Could It Be It?

Seven hundred and seventy points of mana—this was her limit for the past two days.

At first, she hadn't believed she could withdraw this much mana.

But when she discovered that Heaven Origin Morning Light Co., Ltd. really transferred mana to her every time she won a match, it was as if she had seen the Dao Ancestor streaking right in front of her.

Was there really a company in this day and age that gave people money without asking for anything in return?

What were you after?

Did you just enjoy the thrill of giving people money?

Based on an average online time of three hours and the number of concurrent players, your daily expenses had to be around ten thousand mana.

Did you have so much mana that you had nowhere to spend it?

Reason told Wang Chuyun to stop playing. The waters here ran too deep, and she couldn't handle them.

But when she saw her younger sister's medical bills, the last shred of reason crawled out of her brain and let her immerse herself in the Dreamscape, killing endlessly and taking money endlessly.

The price was that she had perfectly missed the past two days of classes—especially the most crucial academic classes.

Morality classes valued everyday performance, physical education valued bodily cultivation, and she could coast through art and labor classes on what she had accumulated before. But recently learned academic knowledge wasn't so simple.

Especially since she hadn't read a single page these past two days. Faced with new material this time, she was completely at a loss.

In the Dreamscape, Wang Chuyun tried to sort out her emotions and gather her tangled panic together, but it was like crumbly tofu—the more she tried to straighten it out, the messier it became.

If she failed to score ninety in this academic class, she might not receive a scholarship afterward. The halo she once had would vanish outright, and her future would become utterly bleak.

She could already picture herself living under a bridge, her only pair of black tights full of holes. She would be left staring sadly at her exposed toes, then hold her phone and play Quiz Melee, barely maintaining a life that earned three hundred mana a day.

Wait...

Thinking about it that way, that life didn't seem too bad...

But she immediately shook her head again.

Companies willing to give out money were rare enough, and she had never seen one willing to keep giving it out forever. Morning Light definitely had some other motive. She couldn't place all her hopes here.

Her goal was Apricot Grove University. Once she graduated, she could work at a hospital in Blessing City, then begin a relief plan to cure her younger sister's illness.

So what should she do now?

Just as Wang Chuyun was at her wit's end, that familiar voice sounded again, even more seductive and alluring than before.

(Looks like you've run into some trouble. Need me to lend you a hand?)

"Get lost."

(Don't be so cold. Have you forgotten how you got that ninety-point Spiritual Root? We Evil Gods have always been fair. Whatever you want, I can give it to you, as long as you pay a certain price.)

"Get lost, get lost, get lost!"

(Relax. For just a tiny price, I can give you eyes that see the correct answers. Of course, if you want to keep those eyes forever, the price will be higher. But I'm in a good mood this time. How about I give them to you for free for a while?)

"..."

It was impossible not to be tempted by the Evil God's persuasion.

Wang Chuyun had made two deals with the Evil God before, so she knew what it was capable of.

That was divine power beyond spells, a god's mockery of rules. Such unreasonable power was intoxicating. Once someone had tried it, they wouldn't want to let go.

Fortunately, the Evil God had its own rules. As long as she refused, it would not force a deal upon her.

Wang Chuyun had resisted the Evil God's temptations all the way to this point. But as she grew older and encountered more and more difficulties, the Evil God's inducements became increasingly hard to refuse.

Why was it so difficult just to grow up healthily?

The free eyes were tempting, but Wang Chuyun knew they were poisoned Candy. As long as she dared to eat it, the poison would accumulate in her body until the day it erupted.

Thus, Wang Chuyun shook her head again and said firmly, "Get lost."

Afterward, she ignored the Evil God's voice and began answering the questions seriously.

Though it had been rejected again, the Evil God was neither disappointed nor angry. Instead, it continued watching Wang Chuyun's actions.

Ever since learning of Quiz Melee's existence, it had been guiding Wang Chuyun step by step toward this point.

It knew she lacked money, and it understood her personality. Though she looked prim and proper, she had always hidden a playful heart.

Her childhood experiences had merely forced her to restrain her desires. But once she had a reasonable excuse to open that valve, there would be only one outcome: a flood.

Making money was an excuse to open that valve. Now Wang Chuyun had finally wasted a great deal of time in the Dreamscape, and all it had to do was wait for her to beg it for help.

When that time came, how much should it demand?

While the Evil God fantasized about the future, it heard Wang Chuyun let out a small cry. "Huh?"

(What is it? Did you find a question you can't answer? Do you need my power now?)

Too lazy to pay attention to the Evil God's voice, Wang Chuyun quickly unfolded the test paper and began working through it carefully, question by question.

"I can do this one. I know this one. I've seen this question before. This one's a variation; I just need to watch out for the distractors."

"Strange..."

"The fill-in-the-blank questions are fine too. They're all in the question bank I memorized. This one's fine as well. I know several similar phrasings, so I can just use one of those. Wait, exactly how many questions did I memorize? Why have I seen every single one?"

To rapidly expand the question bank, Luo Tong and the others had collected a large number of books and used Highlight Key Points to extract the questions from them, then put them into Quiz Melee.

These key points were the essence of entire books. Without exaggeration, as long as someone memorized all of them, dealing with Plow Ox City would be no problem at all.

As a powerhouse with four hundred and thirty points, as well as a skilled player with a win rate above thirty percent, Wang Chuyun had long since gone through the entire question bank once.

Though she couldn't memorize every last detail, she had retained eighty or ninety percent of it—more than enough to handle the current exam.

Once she realized all the questions were ones she could answer, Wang Chuyun became unstoppable and began answering excitedly.

"I can do this one."

"I can do this one too!"

"This one isn't difficult at all!"

"What's going on? Since when did I know so much? When did I become this amazing?"

The more smoothly Wang Chuyun answered, the more panicked the Evil God in her Sea of Consciousness became.

Wang Chuyun clearly hadn't reviewed, yet she could answer every question. This completely exceeded its understanding.

Especially after discovering that not a single one of her answers contained any error or omission, it became even more alarmed.

How was that possible!

In order to disrupt Wang Chuyun, it pretended to be calm and said, (Are you sure you got every answer right? You haven't reviewed at all. Are you really that confident?)

With a cold sneer, Wang Chuyun said, "I see it now. Other than bewitching people, you don't understand anything. I've memorized these questions hundreds of times and answered them hundreds of times in the game. How could I possibly not know whether they're right or wrong? Get lost, you useless thing."

The Evil God silently retreated to one side, knowing it had ruined things.

It had originally intended to shatter her confidence and dignity, turning her into one of its dogs.

Instead, it had allowed her to see its weakness, strengthening her confidence in the process.

With that, making her submit would be impossible in the short term.

What was the reason she could perform so well without reviewing?

Could it be that?

Thinking of Quiz Melee, the Evil God's gaze gradually turned cold, and icy golden light bloomed from its vertical pupils.