At the point marked X, the distance to the line was exactly 1 ter.
The man who caught the flying ball had been pushed more than 1 ter from his original position.
"This can't be happening… so suddenly…"
The sll of gunpowder rose faintly from the ground.
"Next!"
Although the student signaled for him to leave, the man shouted back, shaking his head.
"Give another chance! Sothing went wrong!"
He picked up the fallen ball from the ground and shouted again, but the student shook their head.
"Please go down! There are other examinees waiting behind you!"
Mockery poured from the audience towards him.
"What are you doing? Hurry up and go down!"
"You were so confident before."
"With that physique, being pushed back so much… hilarious."
"Is it water balloons instead of muscles?"
"I understand why he was expelled."
The man's face darkened.
He had trusted his strength too much.
He hadn't noticed that the ground was inclined to slip in a certain direction.
This was not a test of strength, but a test of skill in standing firmly on the ground.
Thanks to the darkened mark on the ground, he finally realized that the ground's surface was different from other places.
"Ugh."
A score of 0.
It felt unfair.
He could do better if given another chance…
The man activated the wisdom he had acquired through his physique.
He raised his voice and forced it.
"This is unfair! I didn't hear the explanation properly!"
In response to his protest, the student rebuffed him coldly.
"You were the one in a hurry."
"That… those girls pushed aside, so I hurried! They pushed into an atmosphere where I had to take the test quickly!"
People looked at him with incredulous expressions.
Cutting in line first and then shalessly acting like this.
He really was an incompetent human being.
"Anyway, let retake the test! I can really do it!"
The student in charge of the "own-goalkeeper" exchanged glances with another student.
They had seen examinees resort to all sorts of tactics during entrance exams over the past few years.
When persuasion failed to make them understand, they knew there was a better way through experience.
One of the students stepped forward.
He stood at the point where the rubber marks began.
"Try pushing off from this X mark. Then we'll admit that our explanation was insufficient and allow you to retake the test."
A vein bulged on the giant's forehead.
Dare to challenge him to a test of strength? Discover hidden stories at empire
"What kind of circus perforr are you?"
"Ground skills."
"Ha! Do you think you're 'Hopps the Indestructible'? You won't move an inch from there, will you?"
"Of course not…"
The student couldn't finish his sentence.
The man had already launched himself at him.
It was a calculated move to prevent the opponent from reacting.
Despite the sneak attack, he remained unfazed.
Compared to the intimidating presence of Professor Yakovlev, this was nothing.
He leaned his body diagonally, pulling the man's arm and grabbing his leg at the sa ti.
It was a martial art that utilized the opponent's strength.
"Huh?"
The man's body floated up and spun in the air.
Thud.
His back hit the ground.
The hand that had grabbed his leg was now pressing against his stomach.
It was such a pathetic ending compared to the montum he had built up.
"You're out."
By the ti the man realized what had happened, it was already all over.
Cheers for the student and jeers for the man poured out from the audience seats simultaneously.
"Poor thing, this pig!"
"Get down already!"
"Pathetic! Lekachep!"
"Even the circus team must feel sorry. They must be dead last in the draft order."
"They should be thankful they let go of such a person."
The man tightly closed his eyes.
There was no greater disgrace in the world.
He, with over 8 years of experience as a skilled acrobat, was defeated by a re teenager.
He and the other examinees felt the height of Lekachep's barrier.
This was the skill of the world's top elite acrobats.
The student lifted the man lying on the ground and dragged him outside without resistance.
He rolled on the ground lethargically, without any intention to resist.
"Sniff, sniff, sniff."
Reyna looked at the man crying on the ground with disdainful eyes and climbed onto the equipnt.
She didn't even glance at the marks on the ground.
Even without explanations, she could guess that the ground was designed to be slippery.
She had taken the entrance exam four years ago.
The content of the task was different then, but the way they set traps remained the sa.
Clumsy.
Ping.
As the crank was released, the taut rubber band was loosened.
The ball shot out.
With her feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, she pulled the ball to her chest and twisted her body at the sa ti.
So that the foot serving as the pivot beca perpendicular to the direction the ball was flying.
Thunk.
The impact that struck her body flowed down her leg bones and onto the ground.
The angles of her outstretched legs and the motion of receiving the ball were perfect.
Her body moved only about an inch.
There was a saying that ground skills were done with bones, not muscles.
There were various techniques in ground skills, but there was one technique that perated all ground skills.
It was directing the impact into the bones.
An impact perpendicular to the bones could fracture them.
An oblique impact could twist the joints.
But horizontal force was like a building column to the bones.
It directed the applied force downward.
If one tried to resist the impact with muscle strength without understanding this basic principle, they would end up like the man lying there.
The audience who witnessed her acrobatics swallowed their saliva.
The neat result was too different from the fact that the huge lump had been pushed over a ter.
Even those who had seen it firsthand doubted their mory, wondering if the ball had been slower than before.
"So what's the score?"
"How many centiters?"
The student standing at the entrance of the apparatus asured the distance from where her toe touched to the line.
A hint of pity crossed his eyes.
One defensive line had been breached.
"81.3cm!"
"Wow!"
"What's the highest score for current students?"
"63.4cm!"
"It's the highest score!"
The difference was nearly 20cm from the current student's highest record.
Reyna looked around as if she didn't care much, then descended from the apparatus.
On the opposite side of the auditorium, her colleagues were there.
Next to a male colleague who waved cheerfully was his father.
He nodded lightly.
His eyes were still cold, and his mouth was still firm, but it was clearly a sign of praise.
Yeah.
That's enough.
Reyna clenched her fist and headed towards the next asuring equipnt.
From behind ca the sound of her next competitor stepping up.
She didn't turn around.
She had no hobby of feeling superior while looking at soone less skilled.
To her, the circus was rely a ans to gain her father's approval.
Squeak.
She could tell by the sound of shoes dragging against the floor.
There must have been at least a few dozen centiters.
But as she glanced up at the audience seats, she paused for a mont.
All eyes were directed behind her.
Toward where she had left.
What surprised her was the excitent and anticipation reflected on their faces.
They were all getting ready to jump up from their seats in anticipation of the announcent of the records.
From behind her ca the voice of the student who had asured her record earlier.
"98.7cm!"
Reyna felt her heart sink.
Turning around, she saw Ella standing proudly with a triumphant expression, the ball snugly tucked against her waist.
Right above the marked spot.
The auditorium erupted into chaos as if a bomb had dropped.
"It's, it's a new record! And an incredible feat she just did…"
"I can't believe it."
"Yeah. Not just the record, but what that kid just did…"
When people around asked what happened, those who witnessed Ella's acrobatics explained what they saw.
From their actions and a few words, Reyna could piece together what had happened.
Ella caught the flying ball with one hand and used one foot as a pivot to spin right there, turning it into a rotational movent.
It was like a bomb dropped on the hall.
"Unbelievable."
"Technically possible, but with a human body?"
Not dropping such a fast-moving ball with one hand alone was already a challenge.
Maintaining a perfect circular motion without any deviation was also challenging.
And to end up standing right there after spinning was also challenging.
Reyna could do it too, in theory.
But that would involve rehearsing the sa move several tis, not spontaneously performing it like Ella did.
No, attempting such an absurd 'acrobatic feat' on such an important occasion was already evidence enough that she wasn't ordinary.
Ella extended her arms in gratitude towards the applauding audience and the aspiring students.
"Thank you! I'm Ella, the Assistant Director of Wonderstein Circus!"
With her back straight, she hopped around, waving her hands in all directions.
Perhaps it was the energetic vibe she exuded.
Even among the supervisors who should maintain neutrality, there were students who responded enthusiastically to her performance.
"Ella! Ella! Ella!"
So of the audience even chanted her na.
Professor Legault, who was overseeing the exam, asked for restraint.
But even his face couldn't hide the excitent.
As Ella descended from the apparatus, she flashed a radiant smile towards a certain direction.
There, a young couple who seed to be her parents were waving at her.
Her parents?
At least they were similar beings.
Before feeling envious, an uneasy feeling passed through Reyna's spine.
Parents.
It was a word that made her nervous.
She slowly scanned the audience.
There was her father, with twisted lips, awkwardly smiling.
His eyes, looking in this direction, glead with intense emotions.
"You're not going to do that? Then I'll go first!"
Ella pushed past her and climbed onto the next equipnt.
She seed to have no interest in Reyna now.
Her pure enjoynt seed to be focused solely on the equipnt.
The na of the next apparatus she climbed was 'Outfielder Ground Ball.'
The goal was to catch balls flying from all directions for one minute and throw them into the net basket.
This asured talent in tightrope walking, agility, and balance.
Once again, she passed the test with remarkable skill.
She sent all 50 flying balls ho.
The student record is 46.
"Did you just see that?"
"Catching in mid-air and throwing back in mid-air!"
"And using both hands separately!"
"What about throwing it backwards without even looking?"
"That's not human skill."
Ella waved V signs several tis towards the cheering crowd before descending beneath the equipnt.
Raina watched all of her movents.
There was no intention to analyze anything.
She simply couldn't dare to look in that direction, afraid of how her father might be looking at her right now.
"Next!"
The supervisor called her na.
You can do it, Reyna.
You can catch all 50 too, right?
Reyna encouraged herself as she climbed onto the apparatus.
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