Twenty-nine years old (fourteen)

October 4, 2023, 14:00.

Bian Senlin slept very soundly and even slept past lunch time.

When he woke up, the fat man had already eaten, so he made himself a bowl of noodles, vegetables, crispy fry, eggs, a sausage, and finally poured a spoonful of red chili oil on it.

Now, he sat in front of the fat man holding a huge bowl of noodles, slurping the noodles while listening to the fat man explain the rules of the second half.

"The second half will last for three days, starting at 20:00 tonight.

Although the points system is still used, unlike the preliminaries, the second half of the auditions is not based on the number of questions answered.

The question types are not ACM-style algorithm questions, but are more inclined towards practical business and problem solving.

The fourth and fifth levels are both programming-related questions, differing in difficulty level. They tend to assess business or architectural design and ingenuity.

There are 5 questions in each of the two levels, 4 points for each question in the fourth level, and 5 points for each question in the fifth level, for a total of 20 points.

From the sixth level onwards, all the questions are of high difficulty. There is only one question in each level, but the difficulty increases step by step, especially in the last two levels. Every year there are some extremely tricky questions.

Bian Senlin was stunned. "Tricky questions? This is the audition. Is it necessary?"

“Didn’t you see the huge knowledge base during the preliminaries?

These two levels are not so much a test of the contestants' technical level as it is a measure of their ability to learn under extreme circumstances.

Usually, the last two levels will provide hints about the relevant knowledge points involved, and the contestants need to integrate them in a short period of time and then come up with a solution."

Bian Senlin was a little surprised when he heard this. If the auditions were like this, what would the level of the upcoming regional competitions and the final competition be like? Bian Senlin was a little envious.

Looking at Bian Senlin who was obviously distracted, the fat man coughed deliberately to bring him back to his senses: "The scores of the last two questions are also very high. In fact, the scores have been very high since the sixth level.

The sixth level is worth 10 points, the seventh level is worth 20 points, the eighth level is worth 30 points, the ninth level is worth 40 points, and the tenth level is worth as much as 50 points.

Levels six to ten are worth a total of 150 points."

Bian Senlin began to understand. The last two questions were like the last big questions in previous math exams. They were worth high marks, but not everyone could answer them. They were used to widen the score gap.

No wonder the number of questions in the preliminaries is so large. The first three levels have 300 questions, which means 300 points, but due to time constraints, the best you can get is 150.

For example, the first place in their region only got 130 points in the preliminaries.

Bian Senlin also specifically asked the fat man if he had ever received more than 150 in the past. The fat man decisively said no.

If the preliminaries in the first half were mainly to screen out contestants with solid foundations, then the second half was obviously about the technical level in actual project application.

According to this estimate, the entire audition is equivalent to a basic score of 150 points, a difficulty score of 80 points, and the last two questions are a potential score of 90 points.

Finally, the points from the two games will be combined to rank the players, ensuring that the players entering the regional competition have both basic knowledge and practical application levels.

Although Bian Senlin has written many projects himself, he has hardly ever been involved in commercial projects. This makes him somewhat worried about whether he can make it through the second half, which is more practical business-oriented.

However, the biggest advantage of young people is that they are 'unaware of the immensity of the world', and he immediately threw this worry behind his mind.

His idea was simple. If he had never encountered it before, he might as well give it a try. It would be a good opportunity to gain experience.

In fact, just as Bian Senlin worried at the beginning, after the start of the game he found that he was not as comfortable solving problems in the second half as in the preliminaries.

Each question took up a lot of time and effort. His ranking dropped rapidly from 18th in the top, and he fell out of the top 100 in less than a day.

But just as he thought, whenever he encountered something he had never encountered before, he would patiently look up relevant information and knowledge and absorb it. Every time he understood something, he would feel happy for a long time as if he had suddenly realized something.

In this state, two and a half days passed in a flash.

Bian Senlin pinched his swollen brows. He finally passed the fourth and fifth levels, but now there was only half a day left for the entire competition.

Only the top 100 people advanced from the auditions, and his ranking was far behind, so it can basically be said that this is the end of it.

In fact, Bian Senlin was already mentally prepared and told himself that he had gained a lot.

However, even though I thought so, it would be a lie to say that I wasn't disappointed after my score in the preliminaries gradually dropped to 18th place and now I'm nowhere to be found on the list.

After taking a break in the forest, he readjusted his state and prepared to use the remaining half day to experience the sixth level which took up a full 10 minutes.

But what he didn't expect was that Bian Senlin was a little confused when he saw the questions in the sixth level. He had never even heard of several of the technologies mentioned in the questions.

Bian Senlin didn't seem discouraged either, as he had already been trained through the fourth and fifth levels.

He skillfully opened the knowledge base and prepared to start searching for information...

At this moment, Bian Senlin suddenly felt a little dizzy, and then felt that the computer chair he was sitting on seemed to be shaking.

At first, Bian Senlin suspected that it was his illusion, but soon he found that the computer chair was sliding to one side driven by the pulleys.

What's going on?

“Oh shit! Earthquake?”

After confirming that it was not an illusion, Bian Senlin suddenly jumped up, rushed to the bedroom and shook the fat man who was still taking a nap.

"Stop sleeping! Fatty, get up and run!" Bian Senlin didn't know where he got the strength from, but he almost pulled half of the fat man's body out of the bed.

The fat man who was violently woken up from his sleep was still a little confused when he opened his eyes. When he figured out what Bian Senlin was saying, he finally woke up.

"Wait, wait, wait, don't be impatient, or you'll fall! Ouch~" The fat man steadied himself in the forest that almost pulled him to the ground.

The fat man took the phone in his hand, then picked up the crutch beside him, took a breath, and said to the forest beside him:

"There has never been a major earthquake in the East China Sea. It's not in a seismic zone, and we haven't received any earthquake warnings, so it's likely that the tremors were transmitted from an earthquake somewhere else."

As the fat man spoke, he unlocked his phone to check where the earthquake occurred.

No, that's not right!

Bian Senlin's heart was beating wildly, as if it was about to jump out of his chest. He felt extremely uneasy.

He didn't know where this feeling came from, but it felt like countless needles poking him from behind, urging him to leave quickly.

"Don't worry about where the earthquake happened, just get out first!" Bian Senlin was so anxious that he was sweating. He reached out to grab the fat man and actually pulled the 200-pound fat man up.

The fat man was almost pulled down by him, and he only managed to stay on the ground thanks to his crutches.

The fat man was about to say something when he was choked back by the sudden shaking of the room. The slight vibration suddenly became intense.

There was another violent shaking.

The fat man fell directly to the ground, his face pale. Now he didn't care whether the earthquake was reasonable or whether it was in an earthquake zone.

The fat man pushed Bian Senlin aside and pulled his hand: "You go out first! You run fast, you can get out! Otherwise, we will both die here!"

"What the hell are you talking about!" Bian Senlin yelled at him and tried to pull him again.

The fat man was also yelling, "Ninth floor! How can I run with a cane? Every one alive counts. Will you fucking settle the score?"

"You know how to settle the score. You didn't throw me out when I fell down!" Bian Senlin's eyes began to turn bloodshot.

But now was not the time to quarrel, so they both looked under the bed.

Bian Senlin pushed the fat man in first, and then crawled in himself.

Bian Senlin had just found a place to curl up under the bed, but before his brain could react, his body froze in place.

There was a wall behind me, but I felt a chill.

This feeling was very familiar to him. It was exactly the same feeling he had when he was about to make a wish on his 20th birthday!

"No... no, this is not an earthquake..." The low murmur was still trembling slightly.

The fat man didn't understand: "What?"

“It’s not an earthquake… It’s not an earthquake!!”

Bian Senlin recalled the feeling of being sucked into that black crack and having his internal organs almost crushed, as well as the desperate suffocation.

"This is not an earthquake!! Get out! You must get out!"

A huge sense of panic enveloped Bian Senlin, and he pushed and kicked the fat man out from under the bed.

This time the fat man didn't say much because he also felt a sense of weightlessness.

They had just crawled out from under the bed when the bed behind them slid into a dark hole along with the wall and the ground.

Unlike the crack that sucked everything in during Bian Senlin’s birthday, this one was more like a quiet monster, silently chewing up and swallowing the surrounding space.

Bian Senlin and the fat man rolled out of the bedroom, and the bedroom was filled with darkness that was so dark that you couldn't see the bottom.

Soon, the entire bedroom was plunged into darkness. When it reached the bedroom door, the darkness seemed to be blocked by something and stopped temporarily.

The fat man fell to the ground outside the bedroom, looking at the dark bedroom with a pale face: "This is too unscientific..."

Even if the bedroom collapsed, it shouldn't be a black hole.

"What science are you talking about at this time?"

Bian Senlin did not stop. Based on his last experience, it should not be safe yet.

He grabbed the fat man's collar with one hand and tried to open the door with the other. Unexpectedly, as soon as he grabbed the door handle, it was pulled off like it was made of paper.

Bian Senlin was stunned when he looked at the door handle in his hand, unable to react.

Then he heard the fat man shout and pull him back. He and the fat man fell backwards. In a blink of an eye, he saw the door shattered into pieces. Outside the house was not the familiar corridor, but darkness.

The surrounding walls began to erode. Bian Senlin and the fat man retreated to the middle of the room. The sound of the walls breaking was so harsh.

Some debris mixed with wall dust fell on Bian Senlin's head. Bian Senlin looked up and saw that the cracks on the ceiling were widening.

Bian Senlin thought something was wrong and looked around. Before he could find any shelter, a large piece of rubble from the ceiling fell straight towards him and the fat man.

"It's over."

Bian Senlin and the fat man couldn't avoid it and could only subconsciously cover their heads with their arms.

After a while, the fatal blow that was originally expected did not land on them. Bian Senlin and the fat man looked at each other and put down their arms.

Looking up, they saw a ball of light covering them. The warm yellow light was soft and not dazzling.