Phantasmal Genesis - Chapter 32: Dont judge a book by its cover

Inside the alleyway, Chen Zhou turned to his side and continued to sleep soundly, he was used to people disturbing his rest and he learned to ignore any noise.

“Issuing operating system assignment.”

“Please complete reading 10 books in a day.”

“Assignment reward: Junior high school knowledge [proficient].”

“Punishment on failure: Deletion of the operating system.”

“The host has been identified to be asleep.”

“Initialising forced wakening sequence.”

“Si~” (Grilling noise.)

“Aaaaa……!!”

In that instant, an electrical current ran through his entire body, causing it to spasm uncontrollably as he instantly woke up.

“Fuck me! What is this damned thing? How dare you interrupt my sleeping!” Chen Zhen stood up hollering, looking at his surroundings.

‘Ding, congratulations on binding with the super genius operating system.”

“What?” He was shocked.

Was this because he had been extra unlucky recently? Even god himself couldn’t watch this go on anymore.

He had actually been given the cheat-like operating system that’s said to help main characters reach the pinnacle?!

“Cough…that, please introduce yourself.”

“Yes, host.”

“The super genius operating system is a super artefact personally created by the god of intellect, this operating system is the collection of all knowledge on this universe’s civilisations. As long as my host works hard to learn, he will eventually reach the peak of wisdom in the universe and inherit all of the knowledge from the god of intellect!”

“Of course, this will all begin from the first assignment you’ve received.”

“Assignment 1: Read 10 books.”

“Time limit: 24 hours.”

“Assignment reward: Junior high school knowledge [proficient].”

“Punishment on failure: Deletion of the operating system.”

Chen Zhen crawled up immediately, as long as he didn’t have to think too much and simply read word by word, reading 10 books in 24 hours wasn’t impossible.

He had to be grateful to free public libraries that were open to all, there wasn’t any discrimination against beggars and anyone could enter to learn.

This time period was basically heaven for scholars.

The sloppy Chen Zhen, with strange odours emanating from his body, hurriedly rushed into the library. He ignored the disgust from the surrounding people and quickly took 10 books even without even reading their titles.

He threw the books onto the table, the huge noise attracting gazes from the quiet readers in the library.

“Sir, you are disturbing their reading.” The librarian walked over.

“Er.” Chen Zhen was stupified, but he quickly apologised to the librarian and promised to stay quiet.

Afterwards, he grumbled a bit before diving his head into a book.

The operating system did not specify that he had to understand the contents of all 10 books, it had only said to read 10 books.

Chen Zhen even thought of reading a computer manual, but he was worried that the system wouldn’t recognise it, so he just brought over 10 comics.

Even if it was word by word, there wasn’t much text in comics so he quickly finished reading 10 books.

In the eyes of the surrounding people, he never stopped flipping the pages, and to them, it seemed like he wasn’t even here to read.

He’s not even here to read, and not only that, he was a disturbance, what an asshole! All of them thought like this.

However, Chen Zhen was engrossed in his comic and was completely oblivious.

After he finished all 10 books, he even felt a little unsatisfied.

“Assignment complete, please wait for your reward.”

As the operating system’s voice was heard, an electrical current came from the skies and flowed through his entire body, as if it was reconstructing it.

And after the current disappeared, Chen Zhen couldn’t feel anything different, but then he thought about the English words he had just seen.

Right now, it was as if he had really gone through junior high education, his memory was good.

………

“Congratulations on completing assignment one, now issuing assignment two.”

“Assignment two: Flaunt your junior high knowledge in front of 10 people.”

“Assignment time limit: 1 hour.”

“Assignment reward: High school knowledge [proficient].”

“Punishment for failure: Deletion of the operating system.”

“Pu!” Without even getting a breather, Chen Zhen saw the second assignment that was issued immediately, his eyes widened as he spat out his water.

“Operating system, your speed in issuing assignments is too fast! Can’t you give me a break?” Chen Zhen tried to reason.

“Please complete your task without dely, or you will be unbound with the operating system.”

The cold voice of the operating system appeared.

It was obvious that the icy system would unhesitantly remove itself from Chen Zhen. There was only one operating system in this entire world, but there were billions of hosts within its reach!

Chen Zhen had no choice but to lower his head.

But, hmph hmph!

Once I reach the pinnacle of the universe, I’ll definitely dismantle you!

Leaving his fantasy world, Chen Zhen had to face reality and put the books back into the bookshelves.

He looked at the people reading around him.

A small girl was holding onto her pen with a troubled face, and in front of her was a thick test preparation book.

“Little girl, are you having problems? Do you want brother to teach you?” Chen Zhen tried his best to smile in the friendliest possible way to lower the child’s wariness, trying to give off the feeling that he was a reliable older brother.

But he obviously forgot what he currently looked like.

Have you ever seen an amicable brother in a thick cotton coat, with hair as dishevelled as hay and a face blacker than coal dust?

He looked like a creepy uncle that was trying to abduct a child!

This was something everyone that was looking over thought.

The girl looked up and down at him in curiosity, “Does brother know how to solve this question?” She pointed at a question on her test.

“Oh, this is the quadratic system of equations!”

Chen Zhen took the girl’s pen confidently and started scribbling on the test paper under everyone’s doubtful watch.

If it was last time, he wouldn’t even know what the quadratic system of equations meant, much less solve it, but now he had the help of the system.

Even trigonometric functions wouldn’t be a problem!

One by one, it didn’t take long for Chen Zhen to calculate all the formulas and after he did, he put down the pen.

The onlookers were all shocked.

They had assumed that he was a creep trying to trick a young girl, and they were even prepared to use their fists.

Who knew……

A university student picked up the paper and started to check it carefully.

To him, quadratic equations were no more than 1 + 1 questions, and he only needed to take a glance.

“It’s actually……all correct?”

Looking at the slobby beggar in front of him with doubt, he spoke, “Bro, if you’re going to leave the house next time, you should dress a bit more decently.”

They were truly mistaken to judge a book by its cover!

Translator’s note

I have work for the next five days, so the releases might not be as frequent.