Study Monster Cultivation System
Chapter 268 - 267 Lateral Parallel

The night following the final contest was supposed to be particularly tranquil.

Yet due to a certain incident, the smoke of battle lit up once again.

"What? The twin devils are at it again?"

"The college entrance exam marathon... just hearing it sounds terrifying..."

"Could it be... studying really makes them happy?"

"Yang Changle is organizing it, I hear there are still 7 spots available, want to give it a try?"

"Are you out of your mind?"

...

At 6:50 PM, the atmosphere in the meeting room had gradually intensified.

Li Zheng and Lin Yujing sat facing each other at the innermost part of the long table.

Next to them were Du Zicheng and Qi Yingnan.

Of which Du Zicheng had joined willingly, while Qi Yingnan had been forcibly dragged into the competition as a "benchmark."

The only person capable of making such a heartless remark about needing a "benchmark" could only be Yang Changle.

At that moment, Yang Changle was at one end of the long table, joyfully setting up a smartphone tripod.

As it’s known, behind his status as a top physical sciences coach, he was also a hugely popular online content creator.

However, due to leading the team in competition, he had not posted an educational video for over half a month.

The good news was, just as he had finished his responsibilities and was pondering which trending topic to chase next, the material literally walked into his life—

[How difficult is the college entrance exam, can top students finish all the questions in 5 hours?]

As a master of riding trending waves, Yang Changle thought of this title the moment he heard about the college entrance exam marathon.

On one hand, he asked Tao Feifei to collect and print exam papers of various subjects, and on the other, he announced the event, inviting idle contestants to join the fun. All participants would receive a book gifted personally by him.

Despite that, only Du Zicheng actually signed up willingly.

After all, nobody wanted to be just a pace-setter for those two monsters.

Moreover, everyone present was a student of the physical sciences, and their overall academic abilities for the college exam might not be too high.

Seeing this, Yang Changle had no choice but to personally seek out a "benchmark."

The requirements for the benchmark were clear—they should be as poor as possible in subjects other than physics, experiencing extreme difficulty and agony while solving problems.

Therefore, Ying Bao’er was captured for this role.

Poor him, he had been receiving Yang Changle’s guidance these past days and couldn’t refuse, so he reluctantly complied.

"Damn... why..." Qi Yingnan pursed his lips, gripping the table, his eyes filled with pain and reluctance, "I’m already enrolled through guaranteed admission, why... who could be so malicious to come up with this..."

"Cough." Li Zheng coughed from beside him, "Yingnan, university is just the next stage of learning. Literature, mathematics, English, you’ll still touch upon all these. Zhuangzi once said—my life has limits, but knowledge is limitless. To pursue the limitless with the limited, how joyful it is! Just think about it, there’s so much knowledge to pursue, Nanny Ganni! It’s great to be alive!"

"What? What’s this?" Qi Yingnan shivered and scooted his chair to the side, "Are you sure this was originally said by Zhuangzi?"

"Eh, just trust me on this," Li Zheng also moved his chair closer, pressing on, "It means that a person’s life is limited, but knowledge is endless. Imagine the joy in pursuing endless knowledge with your limited life! Just thinking about the vast knowledge out there, gosh, it’s great to be alive!"

"That’s not right, surely? You can’t trick me like this because my classical Chinese is poor." Qi Yingnan clenched his teeth and cursed, "As expected, from the Various Schools of Thought, it’s inevitable that they turn into tools used by scholarly elites to seduce people to study…"

Across from him, Du Zicheng waved his hand with a smile, "Alright, alright, stop picking on him, Li Zheng. Zhuangzi’s philosophy is more about exploring the inner self, not about understanding and transforming the external world. Moreover, the original saying goes..."

Li Zheng suddenly raised his hand, "Teacher Yang, how’s the preparation going?"

"All set, just waiting for Teacher Tao’s papers now."

Yang Changle clapped his hands to quiet the observing students around and then began the pre-exam explanation.

"The theme of this test is the college entrance exam marathon."

"The papers selected are from this year’s national set 1."

"It includes Literature, Mathematics, English, and Science comprehensive, all the subjects’ full test papers."

"According to the standard exam timing, the test duration for Literature and Science comprehensive is 150 minutes and for Mathematics and English is 120 minutes, total 540 minutes, or 9 hours."

"But since the four contestants here are all very capable,"

"and considering humanitarian reasons,"

"this time the exam period has been reduced to 5 hours."

"One can hand in the papers early, but leaving midway through is not allowed."

"Each person has a 30 minute quota for bathroom breaks."

"Teacher Tao and I will mainly be responsible for marking the papers, and for the essay, I will ask colleagues from Ren Da Fu to help with marking."

"Does anyone have any more questions?"

Qi Yingnan immediately raised his hand, "Teacher Yang, how do we distinguish between handing in early and quitting?"

"Ha, that’s easy." Yang Changle laughed, "If they three hand in their papers, it’s considered early. You handing in your paper counts as quitting."

"..."

"Don’t be scared, Yingnan, show us what you’ve really got!" Yang Changle cheered with a clenched fist.

Li Zheng also encouraged, "Go for it, Yingnan, only by showing your real abilities will you realize how big the gap actually is."

"Damn, you hear yourself? Is this even something you say to someone!"

Just as they were talking, Tao Feifei arrived hurriedly in the meeting room, carrying stacks of papers as thick as books.

Bang!

The hefty stack of papers slammed onto the table.

Qi Yingnan felt like he was a bit closer to death.

Li Zheng’s eyes sparkled a bit more.

Du Zicheng calmly watched the unfolding scene, ready to give his all.

And Lin Yujing, leaning on the desk twirling her pen, seemed to be thinking about something else,

After checking the exam papers, Yang Changle said to the group.

"Lastly, I’d like to ask the four contestants if you are sure you haven’t accessed this year’s college entrance exam papers in any way before now?"

Everyone except Qi Yingnan nodded simultaneously.

As for Qi Yingnan, he seemed to have suddenly grasped a lifeline, "Ah, I just happened to see it! Does that mean I can’t participate?"

"No worries, you don’t count." Yang Changle then straightened out the exam papers, "Let’s begin then. This is also a sort of unofficial Guinness World Records challenge to inspire all the students nationwide. Give it your best effort."

Upon hearing this, Qi Yingnan wanted to curse but didn’t dare; he could only swallow his frustration, "Teacher Yang, are you sure you’re not here to crush the morale of students nationwide?"

"What’s that? Say that again and I’ll extend your exam time to nine hours!"

"Encouragement, encouragement, long live the college entrance exam!"

At 7:00 sharp, four sets of test papers were slammed down in front of them.

Yang Changle raised his hand high and shouted, "Bang!"

The college entrance exam marathon officially started.

The four contestants almost synchronously flipped the pages down, immediately picked out the Integrated Sciences paper, and started scribbling their names to begin.

Facing such coordination, the students watching outside the conference room immediately started discussing heatedly.

"Now that you mention it, both in terms of difficulty and their strengths, the Integrated Sciences paper is the easiest to handle."

"True, it’s very cost-effective."

"If you think about it, it’s really unlikely to finish a nine-hour paper in five hours, so it’s logical to start with the easier big-score sections first."

Among them, an unknown guaranteed-entry student from Ren Da Fu started streaming live on his phone, sharing the link in both Dragon Pearl Group and the school group—

[National-Level Top Student Decides 5 Hour College Entrance Exam Marathon, the Battle for the Champion and the Runner-up!]

Acquaintances clicked in droves, and within minutes, the popularity exceeded the previous ICHO livestream.

Even a considerable number of unrelated onlookers were drawn in by the title.

[What in the world...]

[Terrifying... Are they using pens or printers?]

[Trembling as a junior.]

[I just took this set this year, it’s impossible in 5 hours...]

Meanwhile, in the small group of the Lake Ying seven, Zhang Xiaoke broke the silence.

[Zhang Xiaoke: Good news, good news, Xiaoke’s Royal Casino is back in business!]

[Zhang Xiaoke: College Entrance Exam Marathon, those who lose pay a 20 yuan red packet!]

[Zhang Xiaoke: Xiaoke bets on Jingjing to win! (dog head)]

[Jiang Qinghua: Hey... are we being this straightforward this time...]

[Zhang Xiaoke: Qinghua, won’t you play a round?]

[Jiang Qinghua: I’m broke, off to revise.]

[Qiao Bixia: I’m signing up, Jingjing to win.]

[Liu Xin: Signing up, Jingjing to win.]

[Xu Mengxi: Signing up, Jingjing to win.]

[Jiang Qinghua: Then I’ll bet on Li Zheng to win.]

[Qiao Bixia: Weren’t you going to revise?]

[Xu Mengxi: Calculated the odds for a profitable bet? (laugh cry)]

[Jiang Qinghua: Cutting losses, [at]Zhang Xiaoke, can you confirm the bets already?]

[Liu Xin: [at] Xiaoke, where are you?]

[Xu Mengxi: Ah... Xiaoke just called me... said her account got banned.]

[Liu Xin: ...]

[Qiao Bixia: ...]

[Jiang Qinghua: ...]

[Xu Mengxi: Guess we really need to cherish accounts and stay away from gambling (wipes sweat)]

In her room, Zhang Xiaoke calls up customer service, pounding the desk and crying.

"No more gambling, never again!"

"How could you be so quick?"

"There’s still over 200 bucks in my account..."

"No, that ’Royal Casino’ line was just to spark interest, I wasn’t promoting anything bad!"

...

In the hotel conference room, after getting Yang Changle’s approval, the unnamed Ren Da Fu student began to move behind the contestants to film the test papers up close.

The live/chat room, which had been somewhat sleepy, was instantly invigorated.

[What is this?]

[I can’t understand anything from the questions to what he’s writing.]

[Doing everything in mind without even drafting?]

[Aside from that buzz cut, the other three seem pretty impressive.]

[Haha, that buzz cut guy is already guaranteed a spot at Ji University.]

[Wait! Has the buzz cut guy finished already?]

At that moment, the conference room also filled with exclamations.

No one expected that Qi Yingnan would be the first to push aside the Integrated Sciences paper.

A 150-minute paper, completed in just over 30 minutes?

Ying Bao’er pretending to be a slow learner and turn out to be a top scorer?

Even Yang Changle couldn’t help but, along with several students, crowded around.

Wow!

It was only then they realized.

It turned out he had only completed the physics section.

Chemistry and biology were completely left blank.

"As expected of Yingnan..."

"He probably didn’t know the rest."

"Being able to finish physics in 40 minutes is pretty good."

"It seems like Li Zheng has also finished chemistry, right?"

"Could you guys not talk behind my back, please!" Qi Yingnan raised his head in frustration, his face flushed, "I’m already struggling..."

"Sorry, sorry."

"Hang in there!"

"The worst is yet to come."

About ten minutes later, while Qi Yingnan was scratching his head over the math paper with a pained expression,

"Swoosh", "swoosh", two sounds struck consecutively.

Lin Yujing and Li Zheng almost simultaneously pushed their comprehensive science papers forward.

"Submitting the comprehensive science paper," Li Zheng said solemnly.

"Early judgments, early sleep," Lin Yujing waved his hand.

Yang Changle glared and pressed the timer stop button on his phone.

"First segment—comprehensive science, Lin Yujing and Li Zheng completed in 51 minutes!"

The entire room gasped.

When it comes to those two, the ranking isn’t necessarily one above the other.

They could also be side by side.

Yang Changle and Tao Feifei were not to be outdone, they quickly began grading the papers.

Three minutes later, both of them almost simultaneously looked up.

"298."

"298."

Both of them simultaneously took a sharp breath, exchanging papers for a cross-check.

Three minutes later, they looked at each other and nodded. Yang Changle walked to the whiteboard in the conference room and began drawing a chart, writing down their scores while others eagerly grabbed the two exam papers to review.

"Full marks in physics AND chemistry?"

"Both lost two points in biology, and even the specific small errors were the same!"

"Could there be an issue with the paper?"

"No, I think the issue is with them. They clearly weren’t well-prepared for the fruit fly mating question..."

"Ultimately, they lost on knowledge about mating."

At this time, Du Zicheng also raised his hand to submit his paper.

Completing the comprehensive science in 59 minutes was also terrifyingly fast.

Unfortunately, with the overwhelming presence of the two terrors like a dark curtain blotting out the sky, ordinary terror was no longer visible.

"Compared to them, Du Zicheng seems so normal."

"Finally, a normal person who can be barely understood exists."

"Don’t say that, Du Zicheng is also a big brother in our Xiangnan competition circle."

"Just for that title, I want to challenge him."

A few minutes later, the results were out—Du Zicheng scored 284 points.

There were deductions in physics, chemistry, and biology, but he confidently earned full marks on the fruit fly question that Li Zheng and Lin Yujing missed.

"I just felt that the fruit fly question wasn’t difficult."

"Sure enough, a normal person could get it right."

"I guess only gods may not understand fruit fly mating."

Although Du Zicheng didn’t lash out upon hearing these comments, he still clasped his chest.

Have you all had enough insults?

No, hold on...persevere.

Even local gods possess a divine status.

At least to hold strong.

However, his resilience was soon destroyed.

"Submitting the math paper."

"Hmm..."

Yang Changle once again pressed the timer: "47 minutes, that’s overdoing it."

Du Zicheng and Qi Yingnan both felt a tightness in their chests.

They looked up at each other at the same time.

At this point, considering Li Zheng and Lin Yujing as competitors was masochistic.

Actually, this guy across was worth battling against.

"How much have you done in math..." Du Zicheng asked in a deep voice.

"What about you?"

"Half." Du Zicheng gritted his teeth.

Qi Yingnan squinted and smirked, "Heh, I also did half."

"Damn..." Du Zicheng slammed his leg fiercely, "I can’t even beat you..."

"Relax." Qi Yingnan chuckled brightly, "I’ve only done a third of the comprehensive science."

"I see..." Only then did Du Zicheng relax and couldn’t help but think highly of Qi Yingnan.

To work so slowly and still be able to laugh about it, now that’s talent.

Du Zicheng nodded and praised, "Bro, you really have a good mindset."

"Ha, ha, ha." Qi Yingnan laughed until he started crying, "I signed the contract and secured the sponsorship, eating and eating, I’ve become a reference point. What can I do? How else can I handle this?"

"Tough break..." Du Zicheng swallowed, "Bro, don’t be discouraged, at least I still need you."

At first, Qi Yingnan was moved, but after thinking about it, something didn’t seem right.

Yet he couldn’t exactly point out what it was.

"So, why do you need me?"

"Do problems, do problems, do problems." Du Zicheng hurriedly waved his hand, "Stop talking, let’s see your real skills."

"Fuck... fine, bring it on." Qi Yingnan didn’t ponder any further, just massaged his neck and said, "Let’s see where I can go in the college entrance exam."

Shortly after, the math scores were also written on the whiteboard.

Li Zheng: 150.

Lin Yujing: 148.

"Second segment—math, Li Zheng narrowly wins by 2 points." Yang Changle noted down the scores and pursed his lips, "Science subjects of the college entrance exam are no longer a challenge for them, no wonder they’re seeking thrills in competitions."

Regarding this score, most people weren’t surprised.

After all, they were the national champions and runners-up in the college calculus competition.

Tao Feifei tried her best to console everyone, "Li Zheng and Lin Yujing are also preparing for math competitions, this is normal operations, normal operations."

Half an hour later, Qi Yingnan and Du Zicheng also handed in their math papers.

Qi Yingnan: 137

Du Zicheng: 142

The brothers also seemed to be holding on tightly.

Another half hour passed before noises were heard again.

"Handing in English."

"Tired..."

"Didn’t expect it would take 64 minutes." Yang Changle sighed after timing, "Probably because of the 20 minutes spent with headphones on doing the listening part."

The English paper grading was a bit more trouble, Yang Changle had to remotely ask a Ren Da Fu English teacher to grade the essay.

The final results.

Li Zheng: 147

Lin Yujing: 143

"Third segment, English, Li Zheng has pulled ahead by 4 points." Yang Changle wrote down the scores and looked worriedly at Lin Yujing, who was lying on her side writing the Chinese paper, his brows tightening.

"If I’m not mistaken..." Yang Changle adjusted his glasses and spoke gravely, "She’s probably really exhausted."

The classmates let out a collective gasp, all looking towards Lin Yujing and Li Zheng.

They watched as if it was smooth sailing, but for the competitors, having finished math, English, and comprehensive science papers in succession, their mental and physical strength must have been thoroughly depleted, right?

This was when the physical advantage of boys showed.

Lin Yujing lay sideways, yawning continuously.

Li Zheng was as focused as when he started the comprehensive science, scribbling non-stop.

This, of course, was not just due to physical strength but mainly due to his daily rigor.

On the basis of magnification, he would engage in intense learning for nearly tens of hours each day.

From this perspective, he was always engaged in a high-intensity marathon carrying a heavy load.

Now, he was like a marathon runner who had unloaded a hundred pounds, running a 1500-meter race at will.

Not to say it was a small deal, he could still get out of breath, kind of a moderate deal.

Meanwhile, Li Zheng was also very sensitive to time since he had to carefully plan tens of hours of study each day; if he got too engrossed, he might study too much in one area and could not absorb it.

Therefore, he knew clearly that it had been almost three hours since the start of the college entrance exam marathon.

As long as he didn’t write too long of an essay, there would be no problem finishing the Chinese paper in the remaining time.

Now having a 6-point lead, just write the essay with forced positivity and avoid true content, Lin Yujing basically had no chance of catching up.

So...

Where to go for summer vacation?

This question was more difficult than the essay.

What made him more curious was where Lin Yujing wanted to go?

She had set up this situation.

What kind of plan did she have?

Li Zheng couldn’t help but look up at Lin Yujing, who was lying on the desk, eyelids fighting each other, occasionally drooping her head then jerking back to continue answering fiercely.

So, are you giving up just like that?

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