High Intensity

I'm so tired.

My head is throbbing with pain.

These are symptoms of overworking the brain.

Is it easy for me to earn 10 credits?

No, it's not easy.

But I will persevere; I am a person with perseverance and willpower.

Hmm, this line sounds familiar; it seems to have appeared a few years ago.

Ah, I suddenly feel like singing. Right now, in this place, in this setting, there's a song that's perfect to sing out loud.

Forget it, I'll just do the problems instead.

Shen Qi rubbed his temples to relieve the headache.

Midnight, progress 5/36.

I could spend an entire afternoon and evening at the library.

However, the situation is not encouraging.

Suddenly, the system notification appeared. "Host has studied Advanced Algebra continuously for 12 hours, mathematical experience points +1."

Host, Shen Qi

Age, 18

Mathematics Level 7 (127/250,000)

Shen Qi had raised Math to level 7, but the rate at which he gained experience points through daily accumulation was getting slower and slower, while the experience points required to advance to the next level were increasing. Of course, relying on daily accumulation of experience points was not as fast as completing achievements and grinding for academic points.

Regardless, Shen Qi's 12 hours of dedicated study of Advanced Algebra did yield some results, earning him 1 point of mathematical experience.

The library was brightly lit late at night, and students were studying all night long. Shen Qi was not the only one staying up all night.

Study hard and serve your country.

Who's the purpose of pulling all-nighters to cram for practice problems?

Who are you, for whom do you not shed tears, my brothers and sisters? Who is the most beautiful, who is the most tired... I'm so damn tired! Shen Qi couldn't concentrate. He was lost in thought, looking around. Hey, there are so many beautiful girls at Yanda University. Do beautiful girls also study all night? High-value female academic geniuses must be very popular, right? Look, you can't get a high-quality beauty if you don't study hard.

"Damn it, what am I thinking?" Shen Qi forced himself to calm down. There were still 31 questions to finish, and the pressure was immense.

"I'm forced into this situation. I have to use my ultimate move." Shen Qi sent a WeChat message to his roommate Zhou Yu'an. He knew Zhou Yu'an was definitely not asleep, as the next two days were the weekend and there were no classes.

"Bring me my knife, I'm in the library." This was a WeChat message Shen Qi sent to Zhou Yu'an.

Zhou Yu'an immediately replied, "What? Don't cause trouble, I'm telling you!"

Shen Qi: "Pencil sharpener, I need to sharpen my pencil."

Zhou Yu'an: "But your pencil sharpener isn't sharp anymore, use mine."

Shen Qi: "Stop talking nonsense, hurry up! Wait, also bring me my Tiger Balm, and go to the 24-hour convenience store to buy a case of Red Bull."

Zhou Yu'an: "I always feel like you're doing something amazing behind my back."

Shen Qi sent Zhou Yu'an a WeChat red envelope containing a case of Red Bull and 10 yuan for Zhou Yu'an's delivery fee.

Not long after, Zhou Yu'an arrived at the library carrying a case of Red Bull, attracting everyone's attention.

"So you were studying all night!" Zhou Yu'an was both shocked and ashamed. "Shen, the top student, is not only smarter than others, but also more diligent. How are we supposed to live?"

"You can leave now, don't disturb others studying." Shen Qi rubbed some Tiger Balm on his temples, then opened a can of Red Bull and gulped it down.

Zhou Yu'an wasn't so easily dismissed. He saw a large pile of mathematical literature on Shen Qi's desk and knew something must have happened.

Soon, Zhou Yu'an discovered Shen Qi's test paper. "What's this? These questions are so difficult!"

Shen Qi said in a low voice, "To make a long story short, I don't have much time. I have to finish these 36 questions within 48 hours. Twelve hours have passed, and I've only completed five questions."

Zhou Yu'an didn't understand. "For what?"

Shen Qi: "For academic credits, and for a man's dignity."

Zhou Yu'an thought for a moment and understood, "Actually, it's just to show off, right? By the way, Shen Qi, have you eaten yet?"

"I ate this afternoon."

"Didn't you have dinner?"

"I don't have time for dinner."

"Do you really have to push yourself so hard...?" Zhou Yu'an stopped bothering Shen Qi and quietly left.

Red Bull down the drain, hunger vanquished.

Shen Qi regained his form and quickly solved three more problems before falling asleep on the table.

He was exhausted; it was already 2 a. m.

Unable to sleep soundly, Shen Qi woke up at 6 a. m., went to the bathroom to wash his face and rinse his mouth, and continued the battle.

7 o'clock, 29 hours until the credit test, progress 9/36.

Zhou Yu'an returned to the library, carrying steaming hot buns and soy milk.

"Have breakfast, Shen Qi. Food is essential for life, and learning is a lifelong endeavor. A few more minutes won't make a difference," Zhou Yu'an said with concern, feeling touched and encouraged.

Having stayed up all night, Shen Qi was truly starving. He grabbed a steamed bun and wolfed it down, saying, "Delicious... Ugh... Why are there only a few buns? That's not enough!"

"You only gave me 10 yuan last night, that's all I can buy," Zhou Yu'an explained.

Shen Qi was speechless. "Zhou Ba Pi, you're so stingy! You can't even afford to treat me to a few more steamed buns?"

"Poverty limits my purchasing power, hehe, come on, have some soy milk." Zhou Yu'an used a straw to puncture the soy milk packaging and handed the soy milk to Shen Qi's mouth.

Two female students studying nearby exclaimed, "Wow, true love!"

Pfft~

Shen Qi almost spat out his mouthful of soy milk, which flowed back into his mouth, but Shen Qi forced it back down. "Zhou Yu'an, you can go now. I still appreciate you bringing me breakfast."

"Does your family own the library? Can't I come here to study?" Zhou Yu'an took out <Mathematical Analysis II> from his bag, sat down next to Shen Qi to read, and occasionally stole glances at Shen Qi's test paper, which he found very interesting.

Shen Qi ignored Zhou Yu'an and continued working on his problems.

Question 10 requires obtaining the eigenvalues of a matrix, which are the roots of its characteristic equation, and involves a significant amount of computation.

Matrices are indispensable for Advanced Algebra tests, so Shen Qi tried replacing each element of the matrix with its conjugate complex number and then transposing it.

In fact, Shen Qi is very good at playing with matrices. He taught himself Advanced Algebra textbooks when he was in his second year of high school. He has a deep affection for Advanced Algebra. His path to showing off started with Advanced Algebra Hermitian matrix is not difficult for Shen Qi.

Finding the minimum polynomial is a relatively straightforward task; that is, finding the polynomial of the lowest degree that a matrix satisfies. Improvements using methods from Frobenius or Hensel can yield correct results.

In some general journals, you can often see similar papers on Matrix Theory and polynomial algebra. They are not particularly advanced and are just popular science articles.

In fact, if Shen Qi's approach were slightly revised and formatted into a neat academic paper, his solution to question 10 would be good enough to be submitted as a paper. Even if it couldn't be published in a core Chinese journal or a core science journal, it would still be acceptable to submit it to a general journal.

Having quickly finished question 10, Shen Qi dared not slack off and immediately began tackling question 11.

Question 11 gave Shen Qi another headache. Here, he needed to interpret the physical meaning of the Dot Product of two vectors. This wasn't just a simple algebraic problem, but a mathematical expression of Maxwell's electromagnetism. Then, he had to apply Ostrogratsky's theorem to convert the volume integral to the surface integral.

This problem can't be solved without some basic physics knowledge. Sun Erxiong knew that Shen Qi was the CPhO champion, so he created this problem specifically for Shen Qi.

Shen Qi spent a lot of time on question 11, but hasn't finished the final processing yet.

It was already noon, with 24 hours left in the countdown and progress at 10/36.

Shen Qi spent nearly 24 hours in the library and completed 10 questions.

"I'm so anxious," Shen Qi said. "Zhou Yu'an, I'm completely out of inspiration sitting next to you. Why don't you move to another seat? It's best to keep at least 10 meters away from me and not appear in my sight."

"Is this really a good idea?" Zhou Yu'an asked with a hint of resentment.

Shen Qi clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture. "Brother, Brother Yu'an, I'm begging you, please? This exam paper is really important to me. I only have 24 hours left, and half the time has passed, and I've only completed 27.8% of the questions! If I hand in such a paper, how can I face anyone at Yanda University in the future?"

"Alright, alright, I'll leave now, okay?" Zhou Yu'an felt hurt and left the library.

Zhou Yu'an left, but Shen Qi still had no inspiration. It seemed that this was not Zhou Yu'an's fault; Shen Qi had misunderstood him.

Shen Qi went outside the library for some fresh air. "Ugh, this time I've really embarrassed Grandmother..."