Translator: AnubisTL
The group before him, from their attire to their demeanor, gave Jieming a powerful sense of déjà vu—they were the textbook definition of street thugs.
The leader was a tall, burly young man.
He wore a gaudy, studded leather jacket, his hair dyed a jarring green, and a toothpick dangling from the corner of his mouth. His gait was a deliberate swagger, shoulders swaying as if he were desperate to announce to the world, "I'm not a good guy."
Most striking of all was the "weapon" he casually rested on his shoulder—a double-edged hand axe, its blade gleaming with a well-maintained edge.
The lackeys behind him shared a similar style, their arrogant glares and snickering laughter practically spelling out the word "delinquent" across their faces.
As they marched forward, the other students in the dining hall scrambled to get out of their way, their eyes filled with fear and a hint of... resignation?
Jieming's pupils constricted, his mind racing as he instantly scanned the vast repository of false memories.
Blank. There was no record of any conflict or interaction with this gang.
So it's not a grudge from 'before'... Jieming's internal alarms blared. They're after me 'now'? Has my awakening already been detected? Is this a probe from the mastermind behind the scenes?
His body tensed slightly. Though his transcendent powers were sealed, the combat instincts and techniques forged through countless battles remained.
Jieming rapidly assessed the number of opponents, their weapons, and the surrounding environment. Several unarmed strategies for dealing with armed foes flashed through his mind. With his current physical fitness, he was still confident he could take these few down with minimal effort.
Just then, the green-haired school bully, axe resting on his shoulder, stopped right in front of Jieming.
He looked him up and down with a critical eye, then grunted, "You're Jieming? The one who took first place on this year's entrance exam?"
His tone was laced with annoyance, as if Jieming's top score were a personal affront.
Jieming didn't answer. He simply watched the bully, his muscles held in a state of deceptive relaxation, ready to explode into a lethal strike at any moment.
The bully's anger flared at the silence. He beat his chest with his free hand, spittle flying as he declared, "I was the top dog at the Seventh Affiliated Middle School! I never expected a punk like you to steal all the glory. They say you're a genius? I don't buy it! I came here today specifically to see what you've got!"
"A duel?" Jieming's heart pounded. So it's finally coming to blows?
His eyes darted to the bully's white-knuckled grip on the axe handle, his mind already calculating the optimal distance and angle for a counterattack.
But the next second, everything went completely off-script.
The bully slammed the axe from his shoulder onto a nearby empty table with a heavy thud. Then, he took two thick stacks of test papers and two pens from one of his lackeys.
"Bring it on! Duel!" The bully slammed one set of papers onto the table in front of Jieming, keeping the other for himself. "We're settling this with this! Forty-five minutes on the clock to finish this Advanced Higher Mathematics: Logic and Spacetime Geometry Test! Whoever wins gets the axe!"
Jieming: "...Huh?"
He was completely stunned, his brain struggling to process the sheer absurdity of the situation.
A duel?
Solving math problems?
A math duel with an axe as the stakes?
He instinctively glanced at Amy and Victor, only to find that not only were they—and the surrounding students—not surprised, but they were all wearing expressions of excitement and anticipation, as if they were about to witness a championship match.
Amy even nudged Jieming with her elbow, whispering, "Go on, Jieming! Show him what a real number one looks like! Crush him!"
Victor flipped through the test paper, then pushed up his glasses, offering a dry critique: "The distribution of question types is reasonable. The final problem is challenging—perfect for a duel."
Seeing Jieming's stunned expression, the school bully assumed he was scared and taunted him with even greater smugness: "What? Too scared now? Is this the best the top student of the year can do? If you're terrified, just admit defeat already!"
Jieming's lips twitched.
Though he found the whole situation absurd, he immediately realized that this was perhaps a "normal" part of this world. To avoid revealing that he had already awakened, he had to play the role of "Jieming, the freshman genius."
"...Fine, I'll do it." Suppressing the strangeness in his heart, he sat at one end of a dining table, facing the school bully at the other, surrounded by the bully's lackeys and the gathered crowd.
Opening the test paper, Jieming scanned it quickly.
The difficulty was indeed high. The mathematical knowledge and logical reasoning involved were considerably complex, far exceeding the level of an ordinary university freshman.
But for Jieming, a former third-tier wizard whose mind had been tempered and expanded countless times, understanding and solving these problems was no difficult feat.
"Begin!" With Amy's command as the self-appointed referee, the two immediately bent their heads and began writing furiously.
Jieming's pen flew across the paper as if guided by a divine spirit. He barely needed to think about the earlier problems; formulas, derivations, and answers flowed onto the answer sheet like water.
Only when he reached the final, comprehensive problem did his pen halt.
The specific multidimensional space curvature integral transformation model involved in this problem was, surprisingly, beyond his knowledge base!
Yet, strangely, as he stared at the question, an inexplicable sense of familiarity washed over him.
He immediately searched through his vast, false memories. Sure enough, within the fragments of his "university preparatory course" memories, he found the relevant theoretical knowledge and problem-solving approach!
This... Jieming suppressed the storm of emotions in his heart, daring not to reveal any outward sign of surprise.
He quickly applied the knowledge from his false memories and smoothly completed the problem.
After a dozen minutes, Jieming set down his pen.
The entire exam was finished.
Across the table, the School Bully's forehead was already beaded with sweat as he struggled with the second-to-last problem.
When he saw Jieming had already finished, his face and those of his lackeys instantly turned ashen.
After another few minutes, the Bully finally managed to finish.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Amy and Victor took charge of grading the papers against the answer key.
The results were announced quickly.
"Perfect! A full score!" Amy exclaimed excitedly.
Under these circumstances, Jieming, who had turned in his paper first, was naturally the victor.
"How is this possible..." The Bully looked utterly devastated. He slammed his thigh and stood up abruptly, grabbing the hand axe from the nearby dining table.
Jieming's gaze sharpened. Thinking the Bully was about to resort to violence in a rage, his body instantly went back into a defensive stance.
However, the Bully simply held the axe with both hands, his face filled with despair and reluctance.
Finally, as if making a sacrifice, he held it out to Jieming and muttered through tears, "A bet's a bet... I lost this time. Only a true champion deserves to wield this axe! It... it's yours now!"
Jieming blankly accepted the heavy, cold hand axe.
It felt solid in his hand, its blade gleaming with a chilling light—a finely crafted piece of cold weaponry.
The former School Bully, tears streaming down his face, pointed at Jieming and announced to everyone around them, "From today on, Jieming is the School Bully of our freshman class!"
Wait, what kind of 'bully' are you? Are you a 'bully' in the sense of a top student? Jieming's mind seemed to short-circuit as he frantically complained to himself.
The School Bully wiped away his tears and threw down a challenge: "You just wait! I'll study hard and win this axe back sooner or later!"
The crowd instantly erupted in cheers and applause. Amy jumped with excitement, "Yay! Jieming, you're the new School Bully!"
Even Victor managed a rare, faint smile of approval.
"...Huh?"
Jieming stood in the center of the cheering crowd, axe in hand. Looking at the sobbing former School Bully and his ecstatic companions, he felt an indescribable, overwhelming sense of absurdity washing over him, nearly drowning him in it.
He considered himself well-traveled, having fought in more than a few planar wars, yet faced with this situation, Jieming could only stare in blank bewilderment.
Watching the axe in his hand and the School Bully stumbling away from the dining room in grief, Jieming's mind filled with question marks.
...What kind of hellhole is this plane?!!
(End of the Chapter)
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