"That guy... he's practically a demon."
Jinling University Library.
The door was flung open. Shinichi Mochizuki staggered out of the activity room with a stack of drafts in his arms, his eyes bloodshot and his whole body seemingly on the verge of madness as he muttered to himself.
"...No, I should say he's hell."
A week had passed since Scholze said he wanted to "give it a try."
Aside from Perelman, who had not participated, Scholze and Shinichi Mochizuki had confidently followed Lu Zhou into the adjacent room. Once that door closed, it stayed closed for days.
Before they began their retreat, the three of them agreed that they could hold out for as long as they could and withdraw whenever they could no longer endure it. But as long as they had not given up, everything had to be done Lu Zhou's way.
At first, Shinichi Mochizuki had not taken it too seriously. He had not even considered the possibility that he might fail to endure it. After all, anything that could be overcome through willpower was not much of a problem in his eyes, especially with someone beside him who could endure it.
However, he soon realized just how ridiculously wrong he had been...
Living off takeout for three meals a day was manageable, and never leaving the library even for eating, drinking, sleeping, and relieving himself was not much of an issue for someone used to staying indoors. But he had never expected that even sleep would become a luxury here.
According to Lu Zhou, if they were sleepy, it was enough to rest their heads on the desk for a while. Once their fatigue passed a certain limit, they would enter an unprecedented state.
This was no longer something willpower could deal with. It was practically