After downloading the material, Professor Aaron dismissed them. He expressed that if they were not busy revising, they should look over the material tonight.Tomorrow they were going to meet in the school’s computer room and to start their first training session.After Professor Aaron dismissed them, Blake carried his laptop and walked to the library. He continued to write his theses.He did not even look at the material on his USB.After all, for him, the system mission was a higher priority than school work.Other than writing theses, Blake would occasionally help Ava with a few math questions.Honestly speaking, the girl’s foundation in mathematics was absolutely horrible. He had no idea how she apparently scored 85 in her first-year mathematical analysis exam.“You guys don’t study mathematics in business school?” asked Blake. He was completely defeated by a question regarding finding the limits of a function. He rolled his eyes and wrote the answer on the draft paper. Without any
“...” Blake did not answer.“I can understand. You must have your own opinions about her,” said Professor Aaron with a smile. He added, “Just like my research community, every team would always have a useless teammate. They don’t care at all about the project. These people would always exist.”“Professor, your mentality is so good,” said Blake with a smile.“It’s not that my mentality is good,” said Professor Aaron. He waved his hand and smiled, “It’s because I’m used to it by now.”He patted Blake on the shoulder and said in a serious tone, “You have to understand that getting the first prize is our only goal. It might seem unfair to those who have to do more work, but this is just a learning curve.”Blake thought about it for a bit and nodded, “Okay, I understand. I can be responsible for building the mathematical model and writing the thesis, but I have one condition.”“Say it,” said Professor Aaron with a smile.“I want to reduce the number of group training sessions moving forwar
“... Mom, I’m not coming back for the summer this year.”“Yeah... the thing is, the professor recommended me to join the National Mathematical Modeling Competition. The school organized training during the summer... No need, there’s no application fee. The school already paid for it! It’ll be New Year before I come home. Stay healthy. I’m very healthy right now, don’t you worry!”“... You don’t have to give me money. I still have some money from last semester’s scholarship, plus I work some odd jobs when I’m not busy. You guys should save your money for Rosa. You’ll have to spend quite a lot when she goes to university.”“... Ok, that’s it.”Blake took a deep breath. He leaned against the railing at the balcony in his dorm and hung up the call.Every Sunday night he would call home.Speaking of which, time was flying by so fast.Blake lamented as he looked at the stars outside his window.He was nearly done with his first year at university. His sister was about to enter 11th grade, on
After knowing this, Blake put his concentration back to more realistic problems.He took a deep breath and said in his heart.“System, open my characteristic panel.”The semi-transparent information screen flashed.[Core science:A. Mathematics: Level 1 (0/10000)B. Physics: Level 0 (100/1000)C. Biochemistry: Level 0 (0/1000)D. Engineering: Level 0 (0/1000)E. Materials science: Level 0 (0/1000)F. Energy science: Level 0 (0/1000)G. Information science: Level 1 (0/10000)General points: 925 (One chance of lucky draw)Mission: Not taken yet (Reward mission*1)]The level 2 experience points requirements added a zero back to his panel. Blake thought about the hard-earned 1000 experience points and could not help but feel discouraged.At least the mission reward would also increase as I level up.However, in that way, the mission difficulty would already be increased.He just hoped that this rubbish system would not give him some kind of mission like “publish 100 SCI theses”.That wou
It was in the afternoon when they gathered at classroom 403 of Building A. The final class meeting for the undergraduate mathematics class was held as scheduled.A group of boys squeezed into the classroom. The thin and tall instructor who was wearing a pair of glasses walked over.This instructor’s name was Thomas Wane and he was studying a PhD in mathematics. He was usually busy with his own research project and therefore, he was rarely seen.Although he was busy, he still cared about the class activities. He would arrange a meeting almost every month and talk about safety, discipline, and study techniques. He would even brag to the undergraduate students about the time when he was still studying the bachelor’s degree.Instructor Thomas slowly walked to the podium and put his hands behind his back. He scanned the students below, cleared his throat, and said, “After this meeting today, your first year at the university will come to a successful conclusion. Let me emphasize again on sa
“Blake, Jake, we’re leaving. You guys take care.”“See you in two months.”Edward and Noah carried their suitcases as they waved goodbye. They left and only Jake and Blake stayed in the spacious dorm room.The summer vacation began.Within a week, the entire school was deserted. It would not be the end of August until people started coming back to school. Only then would the school go back to being lively. Not only would the returning students come back, but new students would also arrive.Blake signed up for the summer school application. He said goodbye to Jake and left the dorm with his laptop. He first went to the dorm center to hand in his application before heading towards the library.The style of study at the University of Baymack was intense. Even though a lot of students left the school, the library was still full of students studying for the graduate entrance exam. Piles of books occupied the empty seats, preventing anyone else from taking it.Blake could not help but think
It was early in the morning when Blake crawled out of the bed. He washed himself up in the bathroom and left to eat breakfast.While he was walking, he saw Diane and a tall guy walking together.The two were laughing together and it looked like they were very close. Almost like they were an inch away from holding hands.The guy carried a luggage case. It looked like he was sending her to the train station.Blake did not want to feel awkward so he did not say hello. He just sighed and mourned for Abel for a second.As expected, his intuition was correct.Blake walked slowly to the front gate and looked at the time on his phone. It was exactly nine o’clock.A beautiful figure stood near the front of a sycamore tree. She waved at him as if she was trying to tell him “this way”.Blake noticed Ava and walked towards her.Ava’s appearance today was completely different than what she looked like in the library. It was like she was another person.The thick round glasses became contact lenses
Ava bit her thumb and frowned. She stared at the checkers’ board and started to think hard.The defeat is certain...There is no room for recovery.She spent a long time thinking and finally accepted the defeat. She suggested with a tentative tone.“... Let’s play again.”Blake sighed and looked at the sky.“Can I surrender?”“No!”Ava was so angry she wanted to start stomping her feet.She was always ridiculed for her mathematics questions, “this is too easy”, “another free marks question”, “it’ll be too late for your graduate entrance exams”. She wanted to earn some respect from playing checkers, but Blake did not give her any and even won 10 games in a row. He had even let her start first.Maybe my IQ is just too low?Ava had been called a genius student for the past three years, but now she suddenly had doubts about her life.Ava stubbornly pushed the checkers’ board and still wanted to play. Blake could not help but ask.“Can I ask a question?”Ava answered irritably, “Ask.”Blake