A Novel World

Thunder exploded overhead.

Cen Xia's mind had been sluggish with drowsiness since morning, but the shock cleared it somewhat. He blinked hard, and the scene before him came into focus.

Someone was being bullied.

He was one of the onlookers.

Through a gap in the crowd ahead, Cen Xia saw the boy at the center of it all. He was lying on the ground, his thin body trembling, his face hidden by black hair. The ends were damp, seemingly with sweat.

Cen Xia looked up at the sky outside the building. It was gloomy, and dark clouds were gathering, brewing a heavy downpour.

He wondered idly whether this farce would end before the rain started. His clothes were still hanging on the balcony.

The answer was no.

Another thunderclap boomed, followed by a downpour. The sound of rain reached his ears, along with the sounds of several boys up ahead beating and cursing someone.

Cen Xia saw the boy on the ground trembling even harder. Someone kicked him, and he clutched his stomach and began to groan in pain.

"Put those little schemes of yours away. If you dare go near that person again, you can wait for death!" The slightly effeminate voice was as grating as if its tone had been steeped in poison.

Cen Xia was standing near the back and couldn't see the speaker's face clearly.

The farce finally came to an end. After delivering their threats, the boys leading the group went downstairs, and the crowd of onlookers dispersed. Cen Xia left behind the crowd. When he reached the corner, he glanced back. The boy was still lying on the ground.

Cen Xia turned his head and kept walking.

Not long after he left, a boy came running over and helped the person on the ground up. "Shi Su, how are you?"

This was the first rain since Cen Xia had transmigrated to this world.

The rain was so heavy that, even with an umbrella, Cen Xia had half his body soaked by the drops blowing in. He began to grow irritated, wondering why the school had to be built so big. It took at least half an hour to walk from the activities building to the dormitory area.

No, he shouldn't blame the school. He should blame the author who had created this world.

This world was full of lunatics.

When he reached the sports field, Cen Xia stopped.

A figure was kneeling in the middle of the field, wearing a school uniform and looking disheveled in the pouring rain.

This was another of those young masters' and young misses' amusements. Cen Xia knew that perfectly well, and he also knew there was nothing he could do.

Kanliter Academy was a noble school in the truest sense. Its hierarchy was divided into five levels like a pyramid. Those at the peak were as unreachable as the clouds, while those at the bottom could only curl up in the shadows, like ants that could be crushed at any moment.

The school was like society in miniature. Students here had to learn not only academic knowledge, but also how to socialize and cultivate connections. Naturally, a division into ranks emerged.

At the very bottom were the school's specially admitted students. They had no good family backgrounds, only outstanding grades that were one in ten thousand. The noble academy therefore made an exception to admit them, waived their tuition and fees, and gave them access to a better education, so it could show the outside world how inclusive it was.

Aside from the specially admitted students, almost all the others came from families that were either wealthy or powerful. The fees they paid each year were enough for the school to provide them with the best teachers in the world and the most scientific, meticulous education.

The world of the wealthy likewise fawned on those above and trampled on those below, so these people were also divided into ranks according to their family backgrounds.

In this world's setting, only five people could truly sit securely at the peak of the pyramid. Their families controlled almost all of the country's lifelines; in medicine, politics, economics, the military, and technology, there was no getting around them.

Watching the figure sway on the verge of collapse, Cen Xia unconsciously took a step forward. Then, as it did every time, pain began spreading from his heart, making him groan.

"Fuck." Cen Xia clutched his chest and cursed shakily.

The world was stopping him from acting. Any behavior that didn't fit his NPC role was forbidden.

The umbrella slipped from his unsteady grip and fell to the ground. At last, he was soaked through.

After about two minutes, the heart-rending pain finally subsided. Cen Xia regained a little strength, picked up the umbrella with a trembling hand, and wiped the rain from his face.

Far across the field, another figure finally hurried over. The person kneeling on the field could hold on no longer and collapsed into the newcomer's arms.

Several more people then appeared.

The rain was pouring down, and Cen Xia couldn't make out their faces. He could only see the golden badges pinned to their chests.

At Kanliter Academy, only three kinds of people wore badges: members of the Disciplinary Group, the Student Council, and the Silver Club. These three greatest student factions were almost entirely beyond the school's control, and the power they held was unimaginable.

All the students considered it an honor to join these three organizations.

The Disciplinary Group's badge was shaped like interlocking obsidian gears, the Student Council's was a golden clasp of two thorny rings, and the Silver Club's was a silver hourglass.

Clearly, these people were from the Student Council.

With no interest in watching any longer, Cen Xia left the field and returned to his dorm.

Just as he reached the dormitory area, the rain began to ease. By the time Cen Xia had followed the winding path back to his dorm, the downpour had nearly stopped, leaving only sparse threads of rain hanging beneath the sky.

The clothes on the balcony hadn't dried before the downpour soaked them through. Cen Xia brought them in, took a quick shower, and stuffed them into the washing machine along with the uniform he had changed out of.

Once everything was taken care of, Cen Xia lay on his bed and opened the school forum.

The title of the first pinned thread was: Let's dig into what a certain specially admitted student S has been up to.

Cen Xia clicked on it and found over a dozen pages of text and pictures.

He couldn't be bothered to read them and went straight to the comments.

[S is something else. He's only been here a little over a month, right? And he's already managed to offend Y, H, and W. I really can't tell if he did it on purpose or by accident~]

[Person above, your account is gone.]

[How many times do we have to say it? No initials! Use numbers, numbers!]

Sure enough, when Cen Xia clicked on that person's profile, a message appeared saying no such user could be found.

Because of the forum system's keyword settings, whenever any of the five at the top were mentioned, the moderators would respond swiftly. At best, the comment would be deleted; at worst, the account would be banned. Anyone who dared slander them would be retaliated against until they dropped out.

Over time, people on the forum had taken to using numbers whenever they discussed the five. The numbers weren't ranked in any order of importance, but assigned alphabetically by initial.

[SS acts all innocent on the surface, but his scheming runs unfathomably deep. Sure, he offended that bunch at the top, but he also caught their attention. What a clever move!]

[The bird that sticks its head out gets shot. SS will have it even worse later, mark my words.]

[Don't be so sure. If he really wins their favor, you'll be the ones crying!]

[Tch, who does he think he is? He actually dreams of climbing up to their level? Don't worry, we'll teach him how to behave.]

There were too many comments, so Cen Xia picked out a few with lots of likes to read. The plot was unfolding exactly as it had in his dream. Shi Su's storyline had reached the point where the whole school isolated him, and the key plot point should be next, but...

Cen Xia thought of the scene he had witnessed on the sports field. He wondered whether that person was the protagonist of a third book.

This world incorporated the plots of several novels. So far, he had discovered only two: one followed a Meteor Garden setup with a resilient little white flower, while the other took the blackening route with a real and fake young master.

They had completely different worldviews. He didn't know how they had been merged into one world.

Cen Xia felt tired. He rubbed the space between his brows, put down his phone, and fell into a deep sleep.

Everything was pitch-black. Cen Xia struggled to open his eyes, and the scene abruptly changed. He was standing in a long corridor.

There was crying up ahead. Cen Xia walked toward the sound until he stopped outside a tightly shut classroom door. The crying was coming from inside.

Cen Xia reached out to push the door open. The next second, countless voices rang in his ears, twisted and howling. Men's and women's voices all repeated the same words.

"Don't go in."

"Don't go in."

The cries pierced his eardrums like fine needles. Cen Xia clutched his ears in pain, trying to shut the voices out, but it was no use. The shouts seemed to exist inside his head, following him like a shadow unless he cut his skull open.

Just as the pain was becoming unbearable, a powerful force suddenly shoved him hard from behind. The tightly shut door vanished without a trace, and he stumbled into the classroom.

The voices at his ears were gone. After a burst of static, they were replaced by soft, incessant sobbing.

The sobs came from a boy crouching in the corner with his head lowered. He was thin, and Cen Xia couldn't see his face, but he felt as though he had seen him somewhere before.

"Who are you?" Cen Xia heard himself ask.

The boy raised a tear-streaked face. "I'm Shi Su..."

"Boom-"

The scene collapsed with a crash.

It was no longer that classroom. This was a room piled high with clutter.

The boy named Shi Su was being held down on the floor. None of the people surrounding him had faces.

"What are you doing?" He saw himself rush forward and push the crowd aside.

Then the objects around him began to dissolve, and the figures in the crowd began to blur. A hand reached from behind and settled on his shoulder.

Cen Xia turned and saw a blank face. The person had no facial features, but the spot where his mouth should have been opened and closed.

"Why did you save me? Can you save me?"

Pain began spreading from his heart again. A pale hand pierced Cen Xia's chest, and he looked down to see his own heart crushed.

"-"

Cen Xia jolted awake from the dream, his eyes wide as he gulped for air.

He turned over, switched on the night-light, and sat up in bed. After his pounding heart had calmed, he picked up his phone and lit the screen.

Four in the morning.

Cen Xia leaned against the headboard and began recalling the dream he had just had. He could no longer remember the details, but he knew it was about the first time he had met Shi Su.

It was also the first time he had learned that the will of this world could not be defied.

So he began to follow everything that happened in the plot, obediently playing the part of a background character.