by Feng Yue
“Then wouldn’t it be great news?” Ingmar sneered. “The history department is too influential now. We need a new plan…If he knows his place, he’ll be obedient. Otherwise, I have one million ways of dealing with him in the School of Revelations!” He looked down and said lightly, “Genius, so what? Once I publish my findings, he’ll have to look up to me for his entire life! Even if he returns to Revelations!”
Bart froze, but then happiness appeared in his features. “Professor, did you make a breakthrough in the explanation?”
Ingmar looked down at the drafts on his table. After countless years of blood, endless hours, and even setting aside the breakthroughs and research in music theory, he had finally completed this masterpiece. Once this was published, Abraham would never be able to compete with him. An amateur from the School of Abstinence should not even dream of being equal to Ingmar from the School of Revelations!
“So what if the school board fosters him?” Ingmar muttered. “After two months, when the Sacred City Summit is held, I’ll become an internationally recognized grandmaster. Abraham can only be forced under my feet!”
219 Graduation Work 1
“Cheers!” Charles, who was already drunk and sitting beside the dining table, cheered.
Bai Xi sat beside him with Old Phil and rolled her eyes helplessly. Ye Qingxuan chuckled and continued his dinner. Abraham had surprisingly been dragged out from the library to celebrate with them. After surviving the first two rounds of the school day trials, it was quite certain that Charles would have enough points to graduate. No wonder he was so happy—he had never thought that he would graduate one day!
“Anglo, I’m coming! World, I’m coming! Pretty girls, I’m coming!” Charles yelled. He ran around the table in excitement. Annoyed to the max, Bai Xi stuck out a foot and tripped him.
After falling, Charles was finally a bit awake. He stuffed a napkin up his nostril and went back to the table to continue eating. He was already full, but it was rare to have meat, so it would be a shame to waste it!
Ye Qingxuan sighed. “Senior, don’t get happy so fast. There’s still the last round in two days.”
“The last round is just for looks. What are you scared of?” Charles whistled. “Don’t worry. With me, we’ll definitely win!”
Done eating, Ye Qingxuan put down his utensils and asked the question he had been avoiding. “How exactly is your product for the graduation work exhibit on the last day?”
-
The last trial was the graduation work exhibit. It was a fixed show. It was actually an easy task because one could make whatever one wished. Most would not be too harsh either. Even if it was made horribly, the student would just lose some points.
For musicians, the graduation works of each academy were completely different. This was decided by the local culture and aim of the academy. For example, the graduation works of the Asgardian Iron Rock Academy was a demon captured by a musician digging through the glaciers with a hook.
In India, the students would have to use the form of a debate to discuss music theory with the guru of their monastery. In some places, the graduation work was to…kill their own teacher.
Of course, the Royal Academy of Music was not this cruel. Instead…its process was—uh—“unique.”
Two hundred years ago, when the graduation work was still “composition,” a waterway mechanic learned by himself…The academy accepted this self-learned mechanic as an exception and he graduated with high grades. But because he did not have much foundation and could not compose, he used a different way to show his learnedness on music theory.
He requested to use the Requiem Illusion and then created something new…Yes, it was the illusion that everyone used for hide-and-seek on the first day, but hundreds of times smaller. In the illusion, the musician must use music notes to guide a waterway mechanic through challenges, defeat various demons and the demon king, save the captured princess…
At the time, this work was critically acclaimed and well-liked by all the students. It almost created a craze in the musician world and trended in every academy around the world. In fact, some students quit school because they were so obsessed. In the end, alchemists even implanted the work as music score into aether balls—the tool that never leaves a musician’s side—so musicians could play when they were bored.
To the academy, this work not only displayed the creator’s achievements in music temperament and grasp on music theory. It also touched on aether usage of the Resonance level and the mechanic mind of the creator and more…
Anyway, Ye Qingxuan did not know what happened, but all graduation works were changed to be that type after that. Because of the amount of work, graduation students usually teamed up. Each school would have their own proud work. The best would even be sent to the Sacred City, receive critique from all the musicians, and spread widely.
Being in the limelight like this as a student, it was the best way to make a name for oneself. Outstanding works had been created continuously through the years.
Most started preparing one year in advance for their work. Charles, who had never thought about graduating, did not even think in that direction. Even if he worked quickly, Ye Qingxuan was not sure that he had enough time.
“There are only two more days. Will something go wrong?”
“Don’t worry. It’s basically set!” Charles drank alcohol and pounded his chest. “The music theory within is practically impeccable and shows my glorious spirit. Through this graduation work, I’ve expressed the impermanence of life, changes of the world, and the troubles of fate. It also has the dreary feeling of being forced into a dead end, with nowhere to escape but to fight. There’s no way I can’t pass!”
The more Charles bragged, the more Ye Qingxuan felt doubtful. “Anyway, just show us first.”
Charles smiled mysteriously and snapped his finger. He maneuvered the enchantment using the temporary creator authority given by the school.
Boom! There was a muffled burst.
An iron box, 1.5 meters tall, suddenly appeared in the room. It looked like the refrigerator that had recently been invented. There was a suspicious lever on the right side. There were also three runners going down the middle of the box. Colorful designs were drawn on them. It seemed that the runners would turn with a pull of the lever. There was also a circle of slightly-dazzling colored lights around the knobs. All in all, it did not look like something good!
“What the h*ll is this?” Ye Qingxuan felt a headache coming.
“My graduation work! Look, I’ll show you!” Charles moved forward and abruptly pulled the lever. The machine began playing a horribly cringe-worthy kid’s song. The lights around the turntable lit up, blinding everyone. Then the three wheels inlaid in the machine began rolling wildly. The designs on them changed quickly before gradually slowing. Finally, the clanging sounds of coins falling traveled from the box. As the lights flashed wildly, a giant pile of coins fell from the opening.
Ye Qingxuan was fossilized. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.” Charles nodded. “You can use it if you pay some points. If the designs on it create a group, you can receive different amounts of points. I haven’t connected it to the point calculator though, so I replaced it with coins. Anyway, I played a bit after finishing it and I couldn’t stop. I almost put all my drinking money into it and still haven’t taken it out.”
Ye Qingxuan felt his vision going dark. There were no words to describe what he felt. Walking around the machine, his gaze fell on the three runners. “What…is drawn on it?”
“No wonder you’re my junior! You always get the main point.” Charles whistled. “Look, it’s the pineapple from the backyard of the School of Revelations, banana from the School of Royalty, cherry from Modifications, and this—this is my best work—I drew a five-pointed star with one stroke! What about it? Aren’t I awesome? If you want, I can teach you!”
“Uh…why does this dog look like Old Phil?”
“Because it is!” Charles slappe
d his knee and said excitedly, “I drew each stroke while looking at Old Phil! What do you think? Doesn’t it look like him? It’s the biggest prize! If you get three Old Phils, you can win a hundred times the school points!”
“Senior, your drawing skills probably haven’t improved since you were eight!” Ye Qingxuan thought, but he had no strength to speak. He just wanted to get drunk, but Charles kept holding him and rambling about his design, this thing’s bright future, and finally ended on the name.
“Oh, I named it the Blood Lion. Don’t you think it’s really mighty and domineering?”
“Why does it sound like bad news? And there isn’t any blood or lion.”
“Then let’s call it Destructive Duke.”
“No.”
“Dark God of Destruction Four.”
“You want to graduate after ten more years? And you don’t even have one, two or three!”
“Half a Lifespan Three?”
“Shut up!”
After talking on and on, Charles finally stopped. Ye Qingxuan already felt dizzy as his intelligence dropped like a diver. To save the academy’s students and save their points, the youth slammed a fist on the table and announced, “Anyway, this thing won’t work!”
-
They soon returned to the dining table. Ye Qingxuan sighed and said, “So you used one month to create a gambling machine?”
Charles panicked. “I’m sure it will have a good future! When it comes out, we’ll be able to live happily with just the money given to use it!”
“…Senior, don’t you want to graduate?”
Ye Qingxuan’s words hit Charles in the guts. He sighed in pain and abandoned the idea. “But I can’t redesign something. Where do I find a new script?”
“Script?” Beside them, Bai Xi grinned. “I have it.”
“…”
“…”
Ye Qingxuan and Charles stared at her as if looking at a ghost. Bai Xi was a little scared by their eyes. “Why are you looking at me like that? I want to contribute sometimes too!”
“Yezi…” Charles sighed with teary eyes, “Bai Xi is all grown up.”
Ye Qingxuan’s eyes were slightly red too and he dabbed at the corners. “Yes, I’m so pleased.”
What they got in reply was the double performance of “source” and “frost.” A large basin of freezing water poured from the sky, chilling them to the bone.
“Are you done?” Bai Xi glared at them. “Leave if you don’t want it!”
“We want it!” Ye Qingxuan nodded quickly. It was rare that Bai Xi was willing to help. Even if she could not, her thoughts were enough to make him and Charles touched.
With their coaxing, Bai Xi finally described her plan. “This graduation work is called Soul Warrior. In Indian, it’s called Soul…”
220 Graduation Work 2
In short, Bai Xi’s work was in her usual style. It was simple, straightforward and crude, totally unlike a little girl’s work. She had practically included all of downtown Avalon’s violence and gathered everything that would make a man’s blood boil. According to Bai Xi’s description, the work would be like this:
Musicians would control two strong men to charge bravely with crossbows. One wore blue pants and the other had red pants. They were shirtless, with a weird ribbon on their head. They would descend from the sky and land on an island taken over by revolutionary soldiers.
Killing the entire time, they would kill the soldiers, kill the more important figures, kill the demons, kill the monsters, kill everything living, and finally kill the general who had already fused with a natural catastrophe.
They would succeed when there was nothing left to kill. Then, they would board a plane and leave the poor island that sank to the bottom of the sea after exploding. Bai Xi had also designed eight secret underwater challenges for the players to find.
However, the difficulty level was extremely high. The two shirtless guys would die from just one arrow or being hit by an enemy. The player had three respawn chances. After that, they could only restart the game…But Bai Xi was the creator, so…she hid a command within. If they inputted the right music note, they would have thirty respawns!
“I told you, you can’t leave a creator’s cheat!” Ye Qingxuan knocked the side of her head. “You’re a little girl. Why are you so violent? Everything is about killing, but can’t you think of something more heartwarming?”
“Heartwarming? Sorry, but I can’t.” Bai Xi rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you try?”
“Like a game where a little girl travels the world and changes clothes?”
“Changing clothes for girls? Are you a pervert?”
“Maybe seven girls stood up to save their soon-to-be-abolished academy and after much hardship, they finally became musicians?”
“How is it interesting if no one dies? Why don’t you say they went to India with a monkey to collect music scores?”
Ye Qingxuan was speechless. He really did not understand what Bai Xi was thinking. “Anyway, this won’t do.”
“Why not?!”
“One, it’s too violent and doesn’t contain technical skill. Two, the procedure is too long, the mission is too big, there’s too much content, and there’s not enough time. Three, some of the content requires high-level music theory and complex structures for support. Probably only a Resonance musician can complete it, but Professor is busy. So, no.”
“Psh.” Bai Xi glared at him. “You don’t want this, you don’t want that. Why don’t you just get rid of everything and make a graduation work with nothing?”
“How is that…” Ye Qingxuan suddenly stopped speaking halfway as if stunned. No matter what the others called him, Ye Qingxuan began murmuring something to himself with furrowed brows and a solemn face. Seeing him like this, Charles wrinkled his forehead and fell silent too, sinking into deep thought.
Seeing that those two had gone crazy, Bai Xi curled her lips and ignored them. She grabbed Old Phil and went to play.
Ye Qingxuan looked up after a long time. “You’re thinking the same thing as me, right?”
“I think so.”
“…Having nothing at all might work.”
“If everything goes according to plan.”
“The process is short but can be dragged on.”
“Even though the structure is complex, you just need to repeatedly use a single music theory. Even a Rhythm level musician can complete it.”
“I did some calculations. It shouldn’t be much work.”
“How should we do the specifics?”
“I have a new idea, but we need to split the tasks.”
“With just the two of us, working together shouldn’t be a problem, but I have a new idea. What if…”
The two became immersed in brainstorming. As they exchanged ideas, they began drawing music notes on paper and experimenting then and there. Abraham quietly watched as they discussed seriously. After a while, he smiled and left without a sound. Maybe this was satisfaction.
-
It was late at night, two days later. In the workshop of the School of Royalty, Cullen sat down heavily in his chair. With bloodshot eyes, he opened a can of beer and downed it in one shot, letting out an exhausted moan. Beside him, his teammates also drank coffee tiredly as they added last-minute touches to their work.
“We’re almost done. We can do it!” Cullen patted a friend’s shoulder. “I’ll treat everyone to breakfast when we’re done.”
“To be honest, I just want to sleep.” A teammate raised his tired eyes. “Can anyone give me the energizer? I want the increased amount.”
The guy beside him tossed over a beam of frost without even looking. The frost landed on his face and even his hair turned to ice. He woke up immediately.
“Thanks,” he said with chattering teeth. “Cullen, are you done with the difficulty control? If yes, come help. I’m the worst at balanced music theory. I think I’m going crazy.”
Hearing this, Cullen chuckled bitterly. “Wait a
sec. I’ll come over after I do one last thing.” He wiped the sweat on his forehead and gathered his spirits—music theory was just like math equations. Sometimes, having one wrong note or being a little offbeat would create drastically different effects. Plus, he was responsible for the most troublesome part of the process—difficulty control.
The last trial of school day was the day after tomorrow. At that time, all graduation works would be presented and the other students would use points to experience them. All points earned from that would belong to the production team and be added to their test grade.
Of course, many teams would give some points to the winners to entice students to try their works. This was the only way for people to come try, and the more players, the better. Of course, the teams had to make sure the works were not impossible to play, and that they could personally succeed in the game.
That led to a problem: how could their raise the difficulty while ensuring that they could pass through the obstacles themselves?
This then led to another question: how could they tempt more people to play after ensuring the high difficulty?
This was something that gave all graduates headaches. They must reach a balance between difficulty and attractiveness. If it was too difficult, most people would be scared away. If it was too easy, they would lose too many points. Therefore, the control of difficulty must be calculated many times. During the long test, time passed second by second…
-
In the basement of the music history department, Charles held his notebook under the lone light and wrote, “4:30 a.m., first test…” Soon, he lifted his head and said, “Start.”
Ye Qingxuan nodded and pressed a button. And then…Boom!
Redness swept through and the entire building shook. The basement became a mess. Ye Qingxuan and Charles turned ashy and were slammed into the wall by the explosive air pressure. Thankfully they had protective measures and were unharmed.
In the wall’s human-shaped dent, Ye Qingxuan spat out dust as his ears rang. Charles picked himself up from the ground and looked around dazedly.
