Arthur stretched his hands behind his back and gave a big, long, yawn. "I'm gonna head back now, need me to get you another cup of coffee?"
Lexus lifted his head up, and gave a quick smile.
"It's fine, I'm almost done with this problem set."
A light, almost indetectable sigh escaped Arthur's lips as he reached over to give Lexus a pat on the back. "I'll leave you to it then. Make sure to get enough rest!" Arthur slung his bag over his shoulder, turned around and left the library.
Lexus focused his attention back onto the problem sheet, and tried to decipher the words that appeared on the page. At this time of night, it took effort just to see the characters clearly, and he had to reread each line several times for his brain to even register what the question was talking about.
Prove that n13 ≡ n (mod 10) for all integers n.
He stared at the question a bit more, sighed and reached for another sip of coffee, only to realise that his cup was empty. Damn, he should have accepted Arthur's offer.
"Let's see, Fermat's Little Theorem states that ap-1 ≡ 1 (mod p)…"
After another hour of sitting in the library and barely managing to slog through another question, Lexus decided to call it a day. There were 2 more questions in the problem set, but he was too tired at this point. There was a 9am lecture tomorrow, and looking at the clock, he needed to go back immediately to at least squeeze in 5 hours of sleep. Lexus trudged back to his dorm, crashed onto the bed and a soon wave of darkness washed over him.
"Initiating research system..."
"Player: Lexus Kagan"
Confused by the sudden noise, Lexus opened his eyes. Arghh! Surprised by a bright light, he subconsciously sat up, raised his arm against the light source and squinted until everything came into focus.
---
Name: Lexus Kagan
Current Quest: N/A
Computer Science: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Mathematics: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Physics: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Engineering: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Chemistry: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Biology: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
---
Lexus wasn't new to games, but he had certainly never seen something like this before. "Research system?"
He forced himself to calm down. In a way, he was glad that the system popped up in the middle of the night because he would be freaking out if it happened in public. But first, he needed to figure out what this "research system" thing actually is. "Um...can someone give me an explanation?"
He only half-expected an answer, so it was a bit of a shock when a voice rang in his ears.
"Welcome, Lexus, to the research sys-"
"Enough with the welcomes, what are you?"
"..."
Well, this system sure had a personality. Sighing, Lexus said, "Sorry for interrupting. You were saying?"
Seemingly satisfied with his apology, the system replied, "I am a system that will help you change the world."
Lexus would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued. Like many others, he once dreamed of changing the world, but he was soon dragged back to reality when he found himself struggling with even the day-to-day work of being a university student. Maybe with the help of the system, his dreams wouldn't be as far away as he thought?
"So what can you do?" Lexus asked.
The system replied, "I am designed to help you surpass your limits and achieve success."
Vague, but expected. Lexus wasn't counting on revealing the system's secrets through just a couple of questions. As long as he was careful not to fall into any traps or schemes, he should be able to make use of the system to, quote, "achieve success". He could tell that this was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he wasn't going to miss it.
"Fine, what do I need to do?"
As if waiting for Lexus to ask this question, a pop-up window appeared in front of him.
---
Quest: Background Knowledge [0/10]
Read all the books in the book list below:
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
1. Houston, K. (2009). How to think like a mathematician: a companion to undergraduate mathematics
2. Lehman, E., Leighton, F.T. and Meyer, A.R. (2014). Mathematics for computer science
3. Cormen, T.H., Leiserson, C.D., Rivest, R.L. and Stein, C. (2009). Introduction to Algorithms
4. Kleinberg, J. and Tardos, É. (2006). Algorithm design
5. Ross, S.M. (2014). A First course in probability
6. Sipser, M. (2012). Introduction to the Theory of Computation
7. Hefferon, J. (2009). Linear Algebra
8. Biggs, N.L. (2002). Discrete mathematics
9. Machler, M., Solan, E., and Zamir, S. (2013). Game Theory
10. Russell, S.J. and Norvig, P. (2010). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
---
Skimming down the list of books, Lexus recognised a few of the names and knew that this wasn't going to be an easy quest. "Introduction to Algorithms" alone has more than a thousand pages, not to mention the exercises and problems within the book that he would have to attempt. Optimistically, maybe he could manage it in 3 months?
For this amount of effort, he was expecting the reward to be equally high, but when he saw the numbers, he couldn't help but suspect the legitimacy of the system.
---
Quest Reward: Mathematics EXP +5, Computer Science EXP +5 per book
---
"Are you kidding me? 10 experience points per book? It'll take me 20 books just to get to level 1!"
There was a pause, almost like the system needed some time to snort. "The best computer science student in your year is barely at the standard of level 1, it's not as easy to level up as you might expect. You will also accumulate experience naturally as you interact more with the subject. The quest rewards are simply bonuses."
Lexus ran his hand through the row of zeros. "Then what's level 2 like?"
"Level 2 would be the standard of a typical final year student at Cambridge University. Level 5 would be doctorate student level, and most professors at Cambridge are level 7 or 8."
Hearing this, Lexus couldn't help but be excited. What would level 9 and beyond be like? If he managed to reach such heights, wouldn't he be the king of the world?
After hearing the system's explanation, Lexus felt somewhat better about the quest rewards. If that was the levelling mechanics he was working with, 5 experience points was a pretty significant number.
There were still a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but Lexus decided that he could afford to leave the rest to tomorrow morning. Being woken up in the middle of the night wasn't a pleasant sensation, and he still had work to do tomorrow. Having obtained enough answers to satisfy his immediate curiosity, Lexus crashed back onto his bed, pulled his sheets up and fell back into deep slumber.
======
Lexus woke up the next morning feeling like his skull was going to rip apart. He rolled over, face down on the pillow, and groaned. What the heck? He didn't drink any alcohol the night before, but it felt like a hangover if a hangover felt like a hundred people playing tug a war on both sides of his skull. Pull! Pull harder!
It must have been the system. Goddamn. Did the software download take up too much storage space or something?
He clambered out of bed and trudged to his desk where his coffee maker was. Fighting fire with fire, he poured a cup of coffee into his mug and downed it straight away. It made him feel a bit better, but not by much.
From the corner of his eye, Lexus saw the screen of his phone light up from one of what must be many missed notifications, and visibly groaned when he saw the time. He completely missed his morning lecture. It's been two hours since the lecture ended, and he received more than a few concerned messages from Arthur asking why he wasn't present at the lecture. After all, it's never happened before.
Lexus sent a quick reply to tell Arthur that he was alright, and asked Arthur to send a copy of his lecture notes so that Lexus could catch up at a later time. It could wait until later, though. He had more important things to think about.
"Hello? System? Are you there?"
In response, his status screen popped up in his field of vision.
---
Name: Lexus Kagan
Current Quest: Background Knowledge [0/10]
Computer Science: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Mathematics: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Physics: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Engineering: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Chemistry: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
Biology: Level 0 [EXP 0/100 (0%)]
---
Now that he knows what "level 0" actually means, Lexus couldn't help but feel a little insulted. If he was at a higher standard before the system came and whooshed into his life, would he have been at level 1? Perhaps. But it's too late to think about it now, and well, at least level 0 felt like a fresher start.
Lexus concluded that it was time to think through the things that he was too tired to think through yesterday night.
There was something bugging him. He was a Computer Science student, so why on earth were Chemistry and Biology on the list? Mathematics, he understood. Engineering, maybe. But Lexus hasn't studied Chem or Bio since he was 16, and if History wasn't on the list, they shouldn't be there either.
"Hey, why do you care about Chem and Bio?"
"…" There was no noise, but Lexus could have sworn that he heard a sigh.
"You're studying Computer Science right now, but science as a whole is an integrated field. Individual subjects like Chemistry, Physics and Biology are nothing more than human constructs, and it would serve you well to be knowledgeable in all of them."
Lexus could hear the unsaid "why are you such an idiot", but he paid it no heed. Rather than doubt his own intelligence, he was more concerned about the other party that was currently intruding in his brain.
"What are you?"
From the minute the system popped into his mind, Lexus couldn't shake the feeling that the thing was more than it seemed. It seemed to have its own personality and emotions, but it was also most definitely a system - with status screens, experience points and the whole package.
"..."
After waiting for a few more seconds, it was clear to Lexus that he wasn't going to get an answer. Fine.
"What do you get out of this?"
"I can't tell you - at least not yet," the system replied. "But rest assured that I mean you no harm. In fact, I want to help you as much as possible."
Lexus was still pretty suspicious. He crossed his arms and stared at the status screen as if he was trying to see through it to the other side. What irritated him was that there was nothing he could do about the whole situation. Even if he didn't trust the system fully, there was nothing he could do about it. It wasn't like he could kick the system out of his brain. God, he didn't even know how it managed to get in.
But he did believe that the system meant him no harm - at least in the short term. The system wanted to help Lexus improve, and that was perfect for him, because that was what he wanted for himself too. Everything else?
It could wait till later, he had some powerlevelling to do.
"System, could you show me my quest?" Lexus asked.
In response, a somewhat familiar window appeared with the list of 15 books that he had to read. Lexus copied each title onto his phone, shoved his laptop in his bag, slung the bag over his shoulder and headed off in the direction of the college library.