Xu Jinbu and Xu Tui

The second day after arriving in Kyoto Prefecture.

June 15.

Enrollment was still open today.

Xu Tui spared a second of silence for his Limitless System classmates still stuck in the miserable queue, then got up and went to the dining hall for breakfast.

Huaxia Gene Evolution University had a huge student population and several dining halls.

Basically, each residential area had a large, multipurpose dining hall.

However, the most popular dining hall at Huaxia Gene Evolution University was the Taste Buds Ultimate Cuisine Center in Residential Area B.

Its best offerings were Sichuan cuisine and all kinds of desserts.

But what it was most famous for was... the female underclassmen and pretty girls!

Residential Area B was the women's dormitory area, and most of the girls ate at the Taste Buds Ultimate Cuisine Center there.

Male students needed to sign in with detailed information to enter the dormitory buildings in Residential Area B, and they were only allowed in for a limited time.

But the Taste Buds Ultimate Cuisine Center in Residential Area B was open to all students.

The guys naturally knew what to do.

Freshmen might not have caught on yet, but the second-years were dogs, the third-years were wolves, and the fourth-years were cats—they were all old hands.

The arrival of new students meant plenty of lovely flowers without owners.

Whatever it took, they had to find a way to plant themselves among those flowers first.

So, this morning, the hottest campus story was a video report showing the Taste Buds Ultimate Cuisine Center in Residential Area B packed with people, with a long line and not a single table free.

The upperclassmen, all dressed to the nines, were doing everything they could to strike up conversations with the freshman girls.

One upperclassman had bought eggs five times already.

And each time, he dropped them on the ground.

Each time, they landed right beside a freshman girl.

Xu Tui didn't go to the Taste Buds Ultimate Cuisine Center in Residential Area B. Instead, he dutifully headed to the Goodfella Cuisine Center in Residential Area C, where he lived.

Of course, that didn't mean Xu Tui wasn't interested in the freshman girls.

He just thought that truly handsome guys should wait for others to approach them, rather than taking the initiative to approach someone else!

To put it more plainly:

Like flowers, all you had to do was bloom, and plenty of little bees and butterflies would naturally come buzzing around.

Xu Tui felt that right now, he just needed to study hard and practice every day, so he could bloom as soon as possible!

The Goodfella Cuisine Center in Residential Area C wasn't crowded, so there was no need to queue.

It served food from all over the country, so it was hard to go wrong.

Xu Tui started with a bowl of beef noodles sprinkled with bright green scallions and topped with glossy red chili oil. Then he added a bamboo steamer of pork buns, a bowl of fresh shrimp wontons, three fried eggs, and three boiled eggs!

His stomach was happy, but his wallet was suffering.

As he ate, he continued browsing the campus feed.

The second-ranked trending story was unexpectedly about Xu Tui.

As he read, Xu Tui's expression suddenly darkened.

"Freshman powerhouse takes on the Limitless System alone and beats them all! Amazing!"

The accompanying video and photos showed the scene from the day before, when Xu Tui had taken down Yuan Shu and the others.

There was nothing wrong with the video.

But that headline was irritating as hell.

The comments below had already topped three thousand!

Quite a few were levelheaded assessments.

Most, however, were defiant.

"Let's fight!"

"Come take us down!"

"Someone needs to teach this freshman hotshot a lesson."

Plenty of commenters were directly asking for information about this so-called freshman hotshot.

Others vowed to find a chance to take him down three months later!

Xu Tui's information had also been exposed in the comments.

Xu Tui, a freshman in the Wisdom Heart System of the Mysterious Academy.

They'd named him outright!

Xu Tui scrolled farther, and his expression grew darker.

Five of the top ten trending stories on campus were about him.

And every headline was wildly exaggerated.

"Freshman hotshot claims one soybean can wipe out the entire Limitless System."

"Freshman Soybean Superman thrashes the Limitless Academy: one bean pops an eye, two beans blow up a head."

Someone was stirring things up!

Someone was absolutely stirring things up!

"Damn it."

Xu Tui crunched a peanut in his side dish to pieces.

They were making enemies for him, enemies on every side!

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before Xu Tui became a public enemy of the entire Limitless System.

Of course, it probably wouldn't get quite that bad.

But a whole lot of students and upperclassmen from the Limitless System would definitely take a strong dislike to Xu Tui.

They might not go out of their way to cause him trouble.

But if they happened to get the chance, giving him a kick while he was down would be perfectly normal.

And some might even come looking for trouble on purpose.

These days, there were plenty of people who wanted to make a name for themselves or show off to impress girls. And then there were those who simply didn't like the sight of him.

Xu Tui checked who had reposted or uploaded the trending stories. He didn't recognize any of them, but a couple were major campus influencers.

Especially the uploader of the most popular video, the one ranked second with over three thousand comments.

"Was Yuan Shu behind it?"

Xu Tui immediately opened his contacts and prepared to call Chai Xiao.

That Yuan Shu was a real piece of work.

Xu Tui had just signed the statement the day before and asked Chai Xiao to submit it for him, and now Yuan Shu was stirring things up like this, turning the entire school against him. What a bastard.

But just as he placed the call, Xu Tui pulled his hand back.

It wouldn't be right to call Chai Xiao.

Xu Tui had taken the money, and Chai Xiao had acted as the middleman for the statement. There was nothing wrong with that.

As for stirring things up and making the whole school his enemy, that was a separate matter.

It had nothing to do with Chai Xiao.

Sitting in the dining hall, Xu Tui thought about the matter for quite a while.

At this moment, there was no point going to anyone about it.

This wave of rumors had already set Xu Tui against the Limitless System. In all likelihood, he'd have some clashes with them in the future because of it.

But even if Xu Tui tracked down the uploader, or even the mastermind behind it, what could he do?

He didn't have any real evidence to begin with.

Even if Yuan Shu admitted it, what could Xu Tui do to him?

Could he report him to the university's Discipline Department?

Yuan Shu could shrug off the whole thing by calling it a sensationalized headline. That still wouldn't solve the trouble Xu Tui might face in the future.

Of course, there was one way.

Xu Tui could find an influencer and record a video apologizing and admitting defeat to the Limitless System. If he bowed a few times, that would probably solve most of the problem.

But Xu Tui wasn't one to back down.

He'd rather be beaten to death by the Limitless System than admit defeat.

If he got the chance, he'd have to take on people like Yuan Shu again!

Otherwise, his parents might as well have given him those names for nothing!

His childhood nickname came first:

Xu Jinbu.

His formal name came later.

Xu Tui.

Put them together: Xu Jinbu, Xu Tui!

"Looks like I'll have to train like my life depends on it. I'll beat the crap out of anyone who dares mess with me!"

Xu Tui's expression turned fierce as he swallowed two peeled, hard-boiled eggs whole.

He hadn't expected to choke so badly that his eyes nearly popped out.

He hurriedly gulped down a few mouthfuls of water before he could breathe again.

Back to the dorm!

Xu Tui had planned to go find Cheng Mo.

But after seeing the trending stories, he changed his mind.

From now on, he'd better keep his distance from Cheng Mo, especially by not seeking him out himself.

Back in the dorm, Xu Tui still hadn't seen his roommate.

He was quite happy to have the place to himself.

He climbed onto his bed, sat cross-legged, calmed his mind, and began recalling the next steps in the Mind Sea Concentration Gene Forging Knowledge Method, Version 4.9.

A few minutes later, in a state of Illusory Internal Vision, Xu Tui found the ninth Gene Point that needed to be activated on the first level.

He took an E-grade Energy Supplement Potion.

Then he focused his mind.

About forty-five minutes later, Xu Tui felt the stream of energy flowing from his stomach grow weaker. The bottle of E-grade Energy Supplement Potion had been completely used up.

The potion seemed to be consumed faster while he was concentrating and cultivating.

He still felt mentally well and not too tired, so Xu Tui took another bottle of E-grade Energy Supplement Potion.

Forty minutes later, the ninth Gene Point on the first level activated.

Five minutes later, drowsiness hit him. Feeling that his mental strength was almost at its limit, Xu Tui completely let his mind go blank and sank into a deep sleep.

In the middle of the day, no less.

This was another experiment for Xu Tui.

He slept for almost six hours.

When Xu Tui woke up, it was already two in the afternoon.

He felt refreshed and ready to practice again.

He got out of bed, used a ruler to mark out a roughly measured spot in the room, then gently closed his eyes.

3.66 meters!

Xu Tui's Mental Induction range had expanded to 3.66 meters.

The previous morning, he'd measured a range of 3.24 meters in the Manifestation Sensing System's professional testing room.

From last night until now, activating two Gene Points with the Mind Sea Concentration Gene Forging Knowledge Method, Version 4.9, had increased his Mental Induction range by forty centimeters.

That was a very noticeable improvement.

"I still need to run some more tests."

It was true that asking a teacher could give him the fastest answers.

But when it came to questions about cultivation, Xu Tui felt that personal experience was best.

Just like when he was little and his father, Xu Jianguo, invited friends over for dinner.

After the meal, they drank. They drank with such relish!

A small bowl of baijiu.

The two men clinked bowls, tilted their heads back, and drained them in one go.

Then his father and his friend both let out a long, leisurely breath.

That feeling—bliss!

Xu Tui watched from the side, entranced!

That baijiu looked so good!

He really wanted a taste!

So his father got a small bowl and poured him a tiny bit, about ten milliliters, telling him to give it a try.

Xu Tui thought it was too little.

But his father wouldn't give him more.

Xu Tui imitated his father and downed it in one go.

But before he could even swallow, he spat the whole mouthful out with a loud retch.

It was spicy!

So spicy!

It felt like a trail of fire was burning down his throat!

It tasted awful!

His father, Xu Jianguo, laughed and told Xu Tui that he didn't know how to drink yet. Once he grew up, he'd find baijiu delicious.

Xu Tui didn't understand.

But that was what personal experience meant.

Ever since then, Xu Tui had always thought that baijiu tasted awful.

His cultivation was the same.

His teacher's words described her own experiences with cultivation.

Perhaps she was right.

But Xu Tui hadn't experienced it for himself.

Yeah, just like baijiu.

Xu Tui wanted to use cultivation to figure out his own mental-energy recovery rate.

And how quickly the energy cost of cultivation accumulated.

Xu Tui had already noticed something.

When activating Gene Points in a sequence—in other words, when activating a Gene Ability Chain—the farther down the chain a Gene Point was, the more energy it took to activate.

Activating the eighth Gene Point on the first layer had taken Xu Tui one bottle of E-grade and six F-grade supplements. The ninth had taken two bottles of E-grade.

So how much would it take to activate the tenth Gene Point on the first layer?

An hour and a half later, Xu Tui had his answer!

Even after using up two bottles of E-grade Energy Supplement Potion, he still hadn't successfully activated the tenth Gene Point on the first layer.

Xu Tui estimated that another half-bottle, or four or five F-grade Energy Supplement Pills, might be enough to activate it.

By then, his mental energy would be nearly depleted again.

He'd have to sleep!

It was already nearly four in the afternoon. If he took another nap, he wouldn't wake up until ten at night.

First, he'd be hungry.

Second, by nightfall, there'd be plenty of things he couldn't do.

After going out to eat and stuffing himself, Xu Tui headed straight for the pharmacy center at Huaxia Gene Evolution University!

Xu Tui had a money-making scheme!

He wanted to give it a try!