『Congratulations, Player. You have had an epiphany and learned a new skill.』
『Flag Beginner (1/15): whenever you plant a Flag, there is a 10% chance it comes true.』
This skill was nothing short of the system laughing in his face.
When Fang Tian opened his eyes again, the notification before him made him feel the deep, abiding malice this world bore him.
A soft pillow, warm bedding, an unfamiliar ceiling. There even seemed to be a faint fragrance in the air.
"You're awake."
The room's owner gave him little chance to think up a countermeasure. Hao Xue had pulled a chair over to the bedside and sat with her eyes fixed straight on him. Fang Tian couldn't shake the feeling she looked angry.
『Hao Xue (Compendium locked — she has not yet opened her heart to you)』
『Favorability: -5 (when Favorability drops below -10, there is a high chance she will ignore your existence)』
Instinctively, Fang Tian felt this Favorability boded nothing good.
"Senior Hao, what happened?"
Fang Tian made a show of weakly covering his forehead, asking what he already knew.
Hao Xue set her phone down in front of him. On it, a piece of news radiating the unmistakable flavor of a clickbait shock-headline desk stared back at him —— "SHOCKING! The Qingkong University Student Council Vice President's Freshman Boyfriend!"
"Senior, headlines like this are usually clickbait with no real substance behind them."
Even as he spoke, Fang Tian scrolled the news page down a little.
『Flag Beginner skill activated successfully. Skill proficiency 2/15.』
This out-of-nowhere notification, paired with the photo on the page, dealt him a finishing blow straight to the vitals.
The leading man in the picture turned out to be himself — and before all those watching eyes, he had pulled off a stunning feat: fainting dead away into Hao Xue's arms in a textbook face-plant-to-the-chest pose.
Fang Tian had to admit, the content of this news was even more shocking than the headline. More terrifying still, the perpetrator — him — had known nothing of it until he laid eyes on this "caught red-handed" photo.
The leading lady in the photo finally spoke, delivering her pointed review of the content. "I promised Teacher Gu I'd lend you a hand with your studies. I never imagined you'd seize the chaos to lay your wandering hands on me."
"Senior, if I told you this was an accident, would you believe me?"
"No."
Hao Xue gave her flat denial without a moment's thought.
And so Fang Tian finally understood the anger in Senior's eyes — this was plainly the face of someone who'd been waiting for him to wake so she could call him to account.
Being branded a creep on the first day of school was bad enough. Worse, the senior who'd branded him a creep was, in truth, a monster — and not just any monster, but the kind so terrifying that one glance had knocked him out cold, Sanity bottomed out, consciousness forcibly seized by the system.
This room had to be Hao Xue's dorm. There were only the two of them in it — meaning if Senior decided to make a move on him, there'd be no witnesses at all.
"Senior, give me a chance."
Fang Tian still clung to hope.
"I'll ask you a few questions first, then decide. First question: are you interested in monsters?"
The look in Hao Xue's eyes sent a chill through Fang Tian from head to toe.
Instinct told him this was a far-reaching question — Senior would surely remember his answer. His mind spun at full speed. He'd gritted his teeth and clawed his way through the hell of high school; how could he fall now, before he'd even become a love master?
He mustered every ounce of courage and proclaimed, "I am!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Hao Xue's Favorability went from -5 to -4.
"What about ghosts?"
"Love them."
Though he couldn't guess Senior's purpose in asking, his Favorability climbed to -3.
"Next question: how's your nerve?"
"Back in high school, my nickname was Fearless Fang."
Seeing the momentum in his favor, Fang Tian didn't hesitate to award himself, on the spot, a nickname that had in fact never existed.
"Can you handle this much?"
Hao Xue extended an index finger and pointed at the wall behind Fang Tian.
To prove his sky-high courage, Fang Tian looked at once toward where she was pointing. He was full of confidence — this kind of cheap trick had gone out of style back in middle school. Behind him there was, of course, nothing at——
『Flag Beginner skill activated successfully. Skill proficiency 3/15.』
The face that filled his vision was less than a few centimeters from his own. A figure that had appeared behind him at some unknown moment hung upside down, dark-red blood trailing down her withered hair all the way onto the bedding.
Almost on reflex, Fang Tian shot up off the bed. In that instant all his attention was riveted on that face out of nowhere; the abrupt, horrifying sight brought his thoughts to a dead halt.
His mind went blank. A distinct stabbing pain came from the back of his skull, and every hair on his body stood on end.
Only after more than ten dazed seconds did Fang Tian remember to angrily denounce the figure's despicable sneak attack from behind. "Hey! You could scare a guy to death like that!"
For all his fierce words, his body had very honestly ducked behind Hao Xue — and in the process clean forgotten his own fearless setup. Privately he mused that, compared to monsters, female ghosts really were a great deal scarier.
"But I'm a ghost, not a person."
The upside-down figure blankly pointed at her own thoroughly ghastly face. As a ghost, it would be rather hard to justify not scaring people. "And it was you who kept sleeping in my bed this whole time. Young folks these days really do turn their backs on a ghost the moment it suits them."
The figure merely spread her hands and grumbled about the state of things these days; she didn't, as they always did on TV, clamp both hands around his throat.
This school was absolutely not normal. At this rate, ghosts only knew what else might come popping out.
Fang Tian quietly retreated to the window, ready to fling it open and shout to the outside the moment the other party made her move. Conan taught us that even if you're going to die, die outside — jump from here if you must, but at least leave behind some clue to your death.
"Last question."
Hao Xue rose to her feet, and the familiar sense of pressure instantly left Fang Tian too tense to breathe. "Are you any good at driving people out?"
"Huh?"
In the moment he was caught off guard, Hao Xue had already come to his side. Fang Tian hadn't even noticed her move; in the blink of an eye it was as though she'd teleported.
Hao Xue's gaze swept past Fang Tian, looking down at the Qingkong University campus below. Even though he'd braced himself thoroughly this time, the spectacular scene downstairs still made him rub his eyes hard, refusing to believe them.
Though the night was already deep, the Qingkong University campus was livelier than when he'd registered that morning. A ceaseless stream of "new students" poured in. Though they were far away, he could still make out the figures' missing arms and broken legs; at a glance, it was like the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
"They're all new students enrolled in the same batch as you."
Hao Xue said calmly, "The daytime at Qingkong belongs to you; the night belongs to us. Fang Tian, you are one of the very few who can see ghosts and monsters, so there are some things I'll need your help with."
"Tell me, Senior."
"Today is registration day. Drive the one still lingering in the teaching building back where she belongs. She's seriously disrupting the order of registration."
As Hao Xue spoke, another string of messages popped up.
『New quest available: "Night on Campus" (Beginner). As a member of Qingkong University, maintaining order at the school is the duty of every student.』
『Quest objective: make the rule-breaking student leave the classroom.』