Chapter Five: Damn, It's You!

“Are you sure? The offer is quite good,” Tang Ruobing asked skeptically.

“I can’t just repay kindness with ingratitude,” Ye Mingqiu replied, spreading his hands.

“That’s not necessarily the case. There are only 27 students in the Senior Three Support Department, and only eight of them have successfully awakened their talents. Of those, merely three have talents that actually manifest in practice. You happen to be one of those three, and in fact, the only one whose talent is almost useless after awakening a skill,” Tang Ruobing explained.

“Well... it’s not entirely useless,” Ye Mingqiu awkwardly defended himself.

Tang Ruobing smiled politely and continued, “Right now, our school’s Senior Three Support Department has only one student who has become a psychokinetic, and she’s already been recruited by another college entrance exam preparatory team.”

“Normally, I’d be able to choose one from the remaining two students, but due to certain special reasons, the dean didn’t give me that chance and just assigned you to me. Hmph! That guy must be deliberately setting me up!”

“That guy is really mean!” Ye Mingqiu chimed in, not knowing who she meant but agreeing nonetheless.

Tang Ruobing rolled her eyes and said, “Actually, what the career counselor just said isn’t entirely wrong. You still have significant advantages.”

“Do I really have potential? Could I really pass the Spirit Realm trial in the shortest time?” Ye Mingqiu was astonished. He had thought the counselor was lying to sabotage him, but it turned out there was some truth to it.

“Yes, really.”

“Can you explain why?”

“You have low base attributes but strong plasticity. Plus, your talent provides extra bonuses to strength and agility, allowing you to allocate more attributes to the spirit, which is the most crucial for support. Once your spirit reaches 10 points, you might obtain many hero-level professions that ordinary support players can’t. In terms of plasticity, your potential is indeed strong.”

“But!” Tang Ruobing’s tone shifted sharply as she fixed Ye Mingqiu with a piercing gaze. “To fully unleash your current potential and reach the theoretical maximum, you must invest massive resources to stack spirit attributes, and also raise various combat specialties to higher levels. It’s quite expensive.”

“What if I’m raised frugally?” Ye Mingqiu asked.

Tang Ruobing was silent for a moment. Looking at Ye Mingqiu, who only had 12 points total attributes in Senior Three, she sighed helplessly and said, “Some things I don’t want to spell out too clearly. You should have some idea yourself.”

Having only a total of 12 attribute points in Senior Three, it’s naturally questionable whether he can grow to meet the 20-point total attribute prerequisite for the Spirit Realm trial by the college entrance exam, let alone learn skills and improve strength.

Support offers many subsidies and various benefits that sum up to two or three thousand a month. If, with so many resource attributes, you still can’t improve, it can only mean your talent is terribly poor.

“Can you reimburse me?” Ye Mingqiu asked.

“No, you pay for your own stuff. At best, I can help you plan.”

“Alright.” Ye Mingqiu pulled out his communicator. “Let’s exchange contacts. Should I scan you or you scan me?”

“Scan mine.”

Tang Ruobing displayed her QR code.

“Ding!” The scan was successful.

But at the moment of success, Ye Mingqiu’s expression froze. The avatar and signature on the communicator were very familiar to him, and below, instead of a friend request, there were options to send messages and make voice or video calls.

His trembling hand opened the messages to see yesterday’s chat history.

Ye Mingqiu: (poke)

Kiriame: Jiang Jiang!

Kiriame: ٩(๑•̀ω•́๑)۶

Kiriame: Senior, why do you suddenly have time to look for me today?

Ye Mingqiu: I just saw a cat video and remembered you said you wanted to raise a Nightshade cat before (shared link).

Kiriame: Ahhh!

Kiriame: So cute!!

Kiriame: (♡⌂♡)

Kiriame: This cat’s paws look like little clouds! ˃ʍ˂ But mom said I have to be in the top ten of the monthly exam to be allowed to have a cat qwq...

Ye Mingqiu: No worries, I’ll teach you. Linear algebra and matrix theory are a breeze—I just flipped through a few pages and understood everything!

Kiriame: Wow, senior, you’re amazing!

Kiriame: You’re supposed to be a warrior, but you learn mage knowledge so fast. Is this the legendary one-in-a-million genius? It’s incredible!

Kiriame: Senior, when you adventure in the Spirit Realm, do you have any spare staffs? If so, save me some, hehe!

Ye Mingqiu: Hmm.

Ye Mingqiu: No luck lately, bad fortune.

Kiriame: It doesn’t matter!

...

He glanced at the chat, then looked back at the cold Tang Ruobing opposite him, and quietly exited. He scanned her QR code again, but the user was still “Kiriame,” exactly the same as before.

Tang Ruobing frowned, asking, “Why aren’t you adding me? Is your network card acting up?”

“I want to be alone.”

“Hm?”

Tang Ruobing frowned deeply. She sensed something very wrong with Ye Mingqiu’s expression, especially the way he looked at her—shock, suspicion, disbelief—a feeling that made her extremely uneasy.

So she snapped her fingers, using her psychokinetic power to turn Ye Mingqiu’s communicator toward herself, displaying the screen.

The chat history appeared right before Tang Ruobing. Her expression froze instantly. Staring blankly at Ye Mingqiu, then at the chat, she exited the chat, checked the user interface, and confirmed the identity.

!

Seeing the messages she had sent, Tang Ruobing blushed deeply, the atmosphere in the meeting room becoming unbearably awkward.

She clenched her fists and panted rapidly before finally losing her temper, scolding, “Are you sick or what? Why do you pretend to be a graduated senior for no reason!”

Hearing that, Ye Mingqiu snapped back, glaring at Tang Ruobing. “You have the nerve to say that? Pretending to be a first-year junior for fun? Huh? Lying to me to learn linear algebra and matrix spaces—is that fun? Do you even know how much effort I put into math before? Do you?”

“You must be crazy. I thought you were a mage pretending to be a warrior, but you’re a support pretending to be a warrior, giving me mage problems to solve. Why the hell don’t you just learn mage then?”

“I have no money!”

“What about the support department’s welfare money?”

“I spent it playing games with you!”

“... Unbelievable.”

Tang Ruobing finally cracked. She had thought his talent was awful, his attributes low, and his studies poor, but the real reason was that he spent his time studying mage knowledge and blew the support department’s welfare money on games.

Crazy! Absolutely crazy!

How can anyone be so ridiculously talented in the wrong way!

Ahhh! And I’ve been calling this guy ‘senior’ all this time—I hate it! Ahhh!