Ch41 - Kangxin Middle School

The rankings of all levels are determined by the strength of the user’s own logic skill as the main reference.

— Grow Some Brains, Everyone Has A Responsibility APP’s Must-Read Guidebook for Newcomers 

***

The wind was cold.

Zhongdu, Xiangcheng Subway Station’s entrance.

A small, grey wall enclosed a construction site and tiny cement dust flew onto the street outside the wall with the wind. Crowds of people poured out of the dark opening of the subway station. Xiao Jinyu just walked out of the subway station and couldn’t help but cover his nose and mouth with a scarf. 

The area where Kangxin Middle School was located had recently undergone an urban renovation, with construction sites and dust everywhere in the air.

Xiao Jinyu took out his phone from his pocket and a bullet barrage immediately drifted across the screen.

[Oh Dad!]

Xiao Jinyu quietly answered, then opened the map, finding the route to Kangxin Middle School. Soon, he fiddled with his phone and followed the directions, turning and walking in the opposite direction of the subway station.

A week ago, A14 Holy Sacrifice, Huo Lanxu created a brutal sacrifice in Zhongdu. The horrific and quiet head-picking march lasted a full hour, killing and injuring thousands of people. In the end, Xiao Jinyu used White Garden’s logic skill to send Pope’s Crown’s ashes into a separate dimension in order to stop the march.

That day, Xiao Jinyu also lost his mom.

It was also that day, after living for twenty one years, that he learned he wasn’t his mother’s biological child.

Xiao Jinyu didn’t care much about whether he was his mom’s biological child, if it really was as Wang Tao investigated, that he was adopted by his mom from Kangde Orphanage, then after his mom adopted him, he became her child. His parents had abandoned him and it was his mom who raised him. He would always only have one mom. 

However, the Kangde Orphanage from more than twenty years ago had now been transformed into Kangxin Middle School and in addition, a B rank task personally released by level six user Spear of Judgement…

Then things were probably not so simple. He must personally check out this strange middle school.

On the way to Kangxin Middle School, Xiao Jinyu lowered his eyes and recalled the events from seven days ago.

Seven days ago, when Zhao Hen mentioned the B rank task he had seen, Su Jiuzhou hadn’t hidden the fact he was the one who had released the task, bluntly admitting it. 

Once he said that, both Wang Tao and Xu Qi froze in place and Xiao Jinyu also looked at Su Jiuzhou, stunned.

Only Zhao Hen, who didn’t know Su Jiuzhou’s identity, thought that the other party was just an ordinary colonel and didn’t react much. He naturally didn’t know how special a task had to be for a level six user to personally release a task.

In the entirety of China, there were five level six users. And for a task that a level six user couldn’t take care of, it wasn’t something they could carefully consider in the first place.

Turning a corner, Xiao Jinyu walked into a quiet and remote alley. The city had existed since ancient times and was full of old alleys, winding and twisting just like the city’s dense pipelines, all intertwined and connected. 

Xiao Jinyu walked as he lowered his head and looked at his phone.

[Dad, where are you going?]

[Why isn’t Dad paying attention to me.]

“Because Dad is looking at the route.” The young and gentle voice sounded. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

004 was stunned as if it didn’t expect Xiao Jinyu to suddenly make a sound after staying quiet for so long. It took two seconds for it to excitedly send messages all over the screen.

[Oh~~~ Dad（づ￣3￣）づ～]

[Where are we going? Are you bringing me to see my mom?]

Wljb Alcse: “…” 

Coafg qjerlcu bc atf kbgv ‘wbw’ obg tjio j rfmbcv, Wljb Alcse rjlv: “Lbk wemt vb sbe xcbk jybea Vqfjg bo Aevufwfca?”

[?]

[I don’t know. Old Pervert had never filled out any information and because he personally had relations with the government officials, his information was never entered into the APP. But I remember, Old Pervert awakened his logic skill about seven years ago and immediately upgraded to level three the next day. Half a year later, he reached level four and spent another half year to get to level five.]

[After another year, he reached level six and I became unable to find any of his logic skill information afterward （=。=）] 

[Dad, didn’t I tell you this before?]

“Qtja vb sbe atlcx, j qgbyifw atja fnfc Vqfjg bo Aevufwfca mjc’a rbinf… mbeiv yf?”

Ktf yeiifa yjggjuf bc atf rmgffc lwwfvljafis mifjgfv eq.

Coafg j oeii tjio wlceaf, 004 olcjiis oibjafv bea j rlcuif rfcafcmf. 

[Is the end of the world coming? Then, Dad, I want to eat chicken legs, play games, and see other pretty robot girls!]

Xiao Jinyu: “…”

Where did you learn all of this?!

Although he didn’t understand how a polluter would eat chicken legs, play games… see other girls, these types of weird thoughts, Xiao Jinyu was keenly aware of one piece of information: robot. 

Three weeks ago, Xiao Jinyu had just awakened his logic skill and 004 had suddenly knocked on his door, calling him Dad. On one hand, was an ordinary level one user and on the other, was the powerful polluter APP that controlled all the logic skill information in China… Xiao Jinyu had no way to refuse and could only accept this cheap son.

However, he had never asked what kind of polluter the other was.

Xiao Jinyu had seen a lot of polluters, the pearl necklace, and the bone fan.

And the powerful 008, a cowardly and soft-spoken, old-fashioned phonograph. 

Now, it seems like 004’s body should be a robot.

Xiao Jinyu asked: “What part of your body are you most dissatisfied with?”

[Dissatisfied?]

The youth nodded slightly: “For example, I’m not very satisfied with my hand. It’s slightly smaller than that of normal boys my age.” 

[There’s none ah.]

Xiao Jinyu froze.

None?

Then did he guess wrong? 

[I’m satisfied with every part of myself （*–V–*）]

[I’m the cutest special object in the world!]

Xiao Jinyu: “…”

A stiff mechanical female voice came from his phone and Xiao Jinyu slightly paused, stopping to look up at the iron gate in front of him. His gaze moved to one side and landed on the four characters in gold— 

‘Kangxin Middle School’

…

Kangxin Middle School was founded nineteen years ago.

After Type-A radiation, many children lost their parents and loved ones and became displaced. The government cooperated with private institutions and opened up a number of orphanages. Between 2022 and 2027, there were six orphanages in the central city alone. 

The reason why so many orphanages existed was because of the indiscriminate attacks from the Type-A radiation, leading to a large number of deaths and leaving the remaining children unattended. Over time, however, the children who survived the Type-A radiation grew up one by one and were either adopted or became adults with the ability to take care of themselves, no longer needing to live in the orphanages. As a result, after 2027, more and more orphanages began to close down one after another.

Kangde Orphanage was one of the first to close.

Compared to the other orphanages that closed down at that time, there was nothing special about Kangde Orphanage. When Xiao Jinyu took on the task issued by Su Jiuzhou, Wang Tao asked Li Xiaoxiao to help and pass on all the information recorded by the government on Kangde Orphanage and Kangxin Middle School to Xiao Jinyu.

However, when Xiao Jinyu said that he had decided to take on this task, Wang Tao’s group only shook their heads. Wang Tao said: “With your ability, Xiao Jinyu, you can completely take on a less dangerous B rank task. I think that since Colonel Su had issued this task, then he must have confirmed that there is no danger in it, that it’s just strange. You can ask Colonet Su to cancel this task and reissue a D rank task so that you can pick it.” 

“…”

After thinking about it for a while, Xiao Jinyu still decided to silently take out his phone, click on his user information, and show it to them.

Wang Tao, Zhao Hen, Xu Qi: “…”

In the next second, the three immediately took out their own phones, opened the Grow Some Brains APP, and looked at the B Rank Leaderboard. 

And then, once again: “…”

Zhao Hen: “I’ve never seen a jump this fierce before, even fiercer than a jump by me, Zhao Hen!”

Xiao Jinyu didn’t mean to show off, he just wanted to show that he could take on B rank tasks. However, when he was putting his phone away, he accidentally caught sight of the man in black on the side.

Su Jiuzhou looked at him with a light smile, not a trace of surprise or doubt in his eyes. 

“…”

Xiao Jinyu retracted his gaze.

This man had already discovered that he reached level three.

… 

Back to the present, Xiao Jinyu stood at the entrance of Kangxin Middle School and reread the information sent by Li Xiaoxiao.

According to the record left by the government, Kangde Orphanage was one of the first three orphanages to close. When the orphanage closed, there were eight children left unadopted. Four of them were adopted by the staff at the time and the other four were sent to other orphanages.

Xiao Jinyu was adopted and registered into the household by his mom at that time.

The Type-A radiation led to the emergence of large numbers of orphans and at the same time, led to a large decrease in the adult population that could afford to raise a child. So during that time, the country’s standards for adopting children were greatly reduced, and as long as their identity was clean, their records clean, and had a stable job, they all could adopt a child. 

After all the children were accommodated, the land of Kangde Orphanage was auctioned off and ended up as the building grounds for Kangxin Middle School.

The bone-chilling wind blew in from the gap between his neck and his scarf, yet Xiao Jinyu didn’t shiver. He was dressed thinly, yet he didn’t feel the cold. The physical fitness of a user was far beyond that of regular people and according to Zhao Hen, level four users could even dodge bullets, and powerful level five users could even catch bullets with their bare hands.

“Creak—”

The iron gate slowly opened. 

Xiao Jinyu looked up.

A young teacher wearing a thick cotton jacket and glasses ran out, striding over to Xiao Jinyu, gasping for breath. When he slowed down his breathing, he looked at Xiao Jinyu. The eyes behind the glasses looked at this handsome, yet cold youth for a few seconds before smiling: “You must be Mr. Xiao. I didn’t expect you to be so young. I’m Zhong Xiao of the Logistics Department of Kangxin Middle School and I’ve always been responsible for all reception work. You can just call me Teacher Zhong.”

Xiao Jinyu nodded: “Teacher Zhong.”

Zhong Xiao: “Alright, I’ll take you inside to have a look.” 

As the two walked into the school, Zhong Xiao introduced the school’s situation. “This is the building for first year students, this building is the shared building of second and third year students. This older office building was renovated from the orphanage… Mr. Xiao, you might not know, but our school used to be an orphanage nineteen years ago. The orphanage wasn’t big, it only had two small buildings. One of them was torn down when the school was built, while the other remained, which is this office building.”

Xiao Jinyu paused. He looked up at the five-story building with greenery crawling all over it.

The two continued forward.

“Other than the office building that was converted from the orphanage just now, our school also has another office building, which is this building.” The two walked to a small three story building next to the playground. Zhong Xiao stopped. He pushed up his glasses and a complicated look flashed in his eyes and he whispered: “… Teacher Lin worked in the westernmost side of the second floor of this building, right there.” 

Xiao Jinyu bowed his head slightly, following the direction Zhong Xiao was pointing at, in the west.

[B Rank Task

Go to Kangxin Middle School and investigate the cause of death of Lin Hao, a second year teacher.

Additional Information: Lin Hao, the Chinese teacher of Kangxin Middle School’s second year’s class three, also served as the class teacher. In October 2045, he was diagnosed with advanced bone cancer. After surgery, he returned to the school in March of this year, but according to the doctor, he would not live past half a year at most. However, on November 5th, 2046, Lin Hao went to the hospital for a check-up and all his cancer cells had mysteriously disappeared. 

On November 15th, 2046, Lin Hao stayed on campus to work overtime. At 20 o’clock, he suddenly died in his office.

Cause of Death: Bone cancer.

Task Reward: One hundred thousand cash.

Additional Information: It has been confirmed that there are no life-threatening dangers and the user is expected to determine the cause of death and confirm whether or not it is related to logic skills.] 

The author has something to say:

Little Goldfish: I’m probably better at skipping ranks than Brother Henis, but dancing, Brother Hen, I’m willing to bow down to you.

Zhao Hen: …………………….Can you be a nice fish?!!!

004: everybody, I’m back! Did you miss me?!!