I Had Waited for This Moment, Longing for It Until My Eyes Ached

"One-Punch Man is seriously invincible, right? Who could take a punch from him?"

"Kakarot could eat the bald guy in one bite."

"Ultraman is the strongest. One blast from his beam can destroy a planet, and he can travel through space."

"DC Superman is the real deal. He can blow out stars with a single breath and casually drag a dozen planets around. Ever heard of the multiverse?"

The summer breeze blew in from outside the classroom. After the tedious math lesson ended, the boys who had been stifled for so long eagerly turned to their favorite topic: who had the greatest combat power.

Comparing the combat power of characters from the same series, or from different series.

They quoted sources and dug up settings and scenes. Even a single drop of sweat during a fight could be used as evidence in an argument about who was stronger, and they argued about it with great gusto.

"Childish."

Jiang Si, passing by, gave a cold laugh. "You're high school students already, and you still watch this stuff?"

One of the bespectacled boys, who had been arguing with a classmate until his face was red, immediately slapped the desk, sending books tumbling to the floor. "What do you read that's not childish, then?"

Jiang Si said nothing. He simply returned to his seat and pulled out a thick book, its large characters dazzlingly clear.

Shrouding the Heavens!

"Ye Fan-Ye the Great-is the strongest."

A burst of laughter rang out.

Naturally, there was no shortage of mockery, either.

Jiang Si didn't bother arguing with these frogs at the bottom of a well.

What Ultraman? What Superman? Their light was no more than a firefly's. How could it rival the bright moon?

While they were still arguing over who was stronger, webnovel protagonists had already stood alone for all eternity.

What multiverse? What parallel worlds? Webnovel protagonists had already proven the Dao once and for all, reversed cause and effect, and made time into a loop.

The gap in combat power was like that between the Three-Body People and primitive humans, and the difference in realms was even more terrifying.

No matter how much he said, these children wouldn't understand.

The tedious school, the boring classmates, and the teachers who didn't understand anything.

Jiang Si had long since grown tired of everything here.

If he could become an existence like a webnovel protagonist, surely he could escape everything in front of him.

He had always been searching for supernatural powers in this world.

Qigong, magic, superpowers-anything would do.

All the supernatural abilities one could find in the city could be turned into cultivation in the end anyway.

As long as he could cultivate, he could embark on the Great Dao, live forever, and stand alone for all eternity!

But there was nothing.

This world was utterly ordinary, without a single supernatural power. Following rumors of such abilities to seek them out had only brought one disappointment and scam after another.

Since that was the case, Jiang Si stopped clinging to the idea.

All paths led to the same destination. Since there were no supernatural powers, he would take the clumsy route of proving the Dao through strength. If he tempered his body to the utmost, one day he would break through his limits and glimpse the Great Dao.

So Jiang Si was always tempering himself, every moment of every day. Even during class, he would keep squeezing a grip strength trainer beneath his desk.

During lunch break, he went running, did push-ups, and did pull-ups.

For more than five years, he had never slacked off.

Exercise alone naturally wasn't enough. Which webnovel protagonist had come from shut-in cultivation? They all transformed through real combat and slaughter!

So, to train for actual combat, he often challenged the local thugs.

At first, he was beaten black and blue even in one-on-one fights. Now, he could handle two or three thugs ganging up on him without losing the upper hand.

He could clearly feel himself transforming.

Stories might be fiction, but their lessons were never false.

Jiang Si hadn't neglected his studies, either. Which webnovel protagonist didn't know a bit of physics and chemistry? At a critical moment, they could even recite classical poetry backward!

These were all basic skills. But his energy was limited, so he only studied what was useful. As for useless subjects like English, he was an utter mess.

He was a bit of a poor student, but his grades were still above average in class-not good enough for the teachers to pay special attention to him, and not bad enough for anyone to mock him for webnovels affecting his studies.

There were only a few afternoon classes, and dismissal soon drew near.

When Jiang Si got up to leave and passed the classmates who had been arguing about combat power, the few who had still been quietly discussing it immediately fell silent.

Though many of his classmates disapproved of Jiang Si for being obsessed with webnovels and unwilling to talk to people, no one dared to provoke him.

After all, he really could fight.

When everyone else said they wanted to become Superman or Ultraman, they were just talking, indulging in a fantasy.

Only Jiang Si, that blockhead, was serious when he said he wanted to become a webnovel protagonist and cultivate immortality. Everyone could see him training like his life depended on it every day.

No one wanted to get close to such a weirdo.

Of course, there were exceptions.

For example, Lu Ya, a girl from the neighboring class.

This girl came from a well-off family, excelled at her studies, and was strikingly beautiful, yet she insisted on being close to the unpopular Jiang Si.

Every day after school, she would come find him, ignoring the many strange looks around them, and follow behind him as they walked home together.

She would even take a new novel from her schoolbag and hand it to Jiang Si.

The two of them never took the main road, either. As soon as they left the school gates, they would take a quiet side street and soon disappear from sight.

If Lu Ya hadn't been somewhat popular at school and favored by the teachers, rumors would have been flying everywhere long ago.

But in truth, there was nothing improper between the two of them.

Jiang Si had simply helped her out while challenging some thugs, and afterward, he had asked her to help him borrow some novels to read.

As for Lu Ya, it was hard for her to see this classmate, who was always muttering bizarre things and so stubbornly obsessed that he seemed a little crazy, as a romantic interest.

"Even if you read every webnovel there is, you still can't become the protagonist."

She just wanted to remind him every time, hoping he wouldn't become so obsessed.

Jiang Si would only reply without even looking up, "Don't ruin my Dao heart."

Lu Ya was used to it by now. She simply hugged her schoolbag and kept nagging beside him:

"The college entrance exam is coming up soon. Auntie said that you should put the webnovels aside for a while and focus on reviewing. If you put in a little effort, you can get into a first-tier university. Then you can go to the same university as me, and I can keep finding novels for you."

"I have my own plans."

"Your plan is to keep things exactly as they are, all the way through university and even into society?" Lu Ya looked at him earnestly. "You can't go on like this for your whole life, can you?"

"Why not?"

"You'll regret it."

Jiang Si stuffed the book Lu Ya had handed him back into her hands and turned to leave. "Fate is set in stone; the destined one is already defeated."

Lu Ya had read plenty of novels, hoping to understand the strange things he muttered about every day, so she knew the next line of the poem.

"The Immortal Venerable regretted it, but I do not!"

Hugging her schoolbag, she stamped her foot. "Why won't you listen to reason?"

Just as she was about to catch up with him, a small truck smashed through the wall beside them with a thunderous crash!

The alley was narrow to begin with, and the small truck suddenly squeezed into it, taking up the entire road!

Then, without slowing down at all, it charged straight at the two of them. There was nowhere to dodge.

"Jiang Si!"

The young man looked up at the dazed driver and walked straight toward him without giving way!

He kicked a large rock beside him beneath the truck's wheel. The small truck bounced and slowed slightly. Jiang Si met it head-on with a front kick, and his shin bone snapped on the spot.

Yet he really did make the small truck pause for an instant.

Then he slammed his whole body into it, knocking the front of the truck off course, but also sending himself along with it.

Pinned between the truck's front end and the wall, he was dragged along, scraping against it.

At last, the truck came to a grinding halt right in front of Lu Ya.

Dazed, Lu Ya dropped onto her butt, then scrambled back up, at a loss as she stared at the young man. His clothes had been scraped to shreds, and half his body was drenched in blood. He swayed, yet still forced himself to stand.

The driver climbed out of the truck, his face covered in blood, and nervously called someone. Lu Ya's eyes immediately reddened.

"Y-you idiot! Why didn't you run...?"

The quiet alley gradually grew noisy. Her vision blurred until she could no longer see anything, but before Jiang Si fell, he still managed to give a disdainful sneer:

"Me? Dodge its charge?!"