Chapter 2: School
The ticking of the clock kept ringing. Zhang Yu was sitting in the classroom, doing the test paper in front of him with a serious look on his face.
But the test paper seemed endless. No matter how hard he tried to complete it, there was always no end in sight. The seat he occupied was getting farther and farther away from his classmates. Gradually, he could no longer see the figures in front clearly, as if he was being swallowed up by the darkness behind him bit by bit.
Cold sweat oozed out of his forehead, and panic welled up in his heart. His hands that had been writing continuously began to go weak and lose strength.
It was not until he fell into the bottomless darkness along with countless books and test papers that Zhang Yu suddenly woke up from his bed.
"Did I just have a dream?"
"It seems to be some memories of Zhang Yu's past."
He rubbed his head, feeling that countless fragmented memories of the original body were surging and fluctuating in his mind, constantly changing.
Although Zhang Yu now controlled this body, he hadn't fully integrated the original memories yet. Many details required focused recollection to remember.
Especially about the strange ritual yesterday, whenever Zhang Yu tried to recall it, he would feel dizzy and couldn't remember what exactly happened.
At this moment, he looked at his phone and found it was only five o'clock in the morning. He wanted to turn over and go back to sleep, but found that this body just couldn't fall asleep anymore.
It was as if getting up at five o'clock every day to go to school had become an instinct of this body.
"Why do I feel like I'll have a sense of guilt if I continue lying in bed?" Zhang Yu sat up, thinking that this was probably the influence of the original body's memories.
Feeling a bit hungry, Zhang Yu simply stood up, thinking to himself, "Forget it. I might as well go to school. At least I can get a full meal there."
He remembered that Songyang High School provided three meals a day, and the meal fee for this month had already been credited to his card.
Now, with a huge debt of 700,000 yuan and only a little over fifty yuan on him, he didn't have money to eat outside.
So he left the stuffy apartment, walked through the alley full of sewage, and squeezed onto the bus with a crowd of people.
Squeezed in the carriage filled with the mixed smells of sweat and food, even with the air conditioner on, it felt like it wasn't working. Zhang Yu felt like a squashed takeaway being jolted all the way towards the city center.
It took him an hour and a half and two bus transfers. Sweating all over, Zhang Yu finally got off the bus.
Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Why did I choose to live off-campus?"
"Oh, I remember. It's because I couldn't afford the accommodation fee."
Different from where Zhang Yu lived, the place where he got off the bus was in the city center. Everything in sight was high-rise buildings and clean, spacious roads. Even the air was much fresher.
The men and women walking on the road were mostly dressed neatly, looking like urban elites.
After walking around for a while, Zhang Yu finally arrived at the school gate. From afar, he saw the big characters of "Songyang Advanced Immortal Dao Middle School" on the gate.
On the electronic screen at the school gate, there was also a list of grades, showing the top ten students in each grade of high school last month.
From this, one could see that Songyang High School was a school that attached great importance to students' grades.
If Zhang Yu were to summarize it while recalling, it would be that at Songyang High School, grades came first. This was a world where everyone was obsessed with scores.
Studying and taking exams here were as natural as breathing, and almost everyone had extreme score discrimination.
Things like "You have such a low score. No wonder you're queuing up for so long in the cafeteria. You have such a low score. You don't even deserve to sit at the same table with us in the cafeteria", and "It's the norm in campus to bully underachievers just because they're geeks" were all common.
"This is completely a world where grades come first. A hell for underachievers."
Zhang Yu looked at the 'Tenth Place in Grade 10 Overall Score, Zhang Yu' on the electronic screen and sighed in his heart, "Thank goodness I'm one of the high scorers."
"Although my current ranking may seem a bit undeserved, at least it hasn't been exposed yet. I should still be able to live a decent life in school, right?"
The cafeteria at Songyang High School provided breakfast, so Zhang Yu followed his memory and went there.
As he walked down, he found that although there were many students queuing up for food in the cafeteria, it was extremely quiet. Almost everyone queued up silently, quietly picked up their meals, and quietly found a seat to eat, like gears that were precisely meshed, operating every step accurately.
Some students were even reading books while eating, seizing every minute to study.
He casually found a seat and sat down. Just as he took a bite of the meat bun, someone sat down in the empty seat in front of him.
It was a girl with long black hair and a fair complexion.
The name of the girl surfaced in Zhang Yu's mind.
"Bai Zhenzhen."
"To be precise, she's Bai Zhenzhen, the top scorer in Grade 10, the woman at the top of the disdain chain in Grade 10."
Looking at the girl who was drinking porridge in front of him, Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Are we friends?"
"Is it because I'm in the top ten? Is this what they call the circle of high achievers?"
Bai Zhenzhen was the kind of person who looked like she was holding a grudge even when she wasn't smiling. Even ordinary words coming out of her mouth gave off a sense of aloofness that kept people at a distance.
Just like now, sitting in front of Zhang Yu, without saying a word, she made Zhang Yu feel like she had some complaints against him.
Just as Zhang Yu was concentrating on recalling memories related to Bai Zhenzhen to confirm their relationship, he heard the girl speak.
"After lunch, come to the small garden. I'll wait for you there."
Looking at the girl's departing figure, a thoughtful look flashed in Zhang Yu's eyes.
A moment later, after he finished eating, Zhang Yu also got up and walked to the small garden behind the dormitory building.
This was a quiet place behind the dormitory building. At this time when most of the students had gone to the teaching building, there were hardly any people around.
Bai Zhenzhen was standing in front of a flowerbed. As soon as she heard Zhang Yu's footsteps, she turned around and quickly walked up to him.
"Dad!"
With a thud, she knelt down in front of Zhang Yu, hugging his leg and saying, "There were too many people in the cafeteria just now. I was too embarrassed to say it."
"Can you lend me some money? My small loan has been overdue for almost a month! I'll do anything for you if you help me pay it off..."
Looking at the scene in front of him, Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, "What kind of school is this? Both the top scorer and the tenth scorer are taking out loans to show off?"
Zhang Yu had already recalled that he and Bai Zhenzhen knew each other not because of the circle of high achievers, but because she was his online contact person, promoting small loans to him.
To introduce her again, Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu's classmate, was a good buddy who shared information about various platform loans with him and had a solid friendship of borrowing money everywhere.
Thinking about how the girl in front of him had been thinking about how to borrow money from him while having a cold poker face in the cafeteria, Zhang Yu shook his head helplessly and said, "Let go of me first. I don't have any money to lend you."
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head and said, "How much money can you have as the tenth scorer? You must have applied for less in loans than me, right?"
She said a bit stiffly and shyly, "As long as you help me pay off my debts, you can do anything you want."
Hearing this, Zhang Yu's eyes lit up. Looking at Bai Zhenzhen, who had just had a cold face but now looked like a blooming peach blossom, he found her particularly charming.
He looked Bai Zhenzhen up and down and asked, "Anything I want?"
Bai Zhenzhen bit her lip and nodded, "Mhm."
Zhang Yu asked, "Can I mortgage you?"
Bai Zhenzhen let go of his leg and stared at Zhang Yu, "Yu Zi, are you really out of money?"
Zhang Yu took out his phone and showed her his balance and overdue information.
Bai Zhenzhen stood up, patted the dust off her pants, and then looked at Zhang Yu incredulously, "You owe 700,000 yuan? Even after graduating from college, it might take you a long time to pay it off."
"You spent so much money when you're only in Grade 10?"
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head repeatedly and said, "Zhang Yu, how on earth did you spend this 700,000 yuan?"
Zhang Yu rubbed his head and said, "I forgot... Let me think about it."
Bai Zhenzhen looked at him doubtfully, "You didn't invest it in something, did you? Were you scammed?"
As Zhang Yu recalled, he also became uncertain, "Shouldn't be, right?"
However, Bai Zhenzhen's expression suddenly became serious. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that the 700,000 yuan Zhang Yu spent was problematic. "Give me your phone."
Zhang Yu understood that she was concerned about him. After all, investment, fraud, gambling, sudden death, and going insane were the top five causes of death in Songyang City, with going insane ranking fifth.
At this moment, he also had doubts about the original body. So he took out his phone and said, "I also want to review how I spent this money. Let's take a look at the transaction records together."
Their eyes scanned the phone screen, and they could see Zhang Yu's original body's expenses item by item.
As Zhang Yu looked at them, many relevant details of his memories also surged into his mind.
Dan Ding Pharmacy - 280.00
Dan Ding Pharmacy - 250.00
Shi Bu Dai Wo Jing Shi - 120.00
While looking, Zhang Yu explained, "I bought elixirs at the school pharmacy and rented a quiet room for qigong cultivation..."
In addition to general courses such as Chinese, math, physics, history, etc., the teaching content in Songyang High School also included courses related to immortal dao.
The so-called immortal dao was the path for a person to gradually ascend to immortality. It was the most important part of high school education, accounting for the highest proportion of scores and being the key to getting into prestigious universities.
Qigong cultivation was the most basic skill in immortal dao. By gathering the spiritual energy in the air through qigong cultivation, cultivators could accumulate internal force in their bodies.
Only with sufficient internal force could one drive stronger combat power and reach higher realms. It could be said that internal force was the foundation for all immortal dao techniques to function.
For example, to break through from the Qi Refinement Realm to the Foundation Establishment Realm, the requirement for internal force was above 60 points, while the upper limit of internal force that a Qi Refinement cultivator could master was 100 points.
In the system established by the top ten sects, everything was standardized and digitized as much as possible, including internal force. For instance, the internal force detection in schools was accurate to one decimal place.
Bai Zhenzhen nodded slightly and continued to scroll down.
Shui Xiu Catering Service Co., Ltd. - 532.00
Zhang Yu explained, "This was for extra nourishment in the cafeteria."
In immortal dao cultivation, the strength of the physical body was equally crucial. Consuming a large amount of food rich in spiritual energy and immortal dao elements was also a daily routine for cultivators, known as dietary supplementation.
Long Xiang Education Service Co., Ltd. - 1500.00
Long Xiang Education Service Co., Ltd. - 3000.00
After recalling, Zhang Yu said, "Hmm... This was for the tutoring fees last time and the rental fee for a spiritual root."
A spiritual root was a special kind of talent. Only a very few geniuses had it, which could greatly enhance a cultivator's cultivation efficiency and combat power.
As the once most famous threshold in immortal dao, even Zhang Yu and his mother, who were living in the past when he was in junior high school, knew various legends about spiritual roots. So when the original Zhang Yu was repaying his debts and taking tutoring classes, he even used renting a spiritual root as an excuse to ask his mother for money.
However, with the development of immortal dao technology nowadays, ordinary people like Zhang Yu without spiritual roots could also rent spiritual roots to improve their cultivation efficiency.
As he continued scrolling down, except for the initial explanations, the subsequent expenditure items were almost all similar, all related to immortal dao cultivation.
Soon after scrolling through Zhang Yu's expenses in the past few months, Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu with eyes full of pity. "You actually spent so much on your immortal dao cultivation and only ranked tenth?"
"In just over three months of school, you owe 700,000 yuan?"
"There are only three weeks left until the monthly exam. In three weeks, if you don't have money to rent spiritual roots, buy elixirs, attend tutoring classes, or even buy daily supplements... while others are making progress every minute, it's normal for your grade ranking to drop by dozens of places."
"If that happens, you'll be directly kicked out of the demonstration class!"
Combining what Bai Zhenzhen said, many relevant memories surged into Zhang Yu's mind.
There were a total of ten classes in Grade 10, numbered from Class 1 to Class 10. The classes were rearranged according to the monthly exam results.
According to Zhang Yu's ranking, he was naturally placed in Class 1, the best class also known as the demonstration class.
The monthly exam scores consisted not only of regular general knowledge exams but most importantly, the scores of immortal dao cultiva
After all, general knowledge education only accounted for 50 points, while the rest of the immortal dao subjects added up to a whopping 650 points.
Especially since everyone was a Grade 10 student and had only officially started cultivating immortality after starting school, their cultivation levels were actually quite similar.
Although he seemed to be ranked tenth, if he couldn't maintain his previous progress in the next few weeks, it would be easy for him to fall dozens of places behind.
Bai Zhenzhen continued, "If you continue to have no money and your ranking keeps dropping, your treatment will get worse and worse. In this vicious cycle, you'll be gradually kicked from Class 1 to Class 10!"
She looked serious and said, "Without money and good grades, you'll become combustible garbage in the eyes of the teachers, a joke among the students in the demonstration class, and an object for the ordinary class students to achieve cheap self-superiority!"
Bai Zhenzhen hugged her head and sighed, "Do you want to live at the bottom of the school's disdain chain, being insulted repeatedly? Eventually, you'll become a high school dropout and a social scumbag!"
Hearing this, Zhang Yu tugged at the corner of his mouth. "So the only good thing about this world is that I can cultivate immortality. But on the first day, I'm told that I don't have the talent for it?"
After returning to the classroom, not long after, Zhang Yu picked up his vibrating phone. It was a transfer of 500 yuan from Bai Zhenzhen, along with a message.
Bai Zhenzhen: Pay the water and electricity bills first.
Zhang Yu was slightly taken aback. Suddenly smelling his clothes, he immediately realized that Bai Zhenzhen must have smelled the smell of not having showered for several days on him.
Thinking that she had such a poor financial situation but still sent him money, Zhang Yu sighed in his heart. He typed a long message on his phone but then deleted it all. Finally, he replied: Thank you.
After replying to the phone, Zhang Yu looked at the symbol on his palm. He found that half of it had been filled with black.
On his way to school and entering the classroom, Zhang Yu had noticed that only he could see this symbol on his palm.
At this moment, he calculated the time. He estimated that the symbol would be completely filled with black tonight. But what would happen after it was completely filled, he didn't know.