"False Sage"

Playing another version of himself and creating a split image was extremely difficult!

But Ma Ran liked challenges.

In his plan, the most important initial script was as follows.

Script One: "False Sage"

Protagonist: Ma Ran

Flaws: Germaphobia, keeping people at arm's length.

"Ma Ran possessed the strongest brainpower in the history of Earth Humans. He could master any book knowledge at a glance and become proficient in any skill after learning it once."

"He could infer ten thousand things from one, see through every facet of the human heart, and effortlessly master in an extremely short time the skills that ordinary people would need half a lifetime to learn."

"Originally, Ma Ran had planned to live out his life as an average person, but unexpectedly, during his third year of high school, he suddenly received a message from another civilization."

"Thus, he stopped concealing his brilliance and began displaying his talents..."

This was the persona Ma Ran had created for himself.

Operating behind the scenes under aliases and other identities was good, but it was not enough.

Ma Ran was fairly confident, or rather...

He was rather greedy!

He wanted to participate in both leading the spirit of the times from the front stage and driving the prevailing trends from behind the scenes—and he wanted to occupy the dominant position in both!

At present, Ma Ran possessed only the derivative ability God of Scholars. He was still far from the ultimate goal of Peak Brainpower.

However, the script had only just begun, and everything was barely on track. There were still many things he could work with.

As for how to make his persona more convincing, Ma Ran had long since drawn up a complete plan!

In his previous life, when Ma Ran had first awakened his acting ability, he was always worried that "the tallest tree in the forest would be the first to be blown down." He had thought about hiding his abilities and keeping as low a profile as possible.

After experiencing many things, Ma Ran came to understand a principle—many times, deliberately leaking information of lesser importance could actually conceal one's greatest secret more effectively.

In this life, Ma Ran intended to stand in the most conspicuous position on the world's grand stage and lead the trendsetters in stirring up the winds and clouds!

Originally, he had still been worried that the questions might suddenly change, causing the success rate of his plan to drop.

Now, it seemed he had simply been overthinking things.

The butterfly effect had not occurred.

Every subject in this test consisted entirely of multiple-choice questions. There were no fill-in-the-blank or short-answer questions, and the time allotted was extremely tight.

At noon, they had only half an hour to eat.

Lunch break?

No such thing!

As soon as the examinees from every grade had stuffed a little food into their stomachs, they were forced back into the examination rooms.

During the tense exams, time was like sand slipping through one's fingers. In the blink of an eye, it vanished without a trace.

At 4:45 in the afternoon, all the subjects had been completed.

"It's finally over. Even the gaokao wasn't this exhausting, was it?"

"The questions were insanely difficult! I nearly puked while taking the test!"

"How did you feel about it? Think you can score over five hundred?"

"I might not even get four hundred. A lot of the question types were unfamiliar. They looked like one thing, but when I thought about them carefully, they felt completely different!"

"It doesn't matter if you bombed it. It's not a formal exam anyway."

"Am I the only one curious about Ma Ran and Su Qiangwei's scores?"

"Ugh... I have absolutely nothing in common with you top students!"

"This exam wasn't all bad! It's not even five yet, and there are no classes tonight. That's basically half a day off! Anyone want to go to the internet café and play some ranked games? I'm insanely good at Yasuo!"

"Maybe not. It's too far, and League of Legends takes too long. One match is exhausting. How about Honor of Kings instead?"

"Sure! My Luban No. 7 is invincible!"

After the exam, the students scattered like birds returning to the forest, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Some read novels, some watched dramas, some played games, and some watched anime.

In short, they were all doing things they usually wanted to do but had no time for.

Su Qiangwei, whose competitive spirit was exceptionally strong, pestered Ma Ran with questions, following him from the classroom all the way to the cafeteria.

Two hours later, she finally came to a sorrowful conclusion—Ma Ran had seriously completed every single question.

The most terrifying part was...

He had not gotten a single question wrong!

At least among the questions Su Qiangwei could remember, Ma Ran's accuracy was one hundred percent.

Su Qiangwei wallowed in sorrow for a while, then turned her grief into an appetite. After devouring two large meat buns, her gaze fell on Ma Ran's small notebook.

"What are you writing? Oracle bone script?"

Ever since they had started checking their answers, Ma Ran had been writing and drawing on the page nonstop. Whether the lines were curved or straight, they all followed some kind of pattern. They did not look like random doodles.

"You aren't qualified to come into contact with this yet."

Ma Ran put down his pen, took out an old-model Huawei phone to check the time, and said seriously, "It'll drive you insane."

These characters came from a mysterious civilization called "You" (Note ①). Supernatural power lay hidden within them, but they would imperceptibly twist a person's mind and will, driving them completely mad and turning them into bloodthirsty monsters.

If Ma Ran had not been a Reborn One who had experienced countless battles and possessed a steadfast will, and if the God of Scholars medal had not strengthened and multiplied his mental faculties, he would not have dared to recall these things so casually.

One careless moment was enough to make him lose himself completely and become a deformed monster.

After saying this, Ma Ran ignored Su Qiangwei, who had been humiliated into shutting herself away. He carefully put the small notebook away, tapped the table, and said, "I'm going to check the exam results. See you if fate allows."

With machine-read answer sheets and official pressure added to the mix, the papers were graded with extremely high efficiency.

The results would be posted at 6:50.

There was no way he could have remembered incorrectly.

"How could they be that fast? We at least have to wait until tomorrow, right? And what do you mean, 'see you if fate allows'? Don't tell me you're dropping out! Aren't you going to take the gaokao? And... hey! I haven't finished talking!"

Su Qiangwei flushed with anger, snatched up her student card and small schoolbag from the table, and hurried after him.

The results had indeed already been released!

As usual, the rankings had been posted on the southeast wall of the teachers' dormitory building opposite the cafeteria. They had been written in black ink with a brush on a red background.

Quite a few people had gathered around them.

Su Qiangwei quickly noticed that this ranking differed from the usual one. It did not list the top one hundred; it only showed the scores of the top ten students from each of the three grades.

She could not be bothered to pay attention to the annoying younger students in the first and second years of high school. Her eyes immediately focused on the third-year list.

First place, Ma Ran, total score: 750.

Second place, Su Qiangwei, total score: 703.

She did not look any further.

This result struck Su Qiangwei like a bolt from the blue. Her mind buzzed, stars swam before her eyes, and she nearly fainted on the spot.

"I... lost again!"

Su Qiangwei felt her eyes grow damp and her heart turn sour, so she immediately dug her nails fiercely into the palm hidden inside her sleeve, nearly driving them into her flesh.

The pain made her feel a little better.

"Not bad."

Ma Ran looked at Su Qiangwei approvingly. "You performed above your usual level this time."

"Congratulations."

Before his rebirth, Su Qiangwei's total score on this exam had been 693.

She had scored a full ten points more this time!

This was also the first butterfly effect Ma Ran had encountered.

Clearly, Su Qiangwei was the type to grow stronger with every setback, a big-hearted competitor. External pressure instead allowed her to perform better and bring out her full potential.

The official Caolu Academy had completely different recruitment standards for different age groups.

For third-year students...

Seven hundred points was the threshold.

With that score, even if one was not ranked first, one still qualified to receive an invitation.

Furthermore, anyone who failed to score at least 690 points would be completely barred from Caolu Academy, even if they ranked first in the entire grade!

The words had indeed been meant kindly, but Su Qiangwei, the person involved, did not see it that way.

"Ugh..."

Su Qiangwei instantly burst into tears.

The tiny bit of goodwill she had previously felt toward Ma Ran vanished in an instant.

Gentlemanly manners?

Those things were completely incompatible with the guy standing in front of her!

Thinking back, when this guy had told her to "keep it up," the way he had looked at her had been just like he was looking at an idiot, hadn't it?

It definitely had to be that way!

(①: yòu. Definitions: 1. A place where animals are raised; 2. Restricted, confined, or rigid.)