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For this daily challenge,
it was just one way to make up for his shortcomings.
The rewards seemed meager,
but accumulated over time, they added up to a truly frightening boost to his attributes.
So Ling Zhan never turned down a daily challenge.
Besides...
As everyone knew, raising a skill's Level required skill points.
But skill points couldn't be used to upgrade basic class skills.
So Ling Zhan had been saving his skill points.
He hadn't spent them carelessly.
After all, there was a good chance he'd get some upgradeable skills in the future.
The days went by like that.
He did his daily challenges while reading.
On the eighth day,
Ling Zhan had only just gotten up
when he saw that his battered old smartphone was getting flooded with calls.
One text after another, call after call, and message after message on social media came pouring in, bombarding Ling Zhan's beat-up little phone like a barrage of shells.
"What a pain."
Ling Zhan muttered.
He was just about to answer a call
when a notification suddenly rang in his mind.
Ding!
[Congratulations, host! You have exceeded the requirements for this system-issued challenge!]
[Your reward is being issued now!]
The top scorer had been crowned!!!
The explosive news spread like wildfire, racing across all of Yundong City at astonishing speed.
And across Nanzhou Province, too.
When the citizens of Yundong City heard the news,
every one of them looked incredulous.
Yundong City was just a small third-tier city. Its teachers and educational resources were nowhere near as good as those in the other first-tier cities in Nanzhou Province.
That was why Yundong City's results in every Job Transfer Trial Entrance Examination almost always languished near the bottom.
Over the past several decades,
Yundong City had produced its share of prodigies, but the best any of them had ever managed was sixth place in the provincial rankings.
This was the first time the city had ever produced the top scorer in the Provincial Trial Ranking.
And he'd come from City No. 1 High School, the school nobody wanted to attend!
No wonder the whole city was stunned.
On television and online,
Ling Zhan's name suddenly exploded in popularity, flooding every corner of the internet.
There were interviews, video clips, and edits everywhere...
"Hey, do you know Ling Zhan?"
The underclassman being interviewed gave the reporter a disdainful look. "What do you think?"
The reporter was taken aback, but pressed on. "So, what kind of person do you think Ling Zhan is?"
The underclassman answered solemnly, "He's not human. He's a god!"
Reporter: "..."
Undeterred, the reporter picked out a pretty junior girl for an interview.
"Miss, could you tell us what you think of this top scorer?"
The girl replied with a smug smile, "My idol is obviously the most handsome."
Reporter: "???"
After interviewing people for a while,
the reporter realized the underclassmen all had the same opinion of Ling Zhan.
He was a god!
In many girls' eyes, Ling Zhan was their dream guy.
In many boys' eyes, he was a god of war.
There wasn't much of a story in these bland interviews.
What did the media care about most?
A hook!
A hook!
And, damn it, a hook!
How could a bunch of bland interviews grab anyone's attention?
Fortunately, heaven rewarded perseverance.
After interviewing more than twenty students,
the reporter finally found someone normal.
"What grade are you in?"
"I'm in my final year of high school."
"Your final year? Aren't you on break?"
"I came by to look around and try my luck. I'm hoping I might run into someone. I want to ask him for advice about combat."
"Oh, I see. And what's your name?"
"My name is Su Rou."
"Do you know Ling Zhan?"
"I do. He's in my class, and he's the person I want to ask for advice."
"Wow, what a coincidence! Would you mind being interviewed? I'd love to learn more about Ling Zhan, our top scorer!"
"Sure."
"Could you tell us what you think of Ling Zhan?"
Su Rou thought for a moment before answering slowly:
"Honestly, before this Job Transfer Trial Entrance Examination, Ling Zhan didn't stand out at all. He was just an invisible nobody in class. Every day, he'd do these strange things."
"Sometimes he'd practice his punches, sometimes he'd swing a sword, sometimes he'd go swimming... I could never figure out what he was doing."
"My impression of him was that he was a straightforward, down-to-earth person who kept a low profile."
The reporter asked, "What's Ling Zhan's class?"
Su Rou shook her head. "He doesn't have one."
Reporter: "???"
Su Rou added, "I mean, his class is Jobless Freelancer!"
Reporter: "!!!"
The reporter then asked a whole bunch of questions about Ling Zhan.
Things like his usual test scores,
and his talent rating...
At last,
the reporter returned to the newsroom, brimming with excitement.
He felt like he'd struck gold.
Soon,
one eye-catching headline after another appeared in online news articles.
"The Quiet One Unleashed: Thirty Years East of the River, Thirty Years West—A Thunderclap from Nowhere, and He Takes the Crown!"
"To Boys, He's a God of War; to Girls, He's Their Dream Guy. Let's Uncover the Secrets of This Top Scorer..."
"Shocking, Shocking, and More Shocking! The Top Scorer on Nanzhou Province's Trial Ranking Is Actually..."
When it came to clickbait headlines, no media outlet would dare call itself second to these people.
The headlines lured readers into clicking on the articles one after another.
The most popular headline was: "Shocking, Shocking, and More Shocking! The Top Scorer on Nanzhou Province's Trial Ranking Is Actually..."
Jobless Freelancer.
Those four words were like a stick of dynamite, setting off everyone's curiosity.
Countless people wondered what a Jobless Freelancer could possibly have done to claim the title of top scorer on Nanzhou Province's Trial Ranking.
How had Ling Zhan managed to outclass prodigies like Zhu Yaoguang and Huang Bo?
All at once,
people became intensely curious about Ling Zhan. Some even suggested tracking down his home address and staking it out together...
Before you continue