The same unchanging darkness stretched on, from the sky above to the ground below. It seemed there was no such thing as day or night here.
Following the same path as before, Yin Kuang was heading toward Teaching Building No. 13, also known as "Slaughterhouse No. 13."
By now, Yin Kuang had wiped the tears from his face. He had changed into a casual outfit from Yichun that he'd bought for 1 Study Point, giving him a youthful, energetic look—although he was actually almost twenty.
The G-Virus hadn't increased his lifespan, but it had made him look three years younger. That was at least some small comfort.
His tender, fifteen- or sixteen-year-old face carried the maturity of an adult.
Weakness was merely an occasional indulgence of Yin Kuang's.
Here, only strength could let someone with an already short life live a little longer.
Yin Kuang believed that in a university with infinite possibilities, as long as he stayed alive, anything was possible!
Perhaps he was trying to distract himself. As he walked, his thoughts began to wander. He suddenly wondered: what if schools in the real world were like this? Well, obviously that was impossible, but that didn't stop him from imagining it, did it? If schools really used a teaching method as brutally extreme as this—throwing students into all kinds of deadly situations and making them struggle to survive—what kind of people would they produce? He really couldn't imagine it.
Unparalleled geniuses? Or lunatics? Or psychologically twisted perverts?
With death threatening them every moment, who would dare to daydream in class, pass notes, or chat on QQ? Who would dare skip class to play CF? Who would dare play "Fruit Ninja" in class? Who would dare...? Probably no one would dare do anything except focus on how to stay alive, stay alive...
"Heh!"
Yin Kuang let out a sudden chuckle. "You've got way too much imagination. Why are you thinking about all this nonsense?"
He looked up and found himself standing in front of the place called "Slaughterhouse No. 13." Only then did Yin Kuang get a good look at the building.
It was a six-story building with a flat roof and dark red walls. Peeling paint left it mottled all over, and the walls were covered in blood-red graffiti. A huge, pale skull had been painted across them, baring two rows of white teeth. It seemed to be laughing loudly, or perhaps roaring in fury.
The empty sockets of the skull seemed to gaze into the distance, yet also to look down scornfully at Yin Kuang!
"This was the work of a senior who died. He made it for 'certain people' to see. Skulls don't always bring fear. Sometimes, they protect..."
A heavy hand settled on Yin Kuang's shoulder, nearly pressing him to the ground.
Yin Kuang spun around in alarm, his eyes flashing with fear and shock.
It was Xiong Ba, as imposing as a wall!
He was looking up at the huge skull painted on Building No. 13, his eyes filled with reverence, helplessness, longing, and sorrow.
Yin Kuang didn't know how he could read all those emotions in Xiong Ba's eyes, but he truly sensed them. That wasn't the important part, though. The important thing was...
"When did he...?!"
Xiong Ba lowered his head, as if he'd read Yin Kuang's thoughts. His voice sounded like a beast's growl. "If you could notice me, how could I still be your senior? A perception of 13 is already outstanding among freshmen. But if I'd wanted to kill you just now, you'd probably be dead before you even knew who to blame."
Yin Kuang fell silent.
"Looks like you had some kind of lucky encounter during the Entrance Exam. Before, you were useless in every way except intelligence. But now, it took me two uses of Scout to check your attributes. Not bad." Xiong Ba spoke nonchalantly as he looked at the painting on the wall.
"Senior... you..."
"Heh. I'm just telling you that freshmen have practically no secrets from upperclassmen. Do you know why this place is called 'Slaughterhouse No. 13'?"
"..."
"Because this is the freshman teaching building." Xiong Ba continued, "To put it bluntly, this is a pigsty—a place where pigs are raised. Not every upperclassman is a 'farmer,' but they make up thirty percent of them. And that thirty percent is more than enough to make your lives miserable. I went through the same thing. The one thing I can be grateful for is that I met a few decent seniors. Black Bone, who painted that skull, was one of them..."
"Senior Black Bone... why did he paint that skull?"
"I already told you: to protect you!" Xiong Ba patted Yin Kuang on the shoulder. "To scare off those 'farmers' and protect you little rookies who are treated like 'meat pigs'... Unfortunately, good people never live long here. They live on in other people's hearts, not before their eyes."
Yin Kuang nodded unconsciously.
Xiong Ba continued, "Generally speaking, first-year 'exams' are dangerous, and nine out of ten people die. But compared to the upperclassmen's exams, where death is certain, yours are practically child's play. So some people who want to earn more Study Points and improve their grade evaluation set their sights on you. Those people are called 'farmers,' and you're the 'meat pigs.'"
Yin Kuang shuddered. "M-meat pigs? Farmers... you mean people squeeze Study Points out of us freshmen?"
Seeing Yin Kuang's reaction, Xiong Ba smiled. "That's right. It's always been like that. Even the all-powerful Headmaster can't stop it. Wherever there are people, there's a world of conflict. And in that world, strength decides everything. That's an unchanging rule."
Yin Kuang's eyes shifted as he looked up at Xiong Ba. "Then, Senior Xiong, is there a way you can help me avoid becoming someone else's meat pig?"
As soon as he asked, Yin Kuang regretted it...
Sometimes being too clever really wasn't a good thing. Especially when you showed off your cleverness in front of your leader or boss. That was practically asking for trouble.
Just like now: Yin Kuang had already more or less figured out why Xiong Ba was telling him about "farmers" and "meat pigs." He was recruiting him!
It was simple. If you were a "meat pig" and wanted to avoid being slaughtered, you had to find a better "farmer"—but even the best farmer was still a farmer. Xiong Ba's words probably meant he wanted Yin Kuang to become the meat pig of some better farmer.
Put plainly, it meant picking a side!
But Yin Kuang couldn't understand why Xiong Ba wanted him. What was there about him that a senior like Xiong Ba would care about?
Sure enough, Xiong Ba's expression shifted slightly. He had clearly understood the implication in Yin Kuang's question. He stared at Yin Kuang with displeasure. "Kid, remember my advice: no matter how clever you are, act like an idiot in front of your seniors. Want to know how to avoid becoming a meat pig? I'll tell you. One sentence: it's cool under a big tree. Without someone powerful backing you at this university, you'll have a hard time surviving."
Yin Kuang lowered his head without replying.
"I'll leave it at that." Xiong Ba shook his head. "At this university, a rookie like you must never think too highly of himself. Some upperclassmen aren't quite right in the head. When they're bored, they like nothing more than crushing and tormenting promising young sprouts. Unfortunately, the Headmaster rated your intelligence at 7, which means you're one of those promising sprouts. No, it's 8 now. People who can see through other people's attributes, like me, aren't common, but there are plenty of us. Think it over carefully. You have ten days. Ten days from now... remember, as your senior, I'm telling you that if you want to survive here, you have to take advantage of every opportunity you can! That's reality!"
With that, Xiong Ba patted Yin Kuang lightly on the shoulder. "Think it through, then get in touch with me. Go on up. I'm still waiting for the other two Teaching Assistants. And when you go to the 'cafeteria' later, stay behind me. My skill can block some spying skills."
"Yes, Senior."
What else could Yin Kuang do?
Just because he was a freshman, just because he was weak... perhaps Xiong Ba was right. If he wanted to survive, he had to use his head and take advantage of every opportunity around him. He had to stay alive!
Watching Yin Kuang's retreating figure, Xiong Ba sighed. "Kid, I hope you figure it out. Back then, wasn't I just like you? Unwilling to stay beneath others, full of passion and determined to carve out a place for myself here... But what could I do in the end? Without someone powerful backing you, you don't even get the chance to survive, let alone hold your head high. This university... it's darker than you can imagine."
"If only there were more people like Senior Black Bone... sigh..."
"This is the second time Xiong Ba has mentioned my intelligence... What exactly does an intelligence of 7 or 8 mean?"
"What should I choose? Follow Xiong Ba's arrangements and shelter under them, or rely on myself and fight my own way forward? I really don't want to entrust my life to someone else..."
"Farmers... meat pigs... Slaughterhouse No. 13? Even the Headmaster recognizes a name like that and directly implants it into our memories. What kind of school is this, and what kind of students attend it?"
"And I have to make my choice in ten days... What's going to happen in ten days? Why ten days?"
With his head full of questions, Yin Kuang walked step by step to the door of Classroom 1204.
But before he could even step inside, a figure suddenly came rushing at him head-on. Yin Kuang had been thinking about those questions with no answers, so although he sensed something, he didn't have time to react.
With a bang, he collided with the person rushing toward him.
Fortunately, Yin Kuang's body had been transformed by the G-Virus and was far from ordinary. He only stumbled back one step before steadying himself. The person who had hit him was thrown backward and slammed into the doorframe. But before he could complain, he blurted, "Sorry, sorry!"
Then he slipped out of the classroom.
"What's going on?"
But before Yin Kuang could react, the corner of his eye caught sight of something flying toward him.
Half his body was already inside the classroom, and the object hurtled toward him at incredible speed, whooshing through the air. The doorway wasn't very wide, and it had happened so suddenly that even if Yin Kuang wanted to dodge, it was too late.
Instinctively, Yin Kuang raised both arms to shield himself!
Bang!
Clatter!
The classic sounds of a classroom fight: desks and chairs crashing together. Anyone who had ever fought in a classroom, or seen a fight there, would know those sounds well. After all, they were the soundtrack of youthful passion and impulsiveness!
Yin Kuang felt a sharp ache and numbness in his arms. He couldn't help sucking in a breath. "That hit was incredibly powerful!"
Needless to say, if Yin Kuang hadn't raised his arms to block it, that object—carrying tremendous force—would have smashed into his head. Even his body, strengthened by the G-Virus, might not have endured a blow to the head like that.
"Who the hell is so vicious? He must've been aiming for the person who just ran out, but that guy got away and I took the hit instead. Talk about bad luck. If anyone else had been hit by a desk like that, they'd be half dead, if not worse. Was he trying to murder someone?"
Before Yin Kuang could see who had struck such a vicious blow, he heard an angry, contemptuous shout. "Get the hell out of my way!"
Yin Kuang's eyes turned cold. He stood in the classroom doorway and glared frostily at the newcomer. "What did you just say? Say it again."
As the saying went, Yin Kuang never picked a fight, but he never feared one either!
The moment the man said, "Get the hell out of my way," he had crossed Yin Kuang's line. No matter who it was—even the Red Queen, his counselor—if someone crossed that line, Yin Kuang wouldn't let it go!
Yin Kuang had always cared deeply about his family. Ever since he was old enough to understand, he'd kept telling himself, "Yin Kuang, you can be a good person whom everyone praises, or you can be a wicked villain whom everyone curses. But no matter how bad or evil you become—even if you're rotten to the core, rotten in your very soul—you must never betray the parents who gave birth to you and raised you, or the family who share your blood."
That showed just how much Yin Kuang cared about his family.
So when the man standing before him shouted, "Get the hell out of my way," how could Yin Kuang not be furious?
Perhaps Yin Kuang was simply too short. At 165 centimeters, he was at a disadvantage against someone who stood 180 centimeters tall. Or perhaps the man was in a hurry to beat up the person who had run out of the classroom. Either way, he ignored Yin Kuang and reached out to shove him. "Fuck off! Quit blocking my way and get out of here!"
He shoved, but Yin Kuang didn't move?
The tall, broad-shouldered boy furrowed his brow and pushed harder, his anger rising. "I told you to move! Are you deaf?"
But even when he pushed harder, he still couldn't budge Yin Kuang. All he managed was to make him sway a little.
Yin Kuang stared coldly at the boy. He seemed familiar. After a closer look, Yin Kuang remembered: wasn't this Tang Zhaotian, the guy who had exchanged for the Spider-Man bloodline?
But so what if he had the Spider-Man bloodline? If Yin Kuang remembered correctly, the Spider-Man bloodline that had passed the first-year proficiency requirement didn't boost physical attributes as much as his G-Mutation Enhancement. Even if Tang Zhaotian's original attributes were a bit higher, judging by the force of his shove, he was still weaker than Yin Kuang.
Fine, so what if Yin Kuang was weaker? What did that matter? Even if the person who crossed his line was a senior with unfathomable strength, so what? In Yin Kuang's view, someone who couldn't even protect his own family might as well be dead.
"Take back what you just said, and I can pretend this never happened," Yin Kuang said. "I don't want to get involved in your business, but insulting my parents is out of the question!"
If he moved aside, wouldn't that make Tang Zhaotian his father?
No matter what Tang Zhaotian had meant when he said it, Yin Kuang had taken it literally.
"I'm saying," Tang Zhaotian replied, frustrated, putting aside for the moment the guy who had escaped the classroom so he could deal with this hothead first, "can't you take a joke? Just get out of my way. I don't have time to deal with you." It seemed Tang Zhaotian had no interest in arguing with Yin Kuang—or perhaps he simply didn't take Yin Kuang seriously at all.
After all, as far as they knew, he was the only one in the class who had exchanged for an ability. In that respect, Tang Zhaotian did have reason to look down on the others.
And after spending some time as Sun Tzu, Tang Zhaotian had rediscovered the feeling of being a rich second-generation heir. He was back to his usual high-spirited self. In just a few hours, he had already gathered several followers around him, just like before.
The guy who'd run out had clashed with one of Tang Zhaotian's followers. As their leader, he had stepped in and, for reasons no one knew, demanded that the guy apologize to his follower in front of the whole class.
The guy had plenty of fight in him. He pretended to apologize, then suddenly lashed out and hurled a desk at Tang Zhaotian's follower, knocking him unconscious on the spot. Then he turned and ran, colliding with Yin Kuang on the way out.
Naturally, Tang Zhaotian couldn't wait to drag the guy back and teach him a good lesson!
But when he saw that Yin Kuang had no intention of moving, Tang Zhaotian's expression darkened. "Kid, you'd better not push your luck."
Yin Kuang replied, "Respect is earned, not given. And you can't afford it anyway."
Yin Kuang clenched his fists. "I'll say it one more time. I don't want to get involved in your business. But you have to take back what you said. I hate it when people insult my parents! No exceptions!"
In the eyes of the boys and girls watching, Yin Kuang was stubborn to a ridiculous degree. They thought he was an idiot. It was just a few words—why take them so seriously?
They couldn't understand Yin Kuang's values, of course.
"Fine! You're something else! What if I don't take them back? What can you do to me?"
"Nothing," Yin Kuang said, drawing a breath. "I'll beat you until you apologize."
"Beat me? Fine, fine. I take it back. I take—fuck you!"
Halfway through his sentence, Tang Zhaotian's expression changed abruptly. He threw a hard punch at Yin Kuang.
The punch was powerful, heavy, and sudden.
In Yin Kuang's eyes, the punch was indeed strong, and it had come suddenly, but it had one fatal flaw: it was too slow.
That was right—too slow.
To others, the punch might have seemed incredibly fast. Their "agility" was far too low for them to see it clearly, let alone dodge. But to Yin Kuang, it was the opposite. It looked like a casual wave of the hand. Yin Kuang was completely confident he could dodge it and counterattack!
If he could dodge, why wouldn't he?
Yin Kuang shifted to the side, and the enormous fist whistled past his cheek. The next moment, Yin Kuang threw a punch of his own. His 12 points of agility and 10 points of strength showed their power. The punch landed directly in Tang Zhaotian's lower abdomen.
In fact, the Spider-Man bloodline skill, Spider Sense, was no weak thing. Almost the instant Yin Kuang punched, Tang Zhaotian felt a strange tingling in his lower abdomen. That was the danger signal from Spider Sense. If he'd dodged then, his +4 agility and +4 dexterity might have let him narrowly avoid the blow.
But Tang Zhaotian had underestimated his opponent. He never thought Yin Kuang could land a hit, so he had no intention of dodging. His first punch had missed, and he was about to throw another—but before he could, the sharp pain in his abdomen and the tremendous force sent him staggering backward.
Yin Kuang wasn't about to let up!
He took two quick steps, then kicked straight at Tang Zhaotian's chest!
Yin Kuang had never learned any fighting techniques, but he'd watched plenty of martial arts movies. Even with nothing but flashy moves and his 10 points of strength, his attacks packed a serious punch.
Thud!
The kick landed squarely, and Tang Zhaotian fell onto his back.
Still, Tang Zhaotian had strengthened himself with the Spider-Man bloodline. Maybe it gave him some instinctive fighting ability. As he fell, he thrust out both hands, shooting two glistening strands from his wrists—the Spider-Man bloodline skill, Tough Web-Shooting!
A web spread over Yin Kuang. The web shot so fast that even Yin Kuang's agility wasn't enough to let him see its trajectory, but dodging it was no problem.
One strand stuck to the classroom ceiling. Tang Zhaotian yanked on it and flipped back to his feet, leaping up to the ceiling and clinging to it like a spider. Then he pushed off with all four limbs and dove down from above, punching at Yin Kuang, who had just dodged the web.
Yin Kuang crossed his arms and blocked the blow. The punch from above made him stumble backward several steps.
There was no denying that the Spider-Man bloodline had plenty going for it. The only thing Yin Kuang might have lacked compared with Tang Zhaotian was fighting instinct. The G-Virus had merely transformed his body. Perhaps that was the tradeoff: the G-Virus-enhanced body hadn't inherited the G-creature's violent instinct to destroy everything!
Perhaps activating G-Body Alienation would let Yin Kuang inherit some of that destructive instinct and double his overall strength. But this was a classroom; it clearly wasn't the place to use it. The only ability he could use was his strange vision. Since it had no name, Yin Kuang had named it himself: G-Vision. Simple, clear, and useful.
In an instant, their fists were about to collide again.
But this time, the Spider-Man bloodline's fighting instinct seemed to fail—or perhaps something had cut it off, like Yin Kuang's G-Vision.
In Yin Kuang's eyes, Tang Zhaotian looked like a human-shaped patch of fluorescent light, flickering red and yellow, bright and dim. The instant Tang Zhaotian moved, Yin Kuang could see a bright red glow flare at his toes, then travel up his calves, thighs, and waist, through his shoulder, and into his right arm. Finally, the red glow gathered over Tang Zhaotian's fist. It was a complete energy pathway and a precise guide to his point of impact! The instant Tang Zhaotian threw his punch, Yin Kuang abruptly changed the direction of his own fist and shifted sideways. His fist landed right in Tang Zhaotian's armpit, where the red glow was dimmest.
"Danger!"
Tang Zhaotian suddenly felt a chill surge through his armpit. Before he could dodge, a searing pain—like his nerves were being shocked by high-voltage electricity—spread from his armpit throughout his entire body.
"Ah!"
A scream rang out through the classroom, shattering the silence.
One punch, and Tang Zhaotian was down!
But Yin Kuang wasn't finished. He lunged forward, pinned Tang Zhaotian down by the chest, and glared at him. "Apologize!"
Tang Zhaotian was drenched in cold sweat from the pain, but he glared furiously at Yin Kuang. "Hmph! Don't even think about it!"
A rich second-generation heir naturally had some backbone.
"Then I'll beat you until you apologize."
Yin Kuang clenched his fist. "You asked for this!"
Then he brought his fist down!
Before you continue