Chapter 18 : Game – Acquaintance – Heavenly Law
After finishing the morning exam, the afternoon was mathematics.
This had always been Guan Ren’s weak subject, but it was also the best way to assess the effectiveness of his recent studying.
"From 3 to 5..."
There was still plenty of time before the afternoon exam, so Guan Ren decided to boot up his computer and type out a few more lines.
As he was typing, his QQ suddenly flashed with a notification—an avatar that looked like a game character started blinking.
Ding ding ding ding—
【At River’s Isle】: Guan Ren! You’re actually playing on the computer! Pighead.jpg
【Guanguan Jujiu】: How did you know?
Guan Ren was startled, glancing around in panic. Had Luo Xiaobei installed surveillance in his house?
【At River’s Isle】: Duh, your avatar’s lit but not showing mobile status. If it’s not the computer, what else could it be? Bonk.jpg
So that was it…
Wait, something didn’t add up.
Guan Ren hovered his mouse over Luo Xiaobei’s avatar for a look.
【Guanguan Jujiu】: Aren’t you on your computer too, Luo Xiaobei?
【At River’s Isle】: Oh come on, I’m just playing for a bit. There’s an event in Ask the Sword OL at noon. I’ll log off after it’s done.
Oh, right. Guan Ren now remembered. Her avatar was styled like a character from that game called Ask the Sword OL.
…
In Guan Ren’s memory, Luo Xiaobei had always been one of the rare girls who liked gaming.
She even had a PS2 at home, a rarity in a small county town.
He had no idea how little Xiaobei, so young at the time, had managed to wheedle that out of her parents.
Anyway, as a fellow gamer, Guan Ren had often played with Luo Xiaobei ever since childhood. Whether it was Little Tyrant, arcade machines, PSP, or PS2.
Later on in middle school, they got into the MMORPG Ask the Sword OL, where they grinded mats, cleared dungeons, and farmed gear together.
Middle schoolers weren’t rich kids, after all—they were both free-to-play players.
In a pay-to-win game like that, going F2P was tough.
But somehow, they managed to stick with it through all the ups and downs.
Back then, just having access to a free 3D online game, even if it was just farming wild mobs, was enough to bring joy to a middle schooler.
Not to mention having a friend along for the ride.
Even if they were constantly bullied by paying players, just logging in and seeing the other person’s character bouncing in front of them brought a genuine smile to their face.
Eventually, as the game lost popularity and Guan Ren’s excitement faded, he stopped playing after the high school entrance exam.
Who would’ve thought Luo Xiaobei was still at it.
She even made time for in-game events.
…
【Guanguan Jujiu】: That game’s ancient. You’re still playing?
【Guanguan Jujiu】: Don’t tell me you’re spending money in it now? Luo Xiaobei, I’m warning you. It’s not worth it.
In Ask the Sword OL, even expanding your inventory cost 50 cents. For a regular player, just feeding whales was enough. Dumping money into it was a bottomless pit. You could lose tens of thousands and still get wrecked.
【At River’s Isle】: Who would spend money? Remember our master? She’ll carry me~
Guilds, mentors, apprentices—those were standard features in games like this.
Their "master" was someone both Guan Ren and Luo Xiaobei had apprenticed under back in the day.
She was also a rare female player.
Though the game had lots of catfishing, she’d once spoken on the YY voice channel. So that part was confirmed.
【Guanguan Jujiu】: Don’t get too sucked in. We’ve got a math exam this afternoon. It’s a real brain-burner.
【At River’s Isle】: And you?
【Guanguan Jujiu】: I fear nothing. My review’s been solid.
---
Math wasn’t something you could cram for in a few hours.
Guan Ren’s so-called "fearlessness" was only in comparison to his performance in the placement exam at the start of the term.
Over the past week, he had indeed shored up the foundations of Grade 10 math.
But some of the new Grade 11 content was still a bit shaky.
Any tricky problems that required lateral thinking were probably going to stump him.
So when he entered the exam room that afternoon, all Guan Ren could do was give it his best shot.
"…Take an arbitrary point P, draw a perpendicular line segment PD from point P to the x-axis… Tch, so many geometry questions this time..."
Geometry happened to be his current weakness. Guan Ren stayed fully focused the entire time, and when he finally finished the exam right at the buzzer, his palms were slightly damp with sweat.
…
The next day’s English exam was a bit easier for him.
At least he was back in the mindset he’d had during the Chinese exam.
It’s just that he’d forgotten a lot of vocabulary, and some of the advanced grammar tripped him up.
Come to think of it, in his past life, Guan Ren had at least gone on several overseas business trips with his boss.
But there had always been interpreters, so he rarely needed to use English himself and couldn’t be bothered to practice.
Now, unexpectedly, he had to use it again—for exams.
…
As for the afternoon’s science comprehensive, it was pretty much the same situation as math.
Physics and chemistry were manageable, and biology could be tackled with brute memorization, so that might go a bit better.
But before the exam began, there was a small incident.
Guan Ren accidentally noticed that his buddy Zhang Chi was in an unusually good mood.
"Brother Chi, you’re looking real cheerful. Don’t tell me you’re still riding the high from winning in a game yesterday?"
"Nonsense!"
Zhang Chi replied with righteous indignation.
"I’m a student! My joy is purely academic!"
"Oh? Let’s hear the details."
"Heh heh, here’s the thing."
Zhang Chi grinned smugly.
"You know how I didn’t have a single familiar face around me this exam cycle? I endured it before, but now there’s only the last science exam left. If I keep holding back, I might as well turn in a blank paper, right?"
"Right, go on."
As the saying goes—if there’s no opportunity, make one.
Zhang Chi was a master of extrapolation.
No familiar faces? Then make some.
He didn’t quite know how he pulled it off, but somehow, he sweet-talked a short-haired, bespectacled girl from Class 6 sitting behind him, who looked every bit the top student, into becoming his "acquaintance" and agreeing to pass him answers during the science exam.
"Nice one, Brother Chi."
Guan Ren patted his shoulder and said earnestly:
"With such a good girl, you better take responsibility."
"Get lost, get lost, get lost. She’s pretty average. Not my type. I’m telling you, I’m going to marry someone on the level of Snowflake Dragon Goddess someday."
"Wow. She kindly let you copy her answers, and you’re still being picky? Watch out, karma’s coming for you."
Guan Ren gave Zhang Chi a kick in the butt and then headed into his own exam room. He pulled out a palm-sized Pocket High School Physics Guide and crammed a bit more before the exam started.
…
All things considered, once the exams were finally over, Guan Ren made a rough estimate. His results this time should at least be better than at the beginning of the term.
No matter by how much, any progress was enough.
---
"It’s over! Completely over! I didn’t even finish the English essay! Brother Chao, how did you do?"
"Ugh, I’m doomed too. Did terribly."
"Bullshit! You’ve been saying that since Grade 10, and you always end up in the top five of the class!"
…
That afternoon, after the exams were done and everyone returned to their original classrooms, the place was buzzing with noise.
Aside from venting and complaining, the most common activity was comparing answers.
It was unavoidable after any exam.
Even those who swore they wouldn't, claiming they’d "just go with the flow" and "not worry about the answers", inevitably got drawn in. Hearing others talk about a particular question made it impossible to resist joining the discussion.
At first, they might think, “I’ll just check this one question.”
But after that one, it was impossible not to ask about the next.
Others were more direct.
They had already written down their answers on scratch paper and now sat shoulder-to-shoulder, each holding a sheet, reciting answers back and forth like accountants reconciling figures.
"ABCCD."
"ABCCD…"
"BDCAD."
"BD… BAA?"
"Huh? You picked A for the last one?"
"And you picked C for the third-to-last?"
…
The moment discrepancies appeared, both parties got nervous.
Especially those with average grades.
Top scorers were confident, and those at the bottom went with whatever others said.
But the middle-tier students were the most anxious, darting around looking for top students to confirm which answer was correct.
After their separate "pilgrimages," the two returned with conflicting intel.
"It’s definitely A! Wang Chao picked A!"
"Du Zihan picked D!"
"…"
"…"
Oh no. Even the top students disagreed.
Their faith began to crumble.
And so, the search for more "gods" began anew.
Meanwhile, Guan Ren genuinely didn’t care much about comparing answers. He calmly walked over to where Liu Xiong was.
There, a crowd had gathered in excitement, piquing Guan Ren’s curiosity.
He squeezed in for a look.
Liu Xiong wasn’t the center of attention. The main character was Zhang Chi, whose expression was grave.
"Brother Chi, what happened?"
Although he didn’t know the details yet, Guan Ren couldn’t help but join the locals in their amusement when he saw Zhang Chi’s miserable, about-to-cry face.
"Something bothering you? Come on, tell us so we can have a laugh."
Zhang Chi was clearly irritated. His face was like crap, and he waved his hand:
"Don’t even mention it. The proctor caught me. I’ve got to go to the dean’s office for a scolding."
"Huh? That bad?"
Guan Ren was dumbfounded. Getting caught cheating was common. Every exam had its share of culprits.
But being sent to the dean’s office? That was a bit over the top. He looked at Zhang Chi with a face full of question marks and patted his chubby cheek.
"Pigsy, did you violate a heavenly law or something?"
As soon as he said that, Liu Xiong burst out laughing.
"Second Master, you nailed it! Pigsy really did get in trouble for flirting with Chang’e!"
"Shut the hell up!"
Zhang Chi’s face turned beet red.
"I already said it was an accident! An accident, you hear me!"
"What actually happened?"
"Well… sigh. Brother Ren, remember that girl I told you about earlier. The one who agreed to pass me answers?"
Guan Ren thought for a moment.
"The girl you conned into helping you? Yeah, I remember. You tried to flirt with her?"
"I swear I wasn’t flirting."
Zhang Chi stammered his explanation:
"We agreed she’d pass me the answers, right? She was behind me, so we had to use notes… I coughed, and she coughed right after. I figured that was the signal, so I… I…"
"You what?"
"I slipped my hand back under her desk to grab the note… but I didn’t find it… and ended up feeling around her leg for a while… then she started crying right on the spot..."
"…"
After hearing this legendary tale, Guan Ren was left speechless.
"Brother Chi, really? If you didn’t feel the note right away, fine. But why’d you keep groping?"
"Duh! This is partially your fault!"
"Me?"
Zhang Chi suddenly lashed out, but Guan Ren refused to take the blame.
"What’s it got to do with me?"
"Back when you always sat behind me, every time I asked you to pass something under the desk, you’d mess with me. Swinging it around and teasing me. You got me used to feeling around your leg for ages. Now it’s become a reflex. Damn it! Just my luck..."
"…"
Okay, after hearing that, Guan Ren—out of sympathy—was willing to accept 0.01% of the responsibility.
"My condolences, Brother Chi. I’ll carry you in a few more League matches next time."