Chapter 109 First Place

Chen Yuan wasn't showing off.

He was doing it to win.

How to win?

If the map was only within Eleventh High, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths.

But now, he was facing the holy sons of the top high schools in the country.

You could say that the average combat power of these hundred opponents was Sun Bai.

With a hundred Brother Suns in the competition, the slightest懈怠 (xiè dài, laxity) would leave you far behind.

So, he could only push himself to the limit.

Looking at the numbers only once, not counting the first look in the flip, so no points are deducted.

Writing all the numbers correctly also avoids deductions.

If, under these conditions, he could still finish first and not have any initial points deducted...

That was the so-called Higher, Faster, Stronger.

A higher accuracy rate, faster speed, and stronger mental fortitude.

Achieving this was not easy.

Because the slightest mistake would break the chain.

Then, everything afterward would be forgotten.

Even more crucial, if a single number was missed, the order of all the subsequent numbers would be scrambled.

One mistake, everything wrong.

Therefore, choosing to memorize all the numbers at once required great courage.

At this moment, Chen Yuan was also in an extremely tense state.

This game was so interesting, because it was completely within his domain.

So, he didn't want to use his superpower.

If he directly used his time-stopping superpower, he could even peek at other people's screens and create an outrageous record.

But just like how he always relied on his accumulated knowledge to complete every school exam, he could now feel a sense of '爽' (shuǎng, exhilarating pleasure) from this competition.

Chasing after Shi Yi, with him as the goal, was 爽 (shuǎng, exhilarating)!

So, let's advance towards the strongest!

"So, what's the highest score one can get in this competition?" Principal Chang Jun suddenly asked, "After all, there are so many factors that lead to deductions. Flipping cards deducts, wrong numbers deduct. It feels like the limit should only be in the nineties."

"I think getting around 95 is pretty good. After all, the fastest isn't necessarily the most accurate. And some people might intentionally cause trouble to get first place, randomly writing the last 20 numbers," the Principal of Hengzhong also thought.

After all, finishing first grants 100 points directly.

If you're not that fast, you can completely give up on the last 20 numbers, writing them in seconds, which would save at least a minute.

That way, you'd still get around 80 points.

A pure搅屎棍 (jiǎo shǐ gùn, literally, a stirrer of feces, meaning troublemaker) tactic.

But what could you say?

It completely conformed to the rules.

You could only say that it made the competition less intense, and made the highest score less impressive.

"That's true."

The base leader nodded at the Hengzhong Principal's statement, smiling and saying, "Actually, there are often students who directly prepare to snatch first place. After seriously writing 75 numbers, they write the remaining 25 numbers all as the same number, just to rush for speed. And if they get one right, they can even salvage a point."

"This strategy can indeed work. Even if you can't guarantee ninety, you can get a high score," said the Hengzhong Principal.

"Moreover, it can disrupt the rhythm of other opponents," said Principal Chang Jun.

"Once someone does that, many people will copy it, and the top few scores will be directly偷鸡 (tōu jī, steal a chicken, meaning taking a shortcut/advantage)," the Hengzhong Principal said humorously.

Upon hearing the word '偷鸡 (tōu jī, steal a chicken)', the base leader suddenly had unpleasant memories.

Then, he looked at Chen Yuan below, that 偷鸡 (tōu jī, shortcut taker) kid.

He was surprised to find that this kid hadn't even started writing yet.

Could he be trying to memorize fifty at once?

That was too狂 (kuáng, arrogant).

However, if you want to compete for the top five, you must have this kind of make-or-break attitude.

Otherwise, you can only aim for the top ten.

"So, what's the highest score?" the Hengzhong Principal asked.

"Care to guess?" the base leader said mysteriously.

"Even for someone with the strongest memory, memorizing fifty at a time, and only getting one wrong, and excluding a few people who are抢名次 (qiǎng míng cì, vying for rankings), 95 points?" The Hengzhong Principal still thought this score was the limit.

"I think maybe 97, after all, other schools have also come to do research several times, and there must be talented players," Principal Chang Jun judged.

To this, the base leader smiled slightly, then gestured a nine and a nine with his hand.

Seeing this, both of them were dumbfounded.

"Such a high score?" Principal Chang Jun said in disbelief, "Wouldn't that mean they only flipped the card once, were the first to finish, and didn't get any wrong?"

"That's right, that's how it is." The base leader nodded and said, "That student is the most amazing one since we started this segment, even faster than some who搶速度 (qiǎng sù dù, vying for speed). And he has maintained the highest score in our base, 99. And, he is far ahead of the second place historical score of 95."

Sure enough, both principals' judgements were wrong.

If you don't want to be 偷鸡 (tōu jī, shortcutted), you must do your best.

Under normal circumstances, the ceiling is really only around 95 points.

So that 99 student, was he even human?!

"Let's see if the record can be equaled this time." The leader of the research base said with anticipation, "After all, among the schools in the school consortium, not counting Eleventh High, the average strength is the strongest among the research schools."

And hearing him say 'not counting Eleventh High', Principal Chang Jun couldn't help but smile.

But soon, that smile faded.

What's so funny?

Although Eleventh High is菜 (cài, weak), their principal is still participating in the competition.

Damn it.

Once you're stepped on, you're always stepped on!

And he was the Principal of Chang Jun, this school that's far ahead in the rankings.

What a disgrace!

After spending 1 minute and 10 seconds memorizing, Shi Yi only used 50 seconds to write.

But unfortunately, there was a one-minute cooldown in between.

So he had to wait another ten seconds before he could flip the card again.

What a waste.

If he had memorized 60 first, he wouldn't have this wasted waiting time for the cooldown.

He had to wait ten seconds.

However, at the moment he looked up, he saw that Chen Yuan hadn't moved his pen.

Was he still seriously memorizing?

So, had he already finished writing the first fifty numbers?

Or was he not even leaving a chance to flip the card again, and planning to memorize all one hundred at once?!

For the first time, Shi Yi's heart experienced such great turbulence.

But soon, he forced himself to adjust.

Although doing so might avoid losing a point, as long as he wasn't the fastest, he still had a chance to get the highest score.

Or rather, the two of them could tie with 99.

Calm down, Shi Yi, what you need to do is get first place, not a perfect score.

Getting first place is enough!

Just like that, he waited for the moment when the card flipping cooldown was over.

Then, in that instant, he opened the card.

He had to remember the remaining fifty numbers even faster!

He'd try to finish writing everything in about four minutes!

The hand holding the tablet was already a bit stiff.

Facing this meaningless memory competition, he was even more nervous than when he participated in the provincial competition.

Just like the great masters sitting on two towering stone pillars, competing in internal strength, a powerful true energy pressure had already developed between him and Chen Yuan.

The situation seemed ready to change dramatically!

Shi Yi in his strongest state was going all out.

It was much more difficult than he imagined.

Zhang Jianjun already felt like he might have gotten a few numbers wrong.

But there was no way, he couldn't go back to check the previous ones.

What was important was the moment he finished writing and submitted it.

So at this moment, having finished memorizing the second set, he started writing the numbers.

But the time might be a bit faster than he imagined...

While writing, a smile appeared on the corner of Zhang Jianjun's mouth.

A confident smile.

Maybe he could really get some points for Fourth High.

Just finishing the three segments in the top ten.

If I were thirty years younger, I'd be competing for first place!

Kill, kill, kill!

An aura of killing intent was overflowing.

But it wasn't just these well-known characters who could display killing intent.

All the students here were the 'Jordans' of their own lives.

Throughout their school days, they had been praised as 'other people's kids', regarded as the smartest children in their parents' circles, and received everyone's expectations. And they were able to respond to these expectations.

Therefore, these people's tactics were also very aggressive.

At least ten people on the field had prepared a plan to memorize fifty numbers at once.

And in order to prevent the 偷鸡 (tōu jī, shortcut takers) from causing trouble, they were speeding up the process of memorizing and writing, pushing their speed to the limit.

In other words, there were ten people who wanted to compete for first place.

Of course, there were strong ones, and there were weak ones.

Wu Wenxin chose the most稳健 (wěn jiàn, steady and reliable) approach, memorizing slowly, writing slowly.

Trying to make fewer mistakes, or no mistakes at all.

But she felt like she might be a bit too slow.

Was someone about to submit already?

But she had only written half of them!

At this moment, she was like a husky in a pack of wolves, very out of place.

What to do, Shi Yi, I can't keep up the pretense, boo hoo...

Xia Xinyu, were you also brought up by Chen Yuan?

She looked up and realized that Xia Xinyu was writing very seriously, and her speed wasn't slow at all!

That's right.

After all, she was a proper student of Fourth High. Unlike herself, who was admitted to the school as the number one student's family member through back channels because Shi Yi and Zhang Jianjun had said so.

Too scary, this atmosphere is really too scary.

Boo hoo, Shi Yi, I want a hug...

A Hengzhong girl with a high ponytail and a slender, or rather, a mini figure, was staring intently at the screen.

It had been almost 3 minutes, and she hadn't started writing yet.

Until she finished memorizing the last set of numbers.

72523458536099123214.

That's right, she chose a different approach from most people.

She memorized 20 numbers at a time.

Two digits longer than an ID card number.

And she had to memorize ten of these ID cards.

Moreover, she hadn't flipped a single card.

I want to memorize one hundred.

The premise for getting 100 points was not having to flip a card even once.

Since there was a chance to get a perfect score, naturally she couldn't give it up.

Then, begin!

Tapping the screen with her fingers, she began a frenzy of input.

Fortunately, she didn't have to type spaces, she could jump directly to the second one.

So she only had to input these ten ID cards.

At the same time, Chen Yuan was doing the same thing.

Madly inputting numbers.

Like someone doing fraud, frantically dialing 20 phone numbers.

Faster, faster!

The speed must not slow down.

Chen Yuan already felt that some BYD (a Chinese car company, used colloquially as an insult) might start 偷鸡 (tōu jī, shortcutting).

You motherfucker, don't be disgusting.

Getting some seventy or eighty points and ruining my one hundred points.

These numbers were like books in a library, arranged very neatly.

And Chen Yuan, writing down the numbers, was like running his finger along the side of these books.

Checking them off one by one.

For the first time, something so proper was placed in the palace of memory.

The key to winning this round was to handle with care.

No mistakes allowed.

Not a single one.

Suddenly, Chen Yuan's finger hovered over the screen for two seconds.

23 or 26...

Should I go back?

No.

That would disrupt the rhythm.

It's Eru (26)!

Chen Yuan suddenly remembered, it was 26.

Memory can also use phonetic association.

To maintain the rhythm, he had set up phonetic tricks at some points.

Thank you, Chitanda, I can write it now!

Just like that, Chen Yuan continued to write forward.

Time also passed like this, second by second.

3 minutes and 54 seconds.

Only the last five digits were left.

6099123214.

Chen Yuan, Shi Yi, Yang Jialan, even completed synchronization when their mouths were silently reciting.

But obviously, the two boys were faster when reading the latter numbers.

What was fast here was typing speed!

And in typing speed, most high school students are about the same.

Only those who have family members in the canyon (a reference to the game League of Legends) that they need to protect have an advantage in this area.

1! 4!

He practically roared the last two words in his mind as he inputted them.

And in the instant of inputting, it was uploaded.

"Holy shit!"

"Two of them passed at the same time!"

Hearing the audience's cries, Yang Jialan's hand paused.

She was clearly about to type the last number.

Annoying 偷鸡者 (tōu jī zhě, shortcut takers)!

Can't you just play properly?

You have to搶 (qiǎng, snatch) the speed!

With a feeling of dissatisfaction, she also inputted the last 14.

"Holy shit, three people within four minutes!"

"Too awesome, invincible."

"But the rankings are different."

Although the first two were almost tied, the speed also differentiated them.

Eleventh High, Chen Yuan.

Fourth High, Shi Yi.

Hengzhong, Yang Jialan.

Seeing these three people's rankings, the leader of the research base felt quite surprised.

Because this was the fastest speed of the previous 偷鸡者 (tōu jī zhě, shortcut takers).

So which of these three people was seriously playing?

Just like that, everyone waited for the system to calculate the final score.

Although there was a ranking, identifying errors and calculating the deduction for flipping cards would take some time, so revealing the results would still take some time.

Sitting in the stands, Tang Siwen and Zhou Fu had already nervously grabbed each other's hands, squeezing harder and harder...

Chen Yuan, Shi Yi, and Yang Jialan simultaneously raised their heads to look at the big screen, waiting for the results to come out.

Yuan and Yi's times were only 0.5 seconds apart.

Yang Jialan was a bit slower.

In other words, the current initial scores of the three people were: 100, 99, 98.

Although everyone wasn't clear yet, from God's perspective, deducting the points for flipping cards, the three people were: 100, 98, 98.

In the end, it would depend on who made fewer mistakes to win.

Finally, amid eager anticipation, the scores refreshed!

Eleventh High, Chen Yuan: 100

Fourth High, Shi Yi: 98

Hengzhong, Yang Jialan: 98

"Holy shit!"

"Fast and accurate!!"

"Really awesome!"

Immediately, the entire stadium cheered.

And the base leader's pupils shook violently in an instant.

Three super high scores.

One of them even broke the record, the first 100 points in the history of the research base!

Moreover, this 100 was even faster than the previous 99!

Everyone was exclaiming.

But while exclaiming, some people realized that the score wasn't quite right.

"Wait, doesn't flipping the card deduct points? Then how did he get this 100?"

"Holy shit... I get it!"

"He memorized all 100 in one go!"

"Fucking hell!!!"

Some records really can't be analyzed randomly.

Because Chen Yuan is the type of person who,

The more you analyze, the stronger he gets!

(End of Chapter)