Choosing to enter this Game instance as a substitute teacher was both a coincidence and an inevitability.
Although the Game intended for Lin Huai to enter the school as a student, he was utterly averse to daily studying. Initially, he had knocked out a patrolling school security guard, intending to take off the guard’s uniform and bury him… no, hide him outside the school, and then assume the guard’s identity to survive within the school.
Unexpectedly, he had the good fortune to encounter a substitute teacher who had falsified his academic credentials.
Through prior conversation, Lin Huai discovered that this so-called substitute teacher only had a technical secondary school diploma but was flaunting a fake graduation certificate from a prestigious 985 normal university. This individual had even managed to get hired by this so-called “sweatshop” school to serve as a substitute teacher for a month.
Entering the school as a substitute teacher not only provided Lin Huai with greater freedom of movement and more time but also more opportunities to interact with high-level figures both inside and outside the school. Additionally, it spared him the embarrassment of wearing a student uniform, pretending to be a top student or a slacker at the age of twenty-something (or even hundreds of years old internally).
However…
What puzzled him was that, despite being a malevolent ghost from start to finish, he actually had a strong recollection of high school knowledge.
After taking over the original owner’s body, the first thing he did was to study the owner’s major to avoid being expelled for poor grades. Yet, to his confusion, when he opened the books, sat at the desk, and read line by line—
All the knowledge entered his mind as easily as eating a snack.
It wasn’t so much that he learned quickly, but rather that the knowledge seemed to have been etched into his brain long ago, allowing him to relearn it so smoothly. To test this inexplicable hypothesis, he found many books and exams to read and test himself, and discovered that all the knowledge he could effortlessly acquire was limited to the scope of nine years of compulsory education plus three years of high school and two years of university major.
Perhaps this was one of the precious legacies left to him by the original owner’s brain. Although the original owner’s soul had vanished, the knowledge he had acquired was deeply engraved in every fold of the brain. Like stored data, it could be easily retrieved with a simple read.
Now, sitting on the podium, flipping through the error-riddled exam papers of all the students, he once again felt the knowledge stored in his brain flowing into his soul like a river.
The input was so fitting, so smooth.
As if this body had been… prepared just for him.
Several students peeked at the young man on the podium, noticing that after flipping through another paper, he tapped his temple with chalk, showing a somewhat impatient expression.
The rare quiet in the classroom made these students, who averaged less than six hours of sleep, feel unusually drowsy. Soon, Lin Huai said, “This character, the ‘pan’ in ‘heart wide body pan,’ isn’t it pronounced ‘pan’?”
He pointed to a question on the exam paper: “Why was it corrected to ‘pang’?”
The students exchanged glances, and one whispered, “The teacher said it’s pronounced ‘pang,’ and previously punished everyone who mispronounced it by making them copy it a hundred times.”
“The pronunciation of ‘pan’ in ‘heart wide body pan’ was changed from ‘pan’ to ‘pang’ in 2016. However, the ‘pan’ in ‘heart wide body pan’ means ‘comfortable,’ and it’s still ‘pan.’ Also, the answer given for this question is wrong…” As Lin Huai spoke, he noticed the eyelids of the students in the front row drooping, “Are you all sleepy?”
His voice carried a strong threat, and the students couldn’t help but shake their heads frantically.
Lin Huai stared at them for a while, then suddenly smiled, “If you’re sleepy, then sleep.”
He looked at his watch, “From now on, everyone, lie down and sleep for an hour.”
“Huh?”
Facing their doubt, Lin Huai covered his face with the exam paper, revealing only his eyes, “Otherwise? Should I lecture to ghosts? Instead of listening inefficiently, you might as well sleep. Oh, and by the way… during this time, I’ll carefully correct your exam papers…”
“But we…”
“No buts,” Lin Huai said coldly, “If I catch anyone playing with their phone, I’ll smash their head.”
The students: …
One by one, the students lay down. Perhaps due to their long and exhausting study lives, most of them quickly fell asleep.
For a while, the classroom was extremely quiet, with only the sound of light snoring. In the midst of this snoring, Xu Chi opened one eye.
His gaze turned toward the podium, where the pale-faced young man was staring at the exam papers, unconsciously biting his finger.
He seemed troubled about how to correct the pile of exam papers, or perhaps he was extremely unaccustomed to this identity. After biting his thumb several times, he finally had an epiphany, his eyes lighting up.
Xu Chi was stunned.
The next moment, he saw the young man take the standard answers and the teaching plan out of the classroom. Soon, the sound of paper tearing came from outside.
Xu Chi: …
In a moment, his head was fiercely knocked. He covered his head and looked up to see the young man looking at him kindly.
“The problem is solved,” the young man said cheerfully in a low voice.
Xu Chi: …
“The resulting trash has also been thrown into the recyclable bin.”
Xu Chi: …
“You…” he didn’t know why he was saying this, “What are you planning to do next? Write your own teaching plan?”
Vaguely, he felt as if someone had done something like this before.
But…
How could there be such a person here?
His head started to ache again. The young man he had asked squatted down, looking at him strangely.
“How could I? What are you thinking?” he blinked, “Of course, I’ll go online…”
“And copy other famous teachers’ teaching plans. Besides, I can also copy their teaching methods and lecture styles through videos…”
Xu Chi: …
“Is it really okay to say that so openly?” he whispered.
Lin Huai stared at him for a while, then laughed.
Then, he lifted his hair and, among the group of sleeping students, leaned close to Xu Chi.
Xu Chi was startled by his sudden closeness and leaned back. In his vision, Lin Huai’s eyes suddenly turned blood-red.
An indescribable sense of intimidation flooded his heart, along with something deep within him…
Strong, instinctive, about to burst forth…
“Do you know what this is?” the man whispered.
“…What?”
In Xu Chi’s difficult reply, Lin Huai said in a low voice, “This is the Sharingan that can copy any teaching method.”
Xu Chi: …
The blood-red eyes turned deep black again, and the pressure and instinctive reaction vanished in an instant. Lin Huai let go of his hair and said seriously, “I am Copy Ninja Kakashi…”
Xu Chi: …You’re kidding me.
As Lin Huai sat in the F-class classroom, searching online, his three teammates were suffering inhuman torture in their classroom.
In just one morning, they were forced to complete two exam papers, correct their own answers, and listen to the teacher’s listless and error-filled explanations. The entire B-class classroom was lifeless, with students merely staring at their books, almost devoid of any human presence.
‘Staying in such a classroom is really creepy…’ Li Fen thought, as he furiously wrote with his right hand while rubbing the goosebumps on his left arm.
Before entering the Game, they were in the midst of summer, so everyone was dressed lightly. Now transported to Yangshui City, they found it was autumn. Despite it being autumn, the classrooms of Minghua High School were still heavily air-conditioned, with three air conditioners running at full power. Li Fen, sitting under the air conditioner, felt his entire arm turning purple from the cold.
Beside him, several B-class students were also studying expressionlessly. Their movements were mechanical, their expressions cold, and their strokes were eerily uniform.
‘It’s like being in the same classroom with a group of puppets…’ he thought to himself, secretly glancing at his teammates.
On their way to Minghua High School, they had exchanged information. Li Fen was the youngest, while the other two were a handsome young man and a girl in a high school uniform. The young man’s name was Xia Xingye, and the girl’s name was Qiu Ran.
After the third class ended, the fourth transfer student finally entered the classroom. As soon as the fourth transfer student came in, Li Fen was shocked.
‘Who is this guy who looks like he’s in his thirties, nearly forty?’ he screamed in his heart, ‘He doesn’t look like the previous person… no, he doesn’t even look like a high school student. The wrinkles on his face and the stubble on his chin… anyone who thinks he’s a high school student must have an IQ problem!’
Screaming internally, he looked at his other two teammates, who also showed expressions of surprise.
‘So, is this… is this the previous person’s disguise? Making himself look like an uncle to make the teacher give up on saving and being wary of his studies… no, that’s completely wrong! It can’t be for such a reason to disguise himself!’ Li Fen thought, ‘This guy looks like a genuine uncle!’
The genuine uncle was assigned to sit in the second-to-last row by the window. Li Fen saw him take the seat belonging to the protagonist and continue to stroke his chin in thought.
‘If he just wanted to mess with the other person’s thoughts, he’s definitely achieved his goal,’ Li Fen thought, ‘So then, what about me…’
“Li Fen.”
A cold voice sounded above his head. Li Fen looked up to see the bespectacled class monitor of Class B, third year, looking down at him expressionlessly.
“Yes?”
“Are you done with the exam?”
“Oh, yes, I’m done,” Li Fen handed the exam paper to the monitor, who tilted her head and took it with a pale hand.
Her wrist, hidden under her school uniform, seemed to have some small spots, which flashed past Li Fen’s eyes. The monitor took the exam paper and said, “Good, you’re done.”
After saying this, she went to the next seat to collect the next exam paper.
…The people in Class B are really strange…
The bell rang at twelve o’clock, and the students of each class filed out. The uncle-like student also left with the students. Li Fen deliberately lingered, staying behind to meet up with the other two.
“Did you find out anything this morning?” Li Fen asked them.
Both of them shook their heads.
Li Fen was a bit disappointed, but there was nothing to be done. The entire morning was filled with one exam paper after another, leaving no time to gather information.
The three of them went downstairs together to the cafeteria. The cafeteria had two floors, the first being the student cafeteria and the second the teacher cafeteria. It was lunchtime, and the cafeteria staff were carrying several aluminum buckets filled with soup and water, while on the other side were several stainless steel basins containing poorly presented dishes. The meat in the dishes was extremely limited, but there was plenty of protein. Li Fen saw with his own eyes that one of the tomato and egg dishes had a burnt color and carried a lot of hair-based protein.
Looking at the dishes, he couldn’t help but show an expression of wanting to vomit. The expressions of the other two weren’t much better. Under the school cafeteria, there was a small shop selling bread, drinks, and other products, but the prices were several times higher than outside.
They hadn’t brought much cash when they entered the Game, and it was impossible to live comfortably for an entire month. However, it was clear that the three of them, rather than eating this biochemical weapon-like cafeteria food for a month, would prefer to spend their money on safety.
Thinking this, the three of them discussed and decided to head to the exit. But at that moment, they heard a voice from behind, “Mr. Lin, the cafeteria is over here.”
Another voice said, “So the cafeteria has two floors? Your food is really good… though it’s still not as good as university…”
The three of them stiffly turned around to see a handsome young man wearing a suit jacket, chatting and laughing with a teacher beside him. The teacher was the homeroom teacher of Class A, who was being amused by the young man’s jokes.
The three of them: …
They watched as the young man followed the homeroom teacher of Class A up the stairs to the luxuriously decorated second-floor cafeteria. Just before entering, the young man turned back and glanced at them, then disappeared behind the glass door.
The three of them: …
“I think I just saw… our teammate,” Li Fen said, squinting.
“Why can he go to the second floor?” Qiu Ran said.
“Why are they calling him teacher?” Li Fen said.
“Why does he look so high?” Xia Xingye said.
The three of them looked at each other.
