Day of Freedom

Friday.

10:15 AM

The midsummer sunlight streamed into the tiered classroom on the warm breeze.

It was an ordinary alchemy chemistry class. Notes on the Emerald Tablet covered the blackboard, yet not a single student in the packed room was taking notes.

Half of them wore the Student Union's crimson combat uniforms, while the other half wore the Lionheart Society's black combat uniforms. Only a handful wore dark green school uniforms. The rapid clacking of guns being loaded and magazines being filled rang out everywhere.

Seeing this, the instructor at the podium glanced up at the clock. There were only about ten minutes left until Day of Freedom began.

He could tell these young people had no intention of listening to class any longer, but he did not dare dismiss them outright.

Was there enough time for me to flee to the Executive Department and take shelter...

The professor muttered to himself, but when he saw the predatory looks in the students' eyes below, he knew he probably would not escape.

Sigh, I was going to get hit by Frigg Bullets again.

He lamented endlessly, then simply accepted his fate and pulled out his phone to bid farewell to his colleagues one by one in the work group chat.

Sitting at the very back of the classroom, Li Lin could clearly hear the clicks and clacks of guns being assembled all around him.

Xia Mi sat right beside him. The girl had both hands beneath the desk, screwing a flash suppressor onto an Equipment Department-modified AR-15.

"Xia Mi, what does fighting mean to you?"

Li Lin's abrupt question left Xia Mi silent.

Xia Mi lightly kicked Li Lin's calf. "Didn't we join Day of Freedom to justify that one million on the club's books, as well as Caesar's bounty?"

"You are betraying martial arts. You are defiling the purity of Baji Essence."

Li Lin watched Xia Mi skillfully chamber a round in the AR-15, his tone mournful.

"Pfft, this is the West Coast Five Thunder Technique this heroine just learned."

"But the martial arts soul about to melt away inside you is crying."

"You sure talk a lot. Take it already."

Xia Mi tossed the assembled, loaded automatic rifle into Li Lin's hands, along with three magazines filled with Frigg Bullets.

The heavy weight made Li Lin beam with joy, while Xia Mi dug another pile of parts out of her backpack and began assembling them.

As she worked, Xia Mi found time to question Li Lin.

"What's with you, anyway? When you came with me to the Equipment Department to buy guns and bullets before, didn't you complain they were too expensive? I remember you wouldn't stop grumbling while loading magazines."

"Let's not talk about that. I'm a little worried these Equipment Department-modified guns might suddenly explode in our hands while we're using them."

Recalling the harrowing experience of nearly being sent to the campus hospital by an Equipment Department-modified treadmill the previous night, Li Lin warily inspected the rifle in his hands.

"Don't change the subject. You really have been working hard lately. It was the first time I'd seen you exercising so late..."

As Xia Mi spoke, she gave Li Lin a sly smile.

"Don't tell me you met a girl you like and plan to start dating her during Day of Freedom?"

The girl bent slightly at the waist. As she smiled, sunlight traced across her fair face, and her translucent hair flowed with an orange glow. In those clear, bright eyes welled a soft beauty that instinctively made one's heart race.

If not for the AR-15 in her hands, its muzzle pointed at Li Lin, everything would have looked so beautiful.

Li Lin guessed that if he jokingly said, "I really do want to date a pretty upperclassman," Xia Mi would immediately pull the trigger and spray him until she emptied an entire magazine.

He would save teasing the girl until after winning the final victor's reward.

Li Lin answered Xia Mi cautiously.

"Actually, I noticed you seemed very interested in this sort of event, so after defeating the Lionheart Society, I planned to have a match with you."

The perfect answer precisely avoided the girl's danger zone.

Xia Mi happily lowered her gun, then took Li Lin's backpack and pulled out the gun parts hidden inside to continue assembling them.

She had thoroughly prepared for Day of Freedom. Her primary weapon was a fully equipped, modified AR-15 produced by the Equipment Department, her secondary weapon was the famous UMP45 submachine gun, and she had even specially purchased a box of smoke grenades and alchemical anesthetic grenades.

"Don't worry. If we both make it to the end, I'll throw away my gun and compete with you fairly."

Xia Mi said smugly.

"Then I'm so grateful."

"Hehe, Little Li, Little Li. If this lady gets the final reward, I'll definitely name you as my personal manservant. Every night, I'll order you to Norton Hall to wash my feet, massage my back, serve tea, and fetch water."

"Actually, I wouldn't mind serving Lady Xia Mi in the bath either."

"Pah! You shameless pervert!"

"..."

Li Lin nervously watched the hands moving on the wall clock, his gaze sweeping across the entire tiered classroom as he began considering how to avoid the first wave of chaotic fighting.

Xia Mi's mouth still refused to settle down, and Li Lin had been infected by her terrible-joke meme as well.

The two bickered back and forth until the hands of the clock reached 10:30. Then a sharp, mournful alarm suddenly sounded over the campus.

Dense flashes of gunfire immediately erupted in the classroom. The roar of firearms nearly shattered the windows on both sides, and the previously warm, peaceful campus instantly became a battlefield.

Even with the podium as cover, the professor standing before the blackboard was immediately focused down by the students and riddled with bullets. But as he lost consciousness, he did not forget to hurl the workbook containing five assigned term papers at the girl in the front row who had raised her gun and pulled the trigger on him. She froze in place, nearly covering her face and bursting into tears.

And in that brief moment of distraction, the girl was also struck down amid wails by a barrage of Frigg Bullets focused on her by the opposing faction. A Student Union freshman officer, holding a Remington 870 shotgun, bent low and charged forward under the cover of desks and chairs. As he passed the "corpse of his colleague," he did not forget to pick up the workbook and lay it over her lovely face, whose eyes could not close.

Before the alarm sounded, Li Lin had already pulled Xia Mi beneath a desk. Xia Mi instantly understood what he meant, so each of them hugged a rifle and prepared to rise together and harvest the battlefield once the gunfire outside grew a little sparser.

After taking down five Lionheart Society members in succession, that brave freshman officer was hit dead-on by an alchemical anesthetic grenade thrown from the hallway. He screamed, then collapsed into unconsciousness.

The remaining students from both sides were engaged in a fierce firefight. Someone from the Lionheart Society could even be seen raising an RPG with bloodshot eyes.

At that point, Xia Mi could not resist making a move. She wanted to seize that big weapon, so she immediately raised her rifle and stood up, firing a smooth series of precise single shots. In an instant, she headshotted and took down three enemies, directly throwing their formation into disarray.

Li Lin was still beneath the desk planning tactics, analyzing how to fight his way from the teaching building to the Lionheart Society's club headquarters, when Xia Mi's fluttering skirt suddenly appeared before his eyes. He could even smell the strong scent of laundry detergent warmed by her body heat from the fabric, and his brain crashed.