The girl named Shi Yi agreed. She wore her hair in a ponytail, with long eyes and eyelashes. Her face was round, and when she puffed out her cheeks, she looked like she had two little buns stuffed in her mouth.
After Bai Pu left with Shi Yi, the Old Principal asked in confusion, "Li Ling, does this student Bai Pu have some kind of background? He only came to school for a few days, yet Great Tang Group was willing to donate such expensive equipment. There's something strange about this."
Li Ling glanced around and said softly, "Old Principal, this equipment was actually compensation someone gave Bai Pu. Bai Pu donated it to the school himself."
"Huh? Then why did he use Great Tang Group's name..."
Li Ling sighed softly. "Bai Pu told me that if he donated it in his own name, the school would mistake him for some wealthy benefactor and place excessive material expectations on him. That would give him unnecessary psychological pressure."
The Old Principal gave a soft exclamation. "This child is quite kind, but he's a little too guarded. He thinks people are too greedy."
Li Ling said, "That may have something to do with his upbringing. Bai Pu was abandoned by his parents as a child and grew up in a shelter. Because of his physical condition, he never had many friends. He even dropped out to recuperate before finishing the country's compulsory education. He is wary of many, many people, including me."
Having understood Bai Pu's background, the Old Principal felt deeply moved. He said with emotion, "Truly a soaring tree grown from weeds. To have such a bleak childhood and still keep a kind heart—that's rare! Being overly protective of himself is only human. There's nothing to criticize."
"Bai Pu, this is the classroom for Senior Year 3 Class. You can come here anytime you want to attend lessons."
"Bai Pu, this is the Dormitory Area. The school arranged a room just for you. I'll take you to get the key from the caretaker."
"Bai Pu, the cafeteria is up ahead. You can use my meal card. There should be enough money on it for your meals these next few days..."
Shi Yi was quite lively, skipping along the way like a cheerful little deer.
Bai Pu's gaze seemed unfocused, but he was actually silently reciting textbook material in his mind while dividing his attention to listen to Shi Yi explain the school's layout.
Shi Yi handed Bai Pu her meal card. A sticker of a green cartoon frog was attached to it.
Bai Pu took the card and asked, "If you give me your meal card, what will you do for food?"
Shi Yi smiled, her slender eyes narrowing. "My grandfather lives at the school. I can go eat with him."
"When does this year's college entrance exam begin?" Bai Pu put away the meal card.
"God, you're the first examinee I've ever met who doesn't know when the college entrance exam is..." Shi Yi complained. "It starts on June 7th and ends on the 9th. That hasn't changed in years."
"So there are twelve days left," Bai Pu said.
"Yeah. Actually, no one really feels like reviewing at this point. After three mock exams, everyone has learned what they need to learn. From here on out, it depends on how you perform on the day."
As she said this, Shi Yi suddenly went "Oh," finally realizing something. "You're an Awakened, so you're taking the Awakened Exam, right? That's different from our Ordinary Exam. After you finish the academic subjects and simulated combat, you still have to enter the Mirror Image Plane for the Spirit Realm Exploration Subject exam."
The Spirit Realm Exploration Subject was held in the Spirit Realm's "Mirror Image Plane."
Huaxia's college entrance exam in the real world was a far-reaching "world event" that had received the Spirit Realm Will's recognition.
The Spirit Realm Will had specifically created Mirror Image Planes, placing Awakened examinees in batches into multiple identical Plane Worlds. Whatever they gained while exploring those Mirror Image Planes would be converted into scores for the Spirit Realm Exploration Subject.
Bai Pu had learned earlier that the Spirit Realm Exploration Subject carried considerable weight, accounting for 60% of the Awakened Exam's total score! The other two subjects, academics and simulated combat, each accounted for 20%.
In the end, what measured an Awakened's value was still their ability to explore the Spirit Realm.
Bai Pu thought to himself that this should be a major advantage for him.
After all, Bai Pu had awakened too late. Although his hard training in the Dead Bone Mountain Range had brought him past the halfway mark of Level 2 experience, there was absolutely no way he could reach Level 3 in the remaining twelve days.
Among the Intersection Lands recently opened within the country, there was no Intersection Land like the Dead Bone Mountain Range, filled with countless mindless skeleton monsters.
Bai Pu could clear monsters in a single wave mainly because Flesh Armor's area magic damage lasted for two whole minutes. Any enemy with even a little intelligence would run away the moment Bai Pu activated Flesh Armor. Against other groups of monsters, Bai Pu truly had no way to clear them quickly.
Just consider it: Qilin and the others had taken over a year to reach Level 3. That showed just how slowly Awakeneds leveled up.
If the college entrance exam only tested raw strength, Bai Pu might not necessarily be a match for those elite second-generation heirs. Under simulated combat conditions, Evolution Heart's second talent—Pure Blood Guard—would have more than half its effectiveness reduced, because there would be no suitable monsters for him to enslave.
Now that there was the Spirit Realm Exploration Subject, Bai Pu's confidence naturally increased greatly.
I still can't be optimistic. I need to recognize my shortcomings. Combat Expertise is still a weakness. I only have Advanced Level 1 Unarmed Combat Expertise and Advanced Level 1 Two-Handed Hammer Expertise. Compared to those geniuses who have honed their combat skills since childhood, the gap is obvious.
When he fought the assassin Fish Intestine last time, Bai Pu had temporarily experienced Blood Hand Colen's Advanced Level 5 Unarmed Combat Expertise. The power of high-level Combat Expertise remained fresh in his memory.
Fortunately, his monster-farming trip to Black Mist Valley had earned him a large number of Life Source Points. He had also stored many powerful Gene Fragments from Skeleton Warriors and Undead Bone Mages.
These elite undead monsters were no slouches in Combat Expertise. For example, quite a few Skeleton Warriors possessed Advanced Level 3 Unarmed Combat Expertise, while many others had Advanced Level 3 Two-Handed Sword Expertise.
Over the next dozen days, Bai Pu planned to use the third talent ability, Gene Fragment, to properly experience combat with high-level expertise. It was equivalent to having countless teachers personally demonstrate and instruct him. His rate of improvement would definitely be far faster than that of ordinary Awakeneds.
Early morning.
Shi Yi, dressed in a blue sailor uniform, stood alone on the empty sports field. Facing the personal information terminal floating before her, she turned on the backing track.
With the sunrise behind her, she performed a lively, energetic dance.
"Video: dancing in a sailor uniform. Recording complete. Ready to upload!"
Shi Yi opened a short-video website and uploaded the video of herself dancing in the sailor uniform.
"So you're a short-video creator." Bai Pu's voice rang out.
Shi Yi jumped in fright. When she saw that it was Bai Pu, she became embarrassed and annoyed. "When did you get here? Why, why didn't you say anything!"
"I got here before you. You just didn't notice me." Bai Pu asked curiously, "You aren't embarrassed to dance for so many viewers online, so why can't you let one classmate watch?"
"That's different!" Shi Yi sprang up.
Bai Pu waved his hand. "It's fine. You don't need to care. I've been silently reciting my lessons the whole time. I only glanced at you and didn't look closely."
"..."
Watching Bai Pu's departing figure, Shi Yi felt even angrier.
My dancing is so pretty. So many of my fans on the site praise me. He got incredibly lucky to run into it, yet he didn't even bother to look at me properly!
What a straight guy with absolutely no sense of beauty!
Shi Yi recalled that over the past few days, Bai Pu seemed to have been cycling between the classroom, cafeteria, dormitory, and Virtual Combat Room with remarkable regularity.
With the college entrance exam drawing near, the students had gradually become accustomed to this strange newcomer on campus.
Whenever Bai Pu entered the classroom or cafeteria, the girls would secretly turn back to glance at him. They would restrain their toothy laughter and try their best to sit properly, displaying their quiet and elegant sides.
Then they would secretly look back again to see whether that clean-cut, handsome young man had noticed them.
But Bai Pu had never properly looked at anyone. His eyes, like morning stars in the night, always seemed unfocused. They had never settled on any one person.
The classmates had also discussed Bai Pu before.
The girls asked around about where this exceptional young master had come from. He was so handsome they could hardly look away, and he was even a genius who had awakened early.
Some boys said sourly that Bai Pu was no young master. He had grown up in a shelter and dropped out in middle school. Coming to Seventeen Middle School was purely for show, and there was no way he could do well in the academic subjects.
Many of the girls didn't believe it and went to ask Shi Yi.
What could Shi Yi say? She could only remain silent.
But Shi Yi knew that those boys were telling the truth.
Analyzing it rationally, it was simply impossible for Bai Pu, who had dropped out in middle school, to achieve excellent academic scores through only a dozen or so days of effort.
Then why was Bai Pu working so hard? Shi Yi could not figure out the answer.
Did Bai Pu know that his classmates talked about him like this? Shi Yi didn't know either. She only knew that Bai Pu definitely did not care about such gossip.
Like an eagle soaring high in the sky, it would not care whether the poultry on the ground criticized the eagle's shadow cast across the earth.
Thinking of this, Shi Yi felt a small twinge of worry, born from the innocent, budding feelings in a young girl's heart.
She did not love fighting. She liked dancing. She and Bai Pu belonged to two different worlds. Perhaps these ten or so days would be the only period they would ever spend together in their lives!
Whether Shi Yi liked it or not, time flowed away day by day. The college entrance exam countdown calendar turned page by page, until it finally stopped at zero.
The college entrance exam of Spirit Energy Era 806 arrived as scheduled.
Before you continue