Chapter 1

Mom immediately came running in through the back door, beaming. She reached out and took my hand.

"Come on. Let's go to the toilet together."

I slowly rose to my feet and glanced at the professor, Mr. Darren Conrad.

"Just stop here and wait for me to come back."

The classroom erupted in chaos.

"What the heck is going on? Is Shawn Larson out of his mind?"

"I'd heard that he was a notorious mama's boy, and everyone knew about it. He even needs his mom to help him shower and pull his underwear on!"

"The problem is that his grades are really good. The university even said that he was a genius who only appeared once every 30 years."

"So what if he was a genius if this is the way he acts? He's disgusting!"

Class had already ended by the time I returned to the lecture hall.

I strode back to my seat leisurely, and the reporter immediately shoved his camera in my face.

"Mr. Shawn Larson! Why did you behave like that in class just now?"

I chuckled dismissively. "Because it was nothing but a waste of my time.

"I could already solve problems like that when I was three years old. And if the professor is wasting my time, that means he's also wasting the country's resources."

I leaned back in my chair and put both my feet up.

"As for the rest of the students, they should just drop out if they can't keep up with my pace. This special dual-enrollment program for gifted youth is not preschool. Are the professors supposed to wait for them to toddle their way through?

"The professor should be focusing on serving the best of minds instead. For example, me."

As soon as I was done speaking, Ariel Potter, the class representative sitting in the first row, slammed her hand on the desk and glared at me, her face turning red with anger.

"Did you think that your good grades gave you the right to insult other people? Did you know how hard Mr. Conrad worked to prepare this open class for everyone? But you just had to ruin it like that. Who do you think you are?"

The lecture hall went quiet, and everyone turned to look at me.

I put down my feet from the table and cocked my head at her.

"Oh? Is someone feeling sad because I hurt her? Boo-hoo!

"Who do I think I am? I am the champion of the National Math Championship. I'd already finished solving every problem on the sheet when I went to the toilet earlier. I bet you still haven't even figured out what the first question is about. Right?"

I then scrutinized her from head to toe and said, "Let me give you some advice. You should drop out if you're that stupid. You've got quite a nice body, though. Maybe you'd strike it rich faster if you opened an OF."

Ariel's eyes turned red at once. "You… You pervert!"

The whole class erupted in commotion once again. Someone in the row behind me suddenly got to his feet and pointed his finger in my face.

"Watch your words, Shawn Larson! Are you sick and out of your mind? Who do you think you are to say such filth about others? I'm going to beat you up if you're rude again!"

I stood between him and Ariel and scoffed coldly.

"And who do you think you're ordering around? Wait till you win the math championship like before before talking to me about how I should conduct myself.

"Intelligence is king. I'm a genius. You're all trash. And trash should behave like trash and know its place!"

I slowly made my way to the front of the class, picked up the water bottle, and stared into Mr. Conrad's eyes.

"I might have hit the blackboard this time, old man, but I was just being nice. But if you dare to teach such elementary math again next time and waste my time, I will hit you in the face, right and center. Capisce?"

Then, I turned and strode out of the lecture hall.

That night, the trending searches exploded with videos of me behaving rudely and ruthlessly in class. There was the official video from the reporter, along with some other videos the other students filmed, and they had all been published online.

The videos garnered five million views in the first three hours.

The comment section was flooded with comments.

"What the hell is this? This kind of person doesn't deserve to be called a genius! Geniuses have morals and know where to draw the line!"

"Did he just get his mom to accompany him to the toilet? My son already stopped doing that when he turned five! Do you think he's always wearing diapers in class too?"

"That poor female student, though. This has to be classified as sexual harassment already, right?"

"Is nobody going to do anything about him? If this scumbag isn't expelled by tomorrow, I'm going to protest at Kales University's gates tomorrow!"

I read each and every comment, even liking some of the harshest.

Then, I handed Mom the test paper filled to the brim with my calculations. "I'm done. You can have a look."

Mom scanned through every line and praised me repeatedly.

"This is great! You've finally figured it out!"

She then shoved a wad of cash into my hand and patted her own chest in lingering fear.

"Did you know how disappointed you made me earlier? I saw it with my own eyes! You were actually talking to that piece of trash sitting behind you in the hallway just now! And to think that you actually wasted five minutes explaining things to him. Five whole minutes!

"I felt like the sky had just fallen on me. How could my genius son ever think of wasting five precious minutes on trash like him?

"And the other time when you snuck out to get hot dogs with them at the hot dog stand! Don't you know how filthy those places are? What would you do if you got sick from eating there? What if it affected your grade in the exams?"

I calmly put the cash away.

Mom then hugged my shoulders. "I was so afraid, Shawn! I was so scared that you would turn into an ordinary person! But thank goodness you finally came to your senses. It's all good now.

"Remember that I raised you with a lot of effort, and none of it is so that you could just be on par with ordinary people like them.

"Be good and study hard, okay? Next time, you'll be earning millions of dollars a year for me to spend. You promised me that you'd always put me first, didn't you?"

I held Mom's hands and said, "Don't worry, Mom. I'll never be like that again."