Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 187: Chapter 187: The Scholarly Prodigy Bai Wu

The bell for class rang out from the school.

Normally, this would be the time when many students got up, ready to head to the playground for morning exercises. However, the traditions at Baichuan Middle School had changed after the disaster.

Finally, the students in the dormitory area could open their dorm doors and escape the various creepy dormitory tales and oddities.

But this so-called escape was simply moving from one source of fear to another. They were about to head to the adjacent area of the office building where the principal and others were, for class.

That was an area controlled by teachers who were not part of the principal’s faction.

Enduring a nightmare-like haunted dormitory at night and hellish studies by day had become the destiny of these students.

"Where are we going next? The dormitory area?" Jiang Yimi asked.

Bai Wu looked at the eastern teaching building, which had once again entered a state of revival and had fallen into a battle, and shook his head, saying,

"That is the last place we will go."

"Why?"

"Without finding the Doomsday Fragment, that place is meaningless to us even if we deal with the Guardian."

Jiang Yimi still didn’t quite understand, and Bai Wu explained,

"I am no longer in the same body as before, and although seven hundred years have passed, you must have noticed some details."

Indeed, Jiang Yimi noticed that Bai Wu looked thinner and taller than the Masked Strange Person from seven hundred years ago. His fingers were also longer and more slender.

These were details that only Jiang Yimi would remember, which is why she thought that Bai Wu was pretending to be that person when she first saw him.

However, as Bai Wu continued to recount certain events, she came to believe that he was indeed the Masked Strange Person.

She didn’t quite understand why Bai Wu would suddenly say such a thing.

"Some of the abilities I had before are no longer usable by me. For example, the Talent Sequence Mirror Imprisonment, I cannot unlock it now. But perhaps with the Doomsday Fragment, we could make all abilities vanish and allow the person in the mirror to return."

"Moreover, we must think several steps ahead. Once they return to this area, they will come back in human form. But this is a school with over a thousand Evil Fallen, and naturally, Evil Fallen will have the desire to devour humans. Therefore, we also need to obtain a Doomsday Fragment that can increase favorability with Evil Fallen."

Bai Wu was certain that if the fragments were still around, then although the school was not large, it was fully equipped.

There were blue, purple, and red areas. Dormitory area, east campus area, office building area, and principal’s area were all independent.

If he could find the fragments, Bai Wu conjectured, there would at least be an assembly of Doomsday Fragments of various functions, similar to what he had witnessed at Baichuan Zoo.

In this way, the school could be thoroughly purified.

"By relying on Doomsday Puzzle pieces that can nullify various rules, we could transform the area into one suitable for human habitation,"

"With Doomsday Puzzle pieces that purify Evil Fallen, we could change some of the mentally chaotic Evil Fallen. Finally, using the Doomsday Puzzle pieces that gain favor with Evil Fallen, we could have some of the more intelligent Evil Fallen guard the perimeters to prevent any sudden incidents."

Jiang Yimi understood that if the Doomsday Puzzle pieces could really achieve this, a preliminary refuge would be formed.

As for whether the purified area would still have the possibility of "innate force that increases over longer periods," "objects with spirit possession," or the potential for "sequence awakening," Bai Wu was unsure. Everything would have to be tested.

But all of this hinged on finding the Doomsday Fragments.

The Ninth Psychiatric Hospital was considered the start of the confrontation with Cain, and with Baichuan Middle School having seven disciples, Bai Wu believed it was very likely to be one of the last one or two areas recorded in Cain’s Traction Disc.

He hoped the fragments would ideally be in the principal’s possession, even if not all of them.

"So are we heading to the teaching area now?"

One by one, many students entered the teaching area, even though they knew that these Evil Fallen-transformed students were actually in great pain in the teaching zone.

Yet, this did not affect Jiang Yimi’s inner desire to go to school. She had wanted to sit in a classroom and study with many people since seven hundred years ago.

"Hmm, now we’re heading to the teaching area, but we have to wait before entering," Bai Wu said.

This mysterious feeling made Jiang Yimi feel very familiar; she didn’t know what Bai Wu was waiting for.

Bai Wu was timing it, almost twelve hours had passed since he arrived at this school, and he was waiting for the third negative attribute to arrive.

He always had a hunch that if he wasn’t careful, he could be killed by that damned fate.

When he saw the teaching building, Bai Wu’s premonition came true.

[This is an eternal topic, even in The Era of the High Tower, humans’ lives still have to go through various tests. But in the multitude of exams, both the examiners and the examinees have gradually confused some concepts, is it to acquire knowledge through examinations, or to obtain knowledge just to deal with the examinations?]

The controllers of the teaching building were once a group of good teachers, just like everyone had a great original intention, the teachers also harbored the concept of educating the nation and comprehensively shaping the student, but under the KPI requirements of rates like college admission, pass rates, and standards being met, some things have gone off track.

Going to this area, you need to answer all questions correctly. As an outsider, if you answer wrongly, you will be forcibly judged as an illegal graduate and must repeat the grade, but if you answer correctly, you will receive some positive buffs. You cannot leave during the test, even using homecoming devices, good luck. ]

Another area where once entered, one would be blocked from returning home by unknown rules—if the negative attribute were deadly, it might mean an early finale.

Luckily, Bai Wu soon waited for the third negative attribute; he didn’t need to return early.

The third negative attribute was very special—extreme paranoia.

This was a type of negative attribute that could influence people’s thought patterns and even affect their personalities, similar in kind to negative thinking.

Once infected with extreme paranoia, all judgments would be made based on the first impulse, not accepting any second thoughts, nor the opinions of others.

If the team’s brain was hit with extreme paranoia, the best solution would be to return home.

Bai Wu, however, didn’t feel anything.

"That is to say, the more accurate one’s intuition and the more precise their subjective judgment, the less they are affected. After all, although such people are paranoid, their views are often correct, and because of the paranoia, they might even discard some distracting thoughts. But for those who are short-sighted and often fail in their intuition, this attribute is very deadly. Because they often make wrong decisions and do not accept corrections from others."

Having a good idea of what extreme paranoia was all about, Bai Wu decided to categorize it as a freebie attribute.

Unlike negative thinking, because there were no negative emotions, Bai Wu could not be negative. But paranoia was different; it was a mindset.

Luckily, Bai Wu’s intuition was often frighteningly accurate.

"We can go in now," Bai Wu said.

"It looks like they’re doing test papers. If they don’t finish these papers, there seems to be very severe punishment," Jiang Yimi said.

"Wait here for me, I’ll go in," Bai Wu understood Jiang Yimi’s concern.

This little girl, although very eager to learn seven hundred years ago and very serious when He Shuhong taught her, her learning aptitude and experiences did not allow her to be a top student.

"Can you handle it?" Jiang Yimi was a bit embarrassed, but her style of speaking succinctly was slightly inappropriate here. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

"I’ll do just fine."

Without looking back, Bai Wu walked into the teaching building.

...

...

In the teaching building, the moment Bai Wu entered, he felt as if he had touched a Teleportation Stele, with a flash of white light passing through his consciousness.

Then he found himself in a classroom, sitting in the last row.

Looking at the pen and paper in his hands, the test paper on the desk, and the submit button beside the test paper, Bai Wu roughly understood what was going on. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"It seems that as soon as you step into this area, you’ll be forced to become a test-taker..."

The notes in his eyes quickly confirmed Bai Wu’s guess—

[You have come to the white examination area. You need to answer at least seventy percent of the questions correctly before you qualify to enter the blue examination area. In the blue examination area, you need to answer eighty percent of the questions correctly to enter the purple examination area. After that, you must answer ninety percent of the questions correctly to move on to the red examination area.

If you successfully submit a perfect score in the red examination area, congratulations, you will enter the extreme questioning session of the black Q&A area. Answer all the odd questions correctly, and you will be able to leave this area and obtain temporary control over it.

Lastly, make good use of your cute, handsome, and smart eyes, and you will be invincible. ]

Bai Wu suddenly realized, isn’t this cheating?

Other than being fond of posing riddles, Prayle’s Eye knew almost everything. Not to mention his own knowledge reserve, as long as he made use of his eyes, he was basically unbeatable.

Of course, Bai Wu did not take it lightly, as no student had "graduated" in seven hundred years.

He quickly began to answer the first test paper.

The moment he saw the test paper, another note popped up—

[If you submit successfully, you will receive a temporary attribute boost, but if you answer any question incorrectly, you will receive a temporary negative attribute. Don’t ask why getting seventy questions correct only grants you one attribute boost, while one wrong answer immediately results in a negative attribute. It’s just like earning a monthly salary of five thousand, yet being docked three hundred for being late once. ]

Seeing this option, Bai Wu understood why no student had completed all the stages and graduated in seven hundred years.

Such excessive punishment measures basically meant that a few wrong answers would give one enough negative attributes to make it impossible to participate in the following exams.

"As long as everything is answered correctly, there shouldn’t be any problems."

Bai Wu began to answer the questions.

The questions in the white examination room were basically middle school level; he glanced at them and found no difficulty, writing swiftly.

All electronic devices in the entire teaching building were disabled, and there were no supervising teachers. Bai Wu took about ten minutes, with only the last question left unwritten. He noticed that no student chose to cheat.

"Is it because after turning into Evil Fallen, their social skills became worse? Or is it that the rules don’t allow cheating?"

Bai Wu thought it shouldn’t be because of the rules, as Prayle’s Eye wasn’t restricted.

However, he also chose not to attempt to cheat, as all the Evil Fallen present appeared like underachievers to him.

After answering the last question, Bai Wu pressed the submit button.

The next second, a series of blue lights appeared in his sea of consciousness.

Prayle’s Eye provided him with a new message—

[You have passed the first exam with a perfect score and obtained a random attribute boost—Focus. It increases concentration. ]

A free attribute.

This seemed to be a wholly useless boost, and Bai Wu could understand that, as his luck was very bad at the moment.

Without paying it much mind, he quickly began to work on the blue examination room’s test paper.

The blue examination room’s questions were basically high school level, with a considerable jump in difficulty. Bai Wu was curious about the difficulty of the next examination room’s questions.

He answered the questions with the same swift speed, even though many personal and formula names had changed from his previous life, the core principles hadn’t changed.

And with the aid of Prayle’s Eye, Bai Wu could instantly match certain pieces of information with those from his former life.

For example, in this world there was no Newton, and the person who discovered universal gravitation wasn’t hit by an apple, but by a coconut while on a beach vacation.

This incident sent him straight to the hospital. After being discharged, he began to investigate why coconuts fall.

Relativity in this life wasn’t called relativity, but quantum relativity, and Einstein’s name had changed to Ronaldo.

Though it was quite absurd, Bai Wu’s adaptability had always been strong.

The blue examination room’s questions didn’t stump him, and soon Bai Wu had completed them and entered the purple examination room.

There weren’t too many test-takers in the white examination room, but in the blue room, their numbers had multiplied several times.

By the time he reached the purple examination room, the number of candidates had drastically decreased, and Bai Wu noticed that most of the seats in the classroom were empty.

He had a fair grasp of Baichuan Middle School students’ levels by now.

Advancing from the blue to the purple examination room, Bai Wu obtained another buff—Fatal Strike. During combat, there was a fifteen percent chance to unleash an attack dealing double damage.

A fifteen percent chance, in Bai Wu’s opinion, was quite high. He was certain he could deliver critical hits with every punch, so this couldn’t possibly be a useless attribute.

The purple examination room’s questions weren’t suddenly at university level difficulty. Instead, they were an upgraded version of high school questions, roughly equivalent to going from regular high school mathematics to high school olympiad math.

This was no trouble for Bai Wu, as any question involving principles and computations was a giveaway to him.

Only with subjects like literature and history did he need to rely on Prayle’s Eye.

After all, even if he cracked his skull open, he couldn’t have guessed that in this world, the Poet Immortal known for writing a hundred poems about wine competitions wasn’t named Li Bai but Zhang Fei.

Upon seeing this name, the image of the Poet Immortal in Bai Wu’s mind was no longer of the carefree spirit who refused to kneel to the emperor because he was the immortal of wine, but a robust voice declaring, "I’m no different."

With the eyes that knew the history of the past, Bai Wu also took the opportunity during the exam to thoroughly catch up on the Pre-Tower Era knowledge of this world.

He once again entered the red examination room with a perfect score.

In the purple examination room, Bai Wu gained a very important buff—random removal of one negative attribute.

The Evil Soil that could restore life to the Evil Fallen was finally removed.

This was an unexpected delight; Bai Wu originally thought he had to transform into an Evil Fallen, or return to the High Tower before the great battle.

But now it seemed like he had saved a lot of time.

In the red examination room, the only classroom, Bai Wu was alone, and the vast room felt empty.

The difficulty of the questions had finally reached college level, with concepts becoming complex and profound. Yet even with the red zone exam papers, Bai Wu could still manage the answers.

He wrote quickly but also understood that if the black zone’s questions increased in difficulty by the same margin, it was impossible for him to get everything right.

After all, as a detective, his strength lay in his specialized knowledge of a small part of criminal investigation, and while he had a general familiarity with most areas, he hadn’t studied them in depth.

For the next round of live Q&A, he might have to rely on cheating with Prayle’s Eye to get by unscathed.

But after giving it some thought, Bai Wu felt it didn’t count as cheating:

"If a person just makes full use of his own organs, can that be considered cheating? This is at most a dimensionality reduction strike, so I, Bai Wu, am not hacking."