“Your student is quite something. Her entrance exam ranking shouldn’t be low, right?” a teacher sitting next to Kevin asked.
Kevin kept staring at the screen, eyes practically shining. He responded absentmindedly, “Mm-mm.”
He already knew it. He really did…
During the entrance assessment, the two weapons Ke Yunyao modified weren’t outrageously shocking, but they were enough to show she was different.
At the time, all three examiners had thought highly of her.
Now it made sense—clearly, they had been the ones limiting her potential.
“What rank was she?”
These teachers were well-informed; they all followed trending news on the star network. They recognized the top and third-ranked mecha department students from yesterday’s widely discussed admissions.
But they didn’t know Ke Yunyao. They only knew her name, not her face, and couldn’t match her identity yet.
Kevin didn’t answer. A combat department teacher did instead.
“I know. That’s the team with Yan Zhou and the others. Their mecha engineer is Ke Yunyao—she’s second place in the mecha department.”
This teacher had been paying close attention to Yan Zhou’s strength from the start, so he had specifically studied that team’s composition after the group assignments were released.
“Second place? That’s the second place from yesterday’s admissions—the one who stayed completely low-profile, to the point no one even knew her face?”
The discussion in the office didn’t affect Kevin at all. He was still fixated on the screen, admiration impossible to hide.
He genuinely loved Ke Yunyao’s unconventional ideas.
As people got older, their thinking tended to solidify. A young student like her, with such creative instincts, felt like fresh air—something to break through that stagnation.
After the “kitchen knife” demonstration finally ended, Kevin finally had a chance to respond.
“You were saying?”
The teacher beside him understood his state—this was admiration for talent. He had experienced it before, so he didn’t mind and simply repeated himself.
“So this really is your department’s second-place student?”
Kevin nodded. “Yes, it’s her.”
“Then what’s going on with your students?” the teacher continued. “First place is a branch member of a top-tier noble family, third place is a civilian genius from a remote star system… so what exactly is your second place?”
This question was genuinely puzzling.
Yesterday’s admissions had already caused a major stir in the mecha department. The first-place aristocratic student and the third-place civilian genius had attracted so much attention that everyone almost forgot about the second place entirely.
So what about the second place? Which “camp” did she belong to—noble or civilian?
Kevin paused.
He knew about the hype surrounding first and third place. He didn’t like it. Entrance rankings were already in the past; future achievements were what mattered. Those two students acted as if no one could surpass them, which he found too arrogant.
Meanwhile, Ke Yunyao was the complete opposite—low-profile to an almost invisible degree. While others publicized themselves on the media, she had basically vanished after enrollment.
Only her name was known. She was from the main star. Nothing else.
Even Kevin didn’t really know her family background.
However, he did remember her mentioning financial constraints when speaking with Yan Chixi, so her family situation likely wasn’t good.
He opened his mouth to answer, but a medical department teacher suddenly interjected.
“I’m not sure about her financial situation, but I do know her furnace isn’t ordinary. You won’t get it for anything less than this amount.”
She held up her hand.
“Fifty million star coins?”
The medical teacher shook her head. “No. Five hundred million.”
“……”
For these teachers, five hundred million wasn’t much. But for a freshman, it implied something significant.
A student using such an expensive furnace either had an unusually wealthy background or parents who didn’t care about cost at all.
After all, Ke Yunyao was still a beginner—someone who could easily fail and blow up a furnace—yet she was using top-tier equipment.
That usually meant one thing: she came from a wealthy household.
Kevin was momentarily stunned.
So what exactly was her situation? She claimed to be short on money, yet she used equipment worth hundreds of millions.
If Ke Yunyao were here, she would probably summarize it simply: rich parents, poor herself.
……
To honor the quality of the knife, Jiang Tian used all his culinary skill to prepare an extremely delicious roast meat meal.
The aroma alone made Ke Yunyao forget her restraint and eat happily.
As expected—no student from the beast-research department had bad cooking skills.
She even started thinking that if there were leftover materials later, she would have Jiang Tian make her a proper cooking pot. With that, he would definitely be able to produce even more delicious food.
Vashi and the other combat members quietly sighed in relief while watching her eat.
Good. Lunch was a success. That meant the afternoon weapon forging should also go smoothly.
The only question was—what kind of weapons would she make for them?
Preferably something as interesting as Jiang Tian’s knife.
After the meal, Ke Yunyao ended up eating too much and needed a short rest.
No one dared to rush her. They all just waited in silence.
Finally, she stood up again and brought out her large furnace.
Everyone’s eyes lit up instantly.
She didn’t start immediately. Instead, she looked at Yan Chixi and the others, who were staring at her with glowing anticipation. She instinctively leaned back slightly.
Then she asked, “Do you… have any weapons you’re more used to?”
The five combat members’ breathing tightened.
What did that mean? Could they actually choose?
Was the new mecha engineering student this strong already?
Yan Chixi’s eyes sparkled.
“Can we choose?”
Ke Yunyao pressed her lips together, not giving a definite answer.
“Tell me first. I can try.”
Even so, Yan Chixi trusted her completely.
She immediately answered without hesitation:
“I like using dual blades.”