Chapter 11 : Measures

“Xu Chuyao.”

During the first class of the morning, Mi Xiaolu asked in a low voice, “Last night, when you went to see Shen Ning… was it really just to annoy her with those lines, or were you actually trying to comfort and encourage her?”

After all, staying outside all night for it seemed like a steep price.

“My main goal was definitely to piss her off,” Xu Chuyao replied honestly, “but I also wanted to check on how she was doing.”

She glanced at her floating status screen. The recent notifications read:
【Villain Points +80】,
【Villain Points +40】,
【Villain Points +60】

The first +80 was for stealing her food delivery chopsticks. The +40 was from teasing her during a meal. The last one was last night’s accomplishment. While those two smaller gains didn’t match the first, they were easy and efficient—just from talking.

Since future actions might be harder to pull off, she’d have to rely on her words to earn villain points. Xu Chuyao made a mental note to buy a book like The Art of Verbal Warfare and train up.

“Then why did you say those comforting things?”

Mi Xiaolu had been listening to their entire conversation last night and now genuinely questioned her roommate’s motives. If Xu Chuyao cared about Shen Ning, she certainly had a weird way of showing it—constantly teasing her to her face. But if she disliked Shen Ning, then why go out of her way to accompany her all night, even singing to keep her company?

“Because I’m always honest and pragmatic. I just speak the truth.” Xu Chuyao turned to her. “Come on, wasn’t that whole mess last night clearly the school’s fault?”

“…That’s true,” Mi Xiaolu admitted.

“Right? Anyway, I didn’t sleep all night. I’m gonna nap for a bit. Wake me up if the teacher announces anything important.”

Xu Chuyao laid her head on the desk, but soon noticed that her chest was awkwardly suspended. After a moment of thought, she pulled out a few books from the drawer, stacked them on her thighs to the right height, and then rested her “big white rabbits” on top.

“Much better. Good night.”

Zzzzz…

The night had been dreamless, but now that it was daytime, dreams came quickly. Xu Chuyao dozed off and dreamed of the online friends she used to call “bottom-feeders” in her past life. They had come to tie her up and feed her grass as revenge, just like the ridiculous threats they’d post in QQ chat groups. Luckily, at the last moment, she unleashed her spirit powers and stomped them all beneath her feet. The rush was exhilarating, and she burst out laughing—

“Ehehe~”

“Stop laughing, Xu Chuyao. Wake up, the teacher’s announcing something important.”

Mi Xiaolu, who had gotten a bit of sleep last night, was more refreshed. She didn’t need a nap, and seeing the theory teacher step in made her sigh in admiration. Her roommate really did know something was coming—it was an important announcement.

She was curious, but didn’t ask. Xiaolu was just that kind of good girl.

Xu Chuyao had just opened her eyes when she heard the teacher declare that shopping days were temporarily canceled, and food delivery was now banned. She instantly perked up.

“Here we go,” she elbowed Mi Xiaolu gently. “The big one’s coming!”

Then came the second announcement from the theory teacher:
“After discussion, the school has decided to improve everyone’s cultural literacy—especially language skills—so from now on, each student must submit a weekly journal entry.”

“…What now?”

Xu Chuyao froze.

All because of a small butterfly effect. Some students had been rescued during the mall attack, and after giving them some time to rest, the principal and a few school officials visited the infirmary to ask about what had happened.

“They… masks… scary… they killed… Shen Ning also… killed…”

The student couldn’t even complete a sentence after thirty minutes.

Thankfully, not all the students had lost their minds. The principal soon found a calmer one and asked for a detailed account.

“Yesterday morning, after shopping, the lights went out—maybe a power failure. The class monitor went to check and got killed before she even said a word. The rest of us hid—except Shen Ning. She took down several of them…”

After leaving the infirmary, the school leadership made a snap decision—to increase cultural coursework.

“We hope everyone takes the journal writing seriously. Teacher Li will be reviewing your entries, and anyone who fails will have to rewrite them. That’s all for now. Let’s begin class.”

The theory teacher left with that final line, leaving a room full of groaning students. Writing essays was pure torture for many of them.

Mi Xiaolu tugged Xu Chuyao’s sleeve. “So… was that the ‘big’ thing? I guess it kind of was?”

“No, no! That’s not it at all!”

Where was the lockdown? Where was the school-wide emergency alert? Why did this not match the original plot?

Xu Chuyao sat in stunned silence for a while before it finally clicked.

“Oh no…”

In the original timeline, Shen Ning wasn’t part of the group. Thirteen students were massacred, and the Clown Gang left without a scratch. The academy was outraged. With no idea how powerful the enemy really was, they raised the alert to maximum.

But this time, because Shen Ning was there, the school was still angry—but the enemy losses were far greater. Out of the eight attackers, five were killed, including the woman incinerated by Yu Jing. The enemy limped away with their tails between their legs.

More importantly, while the strength of the Clown Gang remained uncertain, the teachers did know Shen Ning’s capabilities. At best, she was a peak first-tier spirit-user. During the mall battle, she wasn’t even Tier 2—and yet she struck fear into the hearts of her enemies.

How strong were those attackers, really, if someone like her could handle them? Just put out a wanted poster and be done with it.

“What’s wrong?” Mi Xiaolu asked in confusion.

“A big problem,” Xu Chuyao replied, after a moment’s hesitation. “I need to go see our homeroom teacher.”

In recent years, the expansion of the central main city had made it bigger and bigger. But a larger size didn’t mean more prosperity. In countless dark alleyways of the outer districts, the city’s filth festered.

The houses in these alleys got little sunlight. During the day, with windows shut, the interiors were pitch black.

Three men in their twenties stood inside one such room, heads hung like wilted cucumbers. Their clown masks had been taken off, revealing young, bitter faces.

On a projector screen, a video played—a recording from the mall battle. It showed the moment the clown with the dog mask had his tendons slashed by a sudden shadow, and how the team was picked off one by one. The footage froze on a final image of the girl attacking Red Nose: small frame, black thigh-high socks, women’s shorts, gray hoodie, gas mask on her face, and scarlet eyes.

“So… the three of you got utterly wrecked by some girl out shopping from Shengling Academy?”

The voice came from a remote comms device on the desk. It had been electronically filtered, its gender indistinguishable.

“Apologies, Professor,” the squad leader gritted his teeth. “We underestimated her strength.”

Even now, he could see his teammates trembling beside him, still haunted by the nightmare of that morning. Their bodies had returned, but their souls were still trapped in that dark mall.

After a long pause, the comms device sighed softly.

“Since you’ve ruined our grand debut performance… get ready for something even more spectacular.”