[High-energy warning! Watch out for jump scares!]
Gurururu...
Kamiya Konan's head rolled across the floor a few times, then stopped at Flat-headed Ghost's feet.
His eyes were wide open, but they held no disbelief, only...
Acceptance...
Thump.
His headless body fell to the ground, spraying blood.
Flat-headed Ghost acted as though it hadn't seen a thing. That expectant smile appeared on its face again.
Ignoring the corpse and pool of blood at its feet, it sat contentedly in Kamiya Konan's chair.
Borrowed it~
Flat-headed Ghost patted the desk and politely straightened a tie that didn't exist.
"Hey!!"
At that moment, Wang Meng, seated in the second-to-last row, couldn't take it anymore.
He slammed his hand on the desk, sprang to his feet, and pointed at Lu Shiyan on the podium, eyes blazing with fury.
"Stinky Uncle! What are you doing?!"
"Couldn't you let him finish?! What if there really is a fourth ghost?!"
Standing at the podium, Lu Shiyan calmly put away his scalpel, took out another cigarette, and lit it.
"Haha, little fatty."
He blew out a smoke ring, his gaze scornful.
"You don't really believe that guy has some kind of Supernatural Ability, do you?"
"I've spent far more time with him than you have. I know exactly what kind of person he is."
Lu Shiyan flicked the ash from his cigarette, his tone certain.
"He's just a cowardly liar, spouting nonsense to stay alive."
"People like that deserve to die in the apocalypse."
"Right, Jiang..."
Just as he turned his eyes toward the man in the back of the classroom who'd been sleeping the whole time, a provocative smile on his face—
His pupils instantly widened to their fullest!
The figure that should have been leaning against the chair had vanished!
Whoosh!
A gust of wind rushed into his face.
Lu Shiyan's vision blurred.
A handsome, impassive face suddenly filled his entire field of view.
Oh, no...
More precisely—
A fist as big as a sandbag was coming straight for his face!
"Fuck! I should've known..."
Lu Shiyan hadn't even finished thinking.
Bam!!
The impact rang through the classroom!
Jiangnan's fist hit the bull's-eye!
"Ugh!"
Lu Shiyan felt his nose shatter instantly.
Before the pain could even reach his brain, the overwhelming D+ Rank monstrous strength sent him flying!
His back slammed hard into the blackboard behind him.
Kah!
His skin was tough, so Lu Shiyan didn't pass out on the spot. The rebound sent him pitching forward instead.
Blood, saliva, and the half-smoked Huazi flew through the air.
But when he hit the ground, he didn't lose consciousness.
With his powerful will, he fixed his eyes on the man charging at him again!
"You're still not done..."
Lu Shiyan's gaze turned vicious.
Jiangnan was already on him, throwing another punch!
"Stop right there!!"
Fighting through his dizziness, Lu Shiyan tried to grab Jiangnan's wrist with his left hand and lock him down, while drawing back his right fist to counterattack!
But—
The instant his hand was about to touch Jiangnan's wrist—
Jiangnan's fierce, unstoppable straight punch flowed seamlessly into a different move!
A feint!
His extended fist turned into an open palm, which hooked around Lu Shiyan's forearm as it came up to block.
At the same time, he surged in close, driving his shoulder into Lu Shiyan's chest!
Top of Heart Elbow!
"Oh, no..."
Lu Shiyan felt as though a speeding truck had rammed into his chest. His breath stopped short.
"Is that... Baji Quan?!"
"This guy's close-combat skills are even better than I imagined!!"
That was Lu Shiyan's final thought before he lost consciousness.
The next second—
The world spun.
Jiangnan hooked Lu Shiyan's arm behind him, planted his stance, and threw him over his shoulder.
!
Boom!!
Lu Shiyan's back crashed into the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.
His eyes rolled back, and he passed out completely.
Jiangnan straightened up, smoothed his collar, and casually rolled his wrist, his expression calm.
He hated it when people interrupted his reading, even if what he was reading was just a memo.
Of course, the same went for listening to a story.
He wasn't sure whether what Kamiya Konan had been about to say was true.
But that wasn't a reason for Lu Shiyan to kill him to silence him and cut off the information.
Besides...
That old fox had kept trying to manipulate his underlings.
"Most importantly..."
Jiangnan looked down at the unconscious figure, his gaze cold.
"You dare show off in front of me?"
"Don't you know..."
"In cartoons, there can only be one character who gets to show off?"
Whoosh.
Jiangnan casually tore off a memo and tossed it onto Lu Shiyan's face.
[Do that again, and you'll die.]
For someone who hadn't attacked him first, this was already the greatest mercy he could show.
People said, "Once, twice, but not three times."
But with Jiangnan, there was no third time.
Anyone who dared to act like a fool in front of him was already a dead man.
"..."
Everyone in the classroom was dumbstruck.
The students from Cherry Blossom Country were especially stunned, their mouths wide enough to fit an egg.
They couldn't believe Jiangnan had acted so decisively, so ruthlessly!
In their eyes, all Lu Shiyan had done was kill a "liar" who might have been a fraud.
And just because Jiangnan hadn't heard the whole story, he'd beaten him into this state?
That was so tragic (satisfying)!
"Big Boss is mighty!!"
Wang Meng was the first to react, pumping his fist in excitement.
"Good job, Boss!!"
Liu Yuqing raised her hand and cheered. "I've been sick of that Stinky Uncle for ages! Always acting all mysterious! Beat his ass!"
As Lu Shiyan's teammate in name, Yekaterina remained seated. She hadn't even shifted in her chair.
She simply watched, not the slightest hint of worry in her eyes—only amusement.
It seemed...
Their relationship wasn't as solid as it looked.
Jiangnan ignored the drama queens.
He walked straight to the podium and stopped in front of Chen Tong, who was still shaken.
Whoosh.
Another note.
[Teach class as usual.]
[I'm here.]
Chen Tong took the note and looked at the forceful strokes of his handwriting. Her racing heart settled at once.
Sometimes, people were just like that.
One word from that man, and even if they were in hell, they would feel as though they were standing in a castle garden.
She lifted her head, watched him turn and walk away, and smiled.
"I will."
Ten seconds later.
Jiangnan had just sat back down on the King's Seat.
Ring-ring-ring!!!
The Class Bell, burrowed deep into everyone's bones and etched into their DNA, rang out with a crash!
Buzz!
Everyone there—even the survivors who'd spent days battling their way through the apocalypse—
At the sound, they all instinctively shuddered!
Even Jiangnan was no exception.
The hand resting on his desk gave a noticeable twitch.
Others had endured decades of hard study.
But as a transmigrator, with his past and present lives combined, he'd spent at least twenty years living in fear under its rule!
This shit had become muscle memory!
The class began. English.
Teacher: Chen Tong.
At the podium—
Chen Tong slipped straight into teaching mode.
As a lecturer at a top-tier 985 university like Binhai University, at only twenty-eight, her English had long since reached native-speaker level!
Her teaching experience and Crowd Control skills were both top-notch.
"Okay, class, begin!"
Chen Tong picked up a piece of chalk, turned, and wrote a few words on the blackboard.
Perhaps out of respect for the rules, or perhaps because Chen Tong really was an excellent teacher—
For the first half hour, classroom discipline was surprisingly good.
Even the ghosts seated among them listened with rapt attention.
The Eyeless Female Ghost even used its umbilical cord to scribble all over the desk.
Apart from Jiangnan, who kept sleeping in the back row, everyone else was immersed in this eerie yet harmonious atmosphere of learning.
But—
The good times didn't last.
When the hands of the clock above the blackboard quietly reached 2:44—
Buzz!
A black pen holder suddenly appeared out of thin air on the lectern, right in front of Chen Tong, radiating a bone-chilling aura.
A pen holder contained three sticks that looked as if they had been carved from human bones.
Each was engraved with a name.
[Sakura Nana]
[Sakuragi Shita]
[Nagano Ryo]
Immediately afterward, a line of bloody writing appeared on the desk.
[Question Time: Teacher, close your eyes and shake the pen holder to draw a stick within five minutes.]
[The student whose name is drawn must answer a question. Those who answer incorrectly or aren't chosen... will be punished.]
At the sight of the pen holder, Chen Tong went pale.
Among the students below, though, two of the few surviving Cherry Blossom Country students let out a long breath when they saw it, their faces relaxing with relief.
"Hm?"
Yu Shishi was sitting in the first row, by the door. She hadn't been listening at all, lost in her own thoughts, but she noticed what had happened.
Puzzled, she lowered her voice and quietly turned to ask the girl behind her, who had just breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey... classmate..."
"Have you been to class here before? What does that pen holder mean?"
The girl behind her wore thick glasses and looked like the kind of good student who did nothing but study by rote.
Her name was Momoka Rika.
Seeing that the question came from someone on Jiangnan's team, Momoka Rika didn't dare hide anything, so she answered in a whisper.
"Actually... this isn't our first class."
"We've been dragged in here twice before."
"But it was always at 4:44 in the morning, and only a few people were randomly chosen each time. It wasn't like today, where everyone was forced to come."
"This pen holder... it's part of the Lucky Draw."
Momoka Rika explained.
"At the forty-fourth minute of every class, a special event is triggered."
"If it's any other event, there's a good chance both the teacher and students will die in droves."
"But this pen holder... it's one of the very lucky items!"
"None of us want anyone to die, because after they die, they all become part of this school..."
However.
Momoka Rika hadn't finished speaking when her expression suddenly turned utterly terrified. Her mouth fell open, but no sound came out.
In her pupils, a face was reflected in the window outside.
"W-what's wrong?"
Yu Shishi wondered why she'd stopped talking.
Just then,
a foul, fishy stench seeped in through the gap in the window.
Yu Shishi instinctively turned to look.
Hiss!
Outside the second-floor window, a gigantic face had appeared without warning, pressed against the glass!
It was over a meter long, with sagging skin and bulging eyes!
Its mouth split all the way back to its ears, revealing a mouthful of crooked, uneven yellow teeth.
It wore a blue business uniform that had been stretched to the point of bursting, and glared fixedly at Momoka Rika, who'd been whispering to her classmate!
It was...
The patrolling Dean of Students, Che Li Zao Miao.
The next moment,
it opened its cavernous mouth and spoke in the same hoarse voice as the one from the broadcast.
"RULE VIOLATION!!"
"Classroom discipline... No talking!!"
"You must be punished!!"
As soon as the words fell,
BOOM!!
The window shattered!
The gigantic Horse-Face Skull came crashing inside!
CRACK!
It clamped its jaws around Momoka Rika, who was sitting by the window!
"Yaaah!!!"
Momoka Rika only had time to let out a scream.
Squelch!
Its powerful jaws snapped shut in an instant.
Her entire body, desk and chair included, was chewed to pieces by the gaping mouth!
Blood sprayed from between the monster's teeth like bursting fruit, splattering across the whole classroom!
"Gulp."
The monster tilted its head back, its Adam's apple bobbing.
It swallowed.
"Burp~"
It let out a satisfied belch. Its two enormous, murky eyes rolled as it surveyed the terrified students.
Then it broke into a pleased smile.
"Tasty... continue the lesson."
Before you continue