William Carter was immediately displeased: “Damn, do I look like the kind of person who gives in at the slightest bit of pressure? ...Okay, I am. I’ll start streaming tomorrow, just please spare my game account, that’s my lifeline.”

Grace Bennett smiled: “Good boy. Alright, to commemorate both of us losing our jobs today, I’ve decided to make pork ribs. I’ll go out and buy some groceries, you tidy up the kitchen first.”

William Carter felt his big brother authority slipping away and tried to regain some ground: “How about I go buy the ribs, and you rest at home?”

Grace Bennett smiled: “You’re someone who can trip and fall even just staying at home—where do you get the courage to volunteer to go out and buy groceries? Besides, I’m way stronger than you now.”

After saying that, Grace Bennett changed into her trial body and went out. William Carter tried several times to come up with a retort, but in the end, had no idea how to respond.

At 8 p.m., William Carter and Grace Bennett were gnawing on pork ribs when both of their phones rang one after another.

William Carter picked his up and looked: “Oh, the counselor says all students in the college have a meeting tomorrow. But isn’t tomorrow the weekend?”

Grace Bennett looked at her phone: “I got it too. Weird, usually when there’s this kind of notice, the counselor tells us student leaders first. Why did they notify everyone directly this time? Feels a bit sudden.”

William Carter took a sip of his drink: “Who knows, anyway, I’ve got nothing to do tomorrow, might as well go. *burp* I’m full.”

Grace Bennett checked the time: “It’s only a bit after eight. Are you sure you’re not streaming tonight?”

William Carter was already sprawled on the sofa like a corpse: “Nope, I’ve already reached the 71st platform in the trial. No matter what, I have to clear it today.”

The next day, in the afternoon.

“Alright, stop struggling, it’s time to go.” Grace Bennett was already dressed and standing at the living room door.

William Carter stood up from the sofa in utter despair: “Trust me, I’ve already jumped to the 98th platform, just about—”

Grace Bennett gave him a “are you kidding me” look: “You were already at the 97th platform three hours ago. At this rate, are we even going to make it to the meeting?”

William Carter checked the time and realized he really couldn’t delay any longer, so he dashed to the bathroom: “Give me five minutes, I’ll wash my hair.”

Five minutes later, William Carter quickly blow-dried his hair and left with Grace Bennett.

From last night to this afternoon, nearly 20 hours had passed.

William Carter felt like he’d used every ounce of strength he had, but still couldn’t finish the trial.

Honestly, after platform 80, each one was more insane than the last. Even with answer guides, William Carter was still getting wrecked.

It had to be him—anyone else would’ve gone crazy by now.

William Carter didn’t even know what kind of belief was keeping him going, but by the time he reached the 90th platform, he had a strong feeling: “I’m about to clear it!”

But reality proved that feeling was just an illusion.

Meanwhile, Grace Bennett was about to clear hard mode.

Logically, the difference between difficulty modes should be huge, and the further you go, the slower your progress should be.

But that’s for ordinary people.

For a naturally gifted player like Grace Bennett, her skills kept improving as she jumped through the platforms, making her even better at handling complex challenges.

That’s what they call learning by analogy and having high gaming IQ.

It was obvious: as the difficulty increased, those who could quickly finish the medium-difficulty trials would start to pull ahead again, and eventually, the whole player base would form a pyramid-shaped distribution.

It’s like a long-distance race—at the start, there are lots of people in the lead, but as the race goes on, different groups form, and by the end, the first place runner might lap the others several times.

William Carter and Grace Bennett weren’t in the same college, so they had meetings in different places.

This meeting was organized by grade, so all the students in the School of Humanities in William Carter’s year gathered in a lecture hall in the main building, waiting for the counselor to arrive.

William Carter accurately spotted David Clark’s sleazy face among the crowd and sat down in the empty seat next to him.

“Bro-in-law, come, sit. You finished the trial ages ago, right? What starting form did you pick? Transform for me, let me see.” This guy was as sleazy as ever.

William Carter was exasperated: “I’m stuck on the 99th platform. Don’t touch me, I really can’t transform.”

David Clark looked totally unconvinced: “That doesn’t make sense. You’re famous in our college for being good at games—how could your progress be so slow?”

William Carter rolled his eyes, thinking, “Should I tell you I got screwed by my portable system and it picked the hardest difficulty for me?”

He suddenly realized something was off: “Wait, what do you mean I’m famous in the whole School of Humanities for being good at games? How could something like that be known school-wide?”

David Clark nodded vigorously: “Of course, of course! Everyone watches your streams all the time, we’re all your hardcore fans. Your stream yesterday was awesome.”

William Carter: “I didn’t even stream yesterday.”

David Clark laughed awkwardly: “Maybe I remembered wrong, it was the day before yesterday.”

William Carter: “I didn’t stream the day before yesterday either.”

David Clark: “Since you know you haven’t streamed for two days, don’t you have any idea what you should be doing tonight?”