Chapter 6

The cub had managed to scavenge a backpack from somewhere, and the fisherman’s sun hat was carefully stored inside, held close to his chest.
His sleeping posture was very proper, clearly that of someone with good upbringing. Tao Shushu thought affectionately, wondering who the cub used to be and how he ended up stranded on a barren planet.
She didn’t touch him, afraid of waking him up.
She added two logs to the nearly burnt-out fire and checked the traps at the cave entrance.
Tao Shushu calculated: she had first seen the cub in the morning, and now it was evening for her but deep night for him.
Time in the game passed faster than on Blue Star, one day for her was two days in the game.
That meant if she logged into the game once more before bed, she should see the cub wake up.
Just as Tao Shushu was engrossed in watching the cub sleep, the system came online.
[I’ve finished grading your test. You scored 100. For the last problem, the reference answer took thirty lines, but you only wrote ten.]
"I used the rotational theorem for my modeling." Tao Shushu's mind flashed through her own solution and the reference answer.
Honestly, she didn’t even need to flip through the textbook, checking the answer couldn’t be more convenient.
After confirming her solution was correct, Tao Shushu took a piece of scrap paper and rewrote the answer using the reference method.
Glancing at the time, she felt she could manage another practice set.
[I suggest focusing on English and Chinese studies. The female lead’s goal is to rank first in the monthly exam. If you lag behind in these weaker subjects, you won’t be able to surpass her.]
"What do you mean? Are you accepting that I can directly outshine the female lead academically and undermine her system?"
The system replied, [I’ve already downloaded the English dictionary, textbooks, and listening materials. Which one would you like to start with?]
Seeing the system so serious, Tao Shushu decided not to tease it further. "Let’s start with English then."
Huiwen Highschool held monthly exams, and Tao Shushu’s grade ranking usually hovered around 40th. While she excelled in science subjects, Chinese and English were her weak points.
Tao Shushu pulled out an English reading comprehension workbook, ready to dive in.
Achieve 90% accuracy in English reading comprehension to earn 30 game coins and 1 Primary Clarity Card."] the system prompted.

Setting a 15-minute timer, Tao Shushu began the first passage.
When the alarm rang, she hesitantly filled in "B" for the last question.
Checking the answer key, she realized she’d gotten it wrong. The original sentence used a double negative, which actually conveyed a positive meaning. But the sentence was so long that it confused her.
As the system helped her look up words in the dictionary, it commented, [Your accuracy needs improvement.]
"True." Tao Shushu didn’t argue, English had always been her weak spot.
After copying down the sentence for review, she moved on to the next passage.
With one wrong answer, her accuracy was only 80%. But if she aced the next passage, she could still hit 90%.
She missed another question in the second passage but calmly continued to the third and fourth. By the third and fourth passages, she found her rhythm and finally reached the 90% accuracy goal.
[Congratulations, host, on earning the reward.] the system said. Next time, it would design tasks more carefully. Originally intending to encourage Tao Shushu’s studies, it hadn’t expected her to do four passages in a row just to meet the accuracy requirement. Maybe next time, it would require eight passages, after all, in the world of academic prodigies, there’s no room for slacking.
Unaware that her future had just been planned out by the system, Tao Shushu happily picked up her cup, went to get some water, and moved around a bit.
Then she opened the game again.
Her cub was already awake.
He stood at the cave entrance, gripping his particle gun, staring solemnly outside.
Nan Yuan had woken up abruptly in the middle of his sleep. He hadn’t been sleeping deeply, so the roar of beasts outside had jolted him awake.
In the wasteland, plants and animals had mutated. Large mutated creatures like lion prides had devoured most of the smaller animals, making food increasingly scarce. Though Nan Yuan had meticulously erased his scent and traces earlier that day, the keen-nosed beasts had still found him.
He had already extinguished the campfire. This cave had been dug out by survivors before him, but he wasn’t used to relying on traps of uncertain effectiveness. The moment he woke, he rushed to the entrance.
But when he looked, he realized the cave entrance had been reinforced.
A boulder he couldn’t move blocked the doorway, and even the debris that had been clogging the trap pit several meters deep had been cleared out.
That person had helped him again. That person had come while he was still asleep.
Nan Yuan had faced life-or-death battles countless times, yet now, he felt a rare flicker of fear, fear of death.
He wanted to live.
He wanted to repay that person.
He wanted to know what they looked like.
Were they human, machine, or ghost?
He also had to avenge his family, who had died betrayed.
There was so much he still wanted to do.
If that person had been here just hours ago, and he were to die without ever seeing them, that would be too regretful.
Nan Yuan tightened his grip on the particle gun.
Just then, he felt a light poke on his back.
A red fruit flew from the table and landed beside his hand.
It was that person, Nan Yuan knew instantly.

Author's Note:
Cub: I want to see you
Shushu: pats head