Sorry Boss, Didn't Recognize You Earlier (Gift Bonus Chapter 4/19)

The homeroom teacher of Class One was Liu Qingsong, a middle-aged man looking to be in his forties with a strong hairline and rimless glasses.

He taught math, walked with a breeze, and spoke just like he solved equations: straight to the point, without dragging his feet.

As soon as the bell rang, he led Chen Zhi into the classroom and slammed his thermos onto the podium, instantly making a few whispering students in the front row shrink their necks in fear.

"Put down your pens for a second."

Liu Qingsong scanned the room, his gaze pausing for a second on the heads of those frantically writing, then pointed to Chen Zhi beside him.

"This is Chen Zhi, the top scorer of this year's high school entrance exam, with perfect scores in all science subjects."

A sparse smattering of applause echoed from the class.

Only the big shots in the "VIP lounge" at the back row showed a slightly more eager look in their eyes, though it was mostly just to watch the show.

"We're all classmates from now on, so help each other out," Liu Qingsong said, delivering the obligatory pleasantries before waving his large hand. "Chen Zhi, take that empty seat. Alright, turn your books to page 42, let's go over yesterday's test paper."

That was it?

Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow. This efficiency—it really was the honors class.

He carried his backpack to the last row. As soon as he sat down, he felt several gazes on him.

Cheng Jun was hiding his phone in his desk drawer, frantically tapping the screen while sizing up the new "top scorer" from the corner of his eye.

Chen Zhi ignored him. With practiced movements, he pulled out several brick-thick study guides from his bag.

A copy of Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Mock Tests, a Key and Difficult Points Manual, along with an English dictionary and a Chinese dictionary.

He started constructing an "illegal building" on his desk.

Stacked high in the front, sealed on the sides, leaving a trench in the middle just big enough to fit a phone.

The sequence of actions was smooth and flowing; a single glance revealed he was an old hand at this.

Chen Zhi placed his phone in the trench, plugged in his earphones, and skillfully tapped the red and blue icon.

"TiMi~"

The game loading screen popped up. Chen Zhi leaned back comfortably in his chair, crossed his legs, and in this classroom with the fiercest competition and highest pressure in the whole school, began his first ranked match.

On the podium, Liu Qingsong was spitting everywhere as he went over the test paper.

The students in the first three rows were exactly as Cheng Jun had described—each one looked pumped full of chicken blood, wishing they could print all the knowledge onto Doraemon's Memory Bread and eat it all.

As for the back row where Chen Zhi was...

One guy was getting ready to brew instant noodles in his thermos; another brother was asleep on his desk, dead to the world, drool practically forming a river; as for Cheng Jun, his fingers were rubbing the screen in his desk so fast they were about to spark.

Liu Qingsong would occasionally stop to ask a question or sweep his gaze around the room.

But every time his eyes swept to the back row, they would automatically skip over it, as if a bunch of air was sitting there.

Once, the sleeping guy snored a bit too loudly. Liu Qingsong merely frowned and raised the volume of his lecture, stubbornly refusing to wake him up.

Chen Zhi, while maneuvering his Li Bai to run rampant in the jungle, screamed wildly in his heart:

Awesome!

So awesome!

Serious question, is this heaven?

Moreover, this teacher's attitude of "as long as your grades are good, I'll treat your murder and arson as a chemistry experiment" suited his tastes perfectly.

What the hell was I doing before?

Why did I have to waste so much time in the beginner village of Class Ten?

If I had come to Class One earlier, my rank would be at least ten stars higher by now!

A forty-five-minute class. Chen Zhi played two ranked matches, got MVP in both, and felt thoroughly refreshed.

As soon as the dismissal bell rang, Liu Qingsong punctually tucked his lesson plans under his arm and left, not even using the classic "just two more minutes" overtime skill.

Chen Zhi stretched and was just about to put his phone away to get a cup of water to soothe his throat.

Suddenly, a shadow cast over him.

Cheng Jun stood behind him, looking entirely sycophantic.

He stared fixedly at Chen Zhi's still-lit phone screen, his eyes practically popping out of his head.

"Bro..." Cheng Jun swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "No, wait, Dad! That post-match screen you just had... was that Glorious King?"

In 2018, Honor of Kings was at its peak, but the situation where Epic ranks were everywhere and Kings were less than dogs hadn't appeared yet.

At this time, the Epic rank didn't even exist yet, and Kings were rare. Glorious King was the true tip of the pyramid, an honor only the top fifty players in the entire server could achieve!

Chen Zhi casually shoved his phone into his pocket and picked up his water cup. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Holy crap!"

Cheng Jun let out a gasp of astonishment like someone who had never seen the world, grabbing Chen Zhi's arm with a force that suggested he was afraid Chen Zhi would run away.

"Fifty-eight stars? Ranked twelfth in the entire server?"

Chen Zhi pulled his hand back in disgust and patted his sleeve. "Keep a low profile, it's just basic mechanics."

"Dad! Carry me in ranked, Dad!"

Cheng Jun shamelessly dropped to his knees on the spot, his big face leaning in. "I've been stuck at Diamond I with full stars for three days. I played my promotion series five times and lost them all. I keep getting matched with trash teammates, my mentality is completely shattered!"

As he spoke, he frantically pulled out his own phone, pulled up his QR code, and presented it to Chen Zhi.

"Add me as a friend! I'm begging you! As long as you carry me to King, I'll cover your three meals a day from now on! If you want water, I'll fetch it; if you want to sleep, I'll hand you a pillow!"

Chen Zhi looked at the shameless guy in front of him. He tilted his mouth into a "crooked-mouth Dragon King" smirk.

"Don't do this, I still prefer that rebellious and untamed look you had earlier."

Cheng Jun's old face flushed, but for the sake of ranking up, what was pride?

He chuckled and directly slapped his own mouth. "Earlier, I had eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai, I was a dog looking down on people! From now on, you're my biological father. If you say east, I will absolutely not go west!"

Chen Zhi was amused by the guy's shamelessness. He took out his phone and scanned his code.

"Alright, seeing as you're so sincere."

With a beep, the friend request was successfully added.

Cheng Jun looked at the glittering avatar in his friends list, so excited he almost jumped up.

He turned back to his own seat and waved his phone at the other bros in the back row who were still watching.

"Brothers! Guess what Chen Zhi's identity is? I didn't even recognize it at first."

"Tch, isn't he just the top scorer of the entrance exam?" a bespectacled boy nearby curled his lips disdainfully. "Who here isn't a top scorer? I was the top of my district back then, only a few points lower than him."

In Class One, grades were the most worthless thing.

"Superficial!" Cheng Jun looked at him with utter contempt. "Scores mean jack shit! Do you know what his rank is?"

The guy with glasses pushed up his frames. "Strongest King?"

"You're thinking too small!" Cheng Jun wagged a finger, lowered his voice, and said mysteriously, "Glorious King! Number twelve in the server! A jungle main, the kind that slaughters everyone every match!"

"Holy crap?!"

The pen in the bespectacled guy's hand dropped to the floor with a clatter.

"Are you serious? Glorious King?"

"I'm a dog if I'm lying!" Cheng Jun flashed the screenshot of Chen Zhi's profile page. "See this? This win rate, this score, is this something a human can achieve?"

At this, the entire back row completely exploded in an uproar.

The few aloof top students who had previously ignored Chen Zhi now suddenly swarmed around him.

"Boss! Sorry, I didn't recognize you earlier. My apologies!"

"Much respect!"

In an instant, Chen Zhi's desk was surrounded by people, making it even livelier than when Liu Qingsong was lecturing earlier.

"Alright, alright, one at a time, don't push."

Chen Zhi calmly displayed his QR code. "Scan the code if you want to get on board. We're doing a five-man queue next period. Seats are limited, first come, first served."

The class bell rang again.

It was English class. The English teacher was a young woman with a gentle personality who rarely bothered with strict discipline.

The atmosphere in the back row instantly grew tense.

In a five-man squad, excluding Chen Zhi as the "carry," there were only four spots left.

But Cheng Jun's group had a good seven or eight guys.

"Hey, I was the one who first discovered our Godfather here is a Glory King! Why did you kick me out of the lobby?"

Staring at the notification that he had been kicked from the room, Cheng Jun was completely dumbfounded and growled in exasperation.

The bespectacled boy next to him chuckled, his fingers flying across the screen to lock in Luban No. 7. "Cheng Jun, you need to know your place. How dare a lowly Diamond like you try to join a full squad of Kings?"

"Exactly," another boy chimed in. "We're playing high-elo matches. With your mechanics, you'd just be feeding. Don't drag down Godfather's win rate."

Cheng Jun's face and neck turned red with anger. He slammed his phone onto the desk. "Bullshit! I just had bad luck! Besides, my grades are better than yours! I got a 690 on last week's weekly test! You only got a 685!"

In Class One, test scores were hard currency; they were a status symbol.

But today, that trick didn't work.

The bespectacled boy didn't even look up. Buying items in-game, he sneered, "690 points? In the King's Rift, can you use your test scores as gold? Can they buy you a Resurrection Armor?"

"Yeah, in the world of Kings, rank is everything. What the hell is a 690 good for if you can't even climb out of the Diamond pit?"

"We told you before to do fewer practice tests and work on your gaming mechanics, but you acted like we were trying to ruin your life. You kept saying 'studying makes me happy.' Now you know you were wrong, huh?"

Cheng Jun: "..."

He felt his entire worldview collapsing.

Was this still Class One?

Since when did sucking at video games become a valid reason to be despised?

Watching the guys he usually crushed academically now slaughtering enemies in the Rift alongside Chen Zhi, smiling as brightly as blooming flowers, Cheng Jun was filled with bitter regret.

"Damn it!"

He slammed his fist hard against the desk, looking at his own pathetic Diamond emblem and then at the smug faces of his classmates.

An unprecedented fighting spirit ignited in his chest.

It's just a game, isn't it?

Gritting his teeth, Cheng Jun picked up his phone and opened the training camp.

Just you wait, you snobby bastards.

The tides of fortune turn! Never look down on a young man's potential!

Before the next weekly test, I am definitely going to reach King rank and trample all of you beneath my feet!