Chapter 96 - Exchange Of Knowledge "I WELCOME YOU ALL TO ATRIHEA CITY HIGH SCHOOL! THE EXCHANGE OF KNOWLEDGE WILL COMMENCE IN A FEW MINUTES!" A loud voice reverberated across the hall. The students stared at the middle of the hall. The hall was arranged in such a way that the large stage was placed in the middle. Beside it was another podium where transparent seats that looked like simulators were placed. A giant screen was placed above, it hung from the ceiling. The seats on the second podium were arranged in a kind of circular format. The person on the stage introduced Atrihea school to the audience and spoke for a few minutes about how the exchange of knowledge will be held. A participant from a school will ask a question and the rest of the students would think of an answer. They would answer the question in the most descriptive method possible. If the answer was correct they would receive five points. If no one could answer the question, the participant who posed the question would have to explain it. If that happened the five points would go to them. According to the rules, questions from any subject could be brought up. It was done one turn after the other. Three participants represented a school but only one could ask a question until it got to their turn again. It would keep rotating from one school to another. Another rule was the question posed wasn’t allowed to surpass, high school level difficulty. The screens up there were programmed to display the questions asked by the students, grade their difficulty level, and analyze the explanation of the students. "I WILL NOW CALL ON THE SCHOOLS AND THE STUDENTS REPRESENTING THEM!" The person on the stage right now was the vice principal of Atrihea city high school. "WHEN YOU HEAR YOUR NAME PLEASE COME OVER TO THE STAGE AND SIT ON THE SEATS RESERVED FOR YOU! "Faruko Adrias, Petra Jenkins, and Brenda Sariel from Cheryl High!" The vice-principal called out. From within the crowd, three students in white and purple school uniforms walked towards the stage. Two of them were females while one of them was a male. The principal proceeded to call out the next names after the first set of students settled down. "Ardimi Ankles, Frier Ezekiel, and Johnson Adrian from Brair Bullet High!" Three students clad in green and blue uniforms moved towards the stage after the vice-principal called out. This was how students were being called out for the next ten minutes. Eagle wings high! Reflection academy! Mount Eve high! Salvation Academy! Ascension academy! Black Rock schools! Finally, it got to Echelon Academy’s turn. "Maltida Avans, Drako Turk, and Gustav Oslov from Echelon Academy," The vice-principal called out. Gustav had a look of confusion upon hearing his name. ’Why was my name called?’ He observed his surroundings and noticed that his classmates had the same look of confusion. Although they knew that Gustav was academically brighter than they were, they hadn’t expected that Gustav would be picked by the principal. Maltida already stood up when her name was called but she paused her steps when she heard Gustav’s name and turned around. "Let’s go together then," She proposed. "I’m not going, you can head over," Gustav said while remaining in his sitting position. Angy was seating on Gustav’s right all this time. She didn’t understand why Gustav would not be interested in representing his school. "Gustav, aren’t you gonna go?" She asked with a confused look. "Not interested," Gustav answered while staring at the first stage where dignitaries were seated. Principal Erwin was staring at him from there with a nervous expression. Maltida noticed the look of disinterest on Gustav’s face and turned around to head towards the stage. Gustav felt a vibration in his sleeves area and pulled a blue-colored button from his sleeves area before placing it on the side of his forehead. "Yes miss Aimee?" Gustav spoke with a straight look. "Is there a good reason why I should?" He spoke again. "I get a cut?" "Hmm, fair deal besides he only asked me to participate," "Does this interfere with our deal in any way?" "No?" "Alright then," Gustav ended the call with miss Aimee after two minutes. At this time the students participating from all the schools present today had been called out completely including Atrihea city’s high school. They were wondering why Echelon Academy’s third seat was still missing a person. Chatter! Chatter! Chatter! The hall was noisy due to that. Gustav suddenly stood up from his seating position and started walking towards the front. The noisy crowd quietened and everyone turned to stare at him. Gustav didn’t even mind the looks of everyone, he kept walking towards the second stage with elegance. Everyone figured that he was the one who didn’t come out earlier. Gustav climbed onto the stage with an unbothered expression and sat on the third seat reserved for Echelon Academy. Maltida was in the middle while the other male student was sitting on the first seat. The three seats were placed side by side and there was a circular glass panel in front of the participants. "Now like I’ve said earlier, the rotation is based on numbering," The vice principal said again. On the glass panels, different numbers lit up on the surface. Echelon Academy’s glass panel had the number 4. This meant that they would be the fourth to ask a question. "Let the exchange of knowledge begin," The vice principal said and went back to his seat. Three faces were displayed on the large screen at this moment. The first school that would be asking a question was Cheryl highschool. The girl in the middle proceeded to stand up and speak. "Our first discussion will be about the laws of gravitational exploration," She said. "If a spacecraft was getting pulled into a level 27 wormhole what would be the best line of action for the captain?" She asked. The screen above projected the question and the difficulty level. The difficulty level wasn’t above the high school level. A red glowing button appeared on every school’s panel. The first school to tap on the panel would be allowed to answer first. ’Tch, is this even a question?’ Gustav snickered internally but he didn’t take any action. Beep! The first school to tap on it was Briar bullet high. They were fast enough to tap on the red display before others. A male student stood and started answering the question. "The strength of a level 27 wormhole can be calculated based on the size and the attraction force it emits, the pilot could choose to do a split-second analysis and gauge if the amount of attraction force can..." The male student kept speaking for several minutes before concluding. "The force of acceleration upon using that amount of speed drawn from the emergency tanks would free it from the clutches of the wormhole after performing the previously mentioned procedures..." After he finished speaking the screen analyzed his answer for a few seconds before the result was displayed on the screen. On the screen big green letters that said ’correct’ were displayed and a table appeared where five marks were placed in front of Briar Bullet schools The audience applauded and the students sat down with a smile on his face. The next school that was meant in line was Eagle wings high. A female student stood from their midst and mentioned a topic based on mechanics before poising her questions. The question and answer session continued for several minutes before it got to Echelon Academy’s turn. During the previous four turns, Echelon Academy was unable to answer a single question and Gustav had not even tried to touch the red display button since the start. Now that it was Echelon Academy’s turn to ask a question Draco quickly stood up with vigor and poised a question. "A particle is moving around in a circle and its position is given in polar coordinates as x = Rcosθ, and y = Rsinθ, where R is the radius of the circle, and θ is in radians. From these equations derive the equation for centripetal acceleration." After he finished poising the question he stood with a smug look on his face. Pin drop silence! The students stared at Draco like he was retarded. "A regular physics question?" Someone from the audience voiced with a look of ridicule. Even the students on the stage had expected something a lot more technical but they were disappointed. "Is this what Echelon Academy has to offer?" This was the thought on most of their minds. Gustav was already laughing internally when Draco asked this question. Immediately after the question was asked he had already solved it in a second internally. He wondered why the principal would choose such a bum. One of the students from Atrihea city high school tapped the red button and stood up to answer the question. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮 "Without loss of generality, we only need to look at the equation for the x-position, since we know that centripetal acceleration points towards the center of the circle. Thus, when θ = 0, the second derivative of x..." The student kept explaining until the screen above shown that he had successfully answered the question. Draco sat down with a look of shame. Principal Erwin had the urge to facepalm from his sitting position. He was already starting to feel frustrated after noticing that Gustav just sat there with an unbothered expression. He didn’t look like he was he was concerned with what was going and or like he had intentions of participating. ’This kid... Why isn’t he trying to answer any question?’ Principal Erwin questioned internally with a dark look while staring at Gustav.