4 1st Place.

The announcement for the starting of the written exam happened after about 30 minutes of waiting.

After the announcement, all the students walked towards the colossal doors that lead to the absolute behemoth of a room, where all 5000 students could comfortably sit and give their written exams.

The exam papers were 'Papers'. They were displayed holographically on each desk and each desk also had a laser keyboard, in which the students could type in their answers.

I took my seat in an inconspicuous spot and waited for the announcement of the test to begin.

After 10 minutes, the doors shut and the announcement was made.

I activated my Concentration Skill and breezed through the questions.

The paper was for 2 hours, and yet I finished it in 50 minutes.

After finishing, I deactivated the skill, and immediately clenched my jaws and fists. The pain was immense. Although it wasn't as bad as the time from where I got Samuel's original memories.

The pain lasted for 10 minutes, but I didn't even make a sound.

I submitted my answers, and got up from my chair to leave the room. A lot of the students watched me dumbfoundedly as I walked out of the room after taking permission from the Examiner.

Even the Examiner was shocked. He never expected for anyone to finish the test so quickly.

I non-chalantly walked out of the room and sat down on a bench that was beside a small fountain.

I opened up my phone and started playing games on it. Surprisingly, something similar to Subway Surfers exists in this world, so I downloaded that and started playing it.

After some time, I heard someone else come out of the room. I didn't pay it any mind and kept on playing. But that someone came up to my bench and sat down beside me, almost 5ft away.

I looked up and caught a glimpse of the person, as I was curious, and my heart skipped a beat. It was out of shock.

'A woman with light-copper colored hair, deep crimson colored eyes that remind you of blood, and smooth porcelain skin. Her body looked perfect, with all the right curves and muscle mass. If someone looked at her the first time, they would think she was a Vampire.', that was how the novel had described one of the Villans in the novel. Her name was Evangeline Gracefield, the illegitimate daughter of one of the most powerful and wealthy people in the world, Clifford Gracefield, an S+ ranked hero.

I quickly averted my gaze from her and continued my game.

After about 5 minutes of awkward silence, and the music and sound effects from the game, it was Evangeline who spoke up first.

"Tsk! Can you turn that down?! its so irritating!", she clicked her toungue and said in an irritated voice.

"Oh, sorry.", I quickly replied and turned the volume down.

"You finished the Exam earlier than me, right?", Evangeline asked.

I ignored her as I was too engrossed in the game.

After getting ignored because of a stupid game, she became really annoyed and snapped at me.

"Urgh! I asked you something! can you keep that away for now?!"

"huh...? oh! my bad. I wasn't listening."

"I asked you that you finished the exam earlier than me, right?!"

"uh, yeah, and?"

"What do you mean 'And'? Are you not taking this test seriously?!"

"Uhhh, I am though. I had already completed all of my answers, so I just left.", I answered half-heartedly.

'Why the fuck is she interrogating me right now?', I thought inwardly.

"Hmm... we'll see the results then...", she turned her head away from mine in a frown and opened her phone and started reading something on it.

"Kay.", I did the same, and kept playing the game.

After about an hour, the test ended and all the participants had left the room.

We all went to the ranking board. Everyone was trying to find their name, and I was too.

[Rankings]

[1st: Samuel Francis]

[2nd: Sophia Evergreen]

[3rd: Evangeline Gracefield]

[4th: Curtis Red]

...

'wow. I kinda expect this, but still...', it felt good to be on top.

Everyone was letting out gasps and started murmuring. They had all expected someone else to take the 1st place.

No one had heard the name 'Samuel Francis' before. Everyone was confused as to who this person was.

I didn't make any effort to showcase my name to anyone. Everyone would know who I was once classes began anyways, so there was no point in it.

Oh and by the way, the protagonist, Julian, was somewhere in the middle of the rankings. He had just returned from the other world, so of course he forgot about most of the things he studied here on earth. In the novel, he would have gotten the chance to attend the academy purely because he had showcased some of the swordsmanship he developed through years of constant fighting. The Examiners had determined Julian's talent in swordsmanship to be on par with even the greatest heroes of the past, if not even higher.

...

The next were the practical tests. I had decided to only use my Energy magic to complete the test. I didn't want to stand out too much. I wouldn't go through the trouble of safeguarding my gravity magic as a secret, but for the time being, it was definitely more beneficial for me to keep it a secret.

I passed the test without much difficulty, and my position was 544. Not bad, I would say. A proper average score.

...

After all that, we were instructed to go to our dormitories. There were 2 massive buildings as the dormitories. One was Male, and the other was Female.

As I headed to my assigned dorm room, I recalled the story of Evangeline.

In the novel, Evangeline was the illegitimate child of the S+ ranked hero Clifford. Her mother was apparently not even a hunter. Clifford and Evangeline's mother had a one-night stand and from there Evangeline was born.

Her mother abandoned her after putting her down in front of the gates of Clifford's residence. Clifford already had a wife and a son, which made things even more complicated.

In this world, Polygamy is seen as normal, as the main protagonist also had a harem of his own, so the problem wasn't as big as it would have been on my world.

Anyway, right from her birth, she had been very unlucky. She received a grand total of Zero care from her 'Parents' and even her half-brother. She grew up completely isolated. Also it didn't help that people used to call her names like 'slut' and 'whore' and 'just like her degenerate mother'.

It also didn't help that she had quite an inferiority complex and she absolutely hated to lose. That's why when she saw that her only friend, Sophia was slowly getting farther and farther away from her in terms of both strength and growth, she became desperate. She wanted to be strong so that her family would recognize her.

But even after so much effort, she was defeated by a Fire Demon, which burned half of her beautiful face, making her ugly and horrifying to look at. Believing that she had nothing more to lose, she sold her soul to a demon who would use her to cause a lot of destruction and death in the future. She would eventually be slain by Julian.

'Tragic...', I mumbled.

'I feel kinda bad for her. She only just wanted to gain her parent's approval...'

'Wait! why the fuck am I pitying her?!', I violently shook my head as I opened the door to my dormitory with a retina scan.

Yeah everything in this world is super high tech, and I love it. Its so comfortable.