1 Chapter 1: It's Mathematics from the Start

Zhengyang Thirteenth Middle School, Senior Year Level 3 Classroom.

"Bang!"

The test papers slammed onto the podium desk.

A middle-aged female teacher with glasses, her bulging eyes peering out from behind those lenses forming a harsh frown in the shape of a character '川'. She announced loudly to the entire class, "In the end-of-term exams of the last semester, your class had the worst average score in Mathematics!"

"Only sixteen people passed in this class. Some scored less than half. I don't understand, some questions were indeed difficult, but the majority of them were simple, points that should've been scored must be scored!"

"The new term is about to start, you're all going to be seniors, facing the college entrance examination, you should have some apprehensions!"

"This class will still focus on solving and discussing problems, strengthening what you've learned during the first two years."

"We'll deal with multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions first, then we'll explain the difficult problems—"

The teacher was intently fixated in one direction while she spoke, the tone of her voice gradually growing louder until she burst out, "Zhao Yi ! Zhao Yi ! Still laying your head down on your desk? Still sleeping? Can't I wake you even when I'm being this loud?"

"Zhao Yi! Zhao Yi..."

The class erupted with laughter.

Zhao Yi slowly raised his head, groggily rubbing his eyes. His eyes were filled with confusion, as if he was still reveling in the residues of his dream, not completely awake yet.

"Zhao Yi, wake up! The Demon King Niu is pissed!" came a joking reminder from the side.

Zhao Yi turned his head.

The one who spoke was a nerdy-looking skinny guy with glasses. He seemed very familiar yet Zhao Yi was unable to recall his name.

Suddenly, an uncanny feeling surged into his mind.

Zhao Yi looked around, his mind still foggy, struggling to understand what was happening.

He turned to look at the skinny guy once more.

He reached out towards his arm.

And gave it a hard pinch!

"Ouch!" The skinny guy winced in pain, "Zhao Yi, what on earth are you doing!"

"There's a reaction!"

Zhao Yi was shocked as he confirmed one thing – this was not a dream!

He had time-travelled!

Back to his high school days decades ago!

Zhao Yi, like many others a decade later, has been grinding through his studies and work.

His academic performance, mediocre.

His job, monotonous.

The wealth accumulated by his parents over their lifetime was just enough for a down-payment on a house. Despite constantly working overtime, he barely managed to pay his mortgage and maintain a frugal life.

Under the heavy pressure of life, his youthful dreams were long forgotten, and his life goals had become mundane. Occasionally, he would meet up with friends for dinner, drinking, and playing cards – that had become his only form of recreation.

Unconsciously, he had become the very person he despised in his youth.

During the quiet of the night, he sometimes reminisces about his life. His hopes were reduced to regrets, "I should have studied hard in high school, gotten into a top university, then my future would have been different!"

"I should have studied hard during university, getting a Master's degree from a good school could have changed my life!"

"Now, I've time-travelled? I've returned to the past? I can actually go back to high school?"

Zhao Yi finally came back to reality, and was just about to focus on the teacher, when a strange electronic sound rang out--

[Ding dong!]

[The Top Student System is activating…]

He felt something new in his brain, was it one of those legendary systems?

The electronic sound continued--

[You have received the initial ability: Causality Law!]

[Causality Law: You can rely on the relationships of the real world to identify the correct answers in questions that offer correct options.]

While immersed in the electronic introduction, Zhao Yi sat there motionless, his eyes closed again.

His classmates looked at him with humorous expressions. "Did Zhao Yi fall asleep again?"

"Impressive! He can even fall asleep while his eyes are open!"

"Zhao Yi, wake up!"

"Wake up!"

The skinny nerdy guy wearing glasses next to him retaliated by giving him a hard shove.

Zhao Yi almost toppled as he shot straight up from his seat, glaring at the guy and exclaimed, "What the hell! Sun---?"

He blanked out forgetting the name.

"Hahaha…"

The class burst into laughter.

Teacher Niu was so angry that she snapped her chalk in half. She stormed over in a few quick steps, her furious eyes wide open. Her thunderous voice resonated in his ears, "Zhao---!"

"---Yi!"

She slammed the test paper in front of Zhao Yi, "Today, treat it as a test. If you don't achieve a pass mark, you'll have to copy out the questions ten times, the wrong ones twenty times!"

"What's more!"

"I want you to bring your parents to school!"

Examinations, punishments for written mistakes, bring your parents to school.

A triple threat!

Zhao Yi stared blankly at Teacher Niu, completely at a loss for what to do.

Teacher Niu, irritated, went back and started distributing the test papers to the front row.

Sun Liang leaned over and teased with glee, "Spill it, were you fantasizing about Sun Jiali last night and couldn't sleep well?"

"Sun Jiali is in Class 2, you can't see her. She's too far away, why don't you consider our Xiaoqing? She's right in front of you, within sight at all times."

Sun Liang's voice was just loud enough for Lin Xiaoqing, sitting in the front, to hear.

Lin Xiaoqing, a tall girl dressed in a school uniform, hiding what's beneath, a long braid held high, radiating an air of youthfulness.

As a high school girl, her character can't be described as awful but far from gentle too.

At this moment, Lin Xiaoqing turned around. Her voice squeezed out from her mouth, "Fine! Monkey! You're making fun of me? Lucky no one's chasing me, I can experience how it feels like to be pursued."

As she said that she wanted to be pursued, she raised her fist in a menacing way and asked, "Monkey, do you dare to try?"

"Forget it, forget it!"

Sun Liang laughed pleasingly and gestured towards Zhao Yi, " Heroine Lin, this golden opportunity is for our Hero Zhao!"

" Hmph!"

Lin Xiaoqing glanced at Zhao Yi indifferently, then turned her head back.

As Zhao Yi listened to their conversation, he held his forehead strenuously. Even if he had forgotten Sun Liang's name, he could easily recall Lin Xiaoqing's. Lin Xiaoqing had left a deep impression on him.

Lin Xiaoqing had always been seated in front of him, she always came first in class, was very proud and competitive. She might seem skinny and frail, her long braid full of youthful charm but in reality, she was a real tomboy.

She was really fierce!

During the first year of high school, a senior confessed his feelings to Lin Xiaoqing publicly. Lin Xiaoqing felt embarrassed and out of humiliation, beat up that senior. The poor senior was so humiliated that he had no choice but to change schools.

After that, no one dared to court Lin Xiaoqing anymore.

The test paper was passed around.

Zhao Yi already had his test paper, he was just helping to pass the test papers to the back. He also focused his attention on his paper.

Zhao Yi looked at the test paper with a feeling of novelty. He was determined to try his best, "With an expanded memory of over a decade, even advanced mathematics is no problem for me now, how can high school math questions possibly stump me?"

Looking at the questions.

The first multiple-choice question…?

What?

Before he had even finished reading the question, he felt a hit of over 999+ in his heart.

It has been over a decade!

The high school knowledge was long forgotten, not to mention the complicated math rarely used in life.

He only knew that π is pi, should he change it to 3.14?

Besides, what's e again?

"I'm actually worse now than I was before!" Zhao Yi thought of his upcoming college entrance examination in his senior year, and immediately felt immense pressure.

He saw the bracket at the end of the question.

At this moment, a strange feeling emerged in his mind, as if he could know the answer directly just by using a certain ability?

This was a new and intriguing feeling for Zhao Yi, and he was certain about it.

Looking at the test paper again was completely different now.

He did not know how to solve most of the multiple-choice questions on the test, but he knew that through some kind of method, he could figure out the correct answer to the question?

Zhao Yi felt a little uncomfortable with this, but he quickly grasped the main point--

Even if he didn't understand the question, he could still know the answer!

"Is this the ability given by the Top Student System?"

[Open the system!]

At this thought, a set of data appeared in his mind--

[Name: Zhao Yi. ]

[Brain Development Degree: 5.3%]

[Intelligence: 60.]

[Energy: 100/102.]

[Study Coin: 0.]

[Ability: [Causality Law]. (Activating the next stage ability requires consuming 1000 Study Coins.)]

There was not much personal information in the system, just pay close attention to each piece of data and it'd reveal its use.

Brain Development Degree is an evaluation of the brain's capabilities, it directly influences attributes such as intelligence and energy, and even the physical condition.

Intelligence is a complicated evaluation factor, related to the breadth of knowledge, logical thinking, observation ability, and even the system's causality thinking.

Energy is understood in the same way as common sense.

Everyone has limited energy, and prolonged use of the brain would lead to fatigue. The Causality Law ability consumes energy, using the ability consumes more energy than normal brainstorming.

Study Coin is like money, it could enhance the focus and also replenish consumed energy. The way to obtain it is associated with daily behaviors.

After understanding roughly what's going on, Zhao Yi looked back at the questions on the test paper, and eagerly started to test his ability.

The first question.

"Given the set A={x||4x-1|>...then what is the interval for A+B?"

[Causality Law!]

[Answer: C.]

"You don't even have to carefully look at the options, you know right away that the answer is C!"

Zhao Yi took a deep breath, filling in the answer in the bracket. He kept an eye on the personal data in the System while his energy had been reduced by one point on the panel.

Next question.

"If the complex number a+2i/1+2i (…then the value of the real number a is?"

[Causality Law!]

[Answer: A.]

Next question.

"..."

"..."

Zhao Yi read and skimmed through the questions one by one, finishing ten multiple-choice questions in less than ten seconds per question.

Next, things got a bit embarrassing.

Right now, in the formal college entrance examination papers, multiple-choice questions only account for one third of the total points, that is, fifty points.

Teacher Niu said to only do the 'small questions', which also included the fill-in-the-blanks after the multiple-choice.

But…

Zhao Yi carefully calculated that ten multiple-choice questions were fifty points, fill-in-the-blanks were twenty-four points.

50/74 = ?

More than two-thirds?

Passed!

Zhao Yi suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. After relaxing, he felt tired, and a glance at the energy attribute showed that he was surprised to find he had used sixteen points of energy?

Isn't that too fast?

Just ten multiple-choice questions had already consumed sixteen points of energy. If it were an English test paper with so many multiple-choice questions, the energy drained to negative wouldn't even be enough!

"Although the ability is good, the consumption is also a problem."

Zhao Yi pondered carefully, stretched out his fatigue and suddenly felt a soft feeling at his elbow. He twisted his head curiously.

A dark shadow.

Sturdy figure!

Big, staring bull's eyes!

Demon King Niu stared blankly at Zhao Yi, his face turning from white to red, then from red to black, and his trembling body seemed to be brewing the power of a volcanic eruption.

[Flirting, Target: Niu Lianhua, Study Coin +1.]

Zhao Yi stiffly twisted his neck back, looked at the test paper, and pretended that nothing had happened.

Then, he heard an angry roar from behind him--

"Zhao Yi!"

"Sleeping in class! Not taking test seriously! Influencing classmates! Impertinent attitude..."

Teacher Niu roared a series of accusations and finally pointed to the classroom door, "Get out! Stand in the hall as punishment!"

"Yes! Yes!"

Zhao Yi awkwardly stood up, and like a liberated man, he rushed out of the classroom.