Chapter 8: Some Waste Their Time, While Others Make the Most of Their Youth

As Wang Donglai’s behavior continued, gradually, most of the class became aware that he wanted to study seriously.

Huang Cheng and the others in Dorm 404 were the first to realize this.

Because for the past two days, Wang Donglai had been the first to leave and the last to return to the dorm, and he didn't even come back during the lunch break.

If it weren't for the fact that they could still see him when they went to sleep at night, they might have thought he was staying up all night to surf the internet.

Along with the news that Wang Donglai was studying hard, another rumor began to circulate.

This rumor explained why Wang Donglai was studying so diligently.

It was that Wang Donglai’s previous grades might have been cheated!

With the college entrance exam approaching, Wang Donglai was getting desperate, so he had no choice but to cram at the last minute to avoid being exposed.

After all, even if you sharpen your spear at the last minute, it will still be somewhat sharp.

Logically speaking, such news didn't amount to much, and no one would really care.

But because Anshui High School’s management was so strict, and there wasn't much entertainment in Class 14, the appearance of such news attracted quite a few people who wanted to watch the drama.

"Actually, if you look closely, Wang Donglai from our class isn't bad-looking, and his temper is okay too..."

"What's wrong? Do you want to have a 'twilight romance' in these final days? Besides, who doesn't know that Wang Donglai has a crush on Chen Mengni? Maybe they’ve already been together behind everyone's backs."

"That shouldn't be it. Who would sit in the classroom reading a book if they were in a relationship?"

"You have a point."

"Now that you mention it, I think Wang Donglai is a bit too stupid. There are only 93 days left until the college entrance exam. No matter how much he reviews, at best he’ll get into a third-tier university. If the cutoff scores go up this year, he might not even make it into a third-tier school. He’d be better off just having fun during this time."

"Pfft, that’s not necessarily true. I heard Wang Donglai is studying very hard. He gets to the classroom before dawn and is the last one to leave at night. Maybe he really can create a miracle and reach the undergraduate cutoff."

"Since you think so highly of Wang Donglai, why don't you go for it? If you wait until he’s actually doing well, there probably won't be a chance for you."

"I... this... I'm not going!"

The female student who spoke earlier glanced at Wang Donglai, who was reading, and shook her head slightly.

In truth, she didn't believe what she had just said. With only 93 days left until the exam, grades were mostly fixed; it all depended on the difficulty of the test questions.

No matter how hard Wang Donglai reviewed, wanting to improve by several dozen points was simply a pipe dream.

Discussions like this were actually quite common over the past two days.

However, they were usually discussed briefly and then cast aside.

No one believed that Wang Donglai would create a miracle.

And Wang Donglai, who was frantically grinding for experience points, didn't notice the strange atmosphere in the class.

Even if he had known, with his current mindset, he wouldn't have taken it to heart.

Right now, he just wanted to grind enough experience points as quickly as possible.

Because after these few days of intense grinding, Wang Donglai’s panel information had undergone significant changes.

【Host: Wang Donglai】

【Attributes: Physique 8, Wisdom 7】

【Level: Level 1 (70/2000)】

【Reading Category: High School Compulsory】

【Skills: None】

【Abilities: None】

Chinese: lv4 (85/2000)

Math: lv2 (24/1000)

English: lv3 (198/1000)

Politics: lv3 (912/1000)

History: lv3 (901/1000)

Geography: lv3 (980/1000)

For the three liberal arts subjects, thanks to Wang Donglai’s near-manic reading, his experience points had skyrocketed.

At the same time, after summarizing his experience over the past few days, Wang Donglai had discovered the system's rules.

After reading through the compulsory history textbooks once, Wang Donglai found that the speed of gaining experience points had increased significantly.

Through the system's explanation, Wang Donglai learned that this was because after finishing the entire set, he had gained an understanding of the general framework of high school history, which led to a massive boost in experience points.

Encouraged by this positive feedback, Wang Donglai began to grind the three liberal arts subjects with an attitude of forgetting to eat and sleep.

Thus, he arrived at the current information.

Seeing that the Geography subject was about to level up, Wang Donglai felt as if a cat was scratching at his heart—it was itchy and suspenseful.

Because he had a vague feeling that once he leveled up Geography, he might receive an unexpected reward.

To verify this vague feeling, Wang Donglai prepared to go all out and level up the Geography subject.

"Host read 'Geography 3', gained +3 experience points."

"Ding, congratulations to the host for leveling up the Geography subject!"

"Given that this is the host's first subject to level up, a hidden reward has been unlocked. Congratulations to the host for obtaining the Geography derivative ability: Sense of Direction."

"Sense of Direction: Observe the celestial phenomena above, examine the terrain below; you will never lose your way, and the cardinal directions will always be in your heart."

Upon hearing the system's prompt, Wang Donglai was instantly thrilled.

However, after the excitement came endless exhilaration and a faint trace of regret.

Because according to the system's explanation, Wang Donglai could guess that the reason an ability like 'Sense of Direction' appeared was entirely because Geography was the first subject to be leveled up.

In other words, if it had been Politics, History, or Chinese, Math, or English that leveled up first, he would have received a corresponding derivative ability.

The derivative ability 'Sense of Direction' couldn't be called weak.

But for Wang Donglai, the effect wasn't particularly powerful.

Instead, it sparked all sorts of guesses in his mind: if other subjects had been the first to level up, what would the derived abilities have been, based on the characteristics of those subjects?

Before Wang Donglai could imagine the potential abilities and skills for each subject, the system's prompt arrived.

【The wisdom contained in each type of book is different, and the skills and abilities obtained will also be different.】

【At levels 6, 8, and 10, you will obtain one skill each (currently, only Chinese and Math can reach level 10).】

【Whenever the host reads a book and gains a profound understanding, there is a possibility of comprehending an ability.】

These three short sentences instantly brought Wang Donglai back to his senses from his initial excitement.

"How many levels can English, History, Politics, and Geography reach?" Wang Donglai silently pondered.

【English level 6, History level 8, Politics level 8, Geography level 8.】

He let out a long sigh of relief; Wang Donglai found this result acceptable.

English was not a native language and lacked historical depth, so it was normal that it could only reach level 6.

The fact that Chinese and Math could reach level 10 was quite astonishing, meaning he could obtain at least three skills from these two subjects.

Thinking that he could obtain several more abilities and skills as magically causal as 'Sense of Direction', Wang Donglai’s calm heart began to fluctuate again.

At the same time, this was only because he hadn't unlocked more reading categories yet. If he unlocked more, he would be able to harvest even more skills.

He checked the system information again.

【Host: Wang Donglai】

【Attributes: Physique 8, Wisdom 7】

【Level: Level 1 (70/2000)】

【Reading Category: High School Compulsory】

【Skills: None】

【Abilities: Sense of Direction】

Chinese: lv4 (85/2000)

Geography: lv4 (0/2000)

Politics: lv3 (912/1000)

History: lv3 (901/1000)

English: lv3 (198/1000)

Math: lv2 (24/1000)

After leveling up, the experience points required for Geography had doubled.

However, Wang Donglai felt that the effort he put in was worth it.

Not only did he gain the magical ability of 【Sense of Direction】, but Wang Donglai also had a feeling that the geography knowledge that had previously been somewhat unfamiliar to him had suddenly become clear.

Atmospheric circulation, the judgment of illumination diagrams, ocean currents, and other knowledge points were clearly imprinted in his mind.

However, Wang Donglai didn't rush to verify how much geography knowledge he had mastered.

Instead, he looked up at the window.

Because today was Friday, the school would give a half-day break, allowing students who lived nearby to go home and change clothes, while boarding students used this half-day to wash clothes or go out to buy daily necessities and relax a little.

Only the first and second-year students would get the full afternoon off.

Wang Donglai would also have a meal with his younger sister, Wang Chenyue, on Friday afternoon.

Thinking of this, a sense of guilt arose in Wang Donglai's heart. In his previous life, it was precisely because of his stubbornness that Wang Chenyue chose the liberal arts, which she didn't like. After the subject streaming, her grades plummeted, and in the end, she only managed to get into an English major at a third-tier university.

When applying for civil service or teaching positions, the English major was severely restricted, the competition was immense, and the available positions were not ideal.

In the end, she had no choice but to become a teacher and move to another city.

Reborn into this life, besides making up for the regrets of the college entrance exam, Wang Donglai also wanted to change the fate of those close to him.

Just as he had learned from reading novels in his past life, the reason urban rebirth stories were enduring was that they carried the weight of so many people wanting to return to the past to make up for regrets and unfulfilled desires.

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(End of chapter)