Chapter 11
Hotheaded Rookie
As the massive hand on the clock dial pointed to the position representing six fifty, the melodious 6451~ end-of-class bell echoed through the vast campus of Pingyang City No. 3 High School.
In the classrooms across several floors of the building, a sudden clamor erupted. Very quickly, large groups of students began streaming out of the teaching building in twos and threes, forming clusters as they chatted and moved. The crowd nearly filled the square in front of the building.
Soon, as the main wave of students withdrew, only a few scattered figures remained in each classroom.
In one of those classrooms, a young boy packing his schoolbag suddenly felt a push on his shoulder.
He turned his head and was met with a sharp-featured, monkey-like face.
This strange primate-like creature, looking like a cross between a rat and a monkey, wore a white school uniform. With a furrowed brow and a faintly malicious expression, it opened its mouth.
"Kid, let me give you a heads-up. Don't go claiming you forgot later."
"Sure. Just like before — you really think we're afraid of you?"
"Alright, you’ve got guts. Let’s see if you still dare to talk like that later." The monkey-rat freak pulled a disgusted expression, the kind that made one nauseous just looking at it. With narrow eyes glaring and mouth slightly open, it nodded and turned away, hands shoved into its pockets as it walked off slowly.
"If you're really that brave, then don’t bring backup next time."
The boy sneered at its retreating back, replying in a low but firm voice.
"Say that again if you dare!" The monkey suddenly stopped in its tracks, spun around, and stared at the boy with bulging eyes, puffing out its chest as it took a few steps back toward him.
"I will say it again. Everyone knows who’s really spineless. What, got a problem?"
The boy’s body stiffened slightly, but he immediately forced himself into a confident stance and raised his voice in response.
The monkey-rat freak hadn’t expected him to really stand his ground. Now, in terms of presence, the two were evenly matched (at least in his own mind), and that made him very irritated. For someone like him, failing to intimidate the other with harsh words was extremely frustrating.
"You—!" Just as the monkey-rat freak opened its mouth, ready to throw a punch, the boy's tension from earlier vanished. He stepped forward unflinchingly, standing his ground.
"What? You want to throw down right here, one-on-one?"
The boy was a few centimeters taller than the monkey-rat freak. It might not seem like much, but in a true face-off like this, his downward gaze and well-built frame exerted a completely different level of pressure.
The monkey-rat freak paused for a second, then pulled a nasty face and turned away grumbling under his breath.
He looked like a clown, lost like a clown — exactly because he was a clown.
Watching the monkey-rat freak’s figure disappear at the classroom door, the boy suddenly thought of those humans who went hunting with hounds. The ones who barked the loudest and most furiously were always the dogs on a leash…
The boy took a few deep breaths, calming the adrenaline surging through his body and his pounding heart.
Could this be… the Emperor Engine? he thought, half-serious, half-joking.
The few students who had stayed behind in the classroom were all well-behaved kids — the kind who had never seen any real conflict before. Just now, they had been so terrified they didn’t even dare to breathe.
Now that the aggressive primate had finally left, the group let out a collective sigh of relief and hurriedly began packing up their bags, ready to flee the scene.
Of course, there were still a few outliers who, from the beginning of the confrontation until the very end, had kept their heads down reading or working on problems. These ones were of a different cultivation path altogether — hardcore grinders, their serene composure suggesting at least Stage Two of the Path of the Study Gods. Beings of this level clearly transcended the realm of mere mortals.
After dragging things out for a while, the boy finally finished packing his bag — though he hadn’t put many books in it to begin with. But after staring at the bag for a few seconds, he took off the strap again and slowly slid the packed bag back into his desk.
"Hey, Qiming, are you really going to fight them?"
A somewhat friendly voice came from behind. The boy turned his head.
"Yeah. Though I wouldn’t really call it a fight — judging from the scale of today’s setup, it looks like I’m just going over there to get beaten."
"That’s no different, is it?" The speaker gave a bitter smile. "You’re going alone to take them on — in the end, it’s still a beating."
"Yeah, they told me they want to settle things today." The boy nodded and sighed. "A lone hero can’t stand against a crowd."
But he had no choice. This group usually did all kinds of vile things — bullying both boys and girls — in places around the school where teachers never bothered to intervene. He had clashed with them plenty of times before, and thanks to his decent physique, had humiliated them on more than one occasion.
And lately, a chain reaction of small incidents had caused tensions between them to escalate further and further. Now, things had almost reached the point of irreconcilable hatred.
Unfortunately, villains always had their little gangs, while good people usually stood alone.
The male classmate who had just spoken let out a sigh as he watched the boy’s back.
His friend — Zhang Qiming — was a good person. Undeniably a good person.
At least, in this era when school bullying couldn’t be eradicated, and in this school that looked pretty on the surface but was rotten inside, being someone who dared to stand up and loudly say “No” already made him a 100% 24-karat hero.
Not that he’d always acted as some crusader for justice. In truth, his role and significance mostly came from being a “troublemaker” in the eyes of the local delinquents — someone who took all the heat on behalf of the rest.
In a way, ever since the beginning of high school, it was inevitable that this emotionally blunt, slightly odd, socially awkward hothead would attract the attention of the bullies. At first, he was just defending himself.
But once he realized the meaning behind what he was doing, he didn’t hesitate. He started taking the initiative.
And somehow, somewhere along the line, after all the fights and conflicts, he became a feared and well-known figure throughout the school.
The silent majority always watched from the sidelines. Many would privately thank him, encourage him — but when it came to standing with him in an actual confrontation, few had the courage to join him.
...
The boy never blamed them. After all, good people could only fight face to face, while villains had no interest in honor when operating in the dark.
Even if you managed to suppress them in front of a crowd, once no one was around, it would be the desks of the righteous that got trashed. And if the bullies got truly pissed, there was always the quiet path behind the cafeteria — perfect for staging a real-life School Warriors scene. Except the ones getting “warrior’d” would always be the good guys.
— That was how the few allies he’d once had had been forced to quit.
What could he do? This was just a regular public high school. The more ambitious students had all gone to private schools. And here, since classes hadn’t even been formally divided yet, the teachers still acted like they couldn’t care less. Or maybe, after all, twelve years of compulsory education simply failed to weed out these brainless, self-important fools during primary or middle school.
In the end, school bullying — as long as it didn’t result in death — was something those in power would never bother with.
He really just wanted to take the college entrance exams and leave all this behind. Even if it meant going to some random second-tier university, at least he wouldn’t have to share a world with these subhuman creatures who couldn’t even do basic math.
"I wish I could just fast forward... ugh."
Realizing that he’d spoken his thoughts out loud, the boy quickly shut his mouth. After a few deep breaths, he walked out of the classroom with firm steps, heading straight toward tonight’s battlefield.