Zhao Shang woke up at six in the morning, the other three in the dorm still fast asleep.
After washing up and heading downstairs, students occasionally hurried past him, their youthful faces brimming with energy.
He paused, quietly watching each passerby, standing still for a long while.
"What are you spacing out for?"
Zhao Shang turned his head to see Chao Musheng walking toward him with a boy in an orange jacket.
"Out buying breakfast?" Chao Musheng yawned. "Come on, let’s go together."
The boy in orange gave him a friendly nod, and Zhao Shang smiled back before falling into step behind Chao Musheng.
"Old Third, this is Zhao Shang, the student I’m responsible for hosting," Chao Musheng said, noticing Old Third’s lingering gaze on Zhao Shang. "He shares your surname—maybe you two were family centuries ago."
"Ah, a brother from the same clan!" Old Third grinned. "Welcome to our school for your studies."
"Thanks," Zhao Shang replied, avoiding the other’s enthusiastic gaze, unsure how to continue the conversation.
No matter how many years ago it was, it couldn’t be true. People from different worlds—how could they ever intersect?
The cafeteria wasn’t as crowded in the morning as it was at noon. Chao Musheng bought breakfast for the rest of their dormmates, while Zhao Shang picked up enough for two, clearly for Zhang San. "First class starts at eight in Building 4—don’t be late," Chao Musheng reminded.
Zhao Shang nodded. Just a few steps out of the cafeteria, he faintly heard the sound of a cat.
He stopped and looked around.
"What’s wrong?" Chao Musheng handed the breakfast bags to Old Third, telling him to take them back first, then turned to Zhao Shang.
"I heard a cat." Zhao Shang bent down to search through the grass but found nothing. Embarrassed, he straightened up. "Maybe I misheard."
"No, I think I heard it too." Chao Musheng looked up and spotted a flash of orange tail in the nearby tree.
"Cat Xiao Ju, climbing trees again?" He recognized the cat immediately, spreading his arms beneath the tree. "Come on, get down here."
"Meow, meow~"
Seeing a familiar human, Cat Xiao Ju’s voice instantly turned sweet and clingy, chattering nonstop before leaping into Chao Musheng’s arms.
"How’d you get ink stains all over yourself?"
Just one day apart, and the cat was already this dirty.
Chao Musheng flipped the cat over and noticed its right front paw was noticeably swollen. His smile vanished. "Did someone hit you?"
"Meow meow meow!" Cat Xiao Ju hooked its claws into Chao Musheng’s clothes, burying its head against his chest, mewling incessantly—clearly tattling on someone.
"Easy, easy." Chao Musheng gently patted its plump body, relieved to confirm it was just a minor swelling, no bone damage.
"What happened to Cat Senior?" A passing student noticed Cat Xiao Ju in Chao Musheng’s arms and came over. "Where’d all these ink spots come from?"
"Meow~" The same cat that had been climbing trees and yowling now trembled as it extended its injured paw, transforming into a pitiful victim of abuse.
"Cat Senior’s hurt?"
"Someone’s hurting cats?"
"Who’s so cruel to bully our Cat Senior?"
Soon, more students gathered. Some fed it treats, others sprayed medicine on its paw, but the cat stayed nestled against Chao Musheng’s shoulder, refusing to let go.
Zhao Shang stood outside the crowd, watching the scene of humans and cat at the center, feeling an absurd illusion that they were the protagonists of this world.
"Alright, enough with the fake-crying act," Chao Musheng coaxed, calling a doctoral student from the veterinary medicine program to examine Cat Xiao Ju.
The senior, upon hearing the cat was hurt, rushed over with bedhead, concluding it was just a superficial injury—probably a bit shaken up, hence the clinginess.
"Meow?" The cat understood nothing, only nibbling on a treat stick while continuing to snuggle.
After treating the senior to breakfast, Chao Musheng carried Cat Xiao Ju securely in his arms.
"Sorry for making you wait so long." He handed Zhao Shang a carton of milk. "Here, for you. Let’s meet at Building 4 by 7:50."
"Meow, meow!" Cat Xiao Ju glared at the milk in Zhao Shang’s hands, trying to swipe it back.
Human, how dare you give our food to an outsider?!
"Behave. I’m taking you to security to report this." Chao Musheng pulled its paw back and headed to the security office.
If the cat’s injury was accidental, fine—but if someone had hurt it on purpose, it was serious.
The security officer took photos of Cat Xiao Ju and fed them into the surveillance system.
"Someone dares to pull this right after we installed the new tracking system?" The plump middle-aged security chief, who loved feeding the campus cats, angrily tapped her keyboard.
"You saw it fine at noon yesterday, so the injury happened between yesterday afternoon and this morning." She hit the start button. "If it happened within Fat Orange’s surveillance range, the system will flag suspicious footage."
Chao Musheng was curious. "With that much computing power and AI recognition, this system must’ve cost a fortune."
"Kunlun Enterprises sponsored it—didn’t cost us a cent." The chief smiled. "It’s saved us a ton of work."
"We’ve got a match!"
The chief pulled up the flagged footage, showing the time and location.
00:34, Dormitory Building 4—an object was thrown from the fourth floor, Room 404.
404?
Chao Musheng frowned. Wasn’t that Zhao Shang and Zhang San’s dorm?
"Shang-ge, you’re back?" Zhang San took the breakfast Zhao Shang brought, biting into a bun.
Huh, it’s a bit cold?
Seeing Zhao Shang’s dark expression, Zhang San didn’t dare ask, quietly finishing his meal.
[Ding. Consumed nutritious breakfast. +1 HP.]
Huh?! Zhang San’s eyes lit up, devouring the rest eagerly.
"You’ve got a death wish, eating cafeteria food," the Vegetable Player muttered, rubbing his empty stomach and swallowing saliva.
He’d already lost 10 HP upon waking—at this rate, he’d be dead before Day 10.
"Can’t just starve," Zhang San said, smart enough not to reveal that cafeteria food boosted his HP. He tossed the trash away. "Starvation kills too."
Noticing Zhao Shang opening a milk carton, he couldn’t resist asking, "Shang-ge, why didn’t you get me one too?"
"Someone gave it to me." Zhao Shang inserted the straw and took a sip.
[Ding! Consumed high-quality nutritious milk. +10 HP.]
Zhao Shang froze mid-sip.
Yesterday, Chao Musheng treated me to lunch—HP +5. In the evening, when he went to the cafeteria with Zhang San, my HP neither increased nor decreased. This morning, buying breakfast with Chao Musheng gave me +1 HP, but the milk he specially handed me boosted it by a whopping 10 points.
Zhao Shang suddenly realized: perhaps the key to increasing HP wasn’t about where they ate, but about Chao Musheng himself.
"Bro Jin, my project proposal isn’t well-written either. Are you really going to copy mine?"
"Shut the hell up." Old Jin shoved aside the timid player and snatched his proposal, plopping down at the desk. "Hand over your pen and ink."
The dorm beds were bunk-style, with the upper level for sleeping and the lower level housing a desk and bookshelf. Each desk came pre-stocked with textbooks and stationery.
Zhao Shang glanced at Old Jin’s desk—the ink bottle was missing.
Before class, Chao Musheng dropped off the cat, Xiao Ju, at the academic office and settled the two new students in the second row of the classroom.
Zhang San stared at the uncomfortably close lectern, then down at the textbook in his hands. Every word and letter made sense, but strung together, they might as well have been hieroglyphics. His world was crumbling.
He belonged in the back rows—the very last ones. Was the front row even his territory?
Absolutely not!
Once class began, the professor lectured with gusto while students occasionally paused, their faces lighting up with epiphanies.
Meanwhile, Zhang San understood nothing.
Arrays? Linked lists? Rendering?
The only "arrays" he knew were ancestral temples, and "linked lists" were just flashy gold chains.
No wonder players couldn’t dig up any horror stories—the real horror was unfolding right here in class.
From the first minute, Chao Musheng’s phone hadn’t stopped vibrating. By the first break, it was practically levitating from the notifications.
He unlocked it to find hundreds of unread messages in the group chat.
What was going on? Even the usually diligent seniors were secretly texting during lectures.
["I can’t take this! How can someone be this insufferable? I asked for his proposal, and he bawled like I’d killed his parents. The whole class thinks I’m a bully now. In all my years, I’ve never been this humiliated!"]
Chao Musheng pitied the guy—his rage was so raw, even the curses slipped out unfiltered.
["Aaaaaaah, he’s STILL crying! I’m losing it!"]
["Senior, don’t stress. Check out the proposal I got. You’ll feel better (photo)."]
["‘Enlightenment’ written as ‘obituary,’ ‘dissection’ as ‘digging’—zero academic details, just hollow slogans. Who recommended this student??"]
["Sigh, my two aren’t any better. They freeze when called on, and their eyes glaze over during explanations. Tutoring kids was less soul-crushing."]
["Here we go again—my girl’s spritzing perfume and asking for ghost stories. My rival’s giving me that ‘look what you’re stuck with’ smirk. I dread the gossip."]
["Dear seniors, reflect: Why haven’t we invented time travel yet? I’d ditch this mentoring job in a heartbeat."]
["After meeting these freshmen, my spine—straight for 20 years—has officially collapsed."]
["From sheer rage!"]
The group had devolved into pure, unfiltered venting.
Chao Musheng quietly locked his phone and glanced at Zhang San, who was doodling in his textbook with dead-fish eyes. He tactfully looked away.
Life was all about perspective.
Embarrassment didn’t matter if you turned a blind eye. Survival was enough.
Morning held just one lecture, ending after 10 AM. Chao Musheng pocketed two cat treats and headed to fetch Xiao Ju.
"Meow?" The cat lunged into his arms.
He scratched its ears. "Let’s go settle a score."
Old Jin stormed into the dorm, slamming the proposal onto his desk. "I’ll kill her! I swear I’ll kill her!"
The timid player shrank back, Zhang San numbly stared at his textbook, and Zhao Shang watched Old Jin’s tantrum with icy detachment.
A knock sounded.
The timid player opened the door to Chao Musheng and a few unfamiliar students. He forced a smile. "Bro Chao, what brings you here?"
"Meow!" Xiao Ju leaped from Chao Musheng’s arms and charged at Old Jin.
"Stupid animal!" Old Jin dodged and raised a foot to kick.
Zhao Shang instantly hooked an elbow around his neck, shoving him back into a chair with a grimace.
"MEOW!"
Xiao Ju arched its back, hissed at Old Jin, then turned to Chao Musheng with a plaintive cry.
Go on, human. Vanquish this monster for me!
Xiao Ju’s motto: Purrs for favorites, claws for foes!
