Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 784 - 782: Runaway
Previously, Gen-Sys Biotech Company wanted to invest in building an experimental center in Yin City as well. They even bought a large number of keyword bids on a search engine that preferred to remain anonymous, claiming they were ready to establish a comprehensive, technologically advanced, and specialized international cutting-edge experimental base. However, the project was promptly halted by the Special Affairs Bureau and eventually fell through.
Now it seems the Special Affairs Bureau had a more far-sighted view, preventing the capital of these multinational pharmaceutical conglomerates from entering...
"Handing out test papers."
The Chinese language class representative, carrying a stack of test papers, walked in, interrupting Wang Congshan's thoughts.
Students in the front row passed back the graded Chinese test papers. Li Ang, who was seemingly engrossed in his mobile phone with his head down, appeared to have eyes on his forehead as he casually took several test papers with one hand. He rubbed the corner of the papers with his fingers, picked out his own, and then passed the rest to the students in the back row.
"What did you get? Show me."
Wang Congshan glanced at her own score, her face taking on an expression of bewildered speechlessness. She flipped her test paper over and took Li Ang's paper from his desk.
"129?"
Wang Congshan raised an eyebrow. "That's not like you. Did you use seal script to write your essay again, just to annoy the grading teacher?"
"What do you mean 'again'?"
Li Ang frowned and said, "That essay required us to write a dialogue with a historical figure, didn't it? I wrote about Emperor Qin Shi Huang, so using seal script was perfectly normal. Otherwise, how could I communicate with him?"
"So you decided to provide phonetic annotations for every seal script character using the Shaanxi dialect? Would Emperor Qin Shi Huang really say things like, 'Mine, mine, it's all mine!' in that dialect?"
Wang Congshan rolled her eyes and flipped open Li Ang's test paper.
As usual, the sections on multiple choice and reading comprehension were all correct; only the essay was docked 21 points.
The essay was a semi-prompt with the topic "Living on..." for students to contemplate their life goals.
Others' essays had titles like "Living in the East," "Living in Modern Times," or "Living in the Present," focusing on themes of either staying true to oneself, being unique, or being useful to society and shining in one's position.
But Li Ang's title...
"Living on a Sodium-cooled Fast Neutron Nuclear Fission Reactor"
???
Wang Congshan read the essay title several times to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her, took a deep breath, and turned to the content of the essay.
"Modern physics began with Planck's proclamation: 'Matter radiates or absorbs energy in integral multiples of the smallest energy quantum.' Expectations originating from metaphysics and mathematics are losing their guiding significance. But faced with what seems like a boundless future sky, I would rather follow Oppenheimer's life—'a myriad of extraordinary lights sparkle, grand as the Spirit showing off its power, only a thousand suns could rival such brilliance'—than prematurely spread my wings and soar."
Wang Congshan blinked. The essay was filled with convoluted terms like "earnest dedication," "expelling charms," "granting charms," "jade terrace," and "resoluteness," interspersed with names like Derek Antuan Lorentz, Ellen Fester, Peter Debye, and others, along with their famous quotes, and ended with the sentence, "This is the ideal paradigm of aspiration provided to me by Oppenheimer. Living on a Sodium-cooled Fast Neutron Nuclear Fission Reactor — forever loving the earth — ascending to the skies."
Wang Congshan opened her mouth, hesitated, then finally asked, "...Your essay... what central idea are you trying to convey?"
Li Ang's expression became solemn. "Of course, it closely adheres to the essay's theme of contemplating one's life goals. In modern society, nuclear energy is a new form of clean, safe, and efficient energy, but the general public often opposes the more widespread construction of nuclear power plants out of various fears. As a young person with morals, cultivation, and knowledge, I feel that I should devote myself to nuclear physics and make my mark in nuclear engineering projects. If I can't dispel the public's concerns, I'll just live on a nuclear fission reactor myself, leading by example and demonstrating safe operations."
"Oh, uh..."
Wang Congshan said dryly, "That's... really plain and straightforward."
"Of course. I never indulge in flashy but meaningless tricks."
Li Ang gave a chilly smile and took his test paper from Wang Congshan, confidently saying, "Although the teacher thinks I was showing off on purpose, deliberately using obscure and arcane terms to replace simple and easy-to-understand content. He thinks that my living on a nuclear fission reactor means I want to be blasted into the sky, becoming an 'Astronaut'—you know, like that freeze-dried astronaut ice cream grandparents buy for kids—and gave me a not-so-high score. But if you replaced the nuclear physics parts with literature, he would probably understand, and this essay would become a rare literary gem of the century. If it wasn't for the fact that the teacher is going to discuss the test later, I would really like to cut out this essay I wrote and stick it on my wall at home as the 'secret formula' for a perfect college entrance examination essay."
"Oh, I totally believe you."
Wang Congshan stuck out her tongue and ignored Li Ang's crazy talk—it was just his chronic 'eighth-grader syndrome' flaring up again. Last time during the school's physical exam, while getting a shot, he hummed the song "Unravel," and with a devilish smile, asked the nurse, "Can you feel my pain? Who do you think suffers more, Jin Mu or Obito?"
The bewildered nurse, of course, jabbed him none too gently while drawing a tube of blood, after which he obediently squatted outside the medical office on the curb, bare-shouldered, using a cotton swab to plug the wound.
Hmm... Actually, that time it wasn't really Li Ang having one of his episodes. To get through the physical without letting the Special Affairs Bureau notice anything abnormal, he had specifically used the Origin of Life to regress his body to that of an ordinary person, and that process had been quite painful indeed. And speaking of the medical office... Last time, during the script task at the Dolphin Hotel, Li Ang kept using his Title Skill "Mystery Delver" to dig into the other players' secrets. He'd pretty much figured out the real-world identity of Plague Doctor: the school doctor at the experimental high school, his old acquaintance, Cangxiu.
Originally, Li Ang himself had a rather good relationship with Cangxiu (or so he unilaterally thought), but after learning that Cangxiu had joined the Demon Scientist Alliance, he became uneasy about letting Cangxiu continue to stay at the experimental high school. After all, if any abnormal event were to occur and hurt the other students, especially Wang Congshan, that would be bad. Of course, Li Ang didn't think about sneaking into Cangxiu's house to dismember him and "humanely" destroy him—that would be too inhumane. Instead, he planned to make an anonymous phone call to the Special Affairs Bureau, reporting Cangxiu as a player, thus "helping" Plague Doctor to join the Special Affairs Bureau legitimately. The Demon Scientist Alliance? Bad. The Special Affairs Bureau? Good!
However, before he had the chance to make the formal report, Plague Doctor had already submitted his resignation to the school, allegedly to go abroad and inherit an estate from a distant relative.
As for whether he had sensed the danger and, like a crafty rabbit with many burrows, made an early escape, or if he had struck a secret deal with Bai Haozheng (whom Li Ang had met earlier) to willingly join the Special Affairs Bureau—that was no longer Li Ang's concern.
In the entire experimental high school, no players were allowed! Except for Li Ang himself.
