Chapter 330 - 256: Too Engrossed in Reading

Chapter 330: Chapter 256: Too Engrossed in Reading

Time ticked by.

Chen Lin’s eyes were still under the system’s control, scanning the contents of the book line by line.

Chapter Four: "Trees."

Chapter Five: "Hashing."

Chapter Six: "Priority Queues (Heaps)"...

The initial novelty and pleasant surprise had faded, and Chen Lin had gradually calmed down.

In fact... he was starting to feel a little anxious.

His phone was lying on the table next to him.

When the system had made him sprint out of the office, the phone had been in his hand, so it came along for the ride.

After entering the private study room, the system had casually tossed the phone aside.

Although Chen Lin’s eyes were forced to stay glued to the book, he could still see the time displayed on his phone’s lock screen out of the corner of his eye.

5:27 PM.

More than two hours had passed since the system had "kidnapped" him and brought him here.

And now, he was at the end of Chapter Six of *Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C*.

He was about to start Chapter Seven.

A sense of unease began to stir within Chen Lin.

’I clearly chose [Temporary Study - Intelligent Duration]!’

He had assumed "Intelligent" meant the system would act like a considerate assistant, letting him rest after an hour or two of studying.

After all, a normal person needed to balance work and rest.

But now, it seemed...

The system had no intention of stopping at all.

The pages of the book were still turning at a steady pace.

One after another.

There was no sign of it ending.

’No way...’

Chen Lin muttered internally, a sense of foreboding washing over him.

’Is this system going to make me read all ten of these books?’

He glanced at the stack of books on the table with his peripheral vision.

Ten of them.

Each one was at least a hundred or two hundred pages long; on average, they were probably two or three hundred pages each.

That added up to two or three thousand pages.

’At this rate, about twenty minutes per Chapter...’

’How long would it take to finish ten books?’

Chen Lin didn’t dare do the math.

What made him even more anxious was something else—

The university’s final exams were less than a month away.

During this period, the library was open 24/7 to help students prepare for their exams.

And in a place like a private study room, it wasn’t unusual for someone to stay for an entire day, or even overnight.

No one would find it strange.

In other words...

It was entirely possible that the system would keep him here, reading like this.

Until all ten books were finished.

’Holy shit...’

Chen Lin cursed internally.

But aside from cursing in his head, there was nothing he could do.

His body was not under his control, which meant he could only watch helplessly as all of this unfolded.

He didn’t even have the chance to resist.

Another half hour passed.

Chen Lin was being forced to read Chapter Eight: "The Disjoint Set ADT."

This Chapter’s content covered the principles and implementation of disjoint sets, as well as optimization techniques like path compression and union by rank...

To be honest, the content itself was quite interesting.

Under normal circumstances, Chen Lin would probably have been relishing it.

But now—

He was in no mood to appreciate the elegance of this knowledge.

His mind was filled with one thought after another:

’When is this going to stop?’

’I must have a ton of missed calls on my phone by now, right?’

’Will Shen Yan and Yunqing think something happened to me?’

Just as Chen Lin was growing more and more agitated—

CLICK.

The door was pushed open.

A familiar figure appeared in the doorway.

"Professor Chen, I finally found you."

Fu Yangqing stood outside the door, letting out a small sigh of relief as he saw Chen Lin staring intently at the book.

A jolt of joy went through Chen Lin.

’My savior is here!’

However—

His mouth wouldn’t open.

His head wouldn’t turn.

The system completely ignored Fu Yangqing’s presence, continuing to turn the pages and read methodically.

"Uh..."

Fu Yangqing stood in the doorway for a few seconds, realizing that Chen Lin didn’t seem to have any intention of acknowledging him.

He didn’t mind, assuming Chen Lin was just too engrossed in his book.

After all, that was just how top students were.

So he walked into the study room on his own, found a spot to lean against near Chen Lin, and began to explain what had happened.

"Professor Chen, you run way too fast."

There was a hint of helplessness in Fu Yangqing’s tone.

"The people we have protecting you from the shadows saw you dash out of the innovation hub and tried to follow."

"But..."

He paused, his expression growing complicated.

"They lost you."

"That speed of yours... to be honest, I can hardly believe it. The report said you could run 100 meters in under ten seconds."

Chen Lin silently retorted in his mind: ’Ten seconds is too slow. It was probably more like six or seven.’

But his mouth remained shut, and the pages continued to turn.

Fu Yangqing continued,

"They reported to me after they lost you. At the time, I figured since you ran off on your own, it probably wasn’t a big deal."

"But then more than two hours went by, and there was still no sign of you..."

He shook his head.

"That’s when I had someone pull up the security footage. We saw you enter the library and go straight up to the third floor."

"So I came to find you myself."

At this point, Fu Yangqing glanced at the thick stack of computer science books by Chen Lin’s hand, a look of admiration on his face.

"Professor Chen, I never realized you were in such good physical shape."

"That running speed... honestly, it’s top-tier even among professional athletes."

"Do you work out regularly?"

Chen Lin was screaming internally:

’Stop asking about that! Can’t you figure out a way to get my body back under my control?!’

But his body remained frozen in the same position.