Chapter 254 - 183: Breaking the Record 2

Chapter 254: Chapter 183: Breaking the Record 2

Today called for a small celebration, so Yu Fei bought a bottle of Hundred Herbs Dew from a vending machine. Jiang Nianwei had given him one before, and he’d found it was actually quite good.

As he soaked up the sun on a beanbag chair, he thought back to the start of the school year. ’Wu Yi stipulated that I had to completely defeat Li Jueyin and Gao Shou once within three assessments to keep my S+ resource benefits. I never thought I’d pull it off so easily.’

’I need to keep this up. I still don’t know what format the next assessment will take, but I’ll aim to knock the other two down to S-rank this semester.’

After resting, he headed to the training grounds again to continue his three-realm cultivation.

The instant Yu Fei completed his general education courses, a notification was pushed to all prodigies ranked B-rank and above.

Qin Hao stared at the message in the academic system and couldn’t help but gulp.

[System Notification: Congratulations to student Yu Fei on completing his general education. Time taken: fifteen days. This surpasses the previous freshman completion record by ten days, ranking him first. We hope all students will encourage one another!]

’That’s insane. What a beast,’ Qin Hao thought. He himself had only finished a third of the courses. Of course, the requirements for A-rank were different from S-rank, and the assessment score thresholds varied, but he still couldn’t imagine how Yu Fei managed to finish all the courses in a mere fifteen days.

’There are 309 courses of varying lengths, averaging about 3 hours each. Just playing them all once would take over nine hundred hours. That beast, Yu Fei, actually finished in 15 days. That means he had to complete at least sixty hours of coursework every day. It’s impossible, even at double speed!’

Qin Hao did a quick calculation. ’Even if Yu Fei studied for 20 hours a day, he would still need to use triple speed. That’s just ridiculous.’

’And that’s not even counting the fact that a Martial Artist has to do their daily cultivation, leaving even less time for studying. Which means he must have been using at least quintuple speed to get this result.’

He silently put on his Holographic Mirror Helmet and set the speed to quintuple. The virtual scenery changed in a dizzying blur, key points flashing past in an instant. He couldn’t make out a single word. After less than ten minutes, he felt dizzy, his vision swam, and he was overcome with the urge to vomit.

"Damn! What a beast!"

Meanwhile, in the group chat named "Freshman Prodigies," things were already exploding. The entire freshman prodigy class was going crazy. The group had been created after their last get-together and was usually buzzing with messages.

They silently ran their own calculations, and the consensus they reached was this: assuming Yu Fei studied 10 hours a day, the speed multiplier would have to be at least 6x. Factoring in the day they all wasted at the Determination Platform, a conservative estimate for Yu Fei’s speed multiplier was 8x.

When this number came out, the group went silent for a long time. Was this a reaction speed a human could even handle?

Miao Mifeng: [Yu Fei is just inhuman. I’ve tried 2x speed max, any higher and I can’t remember anything...]

Sun Yangu: [Damn, you’re a badass. I can only do 1.5x max. Any faster and I just get sleepy...]

Gao Shou: [I can fucking get it up to 3x speed, but any faster and my brain starts to hurt.]

[The pros are just on another level...]

...

Everyone started posting their own speed multipliers in the chat. It turned out that only Li Jueyin and Xiao Miaomiao could barely manage 4x speed. However, Xiao Miaomiao admitted she couldn’t keep it up for long—an hour at 4x speed was her absolute limit. All things considered, 3x was her optimal learning speed.

But what about Yu Fei? The gap between them and him was unimaginable. One by one, they started @ing Yu Fei, asking him to report his own speed multiplier. Unfortunately, Yu Fei was in the middle of cultivating and didn’t see any of the messages.

Li Jueyin stared at an additional message in her academic system.

[System Notification: Yu Fei has placed first in this assessment. You have failed to meet the S+ renewal conditions for this assessment. There are two assessments remaining this semester. We wish you better results in the future!]

’To fail the very first stage, just like that... Damn it!’

Seeing Yu Fei’s name, her heart surged with an endless fighting spirit. Ever since she was a child, she had always been number one in every exam or competition. After losing to Ren Feng in the placement matches and tasting defeat for the first time, Li Jueyin had started working even harder than before.

But now, she had lost to Yu Fei again. Whether it was on the Determination Platform or in the race to complete the general education courses, she had been defeated by the same person.

"Next time, I will defeat you!"

Li Jueyin’s voice was like the ringing of metal, firm and resolute.

Meanwhile, Gao Shou frowned as he read the notifications. ’I might actually lose my S+ resource rewards after freshman year,’ he thought suddenly. ’Whether it’s Li Jueyin or Yu Fei, those two are just unreal.’

’What should I do?’

Yu Fei’s progress put immense pressure on the other S-rank students, forcing them to dedicate a significant amount of their time to the general education courses.

The moment Yu Fei passed the first assessment, the relevant information was sent directly to Ye Shuping.

’Fifteen days?’ The supreme processing speed of a Martial Saint allowed him to instantly calculate Yu Fei’s speed multiplier.

"This..."

Ye Shuping immediately pulled up Yu Fei’s backend data.

’8x? 14x?’

He fell into deep thought. Judging by the timeline of events, Yu Fei had been studying at a consistent 8x speed. But after the battle on the Determination Platform, that speed had jumped to a terrifying 14x. Something must have changed in the interim.

He connected this to Yu Fei’s previous growth patterns. After every major battle, his talent seemed to grow stronger. Or perhaps it wasn’t just after battles.

The Martial Saint’s formidable mind raced, replaying past surveillance footage of Yu Fei. Suddenly, he remembered something.

’I remember when Yu Fei was in his second year of high school, during the city’s martial arts tournament... one of his opponents had remarkable insight. After their fight, it seemed as if Yu Fei had acquired a similar ability...’

"This..." A shiver went down Ye Shuping’s spine. He immediately deleted all surveillance footage of Yu Fei’s battles on the Determination Platform. At the same time, he completely unlocked the backend permissions for the [Geometric Pyramid Realm], holding nothing back.

Ye Shuping also issued an override command to the intelligent core of the [Geometric Pyramid Realm], forbidding it from recording any of Yu Fei’s cultivation or other data by any means. Only the alarm function was to be retained. Henceforth, intelligent core SZ-0156 was to be completely loyal to Yu Fei.

Unbeknownst to Yu Fei, a mass of liquid metal was slowly being transported from five thousand meters underground to the surface of the Shenhan University campus. Countless permission protocols were confirmed, with Ye Shuping and Shenhan University’s super-AI, [Dawn], clearing its path all the way. It completely severed its data link with the command center, retaining only a few permission-interaction port protocols.

The mass of liquid metal grew more and more active before silently merging into the [Geometric Pyramid Realm].

Immersed in his cultivation, Yu Fei remained completely oblivious to all of this.

Ye Shuping thought for a moment before issuing another command to the super-AI, [Dawn]. From now on, all records of Yu Fei making a move in public were to be obfuscated at the raw data level and encrypted.

After tying up all the loose ends and satisfying himself that there were no other vulnerabilities, he returned to examining Yu Fei’s academic results.

The general education assessment was primarily based on answering questions, including a number of essay prompts that required the Martial Artists to elaborate on their understanding of the course material, including considerations of social structure.

What no one knew was that the university wasn’t actually interested in their opinions or suggestions about war. Instead, it was far more focused on their level of acceptance of the current social and institutional structure, as well as their feedback on its problems.

The prodigies were already eighteen years old. At this age, the fundamental color of their character was already set. Furthermore, they were still somewhat naive, full of youthful vigor, and more inclined to speak the truth—or rather, they weren’t yet skilled at telling lies. Even their attempts at falsehood could reveal their true thoughts.

While these prodigies were still fledglings, any undesirable ways of thinking could be easily corrected. But once their power grew and they got older, guiding them would become much more difficult.

For the Seven Greats, the core of educating prodigies had always centered on two points.

The first was to map out their path to becoming a Martial Saint, helping the prodigy Martial Artists convert their potential into actual strength.

The second was their ideological education: ensuring they didn’t go astray or fall under the influence of anti-human ideologies. It was even acceptable for them to be a bit of a slacker.

This second core tenet was, in fact, the most crucial. More important than teaching them to become a Martial Saint was ensuring they would not turn against humanity.

Throughout their four years of university study, this analysis of the prodigy Martial Artists’ ideological and behavioral patterns would be ongoing. It was the most secret of archives; no more than five people at Shenhan University knew of its existence.

And if one of them truly went astray and couldn’t be brought back... well, in the vast expanse of the Borderlands, unexpected wartime encounters were always happening. And their general education courses might just get a little bit longer.