“After a whole morning of hard work, I feel I’ve gained a lot, mainly because my mindset has greatly improved. So, I’ll just keep studying diligently and with peace of mind.”

Obviously, the initial success of that first group of geniuses gave most people the illusion of “If I tried, I could do it too,” but they soon realized the harshness of reality.

For some people, this kind of trial is simply a form of torture—constantly trying, constantly failing, and the key is, they have no idea why they’re failing or how they should improve.

At first, this feeling isn’t so bad, but what if you fail hundreds or even thousands of times on the same platform?

You’d probably become numb to it.

Clearly, this trial is by no means simple. For some people, determination and perseverance will only make you suffer more.

Chapter 13: Unemployed

While a large number of classmates were wailing in their Moments, William Carter didn’t feel that way.

On one hand, his gaming IQ was already much higher than most people’s, with both perseverance and talent; on the other hand, he had the “answer key” to compare and check his shortcomings, so he wasn’t completely clueless.

So, even though he still had to fail dozens of times to get past a platform, he didn’t feel frustrated.

But it was a different story for everyone else.

Actually, this topic had been discussed long ago: If top students really took gaming seriously, would they become gaming masters?

There’s no definite answer, but generally speaking, both studying and gaming require high intelligence, and there’s some overlap, but they’re not exactly the same.

For example, the reflexes and controls that are especially needed in games aren’t important at all when studying.

What’s more, everyone is now playing not some computer or mobile game, but a completely real game.

If a top student has poor athletic ability and uncoordinated limbs, it’s obviously impossible to clear this game.

They’re all students from top universities, all victors of the college entrance exam, yet so many are wailing now—clearly, the gap is hard for them to accept.

Ryan Brooks felt his stomach growling. Suddenly, he remembered the leftover fried chicken from yesterday, hurriedly took it out of the fridge, put it in the microwave to heat up, and planned to fill his stomach with it.

Suddenly, the phone tossed on the sofa rang.

William Carter picked it up and saw that it was the parent of the child he was tutoring.

“Hello, Little William? Oh, yes, just letting you know, tonight’s tutoring is canceled, you don’t need to come. Reschedule? Uh, no need, from now on my son won’t be doing these tutoring sessions in his spare time. He’s already completed the easy-level trial and is going to use all his time to tackle the intermediate-level trial. Thanks for all your help during this time, hope we can work together again in the future.”

After hanging up, William Carter was still completely baffled.

What the hell—

“I can understand sacrificing tutoring time to get a trial body, but you’re only in fifth grade!”

William Carter was speechless. Was it easy for me to finally find a gig tutoring elementary school Chinese? How can this side hustle just disappear like that?

All I can say is, this world is crazy—gaming has to start from childhood.

Fifth graders are already trying to clear the intermediate trial. That’s a really early start. Fortunately, it’s a single-player game, so there’s no worry about elementary schoolers dragging others down.

But on second thought, this parent’s approach is actually quite reasonable.

Because the age of the character in the virtual trial is based on the real person’s age, a fifth grader who can clear the easy level is basically a prodigy.

With that kind of talent, it really should be developed—there’s a bright future ahead.

And most importantly, William Carter suddenly realized, tutoring really is useless now.

Everyone has a personal AI assistant, and fifth graders are like they’re cheating—who needs a tutor anymore?

I just wonder what will happen with next year’s high school and college entrance exams. Those top seniors are probably the most stressed-out group right now.

Uh, no, translators are probably the most stressed, especially simultaneous interpreters.

Just thinking about it gives me a headache. Seriously, disaster comes out of nowhere—yesterday it was a high-paying job, and after one night’s sleep, you’re unemployed.

Come to think of it, glasses manufacturers are probably going bankrupt one after another too.

Who knows if this kind of dramatic ups and downs will motivate them to work harder and complete the trial.

After lunch, William Carter continued to enter the consciousness world, flipping through the answer key while completing the trial.

By evening, William Carter had already reached the 71st platform, which he felt was incredibly fast progress.

Even though he was copying the answer key, the key was that many of the moves were impossible to copy exactly.

Actually, the difficulty of the entire trial increases in steps—the further you go, the harder it gets. Just look at your Moments: a large number of players are stuck on the last forty platforms.

Many people cleared the first 50 platforms in just a few hours, but from 50 to 80, it took them more than a whole day.

But William Carter was different from them, because he didn’t have the cost of trial and error.