Chapter 48: System Upgrade

The live chat was full of excited comments. There were insults of course, but they were ignored by Lin Yu.

After introducing the inspiration and development of the Academic Genius System, it came to the system’s interface. He did not talk about this as he was wary of the video’s length while editing and only recorded a short scene of him knocking on his keyboard amidst day and night scenes as a transition.

What followed were scenes of himself using the Academic Genius System in the past week.

It started off with a scene reenactment he had filmed, and it was the moment where he was embarrassed about not having money to buy a bottle of water. He did not shy away from it at all and even added the phrase “scene reenactment” at the bottom of the footage.

After that, there was footage of himself over the past few days.

On the second day, he was extra studious in order to collect 100 points to redeem reserve funds. He successfully completed the five stipulated Pomodoro Intervals for the day and together with his efforts from the first day, he collected 100 points to redeem reserve funds and treated himself to good food.

Unfortunately, he was depressed and starving on the third day as he did not eat anything for the entire day.

He had set the ratio of points to redeemable funds as 1:1. This meant that one point was equivalent to one buck and redemptions could only be made at multiples of 100.

However, the amount was not enough. It was impossible for him to take public transport to school, so he had to spend on booking e-hailing rides which were about 40 or 50 bucks for a round trip. On top of that, he had to eat breakfast and lunch outside, and mixed rice cost over 10 bucks nowadays. It was impossible for him to skip breakfast as well since he was exercising everyday. He needed about 60 or 70 bucks to get through a day.

He ordered snacks and drinks out of habit on the second day but realized the severity of the problem on the third day.

He finally learnt how it was like to be broke. After starving for a day, he no longer stopped at completing the stipulated Pomodoro Intervals for the day as he was forced to do more.

“Boss, let’s add another Interval!”

Brief footages of himself over the past few days appeared in the video, and Lin Yu playfully ended that video section by asking for another Pomodoro Interval.

“Another Interval? No problem. Let’s add 18 Pomodoro Intervals for this man!”

“Damn, this works. Amazing!”

“I can only express my admiration for this by saying: ‘F*ck’!”

“Your mom no longer needs to worry about your studies.”

“Taka Kato [1]has acknowledged you as the man with ultimate tricks.”

After the scene of Lin Yu adding Pomodoro Intervals for himself, the video ended and the live chat erupted.

Nonetheless, there were still insults and sarcastic comments.

“Haha, he’s acting pretty good.”

“Is this considered a system? The tricks system should be able to integrate with one’s soul, okay.”

“I thought you had some awakened superpower, but it turns out it’s just a toy you made to gain attention.”

These comments were normal but Lin Yu could no longer ignore them. He was not as unmoved as the older uploaders were and felt pretty upset about it.

“Go on, criticize me. The harsher your criticism is, the better my Academic Genius System works, and…I will be able to shove it in your faces.”

Lin Yu mumbled to himself with a seemingly sinister smile on his face. He pulled out his phone and uploaded a status on B site—’1pm Livestream Of The Academic Genius System Trial’.

“Livestream? Is this true? Quick, let’s do it. Let’s see if you’re really as handsome as you say you are.”

“Is Lupus trying to prove people wrong again?”

“You’re so good. I like your temper.”

His loyal fans still made up most of his viewers, which was why his status attracted support and cheers. Unfortunately, to prevent himself from feeling more upset, he got off the app after the status update.

After quitting the B site app and shifting his focus onto the Attributes Menu above his phone, Lin Yu’s mood changed for the better.

___

[The Powerful Academic Genius System App]

Rank (LV0): 3752/500 (Upgrade available)

Description: A learning assistant software integrated with psychology theories…

Evaluation: A slacker’s last-ditch effort to become an academic genius.

___

The Academic Genius System video garnered over 600,000 views within a day. There were about 3700 EXP points from the video and its ratio was about 160 views for every EXP point.

“With such a high demand for EXP for each rank, it should upgrade into something good, shouldn’t it?”

Lin Yu licked his lips excitedly.

It took only 50 EXP points for the Charge Blade to upgrade to Level 1. The Academic Genius System had ten times the EXP compared to the Charge Blade so if it still upgraded into something useless, it would mean that there was no God.

On top of that, since the Academic Genius System’s Attributes Menu hovered over his phone, it meant that the phone was the system’s carrier. If the system was upgraded, would that mean that he would get a black tech phone as well?

As a phubber, Lin Yu looked forward to this.

Smartphones were the most important thing to people nowadays. It represented a combination of soul and life. Have you not seen how people became sluggish after their phones ran out of battery?

“Upgrade!”

He did not think that upgrading it by one rank would change things much. He could just explain it to the audience during the livestream and since he still had the original code for the program, he could just redo it for the livestream in the afternoon.

After finding excuses for himself, Lin Yu upgraded the system without hesitation.

The glowing faint blue ring that Lin Yu could never get tired of staring at began spreading from the charging port to the rest of the phone.

Every part of the phone touched by the glowing ring instantly shrank into a small strip of white aluminum alloy and was only as wide as a finger.

“F*ck, my phone!!!”

It seemed like the Academic Genius System was not planning on using the phone as a carrier anymore. It seemed like he could not save his P30 from this, let alone have a black tech phone.

He became broke after developing the Academic Genius System and could not afford another phone.

Would he have to live a primitive life from now on?

Lin Yu was depressed as he stared at the glowing faint blue ring move past his entire phone. His phone eventually disappeared and what was left was a white aluminum strip.

It seemed like a pair of folded glasses but its frame was not as slender as ordinary glasses. Instead, it was a silver-white strip as wide as a finger and stretched toward the back, ending in a little arc on the temples.

The lenses were also different from ordinary glasses; their width was only about as wide as a finger and a half and were slightly wider than the frame. Basically, they barely covered the eyes and there was no frame under the lenses. They were embedded in the upper frame of the glasses. The right lens had a tiny dot on its side that resembled a mobile phone camera, while the temples on the left lens had a Type-C charging port and a small Sim card slot that was common in smartphones.

[1] Taka Kato is a Japanese pornstar known for the best ‘tricks’ with his fingers.