"Yao, watch the livestream for me for a while. I'm going to help your dad bring in the groceries."
"Friends, my husband's back with the supplies. I need to go receive them, so my son will watch the livestream for a bit. If you have any questions, just ask him!" Sun Xiulan said to the livestream, which only had a few viewers.
Sun Xiulan ran a small restaurant in a town. These days, just to make a living, she had been forced to learn how to livestream.
Normally, only a dozen or so people watched her cook in the livestream, but Sun Xiulan was satisfied with that. She had to cook whenever customers ordered anyway, so livestreaming was merely something extra for her.
The town had limited foot traffic. Every additional way to attract customers meant another opportunity, and Sun Xiulan had racked her brains to make money.
Otherwise, relying solely on regular customers without any new ones coming in, how could a small restaurant last for long?
This little restaurant was the Luo family's only source of income, so Sun Xiulan took it especially seriously.
The only thing Sun Xiulan worried about was her two children, Luo Zhu and Luo Yao.
Luo Zhu had been born before Luo Yao. She was a normal, filial child who helped out after school, but she was a girl, and Sun Xiulan often worried that she would be bullied.
As for Luo Yao... his grades were excellent, but he did not like talking. Sometimes, when he finally did say something, it felt as though he would not stop until he shocked someone to death.
For example, Wang Ergou from the restaurant next door had once happily come over to brag that his son had scored eighty on a middle school math test. Luo Yao, who had still been in elementary school at the time, took the test paper, glanced at it, and said in an especially indifferent tone, "If you can't even get full marks on questions that easy, you should have your IQ checked."
The Wang Family already had a competitive relationship with them, and Wang Ergou had used plenty of underhanded tricks to steal customers. Luo Yao's single remark left Wang Ergou so furious that his chest hurt. Unable to take it out on Luo Yao, Wang Ergou vented his anger directly on Luo Yao's parents, often picking fights over trivial matters.
Luo Yao was clever, though. Not long after that incident, he skipped directly from fifth grade into the same class as Wang Ergou's son, crushing the boy intellectually once again.
Whenever Wang Ergou gave Luo Yao's parents a hard time, Luo Yao would torment his son through academics, including but not limited to openly calling him an idiot.
Wang Ergou's son had never performed as well as Luo Yao to begin with, and Luo Yao was only ten years old. After suffering a double blow to his pride, the boy could only go home crying. Over time, Wang Ergou figured out that Luo Yao was standing up for his parents.
To keep his son from being bullied at school, Wang Ergou could only rein in his behavior.
Sun Xiulan had not received much education and did not know what was going on with her son. She had taken him to a hospital in the city, but they had found nothing wrong. They only said that either his emotional intelligence might be somewhat impaired, or he had emotional deficiencies.
How could Sun Xiulan understand what impaired emotional intelligence or emotional deficiencies meant? The doctor had said he did not need medicine, so in the end, she could only hastily blame it on their poor family circumstances.
Years ago, Luo Yao's father had suffered an accident at a construction site and been left disabled. Unable to work outside anymore, the couple had borrowed money everywhere to open this small restaurant.
With two children in the family, they could only barely get by. Luo Yao's father, Luo Xingguo, felt sorry for both children and rarely spoke with them, simply working in silence.
At that moment, Luo Yao heard Sun Xiulan calling him. After answering, he slowly carried his book into the kitchen.
When Sun Xiulan saw him come in, she had him sit on a stool in the kitchen. She did not forget to remind him to speak less before going out to receive the supplies herself.
After sitting down, Luo Yao did not greet the people in the livestream. He simply started reading.
The moment he appeared on camera, the viewers in the livestream became curious.
"I never expected Sister Luo's son to be so delicate-looking!"
"Oh! He loves studying so much! He's actually reading!"
"Working this hard? What a pity. Growing up in a family like this, he can only become a small-town test-taking machine."
"Why do you care whether he's a small-town test-taking machine? He's so young. As long as he works hard, that's enough!"
"Wait, is that a book on Algebraic Topology in his hands? That's graduate-level mathematics material!"
This discovery shocked one viewer. He immediately asked, "Kid, can you really understand what's in that book?"
Luo Yao did not look at the livestream screen. He was focused on the book in his hands.
As long as he finished reading this book, the system would reward him with a technology.
That was right, Luo Yao had a system.
When Luo Yao had first arrived in this world, he discovered that he had become a baby. While he anxiously flailed his arms around, the system made its dazzling entrance.
Detected that the host meets the standards of the National Technology System. Binding in progress... Host information verified. Binding successful! Host: Luo Yao Mathematics: LV0 (0/100) Physics: LV0 (0/100) Chemistry: LV0 (0/100) Computer Science: LV0 (0/100) Language: LV1 (30/100) Biology: LV0 (0/100) Technology: None Talent: None Points: 10 (System gift)
Although Luo Yao had become a baby, his consciousness remained fairly clear. Knowing that he had obtained a cheat-like golden finger, he stopped crying and fussing.
A translucent panel that only Luo Yao could see appeared before him, listing his personal information. Only after reading the small notes beneath it did he understand what the suddenly appearing National Technology System was for.
Simply put, Luo Yao needed to keep studying and accumulate foundational knowledge. The system would then reward him with technologies based on the knowledge he accumulated!
Luo Yao realized that the system was forcing him to study!
According to the system's rules, he could not obtain technologies without studying!
The technologies gained through the system also had to be put to use. The higher the recognition they received, the more points the system would reward him with. Those points could then be used in the store to buy what he needed.
Luo Yao casually browsed the system store and discovered that it was filled entirely with talents.
These talents were divided into innate talents and temporary talents. As the name suggested, innate talents would remain effective forever once purchased, but they were also absurdly expensive.
For example, Super Learning was described by the system as granting photographic memory. Everything he saw could be understood and remembered, as if his entire brain were a Memory Palace. The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve would bid him farewell forever.
This innate talent was expensive to buy, costing one million points.
Buying it as a one-time use only required five points, but it was limited to eight hours. If he wanted to buy it again, the points required would double.
During those eight hours, he could quickly understand and memorize any knowledge he saw.
Luo Yao thought this talent was great. Once he decided what kind of knowledge he wanted to learn, he would immediately buy it.
Just as Luo Yao was calculating how to reasonably use the points gifted by the system to purchase talents, the thoughtful system informed him that it could gift him one talent as a newbie gift pack.
Luo Yao silently wished for the Super Learning talent, but perhaps the system had misheard him and gave him a Sherlock Holmes-like Talent instead.
The host is about to inherit the following: IQ: 300, EQ: 20
Sherlock Holmes?
Wasn't he the very embodiment of high IQ and low EQ?
He had never seen such an absurd newbie gift pack!
Luo Yao vaguely remembered how, in his previous life, he had bowed and scraped before his superiors and still managed to get by smoothly. Now that he had come to another world, was he going to become the sort of person who spun the table when the leader picked up food, and sat down when the leader stood up?
This was practically asking him to send his boss flying!
Wait!
As an equivalent exchange, the system will take something from you...
Take something from him?
Luo Yao recalled his previous life and thought that there really was one thing he did not want anymore.
With the slightest movement of his thoughts, Luo Yao soon fell asleep amid a sudden wave of warmth.
When he woke again, he gradually discovered that he had changed. It was as though something in his mind had been wrapped up, and some things seemed impossible to recall. Yet the inexplicable irritation he felt toward people who put on airs remained strangely familiar.
After the system forcibly upgraded Luo Yao's hardware, his mind became incredibly sharp and clear. From childhood onward, he never needed to look at anything twice to remember it. Every piece of knowledge he had learned and every experience he had gone through was clearly stored deep within his brain.
This was an enormous benefit, but correspondingly, as he grew older, he became less fond of talking. Or more precisely, he became less fond of talking nonsense.
Before doing anything, he would quickly weigh the pros and cons. If it was not worth doing, he would not do it.
For example, as he faced the phone camera now, the only thing Luo Yao thought was worth doing was finishing the book as quickly as possible.
Unnoticed by him, the number of viewers in the livestream gradually increased.
"This kid is probably only in high school. He understands Algebraic Topology? He's definitely just trying to get attention!"
"Parents these days are really desperate for traffic. They can even come up with tricks like this!"
"The atmosphere is terrible. If a kid pretends like this, other people will follow suit!"
"Are they treating their child like a money-making tool? Disgusting!"
While flipping through the book, Luo Yao inadvertently raised his eyes and immediately saw the scrolling comments on the screen. Rarely, he paused for several seconds.
When the viewers saw him look up, they became even more excited.
"Kid, did your mom deliberately make you read that book?"
"How could you possibly understand Algebraic Topology? Hurry up and switch to a comic book. That would be normal!"
"You're barely even this old and you're already reading Algebraic Topology? If you're going to pretend, at least make it convincing!"
Luo Yao remembered his mother telling him to speak less, so he still did not say a word.
Everyone watched livestreams to find some entertainment. Seeing Luo Yao remain silent, they immediately became interested.
One viewer even sent a comment: "Kid, if you can prove that you understand this Algebraic Topology stuff, I'll send you a rocket!"
The viewers did not even know what Algebraic Topology was, but seeing that someone was willing to send a rocket, they began egging him on. They thought Luo Yao would react, but he still ignored them.
Damn, was he an idiot? He did not even want a rocket!
Just as the viewers were speculating, someone suddenly entered the livestream.
P.S. ① Some readers may have noticed that although the protagonist has a high IQ, people sometimes think something is wrong with his brain. That is actually because everyone cares about different things. For example, ordinary people care about what their leaders think, but the protagonist does not. Ordinary people know certain common sense, but the protagonist does not want to remember useless things. Ordinary people may think the protagonist is not smart or wise, but the protagonist knows those things are irrelevant.
② This is not a typical transmigration story. The protagonist's memories involve later plot developments, so no spoilers for now.
③ The author is a newcomer with a computer science background. All theoretical knowledge involved in this book has been checked against relevant papers. Everything serves the plot, and this will not be a book filled from beginning to end with piled-up material, so please read with confidence! (I hope certain authors do not slap labels on me and call this a studio-written novel. What studio novel author spends every day digging through CNKI?)
By the way! This story has no female lead, only characters like "Watson."