Chapter 43

“Third Brother, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it when I was dealing with the crowd as I just wanted to help you promote…”

Xu Zhaoyang turned his livestream off and apologized to Lin Yu in embarrassment after getting rid of the crowd.

“It’s okay.”

Lin Yu smiled and shook his head.

If it was anyone else, Lin Yu might suspect he was being used but since he had spent years living with Xu Zhaoyang, he knew Xu Zhaoyang better than that.

This person did not know how to learn from his mistakes and was silly and reckless. He did not think through anything he said, and it was easy for him to offend people. It was normal for him to argue with his roommates.

“Elder Brother, you’re doing so well so please be considerate of the self-esteem of ordinary people like us, especially Lin… He’s already uncomfortable enough.”

Zhou Jie, Zheng Wei, and the others were envious of Xu Zhaoyang and murmured begrudgingly.

“Stop, don’t flame the conflict. I’m not uncomfortable.”

Lin Yu pursed his lips and cut Zhou Jie and the guys short.

He had nothing to feel uncomfortable about; he might if he did not have any awakened superpowers, but he knew his truth. He did not want to announce it because of his ability’s specialty and wanted some time to shape it himself. He could make Lin Hai register him as a Super Livestream Hero right now if he really wanted to.

However, he knew what Zhou Jie and the others were really talking about—it was not about the awakening. It was about Zhao Xiaolu.

It was normal to hear romance rumors on campus as many relationships were sparked by being paired together by people around them.

The guys began pairing him together with Zhao Xiaolu from the party some time back.

However, Xu Zhaoyang was not the only one who was becoming popular on the SLSH platform. In fact, Zhao Xiaolu was getting more attention than him. With her sweet appearance, she quickly became the Goddess of Awakened Superhumans in Changhai city and also won the prettiest girl title in Changhai Vocational College.

It was rare for schools to have the prettiest girl title in reality and was usually a joke among students. However, as Zhao Xiaolu was extremely popular at the moment due to being an Awakened Superhuman, she naturally won the prettiest girl title in Changhai Vocational College.

Zhao Xiaolu was the Goddess of Awakened Superhumans but Lin Yu was ‘ordinary’ at the moment. Naturally, Zhou Jie and the guys began making up soap operas in their minds.

The truth?

Lin Yu did not even get Zhao Xiaolu’s number from their last conversation. They had not talked to each other since that night. While Xu Zhaoyang might have bumped into Zhao Xiaolu once in a while thanks to Liu Xin, Lin Yu had not seen her at all.

Even if he had any wishful thinking at the time, Zhao Xiaolu was just a passer-by to him, and they had only met each other by chance.

Having feelings for someone was one of life’s three biggest illusions.

“Come, why are we talking about sad things? I’ll buy us a meal.”

Xu Zhaoyang butted into the conversation at the right time and waved his hand to the group. It was as if he could wipe the weird atmosphere clean.

“I’ll do it, I got my payment from the videos today so let’s celebrate.”

Lin Yu said with a smile.

“F*ck, how much did you get?”

Feng Hai and the others began clamoring, “Based on how viral you are, you must have earned tens of thousands, right?”

“It isn’t much, only about 60,000 yuan.”

“60,000 yuan? That isn’t much?

“Pfft, did you think Third Brother is like you? He would earn way more than this if he wanted to advertise his videos.”

“F*ck, we’re the ones who are actually poor? Why did I bother comforting you!”

“What did you think would be the case? No matter how bad Third Brother is doing, he earns tens of thousands per month.”

“F*ck, I can’t tolerate this anymore, I want to exploit the rich. Let’s go to the seafood buffet.”

The shadows of the group of six moved away under the sunlight. Their conversation was nothing but pure.

Unfortunately, the sunlight drew their shadows longer than ever, making them seem like parallel lines that would never cross paths again.

They were six months away from graduation but due to current circumstances, they were already being pushed onto different paths of life.

One would meet and know many people along the journey of life but no matter how strong the relationships were built, few would make it to the end. People would always go separate ways for different reasons.

…

More than ten days went by in the blink of an eye.

“Finally… I’m done with writing the program.”

After over two weeks, he finished a prototype of his Academic Genius System and only needed to test the code for bugs before putting it to use officially.

___

[The Powerful Academic Genius System app]

Rank (LV0): 0/500

Description: A learning assistant software integrated with theories of psychology which can help relieve anxiety and procrastination a little and help stimulate enthusiasm for learning.

Evaluation: A last-ditch effort by a slacker who dreams of becoming an academic genius.

___

After installing the app on his P30, Lin Yu let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the app’s upgraded rank on the Attributes Menu.

He did it!

He did not need to deal with the app’s bugs if he did not want to as it was impossible for the rank upgrade to not solve the app’s bugs for him.

“Let’s see.”

It was something he built from scratch and on top of that, his hard work was ‘recognized’ through the upgraded rank. Lin Yu felt accomplished and did not shoot a video for his app right away. He was eager to check out the fruit of his hard work.

The Academic Genius System was not too different from what he initially had in mind. He clicked the simple ‘X’ icon to enter the app’s main page and there were all kinds of text and frames. He had not spent much time on the user interface.

The main body of the app was a selection folder; the first page was an Attributes Menu, and recorded on the menu were names, rank, points, reserve funds, and today’s number of Pomodoro Intervals, among other attributes. The second page was the Pomodoro clock interface, where one could set the duration of the Pomodoro Interval together with the length of resting time.

The third page was a redemption menu where one could use the points gained from completing Pomodoro Intervals to purchase reserve funds, medical certificates, shopping vouchers, travel vouchers, flight vouchers, and so on.

The reserve fund was basically money but according to Lin Yu’s definition, it must be money that could be spent without worries. The fund would be used to buy a toy one had been longing for or other luxurious items and after paying for those, the money would be credited from the Attributes Menu. Even if one could not remember what the money was used for, the reduced figure in the Attributes Menu would at least keep the person in check.

The medical certificates were used as a get-out-of-jail-free card for those who failed to complete their tasks. The fourth page was the Task Menu where random tasks would pop up, and one could add his own learning plan to the menu as well. Four Pomodoro Intervals for studying and one Pomodoro Interval for exercising were stipulated for the user everyday; if the intervals failed to be completed, a large number of points would be deducted. The medical certificates could be used to offset the punishment, but there was a stipulated number of times one could use it every month.

The flight vouchers, shopping vouchers, and travel vouchers were award-based items. Based on a mechanically rigid schedule, one could travel or shop after redeeming their points for it. There were varying rank restrictions to the items and one could only redeem certain things after achieving a certain rank. At the same time, the ranks would change in line with the points available.

The fifth page was the Meditation Assistant Menu. This was an easy one. It was a black background with a tiny green ball that spun continuously on the page. Staring at it could train one’s eyes and concentration… However, its effectiveness had yet to be proven.

The sixth page was the final page. There were only motivational lines of text on the page, which included “I want to study” and “I can’t wait to study”. On top of that, there were also questionnaires to ease one’s anxiety and doubt, as well as for listing down the luxurious items the person was wishing for.