Chapter 17: The Chip

“In the year 2261 of the Bright Era, the largest space blockade battle in human history erupted at the Blanca Lunar Spaceport. The last space fleet of the Saint Eld Empire was decisively defeated by the Allied Forces...”

“From that point on, the Saint Eld Empire lost control of space. This laid the solid foundation for the empire’s surrender a year later, ending the seventeen-year-long world war.”

“Remember this—it’s an important exam point.”

At Sakai First High School, in the classroom of Year Two, Class Six, a middle-aged man with a slightly receding hairline and glasses addressed the students from the podium.

This classroom was on the third floor, filled with about forty students.

Wakaba’s consciousness inhabited her clean body, seated by the window in the back row, attentively listening to the lesson.

Outside, bright sunlight streamed through the gently swaying curtains, casting pure white patches of light upon her desk.

The display embedded in the desk’s surface was dazzlingly bright, but she paid it no mind, focusing intently on writing and drawing on the touchscreen.

It was Monday, one day since she had entered the Mist Realm.

Her original body was still resting and undergoing examinations in the medical room, which was truly boring, so her consciousness came here to attend school.

This was her first time attending school in both of her lives.

Her previous body had been too frail, spending most of its time confined to a hospital bed, never attending school.

However, in the hospital, she had read many books on a tablet and surfed the internet, so she wasn’t illiterate.

When the bell rang signaling the end of class, the history teacher lingered a moment before dismissing the students.

The classroom, once dead silent, regained its vitality.

“Old Nakano dragged the class again. Does he really think anyone wants to listen to his endless babble?” a few students whispered from just to Wakaba’s right front.

“Yeah, in this day and age, what’s the point of studying? We can’t get into university anyway. Better to take gym and build muscles!” a burly boy flexed his biceps proudly.

“Kenta, I envy you for being so strong. You’ll definitely get to mine some ore. When you strike it rich, don’t forget about us!”

“Exactly!”

“Of course! I’ve trained my body since I was a kid, determined to be the strongest miner!” Kenta declared with a grand gesture. “Don’t worry, you’re all my brothers. Once I make it big in mining, I’ll get you all in to work with me.”

“Kenta, you’re so passionate. If I were a girl, I’d definitely marry you.”

“Go away!”

Wakaba listened from the back of the room, utterly speechless.

What were these guys even saying?

What did they mean that studying was useless compared to mining?

Did he have a mine at home?

If so, then why bother with school at all?

---

“Shiratori-kun, can I borrow your class notes?” a girl’s voice came from in front of Wakaba.

She looked up to see a delicate face, short shoulder-length hair, and thick black-rimmed glasses. Her name was Asaka Fujii, a well-known beauty in the class.

However, she had been on leave for two months and just returned to class a few weeks ago.

No one in class knew why she had been absent; even when asked, she didn’t reveal anything.

Speculation ran rife—was she bullied or had something happened at home...?

“I’ll send them to you,” Wakaba said, tapping a few times on her desk’s touchscreen and sending her notes to Asaka in front.

“Thank you.” Asaka said, then suddenly remembered and asked, “By the way, Shiratori-kun, have you decided what you want to do after high school?”

“After high school? That’s next year’s problem. Isn’t it too early to think about that now?”

Asaka shook her head. “No, it’s not too early. There’s less than a month left in Year Two. After summer break, it’s Year Three, and in the second half of Year Three, the university entrance exams start...”

“Now that you say it, it’s not too early,” Wakaba admitted.

She then recalled that the age of legal adulthood in this world was sixteen.

Elementary school lasted five years, middle school two years, and high school three years.

Therefore, the original body was fifteen now in Year Two of high school and would graduate at sixteen next year.

“So, what are your plans, Shiratori-kun?”

“Of course, I want to take the university entrance exam after graduating high school.” She replied naturally.

She still didn’t know what universities in this world were like and wanted to see for herself.

Especially since yesterday, while playing a video game, she had seen a pop-up ad suggesting that this world’s universities offered a mecha engineering major—though she wasn’t sure if it was true.

“University!” Asaka’s eyes narrowed slightly as she whispered, “Shiratori-kun, if you dare to take the university exam, does that mean you bought a chip?”

“A chip?” Wakaba thought for a moment and then searched her split-brain’s memory for information.

Indeed, this world had a kind of memory enhancement chip implanted directly into the spinal cord, connected to the brain’s neural network.

Her split-brain knew little about this.

She even had only a vague understanding of the university entrance exam.

After all, her split-brain came from a bankrupt family and was busy with assassination work, lacking time to learn these things.

“Yes, its full name is the Panpeptide-Assisted Memory Neural Secondary Array,” Asaka explained. “But people outside just call it the biological memory chip.”

“What does this chip have to do with the entrance exam?” Wakaba asked, puzzled.

“Of course it matters. Without a chip, how could you pass the entrance exam?” Asaka replied.

Wakaba became even more confused. “Do you mean you must have the chip to take the exam?”

---

“No, not exactly,” Asaka shook her head. “Every citizen in our country can take the entrance exam before reaching adulthood.”

“Then if I don’t have the chip, why can’t I pass?” Wakaba asked.

“Because there are very few spots in university,” Asaka explained. “At our high school, only one or two students get admitted each year; often, none get in.”

“One or two?” Wakaba’s heart skipped a beat.

Sakai First High School was the largest in Sakai District.

She was in Class Six; there were thirty classes in total in the grade, each with about forty students, nearly twelve hundred students altogether.

Only one or two made it to university each year?

A one-in-a-thousand chance!

Wakaba gasped inwardly—were university entrance exams really this difficult in this world?

“What happens to those who don’t get in?” she asked.

“Most go straight to work. Some pay to attend private universities, but honestly, it’s just a waste of money,” Asaka said.

Wakaba fell silent at this.

“What exactly does the chip do? Why does having it guarantee passing the exam?”

“Because...”

Ring, ring, ring...!

The bell rang for the next class.

Asaka didn’t continue and turned to prepare for class.

Wakaba couldn’t ask further.

This next lesson was geography.

Only now did Wakaba notice this country didn’t separate students by science or humanities streams—at least, the university exam subjects were not divided.

She had no interest in the lesson and secretly took out her phone to browse the internet for more information.

However, most of what she found were clearly unreliable ads.

After much searching and randomly clicking links, she finally entered a forum called “The Seekers of Truth.” There, she found detailed information on the Panpeptide-Assisted Memory Neural Secondary Array.

After reading through it, Wakaba was stunned.