"Host, if you want to continue hiding your true ability, I can help."
Sensing Lu Renyi's slight dejection, the System hurried to announce that it possessed highly practical functions. It even intended to use one on Lu Renyi immediately.
But Lu Renyi refused. He did not actually care how long his ability remained hidden. The principal's question had simply reminded him of something.
Tang Hui would not ask about his ability unless she had seen or heard something. Lin Shubei had been too busy escaping to report him, which could only mean that Tang Hui had seen everything.
But what exactly had she seen?
Had she seen him strolling leisurely after dodging the ability user controlling the bullets? Had she seen him evade every attack from behind while four ability users surrounded him, emerging entirely unscathed?
Or had she watched him turn around the instant an enemy attacked, locate the man's blade with precision, and successfully counterattack?
"Being watched every day in this academy is truly unpleasant."
Lu Renyi kicked the fallen leaves along the roadside as he chatted idly with the System.
"Host, don't be sad. Even the best can stumble. A minor obstacle isn't worth worrying over. The comic is about to update. Shall I show it to you?"
"I'm not sad. I only find something strange."
"Strange? Did something go wrong? According to the plot, this segment contained two plot points: the protagonist discovering something wrong with the plants, and the protagonist being attacked and falling unconscious. It was still rated A."
"Both plot points are complete? Then it seems your review department is very satisfied with the story."
That delighted the System. Its team leader had just said that the department head praised it for finding an excellent host and told it to assist Lu Renyi properly.
"Yes! The review department raised no objection to your performance in this part of the story. Judging from the rating, they even think you're the kind of character who can attract fans."
Excellent. It had been worth getting himself into such a sorry state. As long as this segment could be released smoothly, his character setting would begin to take shape.
They could all become happy drama junkies together.
"But Host, do you really not want me to help conceal your true ability? The review department said that if you keep hiding it and only reveal it at the end, you'll definitely generate enormous discussion."
"Don't worry. I can still hide it from the protagonist. But there's no need to be so meticulous around the principal. She doesn't look like someone who spreads rumors."
Besides, Tang Hui might not be able to see through him. Even if she could, it would not harm him.
Lu Renyi knocked on the infirmary door. Tang Hui herself opened it. Zhou Cheng lay inside, while Lin Shubei occupied the bed opposite. Both had gray faces. Zhou Cheng had stopped breathing, but Lin Shubei remained alive.
"You're here. Rest for a while. Someone will examine you later."
Tang Hui did not immediately interrogate Lu Renyi. Instead, she looked him up and down. Only after confirming that he truly looked exactly as she had seen on the surveillance recording did she relax.
She had suddenly remembered that she could not contact either student and opened the principal's mailbox on a whim, only to find Lu Renyi's message sitting at the top. It left her both furious and helpless.
How could these two be so reckless? When they found something suspicious, their first reaction was not to get away but to pick it up. Only afterward did they think to notify her, then casually stroll over.
If Lin Shubei had not been clever enough to know that the infirmary bordered the football field and that running this way would lead him to someone, another student might have died at the academy.
Then there was Lu Renyi. Ever since becoming the principal of Supernova Ability Academy, Tang Hui had known that students hid their strength and avoided the higher-ranked classes for all sorts of reasons. But she had met very few as strange as Lu Renyi.
Lu Renyi's records said his ability could be used as a killing move but that he would suffer backlash in return. That was why Tang Hui had urgently contacted the teacher responsible for academy surveillance. She wanted to find Lu Renyi quickly, afraid that if the enemy failed to kill him, his own backlash might.
Then she saw Lu Renyi weaving effortlessly between the attacks of four enemies in the woods and ultimately controlling the person who approached him.
His movements were crisp and efficient throughout, without the slightest sign of weakness.
Tang Hui first sighed in relief. Then she noticed the instrument around the football field on the surveillance display, designed to detect energy fluctuations from abilities, flashing green.
The instrument was meant to prevent malicious rule-breaking during competitions, so it was exceptionally sensitive to energy fluctuations. The designer had even explained that it flashed different colors for different ability types, making it easy to identify who had used which ability.
A psychic-type ability should have made the instrument flash orange, yet the light on the display was green.
Green represented an illusion-type ability. Tang Hui was still wondering whether there had been a mistake during the admissions assessment when the instrument lit orange as well.
Orange and green intertwined, then faded into stillness after Lu Renyi left. Only then did Tang Hui begin to suspect that he was a dual-ability holder.
"Is Lin Shubei all right?"
Lu Renyi sat between Zhou Cheng and Lin Shubei, surrounded by one on either side. His gaze fell on the cut across Lin Shubei's hand.
It was dark blue, as if poisoned. Yet the examination had found no remaining toxin in Lin Shubei's body. His outward appearance merely resembled Zhou Cheng's, and he remained unconscious.
Tang Hui had contacted an expert from the military hospital the moment she learned that Zhou Cheng had died. Aware of the urgency, the expert had set out immediately and should arrive soon.
"His body is fine, but he hasn't regained consciousness. We don't know whether those people's abilities caused it. If those plants in the exercise room were truly poisoned as he said, he was lucky. He had little contact and didn't die on the spot like Zhou Cheng."
Tang Hui carried a stool over and sat beside Lu Renyi. Seeing him look around listlessly, she found it strange.
"What are you looking for?"
"Aren't Zhou Cheng's parents here?"
Lu Renyi remembered the couple's earlier collapse. Even if he and Lin Shubei's words had fooled them temporarily, they could hardly still be on the phone instructing trusted subordinates about company affairs.
Moreover, they had said that they would come check on Zhou Cheng. Tang Hui was already here, yet Zhou Cheng's parents were absent. No matter how he looked at it, something was wrong.
"They went to make calls earlier. When they came back, they didn't seem very concerned about the culprit. I found them a nuisance here, so I simply made them leave."
What urgent matter could possibly be more important than their precious son?
Lu Renyi thought for a long time without finding an answer. Tang Hui, meanwhile, looked indifferent, as though she had expected this.
"Someone important in the family probably called them. They wouldn't dare refuse. That's perfectly normal."
In great families, collective interests always came first. Apart from producing generations of powerful ability users, the Zhou family's main branch had a corporate group to manage. By comparison, the death of one student was no major event.
The force behind Zhou Cheng's killer was probably powerful enough that even the Zhou family could not afford to provoke it.
"But Lin Shubei has also been attacked now. Surely the academy won't actually allow this matter to be suppressed?"
"Of course not. Two students were attacked in succession. As the principal, I failed in my duty, so naturally I must seek justice for them."
Tang Hui evidently intended to confront those people directly. Lu Renyi admired people like her. He had no desire to become one, but occasionally he felt they were indeed worth befriending.
"Do you have any leads now?"
"I don't have any particular expertise in ability research, nor do I possess a healing-type ability. There's little I can do. We'll have to wait for the military hospital's people and their results."
After speaking, Tang Hui turned the subject back to Lu Renyi.
"I didn't call you here because of that. Your grades are good and you think quickly. Surely you can see what I truly want to ask?"
What had to come would come. Even though Lu Renyi had prepared himself, he still found it troublesome.
"You want to ask about my ability, Principal?"
Tang Hui nodded. She was indeed curious about Lu Renyi's ability. More precisely, she found it strange that he had fooled the academy's admissions assessment.
"Students have concealed their strength before, but among those I know, you're the first whose very ability type was misidentified."
"So I want to know how you interfered with the assessment equipment and the teacher on duty. Besides, an illusion-type ability would receive a slightly lower rating than a psychic-type one. If you wanted to suppress your score, shouldn't you have displayed an illusion-type ability?"
Tang Hui reflected on her twenty years as principal. She believed she had met many eccentric students, but those who wished to suppress their scores merely kept every result slightly above average.
If Lu Renyi truly wanted to avoid attention, why had he scored nearly full marks in his specialized subjects and physical combat?
Lu Renyi did not find the question difficult to answer. The explanation was merely somewhat troublesome. With the System present, he could only selectively reveal what was safe and deliberately ignore Tang Hui's question about psychic and illusion types.
"I didn't intend to suppress my score at first. If I could enter one of the top classes, I was naturally willing. But something happened later. I decided Classes S and A weren't good choices for me and no longer wanted to join them."
"By then, all the other assessment categories were complete. Only the psychic-power and ability evaluations remained, so I could only work on those."
"It was my first time suppressing my psychic power. I accidentally suppressed it too much, and then..."
Lu Renyi looked innocent, as though he did not think he had said anything extraordinary.
He had initially wanted to enter a top class and therefore worked hard. When he later changed his mind, he deliberately suppressed his scores. But because he had never controlled his psychic power that way, he made a mistake and left himself no choice but to find a way to receive an ability rating that was neither too high nor too low.
"Besides, the equipment used in the admissions assessment was easy to fool. As long as your psychic power was slightly higher than the teacher on duty's, you could deceive it. It wasn't like the testing chamber we used today, where every movement was recorded. Cheating there was difficult."
"So you successfully cheated on today's assessment too?"
Tang Hui heard the true meaning hidden beneath Lu Renyi's complaint. Lu Renyi only smiled without answering, leaving her feeling helpless.
"Don't worry. I won't announce it everywhere. Everyone has secrets. As long as your choices don't cause problems for the academy, we have always allowed you to decide for yourselves."
As the famous four-character motto of Supernova Ability Academy declared: self-reflection, freedom.
No teacher at the academy would interfere with a student's choice. Someone with an ability powerful enough to destroy a country could choose to sell fried snacks on the street, while someone whose ability seemed useless to outsiders could choose to fight aberrants on the front lines. Both would receive support.
"Don't worry, Principal. I have no wish to become a great villain and oppose you. The thought of three elemental abilities attacking me at once is painful enough."
Lu Renyi muddled past the subject with a cheeky laugh, then returned to asking whether Tang Hui had any clue regarding the culprit.
"Judging by how ruthlessly they tried to kill you and how the Zhou family doesn't dare cause trouble, only a few organizations could be responsible. We simply don't know which one."
Tang Hui spoke vaguely, as though unwilling to reveal too much to a student. But before Lu Renyi could show dissatisfaction, her next words froze him where he sat.
"I'll ask a few of the moles inside the academy and see whether they have anything to say—whether they know what their organizations have been planning recently."
Lu Renyi: ?
"Ask... the moles?"
Tang Hui seemed not to notice Lu Renyi's wonderful expression and continued speaking to herself.
"One of them used to behave badly and kept causing trouble, so I sent him to prison. The rest don't seem very familiar with the people you encountered today. I haven't noticed them taking any action over the last two days."
"Could a few more moles have entered with this year's new students? I'll have to question them carefully later."
Lu Renyi: ...
"You already knew who the moles were but never said anything?"
"I know most of them. They're far too obvious. I occasionally chat with the plants and learn what they say in private. It's really quite boring."
Communicating with plants was a special branch of wood-element abilities. Only a tiny number of people with exceptionally high psychic power and talent could do it. Most of the time, they could merely listen passively, not ask questions.
From Tang Hui's behavior, she seemed to belong to the group capable of active communication. There was no telling how powerful she truly was.
"Don't worry. I have no interest in spying on anyone's private affairs. The plants usually notice something wrong and tell me of their own accord."
That was even less reassuring, all right?
Lu Renyi could not help grumbling inwardly. No wonder the academy had planted so many trees, separating each facility with groves. He had thought it was merely landscaping. Who knew they also served as burglar alarms?
"Since you already know who the moles are, why keep them at the academy instead of expelling or reporting them?"
"Because enemy organizations aren't the only ones who send moles. The board of directors, the great families, the military, and the government all plant countless people inside this academy. If I threw out every one of them, wouldn't our numbers probably shrink by half?"
Tang Hui's gentle words dealt Lu Renyi an enormous shock. If what she said was true, had this academy not become a sieve long ago?
"Don't worry. Most are on our side. They're merely quarreling endlessly over the division of authority and trying to form cliques inside the academy. When facing an enemy, they still unite."
For the nth time that day, Lu Renyi questioned the mental state of whoever had created this plot.