A fat man who was reborn from the dead? He transforms into a perfect male god in a week.

……

At 12:30 noon, the exam ended.

The candidates walked out of the examination room dejectedly.

Lin Feng's eyes were red.

"It's over...it's all over..."

"Of the four questions, I only solved the first one, wrote the beginning of the second one, and had absolutely no idea how to approach the third and fourth ones..."

"Out of 180 points, I can only get a maximum of 50..."

Beside him, Li Fan from Jiangcheng No. 2 Middle School was also wiping away tears.

"I didn't even finish the first question... I might not even get third prize this time..."

Teacher Wang and Teacher Li looked ashen-faced.

The students they taught all failed their exams.

"This second round of testing... was too difficult," sighed Teacher Wang. "It was a level harder than in previous years."

"Yes," Teacher Li said, "I noticed that the students from the provincial capital didn't look well when they came out."

As they were talking, Qin Mo, Zhou Cheng, Zhao Rui, and Su Baibai came out.

The four men looked grave, their previous composure completely gone.

"Qin Mo, how did the exam go?" Zhou Cheng asked.

"You should have gotten the first two questions right, you did most of the third question, but the fourth question... I couldn't do it." Qin Mo's voice was low.

"Me too," Zhao Rui sighed. "I had absolutely no idea how to do the fourth question."

Su Baibai said, "I guessed the answer to the third question, I don't know how many points I'll get."

"What about Jiang Chen?" Zhou Cheng suddenly asked. "You said you should keep an eye on Qin Mo, how did he do on the exam this time?"

Qin Mo sneered, "He handed in his paper after only twenty minutes of the exam; he probably gave up!"

Zhao Rui scoffed: "Ha, what can you expect from a student at a county-level high school? A perfect score on the monthly exam was just because the questions were easy."

Su Baibai nodded: "It seems I overestimated him."

As the four were talking, Tang Ruoxi came out.

Zhou Dapeng quickly went up to her: "Ruoxi, how did the exam go?"

Tang Ruoxi frowned slightly: "I finished the first and second questions, I did most of the third question, but the fourth question... I couldn't solve it."

"Approximately how many points can I get?"

"I estimate I'll get around 110 points in the first round, and in the second round... I'll get 90 points on the first two questions, maybe 30 points on the third question, and 0 points on the fourth question, for a total of around 230 points."

Zhou Dapeng's eyes lit up: "230 points? That's a sure thing for a provincial first prize! And a very good chance of making the provincial team!"

In previous years, the provincial team's cutoff score was around 220 points. Tang Ruoxi has 230 points, so her chances are very high.

"Where is Jiang Chen?" Tang Ruoxi asked.

Zhou Dapeng's face stiffened: "He... handed in his paper in twenty minutes."

Tang Ruoxi paused for a moment, then smiled: "Then he must have finished."

Zhou Dapeng: "???"

"Ruoxi, four big questions in twenty minutes? How is that possible?"

"It's impossible for others," Tang Ruoxi said, "but for Lao Chen... it might be."

Zhou Dapeng opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.

He both hoped that what Tang Ruoxi said was true, and felt that it was too surreal.

……

Closing ceremony and awards ceremony at 2:00 PM.

The Binhai University gymnasium was packed with people.

The leader's speech was utterly boring.

Half an hour later, it was finally time to announce the results.

Host: "Now, let's announce the winners of this competition. First, the third prize (80-139 points)..."

A string of names and scores appeared on the big screen.

Lin Feng, 100 points, third prize.

Li Fan, 88 points, third prize.

These two were lucky and still won the third prize.

However, none of the other thirteen students from Jiangcheng No. 1 Middle School and No. 2 Middle School won any awards.

Teacher Wang and Teacher Li looked extremely grim.

In previous years, both schools would win at least one second prize and several third prizes, while Jiangcheng No. 1 Middle School was lucky enough to even win a first prize.

As a result, this year, the school lost a third prize?

If I bring this result back to Jiangcheng, I'll be laughed at to death.

……

"Next, the second prize (140-179 points)..."

Another batch of names appeared on the big screen.

No one from Jiangcheng made the list.

Finally, here is the list of first-prize winners (180 points or above) and the provincial team members.

The entire room fell silent.

Everyone was staring at the big screen.

The first to appear are those ranked 31-60, with scores between 180 and 219.

Jiang Chen and Tang Ruoxi are not included.

Zhou Dapeng's eyes lit up: "Two of them are in the top thirty! Both of them have made it to the provincial team!"

Lin Feng and Li Fan, the other participating candidates, didn't find it strange at all; on the contrary, they thought it was only natural.

After all, they had witnessed Jiang Chen and Tang Ruoxi's abilities on the bus yesterday; they were indeed capable of winning first prize in the province and making it into the provincial team.

But Mr. Wang and Mr. Li from Jiangcheng No. 1 and No. 2 Middle Schools exclaimed that this was impossible.

Tang Ruoxi won first prize and made it into the provincial team, which was fine.

Why is Jiang Chen allowed to do this?

Although Jiang Chen was stronger, he finished the first exam in nine minutes and the second exam in twenty minutes.

Jiang Chen finished the 250-minute exam in just 30 minutes.

Can someone like this really win first prize and get into the provincial team?

however.

Even if the two people didn't believe it, there was nothing they could do.

Next are the 11th to 30th place winners, with scores between 220 and 240.

Tang Ruoxi's name appeared; she ranked 11th with 238 points.

"Good, good, Ruoxi, you did very well on this test, scoring 238 points, which is 8 points higher than your estimated score at noon. That's a remarkable achievement..."

Zhou Dapeng couldn't help but shower Tang Ruoxi with praise.

He then frantically searched for Jiang Chen's name with his eyes.

But... it still didn't happen.

Zhou Dapeng's breathing quickened: "They've...made it into the top ten?"

Teacher Wang and Teacher Li were dumbfounded.

Finally, the top 10 were revealed.

10th place: Chen Hao from Binhai No.1 Middle School, 241 points.

9th place: Yali Middle School, Wang Yue, 242 points.

……

5th place: Su Baibai from Binhai Normal University Affiliated High School, 247 points.

4th place: Zhao Rui from Binhai No.1 Middle School, 248 points.

3rd place: Yali Middle School, Zhou Cheng, 249 points.

2nd place: Qin Mo from Changjun Middle School, 250 points.

1th place: ...

The entire audience held their breath.

Then, a line of text appeared on the big screen:

[1st Place: Jiang Chen, Jiangcheng No. 3 Middle School, 300 points.]

Dead silence.

Absolute silence.

Three seconds later.

"boom!!!"

The whole place erupted.

"Holy crap, 300 points? A perfect score?"

"How is this possible??"

"Jiangcheng No. 3 Middle School? Which school is that?"

"Never even heard of it!"

"Even the top students from the four prestigious high schools in the provincial capital only score a maximum of 250 points. How can Jiang Chen from Jiangcheng No. 3 High School get a perfect score of 300?"

Qin Mo suddenly stood up, his eyes fixed on the big screen.

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible..."

Zhou Cheng, Zhao Rui, and Su Baibai were also dumbfounded.

"He...didn't he hand in his paper nine minutes after the start of the first exam, and twenty minutes after the start of the second exam?" Zhao Rui murmured.

"How could it be a perfect score..." Su Baibai couldn't believe it.

Qin Mo's face turned ashen: "A conspiracy... there must be something fishy going on here!"

These words sparked a flurry of discussion among the audience.

"What? He handed in his papers early for both the first and second exams, and still got full marks?"

"And the exam was only nine minutes into the twenty-minute break, less than half an hour before the paper was handed in?"

"This is absolutely outrageous!"

"There's definitely something wrong!"

"There's a high chance the grades were recorded incorrectly!!"

The host was also stunned and turned to look at the judges' panel.

Professor Chen Qingdu stood up and walked to the front of the stage from the judges' panel.

"Everyone, please be quiet."

The whole place fell silent.

Chen Qingdu pushed up his glasses and slowly said, "I know that many people have questions about Jiang Chen's grades. After all, he handed in his first exam paper 9 minutes after the start of the exam and his second exam paper 20 minutes after the start of the exam."

"But I want to tell everyone that... Jiang Chen's grades are perfectly fine."

He waved.

On the big screen, a photo of Jiang Chen's exam paper appeared.

In the first test, he got all eight fill-in-the-blank questions right and all three short answer questions right, with multiple solutions for each question.

In the second test, he answered all four major questions correctly, and...

When the answer to the fourth question was revealed, the entire audience erupted in cheers once again.

"Three solutions?"

"This problem...isn't it supposed to be unsolved?"

"Qin Mo and the others couldn't make it!"

"We were all baffled by this problem, completely clueless! But Jiang Chen not only solved it, he solved it correctly, and he even used three different solutions?"

"This...this...can he even be human?"

Chen Qingdu continued, "The fourth question in the second test was one that I personally set. The standard answer only has two solutions, but Jiang Chen... wrote three solutions on the test paper."

"And, all of it is correct."

Dead silence.

Qin Mo slumped into the chair, his face deathly pale.

Zhou Cheng, Zhao Rui, and Su Baibai were all dumbfounded.

Three solutions?

Is there one more type than the question setter?

Is this even human?

Even the god of competition couldn't be more impressive than this, could he?

Everyone present, from the teachers in charge to the participating candidates, numbering in the thousands, looked at Jiang Chen's name with deep amazement and exclaimed that this person was awesome.

Chen Qing looked towards the direction of the Jiangcheng team at the very back, his gaze fixed on Jiang Chen's position, filled with admiration and praise.

"Alright, next, I'd really like to invite Jiang Chen from Jiangcheng No. 3 Middle School to come up to the stage and explain to us how he came up with three solutions to the last question of the second round!"

Chen Qingdu said, "Especially the third one, which was actually outside the standard answer I had envisioned..."

Swish!

The spotlight shone on Jiang Chen.

All eyes were on them; they were the center of attention.

Jiang Chen remained calm as he slowly rose and walked onto the stage.

However, he did not immediately explain the three solutions he had previously come up with.

Instead, he said, "This problem actually has not just three solutions, but six!"

"But the exam paper is too small to finish writing, so here's a blackboard. I'll finish writing the remaining three types too!"

After saying that, he picked up the chalk and started writing on the blackboard next to him with a "swish, swish, swish" sound.

The fourth solution: use a polynomial over a finite field.

The fifth solution: use combination of constants and modular operations.

The sixth solution: use cyclic groups from group theory.

After finishing writing, Jiang Chen turned around.

"None of these six solutions are difficult," he said. "You'll get the hang of them after reading them a few times; there's not much to explain."

The entire audience was left bewildered.

Not difficult?

You call this easy?

The densely packed problem-solving steps covered the entire blackboard, resembling tadpole script written in a mysterious language.

Even if they watch it dozens of times, let alone a few times, they still won't understand it!

Qin Mo felt like he was about to vomit blood.

Chen Qing was also stunned.

He studied this problem for half a month and could only come up with two solutions.

As a result, this high school student... casually wrote down six kinds?

You say it's not difficult? You'll get it after watching it a few more times? There's nothing much to explain?

"Jiang Chen," Chen Qingdu's voice trembled, "how...how did you come up with these three solutions?"

Jiang Chen thought for a moment and said, "Well... after reading the question, it just came to mind naturally."

Chen Qingdu: "..."

The entire audience: "..."