111. You came, you shouldn't have come, but you still came, maybe I shouldn't have come, so I must come.
The Dragon Titan girl Diaran clearly doesn't understand the saying "the tree that stands out gets blown by the wind." Her shocking appearance and terrifying aura yesterday caused a lot of dissatisfaction.
In horror movies, the strongest man is usually the first to die.
Li Aozi being so high-profile on Azure Star was for the sake of interests. Diaran being this high-profile, he couldn't understand her purpose.
Helping other students form a united front?
[Forget it, university is so boring, I really want to play with my phone...]
Li Aozi shook his head, focusing on the class to avoid losing more points.
By the end of the morning's classes, Hobbs and Lucite had each earned 2 credits, while Li Aozi had answered three questions wrong and now faced a credit situation of -5.
"This won't do." Hobbs kindly reminded, "Leoz, if you keep this up, you won't be able to advance. Let's skip lunch, I need to help you catch up."
Li Aozi helplessly explained:
"That's not necessary, it's not a problem of knowledge reserves..."
"Alright, don't feel embarrassed, we're all brothers here."
Lucite patted Li Aozi on the shoulder:
"Don't worry, you still have the two of us."
"No need, it would delay you both. Instead of spending time on this, you should go to the library and read some books."
Li Aozi was a bit at a loss whether to cry or laugh.
"What are you saying? What do you mean by delay?" Lucite complained, "That day when I collapsed on the bridge, you and Hobbs stepped out of the crowd to pull me up, and that caused much more delay than this. Because of me, you two might end up targeted by Beizhong Guiming..."
The honest big guy became more and more embarrassed as he spoke.
"It has nothing to do with that." Li Aozi simply lied: "I'm just not in a good state today, something's been bothering me."
[You performed an act of 'lying', conducting a [Charisma] check...]
[Check passed! Great success, your teammates believed your lie.]
Li Aozi's 'sincere' words, along with his helpless expression, touched Hobbs and Lucite's hearts, and they recalled the various details of Li Aozi in class earlier.
Dropping the pen, spacing out, dazed.
These indeed looked like signs of being unsettled.
"Alright, I can see you're really out of it today." Lucite said sincerely, "Make sure you adjust well. If there's anything that's really bothering you, sharing it with your brothers will make you feel a lot better."
"Look at you, just don't come crying to me for help later." Hobbs pouted, "To be honest, I'm actually quite the academic achiever."
"Thanks."
Li Aozi breathed a sigh of relief. Normally, deceiving others was second nature to him, but with these two classmates he hadn't known for long, he felt a bit of guilt.
But he was telling the truth, even if they helped him study until three-something, it wouldn't help. Might as well use that time to drink some tea.
[I need to figure out a way to overcome this problem. If it can be solved, it would be a major benefit for the [Echoer] path.]
That earlier post by 'Hard as Ants' gave Li Aozi a hint: quite a few players can't even handle the difficulty of being a [Mutant], so probably [Echoer] would screen out even more.
[I remember there was a way, I recall there was a video in my past life about how to learn extraordinary knowledge using a brainless Zerg...]
But that video was from long ago, and Li Aozi needed to recall it well.
The three walked side by side towards the cafeteria. Hobbs and Lucite began chatting about the new term's courses, exchanging ideas animatedly, while Li Aozi beside them could only say "Mm", "Oh", "I see", "Me too." Thanks to his high [Charisma] attribute, no one felt like he was ruining the mood, letting the two chat smoothly without interrupting Li Aozi's thoughts.
As he walked and pondered, suddenly a group of young men and women brushed past them. The leading male gave a surprised glance at Li Aozi's back and teased aloud:
"Whoa! Look at this, isn't this the Leoz who was personally invited by the Ministry of Education? Our perfect scorer, unable to even contribute to a discussion on magic-electric effect?"
Lucite and Hobbs immediately stopped, causing Li Aozi, who was thinking deeply behind them, to bump right into their backs.
"Why'd you two suddenly stop?" Li Aozi asked casually, "Let's keep going, I saw a sign for pineapple meatballs at the cafeteria, I haven't had those in ages."
"Leoz..." Hobbs turned around, just starting to speak when someone behind interrupted:
"I heard your special treatment privileges are all gone, even the interview filming scheduled by the City Hall has been urgently canceled."
Hearing this, Li Aozi turned his head, looking confusedly at the person who called out to him: The guy was nearly two meters tall, stout, muscular, with slicked-back black hair about an inch long, looking just like a tall tower.
As a freshman, he had already donned an expensive genuine leather robe, seemingly made from Gryphon hide, clearly costly. A beautiful maid beside him was holding a ghost wolf with a blue-flame tail, also a rare pet.
Quite wealthy.
Li Aozi glanced over; this guy's entire outfit, including the human assistance and pet, was worth around forty thousand Anjin.
Incredible, it was worth a full two and a half days of interest from his own bank account!
Li Aozi felt a sense of respect.
"Who are you?"
Faced with the rich guy, Li Aozi drooped his eyelids and politely asked.
"How rude!" The maid beside him said coldly, "Standing before you is the young master of the Molodiya family — Antifa Molodiya. As a citizen of the Crystal Tower civilization, you surely must know what Molodiya represents, right?"
"What— Molodiya!"
Lucite was utterly astonished.
"No way, it's actually Molodiya..."
Hobbs' mouth twitched.
Li Aozi looked at his two companions and asked sincerely:
"What's Molodiya? I know Molotov."
"Pffft." Students passing by couldn't help but laugh, Lucite and Hobbs both looked a bit embarrassed, and the latter secretly messaged Li Aozi:
'The Molodiya family controls one of the top 100 Crystal Tower workshops — "Ru Wheel Shipping".'
"Is it powerful?"
'Extremely powerful! It's a mega workshop that pays taxes in the trillions of Dina! They employ over thirty thousand mages. Most importantly, the current workshop owner has close ties with the Velazi Company.'
"Oh, Velazi's lackey."
Li Aozi casually said, then turned around and started walking:
"Let's go, time for some pineapple meat."
"Hey—"
Hobbs and Lucite exchanged glances, then both bowed their heads to apologize to the people from the Molodiya family:
"We are very sorry! He's been a bit agitated today! Please be magnanimous and don't take this to heart."
"Yes, young master of Molodiya, don't bother with Leoz, he's just a poor kid."
Their respectful attitudes greatly pleased the burly Antifa Molodiya, and he nodded slightly:
"I never had any ill intentions — but let me remind you, you two have potential, don't follow the wrong person."
"Of course, hehe, of course." Hobbs smiled apologetically: "We'll take our leave, wish you a pleasant day, goodbye."
After saying that, he pulled Lucite along, turning to catch up.