The atmosphere during Sunday evening self-study was always particularly relaxed.
When Jiang Wan arrived at the classroom with her roommates, she had just finished eating the last piece of marshmallow-filled chocolate.
The students scattered around the classroom greeted them casually. Mixed in were voices asking things like, “Can someone lend me their physics homework to copy?” and “I’ll trade you my English homework for it.”
Jiang Wan had completed her homework during her “desensitization therapy” sessions with Yue Mingshi.
…Everything else was fine, but somehow, her English essay—supposed to be a letter of apology—had ended up sounding suspiciously like a love letter.
Jiang Wan stared at her English essay for a few seconds before deciding to revise it before handing it in.
“Where’s Shen Pingze? Isn’t he usually the most enthusiastic about collecting homework?” Lin Xiaoqing asked curiously.
Now that she mentioned it, Jiang Wan really hadn’t heard Shen Pingze’s System speaking.
She turned to look toward the back of the classroom and discovered Shen Pingze sitting at his desk with a serious expression, reading a book and taking notes as he went.
He looked remarkably like a genuine student.
Jiang Wan had mixed feelings.
How should I put this? I think this might be the first transmigrator who’s genuinely trying to adapt to high school life…
A classmate approached Shen Pingze with his English homework. As they exchanged the exercise book, the cover of the book pinned beneath Shen Pingze’s arm lifted slightly, revealing four extravagantly decorated Chinese characters.
—The Complete Collection of Romantic Lines.
Jiang Wan: “…”
YOU’RE READING IT TOO?!
The classmate handing in his homework also noticed the cover and burst out laughing. “What are you reading that for?”
Shen Pingze remained silent for two seconds before raising his head.
“I’m writing a romance novel.”
Jiang Wan: “…”
The innocent classmate believed him immediately and was astonished. “You’re so sensitive and romantic! Where are you writing it? Has it been published?”
Cheng Lixue happened to sit right next to him. She asked dryly, “One of those melodramatic online romances? Or something for Reader[1]Chinese literary magazine jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3736183_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3736183_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); or Yilin[2]Chinese youth-oriented magazine jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3736183_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3736183_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });?”
Shen Pingze: [System, I don’t have any proof, but is she insulting me?]
System: [Searching… Online romance fiction and Yilin do indeed have substantial readerships in this world.]
Shen Pingze was only half convinced. “Something like that, but not quite.”
The surrounding classmates abandoned their half-finished homework and dragged their chairs over to join the discussion.
“Do you need some inspiration? A brainstorming session? We don’t have anything else to do tonight anyway, so let us help!”
Jiang Wan: “…”
You people just don’t want to do your homework.
Shen Pingze thought for a moment before setting down his pen.
“Let’s say it’s a workplace romance. The female protagonist is petite, adorable, intelligent, and extremely beautiful.”
The classmates nodded in unison.
“Mm-hmm!”
“She absolutely has to be the type who seems cold and distant on the surface, but once you get to know her, you realize she actually has an amazing personality!”
“Long hair! Long, straight black hair is the best forever!”
“Since it’s a workplace romance, she has to be exceptionally competent at her job!”
“A female CEO! Make her a female CEO!”
Shen Pingze: “…Fine. But this is supposed to be a romance.”
“Oh, right! What about the male protagonist? He has to be some ridiculously overpowered, arrogant genius, right?”
Shen Pingze replied, “No. He’s an ordinary person.”
“Super handsome! And he has to be at least 188 centimeters tall!”
“He’s not tall, and he’s not handsome either.”
“Then he must have some kind of special superpower!”
Shen Pingze lowered his head and glanced at The Complete Collection of Romantic Lines.
“He’s probably quite good at saying romantic things.”
His classmates: “…”
“That character setup isn’t going to work, Shen Pingze.”
“How can they fall in love if there’s absolutely no romantic chemistry between them?”
“Take a good look at your male protagonist. Do you seriously think he’s worthy of your female protagonist?”
“Nobody’s going to read a novel like that. You could publish it and still not get a single bookmark after two days.”
Shen Pingze: “…”
Shen Pingze: “I suppose you’re right.”
Jiang Wan covered her forehead and turned back around.
Although her classmates probably hadn’t meant any harm, Shen Pingze looked as though he’d suffered a devastating blow.
Shen Pingze was utterly defeated.
[System, there’s probably no way I’m completing this mission. We should prepare ourselves for failure at any moment.]
System: […Host, you’ve only just started. Please don’t give up so quickly.]
[But they’re right! A paramecium like me isn’t worthy of the female protagonist! Waaaaah—]
System: […]
Jiang Wan: “…”
Why have you suddenly started crying? You certainly weren’t like this in your head when we first met.
Overwhelmed by misery, Shen Pingze continued.
[I’ve had enough! Why do I have to be stuck with some ridiculous Romantic Lines System?! Can’t you become a little more useful? I saw an X-Ray Vision System on the forum before!]
System: [Host, I have feelings too. You can hurt them.]
[If I could accumulate points for how embarrassed I feel, I’d have enough to exchange for hundreds or even thousands of Talent Points by now!!]
System: […Pfft! (Sound of vomiting blood.)]
[STOP ADDING YOUR OWN SOUND EFFECT COMMENTARY!]
Jiang Wan made a mental note of the word forum.
In other words, these transmigrators not only had a relatively formal organization but could also communicate with one another through online forums.
“Shen Pingze… are you okay?” Cheng Lixue cautiously poked Shen Pingze, who had suddenly collapsed face down onto his desk. “We’re not saying your style is bad… It’s just not really to our taste. You know what I mean, right?”
“Failure is the mother of success!” Wang Ru raised his fist. “How many authors become famous with their very first book? You have to be prepared to get rejected by publishers thirty times before you finally write a bestseller!”
“We support you!”
“Thanks,” Shen Pingze replied weakly.
Lin Xiaoqing placed a hand on his shoulder.
“But please stop using Little Wan as the model for your self-insert romantic fantasies.”
She gave Shen Pingze a kindly smile.
Shen Pingze: […]
Shen Pingze: [System, are you there? I want to abandon the mission.]
System: [Can’t you at least try to salvage it?!]
Shen Pingze: [Fine. Then can I change my mission target? The final mission rating might be lower, but at least I could recover some of the points I spent accepting this mission.]
System: [Are you certain? You only have one opportunity to change targets during a mission.]
[I’m sure.]
[Very well. Searching for a replacement target…]
Shen Pingze: [What about that girl who just walked past the doorway? She’s very pretty too.]
System: [Scanning. Confirmed: this character is Chu Yishan, the Class Beauty of First-Year Class Five. Target change permitted.]
Wait. Chu Yishan?
Jiang Wan turned around and happened to see Chu Yishan standing outside the Class Six classroom, holding a stack of books and talking to someone.
[Mission target successfully changed.]
Jiang Wan finished writing the last letter, casually set down her pen, and relaxed.
Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise?
At the very least, she’d gained two new pieces of information.
First, Systems couldn’t accurately identify one another, just as Chu Yishan had previously been unable to determine whether Sang Xiaotian really possessed a defective System.
The second point hadn’t been confirmed yet, but it seemed that missions issued by different Systems could come into conflict.
Now she could simply sit back and watch Shen Pingze battle Chu Yishan…
Ah, wait a second.
Jiang Wan expressionlessly closed her exercise book.
—THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ALL THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE I ENDURED THIS WEEKEND?
…
“It’s already been more than a month since school started,” Cheng Lixue remarked. “The first year of high school really isn’t much different from our third year of junior high. Maybe it’s because we’re still surrounded by the same people, the same teachers, and the same school.”
Jiang Wan expressionlessly sipped her yogurt.
That’s true for you people. My life has been extremely eventful. Far too eventful, in fact.
Her ordinary school life had only really begun in the past two weeks.
As for why, it was because Shen Pingze and Chu Yishan had started tormenting each other, considerably reducing the amount of trouble Jiang Wan had to deal with.
Even more wonderfully, they weren’t merely tormenting each other.
They were actively sabotaging each other’s progress.
“Ah, it’s Chu Yishan and Shen Pingze.” Sharp-eyed Su Li pointed toward the corridor and remarked without surprise, “Are those two at it again?”
“—If my heart were a barren planet, then you would surely be the only rose blooming in that wasteland, a rose belonging to me and me alone.”
Chu Yishan smiled without any warmth.
“…Are you seriously making up romantic lines using references from The Little Prince?”
System: [Notice: Your popularity at school has decreased by 18 points.]
Chu Yishan: [WHY?!]
System: [Please understand that someone who makes people cringe and laugh awkwardly whenever they think of her will find it difficult to become popular. Incidentally, Shen Pingze’s popularity is also declining, although not as quickly as yours.]
Chu Yishan: […]
System: [I’ve conducted an analysis. I believe the reason may be that Shen Pingze himself doesn’t feel embarrassed, so everyone else is actually quite happy to play along with his performance.]
[Are you saying I don’t fit in with these people because I’m not ridiculous enough?!] Chu Yishan demanded through gritted teeth.
System: [Yes.]
[DON’T AGREE WITH ME SO QUICKLY!]
After listening to Chu Yishan’s internal conversation, Jiang Wan turned her attention to Shen Pingze’s side.
[System, why have I never collected more than one Emotional Fluctuation Point from Chu Yishan?] Shen Pingze was utterly baffled. [She doesn’t look particularly calm on the surface.]
The System sounded equally puzzled, but soon arrived at what it considered a brilliant deduction.
[Perhaps she has antisocial personality disorder. In that case, all her emotions are merely imitations of other people’s feelings and exist only on the surface.]
Shen Pingze: […How am I supposed to romantically conquer someone with antisocial personality disorder?! Forget it. Whatever. I need to go recover some of my embarrassment energy. If things really don’t work out, let’s abandon this mission and go back home. Now, how should I start writing my resignation letter…?]
System: [Host, I don’t have a hometown.]
Shen Pingze slowly made his way back toward the classroom.
[Next time, I’ll choose my own mission. I’m not listening to any more of your so-called ‘beginner’s guidance’…]
Jiang Wan scribbled a few notes on her paper.
Shen Pingze was a beginner.
Zhou Wenxing was a beginner.
Chu Yishan’s System had also mentioned once that she was a beginner.
Excluding Lin Chengyan, what were the odds that all three remaining transmigrators were beginners?
…She still knew far too little about transmigrators as a group.
She would have to keep waiting and observing.
“Little Wan, what are you writing?” Wang Ru leaned over and took a curious look.
“Huanggang Practice Exam Papers,” Jiang Wan replied casually. “One of my brother’s friends gave them to him.”
Wang Ru immediately regarded her with respect.
“Does your brother’s friend have some kind of grudge against you?”
“Once, I accidentally broke his Nintendo Switch,” Jiang Wan explained. “He had eighty hours of game progress that he hadn’t uploaded to the cloud, so he lost everything. I bought him a replacement afterward and spent two days getting his progress back to where it had been before he finally accepted my apology. But what does that have to do with the Huanggang Practice Exam Papers?”
Wang Ru: “…”
No, I’m pretty sure he originally bought those exam papers to torment you. He just never imagined they’d become your idea of entertainment.
“Did you need something?” Jiang Wan finished solving the last problem she found interesting, put down her pen, and looked up. “What’s that in your hand?”
Wang Ru gave her a thumbs-up.
“The sports meet registration form!”
Jiang Wan accepted the class registration sheet.
This was the paper record that would eventually be submitted to the school. Every event was listed on it, and most already had enough participants, leaving only a few unpopular events with vacancies.
—There was no helping it. Since capable people were expected to shoulder more responsibilities, the excessively versatile Jiang Wan was always the one responsible for filling in the gaps at the end.
If the school hadn’t restricted each student to a maximum of two individual events, Class Six would have shamelessly filled every single participant slot with Jiang Wan’s name.
During their third year of junior high, the other classes had even sent spies to discover which events Jiang Wan was entering. They’d then attempted to use a strategy based on Tian Ji’s horse racing[3]a strategy of matching strengths and weaknesses to win overall jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3736183_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3736183_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); to defeat Class Six.
This was all a perfectly normal part of Jiang Wan’s school life.
…Wait.
Now that she thought about it, her school life had never exactly been normal in the first place.
Jiang Wan sighed.
She was just about to casually write her name into one of the events that still needed participants when she suddenly noticed that the event labeled “Shot Put” had eighteen registered participants.
It was seriously oversubscribed.
And shot put had always been one of the least popular events. There had often been trouble finding even two boys and two girls willing to participate.
Jiang Wan tapped the paper with the end of her pen.
“What’s going on here? Is this a mistake?”
Wang Ru leaned over to take a look.
“Oh! That’s because nobody originally signed up, so the school temporarily changed it to grenade throwing!”
Grenade throwing!
Grenades!
…!
Jiang Wan: “…?”
References[+]