Chapter 1: Yaoxing Academy 1 Part 1

“Swish—bang!”

In broad daylight, several colorful fireworks exploded in the sky above Yaoxing Academy. Flowers and balloons decorated the campus everywhere, even more extravagantly than on the school anniversary.

In mid-air, several drones pulled a banner as it slowly rose.

“What does it say?” At the window of Junior Year Class 3 classroom, a few students craned their necks to look.

“【Welcoming Young Master Xun’s return from his studies abroad!】”

“Hahaha, even Consort Xi’s return to the palace didn’t have this much fanfare.” The students burst into laughter. “Who did this?”

“Who else but Yan Feng and his bunch of idiots? The moment Young Master Xun came back, they wagged their tails like dogs seeing their master.”

“Sigh, Yaoxing is about to get ‘lively’ again.” Someone spoke with unease.

“What are you worried about?” His desk mate patted his shoulder, his gaze drifting to an empty seat in the corner of the classroom. “The one who should be worried is him, right?”

*

Xun Ji only felt a buzzing in his head, accompanied by waves of stabbing pain. It took him a good while to finally hear the voices around him clearly.

“…Young Master Xun, are you alright?”

A face slick with oil and powder leaned close to him, asking with concern.

Xun Ji shook his head to dispel the pain. His fluffy golden hair shimmered brilliantly under the sunlight. From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the name tag on the man’s uniform: Yan Feng.

Xun Ji shoved his hands into the pockets of his school pants. Surrounded by a group of underlings, he strode forward with an arrogant gait and tossed out a sentence with his chin:

“Cut the crap. Let’s go.”

【That’s it!】 The System chattered excitedly in his mind, clapping figuratively with exaggerated tone:

【Host is the perfect School Bully!】

“No, I’m not.” Xun Ji kept a straight face, but inside, he was on the verge of collapse.

He was just an ordinary office drone. While crossing the street, he had acted heroically to save someone about to be hit by a massive truck, pushing the pedestrian out of the way—only to get crushed into mincemeat himself and die on the spot. Before he could even taste death properly, he was bound by something calling itself the “Dark Protagonist Training System” and thrown into this elite academy—Yaoxing Academy.

According to the System, this was the world of a novel.

【With redemption stories all the rage these days, our Dark Fiction Division needs to hit our targets. To prevent the Small World’s Protagonist from being redeemed, we must select suitable Taskers to torment the Protagonist ruthlessly and make him blacken!】

The System had explained.

Xun Ji was speechless: “Is it appropriate to pick a model citizen like me, who did a good deed, to play the villain?”

【Uh…】 The System hemmed and hawed. 【Actually… the person Host saved was a vicious murderer. I had selected him, but I didn’t expect Host to rush in…】

Xun Ji: “…Can I return it?”

【No.】 The System was firm. 【Host must complete the tasks and earn 100,000 Points to revive.】

Xun Ji: “How do I earn Points?”

System: 【By completing key plot points and Daily Tasks, you can gain Points.】

【Key plot points greatly increase the Protagonist Blackening Value and must be completed.】 The System explained. 【There’s only one Daily Task: bully the Protagonist! As long as Host bullies the Protagonist every day, you’ll get Points daily.】

“Young Master Xun, it’s right here.” Yan Feng’s voice interrupted Xun Ji’s mental conversation with the System.

Before them stood a remote warehouse far from the main school buildings, its door tightly shut, with no sound leaking out.

“Young Master Xun hasn’t been back to Yaoxing for a year, so we specially prepared a toy for you.” Yan Feng winked at Xun Ji smugly, as if seeking praise. “Guaranteed to keep you entertained.”

With that, he deftly opened the warehouse door. A damp, musty smell mixed with swirling dust assaulted them.

Xun Ji frowned slightly. He seemed to catch a faint whiff of blood as well.

The warehouse was spacious, but piled high around the edges with discarded sports equipment, desks, chairs, and other junk. A large, battered blackboard hung on the wall, its edges adorned with flowers and balloons. Colorful chalk had scrawled countless crooked hearts around a bold line of text:

“Welcoming Young Master Xun’s return from his studies abroad!”

In the small clearing at the center stood a damaged basketball hoop.

Xun Ji’s pupils contracted sharply. Hanging from it was a person.

The man’s hands were suspended above his head, his back to the door, bound to the hoop with thin, silvery wires wrapping his entire body.

Those weren’t ordinary ropes… Xun Ji’s gaze shifted to an electric baton lying on the ground.

Iron wire.

“Aren’t high schoolers nowadays going too far?” Xun Ji’s pupils shook as he frantically pinged the System in his mind. “With all that iron wire on him, one zap from the electric baton, and it could be fatal!”

The System reassured him: 【Don’t worry, Host. The Protagonist won’t die that easily. This time, Yan Feng specially prepared this electric shock game to please you.】

“Game? Please me?”

The System didn’t notice the off-note in Xun Ji’s tone and continued chattering: 【Yeah, yeah! Host is the School Bully, after all. You love tormenting people the most.】

Xun Ji’s expression cooled a few degrees as he looked toward Yan Feng, who was scolding his underlings.

“Where are those two guys? Weren’t they supposed to stay here and watch Lu Zhou?”

Seeing Xun Ji look at him, Yan Feng quickly plastered on a smile: “Young Master Xun, this is the toy we prepared for you.”

He pointed at the figure hanging from the basketball hoop. “That little bastard from Junior Year Class 3, Lu Zhou. A poor rat crawled out of the gutter, somehow wormed his way into Yaoxing. While you were away this year, we wanted to teach him a lesson on your behalf, but the punk dared to fight back. Now he’s finally in our hands.”

Yan Feng’s face darkened, as if recalling something.

“Pah, suicidal bastard!” An underling spat in agreement. “Now that Young Master Xun is back, you’re in for it!”

Another underling stared at the hanging figure and hesitated, leaning close to Yan Feng’s ear: “Brother Yan, there’s something…”

Yan Feng impatiently waved him off: “Tell me later. Don’t interrupt Young Master Xun’s welcome ceremony!”

He pulled out a salute cannon from somewhere, sidling up to Xun Ji like a sleek, shiny lapdog, flashing a brilliant smile.

The surrounding underlings clapped in unison as if rehearsed, shouting: “Welcome Young Master Xun’s return! Welcome Young Master Xun’s return!”

Yan Feng twisted his wrist. Before Xun Ji could stop him—

“Bang!”

Golden confetti exploded into the air.

Sunlight filtered through the grimy windows, casting a hazy glow over the shower of gold. The young man drenched in it stood casually, but his nearly 1.9-meter height made him tower over others naturally. The boyish softness had faded from his features, revealing sharp edges. Crisp, defined lines added a touch of aloofness to his handsome face.

Scattered golden flecks danced around him, faithfully reflecting every detail from head to toe, flawless without a single imperfection.

This feast of light and shadow was shattered by Xun Ji’s sudden outstretched hands.

“Ah—!!” A shrill scream followed right on the heels of the salute cannon’s blast.

The stack of discarded desks and chairs behind Yan Feng suddenly toppled, crashing down on him with a boom. Yan Feng cried out in pain as he hit the ground, his lower body pinned solidly.