Holy shit?!
What the hell sounded that scary?
Xu Yuan shuddered violently and hurriedly looked around.
But everyone else seemed perfectly normal, without the slightest reaction.
His classmates were still pointing at him and talking among themselves.
The girl looked anxious as she responded to what he had just said. "Y-you mustn't do anything rash..."
Even the school doctor closest to him acted as though nothing had happened, packing up the medical kit and preparing to leave.
Clearly, no one present besides him had heard that voice.
"Could it be the legendary system?"
As a young man of the twenty-first century, Xu Yuan naturally knew what a system was.
He had even enthusiastically spammed "1" under those goofy short videos saying, "Type 1 to awaken your system tomorrow."
"Are you okay?"
A soft, delicate voice interrupted Xu Yuan's thoughts.
Xu Yuan looked up. The school doctor had already reached the doorway with the medical kit, while the girl, Luo Yaoxi, crouched before him with an apologetic expression.
Xu Yuan was a little speechless. His predecessor had acted like that, and this girl still cared about him?
But remembering what she had gone through as a child, Xu Yuan understood.
Perhaps, in her heart, she had long since regarded his predecessor as her hero...
Of course, that meant his predecessor as a child, not the beast who had just died.
"I'm fine. I just need to rest for a bit."
Xu Yuan braced himself against the desk and chair to stand, then found his seat and sat down.
He needed to figure out what that voice had been.
Seeing that the scumbag Xu Yuan was fine, the students watching gradually dispersed from the classroom.
Only a few scattered remarks drifted over:
"That son of a bitch actually survived. Heaven really is blind!"
"Shh! Stop talking. He might corner you after school."
The corner of Xu Yuan's mouth twitched. Then he settled his mind and sank his consciousness into his head.
According to the novels he had read, systems were usually inside your head, right?
Just as he thought that, Xu Yuan "saw" a stone stele several dozen feet tall!
The stele was black all over, shaped like a gravestone in a cemetery, and stood in a world shrouded in mist.
Scarlet, blood-red characters covered its surface.
The characters varied in size, their strokes crooked and twisted. They did not look like anything a human had written.
"What the fuck is this shit?!"
The horror washing over him made Xu Yuan shudder, and his consciousness abruptly retreated from his mind.
This fucking thing wasn't much like the systems in novels...
After taking two or three minutes to recover and mentally prepare himself, Xu Yuan sank his consciousness into his mind again.
The stele reappeared. But now that he was prepared, Xu Yuan no longer panicked. His consciousness moved right up against it, studying it carefully.
Soon, Xu Yuan figured out what was written on the stele.
They were names.
Each name was followed by a string of numbers.
The higher up they were, the larger the numbers became.
Presumably, these were the "Sin Points" that eerie voice had mentioned.
Besides those, the words "Yang City No. 3 High School" were written in large characters at the top of the stele.
And the high school Xu Yuan attended was precisely Yang City No. 3 High School.
"Extortion, blackmail..."
"Sin Points..."
"Rankings, rewards..."
Xu Yuan's mind raced, quickly connecting everything.
This so-called Evil Demon Ranking was actually like an event leaderboard in a third-rate mobile game.
Players completed quests to earn event points and get on the leaderboard, which then distributed rewards according to their ranking.
Except the quests here weren't killing monsters and running around maps. They were extortion and blackmail, swindling and cheating, murder and arson...
In short, he had to do bad things!
Only by doing bad things could he earn Sin Points, get on the ranking, and collect rewards.
Isn't this mechanic blatantly cultivating scum? Why call it the Evil Demon Ranking? Might as well call it the Beest Ranking, Xu Yuan couldn't help grumbling inwardly.
As for Yang City No. 3 High School, that was probably the ranking scope designated by the Beast Ranking.
Otherwise, if it covered the entire world right away, the Beast Ranking probably wouldn't have room for that many beasts.
After sorting everything out, Xu Yuan's brows gradually knitted together.
This Beast Ranking was undoubtedly a cheat.
But he didn't seem able to use it.
Although he had never considered himself a good person, he really couldn't commit murder, arson, rape, and pillage... grinding Sin Points to climb the ranking and rake in rewards.
His predecessor, on the other hand, would have been perfect.
Perhaps this thing had come for his predecessor, but his predecessor had departed a step too soon and failed to wait for his exclusive god-tier gear.
Forget it. At least I haven't come away empty-handed.
After consoling himself, Xu Yuan searched around the stele with his consciousness.
When that eerie voice had made its announcement earlier, it had given him a reward for entering the top ten.
And with both reincarnation and Martial God in the name, it sounded pretty badass.
Maybe this reward could help him pass next week's assessment!
With that thought, Xu Yuan soon found the supposed reward.
Then he was completely dumbfounded.
A brain???
It was actually an entire human brain!!!
It even had fresh, bright-red traces of blood on it, as though it had just been dug out of that Reincarnation Martial God's skull!
What kind of reward was this?
Was he supposed to replace his current brain with this one?
Would he still be Xu Yuan then?
Or was he supposed to eat this brain?
Wasn't that just fucking sick?
"You're awesome. I don't want this reward anymore."
Xu Yuan gave the Beast Ranking a thumbs-up and irritably prepared to withdraw from his mind.
Whether it meant replacing his brain or eating the brain of another human, neither was something he could accept.
But just then, that fresh brain suddenly floated up and drifted over a patch of "empty ground."
Immediately afterward, scarlet blood vessels slowly extended from beneath the brain, densely packed like a plant taking root, burrowing toward that empty ground.
"What does this mean???"
Xu Yuan couldn't suppress a rising trace of fear.
The sight was far too bizarre.
Knock, knock!
The sound of fingers rapping on his desk reached his ears, pulling Xu Yuan's consciousness back to reality.
As his vision focused, Xu Yuan first saw a bag of bread on his desk. Then he looked up and saw a figure like an iron tower!
Over two meters tall, with an inverted-triangle build, he merely had to stand before Xu Yuan to exert an overwhelmingly oppressive presence!
The other students in class hardly dared breathe as they looked at him.
It was as though he wasn't a person, but a giant bull that could trample someone to death with one hoof!
Niu Gang!
The director of Yang City No. 3 High School's martial arts department, a divine martial artist at the Bone Tempering Ninth Stage, and an expert of considerable standing even throughout Yang City!
Information about this man surfaced in Xu Yuan's mind, immediately putting him on edge.
What was he here for? Had he learned that his predecessor had tried to assault a pretty female classmate and come to deal with him?
"Tell me, how did you get stabbed by Luo Yaoxi?"
Without giving Xu Yuan much time to think, Niu Gang spoke.
His voice was like firecrackers going off inside an empty water vat, extraordinarily deep and resonant.
I'm screwed. Looks like he really is here to make trouble.
Xu Yuan's heart lurched. "No, this was my own..."
"Don't give me that bullshit. I only want to know whether you stood still and let her stab you."
Niu Gang interrupted Xu Yuan, his tone extremely impatient.
His eyes made no attempt to conceal his disgust for this student.
Xu Yuan froze briefly. That question didn't sound like he was here to make trouble.
So he answered truthfully, "No."
Upon hearing this answer, Niu Gang immediately turned and walked toward Luo Yaoxi, who sat two groups of desks away from Xu Yuan.
Seeing this, the girl's little face went pale again.
"Don't be afraid. I'm not here to give you trouble."
Niu Gang hurriedly spoke, abandoning the fierce glare he had shown Xu Yuan and becoming as gentle as Zhang Fei doing embroidery. "Do you have time right now? Could you come outside with me?"
Luo Yaoxi pressed her lips together without a word, clearly frightened.
"Yaoxi, go with Teacher Niu. It'll be all right."
At that moment, the homeroom teacher of Senior Year Class Two stepped forward and spoke to Luo Yaoxi with a smile.
The girl still trusted the homeroom teacher who had been with her for over two years.
Hearing even her say so, though she remained uneasy, she obediently stood up and softly agreed.
"Yes! That's right!"
Niu Gang's fleshy face brimmed with smiles, and he immediately led Luo Yaoxi out of the classroom.
As for Xu Yuan, he couldn't be bothered to spare him another glance.
The homeroom teacher also turned and left, without the slightest intention of checking on Xu Yuan.
Truly despised by gods and ghosts alike.
But Xu Yuan had no time to concern himself with that. As soon as they left, his consciousness immediately sank into his mind, returning to that gray, misty space.
By now, the densely packed blood vessels beneath the Martial God's brain had grown down to the empty ground.
As the first blood vessel pierced the ground, Xu Yuan felt his brain buzz.
Immediately afterward, a strange sensation arose-
My head's so itchy. It feels like I'm about to grow a brain...
The word "beast" may appear quite frequently later on. Repeating "beast, beast" all the time doesn't feel great, so I'll use "beest" in place of "beast." Just letting everyone know.