14:50.
Ding-a-ling!
The class bell rang, sweet as a heavenly melody.
To Chen Tong, who had just experienced a brush with death, the sound was more beautiful than any symphony.
"Phew..."
Chen Tong let out a long breath. The black pen holder on the podium and those terrifying Blood Rule Characters had vanished.
She felt as though she'd just woken from a nightmare, but the power surging through her body reminded her:
It was real.
E-class Physique.
She felt like she could punch her past self to death.
"Jiangnan~"
Clicking along in her high heels, Chen Tong hurried to the back row, her face lit up with a joyful smile that practically begged for praise.
She came up behind Jiangnan and gently kneaded his shoulders.
"How was I? I did pretty well, didn't I?"
Jiangnan remained half-reclined in his chair, enjoying the service behind him. He gave a slight nod and tossed her a memo.
[Not bad.]
It was a lukewarm response, but for him, it was already high praise.
After all...
Chen Tong had gotten through that entirely on her absurdly good luck.
But luck was part of strength, too.
In this apocalypse, full of the bizarre and the unpredictable, a teammate with this kind of "Strong Luck" attribute could sometimes be more useful than a brawler who only knew how to throw punches.
If Chen Tong hadn't been so lucky, she never would have met him on the very first day, much less made it this far.
"Still..."
Jiangnan opened his eyes and glanced at the empty podium.
"This school for Ghostly Thought actually has a mechanism that grants Clearance Rewards."
"So this is basically a giant rule-based instance."
"If I get the chance... I could give it a try, too."
He needed to get stronger, so he could cut down on the toll each use of Word Spirit took on him.
If there were rewards that directly boosted his attributes, that could save him a lot of trouble.
Besides...
The incident with Sakuragi Shita skipping class just now...
And Deceased Kamiya Konan's unfinished words before he died had given him a very interesting idea.
"The fourth ghost..."
Jiangnan's lips curled into a faint smile. He glanced at Lu Shiyan, then covered his face with another memo.
At the other end of the classroom.
Clutching his still-bleeding nose, Lu Shiyan struggled to his feet.
He looked at the memo stuck to his face, at the murderous warning written on it.
"Heh..."
Lu Shiyan gave a bitter laugh, crumpled the memo, and casually tossed it into the trash can.
"Figures. This guy can't stand even a speck of dust in his eye."
"This time it was a warning. Next time... he'll really kill me."
He picked up the half-pack of Huazi that had fallen on the floor, pulled out another cigarette, lit it, and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
Smoke curled around him, and his gaze turned hazy.
Jiangnan's punch had not only broken his nose; it had even cracked the bone around his eye socket.
His vision was blurry and doubled. Everything looked like he was wearing glasses with a 300-degree prescription—and astigmatism, too.
"He really went all out..."
Lu Shiyan waved the scalpel in his hand. Watching its blade split into two before his eyes, he felt a quiet shock.
"Even I couldn't control my strength that precisely."
"He hit me hard enough to wipe out most of my fighting ability, but left me with enough mobility that I wouldn't become a burden."
"That guy's definitely an expert."
"Not only is he strong, he knows the human body inside and out. He knows where to hit to cause the most pain and mess you up the most."
"And... he seemed to have guessed who I was from the start."
"Could he be in the same line of work?"
Lu Shiyan was puzzled.
His S-class Super Telekinesis was powerful, but it had one fatal weakness: he needed to lock onto a target with his vision.
If he couldn't see, he couldn't strike accurately.
Psychic Search took a lot of time, and his physique couldn't handle it.
And now that his vision was damaged, his fighting strength had been cut in half at least.
"Fuck, what shitty luck. I should've checked the almanac before leaving home. I run into a Jinx like him."
Lu Shiyan grumbled to himself, then turned to Kujo Ran beside him.
With his vision blurry, he could only make out a vague silhouette.
"Hey, what was it... Qitao... or Batao?"
"Whatever your name is, class happened just now, right?"
"Tell me what went down."
"I'm Kujo! Kujo Ran!"
Kujo Ran's forehead veins throbbed with anger, but she didn't dare blow up. She could only grit her teeth and complain.
Then she told Lu Shiyan everything that had happened in English Class, from start to finish.
Especially what had happened at the end.
"That ghost named 'Sakuragi Shita' skipped class and disappeared, so that woman Chen got an S-class reward for free."
Kujo Ran's voice was full of jealousy and bewilderment.
However.
At those words, Lu Shiyan's fingers froze around his cigarette.
"Sakuragi Shita... disappeared?"
He paused, but didn't answer.
Instead, he instinctively pulled an old pocket watch from his chest and squinted at the time.
Then he glanced at the cigarette burning quickly between his lips.
Silence.
Only the cigarette's faint crackle broke it, its ember flickering in the stillness.
Seeing that he wasn't saying anything, Kujo Ran left the oddball alone.
She had more important things to worry about. After the next Chinese class, it would be her turn to take math!
She had to get herself in the right state of mind. Dying at the podium would be the biggest joke of all.
However.
Hoshino, sitting in the front row, had noticed every one of those subtle movements.
She kept her head down, pretending to be daydreaming, while the corner of her eye stayed fixed on Lu Shiyan.
"Something feels... off."
"Why didn't Mr. Lu react at all when Kujo told him Teacher Chen got a reward?"
"But the moment she said 'Sakuragi Shita' was gone... his cigarette suddenly started burning faster?"
"Is he nervous?"
Even though Lu Shiyan's face showed no expression, his suddenly quickened breathing gave him away.
And Hoshino wasn't the only one watching.
Another pair of eyes was secretly observing everything.
"Heh, Stinky Uncle."
"You don't even know I've been watching you, do you?"
Liu Yuqing sat at her desk, twirling a pen and sneering to herself.
At that moment, she was in an extremely bizarre state: her left eye was on guard, and her right eye was on lookout!
She wasn't cross-eyed. She was genuinely on guard and on lookout!
It was a Unique Skill she, a top student, had mastered back in elementary school!
Whenever she finished an exam, she would use this wide-angle peripheral vision to scan the answers of her classmates.
She could compare them in real time, catching mistakes and filling in gaps!
Her vision wasn't the only thing that was exceptional. Her hearing was superb, too.
It definitely wasn't because her gambling-addict dad often left her without food...
She'd developed "Wind Listening Positioning" from squatting at the village entrance and drinking the northwest wind!
Lu Shiyan's vision was impaired, and he had a lot on his mind.
He didn't notice in the slightest that two people had their eyes on him.
3:00.
Ding-a-ling!
The class bell rang right on time.
The schedule on the blackboard refreshed automatically.
[Course: Chinese (3:00–4:00)]
[Teacher: Fujino Juro]
At the sight of that name, every Huaxia Person present except Lu Shiyan couldn't help freezing for a moment.
Fujino?
That surname, combined with the fact that he was a Chinese teacher...
It was hard not to think of Fujino Genkuro, the man who had once taught a great literary master and appeared in their middle-school textbooks.
"Could this... actually be him?"
Wang Meng muttered under his breath.
However.
The Cherry Blossom Country boy sitting in front of Guo Shuai began to tremble violently at the name.
It was a fear that came from the depths of his soul.
"Hey, man, what's wrong?"
Guo Shuai, sitting behind him, curiously poked him in the back.
"What's this Teacher Fujino like?"
"Is he a refined, easygoing teacher with a handlebar mustache?"
The boy turned around, face deathly pale. He looked at Guo Shuai as though he were an idiot and sneered.
"Refined and easygoing?"
"Heh... it'd be more like it if he taught butchering!"
"Butchering?"
Guo Shuai was baffled.
A Chinese teacher taught butchering?
What kind of cross-disciplinary teaching was that?
Just then...
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground began to shake violently. Even the pens on the desks started dancing.
"An earthquake?"
Everyone looked toward the doorway in confusion.
Then...
A gigantic shadow fell over the entrance.
A terrifying creature with muscles that could only be described as demonic forced its way through the classroom door!
It stood a full two and a half meters tall, its muscles bulging like granite!
It wore a bloodstained white coat, long since shredded by its massive frame.
In its hand was a butcher knife!
With every step it took, the floor groaned.
It came to the podium and slammed the butcher knife onto the desk.
Bang!
The lectern split right down the middle.
It scanned the room, opened its enormous mouth full of tusks, and recited its teaching philosophy.
"Studying literature... can't save humanity..."
"But studying medicine..."
It raised the Butcher Knife and slashed it through the air.
"Can save them!!"
Before you continue