Chapter 2: Yaoxing Academy 2 Part 1

Lu Zhou’s mother had died.

The driver had told Xun Ji this news. That day, the driver had taken him to the hospital, where his mother was undergoing her final rescue efforts. Lu Zhou had watched with his own eyes as she took her last breath.

“If you’d arrived even a moment later, you might not have even caught her final glimpse,” the driver had said.

Xun Ji hadn’t seen Lu Zhou since that day. He must have been busy handling the funeral arrangements. Without any Tasks to do, Xun Ji was more than happy for the break. While sighing to himself, he fully enjoyed several days of Young Master Xun’s lavish, hedonistic lifestyle.

As a longtime corporate drone who’d been squeezed dry, this sky-high wealth had finally come his way.

【Host, if you’re so bored with nothing to do, why not go find the Protagonist and grind some Daily Tasks?】 The System couldn’t stand it anymore.

It was fine if it hadn’t brought it up, but the mere mention of Daily Tasks soured Xun Ji’s mood again.

That day, when Xun Ji had blurted out, “Be my dog,” amid the stunned gazes of his lackeys and Lu Zhou’s murderous glare, the System had joyfully issued him his first reward:

【Ding! Daily Task completed: Humiliate the Protagonist. Reward: 10 Points.】

10 Points—what kind of amount was that? If he bullied the Protagonist once a day, it’d take him nearly 30 years of straight bullying to scrape together the 100,000 Points needed for revival!

【That’s not how it works,】 the System hurriedly clarified. 【In each Small World, there’s a cap of 10,000 Points from Daily Tasks—once you hit it, no more can be earned. Your main job as Host is to complete Key Plot Points and advance the Protagonist’s Blackening Value. Daily Tasks are just a System perk.】

What fucking perk.

Xun Ji unwillingly mustered some enthusiasm. Even mosquitoes were meat; better to grind them out early and lie flat sooner. Plus, after Lu Zhou’s mother passed, he’d checked the Blackening Value again, and it had already risen to 40%.

As expected of a dark fiction Protagonist. Xun Ji figured he might not even need to go full major villain—just grinding Daily Tasks would blacken the guy on his own.

Seeing him tempted, the System struck while the iron was hot: 【Host, you’re born to be the School Bully! Making the Protagonist your dog on the first Task—his face turned green that day!】

Xun Ji: “Heh.”

He certainly wouldn’t admit that the line had been straight out of his scummy old boss’s playbook.

Back when he’d been a green newbie, he’d made one tiny mistake, only to get chewed out to his face. Then his boss had given him two choices:

“Option one: Quit and get the hell out of the company! Option two: From now on, be the company’s dog—never defy company orders, offer up your total loyalty to the company!”

The painful memory filled Xun Ji with sorrow, snuffing out half his freshly kindled drive. Before, he’d slaved away as a corporate drone for survival; now that he’d transmigrated into a Celestial Dragon, he still had to grind for Tasks.

Xun Ji had just straightened up halfway when he slowly slumped back down. Amid the System’s angry beeps of disappointment, he tossed out a perfunctory line:

“I’ll go after I finish these Strawberries.”

Lin Yule walked into the classroom and saw exactly this scene.

The blond teen lounged sideways across his chair, his upper body lazily propped against the windowsill, eyes half-closed as he savored the breeze’s caress. A pair of long legs stretched arrogantly forward, blocking the aisle between two rows of desks.

As if afraid others wouldn’t peg him as the School Bully.

Even worse, there wasn’t a single book on Xun Ji’s desk—instead, it held a plate piled with plump, glistening Strawberries. Beside him, one student was carefully plucking off the green stems, while another held a bowl of creamy white fresh whipped cream in both hands.

Stemmed Strawberries were dipped at the top in cream and fed into Xun Ji’s half-open mouth. Xun Ji’s mouth overflowed with the sour-sweet juices and creamy sweetness; his free hand casually patted the nearby student’s cheek in approval.

The boy holding the cream bowl flushed red where he’d been patted, his hands trembling slightly on the bowl.

He sneaked a glance upward, dazzled by a glow of fluorescent blue—that was the custom luxury Watch on Xun Ji’s wrist. Up further, past the casually open suit uniform, to the slender neck, then the jaw, the lips.

A bit of cream clung to his lips; Xun Ji stuck out his tongue and licked it off.

The boy’s gaze jerked downward as if scalded.

Lin Yule was speechless: “A Xun, what kind of way is that to eat?”

Xun Ji glanced at the newcomer’s name tag: Lin Yule. Then to his face—pretty cute and obedient-looking, though topped with a head of fiery red short hair that was flashy yet endearing.

Yaoxing Academy students usually called Xun Ji “Young Master Xun.” This was the first time someone had called him “A Xun.”

The classmates all clearly knew this redhead, greeting him one after another:

“Good, Yu Ge.”

“Yu Ge’s back—feeling better?”

Lin Yule responded to each, and only after the greetings did he notice Xun Ji staring at him. He scooted up close, voice soft:

“Alright, don’t be mad. I really was sick those past few days, that’s why I couldn’t come pick you up back at school.”

Oh, so another lackey—and one of the trusted inner circle, at that.

Xun Ji got it and waved a hand to show it was no big deal.

Lin Yule eyed Xun Ji eagerly, then the plate of Strawberries, his intent obvious.