As Shuxue passed through the door, the world around him shifted into a vast green plain, upon which many monsters shambled. Flashes of light appeared behind him, coalescing into the Brownwater disciples. When they all arrived, he began to speak.

“All right, lowly Arithmetic-stage scum. Hurry up and kill all the monsters in this dungeon so that we can find the mechanism to proceed to the next level.” With that, Shuxue leaped forward, punching out a Math Dragon that smashed straight into a number 7324 that was jumping around.

BOOM! The 7324 fell back as the Math Dragon smashed into it, transforming into a 6935. Shuxue continued to batter the monster with various techniques until it dispersed completely into mathforce, leaving behind an Arithmetic pearl.

Shuxue was actually supposed to stand still and allow the Outer Circle disciples to train their techniques on these monsters and only help them if they were in mortal danger, but they took too damn long. As if he had time for this frivolous expedition! What Shuxue wanted to do, was finish the dungeon as quickly as possible and return back to the Sector for secluded meditation!

“This is what is called, a conflict of interest.” Shuxue sniffed to himself. “I can’t be blamed for them having interests diametrically opposed to my own.”

After several minutes, the entire plain was cleared of monsters. A girl was jumping excitedly next to a pit in the ground, shouting about how she found the mechanism.

The boy whose name Shuxue couldn’t be bothered to remember walked up, holding a bag of sixty Arithmetic pearls. “Elder disciple Shuxue, you left the treasures you got from the monsters. Don’t you want to use them for Mathivation?”

Shuxue’s hand reached out, delivering another loud slap to the boy. “Dumbass kid! You think I care about these meaningless trinkets? The only thing that matters to me is mathematical knowledge! I don’t give a damn about some stupid Mathivation body-enhancing bullshit.”

The boy began sniffling, dropping the bag to the ground. As Shuxue walked away, the bag was picked up by Zhujiao, who began to press them one by one into his forehead. Astonishingly, each pearl would disappear the moment it was pressed into his forehead! Zhujiao quickly finished absorbing all the pearls, sighing to himself.

Meanwhile, Shuxue had walked up to the pit, inside of which was a square metal plaque, reading 3x2x1 = 3! =___

A five-year old child squatted inside the pit, next to the plague, talking to his friend. “I think the answer is six, because 3+2+1=6, right? But I don’t know, because the + sign looks weird.”

Shuxue kicked the child aside, kneeling down to the mechanism and tracing out the number six with his finger in the blank space.

“Haha! See, I was right!” The kid began laughing delightedly.

Shuxue’s hand reached out, slapping him. “No, you were wrong. Let’s go.”

Because he had solved the mechanism, the space around them began to distort, turning into a barren wasteland with even more numbers jumping around. Every few meters, there would be an Arithmetic pearl lying on the ground.

“Eh? These numbers are much smaller than before!” Shuxue frowned as he looked at them.

A large amount of 24s and 120s could be seen in the barren wasteland. In the distance, Shuxue could see a 720, surrounded by a cluster of 120s. This 720 was clearly the largest monster here, yet it was smaller than even the first monster Shuxue had run into in the last matrix, the 7324. This floor was clearly composed of many smaller numbers. He could even see hordes 1s, 2s, and 6s hopping around.

“This matrix can’t be simple at all.” Shuxue mused. The second matrix, have weaker monsters than the first? Too fishy!

A math dragon shot out of his fist, slamming into a nearby 24. The 24 was smashed into pieces by the math dragon. Yet, the moment it passed through, the 24 instantly reformed from the surrounding mathforce.

“What the?” Shuxue was startled. How was that even possible?

For an entire ten minutes, the kids ran around, howling as they were pummeled endlessly by 1s and 2s. Since the monsters were merely 1s and 2s, however, their attacks had no effect on the children. It would feel like an itch, at most.

Finally, a sniveling child flicked at a 1 jumping on top of his prostrate body. With a poof, the 1 disappeared, leaving behind an Arithmetic pearl.

Seeing this, Shuxue’s eyes gleamed. “You have to flick them to death, children. Like your mucus! Flick them all!”

He ran up, flicking a 1. It had no effect on the 1, which exploded and instantly reformed.

“What the fuck! This makes no sense!” He shouted furiously, spittle flying out of his mouth. A large amount of spit landed on the 1, and it collapsed.

“Eh? What was that?” Shuxue narrowed his eyes, staring in confusion at the Arithmetic pearl it had left behind. His flick was unable to kill the monster, but his saliva was?

Beside him, a little girl was flicking at the 1s, each of them immediately dissipating as she did. Shuxue stared at her, before coming to a sudden realization.

“You have to put in 1 point of mathforce into killing them! Quickly, kill them all!” Immediately, Shuxue began stabbing his finger repeatedly through the air, sending out illusory number 1’s flying into the 1 monsters.

“Damn Arithmetic dungeons, playing tricks on me like that!” Shuxue was quite annoyed by this dungeon. Why did it have to be so difficult? If this was a dungeon that could be won through brute force, Shuxue was certain he would already be on the fourth or fifth matrix by now.

Unfortunately, these monsters had a Math Armor! Shuxue was not sure what kind of specifications he had to fulfill to break past it, but he had to figure it out if these monsters were to be cleared out.

A 2 jumped up in front of Shuxue. A 1 flew into it, but the attack harmlessly dissipated, leaving the 2 completely undamaged.

“What! Another trick!” Shuxue yelled angrily. He shot a 2 into it, using divisive mathforce. It cracked, sending an Arithmetic pearl flying out, and turned into a 1.

An illusory 1 flew in, destroying the 1.

“I think I got the hang of this.” Shuxue muttered to himself. He clearly had to hit 6 with 6 units of divisive mathforce, and then it would turn into a 1, which he would attack with 1 unit of subtractive mathforce to completely destroy.

Shuxue did not have very good control over his mathforce Channeling. Nobody did. To intentionally shoot out a strange number like 6 units of mathforce would be very hard.

After several tries, an illusory 6 smashed into a 6 monster that was jumping around. The monster dissipated before instantly reforming.

Shuxue wanted to spit fire. “This makes no sense! No sense whatsoever! Fuck this Arithmetic dungeon’s grandmother, I’m leaving.”

The 6 exploded as Zhujiao tapped it lightly with his finger. 3 Arithmetic pearls flew out, all of which he caught, placing into a bag tied to his belt. The 2 that the 6 became exploded into a 1 as he tapped it again. After another attack, the monster dissipated.

After that, the entire group watched in shock as Zhujiao proceeded to demolish the entire wasteland’s monsters, swiping all of their Arithmetic pearls after each attack.

A 24 monster exploded four times as Zhujiao’s blurry fingers repeatedly smashed into it. After two minutes, the entire wasteland was cleared by Zhujiao.

Everyone gaped at this astonishing feat. As for Shuxue…

“How the hell is Zhujiao fitting all those pearls into that bag? That’s not mathematically possible. That bag can’t have that much volume, to hold the hundreds of pearls he obtained right in front of my very eyes.” He muttered to himself suspiciously. “He was also touching his forehead a lot. This guy is too unsimple.”

A giant pillar erupted out of the ground, dousing many children with dirt. Shuxue advanced towards the pillar, reading the characters on it.

8!

“‘8!’? What the hell is ‘8!’?” Shuxue mumbled to himself. There was something similar on the previous matrix’s mechanism as well.

“That matrix said 3! = 3x2x1… these monsters were all multiples of 1, 1x2, 1x2x3, 1x2x3x4, all the way up to 6! Could it be… that this is a new notation?” Shuxue grew giddy with excitement as he thought this. He even felt as if he was about to excrete some worldly filth.

Notations were great treasures! With new notations, Shuxue could delve into completely new branches of mathematics that he had never thought about before. And with new branches of mathematics, came an abundance of new insights. And with new insights...

“This is great! This is great!” Shuxue shouted. “Out of my way, kids, this is the time for me to gain new insights into the Laws.”

One child raised her hand. “But wasn’t this dungeon for us?”

“Fuck off, fool! You don’t know how to do any of these, and things you don’t know how to do, you’re better off not trying! Leave it to me, the expert, and just keep to your addition and subtraction.” Shuxue waved his hand at her threateningly.

“Gahaha!” Shuxue did the mental math in several seconds. He already new 6! was 720, so it was merely 720x7x8, which was 720x56, which was 560x72, which was 720x56, which was 560x72,

“Damn, I need a paper.” Shuxue muttered some curses to himself as he began scratching the ground with his finger.

“40,320!” Shuxue shouted, jumping up and tracing the number out onto the matrix.

The world blurred, changing into a metal land. Buildings rose up around them, covered by monsters. Only, now 720s were the norm, and the largest boss… was a 40,320!

Shuxue paled as he saw the 40,320. This kind of monster could instantly kill one of the children! If they died, he would be punished!

“If I fail guard duty, I’ll have to go on guard duty again as punishment for failing guard duty.” Shuxue shivered at the thought. The very idea of spending any more time with these numbskulls horrified him.

He blasted an 8 towards the 40,320, changing it into a 40,312 for an instant before the mathforce pervading the area rushed in, replenishing its health back to the fullest.

Shuxue frowned. What was he doing wrong?

“Oh, hahaha. I’m an idiot, I was using subtractive techniques instead of divisive techniques.” Laughing, Shuxue shot out another 8, this time infused with divisive mathforce. This time, a thunderous boom echoed out as the 40,320 shattered into a much smaller monster and 8 Arithmetic pearls.

Shuxue and Zhujiao made short work out of all the monsters, sending Arithmetic pearls flying everywhere.

“53!/(49!), huh.” Shuxue mumbled to himself as he looked at the mechanism, a glowing plaque in the wall of a building. “That’s a shit ton of work, I better get started right now.”

An hour later, they moved into the fourth matrix. The numbers got even larger than before. This time, the mechanism was a small pedestal with symbols inscribed onto it. Atop the mechanism lay a jade slip, and even a cubic box containing a 225 Arithmetic beads.

Shuxue snatched up the jade slip, pressing it to his forehead. After a moment, he tossed it away, sighing to himself. They were all simple multiplication problems. It was to be expected, though. It was an Arithmetic dungeon, in the end.

“Well, time to look at the mechanism.” Shuxue sighed to himself, noticing that the box of Arithmetic beads had suddenly disappeared. This time the problem was 1000!/(976!). Who knew how many days it would take to do this problem!

As Shuxue polished his finger to better scratch the metal ground, Zhujiao walked up, frowning.

“I’m Zhujiao!” He shouted, punching the pedestal. A faint, illusory grid appeared below his fist as it smashed down. Instantly, the pedestal blew apart. The world shifted as they were transported to the fifth matrix.