From child prodigy to chief scientist

In August, the weather in the steel city was rather hot.

In the bedroom, a boy is sitting at his desk, intently reading the book in his hands.

Even though the fan was on in the room, sweat kept streaming down his forehead.

The boy looked to be only ten years old, but his youthful face revealed a serious expression that only adults usually have.

The high school mathematics book he was reading was completely out of step with his age.

After a long while, the boy put the book on the desk and sighed deeply.

"Sigh... So many years have passed, I've almost forgotten everything I learned in high school."

The calendar hanging on the wall shows that the current time is 2004.

Just a few days ago, Xu Xiao was suddenly reborn at the age of 11.

In her previous life, Xu Xiao was a programmer. Given the nature of the job, working overtime until late at night was commonplace.

One night, Xu Xiao felt a slight pain in her heart.

But he didn't pay too much attention to it, just thinking that he was a little tired, and even drank another cup of coffee to perk himself up.

However, these symptoms did not subside. Xu Xiao finally lost consciousness after feeling her heart pound rapidly several times.

When he woke up again, he had returned to this era.

At first, Xu Xiao couldn't believe that she had been reborn; she thought it was just a dream.

But everything that happened here was so real that Xu Xiao still had to accept the fact that he had been reborn.

To be honest, Xu Xiao once hoped for a rebirth.

In her past life, Xu Xiao had too many regrets: she didn't get into her ideal university, she didn't find her ideal job, and she didn't take care of her parents before they got old.

If he could, he would love to go back to his high school days and live them all over again.

He never imagined that he would actually return to the fifth grade of elementary school—

An age where the voice hasn't even changed yet.

For an adult, the material being taught now is far too simplistic.

Left with no other choice, Xu Xiao could only dig out her father's old high school textbooks, which could be considered as preparing for the college entrance examination in advance.

Although Xu Xiao in her previous life wasn't exactly a top student, her college entrance exam scores were decent, barely passing the first-tier university admission line that year.

However, after starting work, apart from the knowledge closely related to the job content, most of the knowledge has been forgotten.

This made Xu Xiao feel somewhat fortunate. If he had really been reborn before the college entrance examination, his score would probably not have been as high as in his previous life.

If you start preparing for the college entrance examination now, you still have plenty of time.

Just then, Xu Xiao suddenly heard a voice seemingly coming from his mind.

The system has been successfully bound to the host.

[Assessing the host's academic level across various disciplines...]

[Chinese Language: 60 (Significant gaps in understanding classical poetry and literary knowledge; difficulty in grasping the author's emotions during reading comprehension)]

[Mathematics: 62 (Much of junior high and high school foundational knowledge forgotten, requires complete reconstruction)]

[English: 58 (Severely insufficient core vocabulary for the college entrance examination, and chaotic grammar rules)]

…………

As the synthesized voice appeared in his mind, corresponding text also appeared before Xu Xiao's eyes.

"This is...the system?"

Xu Xiao was naturally familiar with the concept of a "system," but when it actually happened to him, he was completely unprepared.

However, since even rebirth has already occurred, the appearance of another system doesn't seem so strange.

Looking at the system's evaluations of his various subjects, Xu Xiao wasn't very happy, but he had to admit that the evaluations were quite objective.

Let alone the college entrance examination, even if Xu Xiao were to take the high school entrance examination now, he would most likely not be able to get into a key high school.

Just as Xu Xiao was pondering these matters, the system displayed a new message notification.

The keyword task has been updated.

[1. Accumulate 200 hours of effective learning to obtain the term "Focus"]

[Effect of this entry: Reduces the time required to enter a state of focus by 50%]

[When focused, the speed of acquiring all knowledge increases by 30%, and one is immune to minor distractions.]

[2. Remain awake for 48 consecutive hours to obtain the entry "Extreme Liver Burn"]

[Effect of this entry: After active activation, learning efficiency increases by 50% for the next three hours]

[Within 24 hours of the term's effect ending, you will be unable to enter a state of intense study again, your learning efficiency will decrease by 50%, and you will experience a decline in mental alertness.]

[3. Gain the favor of ten members of the opposite sex to obtain the attribute "Charm"]

[Action Effect: Increases attractiveness to the opposite sex by 20%]

In public places, they are more likely to become the center of attention.

Please choose one of the three task categories.

Upon seeing the system's terminology module, Xu Xiao couldn't help but show a delighted expression.

In this life, Xu Xiao is sure to achieve even greater success than in his previous life, thanks to his status as a reborn individual.

However, some things cannot be solved by rebirth. Even with the experience of rebirth, Xu Xiao is unlikely to be comparable to those true geniuses.

But if one could obtain the power of "entries," the outcome would be entirely different.

"Can I only choose one keyword task? Let me think about it..."

The first word Xu Xiao ruled out was "charm".

For an eleven-year-old, improving one's charm doesn't mean much.

Even if Xu Xiao is fully capable of completing this task, the reward will be very limited.

"Working overtime" is an option to consider, as both the difficulty of completing the entry tasks and the function of the entries are within Xu Xiao's acceptable range.

However, using this term has rather obvious negative effects.

In comparison, "focus" is still a higher priority.

While its effects are not as strong as "overworking," it also has no negative side effects and requires no cooldown time.

As for this task, it doesn't seem that difficult.

"200 hours of effective learning... If you study for ten hours a day, you can complete the task in twenty days."

Even if the task doesn't go as smoothly as imagined in practice, it will only take a few more days.

Thinking of this, Xu Xiao silently recited in his mind:

"System, I choose the first keyword task!"

[Focus on key terms has been activated; total effective learning time: (0/200) hours]

Seeing that the task for this entry had already started, Xu Xiao disregarded everything else and immediately continued studying.

Perhaps due to the incentive of the task, Xu Xiao was highly motivated to study this time, as if he had returned to his high school days.

After an unknown amount of time, Xu Xiao finally felt a little tired and stopped to check the time.

"More than an hour has passed... It's true that time flies when you're fully engaged in something."

Although Xu Xiao had forgotten a lot of this knowledge, he still had some impression of it, so learning it would definitely be faster than starting from scratch.

However, when he looked at the system interface with anticipation, he was somewhat disappointed to find that the effective learning time was only 0.5 hours.

"It seems that the system has very strict requirements for effective learning, and less than half of the time is actually included in the statistics."

Xu Xiao had to admit that he did often get distracted during his studies, and these were not considered effective study times.

Just as Xu Xiao was about to study a little longer, she suddenly heard the sound of a key unlocking the door.