Graduation Season and Back-to-School Season

Before long, high school graduation season arrived as scheduled. Today was also Elizabeth's graduation day.

"Elizabeth, look over here." Lisa held a camera and moved around Elizabeth, who wore an academic dress and academic cap, taking pictures from every angle.

In the United States, academic dresses and caps were not exclusive to college graduates. Graduates at every stage could wear them, though the styles differed slightly.

Having successfully earned a full scholarship to the University of Chicago, which exempted her from all tuition and cut most of her educational expenses, Elizabeth was delighted. Smiling brightly, she stood on the lawn and struck various poses at Lisa's direction.

Even after finishing an entire roll of film, Lisa still wanted more. She said to Link beside her, "Link, go stand with Elizabeth. I'll take a few photos of you two together."

Link could only go over and cooperate with a few poses. While they were being photographed, Elizabeth asked, "I heard you became Lena's boyfriend."

"That's a rumor!" Link shook his head.

"She did have that idea. Maybe she wanted to use my popularity to give herself an edge in the high school popularity race.

"But although she's pretty, her personality is too troublesome. If we officially became boyfriend and girlfriend, I'd have to spend too much time accommodating her every day. I still planned to put more energy into studying."

"It'd better be." Elizabeth nodded. "I know those girls are just like the cheerleaders... you know."

"Of course." Link understood. High school cheerleaders usually had good looks and figures, and they were also at the center of all kinds of messy relationships.

He knew Elizabeth looked like a good girl on the surface, but she actually had a little pride in her heart. Naturally, she could not possibly act exactly the same in private as she did at home. After all, this was the United States.

After all, in terms of looks and figure, very few of those cheerleaders could compare with Elizabeth. It was simply that she had set her goal long ago, and her focus had been different from the start.

"Now that's my good little brother!" Elizabeth said, reaching out to put an arm around Link's shoulder. With a slight exertion of force, she pulled him over, tilted her head, and pressed her head against Link's as his body leaned sideways from being pulled. They struck an intimate pose that satisfied Lisa, who took several shots.

"Well, it seemed getting into college and soon being far away from your parents had made you feel much more relaxed?"

"Hadn't it?"

"Chicago really was far from here, but were you prepared?"

"Prepared for what?"

"Now that you'd gotten into the college you wanted, let me do the math for you. Four years of undergraduate study, four years of medical school for an M.D., then three to eight years of residency. After that, you could get your doctoral degree, followed by decades of working as a doctor. Didn't that sound exciting?"

Elizabeth's expression stiffened. Seeing the smile on Link's face, she said, "Then, my dear little brother, you seemed to want to become a mathematician too...

"Let me think. Starting from now, there were still three years of high school, plus undergraduate study, a master's degree, and a doctorate. More than ten years in total, followed by decades of research. In the end, you might achieve nothing and die in obscurity. Were you prepared for that kind of life as a mathematician?"

"First of all, I'd get my doctorate much earlier than you imagined," Link said.

"Also, you might think many scientists were destined to be alone, but in reality, as long as I wanted to, my life could be colorful. In fact, I already had a plan. I believed that within ten years at most, you'd have a billionaire younger brother."

"Haha, keep dreaming, my little brother." Elizabeth clearly treated Link's words as nonsense.

"Want to make a bet?"

"Of course. I doubted you'd even be able to pay off your student loans and mortgage within ten years of graduating from college."

"I wouldn't need student loans. I'd get a full scholarship, and I'd also receive generous grants."

"Who knew? Let's wait and see."

"Then let's wait and see."

Besides attending his sister's graduation ceremony, Link also made a point of attending Peggy's graduation ceremony. After one year of middle school, she decisively skipped a grade and was about to enter high school. However, she would not be attending Lola High School with Link. Aunt Linda had already planned to send Peggy to a private secondary school.

Peggy's father, Barry, earned a generous income as a dentist and could easily afford private school tuition. Besides, with Peggy's talent, those private high schools would be happy to give her scholarships.

During the summer that followed, Link maintained his usual routine. Other than training with Robert and attending baseball practice, he endured Peggy's daily intellectual crushing.

After that summer, according to Robert, Link's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu had become competent. As for the mixed martial arts he had started half a year earlier, he was still only at the beginner stage.

Over the past year, Link had gained tremendously, as could be seen from the system's panel. By the time he entered Tenth Grade, his Stats Panel had changed considerably.

Name: Link Bennett

Race: Human

Biological Level: 1 Star

Attributes: The average attribute value for a normal adult man is 10 points.

Strength: 11.7 (Muscle 12.1, Physical Strength 11.3)

Agility: 10.75 (Hand-Eye Coordination 10, Flexibility 12, Reaction 12, Balance 9)

Constitution: 12 (Health 11.5, Endurance 12.5)

Intelligence: 13.9 (Learning Ability 14.5, Mental Activity 13.3)

Perception: 9.75 (Willpower 12, Common Sense Judgment 9, Perception 8, Intuition 10)

Charisma: 10.2 (Courage 12, Persuasiveness 9, Personal Appeal 11, Leadership 8, Physical Attractiveness 10)

Skills: Baseball (Some Accomplishment), Mixed Martial Arts (Beginner), Basic Science (Beginner).

Special Abilities: None

Evolution Points: 0

Possessions: None

Evolution Points: 0

Space-Time Mission Function: Conditions not met. Unable to activate.

Now that he was fifteen or sixteen, he was in a period of rapid growth and development. Combined with reasonable training, Link's attributes in every area had increased considerably.

Not long after the new semester began, Link heard a familiar name during their usual lunchtime gathering. It finally confirmed that he had not merely been reborn decades in the past, but had arrived in a parallel world.

"Hey, Link, did you hear? There's some news." Kevin was the first to speak.

"Hm?" Link's expression remained unchanged. Perhaps it was some innate talent of Black people, but Kevin was very good at digging up gossip. Much of the gossip Link heard came from him, though more than half of it was unreliable, so Link remained perfectly calm.

Used to Link being like this, Kevin was fortunate that Dan beside them cooperatively asked, "What news exactly?" That gave Kevin a little psychological satisfaction.

"Did you know? New students came to school today."

"What kind of news was that? Today was new student orientation day. Of course there would be plenty of new students," Dan immediately questioned.

"Of course it was news, because one of the new students was really interesting. He was only nine years old, yet he had already come to attend Ninth Grade in high school. He was even in the same class as his older brother.

"More interestingly, the kid acted like some well-behaved little angel. He not only seriously pointed out problems with many new students' clothing right to their faces, but he also said that Mark Elroy had not properly dealt with her mustache."

"Really? That was hilarious." Dan could not help laughing. "Mark Elroy really did seem to have trouble dealing with her mustache sometimes."

"You were right!" Kevin laughed as well. The two clearly found gossiping about teachers amusing, and Kevin continued.

"And he questioned the teacher's credentials in math class. He also said Hubert had personal hygiene issues. Best of all, he even suggested becoming Hubert's boss."

"Wow... that little boy was really bold!"

"He really was bold."

The two chatted enthusiastically about gossip, while Link listened beside them. Everything sounded strangely familiar to him, and in the end, he could not help asking, "So what was that little boy's name?"

"Link, you were interested too?" Kevin said with a laugh. "I was really looking forward to seeing what he did next!"

Dan said, "Actually, Kevin was interested in smart people. When I visited his house before, a very cute little girl came over.

"That girl was named Peggy. She was only nine too, but she was incredibly smart. Link and I together could not solve problems as quickly as she could. She also seemed to be entering high school this year, but her family was rich, so she went to a private secondary school."

"Really! When did you go to Link's house? How did I not know? Why had he never invited me?"

"Half a month ago..."

Seeing them still arguing, Link interrupted them. "All right, just tell me what that kid's name was first."