The Dust-Clad Little World - Resurrection

I liked the campus at night.

Especially when there were no classes in the evening.

The distant clamor of students, the smell of soil beneath the lawn, the white lights in the classrooms—each one brought me joy.

But tonight was an exception, especially for someone like me, whose intuition had long since become sharper than anyone else's in the world.

The air felt as if it were filled with tiny currents of electricity. Their presence made my whole body itch. I knew those were hostile gazes, and they made it hard to sit still. But panicking wouldn't help. I just had to stroll along at an easy, unhurried pace, following the lamp-lit path and enjoying the beauty of the night as usual.

The gazes kept multiplying. In a campus that had already been placed on high alert, a student suddenly appeared, swaggering around for a stroll. It was practically like announcing to the whole world, "I'm suspicious as hell!" The police officers patrolling the area were drawing closer, slowly tightening the circle. They were probably worried I had a gun or some other weapon on me.

They were overthinking it.

Though I hoped they'd keep overthinking.

For the record, I had plenty of experience fighting enemies, but none fighting the police. Would a whole bunch of them suddenly rush out and take me down with grappling moves, like on CCTV's legal affairs channel, or would they go straight to tear gas grenades? Who knew—but I could use the instincts honed through countless battles to the death to estimate when they'd make their move.

Cool

down...

Cool

down... Stay calm...

As I hummed a little tune and walked, I secretly used both hands to check whether the pile of things fastened beneath my jacket had come loose. I'd wrapped every carrot