Chapter 94 - Upgrading Brain Cells

Jasper continued teaching the topics he had to cover to the only six students seated at the front who could keep up with the normal pace of learning. The boys who already knew the topics at the back of their hand either left early, didn't show up in school or spent it minding their own business in a corner.

Alex and Scarlet were doing very well helping the slower students like Jinru, Khalid and Teddy. Although the pace was slow, Alex and Scarlet's continuous encouragement inspired them to persevere. 

Elfie looked at the three students who couldn't understand multiplication or fractions and wanted to cry. Dragon, Reggie and Mustafa were starting to lose interest after Elfie's fifth explanation.

"Why can't we just throw a die for the answer? My grandfather always does that before he buys the lottery," Dragon asked.

Elfie deadpanned. "How many times did your grandfather win the lottery using this method?"

Dragon grinned. "None!"

Elfie groaned. "Then what makes you think that this is a good method for the exams? Also, there are questions that have blanks without options to choose from. How are you going to answer that?"

The martial artist shrugged. "When there is a will, there is a way."

As wise as that sounded, Elfie didn't believe a word of it coming from the Bruce Lee fan. Having faith without a solution was simply fuel for a one-way trip for failure. Dragon didn't have a plan at all!

On the other hand, Reggie was like a balloon. If he didn't hold on tight to the boy, he would lose him to the daydreaming.

Mustafa was slightly better to work with in Elfie's opinion. At least the soccer player was able to understand some things when Elfie put them into perspective for him. However, that's the limits to what the hacker could do. He tried to introduce algebra to Mustafa but the boy's brain simply shut down on that. Apparently, Mustafa didn't do very well with English or languages. Seeing alphabets triggered some sort of trauma and the soccer star preferred to learn through seeing visual ill.u.s.trations.

"Let's take a short break, alright?" Elfie almost pleaded for it. None of his entrusted students turned down the request for a break and quickly went off to do their individual tasks. 

With some time and space to himself, the hacker quickly consulted the internet for teaching tips and tricks. The hacker groaned. The internet was full of methods and suggestions but Elfie highly doubted that any of those would work on the students he had. Scarlet was already applying some of those tricks and it was only proving to be mildly effective for the slower students under her care. He groaned. The problem here wasn't understanding. It was a lack of intellect. Before any proper learning could take place, Elfie had to figure out a way to take care of that lack of useable brain cells in the three idiots' heads.

Nobody paid the small programmer any heed as he started tapping away quickly at his laptop. Elfie knew that this was a personal exercise he did when he was much younger. Brainteaser exercises only helped so much. However, this was Danny's special mental training regime that allowed Elfie to understand much more than what books could provide. As a programmer, he had to be able to do multi-level thinking with complicated steps and processing that often surpassed computers.

Jasper looked at the time and decided that he would also let the rest of the class have a short break. He had to review the progress from the girls and the programmer after all.

To his surprise, Elfie had already dismissed the three idiots and was busy working on something else.

"You're done?" he asked in surprise.

Elfie sighed heavily in response but his fingers never stopped working. Scarlet and Alex also dismissed the study group and decided to check on the boys.

"It's a fundamental problem of capacity. If I upgrade their ability to process information, things will progress smoother."

Jasper wanted to point out how human brains weren't like computers where parts could be replaced and upgraded for better parts.

"I'll need another twenty minutes to finish this coding exercise. Once it's done, I would like to borrow the projector. I think these boys are not going anywhere with their brains like this. If you gave me two days, I can show you the results of this special brain exercise. My father created this and I can assure you that it works. I did it when I was much younger so it's not impossible for them."

The gardener's son nodded, pleased to see that Elfie had already made himself comfortable with the class. It was concerning how guarded he was when they first met him. Elfie looked very lonely and afraid of them but thanks to the delinquent class, he was able to open up and be who he truly was. Scarlet gave Alex a sly wink at their success and Jasper smiled. The Entrepreneur's Circle was a good place for people to let down their guard because the bunch of misfits weren't judgemental people. In fact, their honesty often makes people feel at ease. Some of them might be fools but they were nice people to be with who had each other's backs in times of need. Such an environment was hard to find and Scarlet was happy that Elfie looked happier now even though the happiness and stress were about the same level.

"Do you think we can give the exercise a try?" Alex asked, genuinely curious about it. Teaching the boys might have been fun but it wasn't challenging for her. She didn't have much studying to do since the heiress was well prepared for the upcoming exams. She spent the whole of yesterday trying to rush out the year's worth of homework and self-studied ahead of the curriculum just so she could dedicate more time into her art project. According to Debbie, Scarlet's first manuscript was almost ready and Alex wanted to hone her art techniques before she drew Scarlet's first book cover.

"Sure!" Elfie smiled. "Everyone can attempt it. The exercise trains the brain to think on multiple levels. Although it isn't designed to target certain intellect levels, it can still be tricky for geniuses who have not learnt how to multitask."

Jasper was intrigued. "Multi-tasking is easy though, I see even the servants back home do it. Our butler, Jenna, is a pro at it. She can give out orders over the phone while inspecting the venue."

Elfie laughed. "Well, she probably hasn't done multi-tasking of this kind then but she definitely has a head start on many of the students here."

Scarlet felt excited. "What do we need to do in order to participate?"

The programmer didn't look up from the screen. "We need good ears, writing materials and courage."

Alex raised a brow and exchanged looks with her sister. "Courage?"

Elfie grinned. "It's going to be very demoralising and depressing... at least for the first few sessions until you get the hang of it."