CH 2

Yue Xingwen had been searching for the materials all day, and his temples were throbbing with pain. The strange hall in front him and the cold mechanical voice in his ears were like an illusion produced by the excessive use of his brain. He pinched his arm hard, but the clear pain was telling him—— This is not an illusion!

“Who are you?” Yue Xingwen asked in a deep voice. 

The mechanical voice: “Hello, I’m the Library System Tutor.”

System Tutor? There was no figure around him, but the voice rang clearly in his mind. Yue Xingwen raised an eyebrow and said as politely as he could, “Will you please let me out? I’m very busy and have to hand in my thesis tomorrow, I don’t have time to accompany you to play games.”

The mechanical voice: “I’m sorry, the students who enter <Escape From the Library> survival game can’t leave the library before the clearance.”

Yue Xingwen held back the anger that filled his stomach, “Is this a forced game? What if I insist on leaving?” 

The mechanical voice: “You can try it.”

Yue Xingwen kneaded his wrist gently, and suddenly, he turned around and swung his fist, smashing it into the glass door behind him at lightning speed! A loud ‘bang’ rang in his ears, but the glass door didn’t budge an inch, not even a trace of a crack appeared.

This was not the school library.

The library’s glass door was made from common materials, but the punch he had just thrown out seemed to hit an ice-cold, hard wall, and the sharp pain coming from the back of his hand confirmed his reasoning—— for some reason, he seemed to have mistakenly entered a strange enclosed room and couldn’t get out?

Yue Xingwen took a deep breath, turned his head to look at the hall in front of him, and calmly asked, “What are the rules of the game?” Since he couldn’t get out, he had to stabilize his emotions first and see what was this library in the end?

The mechanical voice: “The following is the reading information of the admission requirements for new students——

Yue Xingwen: “……”

His brain was buzzing, and he was eager to use both of his hands to rip his brain apart and get that voice out of his head completely. 

Tef Wlcukfc mibrfv tlr fsfr, abbx rfnfgji vffq ygfjatr lc remmfrrlbc yfobgf tlr wlcv ugjvejiis gfrabgfv lar mjiw.

Lf tjv tfjgv bo regnlnji ujwfr yfobgf, jcv atfgf kfgf wjcs rlwlijg ujwfr lc gfjilas, ilxf frmjqf gbbwr, rmglqafv wegvfg jcv rb bc, yea atfgf kjr cfnfg j ujwf ktfgf atf gfji qfgrbc kjr byilafgjafv joafg atf ujwf ojliegf. Ktf ragjcuf gbbw tf fcafgfv atlr alwf kjr jmaejiis j ‘gfji-ilof regnlnji ujwf’?

He roughly understood the rules of the library, the instance was equal to the course, completed the instance to obtain credits, and earned 100 credits to graduate. Now, he had limited knowledge of this ‘library system’ and could only follow the other party’s hints first and went on. Since it was a ‘credit system’, there must be other students from other majors coming to the library. Later on, he would ask someone else and see how he could leave this damn place as soon as possible.

Thinking of this, Yue Xingwen simply said, “Okay. What should I do next?” 

System Tutor: “Please take the Department of Chinese Language and Literature’s entrance exam. If you can’t even complete the entrance exam for your own major, you’ll fail even worse for the other faculty’s courses.”

Yue Xingwen nodded, “Okay, you’re the tutor and you have the final say. Where are the exam papers?”

As soon as his voice fell, a huge 3 meters wide and 2 meters high LCD screen appeared out of thin air in the middle of the hall. A row of eye-catching characters appeared on the screen: [Library Department of Chinese Language and Literature’s Entrance Exam, please select the test paper: Test Paper A; Test Paper B; Test Paper C; Test Paper D; Test Paper E; Test Paper F]

Whenever Yue Xingwen encountered a question he didn’t know on the exam, he would always choose C, and this time he also didn’t hesitate: “I’ll take test paper C.” 

A white test paper slowly unfolded in the LCD screen and three words appeared at the same time: [The Exam Begins].

“Question 1: Please say the idioms that contain numbers in 5 seconds, the more numbers the better, countdown——”

5 seconds! Looking at the 5 seconds countdown that popped up on the big screen, Yue Xingwen didn’t have time to think carefully about it and almost blurted out. “Be backward both economically and culturally; Three obediences and four virtues for a woman; Every color under the sun; seven up eight down; ninety per cent sure!”

The countdown had just turned to 1. 

A prompt popped up on the screen: “Correct answer. The answer consists of 10 numbers, and you’ve obtained 20 points.”

“Question 2: Please say the eight-character idiom containing the word ‘human’, the countdown is 10 seconds——”

Yue Xingwen spoke at a very fast speed. “People as the sacrificial knife, I’m a flesh of fish; It takes ten years to nurture a tree, but a hundred years to train a man; I will not offend other people if they aren’t offend me; To have neither predecessors nor successors; When a man achieves the Dao, his poultry and dogs rise Heaven; People having the same mind as each other, and with the same reasoning behind it; Man proposes but God disposes; Words of a man on his deathbed always come from the heart!”

He recited eight consecutive eight-character idioms, barely having time to catch his breath. 

When the countdown was over, a prompt popped up on the screen: “Correct answer, you’ve obtained 32 points.”

“Question 3: Please say five idioms containing gold, wood, water, fire and earth respectively, countdown 5 seconds——”

Yue Xingwen reacted instantly and said, “Golden cicada shell; Wooden heart; Without a ripple; To pour oil on the fire; Buried and at rest.”

“Correct answer, you’ve obtained 10 points.” 

—— Test paper C was actually full of idiom questions.

Yue Xingwen was somewhat glad that he had drawn the test paper C. It was actually not difficult for Chinese Language and Literature students to take the idiom exam. If they were given a course time to write slowly, he believed that they could write vast amounts of idioms.

However, students with slower responses might get stuck when asked to quickly say the relevant idiom in just a few seconds. This exam was still mostly about brain speed, the faster your brain thinks, the more idioms you try to say as required, the higher your score would be.

Yue Xingwen was a member of the school’s debate team and had a fast thinking, and he often made people dumbfounded at the debate tournaments. Such a test paper like this was not difficult for him and he scored over 60 before the fourth question. 

System Tutor: “Student Yue Xingwen has passed the entrance exam. Please collect the reward for passing the exam.”

Yue Xingwen froze for a moment, he thought he would have to finish the entire test paper, but he didn’t expect that after obtaining 60 points, he wouldn’t have to do the rest of the questions, and there was a reward for passing the exam. In this way, most students could pass the entrance exam, even if they only scored 2 points for a question, they could still pass after answering 30 questions, as long as they got 60 points before all the questions on the test paper were given. This was equivalent to ‘novice task’ in the game, and would there be novice equipment for completing it?

Yue Xingwen looked around expectantly, “What is the reward?”

A thick book suddenly appeared from the bookshelves around the empty hall. It slowly floated in front of Yue Xingwen, as if it was controlled by a spell. 

Yue Xingwen took a closer look —— it was actually <Modern Idiom Dictionary>

However, this dictionary was not the same as the dictionary he memorized in high school. Although it was also a thick book, like a brick, which could smash people to death. The cover of the dictionary was written with the golden words ‘Publish by the Library’, and the red hard cover looked luxurious.

Yue Xingwen opened the dictionary, only to see several rows of printed characters appeared on the first page of the dictionary——

[Modern Idiom Dictionary] 

Source: Obtained from entrance exam, or by using points to exchange it at Library’s Database

Publisher: Library

Skill Book Limitation : Chinese Language and Literature students

Skill Book Level : Level 1 (Can be upgraded with points) 

Please view the following content for unlocked Idioms.

Yue Xingwen flipped over a page.

In the upper left corner of the second page was a Q-version image of a ‘child lying on the ground’, followed by a line of red words——

To prostrate oneself in admiration: Use this skill to make a designated target to get down and ‘prostrate oneself in admiration’ to you; cooldown 5 minutes. 

Turning back further, this page contained a Q-version image of 15 children, in which 7 children were flying in the sky, and 8 children were crawling on the ground. There was also a text description followed the image——

Seven up Eight down: Use this skill to select 15 targets within your field of view, sending 7 of them into the air and 8 to the ground; cooldown 1 hour.

On the fourth page, there was a chubby golden cicada shedding its shell.

Golden cicada shell: When you are being controlled or surrounded, this skill can release control and move to a designated place 10 meters away; cooldown 24 hours. 

A phrase appeared after he flipped over the page again: “More idioms can be unlocked after the skill book is upgraded.”

Yue Xingwen: “……”

Was this here to be funny? The interpretation of the idioms were completely deviated, turning into weird skills, and accompanied by a cute Q-version image?

At present, this thick book of <Modern Idiom Dictionary> had only three idioms appearing on the first three pages, and the rest were still blank. Apparently, the skill book he drew could be upgraded with points, and after the upgrade, more idioms would be recorded and the book would become more and more powerful. 

Yue Xingwen asked curiously, “The questions of the test paper C that I chose were all about idioms, and I was given a <Modern Idiom Dictionary> as a reward at the end. What are the topics of the test paper A, B, C, D, E, and F in the entrance exam? Are the rewards different?”

Library Tutor: “Test paper A is about punctuation, and the reward is <Punctuation Encyclopedia>;  Test paper B is about misspelled words, and the reward is <Chinese Dictionary>; Test paper D is poem appreciation, and the reward is one of three choices of <Tang Poems>, <Song Poems>, <Yuan Poems>; Test paper E is about contemporary literature, and the reward is the collection of works by well-known contemporary writers; Test paper F is classical Chinese writing, and the reward is the relevant ancient texts related to history of the classics.”

The rewards seemed to be quite rich? Yue Xingwen then asked, “Can I use points to exchange these books in the Library’s Database?”

Library Tutor: “You can. The Library’s Database is always open to students of this major, and all these reference books can be exchanged with points.” 

Yue Xingwen swept the bookshelves that surrounded the four walls in the hall, and there were countless exchangeable reference books, including <Lu Xun’s Complete Works>, <Zhang Ailing’s Complete Works>, and other complete works of well-known contemporary writers were included; The ancient text such as <The Analects of Confucius>, <Book of Songs>, and <> were also quite comprehensive.

The Library Tutor reminded him, “Your points are definitely not enough to exchange too many reference books, because most of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature’s reference books have more than 2,000 points to exchange, while only 300 points are needed to upgrade the reference books. Normally, we encourage students to upgrade and use the reference books they get at the initial stage. Each book has its own characteristics, and to learn more is not as good as to learn proficiently.”

Yue Xingwen remained calm and collected as he voiced his opinion. “Are the students from other majors who enter the library also get reference books as a reward?”

Library Tutor: “Different majors have different rewards, there are a lot of props for science majors, but for the Department of Chinese Language and Literature student—— words are your best weapon, right?” 

Yue Xingwen agreed. “That’s right.”

It seemed that his guess was correct. The library had pulled in a lot of unlucky people from other majors besides him. Yue Xingwen paused and firmly said. “The next thing I’ll be doing is to take the compulsory course, right?”

“That’s right. The elevator has arrived, please start your journey.”

Yue Xingwen closed the dictionary and tried to put it away. As if it had sensed its owner’s intention, the brick-sized dictionary actually turned into a small book icon imprinted on his palm. He tried to raise his hand and the dictionary re-appeared. When his mind tried to put it away, it would obediently turn back into an icon and return to his palm. 

Pretty good, this dictionary was easy to carry and quite obedient.

Yue Xingwen folded his palm, taking quick steps to walk forward.

With a ‘ding’ sound, an elevator appeared in the middle of the hall, and as Yue Xingwen stepped into the elevator, a gentle male mechanical voice rang in his ears, “Student Yue Xingwen, your current floor is: the Library’s Database on -1st floor, and the floor you will be delivered to is: 1st floor—— Faculty of Medicine.”

His field of vision fell into darkness. 

Yue Xingwen felt the elevator rising rapidly, and after only 3 seconds, the elevator door slowly opened in front of his eyes.

The system beep sounded in his ears once again: “Welcome to the Faculty of Medicine floor. Compulsory course <Escape From the Laboratory>, 2 credits, challenge begins.”