Calculus was a subject that most students hated. The biggest reason for it in St. Andre was their Calculus teacher. Sir Ning. He had a perpetual frown and an unapproachable face. And his teachings left students more confused about the subject than when they came in.
That day was no different. Everyone was trying to keep their eyes open as the man prattled on about derivatives. Cheng Xiu used to like derivatives until then.
A knock at the door interrupted as he went over the same problem again. This time in a completely new way.
Cheng Xiu looked over.
San Zhu stood at the door.
The boy handed a note over to the teacher and then practically ran away.
Cheng Xiu smirked. That was just cute.
Teacher Ning cleared his throat. "I have been called to the Principal's office. Everyone, study page 45 to 60 and complete the exercises in them until I get back."
The man then ran after San Zhu.
"What was that about?" Gu Shu asked.
"Who knows," Cheng Xiu said. "He didn't even activate the Monitoring Bot."
Gu Shu took out her Fold and then started to type on the screen. "Which is lucky for us!"
"What are you looking at?"
"My DNA profile!"
Cheng Xiu frowned. "Why?"
Gu Shu rolled her eyes. "Because I want to see my progress. By the way, who did you run off to talk with before? What was so important?"
Cheng Xiu smirked. And there it was. She had wondered why Gu Shu did not pester her about that as they walked to their class. It turned out, she was waiting for an opportunity.
"Nothing. Just someone I met in the game."
"You met someone from our College?" Gu Shu asked with wide eyes at her.
"Mhm."
"You didn't tell me that," Gu Shu said in a small voice.
"I met him yesterday."
"Oh."
Cheng Xiu looked at her friend curiously. Gu Shu seemed a bit off since the meeting that morning. She wondered how she was going to coax the pink haired girl to tell what was on her mind. It couldn't be a simple thing. Unlike Cheng Xiu, who always hid her inner thoughts until she felt the time was right, Gu Shu was used to speaking her mind. Especially to Cheng Xiu. If she didn't talk about it, the feelings would fester until she broke down.
But Cheng Xiu knew her friend's stubborn nature and how difficult it was to get Gu Shu to do anything that she didn't want to do. The Gu heiress was the type who would argue senselessly even when she and everyone knew she was wrong. The reason for it was that she was "entitled to express her damned opinion".
Cheng Xiu shook her head and took out her own Fold. She would deal with it after getting back to their room. For now there were some things she wanted to research.
She opened The Other World forum and signed in with her email address.
Cheng Xiu looked at the various options the forum had and chose "World".
The world interface opened to more options.
Cheng Xiu looked through them and started with the simplest option. Places.
Reading through the articles on the various Continents and people Cheng Xiu was surprised. The writers of these articles were experts of the game and not the Game officials. But the articles were meticulous and detailed.
'The Other World was vast but Players could only access the Four Petals Continents at present. The Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern Continents were the Petals and the Center was the only Continent that was connected to all Four. The Northern-'
"Little Xiu!" Gu Shu shouted. She fell on top of the other girl.
"Gu Shu! What the hell is wrong with you!"
Gu Shu laughed and thrust her Fold under her nose.
"Look!"
Cheng Xiu pushed her away and looked at the Screen.
A Character Profile was displayed.
[Name : ShuRen
Cultivation Method: Heart Sutra
Level : Qi Sensing VI]
Cheng Xiu blinked. "What?"
"I leveled up this morning!" Gu Shu gushed. "Now I'm only four levels away from being able to join Brother Dao's guild!"
"Um…A'Shu?"
Bright wide eyes stared at her. "Yeah?"
"You are hopeless."
Gu Shu frowned in confusion.
"I mean…your user name is ShuRen. That's…weren't you the one who used to mock those girls who changed their usernames to include their crush name as well? Aren't you doing the same thing now?"
Gu Shu blushed. "It's not the same thing." Cheng Xiu raised an eyebrow at her. "It's not!"
Cheng Xiu smirked. "Alright then. If you say so."
"It's not!" Gu Shu glared at her.
Cheng Xiu laughed. "Okay! Okay! It's not. I'm being stupid."
Gu Shu sat back in her chair. "I showed you mine. Now you show me yours!"
The boy in the desk in front of her choked on the water he was drinking and started to cough. Water spilled everywhere.
Gu Shu screamed and hid behind Cheng Xiu. "What the hell!"
The boy's face was flushed red and he started to bow to them. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"
"You!" Gu Shu looked ready to strangle him as she realised his spittled water had fallen all over her desk. "Look what you did!"
"I'm really sorry!"
Cheng Xiu pursed her lips.
The boy looked ready to cry. "It's my fault! I heard those words and my mind…I'm so sorry!"
"Heard what words!" Gu Shu asked in anger.
"Tho-those words…I'm so sorry! So sorry!"
Cheng Xiu burst into laughter.
Gu Shu looked at her in shock and disbelief.
The boy blushed even more.
Gu Shu hit her over the head. "Oi! What are you laughing about!"
Cheng Xiu hissed and snorted. "You should really be careful of your words, A'Shu. The poor man. It's okay, Brother…"
"Ching Gao."
Cheng Xiu nodded. "Brother Ching."
"Really sorry," the boy said awkwardly and then ran off.
"Don't we still have class?" Cheng Xiu asked his retreating back.
"I'll notify the Cleaning Bot!" he said and ran off.
Gu Shu hit her shoulder. "Why would you let him get away?"
"Because it was an accident. Now, what were you asking?"
Gu Shu looked at her in excitement. "Show me your Character Profile in The Other World!"
Cheng Xiu sighed and took her Fold. She logged into her DNA Registration Interface.
"You used your DNA profile? Why would you do that!" Gu Shu asked in horror.
Cheng Xiu froze. "What do you mean by that?"
"Using a DNA profile to create an account is equal to signing Exclusivity. This is the only Character you will be able to play as! You can't change your gender. You can't reroll your skill or anything. If you delete this account and create another one, you would still have the same name, cultivation method, and Starter Village!"
Cheng Xiu's lips twitched in annoyance. "Is that so?"
Gu Shu peeked at the screen. "Anyway, show me your Profile!"
Cheng Xiu glared at the girl. Did she just give some bad news and then gloss over it like it isn't important?
"A'Xiu! Send it to my Folder!"
Cheng Xiu sighed and opened her Player Profile.
[Name : Selafia Veritas.
Other Names: SelaXiu Veritas.
Cultivation Method: True Qi Cultivation.
Level : Qi Sensing I.
Title: Aggro Queen( Player has 30% chance of gaining aggro of the Players around her.)
Dex: 2
Str: 2
Spd: 2
Stam: 2
Int: 3
Wis: 3]
Cheng Xiu looked at her Profile in confusion. What was the Title all about?
"A'Xiu!"
Rolling her eyes at the impatience in her friend's voice, Cheng Xiu shared the Character Sheet with Gu Shu.
Gu Shu read through it in excitement and then deflated. "You are still in level 1? Why are you so slow? shouldn't you have already done your first two missions atleast?"
Cheng Xiu gave her a strained smile. "I'm having some difficulties reaching the Quest destination."
Gu Shu frowned. "Reach destination? But aren't all level 1 and level 2 missions within the starter city?"
Cheng Xiu frowned. "Yeah but seeing as I got 100% in my cultivation, there were some mild changes."
Gu Shu smiled. "You know, there was a World Announcement yesterday night of some SelaXiu getting a title and lots of rewards. It's why I wanted to see your profile. Your names sounded similar. That girl got so many rewards in one go, though. How awesome is that! I wish we could have her luck!"
Cheng Xiu looked at her in confusion. Didn't her character sheet have SelaXiu as another name?
Cheng Xiu snatched Gu Shu's Folder and looked.
Her other name and title were missing. All her stats were at 1.
Cheng Xiu returned the Fold in a daze. Gu Shu was talking something about the various missions that she had to do but Cheng Xiu was only half listening.
She pulled up her character sheet in her own Fold Screen. Her other name and title was visible, her wis and Int Stats were at 3 and the rest at 2.
She shared the character screen again.
A message popped up.
[Please note that Player Information has been moved to Rank S encryption and Player details cannot be sent to devices that are registered to people below Rank A.
If Player still insists on sharing data to Lower Level devices you must give access to the device through your DNA profile. Note that giving access to others of your high ranked profile would decrypt your personal information to them. It is advised that Player keeps her real Character Info a secret.
If you have any further enquiries regarding your Rank or anything Player Profile related please follow the link given below. Our AI system is always accessible to you at any time and any day.
Thank you.]
The bell rang.
Gu Shu jumped to her feet. "Come on, Cheng Xiu! Brother Dao wants to meet at the cafeteria!"
Cheng Xiu followed the link. "You leave. I have some things to get done."
"What things?"
Cheng Xiu looked at Gu Shu from the corner of her eyes. "Things."
Gu Shu rolled her eyes. "I've known you since we were eight A'Xiu. You have to do a bit better than that at lying."
"Not lying."
"Then tell me what the thing is!"
"No."
Gu Shu huffed. "Why not?"
"I need to know more before I give you any explanation. Go now. Isn't your Dao waiting for you to talk or something?"
Gu Shu frowned and tried to peek at the screen. Cheng Xiu closed the Fold and put it in her bag. "I'm concerned now. Show me what you were doing. Besides, you usually try to stop me from going to Brother Dao. That's the biggest red flag for me."
Cheng Xiu looked at her. "I do no such thing. I only stopped you from meeting him at night with his guy friends in a hotel. Once. Usually, I tell you my opinion on your attachment to him. There's a difference. I still think he is a dick."
Gu Shu's eyes turned dull. "Yeah. I guess you always did hate him. So, the feelings are all of his own."
Cheng Xiu frowned. "Feelings?"
Gu Shu shook her head. "I'll be leaving then! You come quickly. We only have a 15 minutes break before we have to go to our next class!"
Cheng Xiu waved her off.
As soon as Gu Shu's silhouette disappeared, Cheng Xiu took out her Fold Device again.
A blue interface had opened up following the link.
[Welcome, Player Selafia Veritas to The Other World Q&A.
I am your designated personal AI assistant, Maya. How may I help you today?]
"You again," Cheng Xiu muttered.
She pressed a button on the side of her desk.
The wooden panel of the desk moved away and a magnetic, fiber panel raised from under it. A small compartment opened up in the right side corner. Inside it sat a crystalline chord.
Cheng Xiu linked the wire to her Fold Device through the USB portal.
A red light blinked in the chord and then a virtual keyboard materialized on her desk.
This was called a Lightscreen. There was a motherboard built into the school desks, made of magnetic crystals, and students could use it to use the virtual keyboard and virtual touchpad programmed into it. The power source of the device was the natural Qi available around them.
[Why was my Player Status moved to S Rank?] Cheng Xiu typed in.
[Ding!]
[Player Selafia Veritas has been tagged in the tracking list of ten Level 70 Players. As Player was Level 1 when you achieved this feat, and multiple high ranked players have tried to access your personal information, the system has decided to encrypt Player Information to the highest Rank of your Enemy to keep Player Info safe.
This is being done because Player used their DNA Profile to open her TOW account.]
Cheng Xiu hemmed. She wasn't given a choice in the matter of choosing her Log in method. But Gu Shu and now the game AI made it sound like it was not mandatory to use their DNA Profile.
Did Cheng Xiu misunderstand the system words?
Another message popped up.
[Congratulations to Player Selafia Veritas for becoming the first person in the game to have such powerful enemies at Level 1!]
Cheng Xiu felt like she was being mocked. That wasn't something she should be congratulated about! Broken system!
[Thanks!] she typed and then felt the message didn't express how irritated she actually felt. She sent a bunch of frowning emojis at it.
[Ding!]
[You are welcome!]
There was a string of smiley faces following that.
Cheng Xiu had the feeling like she hit a cotton pillow. Ineffective and a completely wasted effort.
Damned system.
With a huff, Cheng Xiu closed everything and marched off. She had better things to worry about. Like a bunch of high-profile people tracking her and trying to hack into her personal information.
She shivered. She had hoped they would forget about her little mishap.
Hopefully, this was a glitch in the system and she didn't just gain powerful enemies that she couldn't face.
Hopefully.