Silky Smooth Combos

Jiang Mian lowered her head, avoiding Li Hao's burning gaze, and pushed the gift box back.

To everyone else, she could barely get her words out now, looking entirely like a pitiful little thing trembling from being at a loss.

After all, Jiang Mian had always been seen as introverted and quiet, with fairly good grades.

Yet although her refusal could not have been clearer, Li Hao did not take the hint and back off.

His confident smile stiffened, and a trace of impatience flashed through his eyes.

To him, Jiang Mian simply had not yet recognized reality and was still putting on meaningless airs.

"Jiang Mian."

Li Hao raised his voice slightly, carrying an inexplicable air of superiority.

"I know what kind of life you're living right now. As long as you agree, I guarantee you'll live a hundred times more comfortably than you do now."

His words made the whispers in the classroom grow louder.

Some were eager to watch the drama unfold, while others sympathized with Jiang Mian.

"Isn't this going too far? Just because he's an Awakened, he can do whatever he wants?"

"Jiang Mian is already pitiful enough, and he's treating her like this..."

But there were also a few shrill female voices, dripping with sourness.

"Hmph, what are you acting so high and mighty for? An Awakened has taken a liking to you, and you still won't agree?"

"Exactly. So many people would kill for a chance they could never even reach..."

In the crowd, Wang Chen had just returned to the classroom and found himself looking at precisely this scene. His fists silently clenched.

Bastard...

Seeing his deskmate looking like a startled fawn, hot blood rushed straight to his head. He wanted nothing more than to charge over, stand in front of her, and block Li Hao's nauseating gaze.

He was also an Awakened, and on the [War] path at that, but he was Sequence 335, with the reconnaissance-type [Listening]—in other words, enhanced hearing.

This ability leaned toward reconnaissance and support. It allowed him to distinguish incredibly faint sounds, but later on, at most, it could sense the emotional fluctuations of a sound's source. In direct combat, it was practically useless.

Li Hao's [Steel Bones], on the other hand, was a genuine combat-oriented ability, making his body exceptionally formidable.

The gap between Awakened was just as vast.

If... if I'd awakened a direct combat ability...

Wang Chen could clearly hear the undisguised contempt in Li Hao's tone, and he could hear the revulsion hidden in Jiang Mian's voice as well.

The feeling of sensing everything clearly yet being powerless because of his own weakness nearly suffocated him.

Can I... really do nothing...?

A powerful surge of unwillingness and helplessness churned in his chest.

"What are you doing?!"

Wang Chen suddenly shoved aside the girl blocking his way—the same girl who had just been mouthing off—and stepped forward. She let out a piercing shriek that drew Li Hao's attention.

Li Hao turned and glanced at Wang Chen. With an impatient snort, he seemed ready to "warn" Wang Chen with his fists the moment he dared come any closer.

Li Hao knew perfectly well that if he made a move, he would only be locked up for a few days. But whether the other guy would only be bedridden for a few days was another matter...

Wang Chen instantly fell silent.

What could he do if he went up there? Anger Li Hao, then get dealt with like some stray dog by the roadside?

Not only would that fail to protect Jiang Mian, it would turn him into a laughingstock too.

His face flushed bright red with shame and anger, yet he remained where he was and did not step forward.

Li Hao sneered, turned back around, and looked at Jiang Mian.

By now, Jiang Mian had already calmed down. An almost imperceptible dark golden glint flashed through her eyes.

I'll figure out a way to send this guy away first. At worst, I can take leave and stop coming to school afterward. With the homeroom teacher's personality, she'll definitely agree once she knows about this.

Once I've developed enough, I'll find a way to get rid of him.

His Sequence was neither high nor low at Fifth Middle School, but he had an Awakened Old Man at home. If things really came to blows, no one else would dare say anything.

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"Jiang Mian, my patience is limited. Don't mistake my courtesy for weakness. I'll ask you one last time—are you agreeing or not?"

Li Hao had clearly run out of patience, and the threat in his words was undisguised.

"Um... Student Li, this is too sudden... I need a little time to think about it, okay? My mind is a mess right now..."

Jiang Mian lifted her head, her eyes slightly red, her voice trembling faintly as well.

Eh, why does this feel a little strange?

I think I overdid it. It feels kind of... too coquettishly manipulative.

Jiang Mian could not help feeling that she was getting more and more proficient at this little combo.

Though she'd done bit parts before just to scrape by, at most she'd played Passerby A or Corpse B... she'd never played a woman...

She'd figured out this whole slick little combo on her own.

The reason she'd managed to fool an old Security Officer like He Yi before was still her overactive tear glands and the urgency brought on by danger.

Now that she was recreating it, though, something felt off no matter how she did it.

But... I should be able to muddle through.

She might not understand women, but didn't she understand men?

Someone as arrogant as Li Hao—conceited, possessive, obsessed with control—could only be placated for the moment if she gave him the illusion that she had already "seen reality for what it was."

"Hmph, that's more like it."

Sure enough, the impatience on Li Hao's face vanished at once, replaced by a trace of smugness.

To him, the process of Jiang Mian going from refusal to gradually softening under his "imposing presence" was what truly satisfied his vanity.

"Fine. I'll give you one more day to think it over real~ carefully~."

After saying that, he shot Wang Chen and the classmates gathered around to watch a warning look before strutting away triumphantly, like a rooster that had won a fight.

"Moron..."

A thread of violence inexplicably rose in Jiang Mian's heart. As if running into one disaster after another wasn't enough, this guy had to jump out and disgust her too.

She could feel that if her emotions fluctuated any further, even the Suppressor she had just absorbed last night might not be enough.

As the pinnacle of the [Cataclysm] path, [Doom] inherently represented ultimate fury and nature's most merciless face: blazing fire, hurricanes, tsunamis, thunderbolts...

Emotions—especially intense negative emotions—were like sparks tossed onto dry kindling, easily stirring the abilities of the Calamity Sequence into unrest.

This was also one reason Aberrants were mentally unstable. It was difficult for them to fully control the influence brought by their own abilities.

Irritably, Jiang Mian casually tossed aside the gift box Li Hao had forced into her hands without even looking at it.

Wang Chen carefully returned to his seat. Seeing Jiang Mian's reaction, his heart inexplicably tightened. He knew her words just now had most likely been a stopgap measure, but...

This time had passed. What about next time?

Even if he knew what she truly thought, what could he do?

"...Sorry."

Wang Chen opened his mouth, his voice somewhat dry.

Hearing him, Jiang Mian turned to look at him. Because she had exerted herself too hard earlier, her eyes were still a little red.

The moment she saw the unmistakable guilt on Wang Chen's face, she understood.

"It's fine."

She shook her head and comforted him instead. "This had nothing to do with you in the first place."

Hearing that only made Wang Chen feel worse.

She had been threatened by scum like Li Hao, yet she was comforting him in return... She had to be hurting even more, right?

In his heart, he couldn't stop cursing himself as a Lung Mist.

Jiang Mian took in his reaction but said nothing more.

She had no mind to tend to a teenage boy's fragile self-esteem right now. The fact that she had offered a few words of comfort was already because he had tried to stand up for her just now.

"Hm?"

Jiang Mian's vision blurred. On her eyeglass lenses, several lines of text seemed to appear, writhing like tiny worms?