Learn one small skill every day

[Congratulations on acquiring the skill: Eating instant noodles through your nostrils]

[Eating instant noodles through your nostrils has reached LV4!]

"?"

Bai Miao could hardly believe it.

Why do I start smoking all this weird stuff as soon as I wake up from a nightmare?

Aerial splits are a relatively new skill, and it's always good to introduce new skills, but Bai Miao feels like he's lost out big time this time.

Why do I keep getting this thing in my draws?

Just as Bai Miao was about to lie down again, the door to the ward opened, and Zhao Wanyang walked in carrying a basket of grapes.

"Why do you always appear at the perfect time..."

“You sleep for two days at a time, and I figured you’d wake up soon, so I bought some grapes to check on you. Eat these grapes before you go back to sleep.”

Zhao Wanyang placed the grapes in front of the hospital bed, glared at Bai Miao, and said, "Aren't you going to eat? Do you want me to feed you?"

Bai Miao stared intently at Zhao Wanyang and the backpack behind her: "What's in your backpack?"

"Homework. I still have to do some problems. Math will deteriorate if you don't do it every day. You haven't done any practice tests for so many days. Don't stumble in the college entrance exam."

Bai Miao propped himself up: "Let me see the test paper."

"Hey, I was just kidding. You still want to do your homework in this state?"

"No, I didn't do it."

Bai Miao shook his head, unfolded the small table on the hospital bed, moved it to the side, and patted the empty space next to him: "You do it, and explain the problem-solving process to me as you do it."

"what?"

Zhao Wanyang was stunned.

"Come up quickly."

"Well... okay, I don't know what you're thinking, but I'll do it. I'm the kind of person who can get full marks sometimes, so explaining as I do it is a piece of cake."

Zhao Wanyang sat down next to Bai Miao, spread out the math test paper in front of Bai Miao, and started working on the first multiple-choice question.

"For this part... we just need to draw an auxiliary line, and then use similar triangles to calculate the length..."

"This problem requires setting up coordinates..."

"Here...this..."

As the questions progressed, Zhao Wanyang's explanations became increasingly difficult to understand.

Bai Miao's smile, however, was radiant.

"You idiot, can't do math problems anymore? Even if you know all the math knowledge in my head, without my logical thinking ability, you still can't solve the problems."

Bai Miao placed his hand on Zhao Wanyang's head: "Do you think that by setting up two layers of dreams, I won't be able to detect it?"

"Come on, I'll teach you. This last big question is a constructive proof. You don't know how, do you? But I'm not going to tell you how to construct it. You want to understand math? You can't learn it with your dog brain. Let me out right now."

"Crack!"

Cracks appeared in the entire ward space, and Zhao Wanyang was reduced to pieces.

The next moment, Bai Miao woke up in the mud house.

"You really can't expect this kind of guy to follow the rules."

After drawing the skill he had already drawn several times, Bai Miao had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

Upon seeing Zhao Wanyang bring grapes, Bai Miao's suspicions deepened even further.

Shouldn't I have been given cherries?

Bai Miao thought that perhaps the nightmare disorder had temporarily constructed a second layer of dream, trying to make himself think that he had woken up, so he did not do many details.

If one truly believes that waking up is real, and falls asleep again, one will not enter the first layer of the dream, but will remain in the second layer forever, taking it as the real world and sinking into despair.

Of course, Bai Miao cannot be completely certain that the scene when he first woke up was reality.

However, Bai Miao believed that as long as he studied the latest mathematical knowledge and tackled those mathematical problems every time he woke up, he would definitely be able to tell whether he was dreaming or not.

Mathematics requires extremely rigorous logical reasoning, something that nightmares cannot construct.

If there is an error in any part, the entire proof will have to be scrapped and started over.

How can you expect someone who's fighting for territory with other beings in Yar City to learn math problems and then recreate them in his nightmares without Bai Miao finding logical errors?

Bai Miao found it amusing.

Bai Miao couldn't guarantee anything else, but at least in terms of scientific knowledge, he felt he was no less capable than the group of people in Yar City.

But this method of breaking the deadlock is useless here.

No one knows the answer, and the result is always the same.

It was still dark outside, probably around 2 a.m.

In other words, the first time should have been when I was truly awake, but now I'm not truly awake, so the time in the dream hasn't reached the next day...

Let me take another nap and see.

Bai Miao lay back down.

When I woke up, I was greeted by the familiar ceiling and hospital room.

A basket of freshly washed cherries sat on the bedside table.

Zhao Wanyang sat by the hospital bed: "You woke up pretty punctually."

Bai Miao looked at Zhao Wanyang's schoolbag: "Enough talk, let's do a math problem first."

"?"

Chapter 212 The Assistance of Technology

"Bai Miao, are you still half asleep? The first thing you do when you wake up is ask me to do a math test for you?"

Faced with Zhao Wanyang's questioning, Bai Miao persisted, saying, "Hurry up and do it, and you also need to explain your thought process to me, otherwise I can't be sure whether this is reality or a dream."

Zhao Wanyang paused for a moment, then sighed, "Alright... if it can make you believe you're really awake..."

As she spoke, she took out a set of test papers from her bag, glanced at Bai Miao, and said, "What are you all standing there for? Make some room for me."

While squeezing Bai Miao to the side of the bed, Zhao Wanyang spread the test paper on the table.

"The previous questions were too easy, so I'll go straight to the last one. If I can solve the last one, will you trust me then?"

Bai Miao nodded: "That's right."

Zhao Wanyang confidently began working out calculations on the draft paper, explaining her thought process without stopping.

"Here...here..."

But halfway through, Zhao Wanyang's face turned red...

"I can't keep calculating..."

Even Zhao Wanyang couldn't guarantee that she could solve the last question every time.

The final, most challenging question in the college entrance examination (Gaokao) mathematics section is like a dazzling jewel in the entire high school mathematics exam, and countless people want to pluck it from the sky.

But apart from those competition students, very few people can solve problems as easily as Bai Miao, no matter how complex they are.

Zhao Wanyang was no exception.

"Let's make an assumption here, and then you can take a look."

Bai Miao took the pen from Zhao Wanyang and added a line to her calculation.

Zhao Wanyang's eyes lit up immediately: "So that's how it can be done..."

Then she looked at Bai Miao: "You just told me the solution like that... You don't doubt me anymore?"

Bai Miao smiled slightly: "I never doubted from the beginning that this was a dream."

"Then why did you..."

"You've been watching over me these past few days and haven't been able to do your homework properly, right? I'll give you a little tutoring as a way of thanking you."

Zhao Wanyang's heart skipped a beat, and she stammered, "I didn't stay by your side every day. I only came over when I saw you were about to wake up."

After saying that, she gently nudged Bai Miao: "Go back to sleep! I have to go back to school and can't stay too long."

Zhao Wanyang quickly packed her schoolbag and jogged out of the ward.

Just as Bai Miao was about to go back to sleep, Yu Yingcai knocked on the door and came in.

Bai Miao thought it was quite respectful that such a high-ranking leader had been paying attention to him.

"Uncle Yu, you don't need to focus your energy on me. I have my own way of handling this."

Yu Yingcai smiled and sat down in front of the hospital bed: "I came to discuss something with you. You should know that you have some electrodes attached to your head. These electrodes are used to collect your brain signals."

He took out a tablet from his pocket, which displayed a bunch of data analysis graphs.

“Our team has been actively analyzing the brainwave information collected from you these days and has found several abnormal frequencies.”

Yu Yingcai pointed to several unusual protruding points: "Some people in the team suspect that these points indicate that you experienced abnormal emotional fluctuations in your dream, which may be due to encountering danger, or they may be points where the nightmare disorder you mentioned has intensified its impact on you."

"Uncle Yu, what would you like to do? I'll cooperate fully if the conditions are right."

Yu Yingcai didn't rush to answer Bai Miao's question. After a few seconds, he slowly said, "We want to try to see if we can use some of the methods we have to interfere with your nightmares."

"We don't have a clear understanding of dreams yet, but we can already judge them from some brainwave signals during dreaming, and even influence the formation of dreams."

Yu Yingcai's expression was quite serious, yet also somewhat expectant: "If we can be of any help to your dream, then that would be enough to show that we also have our own means of resistance against the door. We can completely absorb the technology within the door based on our own technology and surpass the door."

Bai Miao heard from Yu Yingcai that he harbored great ambitions.

Or rather, it's a kind of resilience.

While most knockers saw the door as an opportunity to rise above others, Yu Yingcai viewed it as both a threat and a catalyst for the evolution of civilization.

Being caught between two ends means bearing considerable pressure.

But Bai Miao still wanted to pour cold water on the idea.