‘No… this isn’t Senior Sister Xiu’s problem.’
Ying Zhiyu raised her head, her sky-blue eyes pure and calm.
“Actually, I’m the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn’t have just walked in without knocking.”
“I was just a little afraid that Senior Sister Xiu would get angry and ignore me…”
“That’s all?” Huang Xiu declared boisterously. “It’s fine, I forgive you. Stop acting like a timid little wife; you look too easy to bully.”
She reached out, feigning a flick to Ying Zhiyu’s forehead. The gesture sent Ying Zhiyu scrambling, clutching her head, to hide behind Jia Qianrou.
At this sight, Huang Xiu stood in place, roaring with laughter.
She recalled her high school days, when Fang Yongyi, the chubby boy, and Guan Shuai were always at odds.
Yet, their quarrels never lasted. They would bicker one day, only to happily trot off to the cafeteria together the next.
To her, such matters were trivial. As long as things were clarified, all was well.
What insurmountable conflicts could there truly be between roommates?
Jia Qianrou gently stroked the head of Ying Zhiyu, who was still hiding behind her. Then, her gaze shifted to Huang Xiu, who stood before them, laughing with uninhibited cries, completely devoid of self-consciousness.
Jia Qianrou couldn’t help but think, ‘Huang Xiu is truly a peculiar girl!’
Her demeanor and actions were utterly unlike those of a typical girl.
Yet, paradoxically, her every movement—from how she ate to how she sat—was remarkably feminine.
All of it gave her a very strange impression.
It was as if…
‘She was deliberately mimicking someone!’
A sudden realization flashed through Jia Qianrou’s mind, pinpointing the reason for her unease.
—There were too many traces of unnaturalness and imitation!
What girl consciously adopted such an overtly feminine posture when eating out or simply sitting?
Unless it was a formal occasion, wouldn’t anyone simply sit however they felt comfortable?
Still, these were minor details. Perhaps Huang Xiu was simply a girl raised with extremely strict etiquette?
Such a possibility couldn’t be ruled out.
****
The New Student Ceremony was still held in the familiar Yanghai Hall.
Though she had only arrived there that morning, Huang Xiu felt as if ages had passed since her last visit.
The wills distributed earlier were waiting at their previous spots.
Seeing this, Huang Xiu and her two companions returned to their original seats.
With some time remaining before the ceremony began, she started pondering how to complete her will.
Previously, she had been at a loss, unsure of how to even begin writing.
However, after the battle at the Touchpoint in the urban village, especially after being hunted by a King-rank Dragon Abomination,
She now found herself with too much to write. The others, she surmised, were likely in the same predicament.
Glancing around, she saw new students everywhere, hunched over their papers, writing furiously. Even Ying Zhiyu had penned a lengthy passage in a short while.
‘How had writing a will become such a competitive endeavor?’
Shaking off this peculiar notion, she picked up her pen.
Huang Xiu smiled, then shook her head.
She wrote the first paragraph.
[To my dearest Dad and Mom, though you’ll never receive this letter…this is my last will and testament.]
This wasn’t a legally binding will, so there were no restrictions on its format.
She could simply write whatever she wished.
After the opening, Huang Xiu initially struggled with the middle section. However, determined to write something, anything, rather than nothing at all,
Once she started, the words flowed with unexpected ease.
She swiftly penned nearly five hundred characters, mostly recollections of her parents, along with various admonishments and memories.
As she wrote, Huang Xiu could vividly recall the specific scenes of those past events.
Though her father had always been slender, to her young eyes, he had seemed incredibly broad and towering,
Like a mountain.
After all, only a mountain could bear the weight of her and their entire family.
“Finished?”
Jia Qianrou’s voice reached her ears. Huang Xiu casually flipped her will over, then nodded. “Yes, I’m done.”
“The New Student Ceremony has begun!” Jia Qianrou prompted.
It was only then that Huang Xiu noticed Senior Female Student Wen Erya and another handsome Senior Male Student had already ascended the stage.
Her previous formal gown had been torn to shreds, so Senior Female Student Wen Erya had changed into a similar dress.
She was the gentle-voiced Senior Female Student.
Huang Xiu found herself unable to reconcile this image with the blood-soaked figure she had witnessed at the Touchpoint.
The only similarity might have been her sclera, which had not yet returned to white from the feline yellow.
The New Student Ceremony continued the morning’s agenda, immediately moving into the Senior Student Representative’s speech.
Yun Ning had used his lunch break to re-prepare himself.
He wore a suit, his hair styled maturely, and a thick bandage wrapped around his right arm.
He strode confidently onto the stage.
He looked quite handsome, and Huang Xiu heard many girls gasp in admiration.
Surprisingly, a considerable number of senior female students were among them.
“Quite the show-off,” Huang Xiu muttered, curling her lip. She admitted a flicker of jealousy stirred within her.
Handsome, intelligent, and an outstanding student representative for Tiandu University.
Yun Ning was practically the quintessential “child of another family.”
“It’s a bit regrettable,”
Yun Ning’s voice resonated throughout the auditorium via the microphone.
He raised his bandaged arm. “I had hoped to address you all in a more pristine state,”
“But alas, that’s not possible. I hope you’ll understand, for this is simply the daily reality for students of Tiandu University.”
A ripple of laughter spread through the audience—a laughter of understanding. Huang Xiu joined in.
Yun Ning’s speech had clearly been hastily revised during the lunch break.
Originally, it was likely just a simple sharing of experiences.
It would have covered topics like adapting from an ordinary high school student to an Awakened university student.
But now, it was filled with mentions of practical combat and the responsibilities of Awakened individuals.
This made Huang Xiu admire his boundless energy.
After all, they had returned to school close to noon. From finishing lunch until now, only two hours had passed.
He had to treat his wounds, revise his speech, and get ready, all in that short span.
She wondered where he found the time for it all.
As she listened to Yun Ning’s presentation, Huang Xiu mused inwardly.
‘Wow, this is the stamina of an athlete! This is the caliber of a self-improving king!’
Truthfully, Yun Ning’s speech was quite excellent.
Although the content felt somewhat disjointed, its connection to the morning’s sudden incident resonated deeply.
Everyone, including Huang Xiu, listened intently, their personal experiences making the words particularly impactful.
As Yun Ning concluded his speech, thunderous applause erupted from the audience.
Huang Xiu was still wondering about the next segment when Senior Female Student Wen Erya’s words struck her like a bolt from the blue.
“Next, we invite the New Student Representative…”
At this, Huang Xiu’s heart instantly jolted, and countless questions flooded her mind.
‘Wait, seriously? They didn’t even give a heads-up?’
‘Were they expecting her to give an impromptu speech?’
Just as Huang Xiu’s mind raced, already formulating content for a potential speech, she heard the name that followed.
“Wang Xiuming, please come up to speak.”
“Oh, it’s not me.” She patted her chest, relief washing over her face, though it was swiftly followed by a pang of annoyance.
‘Why wasn’t it her?’
‘She had received an S-rank, the highest score. Logically, it should have been her, right?’
To her left and right, Ying Zhiyu and Jia Qianrou, who had just turned to her with expressions of ‘You kept this from us!’, now quietly shrank back.
The three of them fell into silence almost simultaneously, though their reasons for it differed.
Huang Xiu was annoyed; the other two were seized by a lingering fear.
They had been so close, just a hair’s breadth away from blurting it out and embarrassing Senior Sister Xiu.
After all, neither of them had expected that if a new student were to speak, it wouldn’t be Senior Sister Xiu.
‘Could there truly be a new student more outstanding than Senior Sister Xiu?’
“I’d like to see who this Wang Xiuming is,”
Huang Xiu declared, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes as she watched the ordinary-looking, bespectacled male student walk onto the stage.
He was an Exploration Department freshman, a fact clearly evident from the emblem on his chest.
Huang Xiu had only realized this when she saw Fang Miaoging earlier.
Exploration Department students wore red emblems on their chests, while Research Department students wore blue.
Wang Xiuming gripped the microphone with his right hand, his gaze sweeping over everyone in the audience.
“I am not one of the ‘S-rank Series’ new students everyone talks about. Although I received an S-rank evaluation, I am still far behind them.”
The ‘Series’ was a designation given each year, comprising only a handful of new students from various provinces.
No one knew who had first heard it from a senior student, but it had become a hot topic in the new student group chat two days prior.
Someone, keen on showing off, had even created a small private group chat exclusively for students from different provinces.
Huang Xiu had been added to it, but she mostly lurked, observing without speaking.
“So, when the teachers asked me to be the new student representative, I was quite surprised. But I soon understood why, and I accepted.”
Wang Xiuming spoke unhurriedly, his tone even.
“Because unlike most of you, I am a victim of a Void Realm descent event.”
At this, he paused, a slight tremor entering his voice.
“Two months ago, a Void Realm Touchpoint named [Shepherd’s Sea] suddenly descended without warning. That night, I lost everything.”
His words dropped like a depth charge, instantly causing a stir among the audience.
‘A victim of the Void Realm?’ Huang Xiu’s expression subtly shifted. ‘He’s very much like me.’
She too was a victim of the Void Realm, yet she had been fortunate.
[Monster Academy] wasn’t a large or particularly dangerous Void Realm.
As long as one adhered to its rules, no harm would come.
Moreover, it had conveniently erupted at night.
With Yun Yu and the Present World Garrison present, there had been no casualties at the school.
Wang Xiuming, however, was different. That night, he had lost everything.
Huang Xiu looked at him, her gaze instantly softening, any trace of her earlier annoyance having vanished completely.
Having been drenched by the rain herself, she could empathize all the more deeply.
“After that, I became an Awakened individual. Initially, the horrific scenes of that night replayed in my mind constantly.”
Wang Xiuming’s tone remained detached, creating a stark contrast with the gravity of his words.
“But not anymore. Because I now have a goal, and that is…” He gripped the microphone, a sudden smile gracing his lips. “To destroy every single Void Realm until none remain. I will find a way to enter [Shepherd’s Sea] and complete my revenge.”
“For this… I will become the most outstanding student.”
His gaze swept across the audience below.
Finally, it settled on Huang Xiu. Their eyes met, clashing and holding steadfast in the air.
“To all the ‘Series’ students, the catfish has arrived!”
He issued a challenge to the ‘Series’ new students, and his speech concluded.
Yet, Huang Xiu could see his final, silent mouth movements.
‘S-rank.’
Huang Xiu deciphered his lip-read word and smiled. “So, he’s challenging me?”
In that moment, her fighting spirit surged. When scholarships were on the line, she would never back down.
“I’ll be waiting,” Huang Xiu silently declared.