Offside game

"The results of this exam are out." The homeroom teacher stood on the podium and said with a solemn expression, "As you all probably noticed, this exam was quite difficult."

As she finished speaking, some people below were already muttering: "What do you mean 'too high'? It's too high. I don't know what the people who set the questions were thinking. They haven't even learned many of the English words."

The homeroom teacher seemed to have heard the whispers below, coughed loudly, and continued, "Even so, some students did very well. I'd like to commend two students from our class: one is An Jing, who remains the top student in our school with a total score of 640, ranking sixth in the entire Dongdu City; the other is Su Yi, who also scored 600 points, climbing to tenth place in the grade in such a short time. In particular, his English and math scores are both first in the grade and among the top three in Dongdu City. I hope everyone can learn from these two students. Of course, if Su Yi has any good study methods, he can also share them with everyone."

Listening to what the homeroom teacher was saying, Su Yi felt a cold sweat break out in his chest. He had miscalculated again. He had only planned to get a mid-to-upper-level grade, but who knew that man proposes, God disposes. Those freaks in the Education Commission gave them such a difficult question to answer...

Feeling the strange looks he was being given—some surprised, some doubtful, some envious—he sighed inwardly, "It's hard to be low-key..."

As expected, Su Yi's results caused a huge uproar within the school. Many people lamented that they didn't have such a bright mind, while others questioned whether Su Yi had cheated. But someone immediately retorted: "Use your brain! In Su Yi's exam room, the highest scorer besides him was only a little over 300. Who could he have copied to get nearly 600 points? You're saying he used cheat sheets? If you were given an open-book exam, could you score over 600 on five subjects?"

The homeroom teacher of Class 2, Grade 12, was among the first to know the results. Besides being amazed by Su Yi's rapid improvement, she was also quite pleased. If the dramatic changes in Su Yi's family made everyone feel sorry for him, then his subsequent behavior made the teachers who had admired him since his freshman year sigh even more. She had tried to encourage Su Yi back then, but faced with his aloof and unapproachable demeanor, she ultimately gave up. Now, Su Yi's sudden achievement was a cause for celebration, both for herself and for the school.

It was time to leave school again, and a few students were already packing their bags, but most students remained in their seats, engrossed in their studies, or discussing problems in groups of two or three.

Su Yi packed his schoolbag and prepared to go home. Over this period of time, his classmates had gotten used to the existence of this maverick. Of course, Su Yi's behavior and grades inevitably became a topic of discussion among many people. Many hardworking students who did not get good grades envied his natural intelligence.

"Su Yi, wait a minute, okay?" An Jing suddenly called out to Su Yi as he walked past her.

At this moment, the class monitor of Class Two, a boy with excellent grades and a good family background, was asking her a question. An Jing was beautiful and consistently ranked first in the grade; her radiance was undeniable. Therefore, as the object of admiration for most boys, An Jing was always surrounded by boys who used various excuses to approach or fawn over her. Clearly, the class monitor was one of them. Seeing the apologetic look the class monitor gave her, which captivated him, An Jing hurriedly caught up with Su Yi ahead and whispered, "Can I talk to you?"

"I have things to do at home," Su Yi subconsciously avoided the question. Strangely, at that moment, he had another strange feeling—a vague, almost ethereal, emotion of resentment. Upon closer inspection, he realized the source of this emotion seemed to be the neglected class monitor. This wasn't the first time he'd felt this way. It seemed that ever since his transformation, he would occasionally sense certain emotions in others. At first, he thought he was just being overly sensitive, but sometimes he could feel those intense emotions very clearly. He couldn't help but wonder if this was a side effect of the transformation. It seemed necessary to go back and ask Kosei.

"Just for a little while, okay?" A slightly pleading expression appeared on her quiet and beautiful face, but she noticed that Su Yi seemed to be lost in thought, blankly thinking about something. She felt a little sad, but she still calmed herself down and called out to Su Yi.

An Jing brought Su Yi back to his senses, and seeing her resentful and melancholic gaze, he couldn't help but feel a flutter in his heart. He also noticed that many people in the class had already noticed them. Meeting An Jing's clear, bright eyes, Su Yi said helplessly, "Okay, let's talk outside."

Before they knew it, they had reached the playground again. They didn't speak a word along the way, Anjing silently following behind him. In a daze, Su Yi felt a strong sense of familiarity. Hadn't the two of them often done this before? Now, the only thing missing was those endless topics of conversation.

Standing in front of the stands, Su Yi turned to face An Jing. But she seemed lost in thought, barely stopping before she bumped into him.

"What's going on?" Su Yi looked at the boys playing soccer on the playground, their faces beaming with carefree joy.

“The college entrance exam is less than two months away. Let’s study together for the rest of the time. We can help each other if we don’t understand anything.” Seeing Su Yi’s expression, afraid that he would refuse, An Jing hurriedly said, “Please don’t refuse me, okay? If you still consider me a friend. As long as we study hard for these two months, we can get into a top university together.”

From her quiet gaze, Su Yi could clearly see a lot of meaning. This girl was still afraid of hurting his pride, which was why she spoke these words so gently, even with a pleading tone. The phrase "We can get into a top university together" stirred something within him again, reminding him of fond memories from the past. It seemed that in another, different setting, the two of them had said similar things to each other.

"I'm sorry, I have my own study plan." His gaze darted away, avoiding An Jing's eyes. He still had to refuse. If his first refusal was because he didn't want to hold An Jing back, then his refusal now was because he didn't want to deceive this girl who held such a special place in his heart. Deliberately setting a low score in front of others to avoid attracting too much attention was one aspect, but if he agreed to An Jing's request, he would inevitably have to put on some kind of facade in front of her. The existence of the Mother Nest and his own changes were things he couldn't let others know. To maintain secrecy, he would have to put on an act in front of An Jing, something he neither wanted to nor could do.

"I'm sorry, Anjing," Su Yi murmured to himself.

Hearing the unfamiliarity in Su Yi's words, An Jing suddenly turned around, still stubbornly saying, "Think it over again, okay, Yi? I... I'll wait for you."

Watching her figure slowly disappear into the distance, Su Yi was still pondering her words. He noticed the unusual tone in her quiet voice; she didn't want him to see her tears. At that moment, Su Yi had a strong urge to chase after her and hold her tightly in his arms. In the end, he didn't move, just stood there watching her until she vanished from sight, letting out a long sigh.

Back home, Su Yi first practiced the manipulator's mental techniques to calm his mind. Regarding the unusual behavior he experienced after the modification, Su Yi questioned the Kosei again. The Kosei scanned Su Yi carefully once more but found nothing unusual. However, the phenomenon of vaguely sensing emotions or psychological states was definitely present. Ultimately, the Mother Nest could only speculate that perhaps due to Su Yi's special physique or the fact that the modification was being performed on a human on Earth for the first time, some kind of unique ability had arisen. However, given the current situation, this ability shouldn't pose any harm to Su Yi, and the Kosei would continue to monitor Su Yi's physical and mental changes.

Since he couldn't figure it out for the time being, Su Yi didn't think about it too much. At least he was certain that the mother nest wouldn't suffer any damage, which might be considered an unexpected bonus for him.

Putting these thoughts aside for the time being, Su Yi sat down in front of T20.

Because of the Kosei, Su Yi could completely control the laptop without needing a mouse or keyboard. He was now used to controlling the cursor with his mind, instead of using the T20's built-in TrackPoint. Input could also be controlled mentally, but Chinese input required compilation by the Kosei. However, Su Yi still preferred using the keyboard for now; the IBM laptop had a full-size keyboard, which didn't feel as cramped and uncomfortable as other laptops.

In his spare time from studying, he's been learning some programming languages. Su Yi has always been interested in computers, and he was initially very excited when the school started offering computer classes. However, he later discovered that these classes were more symbolic than anything else, as there was only one computer class a week, and it was a basic classroom lesson one week followed by a practical session the next. The content was limited to very simple things like typing, which didn't satisfy Su Yi's appetite at all. Later, through playing games, he also developed a great interest in computer games. Now, with the help of Kosei, he can finally systematically learn software programming, and even creating his own games is no longer a distant dream.

Brain development is indeed a powerful tool for learning. In just a few days, Su Yi has become familiar with several basic languages, such as C, VB and Java. What he still lacks is the accumulation of programming experience, which cannot be achieved by simple memorization. After all, every successful programmer has their own personal style when writing programs, and the establishment of a style is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

Of course, with the help of the Kosei, Su Yi's progress was quite fast. The Kosei could completely decompile some programs into source code for Su Yi to study. This was much more intuitive, allowing Su Yi to understand the function of each program block and how to combine these components into a complete program. This learning and practice benefited Su Yi greatly, and his progress was extremely rapid.