Cheating Craft Chapter 53

Quiz 53: Mountain of Books

Whoever lost would have to pay money. The amount depended on how many books they used to play with in total. The more expert they were, the more books they’d need, and the higher the mountain of books would become, like the constantly increasing pile of academic tasks that pressed down upon every student’s back. No matter how stable they managed to support that weight, there would eventually come a day where it would collapse. In short, Bai Jiu had thought that Meng Ming was always amazing, and wasn’t concerned about the issue of him paying money. However, a lot of the spectators began jeering, “It’s Lin Xian Central High vs. Kui Yuan Central High—!” This increased X-seven shop’s popularity by quite a bit, although the people that had come hadn’t come to buy baked goods.

One only had 15 seconds to find a book and stack it. While this seemed quite relaxing in the beginning, it would become more pressuring as the game progressed. The people all consciously opened up a large path between the table and the bookstore so that going back and forth would only take a few seconds.

It had begun! Lu Xiao started first. In an instant, he chose a book and placed it on the bottom of the circular table.

“<modern> newest edition! ￥66.50!” He let the bookstore’s staff record the amount. The entire book, with its thick cover and clothbound spine, was carefully placed vertically in the center of the round table!</modern>

Seeing this, Meng Ming thought: He used a reference book straight away in the beginning, and even placed it vertically. He wants to win quickly…? Fine. Meng Ming also went over to get a book. “<romance> Volume 1! Entire set ￥130.00!” The staff recorded this as well. This book was a very normal paperback. Meng Ming just placed it vertically next to the <modern>. </modern></romance>

“What? You don’t dare to put it on top?” Lu Xiao arrogantly jeered.

“We can just play slowly, what’s the rush?” Meng Ming was extremely cautious. Based on what Huang Que had told him, if he placed this book on top of <modern>, it would most likely be a dangerous situation, as he still didn’t know what the other party’s tricks were. </modern>

“Based on what you said before, the second and third volumes of <three> can’t be chosen anymore, right?” Lu Xiao asked. “But the price is for the full set.” </three>

“That’s right,” Meng Ming nodded.

“Alright, this one!” Lu Xiao picked out another large book. “<china> Volume 1! Entire set ￥200.00!”</china>

It was another clothbound book. Its surface area was larger than <modern>, and it was placed horizontally opposite <romance></romance></modern>

Seeing Lu Xiao place this book down, Meng Ming easily reached for a small book. “<the> Original Text! ￥10.00!” </the>

“<general>! ￥172.00!”</general>

“<south>! ￥15.00!”</south>

“<comprehensive>! ￥190.00!”</comprehensive>

“<children>! ￥13.50!”</children>

“<the> clothbound version! ￥220.00!”</the>

“<the>! ￥4.50!”</the>

“Hmph, you read something that old?!”

“Oi, the one you’re holding is even older!”

“<complete> clothbound book! ￥155.00!”</complete>

“<13 Tricks to Prevent Windows System Crashes>! ￥13.00!”

……

The pile of books grew taller and taller, alternating between each person. Over 20 rounds had passed already, and there were already over 40 books on the tower of books atop the table!

I still don’t know what kind of tricks Lu Xiao uses, so I need to act carefully. [Meng Ming]

Tch, he only knows how to choose those small books and volumes, so nerve-wracking! [Lu Xiao]

“

“Manhua <fullmetal>! ￥4.50!” [Meng Ming]</fullmetal>

“<golden> Volume 2 threadbound! ￥60.00!” </golden>

“Manhua <learning>! ￥4.50!”</learning>

“<beasts> ￥83.00!”</beasts>

“Manhua

“Hm?….What?!”! Lu Xiao didn’t understand what Meng Ming meant for a moment. But before 15 seconds had passed, he noticed that the bottom of the book pile had suddenly ignited to form a great fire. Moreover, it seemed like it had been burning for a while now. This fire was like timber, and it caused the whole tower of books to begin tilting to the side!

“Fire, where did this fire come from?!” Lu Xiao began to panic. If this continues, it’ll collapse from the fire. That won’t do! Seeing the entire mountain of books begin to offset itself, he opened his palms to support it. However, he then recalled that the rules stated one couldn’t support the books. “….How despicable! How would it suddenly catch fire!”

Meng Ming said, “Originally, I’d wanted to slowly play a few rounds with you before lighting the fire, but I no longer see any need for it.”

The books were made from paper. Meng Ming had mastered his fire manipulation to the second level, so he’d igniting a roaring fire as great as he could. The bottom of the book tower had already been completely burned away. No matter how powerful any force was, there was no way these books could remain steady for 15 whole seconds!

Soon, the burned book tower collapsed.

“Master! Congratulations on winning!” Boss Ma Que led the Three Missing One Quartet forward to congratulate him.

There’s nothing to congratulate, the opponent wasn’t strong….

Although it could be said that Meng Ming had won pretty easily, the pressure he’d felt from never knowing the opposite party’s skills was quite great.

Bai Jiu also walked over, “Meng Ming is amazing, you won…” She’d originally thought that Meng Ming had gone to gift books away, and she hadn’t imagined that Meng Ming would actually win. She still didn’t understand: …Where had the fire from just now come from?

“Master! Exactly what kind of tricks did that Kui Yuan guy use?”

“That’s right, I also want to know! He was able to steadily set that large book just now. Had he used qigong?”

Bai Jiu also found it strange, but she felt more respect towards Meng Ming. “I never knew that Meng Ming could play this kind of thing so well, too…”

“Mhm…” Meng Ming had already obtained clues from the other party’s actions earlier. “That’s not qigong. I’ve seen that type of method before, it can allow the cards to adsorb each other. He manipulates something with a great energy, gathering them together to use. Moreover, this force is something that people cannot see. In such a dry, winter day, it can display even more outstanding results…”

The staff were currently busy extinguishing the fire and cleaning the area. Lu Xiao glared hatefully at the collapsed book tower. Not only did he have to pay for it, he couldn’t even keep any of the books.

“Although I don’t know how he’s using it, I can say for certain,” Meng Ming said, “That he induced an area with extremely powerful static electricity.”

Afterwards, Huang Que brought up the point that he’d heard there was an extremely amazing piano performance player in Kui Yuan Central High’s Year 1. However, he was an even greater expert in the electronic piano and electric guitar, and was a C-type. Rumors said that even when his stereo system was unplugged, his electric guitar would play music that gave the same effect as if the system was plugged in. “That person is definitely the Lu Xiao we met today.” [Huang Que]

“Why?” [Bai Que]

“You haven’t heard of the rumor about him? I haven’t personally witnessed him playing piano, but I heard that the strings he uses on the electric guitar aren’t ordinary strings, but electric wires,” Huang Que said.

So it was like that. He plays contemporary music, huh. Meng Ming thought about it. That meant the method that Lu Xiao used was using friction-induced static electricity!

By the time they’d finished speaking, it was already near noon. The surrounding people still hadn’t dispersed, as they were still talking about the interesting book stacking showdown just now. Lin Xian Central High’s Zhuge Meng Ming seemed slightly famous now.

This time, Lu Xiao took the initiative to walk over.

“You,” he pointed at Meng Ming. “I challenge you once again. Let’s do a formal competition.”

In the stacked layers just now, Lu Xiao had lost before even getting the chance to display his true strength. Thus, he naturally wasn’t willing to concede. Besides, those rules had been set by Meng Ming.

“Hey, piano player, you’ve already lost to Master. What else do you want to do?”

“That’s right, why are you just blaming others and refusing to leave? So shameless.”

“I’m not speaking to you guys!” Lu Xiao roared. He said to Meng Ming, “You should also know that X-seven Western pastry shop has a knowledge quiz competition at 12 starting soon.”

Meng Ming had indeed looked over the flyer, and indicated he did know about it.

“How about it? We can use that exam site as a formal competition site. This allows you to display your strength more effectively than playing stacking books as well, right?!”

Lu Xiao wanted to challenge him in this competition? However, the shop’s knowledge quiz…Meng Ming had absolutely never bought baked goods from this shop before. He was slightly hesitant.

“There’s no need to think it over,” Lu Xiao said. “This is also my first time here.”

So that was the case!

Meng Ming understood. He looked at Bai Jiu by his side and felt that…her line of thinking couldn’t possibly be bent any other way. She had completely imagined Meng Ming as a genius in her mind. Especially in these circumstances where there wasn’t any advanced surveillance around…

I have to be careful to make sure she doesn’t know I’m cheating. There’s indeed a lot of things to consider….

Meng Ming had heard of using static electricity before, but he didn’t really know how to counter it. He thought that he could take advantage of this opportunity, and properly participate in this fight to better understand the cheating methods of other school’s C-types.

“Is the Western pastry shop the exam site?” Meng Ming stood up. “Alright, I accept!”