When system cheat becomes rampant!

Xiang Qingde opened the door and stepped out, saying to Yu Lei, "Sorry, my child is unwilling to accept the interview. He hasn't yet decided to choose Liangzhou University."

Xiang Qingde knew very well how to refuse others tactfully, simply by saying that his child had not yet planned to choose Liangzhou University, making an interview with Yu Lei unnecessary.

Yu Lei obviously paused, then said, "But with such high scores, is he content to miss out on an elite university?"

"He has his own plans. Attending an elite university comes with risks, but with his scores, he can pick and choose among the remaining universities. We're very satisfied with that; there's no need to fret too much. Contentment brings happiness, doesn't it?"

Xiang Qingde explained cheerfully, quite adept at covering for his own child.

"Mr. Xiang, if your child is unwilling to accept my interview, then I can interview you instead. As long as you cooperate with me, I can definitely create public opinion that will get your child into a better university. As a parent, don't you want to see your child become classmates with even more outstanding individuals in an elite university?"

Yu Lei was not giving up easily.

"No need, I have other matters to attend to and cannot entertain you any longer, please understand!"

Xiang Qingde was very firm in his stance. Yu Lei spent a lot of effort trying to persuade him, but was ultimately unable to and had to leave Xiang Qingde's home.

Having descended the stairs, Yu Lei stood at the street corner, took a cigarette from his pocket, took a puff and then slowly exhaled the smoke.

The swirling smoke framed his face, casting it in a somewhat gloomy light.

"What a pair of fools, too proud for their own good!"

Yu Lei spat on the ground with disgust.

Before coming here, he had been confident about this interview. His keen senses had detected hot topics in this event that could spark discussions across all circles.

The raw score of 732, first in Jiuzhou, unable to enter an elite university due to an N-level Awakener talent, the irrationality of the recruitment system of the nine elite universities... all it needed was a little guiding, and these could become extensively sensationalized topics.

He had thought that his reasons would be irresistible, that any other parent would wisely take advantage of the media to help their child, eager for the journalist's assistance.

But unexpectedly, this top-scoring student had no intention of going to Liangzhou University, and he had been bluntly turned away!

Yu Lei felt extremely irritated.

"Pah! Did you really think I wanted to help you get into Liangzhou University?"

He tapped his cigarette against the wall corner, watching the broken ashes drift away with the wind, and snorted coldly.

Truth be told, he had never intended to use media pressure to help Xiang Beifei get into university; in fact, he was hoping Xiang Beifei would fail to get into Liangzhou University!

If an N-level student was admitted to Liangzhou University, the news would at most express amazement at the student and say his future was limitless, considering him a hidden talent, a second Shang Tianxiong.

Such news stories could only sensationalize one aspect: the potential of this N-level student.

But Jiuzhou was never short of talented individuals with potential, frequently featuring an SR-level genius here, a business prodigy there... Such reports were far too common!

However, if Xiang Beifei were to be eliminated during the Liangzhou University assessment process, that would be worth sensationalizing.

He could exploit angles like [Liangzhou University deliberately making it hard for N-level high-scoring students, setting up barriers to prevent N-level talents from passing], or [Why the discrimination against N-level students, are elite universities worth reconsidering], or even [Does the system talent truly determine everything?]...

All these perspectives were thought-provoking, could uncover the true value of the news, and would bring more traffic to him as the journalist responsible for the coverage, helping him complete more tasks of making the headlines.

So Yu Lei was the person who least wanted Xiang Beifei to be admitted to Liangzhou University!

He was a journalist and self-proclaimed "public intellectual", with a combined following of over a million across various social media platforms.

Reporting positively on someone's excellence was commonplace, and such news bored everyone, but taking a negative slant could attract a cluster of internet users who, frustrated by the ups and downs of daily life, only vent on their keyboards against heaven, earth, and thin air, without giving any thought to their own issues.

His followers liked to see reports from a negative perspective.

For those in the media, the most important thing was to find one point of interest in trivial matters, then blow it out of proportion to catch the public's eye, spark debate, push the discussions to go viral, become headline news, and gain massive marketing traffic.

To achieve this, Yu Lei could exaggerate without any bottom line and twist facts. All he needed to consider was how to write the news to garner the most attention. The actual truth seemed much less important.

So even though Yu Lei had everyone discussing the discrimination against N-level Awakeners, he certainly wasn't truly on the side of those N-level Awakeners.

He stood on the side of traffic!

After all, he wasn't the one being discriminated against; as an R-level Awakener, he usually looked down on N-level Awakeners himself.

In the past, Yu Lei had secretly bribed the parties involved to complete his "Headline Tasks," disregarding the facts to fabricate news, engaging in countless such shady dealings.

He had already figured out how to draft the article on the Xiang Beifei incident!

However, this grandfather and grandson duo were clearly unappreciative of his offer and had actually rejected his cooperation!

"If you think rejection will make me give up, then you're seriously underestimating me."

Yu Lei looked at his system interface:

"You have selected the task: Hype up the N-level top scorer incident"

"Direction for the hype: 1, help them get into Liangzhou University, positively promote the candidate; 2, prevent them from getting into Liangzhou University, negatively spin associated hot topics"

"You have chosen: 2"

"Current task: Hype up the Xiang Beifei incident, reach the top twenty in discussion heat on any media platform's trending list, earn +1000 headline points (can be cumulative)"

"Current headline points: 132783"

"Note: Buying trend spots is invalid"

"Reward for completing a trending task: Choose any two from the following"

"Stealth Talisman x1 (used for invisible tracking); Truth-Telling Talisman x1 (can extract truthful statements); Memory Talisman x1 (can alter someone's memory); Control Talisman x1 (can control the will of others)"

"What a pity that I've used up all my control talismans."

Yu Lei frowned slightly, for the Control Talisman could be used to alter a person's will, to change someone's decisions, like if someone wanted to refuse something, the talisman could make them agree. These talismans were only effective on those whose realm was lower than his own.

In the past, he used Control Talismans to make people accept his interviews and say what he wanted them to say in front of the camera.

Of course, sometimes he would exchange them for Memory Talismans too, such as after engaging in dirty activities, he would use a Memory Talisman to make a person forget what had just happened, thus freeing himself from unnecessary trouble.

To him, these system items were very practical, but they were also in high demand and short supply; currently, he only had two Memory Talismans and one Stealth Talisman.