15 Investigation Form

Su Xiaoyu sat down on the couch. "Hang on a second. Didn't you say you were supposed to tutor someone tonight?"

"About that… I'm the same as you. I got laid off…" Qin Guan said.

Su Xiaoyu was a little stunned. "Huh?"

"The kid I tutor also has a mobile AI system now. He doesn't need me to tutor him Mandarin anymore… As for you, aren't you in media technology? How could you lose your job as well?"

Su Xiaoyu grew downcast. "Don't even mention it… Interns always play second fiddle to the senior employees, you know? We're just in charge of things like the newsfeed and writing short drafts. Now, with the mobile AI systems, the official workers' efficiency increased by several fold, and we interns no longer have anything to do. It's only natural that we're laid off…

"Honestly, we can still live with it. Some of the employees had been there for a long time and were earning a lot of money, but since the company now has an excess number of employees, some were also laid off. They are the ones in true despair."

Qin Guan did not expect that right after he finished sympathizing translators and eyeglasses manufacturers, he and Su Xiaoyu would both lose their jobs…

Was this how karma worked?

"Then what are we supposed to do with our September rent? We have to pay three months in advance." Qin Guan suddenly thought of a very serious problem.

Su Xiaoyu thought about it as well. "Tomorrow, I'll send some resumes. But I think the other media professions won't be much better. If things really don't work out, we'll have to use our savings to pay for our expenses for the time being…"

Qin Guan was silent for a moment. "Do we… have savings?"

"... I don't think we do."

Qin Guan placed his head in his palms.

Su Xiaoyu smiled. "Come now, it's fine. We won't starve to death. At most, we won't rent this house anymore. We can just go back to the dorms. By the way, you lazy bug, you didn't stream today either, right?"

Qin Guan looked flabbergasted. 'Didn't you change your topic a little too quickly?!'

"Ahem. Well, I was a little busy with the trial today, so I had no mood to stream…" Qin Guan evaded the topic by talking about other things.

Su Xiaoyu smiled coldly. "Hmph. You make excuses even when you're slacking off. If you don't stream tomorrow and get some money to put bread on our table, I will sell the game account that has all the games you bought but can't play on Steam for a cheap price."

Qin Guan was instantly unhappy. "Hey, am I the type of person who will give up because of some little stress? Alright, I am, but I will stream tomorrow, so please spare my game account. It's my lifeline…"

Su Xiaoyu smiled. "Such a good boy. Alright, to commemorate both of us losing our jobs today, I will make braised pork ribs. I'll go out and buy the ingredients, so clean up the kitchen, will you?"

Qin Guan felt that he had completely lost his status as an older brother. He wanted to rebuild it a little, so he said, "How about I go buy the pork ribs and you rest at home?"

Su Xiaoyu smiled. "You're the person who fell on even ground while in the house. Where did you gain the courage to volunteer buying ingredients outside? Besides, I'm much stronger than you are right now."

Once Su Xiaoyu finished speaking, she changed into the body she used for the trial and went out. Qin Guan tried to construct his words, but in the end, he found that he had no idea how to retort…

When it was eight, Qin Guan and Su Xiaoyu chewed on the pork ribs. At that moment, their phones rang one after another.

Qin Guan picked his up. "Oh? My supervisor told us that all the students in the department were to have a meeting tomorrow… but isn't tomorrow a weekend?"

Su Xiaoyu looked at her phone. "I received it too. Strange. Last time, when we had this sort of news, the supervisors told the members of the student council first. Why did they notify all of us at once this time? This is very sudden."

Qin Guan sipped his drink. "Who knows? Anyway, we don't have anything to do tomorrow. Let's go and take a look… Burp. I'm full."

Su Xiaoyu looked at her watch. "It's only eight-something now. Are you sure you don't want to stream today?"

Qin Guan had already lied down on the couch like a corpse. "Nope. I'm already at the 71st platform in the trial. No matter what, I'll clear it today!"

...

The second day. Afternoon.

"Come on, stop struggling. We have to leave now." Su Xiaoyu had already dressed up and now stood at the entrance.

Qin Guan stood up from the couch in despair. "You have to believe me. I'm already at the 98th platform, I'm going to—"

Su Xiaoyu gave him a look that suggested she thought he was joking with her. "Three hours ago, you were at the 97th platform… Based on your speed, we'll never make it to the meeting…"

Qin Guan looked at his watch, and he knew that he could indeed no longer drag this out. Hence, he rushed into the bathroom at lightspeed. "Five minutes! I'll just wash my hair!"

Five minutes later, Qin Guan hastily blew his hair and went out with Su Xiaoyu.

Nearly twenty hours had passed since he started working on the trial the evening before.

Even though Qin Guan felt like had he used all of his strength, he still did not manage to complete the trial.

It had to be said that all the platforms after the 80th platform were crazier and tougher than before. In fact, even with the standard answers, Qin Guan felt dizzy from all the falls.

If anyone else were in his position, they might have gone crazy a long time ago…

Qin Guan did not know what sort of conviction he had that supported him to keep on going without stopping. However, once he reached the 90th platform, he constantly had a strong feeling that he was about to clear the trial!

However, reality proved to him that the feeling he had was false…

On the other hand, Su Xiaoyu was doing mightily fine—she had almost cleared Hard Mode.

Logically speaking, the difference in the models of the platforms was great between different difficulty levels, so the further the players progressed, the slower they should get.

But that logic only applied to normal people.

Exceptionally talented people like Su Xiaoyu would improve their technique nonstop while jumping across the platforms. Because of that, she could handle the complex challenges without slowing down.

This was what it was meant by using the things learned and applying the knowledge in other matters.

It could be clearly seen that as the difficulty continued to rise, the players who had swiftly cleared Medium Mode only widened the gap with each day. In the end, the distribution of the players turned into something like a pyramid.

It was like a marathon. At the start, there were plenty of people who would lead the race, but as they ran, different echelons would appear. At the end, the runner at first place would even surpass the others at the back by a few rounds.

...

Qin Guan was not in the same department as Su Xiaoyu, so they went to different places for the meeting.

The students were distributed to different meeting rooms based on their school year. All of the students in the faculty of arts in the same year as Qin Guan went to an amphitheater in the multiple-use building. They waited for their supervisor to come in and hold the meeting.

Qin Guan soon found Xiao Qiang's sleazy face among the streams of people and sat down on the empty seat beside him. 

"Brother-in-law, come, sit. You completed the trial a long time ago, right? What character did you start with? Why don't you transform and let me take a look?" The brat was still as much of a rascal as ever.

Qin Guan resigned himself at that moment. "I'm stuck at the 99th platform… Don't touch me, I really can't transform…"

Xiao Qiang did not believe him one bit. "That doesn't make sense! You're famous in our faculty for being good at games! Why is your progress so slow?"

Qin Guan rolled his eyes. 'Am I supposed to tell you that my mobile AI system trolled me and made me choose the hardest difficulty?"

He suddenly realized what was wrong. "Wait. Why am I famous for being good at games in our faculty?! How can someone possibly get famous in the faculty of arts for something like this?!"

Xiao Qiang nodded furiously. "It's true! Everyone watches your stream constantly, and they're all your hardcore fans. Your stream yesterday was very interesting!"

"...I didn't stream yesterday at all."

Xiao Qiang smiled a little awkwardly. "Then perhaps I remembered wrong? Did you stream the day before yesterday?"

"I didn't stream the day before yesterday either…"

Xiao Qiang glared at him. "Since you know that you didn't stream these past two days, then shouldn't you know what you should be tonight, you idiot?"

Qin Guan was dumbfounded.

While the two joked with each other, the supervisor walked in and handed stacks of papers to the students in the first row. He then asked them to pass the papers to the back.

"Use the time to fill up the forms. You don't have to look at each other's information," the councillor said so everyone could hear it.

Qin Guan was a little puzzled. Once he took the form and looked at it, he found that it was a questionnaire.

Everyone had to fill in how much time they had spent in the trial and their current progress.