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nXiao Lin was silent.

nSong Junlang’s sleepiness gradually faded. Seeing how Xiao Lin was not joking, he got serious. “Do you really want access? What do you want in the seniors’ classrooms?”

n“To listen in.”

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n“Would you even understand?” Song Junlang expressed a little disdain. After all, he used to be the genius talented recruit back then. “Moreover, don’t you think the teacher will chase you out?”

n“I have you, don’t I? You said you’ll help me.”

nDepartment Head Song’s eyes flinched. “I think you’re taking this too far…”

n“Fine, stop wasting time. I just want access to the sophomore training field or classroom.” Xiao Lin sighed. “If it’s too much trouble, forget it.”

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nSong Junlang called him, “Wait! Sophomore? You only need sophomore access?”

n“That’s right.”

nDepartment Head Song frowned in thought. “I thought you wanted to sneak into the senior or researchers’ labs! If it’s just for sophomore, it’s not impossible. I can give you temporary access, but it only lasts a day. Is that okay?”

n“Definitely!” Xiao Lin was happy. “Will it really work?”

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n“I’m department head. It’s within my authority!” Song Junlang told Xiao Lin to wait, moved away, then popped back up in VR after a few minutes. He said proudly, “It’s settled, but what are you trying to do? Don’t lie to me about listening in. It’s the weekend… Beep beep beep.”

nXiao Lin had already hung up. He found a passing recruit, asked for the location to the sophomore meditation room, thanked him, and hurried away.

nXiao Lin took a pass from the front of the first classroom in the fourth row of Area C. On the outside, the card was no different from travel passes on Earth, but Song Junlang said that this one was soul-locked. The fancy word shocked him; he flipped the card around, but could not see anything substantial.

nXiao Lin took the card and swiped it past the door lock. With a beep, the meditation room’s door was opened silently. As he felt pleasantly surprised, he once again felt that Song Junlang’s authority as a department head was indeed beneficial.

nThe sophomore meditation room was bigger than the freshmen’s, but everything else was the same. There were more people there on the weekend than there were freshmen. At a glance, there were about 70 to 80 people in the room. It was very quiet; everyone sat cross-legged on the mats. Some people quietly opened their eyes, glanced at Xiao Lin in confusion, but soon closed their eyes again.

nXiao Lin nodded in satisfaction. The more people there were, the greater the available options. He immediately turned on the Academic Genius Replication skill and began searching for appropriate Meditation Skill levels.

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nElementary Meditation LV5, E-grade, unreplicable

nElementary Meditation LV4, E-grade, unreplicable

nElementary Meditation LV7, E-grade, unreplicable

nIntermediate Meditation LV1, D-grade, unreplicable

n…

nAfter a few minutes, Xiao Lin wiped sweat from his head. He scanned the entire meditation room, but none of their skills were lower than the Elementary level. He even found a D-grade Intermediate Meditation skill…

nThe sophomore students that year seemed too strong; or maybe it was the quality expected of sophomore recruits. As Xiao Lin thought about how many freshmen were still struggling with Basic Meditation LV0, he could not help but feel ashamed.

nHe closed the meditation room’s door silently and decided to try his luck in a few other classrooms. There were four meditation rooms for sophomore recruits; if he had no other choice, he had to choose Gu Xiaoyue as his replication target.

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nXiao Lin still could not find suitable targets for replication in the second and third meditation rooms. Thankfully, it seemed that the better sophomores were concentrated in the first classroom. Nonetheless, the levels of those in the latter classrooms were still strong; they had at least LV1 for Elementary Meditation.

nBasic Meditation was F-grade, and Elementary Meditation was E-grade; so it was not within the scope of replication. Xiao Lin was secretly surprised; Elementary Meditation was indeed the standard for most sophomore recruits. It seemed like he had no choice but to replicate the skill from Gu Xiaoyue.

nAfter swiping the card, the door of the last meditation room opened silently. It was different from the silence in the previous classrooms. There were a lot of people there, and there were at least 20 to 30 students gathered in twos and threes chatting together. A few women were enjoying bags of peanuts and sunflower seeds. If it was not for the sign hanging on the door, Xiao Lin would have thought that he walked into a supermarket.

nXiao Lin’s sudden appearance attracted everyone’s attention. There was a brief silence in the classroom, then louder voices broke out.

n“Am I seeing this right? Is he actually wearing a freshman’s uniform!”

n“A freshman? Maybe a repeater!”

n“Even if you are a repeater, you can’t have permission to come in.”

nXiao Lin could vaguely hear that their focus was on him. Since there were not many clothes to change into on campus, everyone wore uniforms most of the time. It was very clear which year each student belonged to. In this sophomore classroom, Xiao Lin’s green freshman uniform made him stick out like a sore thumb.

n“Why are you still stunned? Come in quickly. If you don’t close the door, it’ll leave a bad impression on anyone who sees us.” A short-haired woman closest to Xiao Lin strode forward, pulled him in, and closed the door.

nHe instantly became the focus of everyone’s attention; many of them stared at him with hostile vigilance. Xiao Lin wiped sweat from his forehead and smiled, “Dear seniors, I’m just here for the meditation room. I think I might be in the wrong place, so won’t bother you.”

n“No, no, you’re in the right place! This is the meditation room, but the freshmen’s meditation room is in Area B.” The short-haired woman stood in front of the door to stop Xiao Lin from leaving. She scrutinized him and said, “Are you from the student union?”

n“Xiao Lin? Xiao Lin! Why are you here!” A familiar voice came from the crowd. Xiao Lin looked in the direction of the voice; it was his acquaintance, Zhang Tingting, the sophomore recruit from whom he asked for advice from a few days ago regarding Meditation.

n“So you know each other.” Some people put their guards down and returned to their own circles to chat and eat sunflower seeds.

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n“Tingting, who’s this Xiao Lin? Your new boyfriend?” someone asked.

n“Eh, did you break up with Gu Fantian?”

n“No way, I saw you guys together yesterday. You should be giving us a non-disclosure fee for this! Not much; we just want 200 redemption points!”

nIt was mostly women in the meditation room. If three women could stir up some drama, the amount of drama in there must have been palpable. They were all chatting at the same time, and Xiao Lin had no room to explain himself.

nZhang Tingting became irritated and overpowered the others with a louder voice. “Shut up! What are you talking about? This boy’s a freshman monitor!”

nFor a moment, there was pin-drop silence in the meditation room again.

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