Ch. 253 - Sorry, I'm Busy Tightening Screws at the Factory

"It's almost time..."

Chen Shu nodded, left the wooden sign at the security office by the gate, and stepped into the school.

Due to exam venue arrangements, most students didn't take the exam at their own school.

But Chen Shu was already familiar with Nanjiang First High and quickly found his seat.

The moment the other students in the exam room saw Chen Shu, their expressions jolted and their eyes lit up.

"Holy shit, we're in the same room as the god?!"

"Mom, I've made it in life — Study God Chen Shu, bless me!"[1]

Chen Shu half-closed his eyes, basking in their praise.

"Huh? Why's there a smell of incense?"

His nose twitched. He opened his eyes and immediately spotted a wisp of white smoke.

"Study God, bless me. Study God, bless me..."

A male student was holding three sticks of burning incense, his expression utterly devout, as if he were making an offering at a grave.

"Holy shit, you're fucking insane!!"

Chen Shu's mouth twitched. He immediately reported him.

Although the guy's exam eligibility wasn't revoked, he did get a stern warning from the proctor.

Five minutes later, the exam finally began...

The first Academic Written Track subject was History, which encompassed Huaxia's nearly thousand-year history of the Spirit Revival.

The exam room fell silent, taking on a solemn and dignified air. Outside in the hallway, proctors patrolled from time to time.

Cheating on the College Entrance Exam was essentially a crime. Basically, no student was dumb enough to try.

The instant Chen Shu got his exam paper, options appeared before his eyes again.

[Option 1: College Entrance Exam score reaches the admission line for a regular university. Reward: Large amount of Beast Taming Power]

[Option 2: College Entrance Exam score reaches the admission line for a key university. Reward: Skill "Violent Sitting Kill" +1]

[Option 3: College Entrance Exam score reaches the admission line for a prestigious university. Reward: Skill "Gigantification" +1]

[Option 4: College Entrance Exam score reaches the admission line for Huaxia Academy. Reward: Skill Book "Clone"]

Chen Shu froze for a split second. Then his pupils contracted. Excitement surged through him.

He wasn't the same rookie from before. Back then, he hadn't understood the true value of Gigantification.

Now, the moment he saw the word "Clone," he instantly recognized it as another Divine Skill.[2]

"Classmate, are you okay?"

A proctor had immediately noticed something was off. Chen Shu's body was trembling uncontrollably, like he was having some kind of fit.

Even if the exam was hard, you didn't have to take it that badly, right?

Chen Shu looked up and bared his teeth in a grin. "I'm fine... just a little excited... I can handle it..."

"Chen Shu?"

The proctor paused in surprise, then shook his head and walked off, muttering, "No wonder he looked like there was seriously something wrong with him..."

Any behavior from Chen Shu seemed perfectly reasonable.

As long as he didn't violate exam rules, no one was going to interfere.

"A Divine Skill as a direct reward — I love the College Entrance Exam!"

Chen Shu roared inwardly and threw himself into the questions at full speed.

The only sound left in the classroom was the rustle of pens scratching paper.

Memories surged forth in Chen Shu's mind. He was like a precision robot — there was no possibility of forgetting.

He didn't just answer fast. He answered correctly.

While everyone else was still agonizing over the fill-in-the-blanks, he'd already moved on to the essay questions.

Soon, he reached History's capstone problem, a battle that involved multiple countries.

Without extensive extracurricular reading, there was absolutely no way to answer it.

Chen Shu was just as stumped — but the moment he finished reading the question, new knowledge materialized in his mind from nowhere.

Clearly, the system's reward had kicked in. It had given him the answer to the capstone problem directly.

Chen Shu quickly wrote down the answer from his mind, surveyed his paper with satisfaction, and handed it in early.

"Eh?"

The proctor on the podium looked over, baffled. "Classmate, the exam's only been going for half an hour. You're turning it in??"

"Yeah, I'm in a hurry."

Chen Shu turned in his paper directly and left the classroom.

That left the four proctors staring blankly. But they didn't dwell on it — they focused back on proctoring the other students.

Everyone in the classroom had seen who turned in his paper early. It was the champion, Chen Shu.

And a single thought took root in their minds:

Wait, could this guy actually be an academic deadweight?

Monstrous combat ability, but his academic scores are a complete disaster?

......

Chen Shu was escorted directly out of Nanjiang First High. He wasn't allowed to linger on campus.

The mayor himself had given special instructions: under no circumstances was this bastard allowed to mess with the College Entrance Exam rules...

This was a national exam. If anything went wrong, a little place like Nanjiang City couldn't bear the consequences.

Two days passed in a blur. The sacred College Entrance Exam was already half over.

The Biology, Geography, and Materials Science exams all wrapped up smoothly.

"It's finally over!"

The senior-year students filed out of their respective exam rooms.

Expressions varied wildly — some sorrowful, some despairing, some elated, some indifferent...

The College Entrance Exam was always a mix of joy and sorrow. Every year, without fail...

Chen Shu had been waiting at the gates of Nanjiang Second High School since early on.

The moment exam security was lifted, he strode onto campus.

Just then, his phone rang.

"Unknown number? Fresh off the College Entrance Exam and the scammers are already at it? What a motivated youth."[3]

Chen Shu raised an eyebrow and answered.

"Hello, is this Chen Shu?"

Chen Shu paused. The voice sounded a bit familiar, but he couldn't place who it was.

"Who's this?"

"Hello, I'm the teacher who proctored your exam."

Chen Shu frowned. "Is there something you need?"

"I wanted to ask — have you considered joining a Black Iron-rank Beast Taming Squad? Sometimes university isn't what matters. Making money is what really counts."

"???"

Chen Shu was dumbfounded. What the hell did he mean, university didn't matter?

Was this guy seriously implying he couldn't get into college?!

"Sorry, I'm busy tightening screws at the factory..."[4]

Chen Shu hung up on the spot. This was outright, naked humiliation!

He, the mighty Number One Nanjiang Bandit, had been subjected to this treatment!

"Sigh, this kid... still hasn't come to terms with reality. The written portion of the College Entrance Exam is worth four hundred points!"

The proctor shook his head. He had personally witnessed Chen Shu spending only half an hour on every single subject. The kid had clearly given up completely.

With academic scores that bad, what the hell kind of university was he going to get into?!

......

"How'd you do?"

The moment Chen Shu got back to school, Shen Wushuang came over to ask.

He was obviously deeply concerned about Chen Shu's results. Chen Shu was Nanjiang Second High School's hope right now.

"Let me put it this way."

Chen Shu's eyes darted around. He said, "If anyone in the entire country scores higher than me, Young Master Tang will do handstand diarrhea."[5]

"......"

Shen Wushuang's expression froze. You bastard — why the hell were you always swearing oaths using other people?! That's seriously savage!

"You..."

Right at that moment, Tang Lie walked out of his exam room and overheard their conversation.

In the end, he wore a resentful, wounded expression. He was angry but didn't dare say a word. Silently, he left the school...

[1] 学神 (xuéshén): "Study God" — Chinese internet slang elevating top-scoring students to divine status. Part of a meme hierarchy: 学霸 (study boss/overachiever) < 学神 (study god, implying effortless genius). Students "worship" them, sometimes literally burning incense (as seen in this scene) for good luck before exams. The joke here is that the student is treating Chen Shu like a deity at a temple — or a deceased ancestor at a grave (上坟).

[2] Clone Divine Skill (分身神技, fēnshēn shénjì): A true clone creates a complete duplicate body with all skills except the cloning ability itself — essentially creating another "you" for a short period. It requires exceptional rank and is considered one of the highest-tier abilities in the world. This must be distinguished from a mere Skill Phantom (技能虚体), which is only a ghost projection that cannot use most skills independently. First explained in Chapter 197.

[3] 有志青年 (yǒuzhì qīngnián): "Motivated youth" — Chen Shu is being sarcastic about the caller's work ethic. Getting a call from an unknown number right after the College Entrance Exam ended, he quips "What a motivated youth" — implying only a scammer would be this diligent about working the phones so soon. The joke is about the caller's hustle, not about quoting a script.

[4] 进厂打螺丝 (jìn chǎng dǎ luósī): "Tightening screws at the factory" — Chinese internet slang for the stereotypical fate of someone who failed the College Entrance Exam: ending up at a factory doing menial assembly-line work. It's used here as devastating sarcasm. The proctor assumed Chen Shu bombed the exam and offered him a beast taming squad job as a "consolation prize." Chen Shu's reply essentially means: "If you think I'm that stupid, I might as well go work in a factory." The humor comes from the absurd gap between reality (Chen Shu aced everything in 30 minutes via the system) and the proctor's assumption (the kid gave up and scribbled nonsense).

[5] 倒立拉稀 (dàolì lāxī): "Handstand diarrhea" — A crude internet oath, essentially the most humiliating and physically impossible thing one could promise to do. Chen Shu once again "volunteers" Tang Lie's body as collateral for his own boasts — a running gag where Chen Shu stakes Tang Lie's dignity on claims that have nothing to do with him, and Tang Lie, having been demolished by Chen Shu too many times, can only suffer in silence.