Especially the latter—it’s a complete waste of his time!

Clearly not interested in mathematics, yet still pretending to be an expert. Just looking at that is disgusting! People like that spend all day trying to cozy up to the teacher, without the slightest idea of why they’re even studying in the first place.

When he reached the end, with just a few steps left unwritten, Professor James Turner suddenly stopped, turned to look at William Carter, and smiled as he said, “I’ve calculated up to this step. You should understand by now, right?”

William Carter nodded. “I understand… Thank you, Professor!”

Sitting in the front row corner, reviewing advanced calculus, Sarah Brooks had been secretly watching the two on the podium. Listening to their back-and-forth of “Do you get it?” “I get it,” her mind was a complete fog.

What do they mean, get it or not?

What on earth are they talking about?

Realizing she couldn’t understand their conversation at all, Sarah Brooks felt utterly hopeless about her own math skills.

Could it be… I’m actually a hopeless student?

Hearing William Carter’s answer, James Turner smiled, gently set the chalk on the lectern, returned to his seat, picked up his thermos for a sip of tea, and said leisurely, “You really understand? Then come up and finish the remaining steps for me.”

You don’t understand a thing!

I looked like a fool standing there writing, not even taking notes. If you can really follow all that, I’ll eat this cup!

Seeing Professor James Turner’s expression, William Carter instantly understood—he suspected William Carter hadn’t been paying attention and was testing him!

At this thought, William Carter felt both amused and helpless.

Heaven knows, I really do understand!

He didn’t know why, but when Professor Turner was working through the equations on the blackboard, each formula seemed so familiar to him, as if he’d seen them somewhere before, but he couldn’t say where.

Was it because the knowledge he exchanged for system points included these topics? Or was it because his math experience had increased, sharpening his mathematical intuition?

In any case, he truly did understand.

William Carter didn’t know the exact reason, but now was clearly not the time to ponder it. Professor Turner was still waiting for his performance, and for the sake of smoothly publishing that paper next semester, he couldn’t afford to mess up at this critical moment.

With a confident smile, William Carter picked up the chalk and walked to the blackboard.

Professor Turner’s eyebrow twitched. He thought, could this kid really finish the remaining steps?

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible!

Even though he’d already completed most of the proof, the calculations in those last few lines were definitely not something a first-year undergrad could handle! Even his graduate students had to go over his proof process several times from start to finish before they could grasp it!

And this guy hadn’t even taken notes during the lecture!

As the seconds ticked by, Professor Turner’s initial surprise turned into deep shock, and finally into approval.

All his doubts melted away like snow on a roof in spring, vanishing the moment the sun shone.

When William Carter wrote the final symbol on the blackboard, Professor Turner, who had been watching intently, nodded in approval. “Not bad… very well done.”

The last few steps differed slightly from his own approach and were a bit more complicated, but it was still a novel idea. This showed that not only had he absorbed what was taught, but he’d also added his own thinking.

And that is the most valuable thing of all.

Looks like I misjudged him…

“It’s all thanks to your guidance, Professor. If it were just me, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten this far…” William Carter said with an embarrassed smile.

He wasn’t lying—among the calculation steps provided by the system, many places like “a = b” didn’t clearly explain why the two could be equated.

And what he’d asked Professor Turner about was precisely the detailed proof for this part.

“No need to be modest, I can see your level,” said Professor Turner, screwing the lid back on his thermos. “Which class are you in?”

“Class 1, freshman year, William Carter.” William Carter answered truthfully.

“William Carter…” Professor Turner nodded and repeated the name a few times, as if to commit it to memory.

So that senior’s name is William Carter…

Sitting in the corner eavesdropping, Sarah Brooks nodded in sudden realization, but then felt something was off, and immediately reacted.

F-freshman?!

Thinking about how she’d been calling him “senior” all this time, Sarah Brooks’s face flushed red, and she buried her head on the desk like an ostrich.

She wasn’t the only one shocked—several juniors and seniors in the first row of the Q&A room also stared at this underclassman in disbelief, a thousand alpacas stampeding through their minds.

Are today’s freshmen really this amazing?

How are the rest of us supposed to live!

“Finals for Linear Algebra are coming up, right? How’s your review going?”

“I’ve pretty much finished reviewing, just wanted to read some extracurricular books.” William Carter replied shyly with a smile.

“Heh, giving you that test paper might have underestimated you a bit.” James Turner laughed and joked, “How about I make a special test just for you?”