To Lu Renyi, discussion was no great concern. He cared more about what identity those creators planned to assign him.
Most of the comic followed Lin Shubei's viewpoint, but it occasionally recorded other people's actions. Without exception, those people were members of the protagonist's group.
Jian Yi, Qi Yue, Ke Qi, and Xie Qin had all appeared separately from Lin Shubei to some extent. Readers generally used that to judge how important their roles would be.
But Lu Renyi had yet to receive a single scene of himself acting alone. When he first appeared, the only label beside his name and age was "Lin Shubei's roommate."
Every one of Lu Renyi's later appearances was also tied to Lin Shubei. Even something as heroic as drawing the enemy fire away was not depicted separately, never mind his later, highly dramatic conversation with Tang Hui.
If the comic did not mention any of that now, either Lu Renyi was not important enough to deserve his own scenes yet, or the creators were saving everything for a later reversal.
"But I'm just an ordinary student. Even if I somehow win the favor of the protagonist's group and they gradually accept me, what kind of reversal could there possibly be?"
The System did not understand either. It pulled all of Lu Renyi's information from its database, but apart from the fact that he had earned good grades throughout his life, it found nothing that distinguished him from anyone else.
If anything, he was far more ordinary.
Which member of the protagonist's group was not powerful? Which one was unattractive? Some came from the most illustrious backgrounds, while plenty had suffered difficult pasts.
By comparison, even Lu Renyi growing up in an orphanage was nothing remarkable. The orphanage stood in a prosperous part of the capital and offered better facilities than many ordinary families. Plenty of people donated to it. Apart from having little pocket money of his own, Lu Renyi had never lacked anything.
"By the way, Host, why weren't you adopted?"
Good looks and excellent grades alone should have attracted plenty of people.
"I was four when I entered the orphanage. I had a bad temper then and drove plenty of people away. Once I started elementary school, even fewer families were willing to adopt me. They worried I was too old to grow attached to them, and I didn't want to adapt to a new environment or go somewhere unfamiliar and humble myself while watching everyone's mood. So I simply stayed at the orphanage."
Lu Renyi had been out for a while. If he did not return soon, Tang Hui would probably wonder where he had gone and come looking for him.
"Besides, I can earn my own money now, and the academy provides financial assistance. I don't need to worry about supporting myself, so there's even less reason to go looking for familial affection."
The answer was well supported and perfectly logical, as though he had organized it after being asked the same thing many times. That was why it came straight out when the System wondered aloud.
Lu Renyi thought nothing of it, but the System believed it had touched on a painful subject and no longer dared say a word.
When he returned, Lin Shubei was messaging someone. His expression was both guilty and delighted. Lu Renyi silently stood farther away, afraid the man's foolishness might be contagious.
"You two stay here. Don't leave without permission. Message me if anything happens. A teacher will come watch over you."
Tang Hui received a call and left after exchanging only a few words, leaving Lu Renyi and Lin Shubei staring at each other.
But Lu Renyi was clearly the only one who found it awkward. After everything they had gone through, Lin Shubei assumed their relationship had improved considerably.
"Do you think the principal went to find the people behind this? She told me she planned to fight that organization to the bitter end. But for some reason, the Zhou family stopped the academy from investigating further. They said they wanted to take Zhou Cheng's body home for burial and refused to allow an autopsy."
Lin Shubei looked at Zhou Cheng, who lay on the hospital bed beside them. More than fear, he felt a sense of dissonance. Only a few hours ago, they had clashed. Zhou Cheng's sarcastic behavior had certainly been unpleasant, but it was still difficult to accept that his life had vanished in the blink of an eye.
"The family's interests naturally matter more than one person's life or death. Zhou Cheng can only blame his bad luck this time. That organization was clearly targeting the Zhou family. Otherwise, the other person wouldn't have escaped unharmed. And from the look of things, he wasn't all that important to his parents either."
Lu Renyi spoke so coldly that even Lin Shubei froze, unable to believe those words had come from him with such an expressionless face.
"Aren't you surprised at all? Zhou Cheng even lost his life, yet you're saying he should blame his bad luck. Isn't that a little too..."
"Heartless?"
Lu Renyi finished the word Lin Shubei found difficult to say. He did not look surprised. Instead, he stared at Lin Shubei for a long moment before sighing.
"Didn't you say before that you wanted to serve in the military someday? If one person's death is enough to make you grieve, your tears will probably flood the entire academy by then."
"Of course I'd grieve if a comrade died."
Lin Shubei's instinctive retort earned no agreement from Lu Renyi. Lu Renyi gave a mocking smile.
"Comrade? Zhou Cheng wasn't your comrade. He was trying to kill us just now. If I hadn't dodged quickly, I'd be the one lying here."
Lin Shubei did not know how to answer. He knew Zhou Cheng had attacked viciously. At first, Lin Shubei had believed he could protect Lu Renyi, which was why he had dragged him into the dispute.
But when Lin Shubei was held back later, he had been unable to spare any attention for Lu Renyi. If Lu Renyi had not been as strong as he was, then even if the mastermind had been targeting Zhou Cheng, Lu Renyi could have been caught in the crossfire and died on the spot just as Zhou Cheng had.
Something felt wrong to Lin Shubei, but he could not identify it. Silence descended over the room. Lu Renyi stared blankly at the flowers set to one side until Lin Shubei quietly apologized and pulled him from his thoughts.
"I was too arrogant before. Otherwise, you wouldn't be stuck here wasting time with me now."
During the summer, Lin Shubei had joined forces with Jian Yi and Qi Yue to find the culprit who had caused his parents to fall into a coma. Although he did not believe his strength was among the very best, he had thought himself firmly within the first tier.
But today, not only had he failed to help at all, he had also gotten Lu Renyi suspected. Lu Renyi had even drawn away most of their attackers, yet Lin Shubei had still fallen unconscious despite Lu Renyi warning him to be careful not to get hurt...
Wait. How had Lu Renyi known that, after an injury, the toxin would enter the body through the bloodstream? Even Lin Shubei and Tang Hui had not learned that until Jiang Hong examined him.
Once he realized that, Lin Shubei finally understood what had felt wrong.
Everything had gone too smoothly.
Lu Renyi knew far too much.
He knew the plants had become poisonous because of an ability. He knew not to touch them directly and had wrapped one in paper before bringing it back. He knew the plants would attack on their own. He knew people were approaching and asked whether Lin Shubei was fast enough before they even appeared.
"You knew something would happen today, didn't you?"
Lu Renyi: ?
He looked at Lin Shubei in confusion, unable to understand how the man's thoughts had suddenly leaped there.
"I'm not a precognition-type ability user. How could I possibly have known what would happen today?"
"Then how did you know the plants carried a toxin? I assumed the principal had mentioned it to you earlier, so I believed you. But she hadn't. No one gave you that information in advance."
"In other words, you figured it out yourself. No matter how strong your analytical ability is, you couldn't possibly know the answer from a single glance, could you?"
"How exactly did you know something would happen today?"
If Lu Renyi had known in advance, why had he not alerted a teacher? Could Zhou Cheng's life truly have been unworthy of saving?
"I think you've misunderstood. I didn't know in advance that there would be casualties today. If I had, I never would have agreed to help you."
"As for everything else, those were only guesses. Zhou Cheng was foaming at the mouth. That matched my stereotypical idea of poisoning rather well."
"Poisoning requires exposure—through the air or physical contact. Aside from that, the only possibility was something we encountered in the simulated exercise room. Other than the plants inside, there weren't any other options, were there?"
"Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't believe me. But you need evidence before suspecting someone. All of this was built on guesses. I wasn't certain at first either. I was merely lucky, so everything went smoothly."
Whenever this happened, Lu Renyi became flippant and unserious. Lin Shubei could not tell whether he was brushing him off or genuinely believed what he said.
"I see. You really were lucky."
Lin Shubei did not believe him.
Lu Renyi did not find that strange. He was the protagonist, after all. If he were that easy to fool, he would not be the protagonist.
"Host, you mustn't fall out with anyone in the protagonist's group. You need to follow them through the rest of the plot."
"Especially the male lead himself. If you fall out with him, you'll easily be pushed to the sidelines!"
The System was terribly anxious. The atmosphere between Lin Shubei and Lu Renyi had turned strange, as if they could start fighting at any moment. Worse, Lin Shubei seemed to have developed a serious misunderstanding about Lu Renyi.
"Host, why did you explain so much at first, only to blame everything on luck at the end? You could have told me and had me fabricate evidence!"
"Because Lin Shubei is entertaining like this. Don't you think so?"
The calm had long vanished from Lin Shubei's eyes. Only a hidden coldness remained. Lu Renyi did not need to think to know what was going through his mind.
"You want to distance yourself from me now, don't you?"
Lu Renyi's excessively direct statement caught Lin Shubei off guard, but he did not deny it.
Lin Shubei did not dare form a close relationship with someone who could face death with such cold indifference.
"All right. You probably don't want to stay with me either. I'll go find a teacher."
Lu Renyi shrugged, left the room, and found Zheng Jue standing outside the door.
"Hey, Teacher Zheng!"
"Wasn't Jiang Yan the one who messaged you and told you to be careful? Why didn't you tell him?"
When Lu Renyi came out, Zheng Jue stubbed out his cigarette, leaned against the corridor wall, and tilted his head as he waited for an answer.
"Don't you think this is entertaining?"
Entertaining?
Zheng Jue could not see what was entertaining about it. He only thought Lu Renyi was genuinely reckless.
"Lin Shubei is your roommate, at least. Aren't you afraid that teasing him like this will make him fall out with you and start targeting you?"
Targeting him was impossible. Lin Shubei looked as though he disliked following rules, but he was still the protagonist. At heart, he remained a good person devoted to love and justice. He would never deliberately target someone. At most, he would sulk.
"A roommate isn't the same as a friend. We don't need to be particularly close. Staying out of each other's way is fine too. Besides, even if I don't say anything, someone else will tell him eventually."
Lu Renyi sat on the bench beside Zheng Jue, showing no trace of panic over being misunderstood.
"Host, when did Jiang Yan tell you that the plants in the simulated exercise room were the problem?"
The System recalled the earlier events. It did not remember Jiang Yan and Lu Renyi speaking at close range. Jiang Yan had only sent two messages.
"Jiang Yan wanted to use the opportunity to test my strength, so he must have made arrangements with Zheng Jue in advance. The moment something happened, he would naturally learn about it."
"When the security guard took me away, Jiang Yan happened to be asking about my test results, so I told him everything else as well. He realized something was wrong and warned me to be careful."
"Later, I messaged him to say I planned to go with Lin Shubei. By then, he had already found the source and told me I could use that method to get away. Of course I had to listen to my teacher."
Taken individually, none of those statements presented a problem. Put together, however, they were far too coincidental.
It was as though someone were secretly controlling everything, leaving them no choice but to proceed along a predetermined path.
The System worried that something beyond its department's control might appear in this world. It quietly filed a report, asking its department head whether they should inspect the world's stability.
The department head did not respond, so the System opened the world's attributes on its own.
【Current World Stability: 87. Assessment: Safe】
The answer was barely reassuring. As long as stability remained at least 70, nothing like a character awakening and turning the tables to kill the protagonist would occur.
"Jiang Yan isn't nearly as interested in Lin Shubei as he is in you. And what makes you so sure he'll explain things to Lin Shubei for you?"
Lu Renyi smiled and said only, "Who knows?" He clearly had no intention of answering further.
Zheng Jue had never expected a proper explanation. He had merely paid more attention to Lu Renyi because Jiang Yan had called him interesting.
But at present, Lu Renyi appeared more ordinary than Zheng Jue had expected.
His strength was decent, but he was still nowhere near the standard required to join a class led by Jiang Yan.
Moreover, Lu Renyi had been far too calm in the face of a classmate's death. Even if he never went to the battlefield, he would still travel to various places for practical training while at the academy. A disposition that cold was poorly suited to dealing with other people.
Zheng Jue did not want to entrust his back to someone like that.
"There's always a chance. Maybe Teacher Jiang will arrive any moment now."
Remembering the resistance in Lin Shubei's eyes, Lu Renyi suddenly felt expectant.
"I'll definitely record it when he does."
Lu Renyi picked up his phone again and began looking through something. Zheng Jue was not sociable by nature. Seeing that Lu Renyi was not in the mood to talk, he sat to one side and let his mind go blank.
When Jiang Yan and Tang Hui arrived, they found the two sitting at opposite ends of a corridor bench.
"What's wrong with you two? Don't tell me you had a fight."
Zheng Jue was accustomed to Jiang Yan's wild leaps of thought and continued emptying his mind. Lu Renyi, in contrast, looked even friendlier than before.
"Long time no see, Teacher Jiang."
"Mm. We only met yesterday. You weren't poisoned, were you? I went to catch someone just now, ran into the principal, and came with her to check on you."
"Lin Shubei passed out. I'm fine."
"He passed out? Didn't I warn you in advance to be careful and not touch anything directly? Didn't you tell him?"
Jiang Yan remembered messaging Lu Renyi earlier and warning him to be careful. Jiang Yan had discovered the trail of an ability user and was busy trying to catch the person. Lu Renyi happened to say that he needed a way to extricate himself, so Jiang Yan explained the situation and told them to bring back two plants for examination.
He had warned Lu Renyi repeatedly to keep the plants isolated while carrying them. How had something still gone wrong?
"We were ambushed on the way. After we split up, he may have thrown away the paper."
"Is that so?"
Jiang Yan did not entirely believe him. There was something strange about the righteous expression on Lu Renyi's face.
"Yes. Teacher Jiang, hurry inside and check on Lin Shubei. He felt terrible just now."
Jiang Yan nodded. A student being injured was his failure. He blamed himself as he pushed open the door.
"I should have gone with you. If I'd known, I wouldn't have told you those plants were poisonous. Then Lin Shubei wouldn't have..."
The moment Jiang Yan opened the door, he saw Lin Shubei standing there in silence, head lowered.
Before Jiang Yan could ask what was happening, Lu Renyi walked over, turned on his camera, and began recording.
"Wow. Good thing I saved ten percent of my battery."