"Zhao Chen."
"Where's your homework?"
"Just upload it directly to the screen."
Zhao Chen scratched his head.
His face was so dumbfounded, it almost overflowed the camera.
"I didn't do it!"
Zhao Chen said with a pained expression.
Huh?
Gao Ping suspected his ears.
He asked in disbelief.
"What? Didn't do it? Why didn't you do it?"
Zhao Chen's face, wrinkled like a dried tangerine peel, looked like it had a giant "coward" written on it in calligraphy.
"I don't know how to do it... and I'm too lazy to do it!"
Another brief silence of a few seconds.
Immediately, the online class live stream turned into an ocean of laughter.
What is amazing?
This is amazing!
What is awesome?
This is awesome!
His face showed the most cowardly expression, yet his words were incredibly strong!
Didn't do it!
Don't know how to do it!!
Too lazy to do it!!!!!
Gao Ping's mouth twitched.
He barely managed to suppress the curse words that were about to burst out and slammed the severely faded teacup on the table.
"Good."
"Very good."
"Excellent."
"Class participation points for student Zhao Chen are zeroed... you'll have to retake the course before we consider internships or graduation!"
Gao Ping, huffing with anger, took out a red pen and fiercely marked an "x" behind Zhao Chen's name on the student roster.
Then, he quickly picked another student.
"Li Xi."
"Li Xi, upload your homework to the public screen."
This time.
He received a quick response.
A student named Li Xi quickly threw a document into the online class live stream.
"Teacher Gao, this is my homework."
"The topic I chose is about building a circumsolar Dyson sphere."
Hmm.
Gao Ping felt a glimmer of relief.
As expected, delinquents were a minority; most students completed their homework conscientiously.
However, this file looked a bit large, nearly 1 GB.
The homework he assigned was to choose one of four topics and complete a science fiction essay.
A Word document of tens to hundreds of KB should have been sufficient, so why did this kid produce such a large file package?
As Gao Ping pondered with curiosity.
The student named Li Xi continued to explain.
"Teacher, you wouldn't know, but for this topic, I worked tirelessly for over two months during the summer... no, it was over seventy days of diligent effort and arduous work, and I've exceeded the end-of-year homework you assigned... The Dyson sphere is already 91% complete... Give me a few more days, and I'll finish it all."
Huh?
What is this?
91% complete?
What nonsense was this kid spouting?
Gao Ping, whose brain hadn't caught up, clicked on the file package uploaded by Li Xi, and then an accelerated video appeared before him and all the students participating in the online class.
Wait.
What are those four words in the bottom left of this video?!
"Game Recording"?!!
Damn it.
What the actual hell.
In a sense, Li Xi had indeed built an almost complete circumsolar Dyson sphere... yes, in the famous Chinese science fiction computer game, "Dyson Sphere Program."
Son of a gun.
This Li Xi not only didn't carefully read the prompt or the group announcements, but he had also played computer games for over seventy days during the summer break.
Gao Ping, who was almost amused to death, was too exhausted to yell at this heavyweight student named Li Xi.
"Disconnect."
"I don't want to say anything more."
"Just like Zhao Chen, wait to retake the course before you can intern."
It was obvious.
Student Li Xi was an honest person, a person who had transcended mundane interests, a person brave enough to fight for his rights.
He completely disregarded the anger on Gao Ping's face and questioned him.
"I say, Teacher Gao, the homework you assigned earlier was to complete 20% of the circumsolar Dyson sphere construction, but you didn't specify whether it was in a game or in reality!"
Awesome!
He's even talking back!
This guy clearly doesn't put Teacher Gao in his eyes at all!
Indeed, he was an even more significant figure than Zhao Chen.
Gao Ping, who had finally managed to suppress his anger, was so enraged by Li Xi's rebuttal that he almost threw the shabby teacup at the camera.
"Shut up."
"Get lost."
"How many times have I told you, read the prompt, read the prompt, read the prompt."
"Are your eyes just for decoration?"
"Say one more word, and I'll make sure you never graduate, believe it or not?"
Suppressing his anger, Gao Ping picked another student from the roster.
"Meng Hao!"
"Where is Meng Hao?"
"Why isn't Meng Hao connected?"
"If you don't appear within three minutes, your grade will also be considered a failure!"
...
More than five thousand kilometers away from Shilin City, a small coastal city in eastern Daxia, in the Taklamakan Desert.
In the heart of the desert.
Inside the system-generated base.
Meng Hao was exhausted, like an old dog.
He was told that developing and building mechs was a cool, flashy, and awesome cutting-edge technology project.
Why did it feel like for the past two months, he had completely become a ruthless brick-laying machine exploited by the system... and one that didn't even get paid a cent.
In countless sci-fi movies, TV shows, and literary works.
Building mechs, such a high-class, cutting-edge technological endeavor, should involve remote-controlled drones, wearing dustproof suits, using holographic keyboards, and operating top-tier equipment!
How come, when it came to him, Meng Hao, it was completely different?!
Within a hundred-kilometer radius centered on the system base, driving various construction vehicles, crushing and collecting various ores... it was like bricklaying on a construction site!
Transporting mountains of crushed ore back to the base, sorting and smelting them separately... just like bricklaying on a construction site!
Refining various metals, mixing them in proportion to form alloys, inputting them into 3D printers for shaping, operating various cranes and loaders for assembly... this was damn bricklaying on a construction site!
Over two months.
Seventy-odd days.
High-intensity, unpaid, free labor... the massive mech research and manufacturing project had transformed Meng Hao, who was originally a clean-cut boy next door, into a muscular man with a six-pack, well-developed biceps, and a bronze complexion all over.
This damn high-intensity bricklaying and mech-building work.
These countless sleepless nights.
These countless busy days, watching the sun set and rise, with the desert stretching out before him.
Monotonous, boring, and dull!
He missed online games.
He missed two-dimensional paper beauties.
He missed countless "teachers" from the Island Nation.
The emptiness of his spiritual world was one thing.
This broken system, rotten system, garbage system, was simply a modern-day Huang Shiren, exploiting the common people!
Look at the food and water it provided Meng Hao.
Even WWII POWs would consider it a violation of the Geneva Conventions on human rights.
Even Big Yellow, the village stray dog, would shake its head and say, "Even dogs wouldn't eat this."
...
Endless purified mineral water.
Endless canned Spam.
Endless tasteless white rice.