The Challenge

A set of fighter jet blueprints from Blue Star's next 100 years!

Jiang Fan looked at the system mission reward and instantly perked up. He pushed a crowd of students aside and squeezed to the front!

He spoke to a senior handling registration!

"Hello, I'd like to sign up."

Registration was simple. Any freshman at Dragon University of Science and Technology only needed to enter their name and major on the registration form.

Jiang Fan soon completed his registration, then waited in line!

He learned the challenge rules from the senior. They were quite simple: there were nine problems in total, and contestants had to start with the first. Anyone who failed to solve a problem was immediately eliminated.

The students admitted to Dragon University of Science and Technology were outstanding students from all over the country, with college entrance exam scores above 650. Those who had scored over 700 were a dime a dozen!

So they all carried a pride of their own!

Faced with Dragon University of Science and Technology's extremely difficult traditional challenge, every one of them was itching to try and show off their talents.

Yet the very reason Dragon University of Science and Technology had made the challenge a tradition was to knock some of that pride out of the freshmen and teach them that beyond every sky lay another sky, and beyond every expert stood someone better.

Only then would they humbly seek guidance in their future studies.

One could thus imagine just how difficult Dragon University of Science and Technology's freshman challenge was!

There were still five students ahead of Jiang Fan. Bored as he waited, he looked toward the challenge area!

The challenge area was divided into nine zones, numbered one through nine.

Each zone consisted of four blackboards arranged back to back.

Zone One corresponded to the first problem, Zone Two to the second, and so on!

At that moment, four freshmen were working on problems at the blackboards in Zone One, three were working in Zone Two, and one was working in Zone Three. No students had advanced to the later zones yet!

In other words, the best-performing student so far had reached the third problem!

Every year, the freshman challenge attracted plenty of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. They were more than happy to watch these freshmen, as proud as they themselves had once been, finally lower their haughty heads!

The stands around the plaza could accommodate over 2,000 people at once, and there was an enormous screen on the north side.

At that moment, it was showing the freshman attempting the third problem!

In the stands, a beautiful girl with flowing long hair and a revealing outfit held a cup of milk tea as she watched the big screen with several friends, all of them interested!

"Xiaoyu, your school's freshmen really get worse every year. We've been watching for almost an entire afternoon, and the best freshman has only reached the third problem."

After speaking, the long-haired girl took the milk tea straw between her lips and sipped!

The girl called Xiaoyu was immediately displeased to hear the long-haired girl belittle their university's freshmen like that!

"Yifei, if our freshmen are no good, why do you come watch the challenge every year?"

The long-haired girl was none other than Qiao Yifei, and the girls sitting beside her were all close friends she had grown up with!

"Xiaoyu, you still don't understand Yifei's little schemes? She mainly comes here to see if there are any handsome, talented freshmen, so this old cow can munch on some tender grass!" said the short-haired girl beside her!

Qiao Yifei did not deny it. Instead, she grinned and said, "Hehe, I just love munching on tender grass! What are you going to do about it?"

"Oh no, who knows which unlucky guy she'll set her sights on this time!"

"What kind of talk is that? Having a big sister like me take a liking to them is their good fortune."

"Please. Last year, you tormented one of our school's freshmen so badly that he washed his face with tears every day. Can't you go back to Huaqing and torment the freshmen there?"

"As the saying goes, a rabbit doesn't eat the grass around its own burrow. Besides, don't I have a reputation to maintain at Huaqing?"

"Get lost..."

As they talked, they eventually started play-fighting. Qiao Yifei was wearing a miniskirt, leaving her fair, long, jade-like legs exposed, and some of the boys nearby could not help swallowing!

Jiang Fan waited in the waiting area for about half an hour before his turn finally came!

First, he drew a problem from the question box, then a staff member at the venue led him to an empty blackboard in Zone One!

"Junior, you have 20 minutes to solve the first problem. If you haven't solved it when time runs out, you'll be eliminated..."

A senior briefly explained a few things to Jiang Fan, then stood to the side to time him.

Just then, a cameraman carrying a camera on his shoulder happened to walk over to Jiang Fan.

The freshman working on the third major problem had been holding his chalk and thinking for ages without writing anything, so the cameraman could only film the other contestants!

Seeing that Jiang Fan had just received his problem and had not started writing his answer, he pointed the camera at him and began filming!

Jiang Fan was reading the problem and did not notice that the camera behind him was filming him solve it.

He looked over the problem. It was not particularly difficult, about on par with the final bonus problem on the college entrance exam.

So he picked up the chalk and started working. Less than a minute later, he put the chalk down!

Then he turned around, about to tell the senior he was finished, only to find a pitch-black camera pointing straight at him. It gave him a fright!

Seeing that he had startled the freshman, the cameraman felt rather apologetic!

"Sorry, I was standing too close and disturbed you!"

After speaking, the cameraman took two steps back.

"This should be fine. Go ahead and work on your problem."

"I've already finished!" Jiang Fan said!

Finished?

The senior keeping time froze. He looked at the timer, which displayed: 56 seconds.

Wasn't this freshman solving problems far too quickly?

Then he picked up the answer key and compared it with Jiang Fan's answer. It was completely correct!

The cameraman was shocked too. He had finished in less than a minute. Wasn't that a little too outrageous?

Normally, many freshmen needed at least around 20 minutes to solve the first problem!

He gave Jiang Fan a close-up with the camera, then filmed the timer!

The students in the stands were stunned at the sight!

"Holy shit! This freshman is awesome! Fifty-six seconds to finish the first problem! He's definitely the fastest man at Dragon University of Science and Technology!"

"Doesn't he even need to think through the steps? Normally, the first problem should take around 20 minutes, right? I think even the fastest freshman before him took 10 minutes. I seriously suspect he knew the answer beforehand!"

"Please. The challenge problems at Dragon University of Science and Technology change every year, and they're drawn at random during the test. How could he cheat?"

"This freshman is something else! Interesting!"

Just then, one of Qiao Yifei's friends in the stands spoke to her as she was play-fighting with Xiaoyu!

"Yifei, look! This freshman's pretty good. He solved the first problem in 56 seconds, and more importantly, he's pretty handsome too. Just your type!"

"Please, 56 seconds? What a load of hot air!"

Qiao Yifei spoke disbelievingly, then looked toward the big screen just in time to see the timer displaying 56 seconds!

"No way! He's that amazing?"

After exclaiming in surprise, she could not help licking her lips as she said,

"But I like it, hehe..."