Ten minutes of silent contemplation felt like an entire century.
The only sounds in the bus were heavy breathing and the wrench in Wang Shifu's hand knocking against a seat.
"No... someone has to get down there and take a look."
Wang Shifu jerked his head up. His bloodshot eyes showed that he was on the verge of a complete breakdown.
He didn't want to die. He wanted to go home.
But he didn't dare go down himself.
"Who's going down? Who's willing to go?"
Wang Shifu's gaze swept across the bus like a hungry wolf.
The students who met his eyes all lowered their heads, afraid he'd call on them.
"Wang Shifu!"
Li Xin, who had been huddled in the corner, suddenly called out and pointed to the back row.
"Send Jiangnan!"
"He's mute. He's practically invisible in class and never takes part in group activities!"
"This is the perfect chance for him to do something for everyone!"
"And he's disabled. Even if... even if something happens to him, it'd be the smallest loss!"
This was moral kidnapping in its most blatant form!
You couldn't even call it morality anymore. It was murder!
"Li Xin, are you even human?"
Yang Wei sprang to his feet, glaring furiously. "Picking on a mute? Why don't you go yourself?"
"I... I'm the class monitor! I have to coordinate everything!"
Li Xin tried to justify himself with one flimsy excuse after another.
"Enough!"
Teacher Chen Tong stood in the middle of the aisle, arms spread wide.
"Wang Shifu, Li Xin, calm down! Jiangnan is my student. I absolutely won't let you force him to his death!"
"Get out of the way!"
Wang Shifu had been so overwhelmed by fear that he couldn't understand reason.
He shoved Chen Tong aside, brandished the heavy wrench, and roared viciously, "Anyone who gets in my way is going down instead!"
Chen Tong crashed into the handrail and let out a muffled groan of pain.
Wang Shifu strode to the back row, grabbed Jiangnan by the collar, and lifted half his body off the seat.
"Little mute! Don't blame me for being heartless! I'll send you out the window in a minute!"
"Go outside and take a look around! Once we know it's safe, I'll let you back in!"
Spittle sprayed across Jiangnan's face.
Jiangnan stared expressionlessly at the frenzied middle-aged man before him, his gaze as cold as if he were looking at a corpse.
He hadn't wanted to be the first to kill someone.
But if someone was asking for death...
Jiangnan slowly raised his right hand from his side, only to scratch an itch.
It wasn't that he was reluctant to use Word Spirit. It was just that...
There was a ready-made solution...
"Caw!!!"
A piercing screech suddenly burst outside the window!
The sky went dark.
The dusky sunset vanished in an instant, replaced by pitch-black darkness.
And on the branch aligned with the shattered window of the bus,
the crow Jiangnan had "taken aim" at earlier had now doubled in size!
Its feathers had turned blood-red, and it stared fixedly at Jiangnan through the bus window.
It remembered this human!
That gesture had been a provocation!
"Roar!"
The Mutated Crow let out a beastlike growl, beat its Wings, and slammed into the window!
And Jiangnan had never once let down his guard against it.
After all, this wasn't Blue Star. Any living thing could be a threat!
The moment the crow sprang into action, he moved.
But he didn't warn Wang Shifu or shove him away.
Instead, he suddenly raised his leg and drove his knee hard into Wang Shifu's lower abdomen. Using the impact to propel himself into a roll, he broke free of his grip!
"Ugh! You mute bastard, you're stronger than you look..."
Wang Shifu doubled over in pain, about to start cursing.
"Crash!"
The glass shattered!
A black shape, trailing a rank wind, instantly filled the space where Jiangnan had just been.
That was where Wang Shifu had been.
"Splurt!"
There was no suspense.
The beak, sharp as a dagger, pierced Wang Shifu's throat in an instant. The tremendous impact snapped his neck.
Blood sprayed across the ceiling like a fountain, splattering all over Li Xin's face.
"Hhk... hhk..."
Clutching his spurting throat, Wang Shifu's eyes bulged as he stared in disbelief at Jiangnan, who was watching coldly from beside him.
Then he collapsed heavily to the floor, twitched twice, and lay still.
"Aaaah! Someone's dead!!"
"Monster! That's a monster!"
The bus turned into a living hell.
After killing, the Mutated Crow didn't leave. Instead, it planted its feet on Wang Shifu's corpse.
It flicked the flesh from its beak, its scarlet eyes locking onto Jiangnan once more.
This human who had dared provoke it had been its target all along!
"Damn it, let's fight it!"
Yang Wei was scared, but he still had some fight in him.
He snatched a Fire Extinguisher from the bus and started forward with two equally burly athletes.
"Don't come any closer!"
Chen Tong had just started to pick up the wrench from the floor when she saw Jiangnan move.
Faced with this monster that had slaughtered without mercy, Jiangnan didn't run. Instead, he beckoned to it with one finger.
"Caw!!!"
The Mutated Crow was completely enraged. It flapped its Wings, whipping up a fierce gale in the narrow bus as it lunged straight for Jiangnan's face!
"Run!!"
Yang Wei shouted in despair.
Anyone could see that the crow was too fast. Humans couldn't react in time!
Just as the sharp beak was about to pierce Jiangnan's head,
Jiangnan suddenly bent down and reached under the seat beside him.
A shivering figure was huddled there.
"D-don't kill me..."
Li Xin clutched his head, praying frantically.
Suddenly, a tremendous force seized him!
"Since you want to be a leader, take the first hit for everyone."
Jiangnan sneered inwardly and yanked Li Xin out like a chick.
Then he unhesitatingly shoved him in front of himself!
That was making use of trash for all it was worth.
"No... don't!!!"
At the sight of the bloody maw right in front of him, Li Xin's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
"Pfft!"
This time, the beak pierced straight through Li Xin's chest!
"Aaaah!"
Li Xin let out a bloodcurdling scream as blood gushed out.
The Mutated Crow seemed to have never expected this turn of events. Its beak caught in Li Xin's ribs, and for a moment, it couldn't pull free!
It flapped its Wings furiously, trying to shake off the burden.
"Now."
Jiangnan released Li Xin, who had already gone limp, and stepped back.
The world changed in his eyes.
In that moment, the surrounding shrieks and sobs, along with Li Xin's screams, seemed to recede into the distance.
A thought stirred.
Jiangnan raised his right hand slowly, his expression indifferent.
A textbook execution stance.
Teacher Chen Tong had just picked up the bloodstained wrench. When she raised her head, she saw the scene.
The usually taciturn boy was standing in a pool of blood.
Facing the terrifying monster as it tore at Li Xin's flesh, he neither dodged nor fled.
He simply raised his hand and made... a finger-gun gesture?
"Jiangnan! Get out of the way! You'll die!!"
Chen Tong shouted as she rushed toward him.
But in the next instant,
Jiangnan's thin lips, sealed for eighteen years, finally parted.
He softly uttered the first word since arriving in this world.
"Bang!"
Boom!
There was no fire or smoke.
But in Jiangnan's vision, the "1" that had been deducted
instantly transformed into a brilliant shooting star, compressing a terrifying shockwave of air as it shot from his hand!
It ignored space. It ignored defenses.
It arrived in an instant!
"Pop!"
The Mutated Crow, still struggling wildly, didn't even have time to cry out.
Its head exploded out of nowhere in a cloud of blood mist!
The headless bird collapsed instantly, crushing Li Xin, who was still clinging to the last thread of life.
Blood mist filled the air.
The entire bus fell silent once more.
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