3: Fallen Genius

On that day, my brother wore a brand-new white shirt, his hair meticulously combed, and a confident, bright smile on his face. He stood in the center of the crowd, calmly responding to everyone's compliments and questions, full of vigor and radiating brilliance.

Lin Yao's memory had a gap here.

Because right after that, the very next day, everything changed.

Without any warning.

Lin Yu, who just the day before had been hailed as the "Light of Ninghai Province" and a "Future Giant," locked himself in his room.

Initially, his parents thought he was tired from dealing with various people for days on end and needed rest.

They considerately didn't disturb him, only leaving meals by the door.

But one day, two days, three days passed.

The door remained tightly shut.

Inside, Lin Yu didn't read, didn't meditate, and didn't perform any basic training expected of a professional.

He just paced around the room incessantly, muttering to himself.

"That's not right... It's still not enough..."

"Core components... key cards..."

"The logic of the deck... the closed loop..."

His parents, pressing their ears to the door, could only intermittently hear these inexplicable words. They exchanged glances, both seeing deep confusion and a hint of unease on each other's faces.

On the fourth day, Lin Yu finally opened his door.

His eyes were bloodshot, his hair disheveled, but he was in an extremely agitated state.

He held a list and handed it to his father.

"Dad, help me buy these things."

His father took the list, and after just one glance, he was stunned.

What was written on it wasn't rare magical materials, nor expensive enchanting tools.

Instead, it was a pile of... trash.

Pebbles, sand, withered grass, scrap metal.

All were common refuse, even materials one would normally pay to have cleared away.

"Xiao Yu, what do you need these things for?" his mother asked worriedly.

"Card creation," Lin Yu's answer was simple and direct.

"Card creation? With these?" His father's brows furrowed. "Didn't the school say they would help you apply for the beginner's card creation material pack? Those are the standard materials."

"Those are useless," Lin Yu shook his head, pointing at the list. "I only want these."

Seeing his son's stubbornness, his parents, though puzzled, complied. They thought perhaps this was the unique way a genius thought.

Soon, a truckload of "raw materials" was delivered to their home, filling the entire backyard.

Then, Lin Yu began his frenzied activities.

He locked himself in the backyard warehouse, creating cards day and night.

One after another.

"A Small Pebble"

"A Handful of Sand"

"A Withered Blade of Grass"

All were these worthless gray cards.

The most bizarre thing was that these cards, created by his epic-tier profession, all had a strange characteristic.

They would turn to ash precisely at midnight, disappearing without a trace.

Day after day.

He was like a Sisyphus-like madman, repeating this meaningless task every day.

The entire family watched, their hearts filled with anxiety.

Finally, the day of the College Entrance Examination arrived.

The whole family, and even the media of Ninghai City, were waiting for this epic-tier professional to soar.

But Lin Yu didn't appear at the examination hall.

He chose to defer the examination.

As soon as the news broke, public opinion was in an uproar.

Deferment is allowed for the professional's College Entrance Examination. This is to give candidates who have awakened powerful but rare professions more preparation time, so they can achieve better scores, enter better institutions, and not waste their talent.

However, the cost of deferring the examination is immense.

For each year deferred, the overall difficulty of the College Entrance Examination doubles!

This punitive mechanism is meant to urge most candidates to embark on the path of a professional as soon as possible and contribute to society.

For ordinary professionals, deferring the examination for a year is tantamount to seeking death.

But Lin Yu was different.

He was a Myriad Card Creator, a golden epic-tier professional.

Although people were shocked, they could still understand. Perhaps he wanted to use a year to construct a world-shaking card deck and, with an overwhelming advantage, claim the top scholar position.

The media and public all held such expectations.

However, the next year, on the day of the College Entrance Examination.

Lin Yu was absent again.

He chose to defer the examination once more.

This time, public opinion shifted from expectation to doubt.

Two years of deferment meant that the difficulty of the College Entrance Examination in the third year would be four times the normal difficulty!

This was no longer a gap that an epic-tier profession could easily bridge.

Unless he had some extraordinary fortuitous encounter.

Everyone held onto their last bit of hope and waited until the third year.

Lin Yu still didn't go.

He deferred the examination for the third time.

At this point, the entire Ninghai Province erupted.

He's crazy!

Lin Yu was completely insane!

This once favored son of heaven had become an out-and-out madman!

An eightfold difficulty College Entrance Examination, let alone an epic-tier profession, even a legendary divine-tier profession would have to think twice.

His life was completely ruined.

The principals who once visited, the admissions offices that blew up their phones, the conglomerates that extended olive branches, all disappeared without a trace.

In their place were the whispers of neighbors, and endless mockery and curses on the internet.

The Lin family fell from the clouds to the bottom.

To force him to turn back, to make him sober up, his father finally hardened his heart and cut off all his financial sources.

"As long as you don't give up on these useless things, you won't get a single cent from me!"

"Aren't you capable? If you're so capable, go earn money and support yourself!"

His father's out-of-control roar echoed throughout the house.

Everyone thought Lin Yu would resist, would argue.

But he didn't.

He just looked at his father calmly, then nodded.

"Okay."

After speaking, he packed a small bag and quietly moved out.

He had no complaints, no anger, a calmness that made people uneasy.

He first lived in a tent, then slept under a bridge, and finally drifted to a container in this abandoned factory area.

The only constants were two things.

The first was, unfailingly every day, using his epic-tier talent, forgotten by the world, to create a pile of "A Small Pebble."

The second was continuously buying a cheap potion called "Mental Stabilizer" and drinking bottle after bottle.

He had no income, yet he had to buy medicine and eat.

Soon, he accumulated debt.

The snowball grew larger and larger.

Collection agencies came knocking, causing chaos at home.

His parents, soft-hearted, helped him repay it twice.

But what they saw was not their son's repentance, but his escalating madness.

He took the money his parents used to pay off his debts and immediately bought more "Mental Stabilizer" and a pile of new "raw materials."

At that moment, his parents completely despaired.

When the collection agency came for the third time, threatening to take one of Lin Yu's legs if the money wasn't repaid, Lin Yu came home.

That was his last time home.

He stood at the door, not entering.

Through the door, he spoke to his parents inside.

"Dad, Mom, don't help me repay money anymore."

"I will sever all ties with you, so they won't bother you anymore."

"I will repay your kindness for raising me another day."