. 50 is enough.”

  With this, two of Yuel’s biggest gripes about the exam were partially resolved. No matter how terribly unfit a didate was or how bad they were at quizzes, they’ll easily make it through if they pyed Cssmancers enough and reached Ranked.

  The issue was the way the quiz was hahe examinees weren’t given any time to prepare and it could easily fail anybody who was terrible at taking exams. For example, Lars and Taisoing examinees skip this stage based on at level was a good start, but it’s not enough. Not giving them any tools to prepare for the quiz was ht unfair.

  “We hand out example sheets,” Howard suggested. “I actually thought of this idea st year, but it slipped my mind until it was too te.”

  “Examples are great, I agree,” Yuel nodded. “But, the format of the quiz is also an issue. It’s too arbitrary,” he referred to the big pool of possible multi-choice questions on the USB device Howard handed him. To pose a quiz, all they had to do was to pie random questions for each role. It’s a simple and effit approach for creating a quiz, making the examiner’s life easy.

  However, it’s ly friendly toward the examinees. What they received was a bunch of arbitrary questions in a random order. As a result, the examinee had no way to find questioing to topics they were most fident in. And, that’s assuming such questions even made it into the exam in the first pce during its random geion.

  Long story short, it was a terrible exam for those who weren’t good with quizzes. Some students ko leave the tough questions for st and focus on what they knew best, but not everybody had that wisdom. Especially, not a certain goof who nearly blew the exam by mulling over questions outside his field of expertise.

  Lars wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knew Cssmancers. No matter how bad he was with quizzes, he shouldn’t have been in the “barely passed” group. If the quiz did a better job guiding him to the topics he knew, he would have scored much higher.

  “Maybe add categories?” Howard suggested.

  “Yes, that’s what I was thinking too,” Yuel nodded. “First, split between ‘general’ and ‘role-specific’ questions. Then, further divide them into subcategories and make sure each of them has about the same amount of questions. Say, like this.”

  “Looking good. You sure know how to hahese things. It’s like you’re a teacher.”

  “I helped some cssmates before, so I saw what kind of weakhey had and where the exams stumped them.”

  “The genius student, huh.”

  “You really like using that word, don’t you?”

  “Just because you always react to it.” Howard snickered.

  They discussed the questions and categories some more. To give each category equal weight, it’s necessary to put the same number of questions in each of them. However, that led to an overall increase in the number of questions.

  “Isn’t that bad?” Howard asked. “They won’t have enough time to answer everything.”

  “They don’t have to. We’re going to pick the top scorers anyway, right? So, it doesn’t matter what their actual scores are. What matters is how they fared retively to each other.”

  “That’s true,” Howard nodded. “Say, you ever sidered being a teacher?”

  “No way. Imagine dealing with brats like Lars in css.”

  “Haha, I feel you.”

  By the time they ed up the discussion, it was already evening. Yuel stayed here far lohan he expected, but it was fruitful. They couldn’t have possibly resolved this many issues if they did this over a phone call.

  “I’m hooooooome!” A voice echoed from the entrance. Was that...!?

  A young woman wobbled into the living room, taking needlessly big strides and nearly tripping over her own foot. Her face was tinted red and she had a weird expression, somethiween ughing and g. It was quite the se.

  She looked... drunk. pletely hammered. Was this Howard’s sister? A pro pyer?

  “Oh no,” Howard facepalmed and shook his head.

  “Wardy, Wardy~” The woman somehow made her way to Howard without crashing. “Listen, listen. These freaking Fals! We almost *hic* them! We were thiiiiis close. But noooo, of course they had to *hie shit on us at the st moment! They anized kinda well ie game and I made one bad rotation. One! Just one! But that helped them win and everybody *hic* it’s my fault! you believe this!?” She shook Howard’s shoulders nonstop.

  “Alright, alright.” Hoatted her head as she sobbed. It’s hard to tell who was the older sibling here. “Just how much did you drink?”

  “I ain’t didn’t *hiything! I’m tooootally sober!”

  “Yeah of course,” Howard nodded and led her to the sofa. “Here, sit down.”

  “Thanks, Wardy~ You’re so *hic*. You’re the only one o me. Waaaa!” She started wailing all of a sudden. What was even going on...

  “It’s alright,” Hoatted her back. “It’s just och. You’ll get your revenge.”

  “But, it’s the Fals! We always beat them! We really hese points! I hate them! I soooooo hate them! We hafta *hic* this damn season so they call me to A-League already! I don’t wanu B-League forever! Waaaaaaa!”

  “No biggie. I’m sure you’ll earn enough points in the matches-”

  “No! It’s over!” The woman crashed on the coad filed her arms like a protesting baby. “We even lost to the Fals! We’re fucked! I don't wanna! Don't wanna! That's it! I’m quitting this *hic*!”

  “It’ll be okay,” Ellen crawled toward the woman and gave her a pat on the head. “You’ll get them game. The season isn’t over yet.”

  “Elly sweetie...” The woman sniffled and ed her arms around Ellen. “Elly, you’re soooo *hic*. Right, maybe it’s not over yet...” She apparently soled herself by petting Ellen like a kitten.

  “Yes, yes,” Ellen nodded with a smile but secretly threw a g the guys, rolling her eyes and squeezing her o say “She reeks something serious.”

  “You’re right!” The drunkard excimed. “We still got one more match against the Fals this year! We’ll *hic* ‘em!”

  “Yes, yes. Get your revenge.”

  “Yeaaaaah! We gonna wiiiiin! ...But we lost today. We lost today! To the Fals! Waaaaaaa!” The woman rubbed herself against Ellen like she was a stuffed animal. Howard took this opportunity to step bad enlighten Yuel about what the flipping heck was going ht now.

  “Sorry,” Howard said. “Sis isn’t usually like that. She just gets a little salty after dropping a match, then she goes to drink and... well, you see the result. ly the ‘amazing pro’ you imagined, right? Haha...”

  “Yeah...” Yuel wasn’t sure how to respond because Howard looked embarrassed by this se. In truth, it was a huge disappoi. Ignis was supposed to be a cool person and a skilled pyer, not... this. The whole se was too awkward to bear. “I think I should go.”

  “I agree,” Howard escorted Yuel toward the door. Yuel wao get the heck out of here and Howard also wanted him to get the heck out of here. Therefore, he should definitely get the heck out of here. QED.

  “Heeeeey,” Ignis called out. “Who’s this kid?” She squinted her eyes, studying Yuel from head to toe. Or, at least she tried to do so but her head was tilting from side to side the whole time. Just how many shots did she have...

  “He’s a friend from school,” Howard said.

  “Huuuuh. Haven’t seen him before. Doesn't look like one of the usual guys.”

  The “usual guys”? Yuel stopped. Did Ignis refer to StormBlitz’s first string? Well, it’s not surprising she khem sihey trained here together over the summer. Trained here together, without saying a word.

  “He’s not on the first string,” Howard expined. Anyway, it’s already te so he’s leaving-”

  “Waaaardy, watcha doing wasting time with him then? You gotta train yuys! You gotta *hic* ‘em to nationals!”

  “I know. Don’t worry, he's leav-”

  “Hey, kid!” Ignis poi Yuel. “Don't *hic* Wardy’s time! He ain't got no time hanging out with some nobodies! He gotta train hard so he join the Sweepers a Exodus!”

  “Sis, please,” Howard sighed and whispered to Yuel. “I swear she doesn't mean it. She got no idea what she’s saying.”

  “It’s okay, I uand,” Yuel didn’t appreciate being disregarded as a nobody, especially not by a pro, but Ignis clearly wasn’t in the right state of mind right now. Just let it pass. Let it pass.

  Uuuuugh! it’s so infuriating, though! Yuel was a petitive pyer too! Ignis just never met him here as one of the “usual guys” because he wasn't on the first stri.

  Wait, it be she was helping with the first string’s training? sidering how much Ignis seemed to care about Howard’s success, it’s quite possible. In fact, it’s almost a given.

  In other words, the first string had beely trainiogether with a pro, that’s probably why Howard wao keep hush about it. While Yuel had to nag people to visit the club so he could hopefully form a five-man team for Ranked, Howard was sistently training with the best pyers in the club and with a pro to boot. Damn, this was so unfair!

  “I don’t like that look,” Ignis scoffed. “Got a problem with me, eh?”

  “... no. Not at all.”

  “You even py Mancers, kid?”

  “Of course I do,” Yuel ched his fists and stared straight into Ignis’ eyes.

  “Wait, don’t-”

  “Just so you know,” Yuel tinued. “I’m the vice-captain of the club.”

  “Well, shit...” Howard facepalmed for some reason.

  “Oh, so you’re that kid.” Ignis o herself. “Heard you pying Support like Wardy?”

  “Yes, I am.” Did Howard tell his sister about Yuel? Why? Well, it’s not like Yuel was pining. Now, this drunk woman knew Yuel wasn’t some nobody.

  “You’re the vice-captain now? Huh, trying to *hic* Wardy’s captain position, eh?”

  “Um, not quite.” For some reason, every time Yuel was somebody’s vice-captain, somebody had to accuse him to steal the captain position. Why? Was there something weird written on his face? It’s true that being the captain was a great honor, but that wasn’t even on his mind right now. “My first goal is to get a spot on the first string. Anything else is sedary.”

  “But you py Support, right? Ha! It means y to *hic* Wardy’s pce!” Ignis poi him and her reddish cheeks became even redder. She was like an angry tomato.

  “Well,” Yuel pted over his words for a moment, then straightened his back. “Yes, I pn to get into the first string and to do that I must beat Howard.”

  “......” Howard stared at him for a long moment, then turned away. “You’re digging yourself a hole...”

  Hm? What’s that supposed to mean?

  “Aha!” Ignis jumped. “I k! You think you’re some hot stuff, right? e here and fight me!” She ched fists and threw out some punches. An invitation to a drunken brawl!?

  “Wait,” Yuel protested. “I’m not into violence.”

  “Silly kid, I meant this,” Ignis waved a game troller. “Fite me 1v1! Let's see whatcha made of!” She nearly slipped off the couch while talking iement. Was she really okay? She definitely should cate sleep instead of pying, but...

  “What should I do?” Yuel whispered.

  “Too te,” Howard sighed. “This shit always happens. She cries her eyes out, thes on somebody in 1v1. Good job provoking her, genius.”

  “Ah,” Maybe Yuel really said a bit too much. Ignis was clearly out of it and overreacted to every little thing, so mentioning stuff like “beating Howard” and “taking the Support role” robably not the smartest move ever.

  heless, Yuel didn’t regret it. He was going to defeat Howard, he had to make that clear. He wasn't just “some kid pying Support”, he was “the one who’ll py Support on the first string”!

  “e here already!” Ignis waved her troller. “I’mma *hic*yo ass reaaaaal good!”

  “So,” Yuel turo Howard. “What do I do?”

  “Yout got no choice,” Hoced a hand on Yuel’s shoulder. “You have to py her, that's the best way to calm her dowually, she’ll say she wants to sleep. Probably. You gonna have a really bad time, but bme y mouth for that.”

  What be so bad about it? Yuel tilted his head. Wasn’t this a rare ce to py against a pro? It’s great! The only unfortuhing was that it’s 1v1, so Yuel won’t be able to fully dispy his skill. Still, he reached Gold IV in 1v1 while researg chups, so he should be able to put on a fight.

  “I’ll py,” Yuel nodded. “But, I have no iion losing on purpose. Is that alright?”

  “Don't worry,” Howard said. “She’ll still kick your ass anyway.”

  “Even though she’s wasted?”

  “Especially because she’s wasted.”

  “Huh?” That made absolutely no sense, but okay. A drunk pro oppo was a fair handicap for somebody who didn’t py 1v1 much.

  “Here you go,” Ellen handed him a troller and freed spa the couch. “Good luck,” She saluted for some reason as if Yuel arting soldier. Just what was the deal here?

  Well, no matter. This was a rare opportunity to test his mettle against a pro. This match should show how much closer he came to the pro se. A drunk pro should be no problem. Yuel will win for sure and prove he had what it took to rival Howard!