The Art of Subtle Bragging, Most Lethal! (Seeking Follow-ups and Collections)

Wang Ye, standing off to the side, was already a bit dumbfounded.

Had this kid studied this stuff before?

Blunt as always, Wang Ye blurted out what was on his mind.

Luo Yao casually flipped through the book and said, "I skimmed through it at the library back in middle school. What I didn't expect was that these problems are actually first-year college material."

"Is first-year college coursework really this easy?"

"Teacher Ouyang said it was supposed to be hard." Luo Yao flipped through a few more textbooks and realized the content was all stuff the system had forced him to learn before.

The library in the small town had limited books, many of them old ones bought from scrap stations, with a motley assortment of topics. For others, this was a bad thing—they couldn't find the novels they wanted to read, only used textbooks.

But for Luo Yao, it was a huge help.

Given Luo Yao's knowledge base, he could have entered university at around thirteen, but middle school life was too easy for him. The teachers didn't dare to discipline him, so he just went to the library to self-study.

Those were his happiest days.

But to Wu Tianming and Wang Ye, Luo Yao's words were terrifying.

A middle school kid had finished first-year college courses just by reading in the library?

Was this guy showing off?

"Aren't we learning this for the first time? So taking notes is normal. Don't you take notes when you learn something new?"

"Luo Yao, let me remind you, a top student's notes are pretty valuable. A lot of juniors need them. You should keep your notebook safe."

"Taking notes just records what you're currently seeing on paper; it doesn't store it in your brain."

"I don't take notes, because everything I see is already in my brain."

Luo Yao was speaking the plain truth. The talent the system had gifted him gave him a photographic memory.

"You can remember everything you see?" Wang Ye stared at Luo Yao in shock, like he was looking at a monster.

"Yeah, I memorize things really fast." Luo Yao's face remained expressionless, as if he were talking about something utterly ordinary.

Wang Ye slowly sidled over to Wu Tianming and whispered, "What's going on here?"

"If what he says is true, then he has Super Right Brain Photographic Memory."

"The right brain is mainly responsible for memory, body coordination, visual perception, imagination, inspiration, sudden insight, etc. Someone with Super Right Brain Photographic Memory has a right brain that's developed many times more than an ordinary person's, so they can accurately memorize and reproduce information like a camera."

"Damn, a Human Camera?" Wang Ye couldn't help but exclaim after hearing Wu Tianming's explanation.

"Human Camera? Is that a carbon-based organism or a silicon-based one?" Luo Yao suddenly caught an interesting word.

Unintentional showing off was truly lethal!

Wu Tianming and Wang Ye instantly had a premonition that their upcoming college life might be far more colorful than they had imagined.

Gurgle...

Wang Ye's stomach protested.

"Hey, it's noon, let's go eat! Luo Yao, you wanna come with us?"

"I don't have a meal card." Luo Yao remembered that Teacher Ouyang hadn't given him this important item.

Wang Ye glanced at Wu Tianming and grinned. "No meal card? No problem. I've got one."

"Ever heard that famous line, 'Swip my card'?"

Luo Yao shook his head.

"Oh, you poor little thing. Come on, Brother Ye will take care of you today!" Wang Ye reached out to put an arm around Luo Yao's shoulder.

Luo Yao quickly sidestepped.

"I don't like people I'm not familiar with touching me."

Wang Ye's hand froze mid-air, then changed course and landed on Wu Tianming's shoulder instead.

"This kid really isn't cute at all," he muttered.

"Boss Wang, you're too enthusiastic; he can't handle it." Wu Tianming held back a laugh as he reminded him.

Wang Ye sighed, feeling a distinct sense of "casting pearls before swine."

"Alright, let's go! To the cafeteria! We have class this afternoon!" Wu Tianming opened the door and gestured for Luo Yao to follow. Luo Yao had originally wanted to go to the staff dormitory to find his parents, but remembering that Teacher Ouyang said not to worry about his family, and that his mom wanted him to make friends, he reluctantly followed them.

After getting their food, Wang Ye grabbed a seat first and made Luo Yao sit next to them.

"Do you know that person?"

Wang Ye turned his head to follow Luo Yao's gaze. "Oh, that's the Student Council President. What about him?"

"That guy took a lot of dishes, but he didn't eat all of them. He only ate a few kinds."

"If you had something you were allergic to or didn't like, would you still take it?"

Wang Ye and Wu Tianming instinctively shook their heads. "That's just wasting money and food. Who does that?"

"But he did."

"He's afraid that avoiding certain foods might get him ostracized by his social circle. Social isolation could worsen his sense of not fitting in and cause psychological issues. So he took a lot of dishes, just to blend in with everyone else."

"People like that aren't fit to be friends—you never know what they're really thinking inside."

Luo Yao commented with a blank expression.

Wang Ye and Wu Tianming exchanged a glance, both seeing the same word in each other's eyes.

Monster.

Even while eating, he's still analyzing?

Still, it was pretty interesting—they didn't like that Student Council President guy either.

But in reality, even if you didn't like someone, you couldn't just analyze them like that and lay all their inner thoughts bare. Who could handle that?

That was probably asking for a beating!

Wang Ye laughed. "Not bad, Luo Yao. You're that good at reading people—looks like you won't get taken advantage of in the future."

"Here, have a chicken leg as a reward."

With that, Wang Ye picked the big chicken leg from his own tray and placed it on Luo Yao's. Luo Yao froze for a few seconds before finally accepting it.

"A real reward?" Wu Tianming squeezed the words out through his teeth.

"Hey, if he's eating, doesn't that mean he's not talking?" Wang Ye replied, also barely moving his lips as he whispered.

This was their go-to trick for talking during class—never thought they'd use it here.

They ate in silence for a while, until Luo Yao's phone suddenly buzzed.

He picked up—it was his mother.

She said Teacher Ouyang had taken them out to eat and asked how Luo Yao was doing. When he said he was with his dormmates, Sun Xiulan was delighted.

Near the end of the call, Sun Xiulan told Luo Yao that the school's five-hundred-thousand-yuan reward had already been deposited and asked how he wanted to split it.

Luo Yao was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Let me think about it and I'll tell you."

After hanging up, Wu Tianming casually asked, "What's up? Your family worried about you?"

Luo Yao didn't want to answer at first, but Wu Tianming wasn't too dumb, and he'd treated him to a meal. After a moment's thought, Luo Yao decided to be honest.

"Yeah, no. My mom said the school's five-hundred-thousand-yuan reward came through and asked how I wanted to allocate it."

Clatter.

Wu Tianming and Wang Ye's chopsticks dropped onto the table.

"I told you, this kind of low-key showing off is absolutely lethal," Wang Ye muttered to Wu Tianming under his breath.

P.s. Thanks for the support and tips—already added an extra chapter. Keep the votes coming! If the results are good, I'll drop ten thousand words on release day!