I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

Cheng Fei nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. "Being Lin Xuanqi's dog is one thing, but you want me to be your dog too? I might as well commit suicide and be reborn as a dog."

Shen Xi's eyes flickered, as if she disdained to collude with Lin Xuanqi. "Then from now on you will be my servant, responsible for carrying my bags, buying water, and running errands."

"Isn't this just a change of name?"

"If you don't dare to gamble, then so be it. You cowardly man." Shen Xi sneered, seemingly losing interest, and turned to draw the stars.

Cheng Fei gritted his teeth, "Fine, I'll bet. But don't try to back out later and come crying to the teacher saying I bullied you."

Shen Xi's face was colder than ice from the frozen sea; she ignored him, seemingly acquiescing.

After a while, Cheng Fei laughed triumphantly, "Teacher Shen, have you noticed a detail?"

"What?" Shen Xi glanced at him.

"The day-night interval in the corridor changes drastically and randomly, it can't possibly be the real world. You've fallen for their trap. I can't lose this time."

Shen Xi took a deep breath and lowered her eyes. "The one who laughs last laughs best."

“Is that so?” Cheng Fei was completely unfazed.

After a while, Shen Xi put down her pencil and breathed a sigh of relief. "That's enough for today. I'll be coming here to observe for the next week."

"Why are you staring at me? I don't have time to spend all my time doing this kind of boring stuff. Besides, can't we look at the stars on the first floor?"

Shen Xi shook her head. "We must rule out the possibility of interference from the game system."

Cheng Fei had a bit of a headache. "Then I'll get you a set of Tier 4 equipment, and you can smuggle it in yourself from now on."

"If it gets lost, I will not be responsible." Shen Xi said expressionlessly.

Cheng Fei suddenly understood how she and Nagasaki Asuna had managed to lose the valuable equipment of someone else's small guild.

Cheng Fei rubbed his forehead and sighed, "I'll try to spend time with you whenever I can. If I'm busy, you can come by yourself. If you drop it, it's on me."

"Okay." Shen Xi turned to tidy up her work.

The girl rolled up the manuscript, put it into a special drawing tube, and then put away the easel.

After doing all that, she turned her gaze to Lin Xuanqi, who was kneeling on the ground, lifeless.

She crouched down, first patting Lin Xuanqi's face, then checking her breathing and pulse. After that, she pried open Lin Xuanqi's eyelids and shone a flashlight into Lin Xuanqi's pupils, her movements as professional as a forensic doctor.

After doing all this, Shen Xi reached out to Cheng Fei, "Give me the sword."

"What do you want to do?" Cheng Fei asked suspiciously.

"May I borrow it?"

"Be careful, this is a treasure." Cheng Fei drew the black longsword and handed it to her.

Shen Xi gripped the hilt of the sword, weighed it in his hand, and then, supporting Lin Xuanqi's back, thrust the sword firmly into her chest.

A faint "splatter" sound could be heard, followed by splattering of blood.

"Are you a psychopath?" Cheng Fei was shocked.

Shen Xi, however, didn't care. She pulled the sword out and returned it to Cheng Fei, then checked Lin Xuanqi's vital signs again, muttering, "She's only dead now, which means being offline isn't fatal..."

Cheng Fei understood what she was researching and sighed, "Speaking of which, I saw it on the fifth floor before; there were indeed out-of-control machines collecting players' corpses."

"I understand." Shen Xi stood up, a smug look on her face. "Cheng Fei, it seems I've won again."

"You didn't design this game, did you?" Cheng Fei asked, puzzled. "Do you have family members working at a game company?"

Shen Xi seemed to be in a good mood and didn't respond to Cheng Fei's questioning at all. She stood up and said, "Alright, I'm going back to study the stars. Escort me, servant."

"I haven't lost yet!"

"It's coming soon, I predict."

That's enough.

……

37. Shen Xi, you're finished.

After leaving the corridor, Cheng Fei immediately threw himself into intense training and study, ordering takeout whenever he got hungry using the medical expenses Lin Xuanqi had given him.

He continued jogging until 10:30 p.m., then went out for a jog. Half an hour later, he returned to his rented room, washed up, and went to bed to relieve the day's fatigue.

The same rhythm repeated itself the next day, but Cheng Fei didn't find it boring at all; on the contrary, he enjoyed it immensely.

With his intelligence reaching extraordinary levels, he clearly felt that his mind was much more efficient. Both his memory and thinking abilities had improved, making it much easier for him to learn new things. It was incredibly enjoyable.

In addition, his consistent exercise has also brought about subtle changes in his body, the most obvious of which is that he has become more energetic.

It's worth mentioning that Cheng Fei carefully examined the [bracelet] and found that it was surprisingly powerful.

The bracelet has built-in fitness guidance and a points system. You will accumulate points every time you complete the exercise according to the guidance.

At first, Cheng Fei thought it was another kind of points that could be exchanged for something, but later he realized that the points here were actually experience points.

The bracelet has three colors of experience points: red, yellow, and blue, which correspond to the three experience bars: [Strength], [Endurance], and [Agility], respectively.

After each workout, Cheng Fei's three experience bars would increase to varying degrees, depending on the type of workout.

That's right, this thing can quantify the training process and reflect the results of each workout as numerical changes.

Cheng Fei's [Endurance] experience bar is almost full. He guesses that when the experience bar is truly full, his [Endurance] will increase from 5 points to 6 points.

Even if the fitness tracker doesn't directly enhance the workout results, Cheng Fei already feels it's excellent value for money just for the fitness guidance and quantitative display.

As long as he can see real numerical changes with each workout, he is confident that he can raise all three attributes to an extraordinary level through consistent practice.

The hope of becoming a perfect human being has increased even more, which is truly cause for celebration.

On Sunday afternoon, Shen Xi asked Cheng Fei to accompany her to the same spot on the fifth floor to look at the stars.

Cheng Fei also paid out of his own pocket to get her a set of Tier 4 equipment.

When customizing the design, Cheng Fei originally planned to give her an outfit with white pantyhose to match the image of an elf princess.

Unfortunately, Shen Xi was extremely disgusted by Cheng Fei's aesthetic sense and stubbornly chose the combination of a white skirt armor and long boots, which made Cheng Fei shake his head.

Before logging off, Cheng Fei casually sent a friend request to "Nana sna".

Regardless, Asuna Nagasaki is an important source of points, so we still have to give her face.

……

As the new week begins, autumn rain falls in Academy City.

As the saying goes, "one autumn rain brings one chill," but in Academy City, it's more like three chills. As soon as it rains, the temperature drops, and the icy air makes you want to wrap yourself in autumn clothes.

However, this is not important to the students of Yinghua; what is important is that the monthly exam is coming.

Despite Sakura's forced participation in club activities, making it seem like a free and easy island school, Sakura is actually renowned throughout Academy City for its rigorous academic standards.

Monthly exams are held without interruption, taking place over two days on the weekend, with results released by noon the following day at the latest. Grade rankings are posted directly on the bulletin board on the first floor of the teaching building, demonstrating remarkable efficiency and highlighting the inherent characteristics of a high school in China.

On Thursday afternoon, Cheng Fei walked through the corridor where wisteria leaves were gradually falling, heading towards the club activity room.

It wasn't just the wisteria that was shedding its leaves; a gust of autumn wind swept through, and the ginkgo trees in the courtyard, which had turned a bright yellow, also shed their leaves in a flurry. A perfectly shaped and colored ginkgo leaf seemed to come alive and stuck to the boy's shirt.

The boy picked up the leaf, looked at it, and then put it and his hand into his pocket.

Cheng Fei climbed to the sixth floor and pushed open the door to the club activity room.

The aloof girl with long, dark hair sat on the steel tube chair as always, focused on what she was doing. Unlike usual, the electric fan in the corner of the room was turned off, and the girl's slender, fair legs were tightly wrapped in black over-the-knee stockings.

Cheng Fei walked up to Shen Xi, placed a ginkgo leaf between the pages of the hardcover book she was reading, and questioned, "Why aren't you wearing white?"

Shen Xi glanced at the perfect ginkgo leaf, frowned, and said, "We haven't been dating for a long time. Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself."

"You weren't wearing any when we were dating either." Cheng Fei put down his backpack opposite Shen Xi, unzipped it, and took out his study materials.

"Don't bother me," Shen Xi said impatiently, staring at the hardcover book in her hands.

Cheng Fei felt that since the breakup, her temper had become increasingly difficult to deal with, and she could barely speak to him, her ex-boyfriend.

Cheng Fei didn't care and started doing practice problems on his own.

Cheng Fei has made ample preparations and is determined to get first place in the grade in this monthly exam!

Women, you can keep stargazing all day long. You'll regret it when you finally have to call your husband.

An hour later, Cheng Fei stretched, stood up to move his whole body, and looked out the window to avoid nearsightedness.

Then he walked behind Shen Xi and watched her work.

Shen Xi has been observing the stars every day for the past few days. Cheng Fei accompanied her for two days, and she went alone one day, almost dying on the way back.

Each time, she would bring the manuscript back to the first floor to organize it, then replicate it in reality from memory. Afterward, she would take a whole stack of astrological charts from the game and study them over and over again with the constellation guide.

Therefore, a globe was added to the club activity room.

"Your Highness, Princess of the Moon, have you obtained the results of your stargazing?" Cheng Fei asked.

"I'll let you know when there's a result. Don't bother me until then." Shen Xi said coldly, without even looking up.

Cheng Fei sensed that her mood had been getting worse these past two days, and the more she studied it, the uglier her complexion seemed to become.

"Remember to let me know if there are no results." Cheng Fei's expression was smug, but he didn't provoke her. He returned to his seat and began to correct the math problems he had just worked on, referring to the answer key.

Shen Xi looked up and stared at him for a while, then sneered, "By the way, there's something I've been wanting to remind you of."

"Huh?" Cheng Fei looked up.

"You won't beat me if you just keep working on the difficult problems in the later units. Focus more on the basics and the overall picture, and it's most important to integrate and understand them."

“I’ve already reviewed those units, so my foundation is solid. Besides, the monthly exam will mainly test new content. We can save the overall review for the midterm test. That’s the most efficient way,” Cheng Fei countered her point of view.

Shen Xi shook her head, seemingly giving up on persuading him. "As expected, he's a so-called realist who's short-sighted, lacks comprehension, is ignorant, and stubbornly clings to his own beliefs."

“Please note that I am no longer a realist,” Cheng Fei said, holding up one finger. “Now I am a strong realist.”

"Don't spout those childish, pretentious ideas that involve changing a single word in an existing phrase and thinking it has profound meaning when it's completely meaningless." The girl spoke irritably.

"Tsk, you ultimate chuunibyou, how dare you call me a chuunibyou?" Cheng Fei became annoyed. "Shen Xi, you're finished. I've decided to wait until I win both bets before I pay them off together."

"What do you want?" Shen Xi seemed to have a bad feeling.

"I want you to call me 'husband' first, and then kiss me."

As the boy finished speaking triumphantly, the girl's expression turned colder than the chilly autumn air.

……

38. Luck wasn't on Cheng Fei's side.

Friday. The second period in the morning is math class, which is also taught by the homeroom teacher of Class 6, Grade 11.

The homeroom teacher of Class 6 in the first year of high school was a rather young female high achiever named Zhao Ya. She was very beautiful and the kind of teacher who was "stern and intimidating when she was strict but could joke around when she was relaxed." Her teaching style was decisive and efficient, so the students were all in awe of her. A few bolder students called her Sister Ya.

After the bell rang, Zhao Ya spent another two minutes explaining the problem she was working on before announcing the end of get out of class.

The students felt as if they had been granted a pardon and relaxed instantly.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Ya, who had just left, returned to the podium, causing the atmosphere to freeze.

The students all held their breath and stared at her intently, afraid that she might get carried away with her teaching and want to go over a couple more questions. Anyone who dared not cooperate at that moment would definitely be scolded.

"Don't be nervous, look at you guys." Zhao Ya's tone was somewhat gloating. "I just wanted to tell you something, I almost forgot."

"The monthly exams are tomorrow and the day after. Yinghua High School and several nearby high schools will have the same unified exam papers. Everyone knows the gap in academic level between them and Yinghua, right?" Zhao Ya said slowly.

A knowing chuckle erupted from the audience.

In Academy City, the students of Sakura have never been afraid of any school when it comes to exams.

Zhao Ya lowered her voice seriously, "According to the inside information I've received, this test will mainly test units two, three, and four to accommodate their learning progress. The more difficult units five and six will probably not be included."

"Sister Ya, is it the same for other subjects?" a student asked.

"Ask your subject teacher for specific details. Basically, when you get home tonight, go back and review what you've learned before. Don't just sit around playing all day. You'll embarrass yourself when you take the exam, understand?"