I Want to Get into an Undergraduate Program!

The information flashed past.

The pale golden words turned into specks of starlight and transformed back into magnificent flames.

They ignored Meng Chao again.

Meng Chao fiddled with it for a long time, but he could not bring up any system instructions or novice tutorial.

Ring-ring-ring-ring-ring.

"Class dismissed!"

Yan Dongxing swept Meng Chao a glance with a blank expression. His brows furrowed slightly, but he said nothing. Gathering his battle saber and monster specimens, he turned and left the classroom.

Only then did the students remember that Meng Chao was still being punished.

When they turned back to look, all of them gaped, unable to believe their eyes.

Meng Chao had actually held on?

Standing the stance correctly was greatly beneficial to tempering one's essence, energy, and spirit.

At this moment, Meng Chao was like a rust-covered treasured sword that had been polished anew, once more radiating an edge sharp enough to cut.

It was as though they had seen what he had been like before his injury in his second year of high school.

Faced with his classmates' astonished looks and whispered discussions, Meng Chao remained calm.

Yet the corners of his eyes and mouth twitched slightly.

For some reason, he was suddenly starving—so hungry that it felt as though his stomach were about to burn through. He could not even move half a step, and his vision kept going dark.

Damn it, did the energy Fire Seed used to repair my body and awaken my skills all need to be replenished by me?

Just as he was about to faint, a Big White Bear came charging toward him.

"Meng Chao, you actually practiced the Hibernating Dragon Stance to such a level behind my back!"

Big White Bear was a fat man weighing over two hundred pounds, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted.

But his aggrieved expression and resentful voice were enough to raise goosebumps all over one's body.

Meng Chao shuddered. This voice was one he would never forget even if he turned to ashes. Who else could it be but his high school best friend, "Chu Feixiong"?

"Hurry, Fei Xiong. I forgot to bring money today. Treat me to a feast at the convenience store, and I'll treat you twice tomorrow and the day after."

"No way. Borrow one and return two? And I eat three times as much as you do. Since when were you this generous, Meng Chao? There must be a trap."

"What trap could there be? Would I lie to you? We're brothers from different fathers and different mothers!"

"True enough. Hehe, the whole class heard it, so I'm sure you won't dare welch on the debt. Come on, convenience store. I'm treating today!"

Five minutes later.

The convenience store in a corner of the campus.

Big White Bear cried like a two-hundred-pound child.

"Meng Chao, please be a human being! Even livestock can't eat through two weeks of my living expenses in one go! I—I'll fight you!"

He lunged viciously at Meng Chao.

"Stop fooling around."

Meng Chao peeled open the last chocolate bar. With a casual swing of his arm, the Wild Bull Technique activated.

The two-hundred-pound Big White Bear flew away.

The two stared at each other in utter bewilderment.

"Just now..." Chu Feixiong was dizzy and disoriented.

"It was an illusion."

Without changing expression, Meng Chao swallowed the chocolate and looked longingly at the shelves. "The instant noodles today look pretty fresh too. They have color, aroma, and flavor all accounted for."

"Get lost! I don't even have half a cent left. Hurry up, class is starting!" Big White Bear fled in defeat.

Meng Chao was about to chase after him when he saw a gray-haired janitor accidentally spill a large bag of trash all over the ground beside a trash can.

"Auntie, I'll help you." Meng Chao casually picked up all the trash.

The corner of his eye twitched as a notification popped up:

Your act of helping others promoted social harmony and carried forward Dragon City's righteous spirit. Contribution Points +0.001

You protected the environment and promoted Dragon City's sustainable development. Contribution Points +0.001

To avoid overly lengthy notifications, increases of less than 1 Contribution Point will no longer be displayed. However, every contribution you make can strengthen Dragon City and promote the spread and sublimation of Civilization Fire. Please keep up the good work.

The information flashed past, but Meng Chao stood stunned for a long while.

The stairwell of the academic building.

Meng Chao leaned against the railing, his head tilted upward at a forty-five-degree angle in a thoughtful pose.

With a deeply profound gaze, he watched the girls in summer skirts chatting and laughing as they went up the stairs.

Their calves were round and plump, trembling beneath knee-high white cotton socks.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Chu Feixiong tugged him from behind. "If you really want to look, just pretend to be nonchalant and sneak a few glances from the corner of your eye. How can you stare at them without blinking? Isn't that perverted?"

"Fei Xiong, you don't understand."

A layer of world-weary melancholy shrouded Meng Chao's brows. He sighed, "Only now do I understand that the life I once took for granted was actually so beautiful, so worthy of us throwing everything on the line to protect it."

"Meng Chao, I really admire you. Every time, you manage to be shameless in such a fresh and refined way."

Chu Feixiong dragged Meng Chao aside. "Stop looking. If you want to look, I can lend you the latest study materials I downloaded. Let's talk about what happened just now. Did you really kill Devil Yan in your dream and wipe out Dragon City too? What about me? Did I become a great general and fight until the very last moment?"

This Big White Bear had dreamed since childhood of becoming an awe-inspiring great general, commanding Dragon City's Iron Torrent and sweeping across the entire Otherworld.

Of course, that was also the dream of every young person in Dragon City.

"What do you mean, I wiped it out? I only saw a few fragmented scenes in my dream. As for you..."

Meng Chao stared at his best friend's large face, searching the depths of his mind.

His memories of his previous life were like butterflies dancing gracefully amid a storm—mottled, fragmented, and impossible to grasp.

That hungover feeling returned, and he could not catch any clear details.

Just as he was about to give up, a bolt of lightning suddenly illuminated his mind.

Accompanied by a fierce headache, he saw it!

Meng Chao saw, deep within clouds and mist filled with lightning and thunder, enormous monsters unlike anything he had ever seen. Like slowly moving hills, they rolled toward Dragon City and crushed everything in their path.

He saw countless soldiers and citizens surge forward like tides, then collapse like tides crashing against giant rocks, retreating and shattering.

He also saw himself holding chrysanthemums in a huge square, with cries rising and falling all around him.

Before him stood two massive screens. One listed the fallen soldiers, while the other listed the deceased citizens. The tiny words upon them were densely packed, numbering in the thousands upon thousands.

Meng Chao saw himself search for Chu Feixiong's name. A photograph appeared on the screen. Big White Bear wore the standard uniform of an ordinary soldier and smiled brilliantly in the black-and-white memorial photo.

"Good brother, don't worry. I've copied and pasted all your study materials onto my computer. I also deleted all your browsing and download records for you. So, go in peace!"

He heard himself say through tears, "My parents have gone down there too. When you see them, help me pass along a message: I'll definitely take good care of Little Sister, so the two elders can rest assured..."

Meng Chao woke from the nightmare again.

Clutching his chest, he slowly sat down on the steps, drenched in cold sweat.

Even the girls running past him while laughing and playing could not draw his gaze away.

Chu Feixiong was startled. "What's wrong? Why are you jumping at shadows?"

"You wouldn't be scared stiff by a nightmare, would you?"

Meng Chao wanted to speak, but stopped himself.

What could he say?

That in the nightmare, his best friend had not gotten into Military Academy, much less become a general, and had merely been an ordinary grunt on the front lines?

That Monster War was about to escalate, and even larger, more numerous, more savage monsters would emerge in an endless stream?

That Dragon City would suffer grievous losses in this battle? That countless soldiers and citizens, including Chu Feixiong, would die? That countless powerful people would fall? That before they had even left Novice Village, their ending of destruction had already been set?

Even Old Dad and Old Mom...

Meng Chao did not dare think further.

Fear gave rise to anger, and anger gave rise to unwillingness. He clenched his fists, his expression twisted.

Chu Feixiong gave his shoulder a hard pat and grinned. "Relax. Nightmares and reality are opposites. Even if Dragon City really faces a crisis, with us brothers joining forces, what the hell is there to fear? I'm a man who's going to become a great general!"

"...Right!"

Meng Chao came back to himself and swung his fist forcefully. "This isn't the future. It's just a damned nightmare. If we want to change everything, we'll start with the National College Entrance Examination. This time, you'll get into Military Academy, and I'll definitely get into an Undergraduate Program."

He had heard that during the Earth Era, due to factors such as university expansion, the number of undergraduates had increased year by year.

But after Dragon City crossed over, it faced scarce resources and all manner of crises.

At a time of life and death, every citizen had to fulfill their duties, and young people had to compress their education as much as possible and enter the workforce and battlefield early.

For ordinary citizens, the ideal was to get into a two-year Associate Degree college, undergo vocational training, and find a good job in the future.

As for an Undergraduate Program, it only trained Transcendents.

Whether now or in the future, Transcendents were the mainstay of Dragon City's struggle for supremacy in the Otherworld.

They were also highly respected by citizens and held lofty status.

Whether in politics or the military, as major bosses or Superstar-level celebrities admired by millions, eight or nine out of ten were Transcendents.

To shatter the scenes he had seen in the nightmare, Meng Chao had to become Transcendent!

"You really want to get into an Undergraduate Program? You're not joking?" Chu Feixiong turned serious.

He knew Meng Chao had been badly injured last year.

He also knew there was a reason his good brother had let himself go.

But now, Big White Bear saw in Meng Chao's eyes the fire that had been extinguished for an entire year, reignited.

"I'm not joking. It has to be an Undergraduate Program."

Meng Chao paused, then could not help laughing. "Over the past year, I really was a complete idiot, wasn't I?"

"Yes, a huge one."

Chu Feixiong extended his fist toward Meng Chao. "But if a huge idiot like you has really made up his mind to give it one last hard sprint over these final fifty days, I'll definitely help you."

Meng Chao took a deep breath, extended his own fist, and bumped it heavily against Chu Feixiong's.

"Get into Military Academy, become a general!"

"Get into an Undergraduate Program, become Transcendent!"

The two brothers strode back to the classroom.

The next class was Chinese.

The students cheered with joy.

"Awesome, Chinese class is finally here!"

"Quick, quick, quick! I want to recite Mulan Ballad, I want to recite Moonlight over the Lotus Pond, I want to analyze the creative background and deeper meaning of Diary of a Madman. I can't wait!"

"Chinese teacher, where has our dear Chinese teacher gone?"

The students craned their necks in anticipation.

Unfortunately, instead of their Chinese teacher, they were greeted by the class monitor Zuo Haoran's frosty face.

"Teacher Huang is sick today."

Standing at the podium, Zuo Haoran said, "This class has been changed to self-study. Everyone, form up quickly and follow me to the cultivation room."

"No way?"

"Not this again!"

"I want Teacher Huang! Give us back our Chinese class!"

The expected bad news triggered a round of wailing.

Dragon City was a lone army in a foreign land and implemented iron-blooded education.

From kindergarten through university, physical education, cultivation classes, and combat courses full of fighting and killing took up more than half the curriculum.

Math classes calculating ballistics and saber trajectories, biology classes studying monster anatomy, and physics and chemistry classes refining crystals and Otherworld minerals also carried considerable weight.

Time was limited, so Chinese classes, which could not directly increase combat power, could only be cut back again and again.

By now, high school students only had two Chinese classes per week.

During the final sprint of senior year, even those two Chinese classes had to yield to the core subjects.

Thus, Chinese teachers could only fall ill and take leave every few days, giving their class time to the physical education teachers or letting the students study on their own.

What was scarce became precious. These days, high school students were crushed breathless by grueling cultivation, so everyone loved Chinese class more than anything.

He had heard that back on Earth, people their age could have more than ten or twenty Chinese classes every week, memorize hundreds of ancient poems, complete several Chinese exam papers every day, and write essays of two or three thousand words, while physical education was optional.

What blissful days those were!