"Teacher, I cheated!"
At those words, Bainian Shuren looked up at the foolish boy who had barged recklessly into his office, panting from his run, just to say that one sentence.
"Cheated? When?"
Bainian Shuren habitually adjusted the nonprescription glasses on his nose and questioned the boy calmly.
Bainian Shuren was the same age in the game as he was in reality, thanks to the Ninth Art Administration's regulations.
To prevent players from becoming so absorbed in the game that they could no longer distinguish it from reality, the regulations required their gender and age in the game to match those in real life.
Thus, if a player was male and looked young in the game, he had to be a young man. An elderly appearance like Bainian Shuren's meant that he was old in reality, too.
Of course, old as he was, Bainian Shuren's physical constitution in the game was actually no different from a young man's, and he had neither nearsightedness nor age-related farsightedness.
He had gone out of his way to buy expensive nonprescription glasses from the supply and marketing cooperative and wear them purely out of habit and for their appearance.
Stereotypes existed in the game world, too. An elderly teacher with glasses received more respect and trust than one without.
To make his work easier, and also out of habit, Bainian Shuren continued to wear a pair of old-fashioned black-framed glasses in the game.
"Teacher, I... I cheated on yesterday's civil service exam. I peeked at other people's papers."
With his head lowered, Jacques earnestly confessed his wrongdoing to the respected teacher.
Bainian Shuren looked up at the chestnut-haired boy nervously twisting the hem of his clothes, instinctively raising his gaze.
"Are you sure you cheated?"
"Yes. I peeked at other people's papers?"
"Did you?