Study Monster Cultivation System - Chapter 52
Chapter 52: I, Who Overestimates Myself
After that, Lin Yujing immediately left with Jingjing in her arms. She didn’t head upstairs.
All she did was send Li Zheng a message.
Her text was just like her.
[Lin Yujing: ~~]
Li Zheng replied.
[Li Zheng: You’re welcome.]
At his side, Zhang Xiaoke suddenly questioned, “What are you laughing about? Who were you sending a message to?”
“Nothing.” LI Zheng put away his phone after taking a look at the time. He looked up and asked, “How was studying today?”
“Hmph.” Zhang Xiaoke squinted and said, “I was strangely efficient today. I am now a Physics Master!”
“I like your confidence.” Li Zheng smiled and said, “Do you want to challenge your master again?”
“Bring it on!”
Neither of them took it slow. They chose a paper and started attempting the questions.
With Li Zheng around, doing practice questions somehow became enjoyable.
It was shockingly strange.
This time, Li Zheng went at 28 times his normal speed.
But he didn’t bully Zhang Xiaoke. He completed the paper in two minutes and didn’t even bother to go through it again and check his answers.
This was his way of secretly giving Zhang Xiaoke a hand.
He started to savor Chemistry with the remainder of his time.
After receiving the 100% boost in efficiency for Chemistry, he was now studying Chemistry at 56 times his normal speed.
However, he still expended his energy at the rate of 28.
It was too profitable.
Li Zheng finished off the second half of the first-year practice booklet without hesitation, then went back to check if he had missed anything.
He took a look at the time after he finished the booklet and found that he had only spent 20 minutes.
However, taking into account his efficiency boost, he had already devoted more than 20 hours to Chemistry.
“Why not take advantage of this momentum and learn the second-year content?” he thought.
Cherry Lake High School was rather famous in the area, and its teachers went at a relatively normal pace. They would only cover all of the Chemistry content during the second semester.
However, the elite high schools in the city would finish teaching the curriculum in the first year and spend the next two years strengthening the students’ understanding of the concepts.
If he had to say it, the students of the elite high schools were naturally several times more efficient at studying than the students of average high schools.
Before this, Li Zheng’s goal had always been to follow the study plan set by the school and work hard toward an attainable goal.
However, everything had changed a few days ago.
“I,” he thought.
“Should also change.”
Unknowingly, Li Zheng gripped his pen harder.
“Perhaps I truly am ordinary.”
“Perhaps, just as Hu Chunmei said, I had merely taken a path that was different from others. I love to split hairs and am forever forcefully memorizing the content. I’ve never studied smart. I’ve always been waiting to slowly deliver my accumulated knowledge and learn from others when the test is already over.”
“But perhaps, just as Lin Yujing had been anticipating, this steady yet foolish technique might one day become unique to me if I continue doing it.”
“Or perhaps, just like many others have thought, I’ll only be an ordinary person who blindly works hard.”
“I don’t know.”
“Perhaps I’ll never know.”
“All I can do is put in the effort.”
“Continue putting in the effort.”
“See it through.”
“Please allow me to overestimate myself and aim for…”
“Aim for the perhaps unattainable summit.”
“Lin Yujing.”
“721 points.”
Li Zheng opened his eyes wide.
He felt energetic once again.
“Like a student from an elite school, study past the current chapter. Let’s go!” he thought.
…
“Ring ring… Ring ring…”
The sound of the alarm startled Li Zheng.
He raised his head and noticed that Zhang Xiaoke was looking at him in a daze.
“What?”
“Student, you’ve been possessed,” Zhang Xiaoke said.
“You’ll slowly get used to it.” Li Zheng stretched, and while he was at it, he examined his current state.
[Energy: 28.3/29.]
“Time is indeed not enough when I use 28 times the speed,” he thought.
“I have to find even more relaxation activities.”
On the other hand, his subject scores…
[Chemistry: 104 ↑↑↑]
[Biology: 88 ↑]
!!!
Li Zheng was both surprised and elated.
His score for Chemistry had risen by 21 points over the afternoon, and had already become the subject he was best at.
“The 100% efficiency boost is indeed scary,” he thought.
“Furthermore, I haven’t even finished studying this book. My score should shoot up after I finish studying ahead.”
“Teacher Mengxi, I like Chemistry.”
Other than that, his score for Biology had strangely risen by two points.
It seemed as though there were some inevitable overlaps between the two subjects.
Li Zheng slowly understood the meaning of “Foundational Study Stage.”
It was meant to improve the breadth of his knowledge so that everything he learned would all be connected one day.
Indeed, after he was done with the college entrance examinations, he might not have to use these pieces of information again in his life.
However, who was to know if he had to one day use this knowledge or not?
What was even more wonderful was that there were countless overlaps between the subjects. He might have studied something seemingly unimportant today which could be the inspiration for an important, difficult question in the future.
This euphoric daydreaming was quickly interrupted by Zhang Xiaoke.
“Hurry up, the sun’s setting.” Zhang Xiaoke pushed her Physics paper over to Li Zheng. “This paper is the best I’ve done in my life. Be more serious when marking it.”
Li Zheng smirked and exchanged papers with her.
This time, Zhang Xiaoke gave up on trying to spot Li Zheng’s mistakes. She finished marking the paper in two to three minutes.
“96.” She angrily slammed her pen onto the table, then grabbed her head and sighed. “How frustrating… You did so well again.”
She didn’t know that Li Zheng had done the paper haphazardly and hadn’t even checked it. He only chose a simpler paper to encourage Zhang Xiaoke.
Sometime later, Li Zheng also put his paper down.
He looked up at Zhang Xiaoke and mimicked her naughty smile. “90.”
“!!!” Zhang Xiaoke’s eyes widened. She didn’t know how to react. “90? Me?”
“See for yourself.” Li Zheng smiled as he pushed the paper over to her. “You even managed to complete the killer question. Instead, you were careless on the easier questions. You might even surpass me if you work a little harder.”
“Aiyayayaya!” Zhang Xiaoke looked through her paper excitedly.
However, she didn’t really focus on the questions. Instead, she paid most of her attention to the score.
She looked at the score over and over again. She blinked, then looked at the score. She turned her paper around and looked at the score. She put her paper down, then picked it up again to look at the score.
“90,” she thought
“90.”
“90!”
What kind of concept was that?
She had only scored 50 a few times during the Physics exams at the High School Affiliated with Renmin University.
She scored even worse for the combined Science paper after that.
“9 and 0… so these two numbers are that beautiful.” She was admiring the paper when she suddenly remembered something. She asked in a trembling voice, “Wait… What did you score?”
“96.” Li Zheng nodded and smiled. “You scored four points above the baseline. Congratulations, you’ve passed Physics. We don’t have to do Physics from today on.”
“Ah…” Zhang Xiaoke immediately slipped into a daze. “I… actually… passed…”
“The outcome of hard work,” Li Zheng commented. “Even though we’ve been set back quite a bit, I have to admit that you have good potential.”
Zhang Xiaoke had never thought she would feel the joy that came with studying.
Her mouth turned sour as she looked at Li Zheng. She couldn’t help but utter the word.
“Mas… Master…”
“What’s the rush. There are still five more subjects left.” Li Zheng blushed. He turned around and caught a cat, then began to stroke it.
“Hng…” Zhang Xiaoke looked at his wretched state and became boastful once again. “This trial was quite easy~”
Li Zheng hugged the cat and couldn’t help but let out a demonic laugh. “That’s right. It’s not only easy, but it also brings joy.”
Zhang Xiaoke gestured, a little conflicted. “… It does bring a little joy.”
“What subject do you want to do next? I’ll give you a practice booklet.” Li Zheng wasn’t distracted for too long. He patted the cat’s butt and released it.
