Chapter 711: 80

The moment Tan You mentioned settling the mission, the little system’s legs shot out and its eyes rolled back as it keeled over in mid-air as if it had just died.

Tan You shook her head, dangled the little system in its puppy skin into her desk, and after looking around, finally placed it inside a mug she never used.

A fist-sized puppy fit perfectly inside a teacup. Tan You squinted, a sudden sense of anticipation building about what the little system would be like when it returned.

The little system left quickly and returned just as fast. Tan You didn’t bother asking who it met during its "high-level business," knowing she wouldn’t get a straight answer anyway.

But the moment it returned, it started nagging her to do a prize drawing, and Tan You knew her suspicions were correct.

However, seeing she only had 8 Energy Points left, Tan You thought for a moment. "Settle the mission first."

An electronic voice chimed in the next second: "Congratulations, Host, on completing the fourth intermediate mission. Mission evaluation: 3S. Host receives 25 base Energy Points. An additional reward is granted for evaluations of A or higher. System reward: 6 Energy Points."

"Client Jin Xi has given a 3S rating. Main System reward: 6 Energy Points."

’Thirty-seven Energy Points,’ Tan You mused. If she calculated it based on the time spent, the return on this intermediate mission wasn’t very high. She had spent such a long time in the Cultivation World, and even the Ninth Heaven.

In fact, the time she’d spent in the Cultivation World was longer than all her previous missions combined. And for all that, she only received a total of 37 Energy Points. The Main System’s reward certainly wasn’t generous.

But that wasn’t the right way to look at it. She had gained so much more in that world. Putting aside intangible things like friendship, she had learned numerous combat techniques.

She was personally tutored by generations of Golden Ring Snake Emperors and even learned alchemy and array formation, though Jin Yuan got tired of the sight of her by the end. More importantly, if she ever got another mission in the Cultivation World, Tan You wouldn’t be completely in the dark and clueless anymore.

When she thought about it that way, Tan You felt she had gained a great deal. It was just that after spending so many years away on missions, she was having a little trouble readjusting to being back.

It was a good thing she was in class and not alone with her classmates. It was also a good thing it was Li Fugui’s class. Seeing Li Fugui was what finally gave Tan You the real feeling that she was back.

With 37 Energy Points added to her account, the Beauty System’s eyes crinkled into smiling slits. Any trace of the awkwardness from when it had jumped out of the teacup vanished. It zipped in front of Tan You, getting right in her face. "Host, prize drawing, prize drawing!"

Tan You already knew the little system was eyeing her Energy Points again. She just gave a slight nod. "Don’t spend it all."

"Don’t worry, I can’t spend it all," the Beauty System said, wagging its fluffy tail. "I’ll at least leave you with 5 points, a little something to get you started again."

Tan You simply lowered her gaze with a small smile and let the little system do the drawing for her. And just as she expected, after the first draw yielded a useless 10 points of Beauty Value, Tan You saw the newly refreshed reward: the 5 points of Intelligence Value she had been dreaming of.

Tan You’s heart relaxed. ’If I win it this time, my Intelligence Value will hit 80, right? What would 80 points of Intelligence even feel like? Would I just need to glance at a problem for the solution to appear in my mind?’

Remembering the pain she’d experienced when her Intelligence Value increased from 61 to 70, Tan You grew cautious. "Let’s not draw for now. I’ll do it tonight after evening self-study."

The Beauty System was reluctant, but when it saw Tan You’s 75 Intelligence Value, it suddenly snapped to attention. "I forgot! Every time the Intelligence Value hits a round number, there’s a huge change. I almost forgot."

Tan You’s heart leaped into her throat. She couldn’t help but recall the agony of gaining those 9 Intelligence Value points before. But then she thought, ’I endured so many lightning strikes to get this far. How can I give up on this hard-won Intelligence Value just because I’m afraid of a little pain?’

’Could it possibly hurt more than being struck by lightning?’ Thinking back on it now, a wave of fear washed over Tan You. There were several times she had nearly died amidst that wretched tribulation lightning. It was a testament to her incredible willpower that she had made it back alive at all.

Tan You had returned right during the fourth period of the afternoon. She remembered that just before she left for the Cultivation World, she had finished her weekly quiz. The fourth period was designated for self-study while the teachers were busy grading the papers.

After a few more words with the Beauty System, Tan You was about to get back to her practice problems when Cao Haiyan slid a note over. The neat, rounded handwriting on it read: "My mom’s coming over tonight. Want to come to my dorm for dinner? She’s bringing food from home. I already invited Yin Xiu and Gu Qiuxia."

Tan You raised an eyebrow and wrote back: "Sure. Saves me the trouble of cooking tonight."

Since she lived alone and cooked for herself, Tan You usually prepared all her meals for the day in the morning and stored them in the fridge, just needing to heat them up for lunch and dinner.

Now that Cao Haiyan was inviting her to dinner, it certainly saved Tan You some trouble.

"But I made braised pork bones this morning. It’d be a shame to let them go to waste. I’ll bring them over as an extra dish," Tan You added, thinking for a moment before sliding another note over. Up at the podium, Li Fugui saw the two of them passing notes but merely raised an eyebrow before pretending he hadn’t seen anything.

One was his star student, and the other was usually very well-behaved; he trusted the two of them knew their limits. Sure enough, after passing the notes back and forth, they both put their heads down and got back to studying.

Li Fugui lowered his gaze with a smile, marking the exams with swift strokes of his pen. Weekly quizzes didn’t require shuffling student ID numbers and reassigning classrooms like the monthly or joint exams, making them much simpler to administer.

Although the papers were stapled to hide the students’ names, a teacher with enough experience could always recognize certain students’ handwriting. Of course, for some students, he didn’t even need to see the handwriting. Just by seeing the long column of checkmarks for correct answers, Li Fugui knew exactly whose paper he was holding.

He marked a perfect score on the paper, then glanced over at Tan You. ’Speaking of which,’ he thought, ’I sent Tan You to the qualifying competition last Friday. The results should be out by now, shouldn’t they? Maybe I should ask Old Xu about it.’

’That Old Xu is such a slowpoke. And he’s a teacher from No. 2 High, aren’t they supposed to be all about efficiency?’

Just as Li Fugui was mentally grumbling about Old Xu being unreliable and dragging his feet, the teachers at No. 2 High—especially the academic competition coaches—were staring at an exam paper, completely dumbfounded.

They had been thrilled while grading it. The student’s answers were exceptional. From the problem-solving steps to the handwriting and the overall neatness of the paper, it was a truly outstanding submission.

"This has to be a sophomore. How could a freshman possibly solve these problems?"

"I don’t know what class they’re in. I don’t recognize the handwriting."

"Could they be from another school?"

"No way. Our No. 2 High is the only school in the entire city with an academic competition program. The other schools are more focused on general academic performance..."

"We’ll know in a minute when we unstaple it. I’m still leaning toward this being one of our own students... Wait a minute. Tan You? I’ve never heard that name before. Does anyone know this student?"