[…]

[After you finish, the female Student named Peggy finally lets out a breath of relief and says to you that you should go back to the classroom first. She will wash up and then come back.]

[Then she pushes you out of the stall again, leaving you standing there in a daze…]

[…]

[Following the route in your memories, you leave the washroom, walk down the corridor past one classroom after another, and find your own class.]

[You push open the classroom door. All the Students look toward you in unison. The Mentor at the lectern frowns and you immediately hurry back to your seat.]

[The Mentor resumes the lecture. Your deskmate beside you gives you a conspiratorial wink, secretly gives you a thumbs up, leans over and whispers that you are amazing, daring to play like that even during class… A bet is a bet. This is the wager he lost to you.]

[With that, your deskmate hands you a glowing mass of Spirit Essence.]

[You obtained 10,000 Spirit Essence!]

Lin Xun did not know what kind of expression he should show and could only silently accept the Spirit Essence.

After all, this was hard earned blood, sweat and tears…

[On the lectern, the Mentor snaps the refined copper baton and points at the blackboard while lecturing the Students…]

[The mist known as the Veil of Knowledge is a protection bestowed upon the children of the gods by the great true Lord. Only by screening out most knowledge can fools avoid easily losing themselves in the ocean of knowledge.]

[Although that protection originates from the great true Lord, that does not mean you can roam unimpeded in the ocean of knowledge.]

[Within the mist there is also a problem called Disorder. That is the trial the great true Lord has given to the knowledge seeking believers.]

[If you wish to continue drawing in knowledge, then it is inevitable that you will also absorb Disorder.]

[Every living individual has a different tolerance for Disorder.]

[The upper limit of that tolerance can be gradually developed as your knowledge increases, but the absolute highest limit was already set the moment you were born.]

[Some people are extraordinarily gifted. Even when they become great figures like Sages and Prophets, they will never approach the brink of losing themselves.]

[Others have extremely poor tolerance for Disorder. After absorbing just a small amount of knowledge, they lose their reason and become lost in the ocean of knowledge…]

[Talent limits are innate and cannot be changed through later effort. These things were decided long ago. However, whether your achievements will be high or low in the future is not something that was predetermined.]

[You have all long since gotten sick of hearing talk about hard work and diligence. What I am going to teach you today has nothing to do with any of that.]

[What I am teaching you today is the foundation of the Direct Vision School’s existence. The most fundamental difference between the Direct Vision School and the Multivision School lies precisely here.]

[Who will stand up now and answer my question? What is the most fundamental difference between the Direct Vision School and the Multivision School?]

[The Mentor looks around the room and not a single Student raises a hand. His face remains expressionless, as if he is already used to such comportment from you noble brats.]

[The refined copper baton casually points and lands on you. He calls on you to stand and answer the question.]

[Well learned Apostle, how should you answer the Mentor’s question?]

[1. The greatest difference between the two lies in wealth and power.]

[2. The greatest difference between the two lies in the amount of knowledge.]

[3. The greatest difference between the two lies in looks and appearance.]

Lin Xun frowned slightly, feeling that none of the three seemed like the correct answer.

Based on the information he had obtained in the fourth chapter, he pressed the first option.

[You stand and loudly answer that the greatest difference is that the Direct Vision School’s Scholars are all either rich or noble, whereas the Multivision School is a group of commoners and lowborn.]

[Since commoners and lowborn cannot compete with the Direct Vision School in terms of eyeball quality, they can only sacrifice aesthetics and make an issue of eyeball quantity instead.]

[The Mentor neither agrees nor disagrees with your answer and asks you another question…]

[Since the Direct Vision School has enough financial resources to buy better, stronger eyeballs, why do they not continue to transplant more high quality eyeballs after transplanting a pair?]

[The Multivision School must transplant large numbers of inferior, cheap eyeballs in order to match a Scholar of the Direct Vision School who has transplanted a single pair. In that case, why does the Direct Vision School not transplant more and more expensive eyeballs to widen the gap?]

[Is it truly just because their philosophies differ that they are willing not to continue enhancing their strength, not to draw in more knowledge, and insist instead on having either one pair or multiple pairs of eyes?]

[You open your mouth but do not know how to answer. The Mentor’s questions have stumped you in one go.]

[At that moment, the classroom door is pushed open and your battle-to-the-death partner from earlier, Student Peggy, slips inside.]

[She lowers her head and scurries back to her seat.]

[The Mentor has no intention of letting her off. With a point of the refined copper baton, he has Peggy stand up and repeat the question he just asked.]

[Peggy thinks long and hard, then suddenly says excitedly that she has figured it out.]

[The Direct Vision School’s Scholars are either the sons of rich merchants or the daughters of nobility, just like me. My father is the Minister of Finance of Notos…]

[For noble ladies who often attend high society banquets, transplanting multiple pairs of eyes like the Multivision School is not only ugly but extremely unbecoming.]

[That is why the Direct Vision School disdains transplanting multiple pairs of eyes.]

[Upon hearing this, the Students all nod in agreement, while the Mentor’s face gradually darkens…]

[He folds his arms across his chest and shakes his head, looking at you all with a cold smile and making no effort to hide the contempt in his eyes.]

[You suddenly realize something and blurt out that it is not that the Direct Vision School cannot transplant more eyeballs, but that there must be some unknown downside to transplanting many eyeballs like the Multivision School.]

[Good! An excellent answer!]

[The Mentor, hearing your reply, uncharacteristically praises you. He has you and Peggy sit down and continues…]

[Do not think I do not know what you ran off to the washroom to do just now. However, in light of your excellent answer, I have decided not to pursue punishment.]

[The truth is exactly as you said. Transplanting multiple pairs of eyeballs does indeed have tremendous drawbacks.]

[No matter who it is, drawing in knowledge will inevitably mean taking in Disorder. When the Disorder they take in reaches the limit of what they can bear, a Scholar will become lost in the ocean of knowledge…]

[On the surface, how high a Scholar can climb in the future appears to have already been decided. When their own tolerance for Disorder is no longer enough to support continuing to draw in knowledge, they must either stop learning or become lost and mad.]

[However, the Direct Vision School has researched a secret method that allows them to selectively draw in knowledge.]

[When they use the secret method to draw in knowledge, they will still inevitably absorb Disorder, but with the total amount of knowledge unchanged, the proportion of orderly knowledge will increase greatly, while the amount of disordered knowledge will be greatly reduced.]

[As long as you keep training and using this secret method, then even if you and a Scholar from the Multivision School have the same talent limit, the heights you can reach in the future will be greatly increased.]

[Because the Multivision School transplants many different types of eyeballs, they unconsciously take in vast amounts of Disorder when drawing in knowledge. Even if they learn the secret method, they cannot use it.]

[Therefore, the Direct Vision School can only transplant a single pair of eyeballs. Some more extreme cases will even transplant only one eyeball.]

[When the eyeball type in your own body is singular, the secret method can greatly distance you from Disorder.]

[This is the most fundamental difference between the Direct Vision School and the Multivision School.]

[After speaking, the Mentor looks at the many thoughtful Students and shows a satisfied smile…]

[You suddenly feel that something is not quite right and stand up to ask a question…]

[Mentor, since transplanting many different kinds of eyeballs will lead to taking in large amounts of Disorder and so the Direct Vision School can only transplant a single type of eyeball, then why not transplant a large number of eyeballs of the same type to continue increasing power?]

[Upon hearing your question, the Mentor is clearly taken aback. It seems he did not expect you to see through this point.]

[He makes no effort to hide the appreciation in his eyes as he tells you this belongs to higher grade course content and touches upon knowledge related to Eyeball synthesis.]

[If you are interested in this kind of knowledge, you may come to his office after class and he will explain the mysteries to you in advance.]

[…]

[You have gained knowledge. Your Knowledge stat increases by 1,000! Current Knowledge stat: 40,000/43,800!]

[You sit back down. Your deskmate beside you stares at you in disbelief as though he does not recognize you. He mutters that you and he have both always been bottom of the class. How did you sneak out during class to have sex and come back as a top student?]

[His gaze shifts to the female classmate in a short skirt in the front row, as if he has made up his mind about something…]

[…]

[Soon it is midday break before lunch. There is still some time before the academy cafeteria starts serving lunch.]

[Groups of Students gather in threes and fives in the classroom, discussing various bits of gossip…]

[Peggy quietly comes to your side and whispers that it was too rushed just now and she did not get to fully enjoy it. After lunch, she will come to the dormitory to find you…]

[With that, Peggy lowers her head and runs off.]

[Will you go to the Mentor’s office to continue learning knowledge?]

Seeing this kind of option pop up in this hellish game, Lin Xun knew that there was definitely related side story content behind it.

With the Snow Woman’s disguise still holding over at the Direct Vision Great Sage’s place, he currently had plenty of time to explore. Playing a bit of Student roleplay was no problem.

The only thing to worry about was that his Knowledge stat was nearing its upper limit. If he took in any more knowledge, he might literally explode and die.

Lin Xun opened his Inventory and looked at one particular item inside.

“After I find the Mentor, I will use this item.”

[You leave the classroom and walk down the corridor where Students are gathered in groups of three and five, heading to the single office at the end.]

[You knock and enter. The Mentor is sitting behind his desk, smiling as he looks at you…]

[He continues to impart high grade course knowledge to you.]

[Regarding the question you raised just now, he patiently explains that the Direct Vision School indeed can transplant numerous eyeballs of the same type in order to increase knowledge power.]

[However, that is not the optimal solution. There is another method that allows Direct Vision Scholars to achieve the same effect without transplanting large numbers of eyeballs.]

[The key lies in Eyeball synthesis technology. This technology can synthesize not only different types of eyeballs, but also eyeballs of the same type.]

[Transplanting multiple eyeballs of the same type disperses power. The increase it brings is far from equaling one plus one equals two.]

[Eyeball synthesis technology, however, can resolve that drawback very well.]

[This technology allows the effect of transplanting multiple eyeballs of the same type to approach the effect of stacking without limit…]

[However, the technology also has a small side effect.]

[The more eyeballs of the same type that are synthesized, the larger the eyeball’s size will become. That is why you see some Scholars of the Direct Vision School with gigantic eyeballs.]

[They are not necessarily transplanting the eyeballs of some huge creature. It is very possible that they used Eyeball synthesis technology to merge dozens or even hundreds of eyeballs of the same type…]

[…]

[After the Mentor’s explanation, you gain knowledge again. Your Knowledge stat increases by 1,500! Current Knowledge stat: 41,500/43,800!]

[You thank the Mentor and are about to leave the office when you notice the notebook laid open on his desk. The notes on it are copying two familiar designs.]

[They are the transmission paintings that lead to the Polar Star Society branch and to the Starlight Cage.]

[You are shocked. Could this Mentor in front of you actually be a heretic who has defected to the starborn evil gods?]

[Seeing that you are interested in the notebook’s content, the Mentor smiles and explains that some time ago his own Mentor, that is, his Mentor’s Mentor, Sage Osborn, wiped out a Polar Star Society heretic stronghold and confiscated two transmission paintings.]

[The Polar Star Society heretics were using these transmission paintings to hide in the darkness…]

[But you Students need not worry. Sage Osborn, alongside many Scholars, including me, are making every effort to analyze and decipher the transmission paintings.]

[Once we succeed, the Scholars will be able to enter the hidden branch stronghold of the Polar Star Society and kill every last evil heretic.]

Lin Xun’s eyes lit up.

So his lost Starlight Cage had been confiscated by that Sage named Osborn.

[You cannot help asking whether the original paintings are currently in Sage Osborn’s possession.]

[You say that you want to see the two paintings and ask if the Mentor can satisfy this small wish of yours.]

[The Mentor frowns. If you were still your usual bottom of the class self, he would not hesitate and would directly refuse you.]

[But now you seem to have suddenly changed your ways, with the demeanor of an honors Student.]

[He thinks for a long time, then still shakes his head and tells you that the two paintings are currently in Sage Osborn’s private storage room, and that he cannot bring unrelated people inside.]

[However, if your exam and test scores reach A+ grade in the exam half a month from now, he will make an exception and take you to have a look.]

[You are very disappointed when you hear the Mentor’s refusal. Despite your wheedling, the Mentor still refuses to relent.]

[Will you leave the office?]

Lin Xun narrowed his eyes and a hint of killing intent flashed through them.

The Sage possessed mythic grade strength. As a Student of that Sage, this Mentor could not possibly possess the same level of strength.

He was probably only around Grand Scholar level and absolutely could not withstand a single slash from the Child of Evil.

After careful consideration, he did not make a move immediately and instead took his leave of the Mentor and exited the office.

The Polar Star Society had powerful magic formations like the Star Annihilation Magic Formation. The Direct Vision Association was rich and powerful enough to crush the Polar Star Society, so it might very well possess similar formations.

Acting directly carried a certain risk. It would be better to try a more reliable method.

He decided to go look for his old friend, that female classmate named Peggy, and give it a try.