Lin Xiaoqing didn’t make it home. Barely two hundred meters out the school gates, she reluctantly had to stop.

Behind her, Zhao Linlin calls out, "Xiaoqing, slow down, wait for me!"

They were heading to the same mathematics after-school class.

"Keep it up!"

Zhao Yi also stopped and yelled back to them, giving them a thumbs-up as if to cheer them on, and then he leisurely rode his bike home.

Riding a bike was great!

Great exercise, environmentally friendly, and he even earned a couple of Study Coins.

Humming a song on his way home, Zhao Yi received a call from his mom. They chatted a bit about university applications. After hanging up, he immediately sank into worry again.

Choosing a university is so hard!

In the past, after the College Entrance Examination, there weren’t many options to choose from. You’d just aim for a school that was barely above the cut-off line, simply getting a place in a bachelor’s program was sufficient.

Even now, it’s troublesome!

Zhao Yi didn’t believe he had a problem with decision-making, but when faced with choices between Capital University, Shuimu University, and the University of Science and Technology recommended by Professor Liu... plus several other universities. Given his academic performance and abilities, he was free to choose among all universities in the country.

It’s like walking down a street filled with delicious food stalls.

What to eat?

It’s tough!

"Life will be easy if your grades are bad, but it comes with many worries if you excel,"

This was also related to mindset.

The common attitude toward university applications among high school students is to aim for what they can afford based on the ’strive for the best’ propaganda. If you could get into Shuimu or Capital University, no one would think twice about applying to other schools.

Zhao Yi was different.

He needed to consider factors like living environment and geographical location. Going to university was like starting from scratch in a stranger’s city, symbolizing the beginning of a period of solitary struggle. For others, it seemed passionate and inspiring, but him...?

He doesn’t need to struggle that hard!

Why should he live such a tiring life? He was quite content with his life at the moment.

Go to school, relax.

Feeling frustrated, Zhao Yi sighed, "All because of that Teacher Xu, getting the task done mysteriously, now I got troubles..."

Zhao Yi opened the system to check his progress.

The task reward was Brain Domain development and Study Coins. Brain Domain development influenced many attributes, and it also enhanced many facets of the system panel--

[Name: Zhao Yi.]

[Brain Domain development: 6.3%.]

[Intelligence: 68.]

[Energy: 108/121.]

[Study Coins: 2307.]

[Research Coins: 32.]

[Abilities: Law of Cause and effect, Connection Law. (Activating the next stage of abilities requires 6000 Study Coins.)]

Intelligence and energy saw a significant increase, and Study Coins also explosively grew by a thousand points.

Ah, relief!

Zhao Yi patiently studied the ’Brain Domain development’. He hadn’t looked into it carefully before, as the ’Brain Domain development’ could only be increased through task rewards.

The description of this attribute was ’evaluation of the brain’s capacity’, but the brain is the core of the human body and its evaluation should also be a number, a percentage...

He suddenly looked at his robot.

"If the human body were to be likened to a robot, the brain would be a combination of the CPU, hard drive, and memory."

"So is the ’Brain Domain development’... performance?"

This understanding seemed markedly clearer.

Comparing ’Brain Domain development’ to the overall performance of a computer, after the ’Brain Domain development’ has improved, the capabilities of the CPU and the storage of the hard disk will absolutely increase, which corresponds to the properties of intelligence, energy, and others.

"With an improvement in storage ability, wouldn’t memory improve as well? The ability to think should also improve?"

"The brain’s inspiration and creativity, elements unique to humans and not found in computers, will they also be improved by ’Brain Domain development’?"

An idea came to Zhao Yi as he pondered. He immediately started on his creative work: designing a ’counter-cheat’ program!

The ’counter-cheat’ program was previously in the conceptual phase and he’d only written a small part of it, without even establishing a framework. There was one problem he absolutely needed to solve--

How to send data and programs in disguise within a local network using game’s data exchange?

What kind of data program should be sent?

"The ’bomb trojan’ can be used for disguise!"

When he infiltrated the police network, the trojan program he wrote did an excellent job of camouflage. It was highly unlikely to be recognized by antivirus software. Even if it was identified while running, the alert would disappear due to its ’one-time’ nature.

The ’bomb trojan’ was just right to use in invasion disguise; once it infiltrates, half of the work is done.

Data transmission is also critical.

Data transmission on a local network is relatively simple, but using game data exchange as a transmission channel requires understanding of the game data transfer.

Zhao Yi was an expert in this area.

The game client was located on his computer, but he didn’t need to crack the game’s source code. He just needed to set up a small data interception program, capture the data transmission between computers on the local network while the game is running, to get a lot of ’known conditions’.

Then using the Connection Law, one can understand the data transmission method and how to embed other data into it.

With that, half of the problem was solved.

Zhao Yi worked until after midnight, finally completing the main framework.

The framework, albeit for designing a ’counter-cheat’ program, in reality, could be considered a powerful invasion program framework, and could be likened to a ’targeted bomb’.

The bomb was targeted towards the game’s multiplayer platform.

If the completed program were to get out, the consequences would be somewhat terrifying. Computer professionals could easily plug trojan functions into the framework based on it.

Then, gamers would find out that as long as they’re playing games via the multiplayer platform, there will be a bunch of trojans and viruses on their computers.

That’s truly horrifying.

Zhao Yi hastily created a confidentiality program, and put two locks on his computer to prevent accidents.

"Phew~~"

"Working on something like this is quite thrilling!"

When lying in bed, Zhao Yi couldn’t help but reflect. He found himself gradually veering away from the path of a hacker, and the things he created started to have powerful offensive capabilities.

...

The next morning, Zhao Yi hesitated for quite a while before deciding to wait for Lin Xiaoqing downstairs.

Lin Xiaoqing came out.

She acted as if nothing had happened and even showed Zhao Yi a smiling face.

Zhao Yi suspiciously took two steps back.

Something was off!

It wasn’t until Lin Xudong appeared behind Lin Xiaoqing that he realized what was going on.

"Zhao Yi, you’re up early!"

"You’re going to school together, be safe!"

Lin Xudong bid Zhao Yi goodbye, gave him and Niu Lianhua some instructions, and then got on the car.

"Vroom~"

The car drove away.

Just as Zhao Yi was about to leave on his bike, Lin Xiaoqing held him back. He laughed and asked, "Miss Xiaoqing, what can I do for you?"

"Nothing much, I just want to hold your hand."

Lin Xiaoqing had a sweet smile on her face. She held Zhao Yi’s hand, swinging it repeatedly without letting go.

Under Zhao Yi’s bewildered gaze, she suddenly let go of his hand.Putting her palm to her nose, she sniffed and said, "Gosh, it stinks! Haven’t you washed your hand in a month?"

She burst into laughter after saying this.

It took Zhao Yi a while to realise that Lin Xiaoqing was getting back at him for something.

But...

Wasn’t this just adorable?

He grinned, shaking off his hand and feigning innocence, "I just spent a few minutes in the toilet before coming down and forgot to wash my hands after."

"What???"

"Zhao! Yi!"

"You’re dead meat! Stop running! Slow down!"

The chase went on as he rode away.

From a corner shaded by a nearby building, Lin Xudong watched the two leaving figures in the distance, seething with anger to the point of hurting his teeth.

"Qingqing."

"Why would you want to touch that rascal’s hand voluntarily?"

His heart ached and he didn’t know what to do. It was as if his carefully-grown cabbage had jumped into someone else’s mouth.

Could he blame anyone for this?

The more Lin Xudongthought about it, the more depressed he got. "This won’t do!"

"As soon as I get home, I’ll talk to Hongjuan about it. We should figure out some way to prevent Qingqing from having too much contact with that naughty kid!"

...

After they arrived at the school, Zhao Yi found that his situation had changed. He was being treated like the ’kid from other families’.

During the self-study session, Li Lisheng walked into the classroom, noted Zhao Yi reading a book, walked up to the lectern and said, "Those who are not serious during self-study session should take a look at Zhao Yi!"

"Even though he has been admitted to Shuimu and Capital University, he’s still studying earnestly!"

"This dedication!"

"What about you guys? Can you make it to a top-tier university? Only half a year left before the college entrance examination! Start studying now!"

During the physics class, Teacher Sun stood at the lectern and said to everyone, "Look at Zhao Yi, he’s still busy solving problems!"

"You all know what happened yesterday. He can enter any university he wants in the country! All universities are fighting to recruit him!"

"What about you people?"

"Let’s see who dares not pay attention in class in the future!"

In Chinese class, teacher Wang Ping spoke in a quiet tone, "Zhao Yi is sleeping, but I turn a blind eye to it. Do any of you other students want to sleep too?"

"Sun Liang, Wake up!"

"And you, the one in the back, student Wang Jian!"

"What gives you the right to sleep? Are you getting recommended for admission into Shuimu or have you been accepted into a prestigious overseas university?"

During math class, Niu Lianhua glared with angry eyes saying, "Can’t even solve such a simple problem? And not taking it seriously?"

"How many times have I taught this question! I really wish that each of you would be like Zhao Yi! Do you see?"

"Zhao Yi scored full marks in the Mathematical Olympiad, yet he is still attentive in class! "

"What about you all!"

"..."

"Zhao Yi is so dedicated."

"Zhao Yi is still studying."

"Even when Zhao Yi sleeps, it’s right."

"If Zhao Yi doesn’t skip class, he’s being responsible."

"Zhao Yi, Zhao Yi, Zhao Yi, Zhao Yi, Zhao Yi, Zhao Yi, ..."

The other students were going crazy.

Zhao Yi was getting dirty looks from all his peers, even Lin Xiaoqing turned her head in exasperation and warned him, "Zhao Yi, don’t come to the class tomorrow! You’re so annoying!"

"Really, don’t come!"

"God Zhao, you’ve already been accepted by Shuimu and Capital University, no need to mix with us mortals!"

"I sit right behind you, and I get scolded in every class."

Zhao Yi made a face of innocence.

Suddenly, he felt there was some truth in what the teachers and classmates said. Since he can already choose any university, why should he still study hard?

"Do I still need to study?"

"What’s the point of attending school every day?"

"Should I just skip classes regularly?"

Zhao Yi suddenly felt a sense of confusion about his studies, and kept pondering on this issue.

In his previous life, he felt regret for not taking his studies seriously and thus missing out on entering a good university to change his fate. In this life, with the help of the Top Student System, he has already accomplished the goal of entering a top university ahead of time..

What’s next?

Was his only regret in his past life about not attending a good university?

No!

His regret was that he didn’t study seriously enough, not just in high school, but also in university. He lived aimlessly day by day, wasting time and only putting in some effort right before the exams.

In the end, he wasted three years of high school and four years of college.

That’s seven years!

How many sets of seven years does a person have?

Right!

Study hard!

Zhao Yi seemed to understand. His expression became serious and he was more determined to study hard. Suddenly, a system notification sounded in his ear-

"Life goal task, second phase: You need to become the top scorer of the province in the college entrance examination.

Reward: 600 Study Coins, Brain Domain development +0.5%.

(Hint: Life goal tasks are mainline tasks. Completion of the second phase is required to active subsequent tasks.)"