PTYS Chapter 105

“Damn it, this system is messed up!” Chen Kaijie couldn’t help but curse.

Shen Qingqiu, who had been very quiet, noticed Xiao Muyu’s movements and simultaneously saw the page number and problem number.

After pondering for a moment, she spoke, “Muyu, you’re not wrong. We do need to find the room with the coordinates left 29 and forward 24. At least the numbers match the page number and problem number. The question can’t be read now because no one has entered that room. So, someone needs to go in.”

“If I’m not mistaken, these special numbers aren’t just 29, 24, but also 19, 14; 9, 4; and 39, 34.” Xiao Muyu said while flipping through the physics review materials, looking at the questions on the pages as she spoke. Seeing this, Shen Qingqiu also leaned over and whispered from time to time.

Chen Kaijie was a bit confused: “They all have 4 and 9. Is it because all the rooms are 409?”

“Yes. It was just a guess before, but now this problem appearing confirms my suspicion. If this room is indeed a dead loop, it further validates this conclusion.” Xiao Muyu responded, drawing a line under a question with her finger.

However, among the four people present, only Shen Qingqiu had a positive charge attribute, so according to the current signs, only she could directly go to 29, 24. Time was tight, and there was no other way, Shen Qingqiu had to prioritize the bigger picture.

She glanced at Xiao Muyu, who made a gesture and pointed to her control panel, whispering, “Group message, hurry.” Shen Qingqiu nodded to indicate she understood.

She took a deep breath and walked over. Turned left, then left again, indeed a four-time loop.

Xiao Muyu and the others watched as Shen Qingqiu was suddenly pulled into the room. Even though they were prepared, Xiao Muyu’s heart couldn’t help but skip a beat when she saw this.

At this time, the problem that was obscured on the book gradually became clear.

“Ding, congratulations to Shen Qingqiu for activating this round of the game – the magnet maze exam session. The subject of this exam is: Physics. Answer time is ten minutes! Since this is a team dungeon, the exam score will be the average score of the team. The full score is forty-five points, and an average score of no less than twenty-seven points is considered passing. The system holds the right of final interpretation of this exam!”

Chen Kaijie, Su Jin, Zuo Tiantian: …

Xiao Muyu suddenly became nervous, unsure if Shen Qingqiu could make it in time.

This exam was clearly aimed at them. Those students should now just be simple NPCs because as soon as the system finished speaking, the five of them instantly appeared on a square grid like a chessboard.

Su Jin, Zuo Tiantian, Chen Kaijie, and Xiao Muyu sat in four corners, while Shen Qingqiu, as the activator of this exam, sat in the center.

Seeing all her teammates, Chen Kaijie couldn’t hold back and wanted to speak, but found he couldn’t make any sound.

Xiao Muyu, who had been relaxed, suddenly tensed up, but before she could do anything, the system’s voice sounded again.

“The exam has begun, please follow the exam rules, no whispering, no loud talking. Anyone attempting to cheat will have their exam score marked as zero, so do not exchange information. Now, answer sheets will be distributed. You have three minutes to read the questions and fill in the answer sheet.”

Xiao Muyu sat in the lower-left corner, just able to see Shen Qingqiu sitting in the center facing her, as well as Su Jin directly across from her. Shen Qingqiu’s expression was also a bit solemn because she had already seen the answer sheet.

The answer sheet was in a standard format with five questions, but only one had a question stem, which read: Please write down the locations of the four questions in this exam. The other four questions only had the last question with a picture of a magnetic and electric field, the rest had only a blank area.

And the so-called exam paper was the thick physics review book brought in by the seventh-grade physics teacher, far more than four questions.

While browsing the answer sheet, Su Jin, Zuo Tiantian, and even Chen Kaijie’s expressions changed.

Chen Kaijie glanced at Xiao Muyu on the left and Zuo Tiantian in front of him, feeling a mess inside.

Setting aside whether they could solve high school physics problems, if Su Jin and Zuo Tiantian didn’t even know the questions, no matter how good they were at physics, it would still be zero points.

In this case, no matter how well Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu did, they would have a hard time passing.

Chen Kaijie wiped the sweat off his forehead, forcing himself to calm down.

The system started speaking again, “Stay calm, prepare well. You five science students don’t need the examiners to remind you how to score points on physics problems. Start answering now!” After speaking, the exam bell rang, making everyone anxious.

At the same time, the five people were instantly pulled apart, and they could only see each other sitting there, not what they were doing.

Su Jin and Zuo Tiantian had been out of contact with the main group for a long time, so they couldn’t share much information.

After being separated from Chen Kaijie, the two were lucky enough to be transported to the same place and understood the basic information, discovering the room with the dead loop.

Before the exam started, they were looking for the next loop point. Su Jin had been keeping an eye on the group messages, so the moment she entered, she saw the three sets of numbers Shen Qingqiu quickly sent: 29, 24; 19, 14; 9, 4. She only hoped Zuo Tiantian had seen them when she looked over.

The pattern in these numbers was obvious. Su Jin quickly guessed it was related to room 409 and almost instantly derived another set of numbers, 39, 34.

With a thought so intense it made her hand tremble, she quickly opened to pages 4, 9, flipping through until she saw a familiar picture on page 39, almost identical to the last question, and the problem number 34. She felt enlightened.

Meanwhile, Zuo Tiantian was drawing a blank, cold sweat on her forehead, her mind a chaotic mess of information.

She kept taking deep breaths, finally picking up her pen and quickly writing down five answers on the paper.

This exam determined life and death and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Even without Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu’s guidance, as a player, she shouldn’t be clueless. She must have been given hints.

In the entire game, nothing seemed related to this review book.

The first question required identifying the four problems, so the hint must be numbers.

Where had she seen numbers before?

She closed her eyes, clenching her fists, desperately recalling. Suddenly, she opened her eyes, quickly flipping through the book, and started writing rapidly.

Because they were muted and the distance was too far, the exam room was deathly silent, only the sound of pens moving on paper.

Time passed by the minute, and Xiao Muyu was the first to put down her pen. She reviewed her paper, then focused on observing the exam room.

Having been too nervous when she first entered to look around, she could now finally observe the place.

The room was square, and before they were pulled apart, Xiao Muyu clearly saw that the exam room was a square grid.

With Shen Qingqiu in the center, Xiao Muyu calculated, her eyes scanning each square, horizontally 23, 24…

25, Shen Qingqiu was on the 25th square from her, so the exam room was a 49×49 grid. Why couldn’t she see the magnetic field? Was it not set up?

While Xiao Muyu pondered, Shen Qingqiu in the center moved slightly. The movement was not obvious from a distance, making Xiao Muyu frown, trying to understand what Shen Qingqiu was doing. After a while, she quickly looked up.

Above them was a symmetrical area with four dots continuously shooting out from the central position.

The other three areas were too far to see clearly, but the dot above her was moving in a circular motion within that square.

First a half-circle clockwise, then counterclockwise, finally hitting the edge of the square and disappearing.

After the dot disappeared, a new dot started moving in the same area. The speed was different, and the circle size varied, changing the collision point, but it still hit the edge and disappeared.

The fourth time, the dot precisely landed in the lower-left corner, this time shooting out of the area. Xiao Muyu’s eyes widened in realization.

The system’s voice sounded again, “Time’s up, stop answering!”

The five answer sheets were collected simultaneously, and the exam room returned to its initial state, bringing the five closer together.

Several red beams scanned the papers, and five light screens hung in front of them, corresponding to their names. This was public grading, and public execution.

Even Xiao Muyu couldn’t help but feel nervous, watching the five papers being graded.

The first big question was graded quickly, with four people scoring full marks, and only Chen Kaijie scoring four because he didn’t write the solution.

Chen Kaijie almost fainted, clutching his chest, and rubbing his face in frustration.

The remaining four questions, he, he must have written the solutions, right? The more he thought, the more scared he became, turning pale as he looked at his teammates, full of despair.

Xiao Muyu gave him a reassuring look.

The second question was a basic magnetic field problem. Chen Kaijie had long forgotten physics, but luckily, on his way, he met the seventh-grade physics teacher.

Out of fear, the teacher kept talking to Chen Kaijie about magnetic fields, Lorentz force judgment methods, solution formulas, and particle trajectories, and Chen Kaijie heard it all.

He scored six out of eight points on this question, missing the units.

The others scored full marks.

The last three questions were more challenging. Only two out of five got full marks on the third question, Xiao Muyu and Su Jin. Zuo Tiantian and Shen Qingqiu scored six and five respectively, while Chen Kaijie got four, only answering the first part correctly.

The fourth and fifth questions were magnetic and electric field comprehensive problems, usually the hardest in college entrance exams. With only ten minutes, it was impossible to finish, so apart from the first part, Su Jin and the others didn’t have time to look at the rest, making everyone extremely anxious.

Xiao Muyu’s paper was graded first, being a top student’s paper.

Her score of 43 points was glaring, making everyone gasp.

“Ten minutes for four physics problems, including two challenging ones? What kind of monster is this exam!” Chen Kaijie exclaimed.

Even the system seemed incredulous. After flickering a few times, it demanded a re-check of the papers. The final result was still 43 points.

The system did not comment, and soon after, the scores of Chen Kaijie, Su Jin, and Zuo Tiantian were announced.

Although they didn’t complete several major questions, the three of them displayed an unusual level of coordination, neatly writing down the physics formulas and solutions.

Su Jin and Zuo Tiantian even filled in all the formulas related to circular motion in magnetic and electric fields, earning them an extra 3 points. Upon seeing their scores, they had one thought: our teachers did not lie to us!

In the end, Chen Kaijie scored a total of 19, Su Jin 28, and Zuo Tiantian 23. However, Shen Qingqiu’s score had not been revealed yet. Su Jin and the others were on edge, while Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu remained calm.

The system then dropped another bombshell: “Attention, for Xiao Muyu’s team score, the highest and lowest scores will be dropped. The final score…”

The system’s cold voice trailed off, waiting for Shen Qingqiu’s final score. The scoring, which should have been quick, was deliberately delayed to create tension.

Chen Kaijie and the others were stunned. They realized once again that the system was deliberately targeting them.

Xiao Muyu was their ace. Dropping the lowest score wouldn’t offset the loss of Xiao Muyu’s high score.

If Shen Qingqiu couldn’t score over 30 points, they were doomed!

But Shen Qingqiu only scored 5 points on the third question. How could she possibly get 12 points on the remaining ones?

Even Xiao Muyu’s heart tightened. She couldn’t help but say, “I request Skynet arbitration. The system has violated the game rules by arbitrarily changing the settings.”

“What did you say?” For a moment, the mechanical voice of the system was filled with an almost human-like incredulity.

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Author’s Note:

This chapter took nearly two hours to write, and with thinking and head-scratching, it was more like three hours. It was truly time-consuming.

Previously, I often procrastinated using my phone and couldn’t measure the time accurately. Today, using a more focused setting, I realized how exhausting it was.

We’re only on the fourth quest, and it’s already 400,000 words. So, there’s a high probability that I will have to cut some side quests. Writing this way is inefficient and yields low returns. It’s a headache. Trying out the infinite flow genre has proven to be tough. It’s really difficult for me.