The God Virus

This was a sign that the quality of her energy was increasing!

Nonetheless, soon, the transformation reached its ending point as many thoughts began to race within the golden beauty's mind, 'Hmm? What's this? If I'm not mistaken, nothing like this should've happened, right?!' 

She remained addled for a long time after that. However, in the end, the only probable possibility she could think of was "Maybe it's because I only have nine energy pathways which make it somewhat special? Hope that's truly the case here.". 

That was indeed the best deduction she could make with her limited amount of knowledge at the moment. And to be honest, the thought of being somewhat special made her a lot happier and even less pressured compared to the time when she had just gotten to know she had only 9 Pathways.

Notwithstanding, in the end, she could only put the matter aside while an even more intense determination flickered through her eyes as she became resolved to break through to the 3rd level of Energy Disentanglement. 'I need to cover my lack of talent with my efforts!'

Therefore, shutting down her eyes, she proceeded with her cultivation.

…

Several days later.

Knock~ Knock~

Pounding on the door twice, Virus patiently waited for the golden beauty to open the door. And as expected, less than thirty seconds, the door was pushed open as he was greeted by her, "Master! Good morning!"

"Hey, Lil Belle. Did you breakthrough?" Not trying to beat around the bush at all, he directly jumped at the question he was currently very curious about.

"Ah, yes. I'm already in the Energy Disentanglement stage." Replied the golden beauty nonchalantly. However, recalling the complexities of her breakthrough, she seemed to turn a little despondent. And of course, Virus noticed this slight change in her mood.

"Great! But is there perhaps something bothering you, Lil Belle?" Inquired Virus casually. He was determined to help her resolve the problem she was facing. If he could of course.

However, shaking her head in the end, the golden beauty denied, "Not really, I'm just a little tired, is all."

'I-I'm really sorry for not telling you master. It's just that I'd hate to let you down.' She pondered as sadness filled her cute eyes while a sensation of guilt dominated her heart.

Seeing her refusing to answer and clarify, Virus, of course, did not insist and instead changed the subject even, "Anyhow, I'm leaving to take my Guardian Exam, do you wanna tag along perhaps?"

"Umm, if it's okay with you, master, I'd like to continue my closed-door cultivation." 

Even though he did not admit it, this response of the golden beauty shocked Virus somewhat. He never imagined he would see a day where Bella would reject his invitation to tag along.

"Huh? Uh, I mean, sure. No problem, then you can stay in your room and proceed with your training."

"Thank you, master! I'll see you when you return then!" Uttering that, she shut the door close right in his face.

"…"

"This girl." Eventually, these two words were the only things Virus muttered before he turned around and left with a helpless chuckle.

…

After strolling into New York's Abnormals Association, Virus directly walked over to the counter as he inquired from the familiar woman. "Hello, again. So… where should I be going in order to take the exam?"

Taking a close look at Virus' face, the woman promptly remembered the familiar dark-haired youth as she replied, "Oh, hi, you're here!"

"You need to go into that class there and take the Test of Knowledge first. Only if you can pass that test can you move on to the next parts of the examination? Hope you studied well."

After expressing her brief concern, she also didn't forget to warn him, "Also, don't try to cheat, you'll be discovered."

"Oh, see you soon then." Muttering this, Virus didn't dilly-dally in the least before walking toward the relevant door.

As he approached the door, he was asked for the piece of paper he was granted at the time of signing up for the examination. After handing that over, someone guided him to his own respective desk.

By the sides, there were around ten other people who were occupying some of the seats already.

…

Around fifteen minutes later, someone ambled into the classroom in a leisurely manner before he distributed the papers among the Guardian candidates. The man also didn't forget to mention a very strict rule. "All those who cheat will be disqualified without any second chances. Bear that in mind."

Grabbing the paper in front of him, Virus couldn't prevent an amused grin from forming on his face as he thought, 'Test of Knowledge, was it?'

To be truthful, not even once did he open a single book that was part of the required syllabus. In actuality, this section was an extremely important part of being a guardian since reading those recommended books would be very helpful in increasing the chances of Guardians in various harsh conditions.

Now a few of those books were respectively "Survival in the Wid", "Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine", "What to Eat When There's Nothing to Eat?", "A Compilation of Various Martial Arts", "Strategic Battle", "Everything about the Rifts", "Everything You Need to Know about the Abnormals", etc.

Such essential books were part of the required syllabus that one 'had' to learn before trying to become a Guardian. But indeed, Virus had studied none of the aforementioned.

Of course, that was the case since there was no need for him to study in the first place.

As his eyes fell upon the first question, his mind directly connected to the world. Subsequently, after effectively finding the relevant book and referring to its requested information, he directly copy-pasted the answer without anything more or less.

This process went very smoothly as Virus proceeded to answer the questions one after another.

Meanwhile, the exam invigilator seemed totally out of it as he was currently reading a certain book without even checking if the examinees were cheating or not.

Due to this odd behavior from the invigilator, everyone was just about to bring their guards down and start cheating one way or another. However, it was exactly in this moment, when abruptly, standing up, the invigilator ambled before a certain examinee as he picked his answer sheet and ripped it apart.

"Get out. You're disqualified." He said expressionlessly.

While on the other hand, seeing his answer sheet ripped into shreds, the angered examinee barked, "Why did you rip my paper!!!"

"Isn't that clear? Because you cheated." Still as relaxed as before, he mouthed casually.

"Who says that!? Then prove that I cheated!" With his saliva splashing around, the examinee screamed. It was clear he was not going to be convinced unless there was some kind of proof that proved him guilty.

Not even bothering to respond, the invigilator simply reached out his arm as he plucked something out of that examinee's ear.

"Here." Putting the small communication device on the examinee's palm, the invigilator no longer bothered himself with the stunned man as he twirled around and returned to his seat before picking up his book once again.

Watching the entire play, a shiver went down everyone's spine as many of them immediately decided against cheating. Of course, that wasn't the case for Virus, who instead of shivering, chuckled in response while deducing, 'Some kind of trait which can sense everything that's happening within a certain range.'

'Alas, you still can't discover my connection to the world which is literally the best tool for cheating.'

Frankly, Virus could've memorized everything in less than even a single nanosecond before entering the class in order to take the exam. He could do it even now.

However, for the mere entertainment of it, he wasn't willing to do it. Instead, currently, he was directly writing everything he saw within the book without bothering to even understand what exactly it was saying.

'Cheating is amusing indeed, hehe… now discover me cheating if you can.'

That notion of his was also followed by another.

'To be able to cheat without being caught red-handed should also be an important skill good Guardians need to master in their own unique way. Though I admit my method of cheating is a bit of a cheat in itself. Haha…' A provocative smirk was now clearly hanging from the corner of his mouth.