Chapter 2

In the end, Elise was still worried. She secretly searched online for videos about people eating poisonous mushrooms and acing their exams.

Thanks to the algorithm, every video pushed onto her feed was from people claiming they had eaten poisonous mushrooms and achieved incredible exam scores afterward.

Every so often, there were actual educational videos warning people not to eat toxic mushrooms carelessly.

Elise ignored every single one. She only had eyes for those so-called success stories, fantasizing about using those poisonous mushrooms to soar to the top.

Meanwhile, I stayed up late every night solving practice problems and memorizing material. Whenever I got sleepy, I forced myself awake with coffee and menthol rub.

Elise, on the other hand, spent her nights gaming. She had even gotten into an online relationship and would sit in class clutching her phone, giggling to herself at every message.

One day, she caught me eating lunch with my notes spread out. Disdain flickered in her eyes.

"Nova, you study until midnight every day, but in the end, your score will probably only improve by ten points."

She waved her phone lazily.

"Hop on. I'll carry you in ranked matches. When the SAT comes, I'll share some of the mushrooms with you. That's way more effective than killing yourself studying all day."

I instinctively blurted out, "No thanks."

Elise hadn't expected me to refuse. Her face instantly darkened.

"Nova, you're not worried about eating poisonous mushrooms, are you?"

Noticing the doubt in her eyes, I hurriedly added, "No, El. I saw online that if you don't eat enough, you won't hallucinate at all. If you share your dose with me, what if you can't see the SAT answers? It's just too bad my family is poor. Otherwise, I'd buy my own poisonous mushrooms too. Maybe I could even get into a top university."

Elise's anger vanished the moment she saw the regret on my face. She looked at my faded, threadbare clothes with contempt.

"That's true. These mushrooms are expensive. Poor people like you could never afford them anyway."

I nodded along, though I couldn't care less.

My family was poor. My parents relied on temporary labor jobs and sacrificed everything they had just to keep me in school.

Despite giving everything I had in my previous life, I still only made it into an average university. And somehow, I was still okay with that.

I planned to graduate, get a good job, and take care of my parents.

Then Elise destroyed it all.

Every time I pictured my parents' hair turning gray from grief after I died, I wanted to tear Elise apart with my bare hands.

I forced myself to look away from Elise, who was immersed in her game, and buried myself completely in the endless sea of exam questions.

The days flew by, and suddenly, the SAT was upon us.

Just as I was about to enter the exam hall, I saw Elise's social media post.

"Good luck on the SAT!" she wrote.

The photo attached showed a plate of poisonous mushroom stew.

Soon enough, the exam was over. Just as I stepped out of the exam hall, a familiar voice called out.

"Elise, did you really see the math answers?"

Elise stood in the center of a crowd like a celebrity surrounded by admirers, looking incredibly full of herself.

"Of course I did. I already checked my answers just now. The correct answers were exactly what I saw."

Afraid that others might not believe her, Elise recited the answers to the multiple-choice questions, the fill-in-the-blanks, and even the hardest problem on the test.

My heart sank. The answers Elise had just recited were all correct.

Knowing Elise as well as I did, there was absolutely no way she could have solved that last problem on her own.

A creeping doubt took root in my mind.

Had she actually seen the math answers after eating those mushrooms?