No Interest in School, Yet First in the Class

Ning Du accidentally ended up at a mecha military academy. Because she was broke and stingy, life at school was a struggle. Every night, she stayed up late writing theory assignments for her classmates to make money. During theory classes, she slept like a log. Extra cash earned. In the underwater pressure test, her classmates competed to see who could withstand the pressure and swim to shore the fastest. Ning Du, meanwhile, wore a pile of clothes that needed washing and squatted underwater, scrubbing away. She saved on laundry bills. In reaction training, everyone else frantically dodged arrows shot by robots. Ning Du lay on the ground, picking up extra arrows whenever no one was looking, then sold them for a good price. More extra cash. Later, the teachers' assessment of her was: "A student with an extremely poor attitude. She sleeps through theory class, always comes in last in the pressure test, and is a coward in reaction training. The moment the robot shoots arrows, she dives to the ground. Absolutely hopeless." The teachers shook their heads, then pulled out the final exam results for each subject, ready to pick a few outstanding students to compete in the district tournament. Then they discovered that Ning Du had come first in the theory exam, first in underwater pressure resistance, and first in reaction speed. And, well, her overall score was at the top of the list. The teachers: ... Ning Du was sent to the central district to compete in a mecha tournament. Because she couldn't bear to buy a mecha, she made one out of paper. She thought the training sessions were too expensive, so she skipped them and didn't train with her mecha. Instead, she went to the tournament venue every day to work as a cleaner. When the tournament finally began, she was afraid her opponent would smash her paper mecha, so she didn't attack and just kept dodging. Later, people from the district came to the school and bitterly complained: "Your student doesn't even have a proper mecha! She skipped training and went to the venue every day. While everyone else was fighting, she was cleaning right under their noses! And during the match, she didn't even attack. She just kept dodging!" The teachers: "Ah, we're sorry. We'll bring her back right away!" The district officials: "Yes, you'd better come get her. The champion's teachers have to attend the awards ceremony, after all." The teachers: "What?!" The district officials: "Your student didn't fight during the tournament. She just dodged her opponents until they collapsed from exhaustion! Honestly, we don't know how she was able to dodge so well. They couldn't land a single hit!" The teachers: ... Coming soon: "I'm Just a Cleaner [Mecha]". Visit the author's page to bookmark it early. Jiang Xunian worked as a cleaner. One day, she took a job cleaning mechas at a military academy. She was busy cleaning the mechas when a teacher suddenly led a group of students over to practice piloting them and told her to leave. But her company rules said she had to finish cleaning all the mechas and send photos as proof right then, or her wages would be docked. With no other choice, she hurried to work whenever the students took their mechas out for a spin. The class was meant to give these talented students a feel for mechas. The teachers knew that students without training might feel unwell when their mental energy was affected by a mecha, so they didn't expect much. And sure enough, one after another, the students climbed aboard, only to end up dizzy and nauseous. Some even threw up. "That's normal. You haven't been trained, so even students with talent will feel uncomfortable around mechas, unless they have exceptional gift..." The teacher was comforting the class when her brow suddenly furrowed. Wait, why was that girl still wiping down the mecha? Hadn't she been told to leave? The teacher frowned and walked over to send Jiang Xunian out. But as she walked, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. Wait. The students had only touched the mechas for a little while before feeling sick and throwing up. How could this girl keep going back to wipe them down? In fact, when she saw the teacher coming, the girl moved even faster. She clambered onto a mecha and gave it a thorough wipe-down, then even had time to take a photo before darting away like a slippery loach. ??? * Jiang Xunian had already secured a permanent position as a cleaner, but through a twist of fate, she was sent to study at a military academy. Since there were no guarantees unless she graduated, she struggled through her studies while doing everything she could to keep her job. In class, the teacher took apart a mecha and asked the students to identify the components and write down where each one belonged. Everyone looked at one another in confusion. Jiang Xunian, who worked a dozen jobs a day, came into the classroom and saw that the mecha she'd cleaned the day before had somehow been taken apart. She rushed over, wiped each component clean, then put the mecha back together and took a photo to prove she'd finished her work. For the exam, the students entered a testing ground full of terrifying astral beasts and plants, where they had to survive and get out as quickly as possible. Everyone else proceeded cautiously. Jiang Xunian went in, grabbed a broom and a mop, and got to work. She cleaned the entire testing ground, inside and out, twice over. When she came out, she even remarked that she'd nearly gone over her allotted service time. The teachers were stunned. They hadn't seen a student get out of the testing ground so quickly in ages. At the mecha tournament, the other students were all busy attacking their opponents. Jiang Xunian stood motionless. A student from the opposing school charged at her, laughing and calling her a weakling. Then she pulled out a rag and clung to the opponent's mecha, giving it a full-body spa treatment right there on the spot. As she wiped, she frowned. "The joints on your mecha are so dirty. I've been scrubbing them forever. You'll have to pay me a service fee later and leave me a good review." Her opponent: ??? How did she wipe all the lubricating oil off his mecha? How was it supposed to move now? · Theme: Misfortune may be the source of good fortune, and good fortune may conceal misfortune.