As the machine tested Ning's stats, a variety of people watched him. The Scouters were watching because it was their job, but the majority of the rest were watching because the person taking the test was Chinese.
And they had to wait for a while to see the result.
"Hmm?" the staff members came to the front to look at the device as it took an abnormally long time to show up result.
"I'm sorry, it's taking a while. Please stay right there," the staff said.
Ning shrugged and stayed there. He had to wait for nearly 2 whole minutes before the results came back.
[Strength: SSS, Speed: SSS, Mana: B]
The moment the stats appeared on the screen, everyone in the room collectively lost their minds.
Hi-Ah was too shocked to say anything. All she could do was rub her eyes and look at the stats again. She even wondered if she was seeing double for some reason.
"Wait? Is that…?"
"Is that two Ss or three Ss?"
"That's 3 S for sure. Either that or I'm going blind."
"Wait, that's double SSS! I have never heard of something like this before at all."
"Is the machine broken by any chance?"
"Maybe, that's the only answer, right?"
The group went from being shocked at the result to being suspicious to ask for a retest.
They asked someone else to be tested before him just to make sure the machine wasn't broken. At the same time, security came outside to check for any suspicious equipment Ning might be carrying with him.
Ning stepped to the side and let himself be tested. He was even taken to another room and made to strip naked before they searched him thoroughly.
After not finding anything on him, they let him back out. By now, the machine was tested and they found out that the mana stone that was powering the machine had nearly depleted.
"Was it really the mana stone?" a staff member asked another one.
"Didn't we just see it was the mana stone?" the other person asked.
"But doesn't a mana stone last for nearly a week most of the time? I changed this one this morning," the first person said.
"Then you must have taken a defective one," the second person replied.
The first person couldn't think of anything else to say, so he turned back to see Ning's test done again.
However, this time around as well, his test wasn't done quickly at all. Once again it took the same amount of time before the results came.
Everyone immediately looked at the result again. Their surprise would have been equally as big as the first time had the result being the same.
However, the result changed this time around.
[Strength : SSS, Speed : SSS, Mana: A]
His mana stat had changed from B to A. His results were better this time around.
Everyone immediately started shouting over each other to voice out their surprise. The Scouters didn't even wait for the official result before jumping in front of each other to ask for Ning to join their guild.
Their contract terms were simple. It would be whatever he wanted.
The guards had to bring order to the crowd before the staff members made a judgment on the results.
"It seems the result is real, so you can go take the test," they said.
Ning nodded and left the hall to go take his test.
He arrived in the massive room with the judges sitting on the balcony. The judges had heard the commotion too, and now they knew why the men and women were going crazy outside.
"Is this… is there no mistake?" they asked the staff that brought them the result.
"We tested twice, the result was the same… err, actually, the 2nd time was better," the staff said. "Fear not, we detected no cheating."
"I see," the judges said and turned to look at Ning. "Do you use any sort of weapon?"
"I do, but I can also do without," Ning said.
"We would like it if you used a weapon. We want to see you fight at your full potential," the judges said.
"Okay," Ning said. "I can use a spear, where should I get that?"
"There in that closet. There are a bunch of ordinary weapons. Choose one to your liking," they said.
Ning opened the closet that was in the corner of the room and saw that it was full of weapons of every single type.
Short swords, long swords, great swords, sabers, katanas, spears, halberds, axe, daggers, throwing knives, glaives, etc.
Everything and anything he could think of was there for him to use. Ning took a simple spear with a small blade and closed the closet.
He got back into place and looked towards the judges.
The main judge of the 3 was about to give a task when he paused. If the stats results they were handed were true, then there was no way any of their expensive puppets could ever survive.
"Umm, can you attack softly, and slowly ramp up? We don't want you to destroy the puppet in front of you," they said.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I have restoration magic. Anything I destroy, I can fix as long as it is something without life," Ning said. "Well, maybe not mana stone either, but you guys have spare right?"
"Is… that true?" the judge asked. He had never heard of such an amazing type of magic.
"We would like to see it then," the head judge said.
Ning nodded and changed his hold on the spear. Instead of holding it normally, he held it in a throwing stance and shot the spear at the puppet with moderated strength.
The spear left his hand, leaving behind a sonic boom as it moved faster than the speed of light. The judges didn't even see the spear leave his arm.
All they saw was his hand blur, and then they were knocked back due to the shockwave his attack had generated.
"Oops, that was still too hard," he thought. He quickly jumped up to the judges and helped them get back up.
Then, he jumped back to where he had not only destroyed the puppet but had torn up the ground for at least 15 more meters. Even the walls at the back were showing cracks now.
Ning put his arms forward and suddenly a magic circle appeared in front of them. They were real magic circles as Ning had asked the system to give him knowledge on the spell to revert time itself.
The magic spell had a few requirements. The changes he made couldn't be more than 2 minutes in the past as even Mana found it hard to follow entropy backward for that long.
The 2nd requirement was that the target couldn't be a living being.
Other than that, the larger the target, the higher the mana would be needed.
The judges looked with shock as everything that was destroyed just moments before flew back to its original place as everything was restored to how they were.
The puppet was perfect, the ground was untouched, and the spear was back in Ning's hand.
He looked at the judges and asked, "What should I do next?"
