Chapter 344 The Duel of the School Bullies!

The group of people in front of him, in terms of both their appearance and demeanor, gave Jieming a strong sense of déjà vu—the standard template of street thugs.

The leader was a tall and strong young man.

Wearing a flashy studded leather jacket, with his hair dyed a striking green, and a toothpick dangling from the corner of his mouth.

His walking posture was the kind that deliberately swayed his shoulders, as if he wanted to tell the whole world "I'm not a good person".

What's most eye-catching is the "weapon" he casually slung over his shoulder—a double-edged hand axe that looks gleaming and is in excellent condition.

The henchmen behind him were all similar in style, with disdainful eyes and constant laughter, their "bad boy" attitude written all over their faces.

As they walked, the other students in the restaurant gave them a wide berth, their eyes filled with fear and a hint of... normalcy?

Jemin's pupils contracted slightly, his brain working at lightning speed as he instantly searched through the vast amount of false memories.

The result was blank; there was no record of any conflict or interaction with this group.

"Is this a grudge from 'before'..." Alarm bells rang in Jemin's mind. "Is it aimed at me 'now'? Has my awakening been detected? Is this a test from the mastermind behind the scenes?"

His body tensed slightly. Although his supernatural power was sealed, his fighting instincts and skills honed through countless battles remained.

Jemin quickly assessed the number of enemies, their weapons, and the surrounding environment, and several plans to deal with armed enemies unarmed flashed through his mind.

With his current physical condition, he is still confident that he can take down these people with minimal cost.

At this moment, the green-haired school bully had already walked up to Jemin carrying an axe.

He looked him up and down with a critical eye, then asked in a deep voice, "You're Jieming? The guy who got in first place this year?"

His tone was full of displeasure, as if Jemin had broken some kind of cardinal rule by getting first place.

Jemin didn't answer, but just looked at him calmly, his muscles in a subtle state of relaxation, ready to unleash a fatal blow at any moment.

Seeing that he remained silent, the school bully became even angrier. He patted his chest with his free hand and began to introduce himself, spitting as he spoke: "I used to be the big boss of 'Seventh Affiliated High School'! I didn't expect you to steal all the limelight! I heard you're smart? I'm not convinced! I came here today specifically to have a go at you!"

"A gesture?" Jemin's heart skipped a beat. Was he really going to make a move?

He glanced at the other man's hand gripping the axe handle out of the corner of his eye, calculating the best distance and angle for a counterattack.

However, what happened the next second completely exceeded Jemin's combat plan.

The school bully slammed the axe on his shoulder onto the empty dining table next to him with a loud thud, then took two sets of... thick test papers and two pens from a henchman behind him.

"Come on! Let's duel!" The school bully slammed one of the test papers onto the table in front of Jemin, keeping the other one for himself. "Let's compete with this one! Forty-five minutes to finish this 'Advanced Mathematics Logic and Spacetime Geometry Test'! Whoever wins gets the axe!"

Jemin: "...Huh?"

He was completely stunned, his brain unable to process this absurd information for a moment.

duel?

Doing math problems?

A mathematical duel with axes as stakes?

He subconsciously glanced at Amy and Victor beside him, only to find that the two of them, and even the students watching the spectacle, not only didn't find it strange, but instead all showed expressions of excitement and anticipation, as if they were about to witness a showdown of titans.

Amy even nudged Jemin with her elbow and whispered encouragement, "Jermin, go for it! Show him what a real number one is! Take him down easily!"

Victor first flipped through the paper, then adjusted his glasses and commented casually, "The question types are well-distributed, and the last question is challenging enough for a duel."

Seeing that Jieming was in a daze, the school bully assumed he was scared and became even more smug and provocative: "What? You're scared? Is this all the first place this year is capable of? If you're scared, then hurry up and admit defeat!"

Jemin's lips twitched slightly.

Although he found it absurd, he immediately realized that this might be part of the "normal" world.

In order to avoid revealing that he has already awakened, he must play the role of "Jemin, the top student among freshmen".

"...Let's compete then." He suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and, surrounded by several thugs and others, sat down at opposite ends of a dining table with the school bully.

He opened the exam paper and quickly glanced through it.

The questions were indeed quite difficult, involving complex mathematical knowledge and logical deductions, far exceeding the level of ordinary university freshmen.

However, for Jemin, who had once reached the level of a third-level wizard and whose mind had been refined and expanded countless times, understanding and solving these questions was not difficult.

"Start!" With Amy volunteering to be the referee, the two immediately buried themselves in their writing.

Jieming wrote with divine inspiration, requiring almost no thought for the earlier questions; formulas, derivations, and answers flowed effortlessly onto the answer sheet.

His pen stopped when he got to the last comprehensive question.

The specific multidimensional curvature integral transform model involved in this question was actually outside his knowledge base!

But strangely, as he looked at the question, a strange sense of familiarity welled up in his heart.

He immediately searched the vast amount of false memories, and sure enough, he found relevant theoretical knowledge and problem-solving strategies in the memory fragments of "pre-university courses"!

"This..." Jemin suppressed the turmoil in his heart, not daring to show any unusual reaction.

He quickly and fluently solved the problem based on the knowledge he had vaguely remembered.

A dozen minutes later, Jemin put down his pen.

The entire set of papers is now complete.

Meanwhile, the school bully on the other side had beads of sweat on his forehead and was still struggling with the second-to-last question.

Seeing that Jemin had finished, he and his henchmen turned deathly pale.

A few more minutes passed before the school bully finally managed to finish.

Surrounded by onlookers, Amy and Victor were responsible for grading the answers against the standard answers.

The result was calculated quickly.

"All correct! Full marks!" Amy announced excitedly.

In this situation, Jemin, who handed in his paper first, was naturally the winner.

"How is this possible..." The school bully was distraught. He suddenly slapped his thigh and stood up, grabbing the hand axe from the table next to him.

Jemin's eyes narrowed, thinking that the other party was angry and about to resort to violence, and his body went into a state of alert again.

However, the school bully simply held the axe in both hands, his face filled with frustration and reluctance.

Finally, as if offering a sacrifice, he handed it to Jemin, his voice trembling with sobs, "A bet's a bet... I lost this time. Only a true strongman deserves to wield this axe! It... it's yours!"

Jemin blankly accepted the heavy, cold hand axe.

It feels slightly heavy in the hand, and the axe blade gleams with a cold light, making it look like a well-crafted cold weapon.

The former school bully burst into tears, pointed at Jieming, and announced to everyone around him: "From today onwards! Jieming is the school bully of our freshman year!"

"Wait, what kind of 'bully' are you referring to as the school bully? Is it the 'bully' in 'academic bully'?!" Jemin felt his brain was going blank, and he was internally ranting.

The school bully wiped away his tears and threatened, "You just wait! I will study hard and win this axe back sooner or later!"

A burst of enthusiastic cheers and applause erupted around them, and Amy jumped up and down excitedly: "Yay! Jemin, you're the new school bully!"

Victor also showed a rare, faint smile of approval.

"……ah?"

Holding the axe, Jemin stood in the center of the cheering crowd, watching his former school bully weeping and his excited companions. He felt an indescribable, extremely strong sense of absurdity wash over him, almost overwhelming him.

He considered himself well-informed and had participated in interdimensional wars more than once or twice, but even he was at a loss when faced with this situation.

Looking at the axe in his hand and the school bully staggering away from the restaurant in a tragic manner, Jieming felt completely bewildered.

...What kind of place is this?!

(End of this chapter)