Chapter 32
He didn’t take the college entrance exam too seriously. Even if things went south, it wouldn’t really matter. With Bitcoin as his safety net, he figured he’d never be poor.
Nathan arrived at the exam hall by 8:30 am, and at 8:55 am, the invigilators began handing out
the exam papers.
However, no one was allowed to start writing until the bell rang at 9:00 am. The five minutes before that were reserved for students to skim through the questions.
Nathan immediately flipped to the essay section, and when he saw that the prompt was exactly what he remembered, he exhaled in relief
No butterfly effect. This meant his score for the language paper would be at least 20 points higher than it had been in his previous life.
Most people know that when one was deep in an exam, time seemed to fly.
When the bell rang, Nathan wasted no time and dove right in. He worked through the multiple
-choice questions first, followed by the poetry fill–in–the–blanks, classical reading comprehension, modern prose analysis, and finally, the essay.
After he finished his 800–character essay, he glanced at his watch. There were less than five minutes left before the exam ended.
With nothing left to check, Nathan stood up and handed in his paper, wanting to beat the rush at the school gates.
As he left the exam hall, he noticed he was the only one brave enough to submit his paper early.
Naturally, when he reached the gate, reporters swarmed him.
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“Excuse me,
a female reporter in professional attire called out to him, thrusting a microphone toward his face. “Could you share your thoughts on the difficulty of the exam?”
Nathan smiled slightly. “Honestly, I found the paper a bit easy this year. I hope the question- setting team makes it harder next year.”
The reporter was taken aback and asked, “Why would you hope for that?”
What kind of student wished for a harder exam?
Nathan shrugged. “Well, I’m not taking it next year, so the harder, the better.”
The reporter was left speechless. “Is he okay?” she wondered silently.
Chapter 32
It was often said that arrogance came before the fall.
In the afternoon math exam, Nathan didn’t manage to submit his paper early. This time, it was genuinely tough.
Everything had gone smoothly, until he hit the final big question, with 40 minutes still on the clock. Based on his abilities, he should’ve been able to solve it, but he was completely stumped.
Out of the 20 points available for the question, he only secured 4 for the first part. The remaining two parts? Total blank.
He spent 20 minutes trying three different approaches, but none of them worked. Nathan was starting to feel anxious.
If he only scored 134 in math, there was no way he’d meet Northsdale University’s minimum requirement. That meant his startup funds would disappear.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to break the rules.”
With 20 minutes left and no solution using high school–level math, Nathan made a bold decision. He switched to using advanced mathematics to brute–force the answer.
Even though the exam guidelines explicitly banned the use of advanced math, rules were dead, and people were alive. He could solve it using advanced techniques and then reverse–engineer the process into something more acceptable.
It wouldn’t be the cleanest solution, and he might lose a few points for it, but that was better than getting a zero.
Once he had the idea, he executed it. Just before the final bell rang, Nathan managed to work through the remaining two parts of the question.
He let out a sigh of relief. He wouldn’t be getting a perfect score in math this time, but it should land somewhere between 145 and 147.
There were a few regrets, but nothing major. After all, nothing is perfect in this world.
