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An hour later, in classroom 3321 at Mingde University, Lin Rui opened the leaderboard with a regretful gaze.
"The combat assessment has concluded. Congratulations, your final ranking is eleventh."
Lin Rui shook his head, somewhat helplessly taking off his deep dive helmet.
After defeating Wei De, Lin Rui had been confident he could break into the top three; the 'Top Ten' might be strong, but his Grandmaster-level Red Thunder Saber and Red Thunder Palm could surmount them!
Regrettably, for some reason, Lin Rui had not matched against any top ten opponents afterwards.
Thus in the end, Wei De, who lost to him, remained in fourth place, while Lin Rui only ascended to eleventh.
When Lin Rui took off his helmet, he saw Wang Linna gazing steadily at him: "What's your rank? Did you make it into the top hundred?"
With Wang Linna's words, the surrounding classmates all looked over, eyes filled with curiosity.
They were quite concerned about the performance of the two top students in the class.
A girl with a ponytail in the distance let out a light chuckle: "Top hundred? Impossible, Lin Rui's grades are indeed good, but in our school, he's just top twenty in the grade, not quite at the level of the top hundred for the whole city, right?"
Wang Linna, however, swept a cold glance over: "I encountered him in the combat assessment just now. He defeated me with just seven moves, having quietly mastered the complete 'Red Thunder Nine Slashes'. Not to mention breaking into the top hundred, even the top fifty is possible."
Lin Rui's best buddy Wang Sen was walking over, and after hearing this he couldn't help but exclaim "Holy sh*t," completely astounded as he turned his head to look at Lin Rui.
"Rui, is this for real? You've mastered the Red Thunder Nine Slashes?"
"I have." Lin Rui nodded affirmatively, while opening the class counselor's list on his personal terminal.
Lin Rui was now most concerned about when the rewards from the school board of directors would be issued.
Before he had a chance to message the class counselor, a balding, round-faced old man hurried in.
That was their homeroom teacher, whom they hardly saw once every couple of weeks, beaming as he approached the podium.
"Please take your seats, everyone, I have an important announcement to make, a piece of great news! Our classmate Lin Rui scored an impressive sixty-nine victories with no defeats in the recent combat assessment, placing him eleventh in the citywide ranking. This is the best result since the inception of our school, a new record. Let's congratulate Lin Rui!"
After the homeroom teacher finished speaking, he started clapping vigorously, but everyone else was momentarily stunned.
All were staring at Lin Rui, expressions filled with disbelief, even Wang Linna's pupils contracted.
Not in the top hundred, nor the top fifty, but eleventh? Their classmate Lin Rui had actually climbed to the eleventh spot in the city!
It took a full two seconds before the classroom erupted in a thunderous applause.
The faces in the crowd showed a mix of emotions: envy, disbelief, admiration, joy, and all hands clapped loudly.
Lin Rui stood up, bowed to the many classmates in the classroom.
Just as he sat back down, he noticed a friend request from a stranger on his personal terminal.
The stranger's information card displayed the words 'Assistant to the Chairman of Sky Blue Bio Group, Guan Biran.'
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Lin Rui was initially a bit puzzled but then he remembered, wasn't the "Sky Blue Biotech Group" his university's parent company?
Just over half a year ago, this corporation, specializing in prosthetic augmentation and gene serum manufacturing, had acquired 32% of the shares of Mingde University and had taken a seat at the board of Mingde University.
Lin Rui promptly clicked to agree and added the friend.
Guan Biran sent a message right away, "Lin, congratulations on making it into the top eleven in the city in this practical assessment and achieving excellent results! According to the announcement from the university's board, you will be awarded a set of top-grade artificial meridians, three gene-enhancing serums, a full tuition waiver, and a scholarship of thirty thousand federation coins by our Sky Blue Biotech Group. Please come to the university's service center later to collect them. In addition, our chairman will also give you a little surprise."
Lin Rui couldn't help but raise his fist in excitement—this was exactly what he wanted.
Lin Rui immediately replied, "Thank you, Assistant Guan, and thank you to the chairman as well."
His eyes revealed some confusion; what kind of surprise would the chairman give him?
Meanwhile, in a luxury sedan that was driving away from the Education Center, the assistant to the chairman of the Sky Blue Biotech Group, Guan Biran, turned to look at his boss, Fang Kongfang, "Chairman, I've taken care of the matter for Lin Rui as you instructed, and I have already had someone deliver those items to him."
"Mm," Fang Kongfang murmured in a lukewarm tone as he wiped his face with a wet towel, "Lucky for me, or I would've been drowned in saliva today by that fellow surnamed Li. From now on, help me keep an eye on the boy. Oh, and isn't Ranran trying to poach talents for her Martial Arts Club? If she still can't find a suitable person in the next few days, you could recommend Lin Rui to her. He's a good seedling that could serve as the mainstay in university league competitions."
Guan Biran let out an amused chuckle, then sent another message to Lin Rui: No need to thank me; this is what you deserve. If you run into any trouble at school, you can always come to me.
He sent the message with a tone of regret, "This really was an unexpected piece of good luck. That Director Li is extremely domineering, irrefutable. If it weren't for Lin Rui, Mingde University's budget would definitely have been slashed heavily next year.
It's just a pity that Lin Rui's ranking could have been even higher; it seems someone tampered with the algorithm, preventing him from encountering those so-called 'Ten Elites' again, thus lowering his combat score rating,"
Fang Kongfang snorted coldly.
He had long realized that someone was manipulating the algorithm of the Exotic Body practical evaluation system.
The status of 'Exotic Walkers' was revered in the Earth Federation, and only those with the most outstanding martial talents could obtain the Exotic Body license.
Thus, the top ten Exotic Body students can be said to be the strongest augmented Martial Artists of their age in the Ninth Base City, enjoying a status akin to celebrities among the city's youth.
The videos of their battles garnered millions of views online, yielding enormous profits.
Behind these Ten Elites stood powerful talent agencies, entangled in many people's interests, with some even running underground betting rings on the rankings of the Exotic Body evaluation.
After watching the battle video between Lin Rui and Wade, how could they dare let the Ten Elites face Lin Rui again?
Fang Kongfang had not anticipated this and had made no preparations; otherwise, he would never have let these individuals succeed.
But for Lin Rui, this was actually a good thing; an unsupported poor student didn't need to be so conspicuous.
"You didn't see it, Director Li's face went completely dark, and then he went on about educational reform? If he truly wanted fair education, he should start by cleaning out the rats at the Bureau of Education,"
With a scoff, Fang Kongfang then threw his wet towel into the trash with a grim look: "Later, contact Director Li and buy up all of his shares in Mingde University, just as he requested, at a 50% premium. I'm really fed up!"
Although Sky Blue Biotech Group had taken charge of Mingde University, they had not achieved absolute control, leaving Fang Kongfang restrained by many shareholders in the boardroom.
This was exactly why they hadn't managed to improve the educational standards of Mingde University despite having acquired it over half a year ago.
Originally, Fang Kongfang had planned to wait, but the events of the day had forced him to seek change proactively.