Study Hard (Maybe)

"The top ten get a bonus of a hundred thousand, while first place gets over six hundred thousand. Is that really so outrageous?"

The price that stirred Lu PingAn's interest sounded intimidating, but once he calmed down and thought it over, it was quite normal.

Compared to his previous life, where they gave away cars, houses, and millions to reward top scorers nationwide or within a province, Gu University was already being quite restrained.

More than a publicity stunt, they genuinely lacked talent and were competing for it.

"Six top-tier Training Institutions of the same caliber are fighting over people. Every outstanding graduate is real combat strength, and also a member of an enormous network."

Given that background, and considering the high income and high risk of graduating as a Secret Keeper, six hundred thousand was merely a highly enticing sum of startup capital.

No wonder Xia Qin had said she could settle it in three or four years. She had probably been speaking by the standards of ordinary Professionals.

For now, setting aside the far-too-difficult six hundred thousand, Lu PingAn had already heard that there were third-rank monsters among this year's candidates.

The hundred-thousand bonus for placing in the top ten might actually be worth a shot.

He felt he had a chance, but anyone with even a little knowledge of the field would think he was dreaming.

"A newly awakened rookie should be grateful if any Training Institution wants them, and you want to get into Gu University? Getting into Gu University would already be a blessing, and you still want the bonus? Why don't you just fly to the heavens, meow?"

All right, that was what the little cat had said.

"...What if I get the bonus?"

"I'll be your Little Sister, meow!"

To be honest, Lu PingAn sometimes envied Shui Yun's utterly simple personality. He did not even need to provoke her to set a flag like that—his future little errand-runner was secured.

But when he truly began looking ahead to that bonus, he realized there were still some problems.

"...The technology tree in this world seems a little crooked."

He pulled out a general college entrance exam paper from previous years and tried a few questions, only to frown.

It was not because they were too difficult. He had long since accepted that he had returned most of what he had learned back to his teachers. Rather—

"...Why is this so easy?!"

Math was still stuck on functions and geometry, physics was still wrestling with the basics of electricity and magnetism, and chemistry even straightforwardly tested the periodic table. It was practically like—

"The college entrance exam only has the difficulty of a middle school entrance exam?"

At that moment, Lu PingAn saw even more clearly the differences between two seemingly similar worlds.

Because of the existence of "anomalies," this world's technological tree had long since veered off course in certain areas. For example, the mainstream means of air travel in this world was not airplanes, but enormous and slow Steam Airships.

The reason was simple. During a certain technological revolution, a new energy source extracted through some kind of potion science—refined crude oil—and its supporting engines had vastly increased Steam Airships' speed and cargo capacity. Through survival of the fittest, the airplanes that had only just appeared at the time had been directly reduced to a niche.

Subsequent technological innovation had naturally followed the airship branch of the technology tree.

As generation after generation improved airships with ever-greater cargo capacity, flying machines had become synonymous with heavy payloads in people's eyes, while "airplanes" had embarked on a speed race similar to that of "rockets."

And because aircraft speeds were not especially outrageous, anti-air weaponry had developed relatively slowly. The technology tree had taken a strange turn: missiles were gone, while firearms and heavy artillery remained mainstream.

By extension, aircraft carriers were gone, and Air Carriers had appeared.

The pinnacle of steel warships and massive guns—battleships—remained the kings of naval warfare, even kings of war itself.

Air freight's massive carrying capacity had stolen business from sea and land transport. Combined with the "steam can power anything" power system, land and sea transportation had developed along subtly divergent paths. There was no need to go into that for now.

One fulcrum, one technological divergence, could change the world.

And such divergences were scattered throughout history and every aspect of the world.

An even more obvious example was the phone in Lu PingAn's hand—

"...There isn't even a search engine. Looking up a question is this hard. The webpages are still BBS communities from the last century, the kind with text only and no images. You actually need administrator privileges to post porn? These days, do you need hacking skills just to look at dirty pictures?"

Mobile phones—or rather, portable communication systems—had appeared earlier than in his previous world.

Mobile internet had also appeared earlier, but its rate of evolution seemed to have been strangely and forcibly interrupted.

All kinds of forums and websites remained text-based. Only those with administrator privileges could post images.

Short videos were even more impossible. VCDs and videotapes were still the favorites of disc sellers.

Was it due to technological limitations? Lu PingAn from a few days ago might have thought so, but now—

"Information is also a form of pollution. Compared to images and videos, which contain massive amounts of information and spread quickly, text with restricted input is easier to control. It seems the internet won't evolve any further."

All communication was restricted to websites and forums. There was no direct messaging software between individuals at all; text messages that had to pass through network administrators' servers had become the mainstream means of communication.

"Even something like a Chat Room only exists on major websites. Can you believe there's no PvP weapon like QQ or WeChat?"

The differences in every respect had led to subtle differences in the exam paper in Lu PingAn's hands. After all, in a sense, the college entrance exam tested the foundation of human civilization.

Foundational technological subjects like math and physics were much easier than in his previous life, while memory-heavy sciences such as chemistry and biology—known as the "liberal arts among the sciences"—had inexplicably gained many additional branches and topics.

"Biology is too hard. It has a lot more practical work and university-level content, and it carries even more weight than physics. It's basically the number one subject in the science comprehensive exam. Chemistry is easier when it comes to elements and compounds, but it actually tests alchemical pharmaceuticals, and practical work too."

Lu PingAn had initially felt that he was doing fine when he flipped through the exam paper and found it easy, but reality immediately told him he really was not.

"...I've forgotten most of those functions, geometry, and electromagnetism from earlier too."

He had also underestimated the tragedy of not opening a textbook for twenty years. Of the "middle school entrance exam questions" he had thought he could handle, he had only solved two out of ten.

At this rate, forget getting the bonus. In a ten-point competition, he might only score one or two points and set a brand-new historical record.

Slumped in his chair, Lu PingAn covered his face with the test paper. At this rate, he was probably doomed.

"By the way, Cat Cat, why are we going to Gu University's exam venue for the written test? Didn't they say it was the same nationwide paper?"

Lu PingAn seemed to have thought of something and made a call.

"...Of course it's to prevent cheating, meow. Once these people have abilities, they'll abuse them. The professors will personally proctor the exams then, meow! They're very strict."

"If you get caught, are you banned from taking exams for life? Do they put it on your record?"

"How could you think that? That's too cruel, meow. They just cancel that year's written-test score and give you a zero. Basically, there's no way you'll pass that year."

"...Oh, they don't even revoke your eligibility for the other subjects?"

After hanging up, Lu PingAn understood.

What they were guarding against was not cheating, but cheating by people who lacked the skill to cheat.

"...Nothing is true, everything is permitted? I suddenly kind of like the Secret Keepers' way of doing things."

Then, to be precise, ten minutes later, a stack of test papers and notebooks had appeared in front of Chris.

The Teaching Materials and computer he had urgently purchased were still on the way.

Big Cat stared blankly at Lu PingAn, who had clasped his hands together and begged for help. Both her heart and her fingers were trembling.

"You... you..."

"Please, Teacher! I'm counting on you!"

Yes, this was Lu PingAn's solution: carrying a cat teacher around with him.

Even though he had only just come into contact with this Other World bursting with countless possibilities, Lu PingAn knew there were simply too many supernatural abilities and career paths to suppress them all.

Taking a step back, even if there were abilities capable of imposing comprehensive restrictions, would those "restrictions" themselves truly be fair?

"The first-rank skills of the Scholar (Forbidden Scholar) path are 'reading' and 'writing.' When it comes to studying and exams, all the other paths combined can't compete with them."

That Senior gardener had a side job in the Scholar path, and the career experience she had shared with him had also given Lu PingAn some understanding of this popular path.

"Rather than forcibly creating inequality, it's better to establish elimination rules and weed out supernatural cheaters who aren't good enough. After all, exams are meant to select talented supernatural ability users."

That was Lu PingAn's guess.

What if he was wrong? There was nothing he could do about that.

In any case, Lu PingAn had no chance of passing through normal means. Was there really any difference between two points and zero?

"Please, Chris! The Secret Keepers' exam probably won't be able to stop you. As for the ordinary subjects, once we have a computer and practice questions, you can help me look things up during the exam. You don't want me to fail miserably and lose my chance to hide in Gu University's hidden-realm academy, do you?"

And so, he forced the cat to study for the exams.

"Lu PingAn! When it comes to being inhuman, you've never disappointed me!"