The Academic Genius Is Too Level-Headed

After the class’ top student, Victor Holloway, spoke, the others erupted in thunderous applause.

When they stopped clapping, they turned to look at me as though I were already doomed.

Everyone knew Victor was coming for me.

Some people in the back row muttered under their breaths, “Is Ferdinand about to get wrecked? Would he actually agree to that?”

“No way. Who walks into a trap they can see coming?”

“Honestly, I kind of feel bad for him. With his grades, if he had gone for a less competitive major, he would have fit right in as an average performer.”

“But he just had to come to the mathematics major. When surrounded by geniuses, he’s the dumbest one. That’s just asking for it.”

“Right? Among regular people, he’d actually stand out. But next to us? He’s a nobody.”

Our university was ranked among the top-tier institutions in the country.

The Department of Mathematics served as its flagship program, populated by the university’s most elite students.

Most of them scored dozens of points above the admission cutoff.

I, on the other hand, barely scraped past the minimum by ten points—dead last.

I was currently in my sophomore year.

In every previous exam, I passed every subject.

At an ordinary university, that would already be impressive.

Yet, in our class, I was still consistently at the bottom.

Meanwhile, Victor was consistently at the top of the class, and no one could come close to beating him. He truly lived up to his name.

Victor, a golden boy like him, initially could not be bothered to associate with me.

His go-to line was “In the National Academy by thirty” and “Nobel Prize by forty.”

However, everything changed after Bianca Hastings, the prettiest girl in class, offered me a bottle of water at the basketball court.

It was rare to see girls in STEM, and pretty ones were even rarer.

Bianca looked like a movie star. Word had it that her family was wealthy too.

Naturally, she had guys lining up for her. Victor was the most aggressive.

Unfortunately for him, she shot him down cold and had eyes for me instead.

As a result, Victor treated me as a romantic rival and targeted me at every turn.

After he made the announcement, he glared at me viciously.

He had dropped all pretense and named me directly.

“Ferdinand, you in?”

Before I could speak, Bianca grew anxious.

She stood up and angrily criticized him, “What do you mean by this? Are you trying to bully him?

“As long as you don’t flunk your exams, not even the university can force a student to drop out.

“What gives you the right to even suggest something like that?”

His face darkened with jealous hatred. He then said loudly, “What gives me the right?

“The fact that we’re all geniuses! We’re sick of dead weight dragging us down!

“Ferdinand doesn’t belong in the mathematics major!”

He walked up to me and looked down at me as he asked, “Are you even a man?

“What are you, a coward? Letting a girl speak for you?

“Are you going to step up or what?”

Everyone was looking at me.

I finally said, “Bring it on.”