Chapter 71: Three-Minute Win
Nyna smiled meaningfully, her focus shifting back to her tablet. "I can see you’re trying so hard—even though you don’t need to. Well, there’s a reason your viral video’s still trending for weeks."
"Yeah, which means there’s not a single place I can hide in this country," Lethia muttered, drawing a deep breath before exhaling through her mouth, steadying herself for the next question.
The pacing of the test felt surprisingly sensible to her—each question spaced with just enough pause to catch her breath, yet the waiting itself was nerve-racking, the anticipation messing with her head.
"Just hide behind your fame. That’s the best hiding place everyone secretly wishes for," Nyna said with a casual smile, still glued to her tablet, as if Lethia’s fame was some kind of blessing.
But Lethia alone knew the truth. She still didn’t get why people assumed she was living her best life. If only they knew she secretly wished more people were out there getting stabbed in the middle of the street and possessed by a damn lewd fox.
After 23 minutes of jogging, Lethia started to feel both her legs go numb. She’d managed to get 35 questions right and missed 4—her stats now showing from the monitor screen.
And just as she’d predicted, the questions were getting harder. The test had shifted into arithmetic word problems, and she began losing focus trying to read through the endless lines of text.
Her head felt light, a bit dizzy, and her heart rate had hit over 140 bpm. That had to be her limit.
Panting, she turned off the treadmill. The speed gradually slowed until she dropped into a walk. Nyna handed her a bottle of mineral water and a dry towel because Lethia’s own was already soaked through and wringable.
"You’ve worked hard. Your result is... quite good. You really pushed your limit—the data says you should’ve stopped after twenty minutes of jogging. Congrats, that’s a three-minute win."
Still on the treadmill, Lethia gulped down the water, casting a side glance at the candidate next to her—still running, already at twenty-seven minutes with a pace faster than hers, but screwing most of the questions.