Chapter 1: Not Her Fault

Chapter 1: Not Her Fault

Zhehai Province, Hanggong City.

Class 3-7, Wencheng Junior High School.

"Everyone's progress in this mock exam is plain for all to see. In particular, student Qin Shou scored second in the entire grade, missing a perfect score by only two points. Everyone should learn from him."

"Most of you have done a great job, but there are a few students who have no desire to improve and actually scored a zero, single-handedly dragging down the class average."

"I won't name names here, but I hope this student reflects on their actions. There are only 21 days left until the high school entrance exam. With grades like these, you won't even get into a vocational high school, let alone a Beast Taming High School."

The balding homeroom teacher swept his gaze toward the window in the third-to-last row on the far right. He saw the girl with the ponytail sitting there, back straight as a board, looking every bit the model student.

His mouth twitched involuntarily. *Stop putting on an act! I’m talking about you!*

Qiao Sang certainly knew the homeroom teacher was talking about her, but she couldn't help it. She wasn't the Qiao Sang of this world.

She had transmigrated here only two days ago, and before she could even adapt, she was hit with a mock exam.

It was just a junior high mock exam, so she wasn't worried; in her past life, she was a top student who had been admitted to a 985 university.

But the moment she got the test paper, she was stunned.

[What is formed by the awakening of the human brain region?]

[What kind of extraordinary creatures are attracted to heart scales, and what function do they serve?]

[What is the final evolutionary form of the Stinky Loach?]

[Which planets have humans already immigrated to?]

What... what are these questions?!

In the end, she had no choice but to use the strategy: for multiple-choice questions, if there were three long and one short, pick the short; if there were three short and one long, pick the long. She filled in the blanks randomly and left the essay questions blank.

Over the past two days, Qiao Sang had adapted to the body, and the original owner's memories had surfaced, giving her a rough understanding of this world.

This was a world centered on beast taming. Since humans discovered they could tame beasts 32.05 million years ago, a completely mature beast-taming social system had developed.

While it was called the Era of Beast Taming, it wasn't universal. When humans reached the age of 15, their brain regions could be stimulated by magnetic waves to awaken a Beast Taming Tome.

This tome served as both a contract and a storage space, perfectly connecting humans with extraordinary creatures.

If one's brain region failed to awaken by age 15, then in all likelihood, they would have nothing to do with beast taming for the rest of their lives.

Although the Era of Beast Taming had developed for tens of millions of years, humans still couldn't achieve a 100% awakening rate.

Just last year, only 73% of candidates in the national entrance exam successfully awakened a Beast Taming Tome. 27% did not. Even if some of them were academic geniuses, they were destined not to get into a Beast Taming High School.

Those who couldn't tame beasts were relegated to mediocrity, spending their lives in the lower social classes.

It was a very realistic issue; if you couldn't tame beasts, you might not even be able to work as a manual laborer.

With extraordinary creatures capable of lifting hundreds or even thousands of kilograms of bricks by hand, who would use human labor? It was time-consuming and inefficient.

The same went for waiting tables.

Even if the wages were several times higher than a human's, restaurants preferred to hire extraordinary creatures because it attracted more customers.

In a world so completely different from the common sense of her previous life, Qiao Sang, a junior high student nearing the entrance exam, was anxious!

Before, knowledge changed destiny; now, beast taming changed life.

Although she had the original owner's memories, the original owner was an academic failure!

Her grades were consistently third from the bottom of the class. She had improved in last month's mock exam, reaching fourth from the bottom.

But that was only because the person who was previously fourth from the bottom had diarrhea on the day of the exam and skipped two subjects.

The entrance exam was in 21 days. She didn't expect to get into a key high school; she would be thankful just to get into any high school at this point.

Qiao Sang listened to the teacher intently, took notes, and kept staring at her textbook even after class ended, adopting the same sprint-to-the-finish attitude she had before her own college entrance exam.

"Qiao Sang, the 'goose egg' the old man was talking about was you, right?" Her deskmate, Fang Sisi, leaned over and whispered.

It wasn't a question, but a confirmation. Even though the teacher hadn't named anyone, Qiao Sang was sitting there openly taking notes on her zero-score paper without even bothering to cover the grade.

Qiao Sang nodded.

In Qiao Sang's memories, she and her deskmate had a good relationship; they would eat and hang out together.

The biggest reason they were so close was that this girl was also an academic failure.

Fang Sisi was the one who had diarrhea during last month's mock exam, allowing Qiao Sang to move up from fourth from the bottom to third from the bottom.

"Impressive. I saw you filled out all the multiple-choice questions, yet you didn't get a single point. That level of difficulty is comparable to someone getting a perfect score," Fang Sisi said, giving a thumbs up in admiration.

Qiao Sang choked, unable to speak. Could she blame herself? If anyone was to blame, it was that "three long and one short" rule!

"What did you score?" Qiao Sang asked.

"263. An improvement of 98 points from last time," Fang Sisi said, looking somewhat proud.

As expected of an academic failure; even with two extra subjects, she only improved by 98 points.

Qiao Sang only thought this to herself. After all, they were both failures; no need to hurt each other.

"Not bad."

Qiao Sang wasn't lying. Although her deskmate's grades were poor in her eyes, compared to her previous level of around 200 points, it was clear she had improved during this period.

"You bet. My mom has been watching me every day lately..."

Before she could finish, the person sitting in front of Fang Sisi turned around and said in a gossipy tone, "Is it true or false that Dai Shushu from Class 9 got recommended to Litan Beast Taming High School?"

Fang Sisi sighed, "If everyone is saying it, it must be true, right?"

Qiao Sang flipped through her textbook on the side.

The Dai Shushu they were talking about was the top student in the grade for this mock exam. Being recommended to high school as the top student didn't seem like gossip to her; her priority was to study and memorize knowledge points.

"I heard she was recommended because she awakened spontaneously," the student sitting in front of Qiao Sang also turned around to join the discussion.

At this, Qiao Sang looked up.

Beast Taming High Schools recruited future beast tamers, so whether one's brain region could awaken was naturally the top priority. Those who could awaken spontaneously often achieved higher success in the future than those who awakened through magnetic wave stimulation.

Over 30 million years ago, the first batch of beast tamers were all spontaneous awakeners. At that time, beast tamers accounted for only 0.01% of the population—truly one in ten thousand.

It wasn't until 2,563 years ago, when a researcher named Chen Leshen discovered that the human brain region could be stimulated by magnetic waves to awaken a Beast Taming Tome, that the Great Era of Beast Taming truly began.

But those who could awaken spontaneously were still the elite among them.

"Spontaneous awakening?" Fang Sisi fell into deep thought. "Do you think it's too late for me to go and hug her thigh now?"

The student in front of Fang Sisi shook their head. "Forget it. If she's been successfully recommended, she won't be staying at school. If you knew you were getting into high school early, would you still come to school?"

Fang Sisi nodded in agreement.

"If I successfully awaken spontaneously, can I be recommended even if my academic scores are failing?" Qiao Sang took a deep breath, her expression very serious.

This question caused all three of them to look at her.

"Forget failing, even if you score a zero, there will be schools that want you," the student in front of Qiao Sang joked.

"Don't even think about it. People who awaken spontaneously are always top students; there's no room for academic failures," Fang Sisi patted Qiao Sang on the shoulder. "I had that same dream two days ago."

Qiao Sang lowered her head and said nothing.

The three of them assumed she was discouraged and stopped discussing spontaneous awakening.

Little did they know, Qiao Sang was using all her strength to suppress the urge to look up and laugh wildly.

Spontaneous awakening!

She had successfully awakened spontaneously the moment she transmigrated!

She just didn't know what it was at the time, thinking it was some kind of "golden finger." It wasn't until her memories merged that she realized it was the Beast Taming Tome that everyone awakened at 15.

Since most people awakened at 15, she hadn't thought much of it. She hadn't realized the gap was so huge!

It was no wonder the original Qiao Sang was an academic failure; even after the memories merged, she didn't know the difference between spontaneous awakening and stimulation-induced awakening was so vast.

...

...

Without the pressure of the entrance exam, Qiao Sang felt much more relaxed while reading. When she saw certain knowledge points, it wasn't just rote memorization anymore.

[Deep-water Turtles belong to the Earth element, often inhabit tropical desert regions, have black eye rings, and are poor swimmers.]

*You're a water turtle that's poor at swimming?*

*If you can't swim, why are you called a Deep-water Turtle?*

*If you're a water turtle, why are you Earth-element instead of Water-element?*

[Steel-willed Rats should not be exposed to rain because their bodies rust easily; they love sunlight.]

*Why would an extraordinary creature rust?*

*If your attribute is steel and you rust in the rain like steel, why do you love sunlight?*

*Aren't you afraid of oxidation and rusting?*

There was so much common sense that made her want to complain.

But because of this, Qiao Sang didn't find studying painful; instead, she found it quite interesting and remembered things without having to force them.

Soon, school was over.

Qiao Sang was packing her things and hadn't left her seat yet when a girl with black-rimmed glasses walked over. "Qiao Sang, the homeroom teacher wants to see you in the office."

Qiao Sang paused. "I understand."

The girl with glasses was Ma Xiao, the class study committee member. She wasn't surprised by the teacher calling Qiao Sang to the office.

As the class's resident third-from-the-bottom, this was a daily occurrence for Qiao Sang.

The original Qiao Sang was used to it, but the current Qiao Sang was not.

Especially when the teacher's spit started spraying onto her face.

"What is wrong with you! The entrance exam is almost here and you're scoring like this! How can you justify this to yourself? How can you justify this to your parents!"

Qiao Sang silently took a step back. "Tea...cher, please calm down."

*That was close, almost called him 'Old Man'...*

"Calm down! How can you expect me to calm down! I've taught so many classes and I've never seen anyone as bad as you!" The teacher intensified his spit-attack.

As an academic elite in her past life, this was the first time Qiao Sang had been subjected to such treatment. She silently took another step back. "There's a reason I scored like this."

The teacher looked at her coldly. "What reason?"

"Actually, I awakened spontaneously, and my brain hasn't fully recovered yet."

At that moment, Qiao Sang felt impressed by her own wit.

"Heh." The teacher sneered. "It seems I've been too nice to you."

Qiao Sang was full of confusion. *What does this have to do with how nice you've been to me?*

The teacher took an address book from his drawer, opened it, and dialed a number.

Before long, the call went through.

"Is this Qiao Sang's parent? I'm Qiao Sang's homeroom teacher. Do you have time to come to the school?"

Qiao Sang: "..."

(End of chapter)