NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Course Selection
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the atmosphere was starting to get a little dull, Zhang Tingting had already brought a bunch of things over and placed them on the table. She introduced them to Xiao Lin one by one.
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“First is the school uniform. Except for major events and meetings, the academy doesn’t force students to wear school uniforms. Another thing to note is that school uniforms are divided into four colors. Freshmen are green, sophomores are blue, juniors are red, and seniors are black.”
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After handing over the school uniform, Zhang Tingting took out a nifty little cell phone and said, “This is a cell phone for special use in the academy. None of Earth’s cell phones can be used here. I’d also like to add that this is the academy’s self-developed magic-powered cell phone. It has many functions.”
Receiving the stylish, palm-sized device, Xiao Lin played with it for a moment. He did not see any difference from the usual and asked suddenly, “Isn’t there a charger?”
Gu Fantian laughed. “The mobile phone is powered by a high-energy crystal. It won’t need to be charged for a hundred years. If you don’t mind, I’ll save your number.”
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Xiao Lin naturally had no objections to that.
Gu Fantian took out his cell phone, placed it quietly on Xiao Lin’s phone screen for a few seconds before returning it to Xiao Lin. Xiao Lin discovered that a command had appeared on the screen: [Gu Fantian requested to be added as a friend in your address book; do you accept?]
Xiao Lin chose to approve it. “That’s convenient.”
“You’ll slowly begin to understand the academy’s magic!” Gu Fantian looked at the sky outside and saw only the last traces of an afterglow on the horizon. He quickly said, “It’s getting late and we should go back. Remember, after going back to your room, you must register for the academy’s forum. The freshman forums are pretty messy, so don’t make small talk if there’s nothing important. Look for the threads regarding tomorrow’s course selection and take a look. Tomorrow’s a very important event. Do contact me if you have any questions!”
“Oh yes, the cafeteria is on the top floor of the dorm building. It’s buffet style and the food is amazing!” Zhang Tingting added.
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After the charismatic couple left, Xiao Lin went back to the room alone. His was situated on the innermost room of the third floor. The environment was indeed quite exquisite and comparable to a five-star hotel. It was vastly different from his vision of a school dormitory. The corridors were lined with clean red carpets—elegant and clean to the touch. Each floor of the dormitory had a large seating area, with rows of comfortable sofas, and self-service coffee, tea, and other drinks next to the seating.
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As far as daily life was concerned, the academy treated their freshmen incredibly well, and Xiao Lin was certain of it.
He used his universal passcard to unlock his room. It was not that big a room, with only one bedroom and one bathroom. The décor was relatively simple too. After setting aside his school uniforms, Xiao Lin could not wait to open the laptop that he had been given. The laptop did not differ much from normal, but it was impossible to connect to Earth’s network in that dimension. It was connected only to Dawn Academy’s intranet forum.
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Following the prompts, he completed a successful registration with his student ID. Xiao Lin finally logged on to the school forum named Dawning. The aqua blue background page was beautifully designed, with a couple of short messages popping up at the same time. After clicking in to take a look, they were discovered to be automated messages congratulating those who became a part of Dawn Academy and explaining the academy’s regulations.
Xiao Lin did not read the contents in detail, but instead clicked on his personal information first.
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[Name: Xiao Lin (Freshman)]
[Status: Acting monitor]
[ID: 201235]
[Natural Life Expectancy: 83 years; 23 years old currently, 60 years to go.]
[Credits: 40]
[Redemption Points: 800]
[Basic Attribute Points: 2 Strength points; 2 Agility points; 2 Intelligence points; 3 Physique points]
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[Skills Mastered: Basic Dagger Mastery LV2, Slashing LV2]
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[Talent (Top Secret): Academic Genius (SS)]
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To Xiao Lin’s surprise, his Slashing had been upgraded to LV2. He assumed that he did not get the prompt in time after fainting in his battle with the Zombie King.
A LV2 Slashing could increase his damage by gathering his power for a longer time. There were only three levels for Slashing, and the next level required 1000 experience points to upgrade.
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Students of different years had their own special area on the forum. Junior students could not enter the area for senior students, but senior students were allowed access to the juniors’ areas. When Xiao Lin clicked on sophomore and third-year student areas, he was immediately reminded that he did not have proper authorization. Aside from the four grades, he noticed that there were several parts that were reserved for graduate students and doctoral students, as well as for the New World. Needless to say, the only area he could enter at that moment was the freshman zone.
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When he just entered, the entire freshman forum was practically in a constant state of refreshing. New posts appeared at a dazzlingly fast rate. There were a total of 700 or 800 freshmen, and most of them were still very curious about everything. Each person wanted to say something on the forum and post a little bit about their feelings.
Xiao Lin clicked on a few posts at random. They were either topics without any substance, or discussions about the test that just ended, as well as the dean’s majestic display during the opening ceremony.
Gu Fantian told him that the next day’s course selection was very important, but Xiao Lin had no idea what it meant to choose a course. What courses could that academy teach? Were they supposed to learn Chinese, Mathematics, and English?
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In that moment of distress, Xiao Lin received another system notification: [You have been added into the freshman monitor’s discussion group].
Once he clicked on the discussion group, the barrage of new posts stopped and Xiao Lin felt as though everything was finally calm. The discussion group was probably similar to a public chat channel, and there were 12 other people aside from Xiao Lin.
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A person named Chen Yu spoke first. “Hello everyone, I’m the year leader for sophomores, Chen Yu. Since there’s no year leader for the freshmen as of yet, I shall temporarily serve as your year leader.”
“Nice to meet you, Senior!”
“Huh? This is a real-name system!”
“Year leader? What’s that?”
…
Chen Yu said again, “Be quiet! Allow me to explain. Freshmen year leaders will be chosen among the monitors on the condition that you pass the comprehensive exam three months later. Of course, I believe all of you won’t have a problem with it.”
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“I’m very curious. Is there any benefit to us being monitors or year leaders?” someone asked.
“Yeah, yeah! I used to be a monitor when I was in school. It was a pain, and to be honest, I really don’t want to take up the task!”
It appeared that there were more than a few people who shared Xiao Lin’s thoughts.
Chen Yu was silent for a moment, then typed out another line, “You probably all know about the New World, right?”
“We do!”
“Colonizing another world sounds so cool!”
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“When can we go to the New World?”
Chen Yu continued, “Class cadres and student union cadres have many powers, but the crux of it is their status in the New World! In the context of an army, would you like to be a soldier or an officer? In the context of a country, would you like to be a civilian, a nobleman, or someone in the government?
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“To put it more simply, you’ll be going to the New World in the future. Your position as student cadre or otherwise will decide whether you will lead or be led by others in the New World! Are there any questions?”
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No one spoke.
Xiao Lin finally understood why the sophomore couple was so cordial to him after finding out that he was basically acting squad leader. As Senior Chen Yu explained, the temptation of being a squad leader was really out of the ordinary.
“Next is the course selection. Instructors will be responsible for helping ordinary students with their selection tomorrow, but the selection form for class monitors must be handed to me by tonight. It has already been sent to everyone’s mailbox. If you have any questions, you may ask me directly. In addition, the monitor can organize discussion sections for each class, since that falls under the monitor’s authority.”
The discussion group was nearing its end. Many were eager to leave the discussion group and check the important course selection list, but since Chen Yu—the sophomore year leader—did not leave yet, it was inappropriate for the others to leave as well.
“Strange,” Chen Yu suddenly typed a single word, followed by a question. “Who’s the monitor of Freshmen Class Seven?”
“Me,” Xiao Lin responded curtly. He believed that the other party could see his name due to the real-name system.
“…” Chen Yu used a series of ellipsis to express his speechlessness. After ten or so seconds of silence, he asked again, “Shouldn’t it be Gu Xiaoyue?”
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“…” Xiao Lin also responded with a series of ellipses.
“Who is Gu Xiaoyue?”
“Dunno.”
“I heard the instructor mention that she’s pretty awesome.”
Several other monitors put forth their questions, but received no answer from Chen Yu. It appeared that the other party had left for the time being and the discussion had ended. Everyone could not wait to check their course selection list.
Inside a conference room…
Chen Yu exhaled and lifted his hands from the keyboard. He looked helplessly at the boy beside him, and said with a wry smile, “President, this isn’t right. You mentioned that the reason the dean attended the opening ceremony was because of that new student Gu Xiaoyue. She’s not the monitor of Freshmen Class Seven though. Is it possible that Freshmen Class Seven’s monitor was appointed at random?”
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A trace of doubt flashed between the president’s eyebrows. “The instructor’s position is to help the freshmen go through the freshman period. Like the acting class monitor, their term is only limited to three months. I don’t believe any instructor would dare defy the custom that has been in our school for many years. That Xiao… Xiao what’s-his-name. Find out his admission test scores.”
“Xiao Lin.” As part of the student union’s cadre, Chen Yu had the authority to check a freshman’s admission scores. He obtained the report quickly, then perused it for a moment before his expression gradually became strange.
“President, this Xiao Lin also obtained Grade S in the admission test.”
The president nodded, but did not seem too surprised. As the student union’s president, he had a lot of things on his hands, so it was clearly infeasible for him to read through each freshman’s reports. Therefore, he had no impression of Xiao Lin.
“It’s just…” Chen Yu reflected on his tone before continuing, “This Xiao Lin isn’t a talented student, and his health screening report lists him as having two points for Strength, Agility, and Intelligence, respectively and three for Physique.”
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“His total attributes don’t exceed 10?” The president was half-skeptical and stepped to personally check the report. Then, his expression became very animated.
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…
Xiao Lin’s expression at that time was equally as animated. The screen in front of him displayed the freshman course selection table, the contents of which were rather abundant.
There were four selection tables for freshmen. The first one was a table for basic attribute courses, which included: Basic Swordsmanship, Basic Saber Technique, Basic Boxing Technique, Basic Bow and Arrow Technique, Basic Meditation, and a few others totaling to about 10 different courses. Any one was fine so long as the freshmen chose one of them.
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The second one was a table for secondary attribute courses. The courses include: Basic Physical Skills, Basic Strength, Basic Perception, Basic Mental Strength Training, Basic Balance, Basic Focus, Basic Tenacity, Basic Body Techniques, Basic Parrying, and Basic Evasion. From a total of 10 courses, Freshmen were required to choose at least three.
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The third one was compulsory courses, which meant that all freshmen had to take them: General History of Planet Norma, Common Language of Planet Norma, and Geography of Planet Norma.
With how Xiao Lin’s understood it, the last three compulsory courses were history, foreign language, and geography!
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