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Chapter 875: You are dead meat!

Thirty minutes passed, and the battle was still as frenetic as before.

Zack had put his entire concentration onto dealing with this difficult enemy by the name of Yin Fei. His expression was stern and sweat covered the tip of his nose, which just showed how great an effort he was putting into this.

Yin Fei was actually Xia Fei, and as a speedster, his neural response rate was far greater than the average person. Furthermore, after adapting to that brand-new learning method from Alpha, Xia Fei could tackle several questions at once without any hindrance whatsoever.

His powerful Ocular Cognition and superiorly distributed processing speed allowed him to be like a hurricane, sweeping through all the questions in section 5 pertaining to mechatronics.

Zack’s speed at solving the questions was nothing compared to Xia Fei’s, but the questions he tackled all awarded a lot of points, each generating a minimum of 30,000 points, so Zack had been able to maintain his lead the entire time, while Xia Fei was right behind the so-called genius, pursuing the other relentlessly.

“Now, it’s 600,000 points! Zack is really going crazy today, earning himself 600,000 points in the course of half an hour! That’s even better than the results he got in two hours’ time before!” a Fig Corporation research gushed in awe.

“I reckon that Zack has hardly put in any effort to this in those last two days, and it’s only the sudden appearance of that dark horse, Yin Fei, from Research Institute 137 that aroused Zack’s fighting spirit. He’s showing the true strength of the number-one genius of Eternity right now!” a colleague beside him added.

“What frightening strength! 600,000 points in thirty minutes. Indeed, he’s a genius among geniuses!”

“Also, what’s going up with this Yin Fei who’s just behind by a few points? He’s just some insignificant person from the maintenance team… so how could he compete with the likes of Zack? Everyone, look! Yin Fei only managed to obtain 580,000 points. Though it’s a little bit inferior compared to Zack’s, his result is still pretty scary!”

“Not only that. Yin Fei has solely been doing questions from section 5, where each one only awards paltry points. On average, he can hardly get a thousand points for each question solved, so there’s no way he can compete with Zack. Since he can keep pace with Zack in this manner, it demonstrates that this Yin Fei has a neural response rate many times higher than the average people.”

“You’re right! Yin Fei’s question-solving speed is simply too fast! I’ve never seen someone able to answer ten questions in under a minute, and to have actually lasted for a full thirty minutes, before!”

“Just who would emerge victorious?”

“It’s hard to say. Zack is evidently a prodigy, yet Yin Fei’s speed is just insane; he’s shown great tenacity, too. I’m afraid that we can’t tell who will win until the final second.”

Most sapient lifeforms enjoyed the act of rubbernecking. Very soon, Xia Fei and Zack’s smokeless battle drew the attention of the entire Fig Corporation.

The guards manning the gates had their eyes glued on the leaderboard, while all the researchers had stopped their work to stare at the two crazy red arrows intensely competing!

Everyone was shocked! This was because the battle was simply too stirring! It was so intense that no one could guess what the final outcome would be!

…

Fig Corporation, Research Division 4.

The fight on the leaderboards not only drew the interest of the ordinary staff, even the upper echelons of the company had started paying attention to the situation as it developed, too.

In a luxurious office, Fourth Division Director Muzen had both his hands on his chin as he watched the changes on the leaderboard. A hint of glee twinkled in his eyes, while the assistant director beside him, Mamba, was rubbing his palms together excitedly.

“To think Research Institute 137 is actually hiding someone of such caliber. Aside from Zack who has chosen to intern with us in Division 4, this newcomer Yin Fei is pretty outstanding as well! Congratulations, director! You have gotten two capable members to your team!” Mamba solemnly said.

Muzen sighed and shook his head. “What do you know? The more outstanding Yin Fei and Zack perform, the less likely for Division 4 to hold onto them. Don’t forget that those old men from Division 1 are quite eagle-eyed, too! There’s no telling when a written order will come down. By then, we’ll have no choice but to send them into their arms obediently.”

Mamba froze for a moment before muttering, “A fresh graduate from Fig Star Academy being directly accepted into Division 1? I don’t think that’s a very likely scenario. Do you? After all, Division 1 is second only to the Science and Technology Arbitration Bureau. How could anyone without at least dozens of years of experience and study catch the eye of Division 1?”

Fig Corporation had four major scientific research divisions. Of course, Division 1 held the management role. Every staff viewed the acceptance into Research Division 1 as the glory of a lifetime, but only top talents had the chances to be part of it!

Division 1 was qualified to interact with the true core technology of Fig Corporation and received great treatment. Though Mamba acknowledged the strength Yin Fei and Zack had demonstrated, he did not believe that the two would receive a transfer order from Division 1 so soon.

Muzen rubbed his temples and said, “Division 1 has recently been making plenty of big moves, seemingly having been given an especially vital assignment. Just last month alone, three of our system specialists were transferred to Division 1.”

“Zack was the first genius to have graduated from the Eternity Branch in the last fifteen decades. I won’t be in the least bit surprised if he gets transferred to Division 1 after his internship, but I don’t think that Yin Fei has that high of a chance. After all, his background is no good. Zack is a scholar of Eternity, while Yin Fei’s a freak from Independent College, and his professor, Flynn, is even a freak among freaks! Plenty of people from Division 1 dislike him; all this will affect Yin Fei’s future prospects.”

Though Independent College enjoyed some prestige, it was a faculty made up of a bunch of very unsociable retirees as professors. Few had any idea just what the recruitment criteria were for Independent College and even fewer knew how the students were taught there. Out of the entire Fig Star Academy, it was acknowledged as the most abnormal and mysterious, isolated from the rest of the faculties.

Different from the Eternity Branch, which on average had one graduate every one hundred years or so, Independent College practically had someone graduating every year, but all of them without fail had strange personalities, so people had begun calling Independent College the Freak Concentration Camp.

Mamba chuckled. “Well, retaining one isn’t a bad deal, either. After you, director, properly nurture him, I’m sure that Yin Fei will be utterly gratitude, especially if, on the off-chance, he makes it to Division 1. Unfortunately, Director Kalu of Research Insitute 137 apparently has too little foresight, actually sending someone of similar caliber to Zack to the maintenance team. I say, why don’t you, director, take this matter into your hands and have Yin Fei be transferred to a proper research team? Doing the young man this favor would be a good chance to show our goodwill.”

In Fig Corporation, the influence Division 1 wielded was vast, which was why the directors of the other three divisions would secretly compete with their talent, hoping that more of their own would be able to join Division 1. This way, if anything were to happen in the future, they would naturally have more voice inside Division 1.

Alas, who would have expected Muzen to shake his head vigorously? “What nonsense! Yin Fei and Zack are already clashing now. If I interfere and show concern for Yin Fei, Zack will end up hating me. Even if I want to make any move, I’ll have to wait till a victor emerges between the two or after Zack joins Division 1. Fomenting a feud with a graduate from Eternity is hardly the smartest move.”

Mamba paled as he hurriedly nodded in agreement. Anyone capable of sitting on the treasured seat of director was hardly ever someone easy to get along with; Muzen had just shown that he had considered this matter in greater depth than Mamba did.

Suddenly—

The intense fight on the leaderboard came to an abrupt end!

After an hour passed, Xia Fei decisively stopped answering questions and swiftly logged off, almost as if he did not care to compete with Zack!

“How did this happen?”

“What’s Yin Fei up to? Did he admit defeat?” exclaimed the two in unison.

…

Not just the Division 4 director, the entire Fig Corporation was also nonplussed and descended into disappointment. Everyone was hoping to see this dragon and tiger battle for dominance on the leaderboard, only for Yin Fei to give up on the fight with Zack and log out without warning!

It must be mentioned that the disparity in points between Zack and Yin Fei was small. As long as Yin Fei continued persevering, he would surely have the chance to emerge victorious!

However, this ending had been completely outside of anyone’s expectations!

*Crash*

The bone China tea cup on the table shattered when Zack swept it away. His expression was fearsome as he shook all over from anger.

As the only genius in one hundred fifty years, Zack knew then and there that it had just been wistful thinking on his part the entire time; this Yin Fei did not even give a hoot about him!

His livid expression turned pale, and he seethed with rage! Never did he expect that a great genius like him would be disregarded by a lowly maintenance worker, a freak graduate from Independent College!

This was even more unacceptable than being defeated!

*Swoosh*

Zack very quickly wrote out a line on his screen: “Coward! Continue if you’ve got the guts!”

*Tap*

This message, which had appeared directly on the side of the questions column, was open for all to see. It was very eye-catching, and over tens of thousands of staff opened to read it at once; subsequently, they left their own comments below. The entire Fig Corporation was in turmoil!

“Quick, look! Zack has challenged Yin Fei of Research Institute 137!”

“Heheheh! Looks like we’ve got a show in store for us. The two will definitely fight to the death tomorrow!”

“Leader, why don’t we halt our work tomorrow and continue after this fight between Zack and Yin Fei ends, or else everyone will surely be too preoccupied to perform their duties efficiently!”

A single stone caused thousands of ripples; the open challenge of Zack attracted even more eyes on the matter. Now, everyone was waiting expectantly for tomorrow’s showdown to happen. There were even some who secretly took leave all so they could watch the two battle it out.

On the second day, Fig Corporation’s centralized questions column was filled with personnel at 8 AM sharp. From the four research division directors to ordinary employees, countless eyes stared at the screens of their microcomputers as an unusually tense atmosphere permeated the air.

At ten on the dot, in a timely fashion, Yin Fei logged on once more!

He was sweeping through the questions on section 5 just like the day before! His speed was actually even faster than yesterday! It was almost as if Yin Fei had carefully prepared for this fight!

At the same time, Zack made his move like always, all to maintain the pride as the strongest genius that came from Eternity in fifteen decades!

Everyone watched the two red dragons rise on that leaderboard, neither letting each other off as both relentlessly tackled questions after questions!

The entire company watched, dumbfounded! In just an hour, Zack had actually earned 1.7 million points! That was higher than yesterday’s 500,000!

Yin Fei did not fall off, either, obtaining the shocking result of 1.54 million points!

The record of most points earned in an hour in Fig Corporation had been broken by both Yin Fei and Zack!

Everyone could feel their blood pumping watching the two compete, their ears turning red from all the excitement!

Alas, who would have guessed that the moment the one-hour mark was reached, Xia Fei would log out again! He basically left Zack awkwardly sitting there, feeling utterly ignored.

There was no way Zack had experienced such a level of disdain before. He immediately posted a thousand-word essay, cursing Xia Fei as craven for not daring to face him head on.

Those employees who were originally supporting Xia Fei slowly began to lean toward Zack. After all, there was no way Yin Fei did not read such a blatant issue of challenge, so unless it was because the person was afraid or some sort of foul trickery was involved, there would be no reason for anyone who called themselves a man not to accept this challenge.

On the third day, Zack began his tirade early at seven in the morning, clamoring for the coward Yin Fei to appear and for them to settle the score today no matter what.

Unfortunately, no matter how much Zack yelled, barked, or cursed, Xia Fei did not respond even once.

At 10:05 AM, past the time when Yin Fei would punctually come online, the column remained as quiet as ever.

The huge showdown everyone had been looking forward to did not happen, so all were in a particularly foul mood, feeling that Yin Fei was a coward who dared not to take up this challenge outright.

At 10:10 AM, just as the crowd began to disperse, with each one of them feeling disappointed, a shocking scene had suddenly occurred sans a warning and without so much as a fuss!

“Quick, come look! Yin Fei has responded to Zack’s challenge!”

“Oh! What did he say? Did he accept it?”

Everyone gathered around a screen and watched.

Yin Fei’s response was as follows:

“You insulted me the day before, and I ignored you.

“You insulted me again yesterday, and I still ignored you.

“For you to continue insulting me even today… You’re dead meat!”