Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman Chapter 753: Skye’s Grades

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After returning from the vacation, Skye became much more enthusiastic about studying and research. Perhaps she had decided that even if she couldn’t beat that annoying guy in a fight, she had to crush him intellectually.

At least when it came to electronic tracking and counter-tracking, hacking and firewall technology, Skye felt she was only a little short of surpassing him. That was nothing like the despairingly vast gap between them in combat ability.

It was anyone’s guess how devastated the girl would be once she learned just how monstrous a Kryptonian’s super-brain really was.

Now, do you know why the only people who could claim to go toe-to-toe with Superman through sheer intelligence were Lex Luthor and Batman? Because everyone else was basically an idiot in Superman’s presence.

Of course, it was a good thing that the girl was willing to study enthusiastically. Anyone who said studying was useless was either stupid, evil, or both.

Now that the girl had gotten motivated to study, however, another girl found herself under increasing pressure. Generally speaking, private tutors were not responsible for administering exams. Their lessons followed the school curriculum, so naturally the school handled the testing.

But Skye’s studies had gone beyond the school curriculum, with everything arranged by Gwen, the gifted student. The girl had little experience as a teacher and had no way of assessing whether Skye truly understood what she was being taught. So whenever the girl said she understood something, Gwen simply moved on to the next topic.

By now, Skye’s studies had surpassed her own grade level and had even caught up with Gwen’s. There were plenty of subjects that Gwen herself had yet to fully understand. How could she possibly continue teaching them?

And so the older and younger girl came before Henry. The former looked dejected, while the latter was positively smug.

"Henry, I’ve learned everything Gwen can teach me. Don’t you think I should prepare to skip a few grades, or maybe just apply to college directly?"

Nearby, the grandmother, who was stroking the tabby cat, said in delight, "Skye, really? You make me so proud."

If fourteen-year-old girls had tails, hers would have been sticking straight up in the air by now.

But a Kryptonian wasn’t the sort of person who simply believed whatever others told him. Henry looked at Gwen and asked, "Really, Gwen? Skye learned that quickly? You really can’t teach her anymore?"

"Yes. She’s asking me so many questions now that I have to look things up and think about them before I can answer. I can’t continue being her tutor."

After asking a few questions about how the two of them had been handling their lessons, Henry said, "Gwen, do you have any old ACT or SAT papers at home? They don’t have to be yours. Previous years’ papers are fine too."

The girl nodded.

Henry smiled. "If you do, prepare a test for Skye. Whether she actually knows something or not is something we’ll find out by testing her. She can’t just say she knows it."

Gwen looked thoughtful, while the younger girl stared blankly, still unaware that disaster was about to descend upon her.

The following day was a Sunday of catastrophe.

After finishing the test, Skye felt as though the sky itself had collapsed. Gwen stared in shock at the graded papers, finally realizing just how much water there had been in that so-called "I know it."

Whether it was the ever-sarcastic Henry or the kindhearted grandmother, everyone was now staring at the devastated little girl with dead-fish eyes.

"No!" Skye refused to give up. "What about math and physics? Those only require understanding; you don’t need to memorize things for them. My scores should be better in those subjects, right?"

Expressionless, Gwen pulled out the papers for those two subjects. The glaring failing grades dealt another crushing blow to the girl.

"Nooo!" Skye refused to accept reality and tried to shift the blame. "Gwen, you must have marked the answers wrong. How could my grades possibly be this bad? Isn’t math just about understanding?"

Gwen threw down the papers and pounced on her. She pressed her bent index fingers against Skye’s temples and drilled them inward with all her strength.

"You call this knowing it?! Even the worst student in my class couldn’t get scores this terrible! And you told me you knew it!"

"Noooo! I’m only in eighth grade! You used a twelfth-grade SAT to test me! That’s beyond the syllabus!"

The girl made one final desperate struggle, but Gwen ruthlessly pinned her down. Besides, Skye herself had been the one who asked for advanced lessons.

Henry picked up one of the test papers and asked, "You didn’t memorize any of the knowledge that requires memorization, and you still dared to say you knew it?"

Pinned beneath Gwen, the girl stubbornly replied, "Why should I memorize all that useless knowledge? It’s already in the books. If I need it, I can just look it up."

"Then let me test you. Where is India? That’s basic general knowledge. Are you going to look it up in a book, or search Google?"

"India is in India!"

The entire room fell silent.

Everyone stared at her in stunned disbelief.

Henry was deeply shaken. "Even if you couldn’t say South Asia or Asia, I’d accept ’Earth.’ But India is in India... I can’t even say you’re wrong. Yet why does that answer feel so incredibly wrong?"

"Ah!"

Embarrassed and furious, Gwen desperately clamped a hand over Skye’s mouth, regardless of how badly the argumentative little girl wanted to keep bickering with Henry.

As a gifted student, having taught a pupil who turned out like this was practically a disgrace to her reputation!

Gwen hooked her arms around Skye’s and dragged her toward the room that looked less like a girl’s bedroom and more like a workshop. Everything Skye had previously claimed to "know" would probably have to be reviewed from scratch.

Catherine Hepburn picked up the test papers that had been left behind in the living room. Looking at the utterly disastrous answers, the grandmother sighed.

"Have we spoiled Skye too much?

"Although there’s nothing we can do to make up for the childhood she already lost, we do hope she can grow up happily with us. But grades like these make me even more worried about her future."

Henry tempted her like a little devil.

"Yes, we’ve definitely spoiled her too much. She’s young, so she only wants to play and doesn’t study. How can that be acceptable? If you ask me, I should prepare a few workbooks for her."

People always say grandparents tend to spoil their grandchildren, and that was clearly visible between Skye and Catherine Hepburn as well.

If Henry tried to discipline her, he would end up becoming the target of a united attack from both grandmother and granddaughter, so his efforts repeatedly ended in failure.

Now that he had spotted a weak point in the old lady’s defenses, how could the Kryptonian possibly pass up the chance to exploit it?

Following Hogwarts’ standards from Harry Potter, he might as well make the workbook several feet thick.

What? You think Hogwarts measures it in feet of length rather than thickness? Anyone with that question should go back and check their own novel to see which one is actually correct.

And if they still had doubts, then obviously their version was different from the Harry Potter of the Marvel Universe.

Henry had decided to remain faithful to this universe. After all, he was the one who got to decide how things worked here.

The Kryptonian, feeling that his evil scheme had succeeded, couldn’t help breaking into the cackling laugh of a sinister minister.

So that strange laugh from Opera really could happen in real life.

The sound made everyone around him deeply uncomfortable. Even Kitty consciously shifted farther away from the Kryptonian bipedal pig.

Even the grandmother couldn’t help giving Henry another little smack on the head.

"Control yourself! Even a pig can tell you’re plotting something bad right now. Who would dare listen to your advice?"

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