205: Chapter 205 is so oppressive!

The students suddenly slumped into their chairs like deflated balloons. The sound of various long sighs rose and fell one after another.

Even the professors sitting in the back row unconsciously let out a sigh of relief, their shoulders—which had been tense all afternoon—finally relaxing.

"My god... these four hours were more exhausting than taking final exams for three days straight," a boy said weakly, rubbing his aching wrists.

"It's too terrifying. Is he really only a freshman? When he stood on the podium, that sense of pressure was even stronger than our Dean's."

"It really was overwhelming, and he's so strict! When I was writing code just now, he walked up behind me and took a look. I didn't even dare to breathe too loudly for fear of typing a single letter wrong. Terrifying!"

"The strictness is secondary; it's mainly that his pace is just too tight. He gives you no time to think or buffer at all. If you're even a beat slow and fail to keep up with his train of thought, his next logical point has already passed."

"But to be fair, everything he lectured on was pure gold. Just now, he pointed out a bug in our Simulated Annealing code—it was an infinite loop in the initial temperature setting. I racked my brain and couldn't figure it out, but he pointed it out with just one glance. So damn impressive!"

Everyone was discussing animatedly. Although their bodies were extremely exhausted and their brains throbbed slightly from the prolonged, high-intensity thinking, an excited light shone in everyone's eyes.

They were top students; they could distinguish between bluffing and true talent. They knew clearly that Zhao Yang truly had the ability to raise their ceiling in a short period! As long as they could survive these few months of devilish intensive training under this man, they would definitely hold an overwhelming advantage in algorithm and modeling logic when facing teams from other universities in the National Contest!

Several associate professors in the back row also stood up, talking while packing away their lecture notes.

"Old Zhang, how was it? Did you learn anything?" a teacher from the Computer Science Department asked.

"I can't learn it, I just can't," Old Zhang shook his head with a bitter smile.

"This teaching method is entirely built upon his own terrifying computing power and his absolute control over the underlying logic of all algorithm models. If we tried to teach like that—throwing a real-world problem with hundreds of thousands of data points directly at the students—we'd get stuck on the podium ourselves if a student asked about two underlying algorithm loopholes or code errors."

"True, his mind is a bit too sharp, and his reaction speed is too fast. Look at the speed with which he corrected those sixteen sets of code just now; he saw through the program's bottlenecks almost at a glance. That's what a genius among geniuses is like!"

"Zhao Yang is even more of a genius than I imagined! No wonder he could achieve so much in less than a year, and across disciplines too! Seeing his information-processing ability with my own eyes today... I finally understand why."

The teachers left the computer room, sighing with admiration.

...

Zhao Yang walked out of the Science Experimental Building.

In the evening campus, a breeze blew, carrying the unique warmth of early summer. The streetlights were already lit, emitting an orange glow. Students in groups of two or three walked toward the cafeteria or the Library with books in their arms.

Zhao Yang took a deep breath of the outside air. This afternoon, to handle the high-intensity questions from over forty people, his brain had been running in an overclocked state. Now, walking through the quiet campus, his overclocked brain gradually cooled down.

Just as he reached the corner of the flower bed downstairs, he saw two familiar figures.

Li Tianqi and Wang Mian were standing by the steps. Li Tianqi was holding a bottle of chilled cola that was half-finished, boredly kicking small stones on the road with his toes.

Seeing Zhao Yang come out, the two immediately went to meet him.

"Brother Yang, you're finally out. The two of us have been squatting here for almost half an hour."

Li Tianqi smiled and waved the cola bottle in his hand.

"This training session went pretty late; even dinner time has passed."

Zhao Yang looked at the two with some surprise. Usually at this time, they should have been at the cafeteria or the internet cafe long ago.

"Why are you two waiting for me here?" Zhao Yang asked.

"Yeah, Brother Yang, I was thinking you might have some time today. Ever since you moved into the apartment, our dorm mates haven't had a proper meal together in a long time!"

Li Tianqi said to Zhao Yang with a smile.

"Let's go, let's eat at the cafeteria."

Zhao Yang nodded.

It was true; since he began busying himself with papers, stock trading, and participating in the CATL project, he spent the vast majority of his time alone or dealing with researchers in the lab.

As the physical distance from these roommates grew, their relationship naturally wasn't as close as it was when freshman year first started. Having a meal together was a normal way to maintain interpersonal relationships.

The three walked side-by-side toward Yanlin University's Second Cafeteria.

Along the way, many passing students recognized Zhao Yang and cast sidelong glances; a few girls even took out their phones to secretly take photos. However, no one rashly came up to strike up a conversation or disturb them.

They walked into the Second Cafeteria. This time of day was past the peak dining hours for students, so the first-floor hall appeared somewhat empty.

The three found an empty table in a relative corner. Li Tianqi volunteered to go queue for food while Zhao Yang and Wang Mian sat and waited.

Before long, Li Tianqi squeezed back carrying three stainless steel trays, which held sweet and sour pork ribs, shredded potatoes with green peppers, tomato scrambled eggs, and several bowls of steaming rice.

The three picked up their chopsticks and began to eat.

The cafeteria food wasn't particularly exquisite, and the taste of large-batch cooking was always the same, but it was filling. After a whole afternoon of high-intensity mental output, Zhao Yang was indeed very hungry and ate large mouthfuls of rice.

Halfway through the meal, Li Tianqi really couldn't suppress the curiosity in his heart. Swallowing a rib, he looked at Zhao Yang and asked.

"Brother Yang, Wang Mian and I discussed this for a long time in the dorm this afternoon, but we still don't get it. You've become a world-class mathematician, you just got a million-yuan bonus from the school a few days ago, and you're even enrolled in a joint PhD program at Peking University. Why did you suddenly feel like accepting Zhang Wei's invitation?"

Li Tianqi looked at Zhao Yang with a face full of confusion.

"Going to Student Union meetings is one thing, but running off to give National Contest training guidance to a bunch of undergraduates... Even if you lead the team to a first-place national prize, it won't have any substantial impact on your current academic status. Isn't this just a pure waste of time?"

Although Wang Mian didn't speak, he also stopped his chopsticks and looked at Zhao Yang through his black-rimmed glasses, clearly sharing the same doubt.

Zhao Yang swallowed his food and glanced at his two roommates.

Naturally, he couldn't tell them that it was for a system-issued quest that could grant tens of thousands of free experience points.

He looked at the two, hesitated for a moment, and came up with an explanation.

"Think of it as helping out my alma mater."

Zhao Yang pulled a napkin to wipe his mouth and spoke in a calm tone.