Study Monster Cultivation System-Chapter 327 - 326 Destiny’s Duel

Lake Ying Middle School.

The live broadcast had already ended.

The mood in Class One, Grade Three was like the tide ebbing and flowing, exciting though it was, they still had to buckle down and prepare for the college entrance exam.

Luckily, the current lesson was biology, and the task was to complete a set of questions which would then be discussed right away, and the papers didn’t need to be turned in.

This was very good for getting back on track.

Zhang Xiaoke had intended to cool down and get a good sleep.

But as soon as she laid her head on the desk, her thigh started vibrating.

Oh no, not her thigh, it was her phone in her pocket causing a chain reaction of vibrations.

Zhang Xiaoke took out her phone to look, it was her master’s video call!

Her mood immediately skyrocketed, she glanced up to see the biology teacher half-asleep, and raised her hand to ask to go to the restroom.

But in fact, once she left the classroom she took out her makeup mirror and cosmetics to touch up her appearance, then fired up the beauty filter app on her phone to do the same to her face. In truth, she accepted the video call as soon as she stepped out of the classroom.

"Hey there, Master, what’s up? I’m in class right now."

"Wow..." Li Zheng was startled for a moment, "who are you?"

"Huh? You’re the one who called me!"

As they were talking, Lin Yujing approached the screen from the corner, giggling, "It’s the beauty camera."

"No way, no way, my phone has it built in~~~" Zhang Xiaoke covered her face repeatedly, "Hurry up, I’m in class."

Li Zheng quickly raised his hand, "Then you should go back to class, and call back when it’s over."

"It’s no big deal, it’s biology class."

"Oh, then carry on." Li Zheng cleared his throat and said, "Here’s the thing, Lin Yujing and I are preparing for a simple exam competition and we need an independent third party to determine the subject and the questions. You’re the first person we thought of; don’t let us down."

"???" Zhang Xiaoke stared in disbelief, "You’ve just been kissing, and you video call me for this???"

Lin Yujing immediately leaned in and scolded, "Don’t mention that!"

"Err..." Zhang Xiaoke held her forehead, "You guys are so boring; I thought it was something fun... you’ve finally got together, and the first thing you do is exam competition? Could it be you’re using this to decide... to decide..."

Zhang Xiaoke trailed off, her mouth gradually forming an ’O’: "I get it; you guys are so romantic."

"Very well." Li Zheng looked into the screen with soul-piercing eyes, "This is a very important competition. Can we rely on you, Zhang Xiaoke?"

As he spoke, Li Zheng’s eyeballs were frantically darting left and right.

Although his words were serious, the look in his eyes was actually very humble—

Please help out your master, okay!

"Yes!" Zhang Xiaoke slapped her thigh, "Leave it to me; the questions have already jumped out of my brain!"

Li Zheng nodded at that, "Then send us the questions as soon as you can, and set a time limit. We will send you the answers within the required time."

"No need." Zhang Xiaoke confidently patted her chest, "Each of you take a piece of paper, and we’ll do the questions and answers right now."

"Hm." Lin Yujing once again forcefully leaned into the screen, "But do you think your little brain can come up with questions that could stump us?"

"Ha." Zhang Xiaoke winked one eye, "Get your paper and pen ready; Xiaoke’s two-dimensional space mega exam is coming!"

"Two-dimensional space!" Li Zheng’s expression was jolted.

"Two-dimensional space?" Lin Yujing’s eyebrows furrowed.

What followed was an anxious exchange of glances.

Li Zheng: Although I don’t understand, she probably won’t either. Relatively speaking, since I often read manga books provided by Zhang Xiaoke, I have a bit of an advantage.

Lin Yujing: Li Zheng must think I don’t understand, but the truth is, I really don’t... However, that doesn’t mean the people around me are clueless. Chen Wei and those guys, they are all seasoned veterans of two-dimensional space; by virtue of being constantly exposed, I’ve been forced to pick up some knowledge... Plus, Mengxi and Sister Xia used to talk about it often, so...

"Alright." Lin Yujing nodded to the screen, "But it can’t involve the content of the comics you lent to Li Zheng. It has to be two-dimensional space that he hasn’t encountered."

"Of course." Zhang Xiaoke patted her chest again, "I am the embodiment of justice."

Li Zheng was already suppressing a smirk at the corner of his mouth, searching for paper and a pen.

Too naive, Lin Yujing is still too naive.

Let’s not mention how biased Zhang Xiaoke’s elbow turns.

Have you forgotten my drawing talent already?

Sorry, I too have a slight understanding of manga.

Besides that, there’s another massive advantage Li Zheng had in the realm of two-dimensional space.

His dad!

Li Yi had another identity—

A true veteran of two-dimensional space.

If all those comics he had collected since childhood hadn’t been thrown out by his mother, he probably wouldn’t have had so much space to store his practice papers.

Dad!

Your sacrifice.

Was worth it.

Today, your son is taking back the battleground!

Li Zheng rushed to get paper and pen ready, then propped up his phone on the table.

Then, he and Lin Yujing naturally took hold of either end of the table and used their arms to shield their papers, to avoid peeking.

Usually, they both had too much pride to consider peeking at each other’s papers, let alone make a defensive stance against it.

But this time, it was too important.

Prior wars had been mere battles for cities and territory.

But this, this was a siege on the capital, a battle for the king’s life and death!

They had to be willing to do whatever it took.

Li Zheng felt the long-lost passion reigniting within him.

It’d been so long since he wanted to win a test with all his heart and soul.

Lin Yujing’s forehead was dotted with sweat as well, a feeling she hadn’t experienced since an ordinary math test back in her sophomore year classroom.

This time, she was confident she could control her emotions and not carelessly slip up.

After a brief explanation, Zhang Xiaoke also strolled underneath the trees in the playground, nodding firmly.

"I understand, now for the necessary test instructions."

"All questions are multiple choice, dictated by me. I’ll say one, you’ll answer one."

"Write the answers on the paper and show them at the same time within 30 seconds; I’ll give the results live."

"One point per question, the first to reach 3 points wins."

"If it’s a tie at 3 points, we’ll keep adding questions until a winner emerges."

"Since it’s a two-dimensional space exam, please follow the two-dimensional approach in question setting and problem-solving."

"Finally, the loser will end up being the ’loser of the Love❤Roulette’ for this week."

"Although they won’t be completely at the winner’s beck and call, they must unconditionally stand by the winner’s side and try their best to please them~~~"

"Geez, even I’m getting excited to play." Zhang Xiaoke covered her face and raised her eyebrows, "How about adding me in~~~ So exciting~~"

"Stop blabbering and ask the questions."

"Hmm, let’s have a one-on-one game later without Scum Chap."

Zhang Xiaoke couldn’t help but rub her hands together excitedly: "Remember, Jingjing, you promised to play alone with me~~"

"...We’ll talk later."

Zhang Xiaoke then put on a serious face and held up one finger sternly.

"First question, please listen carefully——"

"In the world of ’Fist of the North Star’, which statement should the protagonist say before eating to best fit his character——"

"A. Hello"

"B. Goodbye"

"C. I’m going to start eating"

"D. You are already dead"

Li Zheng and Lin Yujing barely thought before they both quickly wrote down their answers and after a glance that seemed to agree on something like option D, they showed their papers at the same time.

Two Ds.

"Damn!" Zhang Xiaoke cursed, "Is it that obvious?"

Li Zheng shook his head, "Even though I don’t know what the meme is, it has to be D."

"Well, that’s two-dimensional space for you." Lin Yujing swayed her paper as she pursed her lips, "Love it love it."

"Tch..." Zhang Xiaoke chuckled disdainfully and waved her hand, "Alright, the first question was just to get you warmed up, the real test is coming up."

"Second question, please listen carefully——"

"[Tsundere] is a perennial character trope in two-dimensional works. So, who is the progenitor of the ’tsundere’ attribute?"

"A: Soryu Asuka Langley"

"B: Misaka Mikoto"

"C: Shirogane Kaguya"

"D: Vegeta"

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

This time, Li Zheng and Lin Yujing both hesitated to write their answers.

It was too difficult, this question was too tough.

But not entirely without a clue.

Among these four options, they actually recognized one.

Li Zheng remembered the name Vegeta; there had been discussions among his elementary school classmates about shooting energy waves and such.

If he wasn’t mistaken, Vegeta should be a strong man.

So, eliminate this disruptive option and choose from the first three.

As for Lin Yujing, she recognized Shirogane Kaguya. She clearly remembered that during a week-long testing phase at work, despite being extremely busy, several male colleagues would always watch an anime together at the same time.

Lin Yujing didn’t know what anime it was, but she vividly remembered how they argued passionately about who was whose waifu.

"Kaguya is my waifu!"

"My waifu!"

"Haha, then I’ll take the secretary away!"

Old Demon Lin understood the thoughts and jokes of the old two-dimensional fans.

But she never understood why they would want to take Zhao Zhenhua away when snatching someone’s waifu...

Anyway, these memories gave Lin Yujing some clues.

Shirogane Kaguya must be a classic tsundere character, right?

But the problem was, this question wasn’t asking "who is more tsundere," but "who is the progenitor."

Clearly, as a progenitor, it should be from an old anime.

And the weekly awaited updates from the old two-dimensional fans at testing, should be from an on-going series, not something too old.

So, C was clearly out.

Then A, B, D…

Still no clue!

Neither Li Zheng nor Lin Yujing had thought that one day they would have to guess their way through an answer.

Finally, almost at the 30-second mark, they reluctantly showed their answer sheets.

Li Zheng: [A. Asuka.]

Lin Yujing: [D. Vegeta]

Li Zheng had little hope for this question, but he found Lin Yujing’s answer hilarious: "Hahaha, D is a male character; you messed up, didn’t you!"

"A male??" Lin Yujing covered her mouth in shock, "Ah... it’s over..."

"Seriously, what were you thinking, how could you pick Vegeta?"

Lin Yujing explained in a straightforward manner: "I was judging by the pronunciation... Bejīta, the name kind of gives off a stronger tsundere vibe... Maybe because its stress is at the beginning and the last sound is read lighter, it feels like the tsundere type that comes on really strong at first and then gets weaker... "

"Sound reasoning, but too bad..." Li Zheng chuckled and raised his eyebrows, "You are already dead."

"Ha, you’re not necessarily right either."

"No, I’ve just unlocked my potential and dredged up a deep memory." Li Zheng pointed to his forehead, "If I remember correctly, the character Asuka already existed before we were born, and she is my dad’s favorite character."

"Ah! Uncle Li likes that one?"

"He even had a figurine, but my mom threw it away." Li Zheng laughed, "Shamefully, it’s because of the figurine being thrown out that I recalled Asuka; that’s a 90s anime, can’t get much older than that."

"Ugh..." Lin Yujing grimaced and clutched her head, "To think it’s knowledge obtained from such an odd source..."

"Not so odd." Li Zheng’s face suddenly turned serious, "My dad has not had an easy life, if he knew that such a miserable experience from the past has come in handy at such a critical moment, he would definitely shed tears of joy."

Li Zheng then nodded toward the screen, "Reveal the answer, Xiaoke, my victory will be the best consolation for Asuka and my dad."

"Alright, here it comes." Zhang Xiaoke clenched her fist as if gathering strength, and then leapt a whole 3 centimeters high, "The answer is D!"

"???" Li Zheng was floored.

"!!" Lin Yujing took off.

"Heh, only an old-timer in two-dimensional space like me could come up with this question."

Zhang Xiaoke explained with a sense of pride.

"Tsundere refers to characters who usually act tough and arrogant, but inside they don’t actually dislike others—in fact, they may even like them. It’s just that they’re too shy and reticent to show it, so they use pride to cover up their shyness."

"As for the most famous character that fits this personality, and one who’s well-known, it’s Vegeta from ’Dragon Ball.’ This manga was created by Mr. Akira Toriyama starting in 1984 and is truly a pioneering comic."

"Too bad, Asuka got it almost right, just a few years later than Vegeta."

"Uncle Li, you were so close..."

"Wait!" Li Zheng raised his hand to appeal, "Can guys be tsundere too??"

"Ohhh." Zhang Xiaoke pointed at the screen and glared over, "Watch your words. Only people from the last century think that only women can be tsundere. Watch out or you’ll get smashed by Boxer."

"Ah..." Li Zheng pounded the desk in frustration, "I didn’t realize that aspect..."

"Jingjing is also impressive." Zhang Xiaoke couldn’t help but admit, "To analyze the character from the perspective of pronunciation, to smell tsundere with such a scientific spirit, even Xiaoke has to admit it’s professional."

"You flatter me, it’s just a coincidence." Lin Yujing smiled faintly, tucking her hair behind her ear and looking at Li Zheng with a sneer, "Maybe, it’s just destiny, huhuhu..."

"Man will conquer heaven." Li Zheng raised his hand and said, "Enough talk, next question."

Zhang Xiaoke smiled, an excited smile.

Master, oh master, so you have met your match?

Isn’t this the time when you threw a bunch of papers at me?

Isn’t this the time when you scored 730 points and complained that the test was too easy?

Struggle then, in Xiaoke’s domain, in the abyss of two-dimensional space—

Struggle!

"Sure, Master, that’s the spirit I admire in you, keep it up!"

Zhang Xiaoke sneered, then posed the third cruel question—

"When someone says ’I was here first,’ as a person of two-dimensional space, the first reaction should be—"

"A: Praise them."

"B: Beat them up."

"C: Help them."

"D: Ignore them."

The abyss is truly an abyss.

Li Zheng was completely at a loss for ideas.

Even if faced with the Riemann hypothesis, he would have more to think about... At least he could attempt some meaningless paths...

It’s too hard, completely illogical.

The only thing he could be sure of was that at least Li Yi, the old two-dimensional space otaku, had never said that phrase.

I was here first...

Was this person cut in line?

Was this an accusation against the line-cutter?

Facing a line-cutter, should one choose "C: Help them"?

But this is a two-dimensional space question, clearly one can’t think in conventional terms...

Lin Yujing was also struggling, even starting to bite her nails.

After another agonizing 30 seconds, both showed their answers simultaneously.

Li Zheng: B. Beat them up.

Lin Yujing: A. Praise them.

"Wow." Zhang Xiaoke exclaimed, "I didn’t expect such high-quality answers."

"Hurry up with the answer," Li Zheng urged.

"Ai..." Zhang Xiaoke shook her head and spread her hands, "Uncle Li is right, it’s a 2:2 tie~"

"YES!" Li Zheng punched the air triumphantly and looked at Lin Yujing with a chuckle, "I told you, man will conquer heaven."

"Why though..." Lin Yujing scratched her head, puzzled, "I just felt like praising was the right response."

Zhang Xiaoke waved her hands and laughed.

"Well, indeed a part of the two-dimensional space community would praise, but those are the minority, the evil ones. The majority of the just two-dimensional space fans would beat them up."

"’I was here first’ is a line from ’White Album,’ a romance anime adapted from a game, which tells the very complicated love triangle between Fuyuma, Setsuna Ogiso and the male protagonist,"

"Because the characters and the lines were so impactful, some sided with Yukino, calling Fuyuma a homewrecker, while others sided with Fuyuma, calling Yukino names."

"This debate has persisted for years, and over time, it led to the birth of those who study ’White Album’ to vindicate their views, known as White Album lovers."

"Whether in forums or QQ groups, they are ubiquitous, creating a terrifying White Album atmosphere, and for a time, everyone called for their heads."

"So, once someone utters this White Album line ’I was here first,’ as a responsible person of two-dimensional space, the first reaction must be to beat them up to maintain the order of this world."

"Of course, there are also a small number of evil individuals who would choose to praise them—those should be beaten up just the same."

"Lastly, there’s only one reason I asked this question—" Zhang Xiaoke said, puffing up her cheeks, flinging her arms wide:

"Fuyuma, you homewrecker aaaaa..."

Lin Yujing immediately pressed mute, then turned to Li Zheng and asked, "How did you know?"

"I guessed," Li Zheng said with a smirk, "If normal logic doesn’t work, the most absurd choice is usually right."

"To guess that correctly..." Lin Yujing chewed her fingernails, "It must be from Uncle Li’s two-dimensional space hangover."

"You don’t understand, a man is a boy until he dies," Li Zheng laughed, "Suddenly I’m a bit interested; I’ll look for some comics to read when I get back."

With that, he clicked off mute.

"aaaaa!!" Zhang Xiaoke had just finished shouting and was catching her breath, "Well then, ready for the tiebreaker question?"

"Bring it on."

"Humph!"

Zhang Xiaoke began excitedly—

"A ’loser dog’ refers to characters who fail in love. Despite trying hard and putting in much effort, they can only watch helplessly as the male lead ends up with someone else."

"So, which of the following characters is NOT a ’loser dog’?"

[A. Eriiri Spencer Sawamura]

[B. Yui Yuigahama]

[C. Rem]

[D. Nakano Ichika, Nakano Nino, Nakano Miku, Nakano May]

[E. Setsuna Ogiso]

[F. Berry]

[F. All of the above!]

Li Zheng could not stand it anymore, "Why are there so many choices for this question?"

"It’s probably because it has a dog character, Xiaoke must be quite excited..." Lin Yujing looked at the heavily panting Zhang Xiaoke on the screen and said, "I already know the answer..."

Having said that, Lin Yujing easily wrote down the answer, turned over the paper, and made a ’please’ gesture to Li Zheng.

Watching the excited Zhang Xiaoke and tasting Lin Yujing’s choice.

Li Zheng also no longer needed to think it over.

Clearly, this was a question about preferences, and Zhang Xiaoke had a pathological love for these loser dog characters.

So many options were simply to rub salt in their wounds, satisfying Zhang Xiaoke’s preference.

The so-called villain from the two-dimensional space must be her, I guess...

After writing down his answer, Li Zheng directly revealed his answer sheet—

[F. All of the above!]

"Tss..." Lin Yujing couldn’t help but snort with laughter, squinting her eyes as she slowly revealed her own answer—

[C. Rem]

"What?!" Li Zheng exclaimed in shock, "You tricked me!"

"Did I?" Lin Yujing spread her hands innocently, "I just said I knew the answer~~"

However, Zhang Xiaoke in the screen was starting to panic: "Wait a minute... Jingjing, what’s with this confidence of yours… My correct answer is indeed F!"

"No," Lin Yujing shook her head, "according to your definition, whether a character is classified as a loser dog can only be determined at the end of the story, and Rem’s story isn’t over yet."

Zhang Xiaoke’s eyes got wider and wider: "...Uh!! Now that you mention it... Rem indeed still has a chance!!"

She then quickly asked, "But how do you know Rem’s story isn’t over? That doesn’t make sense."

Lin Yujing sneered, "I have a group of colleagues who are into the two-dimensional space, and no matter how busy they are, they gather to watch anime at a set time every week. I don’t know much else, just remember a few phrases like ’Rem is my wife,’ ’Kaguya is my wife,’ which turned out to be quite useful."

"So you mean..." Zhang Xiaoke said with wide eyes, "you realized your colleagues were discussing ’Rem’ while following anime series, so you concluded that Rem’s story isn’t over yet, and then used the definition of ’loser dog’ to refute my original answer... It’s just like you, Jingjing, the triumph of the scientist."

"Wait a minute..." Li Zheng sat stiffly on the chair, on the verge of despair, yet still trying to struggle, "Why? Your colleagues are also my colleagues, how come I’ve never noticed them watching anime together?"

Lin Yujing smiled as she stood up, taking steps towards Li Zheng.

With each step, she seemed to grow more intimidating and relentless.

By the time she arrived in front of him, she was like a terrifying demon lord.

"Because you’ve always been studying," Old Demon Lin said coldly, patting Li Zheng’s head, "Are you ready?"

"..."

On the screen, Zhang Xiaoke also cleared her throat and said.

"So I hereby declare."

"This week, Jingjing wins!"

"Master must become an invincibly considerate boyfriend within the next 7 days."

"Pamper Jingjing, love Jingjing, meet all of Jingjing’s unreasonable demands, humble as Uncle Li from his own mouth."

"Same time next week, you can challenge me with another question."

"Alright, there’s the bell. We can’t skip the upcoming Chinese class."

"Good luck, Master~"

"Wait," Li Zheng stared at the screen, "The question is too malicious, I’m going to assign you a study task..."

"Oh, the signal is bad, here comes Director Sun! Oh no, Director, please don’t confiscate my phone!"

After a fake shake of the screen, the signal was completely lost.

Li Zheng let out a long sigh.

Academic Power Value isn’t absolute, who knew it would be such a coincidence this time...

It’s just a week, I can grit my teeth and get through it. Old Li has been at it for decades, and he’s still quite happy.

This time it was Lin Yujing’s luck. Next time I’ll have to find someone more reliable to ask the questions.

Meanwhile, Lin Yujing had somehow returned to the window where she started.

She stomped her foot hard.

"Mad, you bully people!"

As if time had turned back, everything had returned to the way it once was.

Jingjing was still Jingjing.

But Li Zheng was no longer that self-important man.

After struggling for a while, he finally pulled up a chair and moved closer, gently patting Lin Yujing’s back.

"Not mad, not mad..."

"Hmph~~~" Lin Yujing twisted her body, "Pat until asleep!"

"So just keep patting until you fall asleep?"

"Mhm," Lin Yujing mumbled, "If it’s too troublesome, you can leave..."

"Not troublesome, not at all," Li Zheng followed Lin Yujing’s back, gently kneading, gently patting, "Sleep... sleep... my dear..."

"Stop singing, just pat is fine."

"Oh..."

In no time at all.

Weaker than even Wang Cai’s snores came through.

Lin Yujing had truly fallen asleep while lying there!

Huh? She’s quite easy to soothe after all.

Observing Lin Yujing asleep with a sweet smile.

Li Zheng had an epiphany.

What she wanted.

Was actually so simple...