"Mysterious Magic Unified College Entrance Examination", Yang City First High School's special examination hall.
"Behave yourself!" The examiner reprimanded. "The exam is starting in five minutes. Stop fooling around!"
Having just woken up, Lin Qi was feeling groggy. He wanted to press down on his head, which was pounding as if it was being hammered, but his wrists were restrained by alloy steel handcuffs. The pounding sound was clear and crisp.
After a long time, his twitching eyelids finally opened, and his pupils narrowed as he stared at the scene before him.
Looking toward the side, the windows reflected an unfamiliar, handsome face. But lacking the sun, his face was pale.
Lowering his head, he saw that he was dressed in a yellow vest with the word "prisoner". His ankles were locked in shackles that were standard for felons.
Lin Qi looked around cautiously, endlessly capturing key details from the scene.
Transmigration? Prisoner? Magic? Examination?
"No need to look anymore. This is an individual exam room for you. Do your best and the results will be out tonight. If you don't get accepted, you will be shot tomorrow morning," said the examiner beside him.
Shot?
Lin Qi forced back the fear in his chest.
Well now. It seemed that the original owner of the body had left him in a right fix.
But Lin Qi was not vexed. Things could have been much worse.
"This one?" He recovered his calm and asked, pointing at the blackboard.
In his previous life, Lin Qi, had been an expert at taking exams.
The examiner sized up thin, straight-backed Lin Qi, and surmised that he was feigning ignorance. After a long time, he said, "That's right. This is the 'Mage Intelligence Level Test'. Your last chance of survival."
Instantly, Lin Qi's brain seemed to be flooded with hot mercury, and the remaining memory fragments flashed past like projections on a slideshow.
He looked calm on the surface as he started to understand.
This was a magical world that was slightly inferior to Earth in terms of technology, but was magnificent and mysterious.
More importantly, ages had supreme dominance here!
Zero-Level, First-Level, Second-Level, all the way to the Ninth-Level. They were all earth-shattering and devastating!
A bleeding wound could be healed in the blink of an eye.
An incurable disease could be instantly cured.
It was rumored that there were teleportation spells that could teleport a person a thousand kilometers away, control spells that could control the actions of others, disintegration spells that could destroy tens of thousands of things, spells that could freeze time, and all sorts of other extraordinary powers.
The opportunity to learn magic and surpass your average person would be determined in these two days of examinations!
Last night, Lin Qi's "Basic Knowledge" results were out. He only got the slightly above-average 250 points out of 500 points.
According to the previous year's minimum score, only those who achieved 650 points and above would receive the golden acceptance letter from the Magic Academy.
For today's "Intelligence Test", he would need to score at least 400 out of the full 500 points.
Inconceivable!
If this was his previous life's college entrance examination, it would be the equivalent of having to cross the line even after missing the English paper.
No wonder the examiner beside him looked at him like he was already a dead man.
A swishing noise, which sounded like a death knell.
The examiner in charge of distributing the test papers pushed open the door and entered. He walked straight to Lin Qi's desk and handed out the test package, asking him to sign on the seal to acknowledge it was the right one. The examiner then opened the seal.
"The exam will last for a total of four hours. You can't hand in your papers early, understand?"
The two examiners asked in unison. They looked at each other and confirmed that everything was normal.
Lin Qi nodded and took the stack of papers that were as thick as a compilation of examination papers over the past five years.
It was a matter of life and death. It was as if he had received a mysterious hacker code. He opened it solemnly.
[Question one: Define a type of game with the following rules: First player to line up five stones in a row wins… please verify the possibility of the black player, who has the first-mover advantage, winning, as well as the balancing measures.]
Gomoku!
Lin Qi gripped his pen tightly, his veins bulging. The shackles on his hands could not suppress his surging thoughts.
He finally understood the difficulty level of the "Mage Intelligence Level Test"!
There was no gomoku in this world.
It was like introducing a test candidate to a brand new chess game and then making him analyze over the chess theory from the beginning to the end within half an hour's time. No wonder the stack of test papers was so thick.
With some nervousness, Lin Qi immediately went to the second question. He had to get an overall feel of difficulty level so that he could allocate his time properly.
[Question two: Two accomplices are locked up in prison and cannot communicate with each other. If the two of them do not expose each other, there will be insufficient evidence and the two will be imprisoned for a year. If one of them reveals the truth and the other is silent, then the person who reveals the truth will be released and the silent person will be imprisoned for ten years. If the two of them expose each other, then the evidence will be conclusive and the two will be imprisoned for eight years. Please explain the specific choice and theoretical model.]
Prisoner's dilemma!
Lin Qi nearly laughed out loud.
From the prisoner's point of view, exposing the truth would earn him the possibility of being released or eight years jail, while keeping silent would earn him the possibility of one or ten years in jail.
With no mutual trust, the prisoners are bound to expose the truth. They would fail to cooperate.
This was a famous game theory that would be much discussed in later generations.
John Nash, the lead character in "Beautiful Mind," wrote the "non-cooperative game" theory for his doctoral thesis when he was 22 years old. The "non-cooperative game" theory described the problem and the Nash equilibrium, thereby winning the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994.
Using this for intelligence testing, wasn't it a little too much?
Lin Qi shook his head and looked at the next question.
[Question three: a/(b+c)+b/(a+c)+c/(a+b)=4. Please find the correct numerical solution.]
Seeing this question, Lin Qi was no longer able to smile.
A "mage" needed this kind of problem-solving ability? This might not be such a good profession after all.
This question looked like a primary school question. If he changed the abc to apples, oranges and watermelon, this question could even be used as a kindergarten entrance examination.
But in reality, this was a three-fold diophantine equation. The smallest number in the answers was 81 digits long!
Was this some kind of scam?
Lin Qi helplessly let go of the permanent marker pen in his hand and placed it on the table.
The three questions were too difficult for him to answer. Even though he had some ideas, they were not enough for him to sort them out.
He really didn't have a photographic memory.
The examiner beside him also saw the questions and felt a little sympathetic. These questions were really not something which normal human beings could do. This guy was facing death and still had to suffer such a blow before he died.
He made up his mind to arrange for this prisoner to have a good meal tonight. As much pasta and longevity noodles as he wanted.
After feeling hopeless, Lin Qi recalled the reason for his "death sentence" and thought about the possibility of getting out of this situation.
In his memories, the original owner of the body had stopped the atrocities of a certain descendant of a mage, but the perpetrator died suddenly in a fit of rage.
It couldn't even be considered manslaughter. Lin Qi didn't even move a finger.
But unfortunately the other party was a mage apprentice!
Due to the mage's Special Protection Law, Lin Qi, who was involved in the death of a mage apprentice, was detained for three days before he was sentenced to death in the Mage Arbitration Court. He was not allowed to appeal.
The only chance for him to be pardoned was for him to receive the admission notice of the Magic Academy and eventually became a mage apprentice.
Only then would this become an internal dispute and be tried in civil court.
Everything was linked back to this stack of test papers.
Lin Qi felt even more helpless.
The summer cicadas were almost silent at this moment. All that was left was the ticking of the clock on the blackboard and the rustling of leaves in the wind.
In a moment of complete silence, a volcano suddenly erupted in the depths of Lin Qi's mind. He was utterly shocked.
In the depths of the sea of his consciousness, a brilliant palace stood upon a lone island.
The interior of the palace was laid out and constructed with countless bookcases. They were arranged neatly like dominoes and looked like a complicated maze from above.
All the knowledge and memories of his previous life were divided into different categories and arranged into thick and heavy books.
Memory palace!
Lin Qi was surprised. Wasn't this the 'super memory' ability Conan Doyle had created for Sherlock Holmes?
Flipping through the books in this palace, he could accurately search through his past memories.
Although he was curious, he controlled himself and walked over to the "chess" bookshelf.
Focusing his attention, a "Lin Qi 18-24 years old Gomoku Memories" book fell into his hands.
Amidst a mixture of fear and surprise, the book flipped open—
All those long-forgotten forbidden moves were as clear as a picture. It was as if he was looking at them from the first perspective!
His life was like one long memory record, the sharp sword of time slicing it up into countless pages, revealing all in front of him.
With a profound expression, Lin Qi picked up the pen and calmly copied down the memories in his mind.
He first listed out the "forbidden moves" of gomoku. They were balancing measures, which also meant that they were part of a sure-win strategy.
Below the "forbidden moves", he also listed the 26 canonical openings, as well as which openings would be a sure-win or sure-loss for the black player. Meanwhile, the Sosei, Kyugetsu, Shagetsu, Ryusei, Chosei openings were a 50-50 chance. Lin Qi wrote furiously and urgently, no room for any hesitation.
Intent on the tests now, Lin Qi continued onto the second question without stopping. In his previous life, he had once glanced through the 27-paged "non-cooperative game" theory. Now, he was taking it down from the palace bookshelf—
The theory, model, outline of the proof, the "Nash equilibrium" until the "pareto efficiency" all flowed out of his pen as smooth as flowing water.
For the third question, he happened upon the answer inside the book "Lin Qi's Mathematical Puzzles Memories".
He copied it down as per the photo—
a=15447680210874616644195131501991983748565695654317000266489203203277999.
b=3687513179412999299827827197565225448254929297967971970999628313471632245579.
c=4373612677928697275762865276286276276276290139015286576576576576586116113686217627776277677607762760760761.
After the long string of numbers was completed, Lin Qi suddenly looked startled.
The two key factors to entering the ranks of a 'mage' were 'super memory' and 'advanced computational ability'.
They corresponded to the two major examinations, "Basic Knowledge" and "Intelligence Test".
With this "Memory Palace" of his, wouldn't he get full marks for "super memory"?
Yup, mages were no idiots.
If he was a little smarter, he would really qualify for the highest ruling class on Planet Blue—
Mages.