You're Being Rude

[One and a half stars?]

[Only one and a half stars? That low a level?]

[Looking at her, she does seem kind of average.]

[Her figure's average too.]

[She's pretty ordinary overall. That level seems about right.]

[Only one and a half stars? That's not even half of Qiqi's rating. Looks like she'll be easy to win over.]

[Easy to clear? Do you guys have some kind of misunderstanding about the beginner Trial Zone? I remember most of the female ghosts in the beginner trials used to be one star or lower. One and a half stars is already pretty high. She could wipe out quite a few newbie players.]

[True.]

[But this is Ye Jiu's livestream.]

[He's a top player who can romance three-star, three-and-a-half-star, and four-and-a-half-star female ghosts at the same time.]

[Exactly.]

[The big shot's got this mission in the bag. No suspense. There goes my bet.]

[By the way, has anyone run into this top-student ghost before? What kind of boss is she? Physical contact? Bodily fluids? Or something else?]

[How do you win someone over like this?]

[Never seen her.]

[Haven't run into her.]

[No clue.]

[Who cares? She's only one and a half stars. As long as you're not a really timid or stupid newbie, clearing the mission should be easy, right?]

[Exactly. No need to know her type. The big shot could get through this with his eyes closed, just by chatting a little.]

[Agreed.]

Wen Nan stood frozen in front of the desk, looking at the girl sitting an arm's length away.

At first glance, Yu Shujun looked exactly like a typical top student in her final year of high school—

She wore Seventh High School's blue-and-white striped uniform, its loose fabric covering her arms and legs completely. Her hair was tied in a high ponytail, and her bangs covered most of her face. Thick glasses hid the emotions in her eyes, lending her an air of mystery, along with a distant aloofness that kept people at arm's length.

They looked at each other for a moment. Finally, Yu Shujun lowered her gaze and tapped the empty desk beside her twice with her pen, signaling for Wen Nan to sit down.

Wen Nan took the hint and sat beside her.

She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, glanced at the watch on her wrist, and said in a perfectly flat voice:

"You're an hour, twenty-three minutes, and thirty seconds late. That's enough time for me to finish three mock Olympiad exams by myself."

"Uh, sorry."

Yu Shujun glanced at her watch again. "An apology is meaningless. It'll only waste another minute of my time."

With that, she pushed the test paper on her desk in front of Wen Nan. "This is your math placement test from this time. Take a look—

"Sixty-one points! How did you even manage to get a score like that?"

Thinking of the test paper with its nine-point score that the fat guy had taken to the homeroom teacher, Wen Nan quietly protested, "It's not that bad... I at least passed."

"Passed? The test is out of 150!" Yu Shujun rapped her pen hard against the paper. "You only got three multiple-choice questions right! If I tossed a handful of rice onto the test, brought over a chicken, and let it peck at random, it'd score higher than you!"

After letting it all out, Yu Shujun's tone softened. "I marked all the problem areas, solution approaches, and common mistakes on this test in red. Go through it from beginning to end. Ask me if you have questions. If you don't, keep quiet. We'll leave each other alone."

Then she took a mock Olympiad test out of her schoolbag and started working on it by herself, without looking at the person beside her again, as if he were nothing but air.

[???]

[What a pressure monster.]

[That scary?]

[Why does she feel even more intimidating than the homeroom teacher next door? She's practically on the level of the dean.]

[Is she really only one and a half stars? Why does she feel so intimidating?]

[Right? I'd give her five stars.]

[Even five stars feels too low.]

[You've all been led astray by Nine Times a Night. You really think this is a livestream of some melodramatic romance story?]

[Exactly. A character's攻略 difficulty is based on how much of a threat the female ghost poses to the player, not on how suitable she is for dating.]

[Right. Don't be fooled by how fiercely the top student chews him out. Look at her—she hasn't laid a finger on the streamer, and she's barely even looked at him. All she's asked him to do is look at his test and not bother her. This type of female ghost is actually the easiest to deal with.]

[Yeah. She ignores you the whole time, so you just have to avoid provoking her. Don't ask questions. Get through these twenty minutes and the mission's over.]

[That easy? Sounds even easier to win over than Old-fashioned Married Homeroom Teacher.]

[It's not hard to begin with. This option is probably a beginner-friendly choice. Picking it is a win.]

[So the streamer just has to keep quiet and look at his test?]

[Yep.]

[Ah, how boring.]

[I'm out. Going to check out the "Xiaoxiao's Cute Too" livestream.]

[Me too.]

Just as the chat was noisily saying they were about to leave, Wen Nan's next move left them stunned.

"Xiao Jun, I have a question." Wen Nan raised his hand.

Yu Shujun furrowed her brow, clear impatience showing on her face.

She ignored Wen Nan, pretending she hadn't heard him, and continued writing on her test paper.

Wen Nan cleared his throat and went on. "Forgive me for being so forward—"

"—You're being rude."

Yu Shujun replied without even lifting her head.

Wen Nan: "Uh, I have a question."

Yu Shujun: "No, you don't."

Wen Nan: ...

He was a very serious student. Even though the other person was a little cold toward him, Wen Nan still decided to ask the question he'd been keeping to himself:

"It's so hot out. Aren't you roasting in all those clothes?"

Yu Shujun: ...

When she didn't answer, Wen Nan asked again, "Your bangs are so long they block your vision. Doesn't that bother you?"

Yu Shujun: ...

Wen Nan continued, "Are you wearing makeup? Did you learn how to do it from the PE teacher?"

[?]

[???]

[∑(O_O;)]

[What's the streamer doing?]

[Trying to get himself killed?]

[Wouldn't it be better to just quietly sit out these twenty minutes?]

[Why does he have to say something?!]

[Fine, ask questions, but why ask the top student things that have nothing to do with studying?]

[Does he have to keep poking at the danger zone?]

[Why can't he just stay alive?]

Snap!

The pen in Yu Shujun's hand broke in two.

At last, she turned to look at the man beside her. The smile tugging at her lips was uglier than a grimace. Suppressing her anger with all her might, she asked, "If you don't have any normal questions, then either shut up or get out of the classroom."

"I do."

Wen Nan stretched out his hand and pointed at Yu Shujun's knee.

A small spot of brown iodine disinfectant stained the uniform pants there.

"I smelled it when I came over earlier. There's a really strong disinfectant smell on you."

"Xiao Jun, did you go to the school infirmary just now?"