Orcs

Xiao Lin was at a loss, but Professor Dai's face looked serious and did not in any way suggest that he was trying to pull their leg. However, after realizing that online games only appeared on Earth in the past few decades, then the professor might really have zero concept of it, considering how he had not returned for half a century.

Xiao Lin tried to find the words to explain it, but he soon discovered that his efforts were futile. Professor Dai did not have the slightest concept of online games. Even if he explained it in terms of the Internet, game operators, or terminal servers, Professor Dai was clueless about all that new terminology. Despite repeated explanation, Xiao Lin eventually came to a point where he did not have any idea what he was babbling about.

Gu Xiaoyue adjusted her spectacles and reminded him in a low voice. "Novels."

Xiao Lin froze and suddenly had the urge to hit his head against the wall. He quickly said, "Novels, novels! The image of Orcs in many of Earth's fantasy novels look like the Orcs on Planet Norma. Why is that?"

Professor Dai finally understood. "Look alike? No. I believe the Orcs described in Earth's novels ARE the Orcs from Planet Norma."

An uproar rumbled the class!

Xiao Lin was puzzled. "You mean, those novels were actually written by students of Dawn Academy?"

Professor Dai was silent for a while, "Former students, to be precise. Of course, it isn't just Dawn Academy. There are many academies in the universe that have set their sights on the New World. If I remember correctly, there were some students who had been eliminated after your admission test."

Xiao Lin nodded and affirmed it.

Professor Dai replied, "Those people will have their memories erased and allowed to return to ordinary life on Earth. Even if they can occasionally remember what they experienced in Dawn Academy, they would only regard it as dreams of grandeur or unfounded fantasies."

Xiao Lin frowned. "Those people were sent back because they failed the test, but they've never had anything to do with Planet Norma, let alone attend history classes like this. This means that those who expressed their fantasy in novels or adapted them into games are none other than graduates who have been to Planet Norma."

Professor Dai reserved his comment instead of tacitly approving. After some time, he said, "They were graduates. If you read the academy rules carefully, you'll realize that only graduates who have completed the entire senior year will have the opportunity to choose to leave Dawn Academy forever. You'll come to understand it eventually. In short, although Dawn Academy and the New World were completely erased from the memories of those graduates, they are still able to recall some fragments by accident. Even so, they'll only treat those fragments as their own remnants of their own fantasy."

Xiao Lin understood that as long as at least one of those people recorded those memories in words and passed them on from one generation to another, the images of those races would be known and imitated by more people. Adaptations into games would enable those concepts to form long-lasting impressions.

Professor Dai appeared rather somber talking about it and did not seem too keen to go in detail. The topic soon went back to the racial composition of Planet Norma.

With the introduction of the Orcs, everyone's expectations were high. Sure enough, many races that only appeared in novels and fantasy novels—like elves, dwarves, and dragons—all appeared one after another under Professor Dai's deft magical spell. The creatures did not differ much from what everyone imagined them to be.

Professor Dai's lecture was actually very lively, especially with the cool magical projections. It captivated everyone as they listened and watched, and when the lecture ended, it was almost noon.

Despite the lesson being only a brief summary of Planet Norma's history, everyone managed to learn a lot of useful information. For example, they finally knew that Dawn Academy's time synchronized with Planet Norma's, with a time ratio of one to two—one day there was equivalent to two days in the real world, and Planet Norma only had 265 days a year.

It was nearly noon by the end of the lesson. Their afternoon class would not start until two o'clock, and the specific course schedule had to be accessed online. The freshmen proceeded to walk toward the dormitory in twos and threes.

When the people in the hall were almost gone, Xiao Lin took the initiative to stand up and ask the girl beside him, "Shall we have lunch together?"

Gu Xiaoyue turned to look at him. Behind her flat glasses, her bright eyes stared at Xiao Lin for so long that he felt his hair stand on end. All of a sudden, she replied, "No, I'm used to being alone."

After speaking, Gu Xiaoyue packed up her notebook and pen before getting up and leaving. Barely a few steps later, she seemed to have thought of something and turned around to hand him her notebook. "I'll lend this to you."

"Thanks."

Xiao Lin was a little reluctant to just end it there. Since no one else was in the classroom, he seized the opportunity and could not help but finally whisper, "You know, as class monitor, I have permission to view the information of other students in the class, such as their life span…"

Gu Xiaoyue froze after walking to the door and her head lowered partway. Xiao Lin walked quietly to her, only to find that her ever-frigid expression was struck with gloom. For the first time ever, the delicate and unfeeling girl showed weakness before him, which made him feel as though he committed a heinous crime.

He waved his hand quickly and explained, "I…I really didn't mean to invade your privacy. It's just that…your life span is only… Do you have a serious or terminal illness?"

Gu Xiaoyue sighed imperceptibly and her face reverted back to its usual coldness. She lifted the short hair around her ears and said calmly, "Neither. It's natural."

Natural? It was some kind of terminal illness, then? Xiao Lin cursed himself, but the girl was no longer in the mood to explain. She walked past Xiao Lin and left the classroom.

Before the admission test, Xiao Lin recalled that Gu Xiaoyue showed great interest when Qin Chuan explained to them that one could increase one's lifespan there. Of course, after knowing that the academy could increase life expectancy, everyone, Xiao Lin included, began to yearn for it.

Nevertheless, everyone wanted the longevity spoken of in legends, but Gu Xiaoyue wanted it to just survive!

Xiao Lin began to feel that he understood Gu Xiaoyue a bit more. As a beautiful girl in the midst of her youth, she should be able to enjoy the time of her life, but what she had was only two years left. Anyone in her shoes would find it difficult to accept such a cruel fact.

The freshmen's lunch was served in the cafeteria on the top floor of the dormitory, with similarly rich and dazzling dishes. There were Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Fujian cuisine, as well as various snacks and pastries. Xiao Lin could not help but wonder how many chefs the academy hired.

Everyone was busy chatting among themselves, be it in soft tones or boisterous clamors. The crux of their conversations were that their compulsory history course that morning was not as boring as they imagined it to be. Although no one realized that the teachers who taught them were at least senior or graduate level teachers, those senior teachers had abundant knowledge that certainly added vivacity and color to Planet Norma's history.

The dean had only instilled a cursory concept of colonizing foreign worlds into everyone at the opening ceremony. Moving forward, everyone had a deeper understanding of the soon-to-be colonized mysterious world. It felt real, and they became increasingly excited for it.

Based on their schedules, afternoon classes were basically lessons on Basic Swordsmanship, Basic Saber Techniques, and the like. One particular issue that gave Xiao Lin a headache was that two of his chosen courses—Basic Swordsmanship and Basic Perception—were conducted that very afternoon. Both of them lasted the entire afternoon, so unless he knew some kind of cloning technique, he had no choice but to choose one of the two.