Chapter 20: Man-eating Giant Rat

Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Man-eating Giant Rat

Gu Qing arrived at the classroom.

As usual, he ditched his three roommates and went to sit with Yang Yuntong, the top student prepping for her graduate school entrance exams.

He had just sat down when he heard some girls in the class talking about the rat problem.

They were complaining that the number of rats recently was absurd.

It had gotten so bad that when they threw out the trash, they didn’t dare get too close to the trash cans. They could only toss their garbage from a distance, terrified that a rat might suddenly dart out.

Gu Qing didn’t pay much attention to the idle chatter. He silently took out his phone and started playing on it while waiting for the bell to ring.

After scrolling through the Sun Xiaochuan forum for a bit, he suddenly remembered Zhou Yuan, the [Biochemical Madman].

It had been almost a day since they’d added each other on WeChat, and he still hadn’t checked the guy’s Friends Circle. That just wasn’t right.

’Alright, I’ll go look now.’

’Hopefully, I can find some useful information. It’ll help me prepare to farm his label Attributes later.’

With that thought, Gu Qing exited the forum, opened WeChat, and clicked on Zhou Yuan’s Friends Circle.

’Thankfully, this research fanatic hasn’t set his Friends Circle to only be visible for the last three days.’

’Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to see anything.’

Zhou Yuan’s Friends Circle didn’t have many posts. Scrolling to the bottom, there were only about twenty-some entries.

With so few, Gu Qing finished reading all of them in less than two minutes.

He gleaned three important pieces of intelligence from it.

1. Zhou Yuan was single and longed for a relationship that could lead to marriage.

2. Zhou Yuan was broke and desperately wanted his own house and car.

3. Zhou Yuan loved playing League of Legends and missed the fun times of playing premade games with his roommates during his undergraduate years.

Based on these three pieces of intelligence,

Gu Qing began to seriously ponder ways to get closer to Zhou Yuan.

’First option: introduce a girlfriend to Zhou Yuan, who has neither money nor looks. Too difficult. Pass.’

’Second option: provide Zhou Yuan with a house and car. Impossible. Pass.’

’Third option: the four guys in my dorm all play League of Legends. If we bring Zhou Yuan along, that makes a perfect five-man team. This could work.’

’Once we’re buddies from playing together, I’ll try to get him to bring me into the lab to do research with him. Then I can madly farm the Attributes from his [Biochemical Madman] label...’

With that in mind, Gu Qing sent Zhou Yuan a message.

[Gu Qing: Brother Yuan, I saw from your Friends Circle that you seem to like League of Legends. My three roommates and I play too. Two of the four of us are Challenger rank. Want to join us for a five-man premade sometime?]

He sent the message, but by the time the class bell rang, the other party hadn’t replied.

Gu Qing didn’t just sit around foolishly waiting for a response.

As soon as the bell rang, he immediately started grinding practice problems with Yang Yuntong beside him.

Time flew by while he was immersed in his problem-solving session.

In the blink of an eye, the entire morning was gone.

[You studied with your classmate Yang Yuntong for over an hour] x4

[Focus +1] x4

[Learning Ability +1] x4

[Learning Ability has accumulated 100 points. You can now obtain the Attribute—Extraordinary Comprehension]

[Current points obtained: 34]

’Only 34 points.’

Gu Qing felt the progress was a bit too slow.

But there was nothing he could do; his time was limited.

These days, he had a fixed schedule of training with Xia Shuran for three hours and then playing basketball with Gao Fei for another three hours almost every day.

Taking into account various other miscellaneous things, his schedule was already packed.

There was no extra time to grind problems with Yang Yuntong.

When the bell rang, signaling the end of class,

Yang Yuntong, sitting beside him, hesitated for a moment before mustering her courage, leaning over, and asking in a low voice:

"Gu Qing, there’s a new Hollywood blockbuster that’s supposed to be really good. Are you free this weekend?"

She had been sitting and studying with Gu Qing so often recently that an unrealistic fantasy had begun to form in her heart. She felt that maybe she had a chance with the handsome dreamboat of their class.

Hearing this, Gu Qing’s heart skipped a beat.

’This is bad!’

’This relationship is about to collapse!’

He pretended to be absorbed in the practice problems and didn’t hear her.

After a few seconds, he feigned a look of delayed realization, turned to Yang Yuntong, and said uncertainly:

"Hm? Were you just talking to me? I was too focused on these problems, I wasn’t paying attention."

"N-no, it’s nothing. I was just saying that class is over, and I’m taking my graduate exam materials back."

Yang Yuntong hastily gathered her grad school prep materials, stood up, and quickly walked away.

’Being handsome isn’t always a good thing. I almost lost a tool for farming Attributes...’

Gu Qing breathed a sigh of relief internally.

Afterwards, he went to the cafeteria with his eating buddy, Chen Zijie.

In the cafeteria, just after getting his food and preparing to sit down,

he finally received a reply from Zhou Yuan.

[Zhou Yuan: Sorry, junior. I was busy all morning and didn’t check WeChat.]

[Zhou Yuan: I love playing League of Legends too, but I don’t have much time during the week. I’ll see what my schedule looks like on the weekend. If I’m free, I’ll hit you up.]

[Gu Qing: Sounds good. I’m pretty much free on weekend nights. Just let me know when it works for you, Brother Yuan.]

They just exchanged a few simple messages.

Gu Qing put away his phone and focused on eating, polishing off one plate after another.

Many students passing by were astonished by the amount of food he was eating.

A few rude ones even secretly took pictures, probably to send to their friends and complain.

Gu Qing couldn’t care less about it.

Of course, he didn’t care at this stage, at least.

’Once the day comes when I’m completely invincible and don’t have to eat so much anymore, if anyone dares call me a glutton, I’ll just blast them to kingdom come with my Laser Eye.’

...

In the afternoon.

Gu Qing arrived at the athletic field on time to meet Xia Shuran. He trained with her for two hours on the Red Tassel Spear, followed by an hour of core strength exercises.

[Physical Strength +1] x3

"Senior, it’s time for dinner."

Xia Shuran wiped the sweat from her forehead and asked with a smile, "Want to go to the cafeteria and eat together?"

Gu Qing: "No, thanks. I’ve already made plans with my roommate to play basketball in a bit."

"Huh? You’re going to exercise more?"

Xia Shuran was a bit surprised and muttered under her breath, "Senior’s stamina seems endless..."

The moment the words left her mouth, her cheeks flushed slightly as her thoughts unintentionally strayed in another direction.

Gu Qing’s stamina was so ridiculous that just imagining it made her a little flustered. She secretly wondered if her small frame could handle it.

...

That evening,

Gu Qing dragged Gao Fei out to play basketball again.

Gao Fei was as drained as ever.

After just two hours, he was wailing about how tired he was.

He wanted to desert.

He said if they kept playing, his legs would turn to jelly, and he wouldn’t be able to answer to his girlfriend later that night.

Gu Qing didn’t care about any of that and forced him to stay and keep playing.

He toughed it out for another hour.

With a look of utter despair on his face, Gao Fei felt his interest in basketball slowly fading away.

Gu Qing, on the other hand, looked at the Physical Strength Attribute that had just popped up and felt his interest in basketball growing even stronger.

[Physical Strength +1] x3

Counting the +3 Physical Strength he had farmed from Xia Shuran’s [Martial Arts Grandmaster] label that afternoon,

he had gained a total of 6 points for the day.

Adding that to his previously obtained points,

his cumulative Physical Strength was now +29.

...

「The next morning.」

On the way to the academic building for class,

Gu Qing saw that the university had hired professionals to exterminate the rats.

It was a large, twenty-person extermination team, all fully equipped. The scene looked quite impressive.

When he passed by again at noon after class was out,

Gu Qing could clearly see along the way that the number of rats had decreased significantly.

At the very least, there were no longer any rats scurrying around the trash cans.

He returned to his dorm and took a short nap.

When the time came in the afternoon, Gu Qing got up and went to the athletic field to find Xia Shuran and farm Attributes.

And when evening arrived, he promptly dragged Gao Fei out to play basketball and farm more Attributes.

Over the course of the day, his Learning Ability increased by 4 points, and his Physical Strength by 6.

[Cumulative Learning Ability +38]

[Cumulative Physical Strength +35]

...

After showering that night,

Gu Qing lay comfortably in bed, playing on his phone.

Around twelve o’clock,

Gao Fei, who had been out on a date with his girlfriend, rushed back to the dorm just before curfew.

The moment he walked in, he couldn’t help but drop a huge bombshell, not holding anything back:

"Big news!"

"You know how the school’s been overrun with rats recently, and the administration hired people to exterminate them?"

"Well, a professor from the School of Life Sciences thought the rats were abnormally large, so he personally caught a few to dissect and study."

"And guess what?"

"After the dissection, he found that all of these big rats had remnants of human tissue in their stomachs!"

"They reported it to the Security Officers, and after a DNA comparison, it turned out to be a perfect match for those two people who went missing earlier!"

...