The First Lesson of School

Hearing the little fatty's name, Zhou Yi subconsciously swallowed.

Seeing her swallow, Hu Manduo shrank back in fright.

"Don't misunderstand. I don't eat people. I just thought of a carbohydrate."

The people here would never understand the happiness of instant noodles.

Zhou Yi gave a simple explanation, though it somehow made her seem even scarier.

"Hello, my name is Lu Xiaoxiao."

Lu Xiaoxiao leaned over from the other side and introduced herself.

"Hello, I'm Hu Manduo. Please take care of me!!"

Perhaps because it was his first time meeting a classmate who had taken the initiative to greet him and show him kindness, Hu Manduo introduced himself excitedly.

Zhou Yi casually glanced at his neck. There was a sun-shaped pattern there.

Zhou Yi had always felt that there was something strange about Hu Manduo, and it was not entirely intuition.

Hu Manduo lacked a certain scent—a scent everyone else, including Zhou Yi, had. The scent of Nutrient Solution.

Although Nutrient Solution now came in all sorts of flavors, it left only one scent on a person's body after being consumed.

It was a mixed woody fragrance with somewhat heavy undertones.

The smell was not obvious, and ordinary people might not notice it, but someone with senses as sharp as Zhou Yi's could smell it clearly.

But Hu Manduo did not have it. He carried another scent, one Zhou Yi had never smelled before. It was somewhat like the scent of her favorite dried insects, yet different—stronger than dried insects, with a sweet fragrance to it.

If he did not drink Nutrient Solution, what did he usually eat?

Nutrient Solution was not that addictive, after all. There were pitifully few fat people in the interstellar era, and they were almost never seen in daily life. That was probably why Hu Manduo was ostracized.

Everyone probably thought he was some disgusting guy who could even get addicted to Nutrient Solution.

Only after everyone had arrived did the teacher finally show up. The first thing she did was hand out textbooks.

There was only one textbook, and it was not very thick. It contained all the material for the first half of first grade.

After receiving it, Zhou Yi flipped through it first. It was all the most basic knowledge for Mech Infantry, without the slightest difficulty.

"So Mech Infantry have so little to learn. I heard the Mech Masters next door got so many books! Every single one was this thick."

Lu Xiaoxiao gestured to show the thickness.

"Being a Mech Master isn't easy." Zhou Yi sighed along with her.

She suddenly wanted to return to the library warehouse and assemble those parts.

Since it was the first day of school, the teacher first had everyone introduce themselves so they could get acquainted. After all, the people sitting around them now would be their classmates for the next three years.

Then she simply explained some knowledge related to mechs.

Most of the children in the classroom had never come into contact with mechs, and everyone listened with great interest. Hu Manduo, sitting beside Zhou Yi, was especially absorbed, his eyes sparkling. He was completely different from his usual timid, bullied appearance.

The only lazy one in the classroom was probably Zhou Yi. She had returned too late yesterday and gotten up early today, so she had not rested well at all. She was drowsy from head to toe.

More importantly, what the teacher taught was simply too easy. It was basically about the origins and history of mechs, things Zhou Yi had read hundreds of times already.

And even for something so simple, the teacher merely read straight from the textbook, without the slightest novelty.

As someone who had already dismantled a mech once, Zhou Yi felt that rather than listening to someone read here, she really wanted to go back and assemble a mech.

Half-asleep, Zhou Yi propped her chin on one hand and actually fell asleep...

The female teacher at the podium saw a girl asleep in the very last row and merely shook her head silently.

At Huadun, students like that made up the majority.

Even the students listening seriously to her now would become like that later. Once the novelty of the first two days of school wore off, very few children would still study diligently.

The two classes ended quickly, and the noon break was very short.

Everyone's lunch was just a tube of Nutrient Solution, so it was over as soon as they drank it.

After drinking some water, using the restroom, and chatting with newly acquainted classmates, the afternoon classes began.

This had always been Huadun's schedule. The shorter noon break meant school could end earlier in the afternoon, giving everyone more time of their own.

"Hu Manduo, why aren't you drinking Nutrient Solution?"

At noon, after Lu Xiaoxiao finished her Nutrient Solution, she saw Hu Manduo still sitting properly at his desk reading and asked curiously.

Zhou Yi, who was putting on weight and having an extra meal, had already contentedly finished two tubes of Nutrient Solution.

"I'm not hungry..."

Hearing the question, Hu Manduo was at a loss for a moment and answered awkwardly.

"How could you not be hungry? We've had class all morning."

Lu Xiaoxiao looked at Hu Manduo with sympathy in her eyes.

This child must have a difficult family situation too, just like Zhou Yi. So difficult that he could not even afford Nutrient Solution. It was impressive that he had managed to grow so much flesh.

"I'm really not hungry."

Hu Manduo's face turned red.

In truth, after going without food all morning, he had been hungry for a long time. Fat people naturally consumed more energy.

It was just that he had never drunk Nutrient Solution before and was not used to it. And now everyone was eating in full view of one another, so he could not take out his own food...

"Here, have my Nutrient Solution. It's grape-flavored. It's on me!"

Lu Xiaoxiao generously took out her Nutrient Solution.

People in the interstellar era had neither eaten nor seen real fruit, yet through Nutrient Solution, they understood the flavors of all kinds of fruit perfectly.

"I..."

Hu Manduo hesitated, unsure whether he should accept it.

"Take it. If you keep being polite with me, I'll get angry and stop being your good friend!"

Xiao Xiao issued her final ultimatum. Hu Manduo was so frightened that he immediately reached out and accepted the Nutrient Solution.

Afraid that Lu Xiaoxiao would say anything more, Hu Manduo simply opened the cap, frowned, and gulped the entire tube down.

Mm... It was a little sweet and somewhat thick. It was not as awful as he had imagined.

Hu Manduo licked his lips and stared at the empty tube in his hand, as though he had discovered something incredible.

"Tasty, right? Grape is my favorite flavor. Even though I don't know what grapes are or what they look like... What do you think those ancient fruits tasted like?"

Xiao Xiao was a foodie. Although there were limited foods to choose from now, that did not stop her from having beautiful fantasies.

"They were probably like dried insects—something you could chew, and sweet."

In fact, she had never eaten anything besides Nutrient Solution and dried insects.

And almost everyone on D-Class Star Blocks was just like her.

As for delicacies, those were concepts that only existed on A-Class and even S-class Star Blocks. They had nothing to do with D-Class Star Blocks.

Hu Manduo looked at the two people beside him, deep in thought.

Why did he feel that Nutrient Solution tasted better?