Chapter 7: Extraordinary Comprehension

Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Extraordinary Comprehension

"Fuck, how is it Monday again? I wanted to sleep until it was time for lunch!"

"It’s all morning classes! I never should’ve chosen this Japan Language major. It’s all the fault of 2D culture for leading me astray!"

"If I become a Superman, the first thing I’m doing is blowing up the School of Foreign Languages!"

"Don’t do that, I still need to graduate! Why don’t you go blow up the source land of the 2D culture that led you astray instead?"

"Agreed! Supported! Seconded! +1."

Monday morning.

The alarm had just gone off.

Right on cue, the resentful curses of his roommates filled Gu Qing’s ears.

He cleaned out his ears, habitually picked up the phone beside him, and opened WeChat to take a quick look.

Then he discovered that Bai Ningyu had sent him several messages in the early hours of the morning.

He looked at the content.

And, well, Bai Ningyu had blocked him.

She said it was a temporary block and that she would unblock him once everything settled down in the future.

Her reason was that she had many important things to do and couldn’t let people and events from her past affect her emotions.

She also said that she’d treated all her other classmates and friends the same way, blocking them all to completely sever her old social ties and officially start a new life.

The last message was very blunt: [Gu Qing, let’s meet again if fate allows.]

After reading the messages, Gu Qing’s brow furrowed slightly.

He sent a casual message to check and found that Bai Ningyu had indeed blocked him.

For a moment, he couldn’t help but feel a bit upset.

But what was done, was done.

He couldn’t change anything.

All they could do was wish each other well and go their separate ways.

They’d meet again if fate willed it.

After adjusting his mood a little, Gu Qing got up, washed up, and went with his roommates to the academic building for class.

...

「Xuri Building.」

The first thing Gu Qing did upon arriving at the classroom was observe the labels floating above everyone’s head.

[Top Student]

[Sales]

[Translator]

[Unemployed]

[Painter]

He scanned the room and found no particularly eye-catching labels.

They were all very ordinary.

Eventually, Gu Qing’s gaze landed on the female classmate with the [Top Student] label.

’Students come to the classroom to study, and she happens to have a study-related label floating above her head.’

’If I sit and study with her, can I acquire an Attribute from her [Top Student] label?’

’Something like... Learning Ability?’

At this thought, Gu Qing decisively abandoned his three roommates and walked toward the female classmate with the [Top Student] label.

"Yuntong, can I sit next to you?"

"Ah?"

Seeing the class’s most handsome guy suddenly walk up and ask her this, Yang Yuntong, who had been introverted since childhood, was momentarily at a loss, her nervousness visible to the naked eye.

Gu Qing glanced at the grad school entrance exam materials on her desk and explained with a natural expression:

"I heard you’re preparing for the grad school entrance exam. Coincidentally, I’ve been thinking about it recently too, so I was hoping to learn from your experience."

"Oh, I see."

Yang Yuntong composed herself and moved some things on her desk. "You can sit here, then. But I only started preparing a little while ago, so my knowledge about the exams is limited."

"That’s fine. You still know more than me."

Gu Qing sat down directly next to Yang Yuntong, completely ignoring the stares from those around them.

During class, neither of them listened to the foreign instructor’s lecture; they were both hunched over, working through past grad school exam papers.

Most liberal arts majors in university are a joke.

The actual educational value of the classes was appallingly low.

Compared to diligently listening to the teacher, many students preferred to sit and work on their own practice questions.

Civil service exams, grad school exams, proficiency exams, certification exams... they’d work on practice questions for anything and everything. In any case, it was more useful than listening to the lecture.

An hour later.

The familiar text notification arrived as expected.

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

[Focus +1]

[Learning Ability +1]

[Accumulate 100 points in Learning Ability to obtain the Attribute—Extraordinary Comprehension]

[Current points obtained: 1]

’Just as I thought!’

’It seems I can only acquire Attributes from the labels of acquaintances I’ve known for long enough.’

’I just don’t know what "long enough" means.’

’Looks like I’ll have to find that younger student from the sports department to test it out later...’

Reining in his thoughts, Gu Qing shifted his gaze from the text notifications back to the past exam papers in front of him.

After working through a few questions, he found that his concentration had improved significantly.

When he encountered a problem he didn’t know how to solve, he could grasp it completely after reading the explanation just once and could easily apply the concept to other problems.

His focus and Learning Ability had both clearly improved.

’Once my Learning Ability accumulates to 100 points and I get the Attribute—Extraordinary Comprehension, I’ll probably transform into Einstein.’

’Extraordinary Comprehension + Muscle Knots = a Superman with Einstein’s IQ.’

’At that point, I’d be invincible on Earth and in the heavens.’

Gu Qing grew excited just thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Yang Yuntong, who was sitting next to him, looked as if she were questioning her entire existence.

She had been working through past exam papers for almost a month.

But now, working alongside Gu Qing, she discovered that she couldn’t even solve the problems as quickly as he could.

Every time she had just finished reading a question, Gu Qing had already written down the answer.

’Just who is helping whom prepare for the exam here?’

...

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the two long morning classes were over.

In total, Gu Qing had studied with Yang Yuntong for three hours and gained 3 points in Learning Ability.

Now, his studying was twice as effective with half the effort. No one in the class understood learning better than he did.

"Let’s go. Time to eat at the cafeteria."

Chen Zijie said as he walked up to Gu Qing.

Gao Fei had a girlfriend, so he’d turned Traitor and gone to eat with her.

Qian Duole was a lazy dog who couldn’t be bothered to wait in line at the cafeteria, so he had ordered takeout before class even ended.

Two of his four roommates had deserted him, so now only Gu Qing was left to eat with him at the cafeteria.

"Alright, let’s go."

Gu Qing stood up from his seat.

Then he added, "Let’s hit the bathroom first. I drank too much water during class and really have to go."

On the way to the bathroom, Chen Zijie suddenly asked:

"So... are you into Yang Yuntong?"

"Nope."

"Then why’d you go sit with her?"

"Me sitting with her doesn’t mean I’m into her."

Gu Qing threw out a classic, all-purpose non-equation.

Chen Zijie was confused. "So why did you go sit with her?"

Gu Qing replied, "If I said I could tell she was a top student at a glance and wanted to study with her to improve my grades and prepare for next year’s grad school exams, would you believe me?"

Chen Zijie: "Whoever believes that is a fucking idiot."

They arrived at the bathroom.

They unzipped their flies.

The two of them stood not far apart, taking a leak.

Chen Zijie glanced to the side, his eyes immediately went wide, and he couldn’t help but curse, "HOLY SHIT! Did you have a fucking genetic mutation and go through a second puberty?"

A corner of Gu Qing’s mouth lifted. "Keep it down. Just remember to call me next time you go to the bathroom."

Chen Zijie’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

...

There were no classes in the afternoon.

As soon as Gu Qing returned to the dorm, he immediately started frantically eating snacks with Qian Duole while playing video games with Chen Zijie.

A two-pronged approach.

He was farming Attributes from both of their labels at the same time.

Eating Capacity +1+1+1...

Digestion Ability +1+1+1...

Gaming Skill +1+1+1...

Reaction Speed +1+1+1...

When four o’clock in the afternoon rolled around, Gu Qing had originally planned to go play ball with Gao Fei and farm the Physical Strength Attribute.

However, before he could even change into his basketball shoes, he received a message on WeChat from that younger student from the sports department.

[Xia Shuran: Senior, I’m heading to the training grounds to practice with the Red Tassel Spear. Are you coming?]

Seeing this message, Gu Qing didn’t hesitate for a second and decisively abandoned Gao Fei, the [Basketball Player].

Instead, he threw himself into the arms of Xia Shuran, the [Martial Arts Grandmaster].

’Can’t be helped.’

’The [Martial Arts Grandmaster] label just seems so much more appealing than [Basketball Player].’

’Anyone would make the same choice.’

’Yep, it’s definitely not because the cute underclassman is more appealing than my roommate.’

...

PS: Holding out my bowl and begging for monthly tickets and recommendation votes!