A True Top Student Is Never Idle

"Mission start!"

He closed his eyes and silently recited it in his heart. Once was not enough, so Lu Zhou repeated it two more times.

When he opened his eyes, a line of semi-transparent text appeared before him.

[Mission Three started. Current time: 0 hours. The timer stops after leaving the library.]
[Dieudonné's Foundations of Modern Analysis, 10]
[Linear Algebra (by Greub), 0]
[New Lectures on Mathematical Analysis, 100]
[...]

Startled by the sudden text, Lu Zhou suspiciously looked around. Only when a student walking toward him passed through the semi-transparent words without reacting did he finally relax.

It seemed nobody else could see the system's text.

In any case, he just needed to find a few professional books in the library and kill twenty-four hours. That should count as completing the mission, right?

With nothing else to do, Lu Zhou headed toward the mathematics shelves. Just as he was about to grab a book at random, his vision blurred, and rows of numerical labels appeared on the books. Moreover, the colors followed a pattern, gradually shifting from red to gray as the values decreased.

What the hell?!

As that thought crossed his mind, Lu Zhou suddenly recalled the reward for Mission Three. The subject experience from the final reward seemed to be determined by the value coefficient of the books he read.

In other words, if he merely stayed in the library and literally went AFK, then even if he completed the mission, all he would get was a single lottery draw.

A true top student would never sit around doing nothing in the library!

With that realization, Lu Zhou swallowed.

Still, there was something he did not understand. Why did books by some giants of the mathematical world receive relatively low value coefficients from the system, while introductory textbooks had absurdly high coefficients?

Dieudonné's Foundations of Modern Analysis in particular had been praised to the heavens by their Advanced Algebra professor, who had strongly recommended it as a masterpiece by a renowned scholar. Yet it was still rather difficult for them to fully understand. At the very least, they needed a foundation in real analysis and generalized functions before they could read it.

Just then, he remembered his attribute panel. His mathematics level seemed to be LV0, and a look of realization immediately appeared on his face.

So that was it!

Could this so-called value coefficient be evaluated according to his current level of knowledge?

Value had two sides. Take the Riemann Hypothesis, for example. It held profound significance for the academic world, and thousands of mathematical formulas rested upon the assumption that the Riemann Hypothesis was true. Its value was naturally immeasurable. Yet for Lu Zhou himself, even understanding the Riemann Hypothesis posed no small difficulty. It would be of no help to his studies, so its value was naturally 0.

Having figured that out, Lu Zhou no longer hesitated and took New Lectures on Mathematical Analysis from the shelf.

His Mathematical Analysis II exam was in two weeks. There were still many difficult concepts he only half understood, so he could treat this as review.

After finding a seat nearby, Lu Zhou began working through New Lectures on Mathematical Analysis.

To be honest, he did not particularly enjoy studying mathematics, but he found this book unexpectedly easy to read.

Perhaps it was the system's effect. Gradually, Lu Zhou felt himself enter a state of intense concentration. It was as if he had completely forgotten the outside world; there was only himself and the book, nothing else.

Second by second, time passed. There were fewer and fewer people in the library, but Lu Zhou noticed none of it. He remained immersed in the ocean of books.

It was not until someone patted him on the shoulder that he woke from that state of "self-forgetfulness."

"Student, it's ten o'clock. The library is closing," the librarian said.

Coming back to his senses, Lu Zhou hurriedly stood up and slipped a bookmark into the book. "Ah, sorry, I lost track of time. I'll pack up right away."

"It's fine. In all my years of working here, this is the first time I've seen a student so focused on a mathematics book," the librarian said with feeling.

"Can I still borrow books? I'd like to take this one back." Still absorbed in the immersive reading experience from earlier, Lu Zhou felt reluctant to stop.

He had never been so fascinated by studying a mathematical problem.

It was as though he had not been reading a reference book earlier, but a novel—a novel recording the life of a certain number.

Perhaps because she saw that he was polite, the librarian did not find it troublesome and said generously, "It's fine. If you want to read it, borrow it. The computer isn't shut down yet. I'll register it for you. You brought your library card, right?"

Lu Zhou replied sincerely, "I did... Thank you so much!"

"What are you thanking me for? No need!"

After stuffing the borrowed reference book into his backpack, Lu Zhou quickly left the library.

The instant he passed through the holographic panel, the mission timer paused.

But Lu Zhou's attention was not on that at all. He did not want to waste even a second. He only wanted to return to that magical reading experience as quickly as possible.

When he returned to the dormitory, his other two roommates had also come back and were playing League of Legends.

Hearing the door open, Huang Guangming was nervously mashing his ultimate during a team fight. Without turning his head, he shouted, "Zhouzi, wanna play?"

He dragged out the word "play" in an exaggerated tone. It was their dorm's signal for assembling in Summoner's Rift.

"I've got something to do. Not today. You guys play."

After finishing a team fight and pushing up to the enemy high ground, Shi Shang finally had a moment to spare. He glanced back, saw Lu Zhou take a reference book from his backpack and sit down to read, then immediately cried out, "Holy shit, Zhouzi, since when did you love studying this much?"

The moment Liu Rui heard that Lu Zhou was reading, he stopped doing practice problems and craned his neck toward Lu Zhou's desk.

Lu Zhou smiled. Explaining would be too much trouble, so he casually came up with an excuse. "Aren't exams coming up? There are lots of concepts I still don't understand. If I don't review now, it'll be too late. After the exams, I'll play with you guys to my heart's content."

"Who gives a damn about exams? Just scrape a passing grade!" Huang Guangming said as he frantically clicked his mouse, unloading on the enemy turret outside their crystal.

He had said the same thing during the last final exams, but if Lu Zhou remembered correctly, Huang Guangming had scored 89 in Advanced Mathematics I—just one point below Liu Rui, the top student in their dorm.

Everyone worked hard in places others could not see.

Lu Zhou smiled but said nothing. He turned to the bookmarked page and focused his attention on the book.

Ten seconds passed.

One minute passed.

Five minutes passed...

The sound of victory rang out behind him. He had only turned two pages, and soon flipped back to where he started because he had not absorbed a single word.

"Haha, Silver Four! I got promoted!" Huang Guangming leaned back in his chair and laughed wildly.

"Wasn't it because I carried you, you little trash?" Shi Shang leaned back as well and stretched.

"Get straight who carried who. I instantly killed their ADC at the fountain. Tell me, wasn't my LeBlanc sick?"

"Sick my ass. You're fishing in the kiddie pool and still talking so much crap. Hurry up and climb out of that hole. I've been using smurfs to carry you into Silver every day, and yesterday you even forgot to claim your first-win reward!"

No, he could not concentrate at all.

It was not because his roommates were too noisy. His attention simply would not settle on the book. His current state while reading was just like when he normally reviewed: the slightest movement or sound from outside could stir up his already chaotic thoughts.

Yet back at the library, even when people talked and walked around, he had been able to completely forget himself and immerse himself in the world of the book.

Lu Zhou sighed and set New Lectures on Mathematical Analysis down.

So that really was the system's power?