The patrolling teacher's sharp gaze swept over and caught Lu Xing secretly looking around. "Please focus during morning reading. One point deducted for this lapse in concentration!"
"?"
What? I'd only zoned out once, and she was deducting points?
Lu Xing had only experienced discipline rules this harsh back in elementary school!
Half an hour later, morning reading finally ended, and they had five minutes of break time.
The students rose and left the classroom one after another, some expressionless, others smiling faintly. There was none of the roughhousing found in twenty-first-century schools, much less any flirtatious romance between boys and girls.
Lu Xing left the classroom and, in the form of a young girl, stood by the railing, silently watching the Virtual World campus.
Five minutes later, she returned to her seat and took a book from beneath the desk. A note slipped onto the desktop.
Without changing expression, Lu Xing covered it with the book.
This was math class. A teacher whose identity as human or Intelligent Being was impossible to determine stepped onto the podium and smiled. "Today, we will discuss a proof problem: every integer greater than two can be expressed as the sum of three prime numbers. I have blocked your internet access. Students, spend half an hour thinking and discussing it, then I will explain the proof."
"..."
If Lu Xing remembered correctly, this was Goldbach's Conjecture. Were high school students in the Future World really this capable?
The students began discussing it in small groups. Forced into the role of listener, Lu Xing quickly discovered that even if she knew how to prove Goldbach's Conjecture, she could not understand a word these people were saying.
"Where do you think we should start?"
"Try dissociation mathematics. Maybe use the Zhang Feng Theorem."
"I think we can begin with Uncertain Dice. The Opposite Prime Number Theorem mentions it..."
Lu Xing remained expressionless.
She had noticed something, though she was not yet completely certain.
Once the discussion quieted down somewhat, she discreetly looked at the note beneath the book. It contained only one sentence:
"You are human."
Lu Xing's heartbeat suddenly accelerated, as though she had been caught by a ghost in some bizarre game.
But she had experienced plenty over the past few days, and her mental fortitude was decent. She quickly calmed down, tore the note apart with her fingertips, and waited a minute for the scraps to vanish from her palm.
"Student B73."
The math teacher called on her from the podium, smiling. "Tell us your approach."
Lu Xing had already prepared herself. She stood and replied calmly, "Teacher, I don't know."
There was no laughter. The classroom was very quiet.
The math teacher nodded with a smile. "Your creative thinking is very weak. Go to the infirmary for an examination after class. Ten points will be deducted from this assessment. Sit down."
Lu Xing clenched Jiang Xuannv's tiny fist, desperately wanting to punch this world hard!
There was no justice at all!
Naturally, Lu Xing could not understand another word of the subsequent proof. After class, following the teacher's instructions, she planned to visit the infirmary.
This break lasted twenty minutes.
Lu Xing walked through the peaceful, friendly corridor and headed down the stairs toward the infirmary.
"Hey."
Someone called out to her in a mocking tone. "You aren't seriously going to the infirmary, are you?"
Lu Xing stopped and turned to look at the two classmates standing above her on the stairs. "Going to the infirmary was the teacher's instruction," she said evenly.
The two before her were classmates, one male and one female. There was nothing unusual about their height or appearance. The only thing that left an impression on Lu Xing was the boy's center-parted hair, its tips slightly turned upward, giving him an aggressive air.
The girl crossed her arms and coldly scrutinized Lu Xing from above. After a moment, she sneered. "Your judgment was wrong. She isn't human!"
As she spoke, a small knife appeared in her hand, and she swung it through the air.
"Warning: Network disconnected."
The warning came from Jiang Xuannv's Auxiliary Chip. Lu Xing immediately realized that this was a network attack within the Virtual World.
But the first item in Jiang Xuannv's notes had made Lu Xing wary of acting rashly. Under no circumstances could she reveal that she was human.
"Your judgment is poor. Mine isn't."
The center-parted boy confronted her without yielding, slowly descending the stairs as he stared at Lu Xing. "She has hidden herself well these past few years. I was almost fooled. The several human organizations in the school never discovered her either, until today."
"What was unusual about her today?" the knife-wielding girl asked with interest.
Lu Xing knew how to deal with this.
She remained silent and quietly watched the two perform.
Because the chip gave her another prompt: Backup network connected.
She did not know why. Was it a backup network left behind by Jiang Xuannv, or authority granted by her 1,700 points?
But she could infer that the two people's network attack posed little threat to her.
"Didn't you notice? When she entered campus, she looked around. Before entering the classroom, she looked up once. When she took out her book, she flipped through it randomly. During morning reading, the teacher warned her. After class, she stared at the scenery and daydreamed."
The center-parted boy spoke with certainty.
The two of them stared at her together.
Lu Xing replied, "Your judgment has no basis. And because of your behavior, I suspect that both of you are human."
The girl grew nervous, but the boy laughed. "You don't need to keep pretending. After seeing the note, they would not hide it. They would report it immediately. You are human!"
"So you were the one who left the note!"
Lu Xing's gaze sharpened. "I am a member of the Purge Committee. You are under arrest!"
Both their expressions changed. The girl's knife became a massive cleaver, while the boy raised his hand and a huge hammer appeared in the air, landing in his grip.
Lu Xing had just been about to laugh. You people of the future really can't match the old ancestors when it comes to scheming. But the next moment—
"Attack detected. Activating combat mode."
She involuntarily stretched out a hand, her slender fingers pointing at the two.
Bang!
The cleaver and hammer vanished. The two were thrown back onto the stairs, staring at her in terror.
Lu Xing calmly withdrew her hand and asked again, "Are you humans?"
The two exchanged a glance. Almost at the same time, their terrified expressions vanished, replaced with smiles. "We are not human. We were merely cooperating with your operation just now!"
Lu Xing finally could not hold it in any longer and burst into laughter.
Only then did the two opposite her realize they had been fooled. Their faces darkened as they coldly rose to their feet.
Lu Xing saw their anger, but had no intention of easing the tension. "You attacked me for no reason. I haven't even held you accountable yet."
The girl answered, "I cut off your network only for safety. They don't like humans communicating privately. I don't want to go to the second floor."
Lu Xing found that strange. Didn't exposure mean having one's points reset to zero?
She asked them again, "What do you want with me? Are you members of the Human Resistance Army?"
"No. I've never heard of that organization in the school. We belong to the White Cat Association. My name is Chu Caifeng, and his name is Zhou Duohao. We came to invite you to join the White Cat Association."
The center-parted Chu Caifeng pointed at the girl.
Lu Xing looked at them in surprise, confirming that those really were their names and that she had not misunderstood.
"My name is Lu Xing, and also Jiang Xuannv. I need to understand the current situation of humans—that is, your situation—before making a decision."
"Fine. I'll send you some information. It is semi-public material. Once your identity is confirmed, the captain will transmit more information to you."
The center-parted Chu Caifeng sent over a message, which Lu Xing's Auxiliary Chip quickly received. After sending it, the two members of the White Cat Society swiftly departed.
Lu Xing did not go to the infirmary. She wandered around the corridor for a while, then returned to the classroom and sat down.
She could not wait to learn about humanity's current situation.