I was a top student in America.

South Side of Chicago, USA.

In a classroom at Wyndham High School, Li Ao, who was slumped over his desk, suddenly looked up, staring blankly at the crooked English writing on the blackboard.

"Shouldn't I be working overtime at the company?"

After graduating from university, Li Ao worked as a consultant at a study abroad consulting company in Beijing. It took him six years of hard work to rise from a writing assistant to a project manager.

Working long hours, catering to clients during the day and polishing documents at night, is a common occurrence for those rich kids aiming for Ivy League schools.

The last thing he remembered was sitting in front of his computer at three in the morning, helping a rich girl revise a document for Cornell University. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and the coffee cup next to him overturned. After that, he knew nothing more.

Who would have thought that when they opened their eyes again, they would not see a hospital ceiling, but a dilapidated foreign middle school classroom.

Am I dreaming?

He stared at the classroom with its peeling walls, his temples throbbing.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around; most of the faces were Black.

The boy with dreadlocks in the front row had his Air Jordans on a shelf on his desk, while the girl next to him was wearing headphones, closing her eyes, and shaking her head.

On the platform, a bald, white old man was rapidly muttering to himself in a low voice, as if he were a mental patient talking to himself.

A faded school flag was crookedly nailed to the back wall of the classroom, with a gray eagle with outstretched wings and the words "Wyndham High School" printed on it.

He stared at the flag for three seconds, then suddenly jolted awake as a jumble of fragmented memories flooded his mind.

"Is this the South Side of Chicago? Have I been transported to America?"

I looked up at the old fluorescent lights buzzing overhead and the bulletproof film pasted on the windows.

Li Ao was stunned.

Reborn in Gotham?

What the hell is this starting point?

South Side of Chicago.

Gangs, murder, drugs...

Free America, shootings every day.

In this godforsaken place, forget about going to university; just managing to graduate unscathed is a feat in itself.

Wyndham High School is at the bottom of the Chicago public school system, with fewer than 400 students and a graduation rate of less than 30%. The number of students who get into a decent university each year is not enough to fill a mahjong table.

Just as Li Ao was realizing the reality, someone suddenly poked his arm from the side.

Turning my head, I saw a black man with a buzz cut and a silver earring approaching, grinning to reveal his white teeth:

"Leo, you're awake? Didn't you hear old man Brown calling you?"

DeMarcus Williams.

Memory flows smoothly.

The original owner was practically invisible at the school. DeMarcus was the only one she could talk to. The two of them had equally bad grades and both lived in the cheap apartment complex in the south.

Occasionally, this guy would share half of his peanut butter sandwich with him, acting like a kind-hearted neighborhood elder brother.

He nodded in response; at Wyndham High School, DeMarcus was one of the few who showed any goodwill.

I glanced at the blackboard following DeMarcus's gaze.

Brown, an elderly white man, is writing a quadratic function:

f(x) = a(xh)^2 + k.

He stared at the formula for a full minute, his mind still a jumbled mess.

Vertex-based?

Translation transformation?

Never mind, I don't understand it.

After graduating from college, he has been dealing with essays and application materials. He had long forgotten what he learned in high school math, not to mention that this was written in the style of American textbooks.

He simply looked away, no longer wanting to make things difficult for himself.

Whether you understand functions or not doesn't matter; the most important thing right now is to figure out your own situation.

I have to survive in this godforsaken place.

However, there is one advantage to being a study abroad consultant—you get used to bad situations.

He managed to get into a prestigious university despite having a consistently low GPA (around 2.x). No matter how bad the start, he could always find a loophole.

But where is the vulnerability?

He stared intently at a deep knife mark on the corner of the table.

Sudden.

A semi-transparent light blue panel suddenly appeared in front of him, and he involuntarily leaned back, almost jumping off his chair.

I subconsciously turned my head and looked around. DeMarcus was still scribbling with his head down, Mr. Brown was still talking to himself, and the black guy with the dreadlocks and the lady listening to music were still engrossed in their work.

Seeing that no one had noticed his unusual behavior, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, turning their attention back to the panel, they saw several lines of data gradually appearing on it.

-

Name: Li Ao (Leo Lee)

Identity: High school student

Power: 92.1

Agility: 95.7

Stamina: 90.2

Intelligence: 97.6

-

Entry: None

"What is this...?"

Upon seeing the numbers, Li Ao was first stunned, then his heart began to race.

There's a system!

He suppressed his excitement and began to carefully study the contents of the panel.

He quickly noticed a small plus sign icon next to each number, as if it could be expanded.

Try focusing your attention on "Intelligence," and a new line of descriptive text will immediately pop up on the panel.

【Intelligence: 97.6】

The average level for a normal person is 100.0. Focusing on learning, deep thinking, and problem-solving can all improve this attribute.

[Reaching an attribute to 100 will unlock the corresponding affix, enhancing the related ability.]

After reading this explanation, even with the mindset of someone in their thirties, Li Ao found it hard to contain his excitement.

Having worked in the study abroad industry for so many years, he had long been accustomed to the harsh realities:

No matter how hard you try to divide your day into two, it can't compare to the shortcut that rich people take by directly buying connections.

Ordinary children often strive with all their might simply to bridge the gap in genes or background.

But now, for him, effort and reward have been completely quantified.

Focusing will increase your stats, and increasing your stats will make you stronger.

This means that he not only has a chance to escape Gotham, this inferno—

Even the upper limit of one's life will be completely rewritten.

In his past life, he helped hundreds of good-for-nothing rich kids get into prestigious universities, while he himself only had an ordinary second-tier university diploma. It would be a lie to say he wasn't a little resentful.

Now that God has given him a second chance, he will walk through that door himself this time.

Next, Li Ao checked the three attributes of strength, agility, and stamina one by one. The mechanism and intelligence were similar.

In other words, whether it's learning, training, or anything else that requires focused attention, the corresponding attribute will slowly increase.

Reaching a certain threshold will unlock new terms.

As for the specific effects of the entries, there are currently no further details on the panel.

But he doesn't care.

Having a clear progress bar is a hundred times better than groping in the dark.

"Then let's start today, roll them up!"

Li Ao took a deep breath and made up his mind.

He then pulled a crumpled Algebra II textbook from his desk and began flipping through it, starting with the first chapter.

Currently, all four attributes are below average, but he is very clear about the priorities—

First, raise their intelligence level.

When applying to American universities, the most valuable assets are always standardized test scores and academic competition results.

Application documents can be packaged, activities can be planned, and recommendation letters can be obtained, but grades and awards cannot be faked.

In a struggling school like the one in the South District that can't even find enough full-time AP teachers, academic competitions, especially math competitions, are the most cost-effective way to turn things around.

When DeMarcus saw that Li Ao had actually opened his textbook, he was about to say something when he suddenly caught a glimpse of Mr. Brown walking towards the back row. He quickly withdrew his hand and patted him on the shoulder.

"Li, keep it low-key, Brown is coming."

Robert Brown, in his fifties, had endured nearly twenty years at this run-down school, and his standards had long since deteriorated to "as long as he doesn't pull out a gun or throw marijuana in class."

He strolled slowly, routinely surveying his territory.

When his gaze swept to the back row, he suddenly stopped and frowned slightly.

The Asian boy, who usually just lies down and sleeps, was sitting up straight, staring at an open textbook.

Brown took a half-step closer, looking suspiciously at the page—

The basic concepts in Chapter 1 are completely different from the quadratic functions explained on the blackboard.

"As expected, it was all an act. I wonder what he was thinking..."

"But this kid used to just lie down and sleep in class, what's gotten into him today?"

Brown casually patted the corner of Li Ao's table and tapped it down:

"Keep up the pace, Lee. There's a quiz on the first seven chapters this Friday."

After saying that, he walked back to the podium with his hands behind his back, without looking back again.

Mr. Brown's words did not interrupt Li Ao, who was completely absorbed in mathematics at the moment.

With a clear goal, he continuously received positive feedback during the review process, which made him thoroughly enjoy the experience.

Soon, the algebraic memory from middle school will be back—

Polynomial operations, function graphs, factorization...

It is constantly awakened through reading and recollection.

He couldn't tell if this was a change brought about by time travel, or if the system was at work, or simply because he had learned it before.

But the result was real—the sense of accomplishment from gradually regaining knowledge made him unable to stop.

At that moment, he even felt that even without a system, the thrill of learning a subject again was addictive enough.

Just then, a new line of text quietly appeared on the panel in front of me.

[Focusing on studying... Intelligence +0.1]

……