The Reincarnated OP Protagonist Is Now A 3rd Grade Student (Patreon)

Chapter 26: The Loneliest Elementary Student in the World

The morning's unsettling commotion, followed by gradually forgotten ominous premonitions, once again filled Chen An's chest.

But this time, Chen An finally understood where the strange unease that had troubled him in the morning had come from—

The fat and skinny boys in front of him sat silently at their desks, the playful and noisy sounds of their past replaced by the scratchy noises of pens on paper. Yes, the two of them were racing against time to complete the assignments that should have been finished yesterday.

"Why... how could I forget about something like this?"

Chen An stared at his backpack in disbelief. The Chinese homework, math homework, and English homework, all three workbooks that should have been filled with words were now blank.

"Wow! You didn't do your homework?!"

Even the mischievous fairy was somewhat surprised. After following Chen An for so many years, it was the first time it had seen the usually disciplined Dragon Aotian forget to do his homework.

"But it's understandable that you forgot. Don't forget, yesterday you went to play cards with Lu Li while carrying a Desert Eagle."

"But I went home after playing cards!"

Chen An held his head and gnashed his teeth. "Indeed, playing cards was fun, worth savoring, but how could I have foolishly wasted the time that should have been used for homework? Is my desire to play really that strong?!"

"No, what I mean is, didn't you endure a lot of damage when you played with Lu Li?"

"Huh... Are you referring to that Cold Shot that dealt 5,000 damage?"

Seeing Chen An's confused expression, the fairy shook its head in resignation. "Are you forgetting Lu Li's ability and the 'Fool's Stone,' which is the opposite of the 'Sage's Stone'? You engaged in a 'close-range' duel of gods with her, and during that process, her ability shaved off a significant portion of your IQ. Fortunately, your IQ was already quite high, so after losing some, you only forgot to do your homework and didn't do anything more foolish."

"Gasp..."

Chen An took a sharp breath, looking horrified as he glanced at Lu Li, who was walking outside the window. "Can I recover the IQ I lost?"

"Of course, her ability is very unstable, so it can only temporarily reduce your IQ. You can definitely regain it. Calculating how you outsmarted that merchant proves it."

The fairy affirmed. "Compared to Li Kui, the cop who had his IQ reduced and still hasn't fully recovered, your current state is... exceptionally bizarre."

"I don't feel like my current state is good at all!"

Chen An twitched the corner of his mouth, took out his blank workbook, and quickly reviewed his assignments.

"Copy 'The Young Runtu' three times, copy 'My Uncle Lu Xun' twice, copy 'Viewing Lu Mountain Waterfall,' 'Setting Out Early in the Morning to Send Off the White Emperor City,' and 'Night Thoughts' five times... Hiss, Li Bai! Lu Xun! It's you two again!"

Without time to complain, he quickly prepared himself, ignoring the puzzled glances from others, and joined the army of fast-writing students.

When the bell for the next class rang urgently, he could only shrug at Lu Li and say, "It's too late. I'll just confess to the teacher that I had something important to attend to yesterday and forgot. Let's see if she remembers my past good behavior and lets me off."

"I forgot to do my homework yesterday because I ran to play cards with the girl from the school newspaper to save the entire city. As a result, I was subjected to her IQ-reducing attacks. So, I forgot to do my homework... How does this excuse sound?"

The fairy said with a bit of schadenfreude, but as soon as it finished speaking, it took a critical hit to the forehead from Chen An's finger snap and flew backward.

Seeing this, Lu Li lowered her head in embarrassment and anxiously rubbed her hands together. "Will there be any punishment for forgetting to do homework? Like palm slaps?"

"It's just forgetting to do homework; it's not at the point of palm slaps... But the person who forgets to do homework has to stand outside the classroom."

Seeing Lu Li's worried and guilty expression, Chen An comforted her, "Don't worry, it won't be a whole class of standing. Usually, they just make us stand outside for about ten minutes before calling us back to class. And I won't be the only one standing. Right, Fatso? Skinny?"

His two friends in front of him simultaneously stopped writing and smiled mischievously. Skinny said with a relaxed and cheerful tone, "It's a pity, buddy, but I'm afraid you'll be the only one standing outside."

"What?!"

Chen An stared at his surroundings in disbelief, realizing that no one was continuing to work on their assignments.

And to make matters worse, after the bell rang, the four group leaders from the four groups had already stood up and started collecting each student's workbook from start to finish...

He stared at the half-written homework for a long time before lifting his head to look at the group leader who had now approached him.

She was a girl with a few freckles, somewhat shy, with a soft and gentle voice. But the words she spoke made Chen An feel a kind of loneliness as if he had been abandoned by the world.

"This... it seems you're the only one left who hasn't turned in your homework."