As soon as those words were spoken, the whole room fell silent as a graveyard.
Maybe it was because they were lost in confusion, unsure how to face Su Mu, who was baring her teeth, or perhaps because they were nothing more than shadows of the past, unable to think at all.
In that brief moment of daze, the puppet-like, vacant students dissolved one by one into dim streams of light.
In just a few seconds, more than half the people in the Classroom had vanished, leaving the place empty and echoing, a sharp contrast to the noisy chaos from just moments before.
With the overlapping figures gone, the space all around became deserted, and the lazy sunlight finally had a chance to slip through the curtains, falling on Su Mu’s secluded desk and chasing away the gloom that lingered there.
Su Mu stood there calmly.
Each time her clear eyes, reflecting the sunlight, swept over a figure, that person would quietly disappear, until her gaze fell on the last one.
The teacher.
“Why are you still here?”
The teacher’s expression was stiff and awkward, like a puppet suddenly realizing its own identity, her face twisted with disbelief and unwillingness.
Then, her expression became animated again.
A hidden memory fragment had been inserted, or perhaps, a possible future.
“Speaking of which, about that test paper we discussed earlier, actually, Su Mu’s answer was the correct one. I made a mistake, sorry everyone, please make the correction.”
This time, when she read Su Mu’s name, there was no pause or hesitation—she had remembered the name.
“And congratulations to Su Mu as well, for ranking fourth in the whole school in last month’s language exam.”
After saying this, the teacher’s form dissolved into pure white light, vanishing into the air.
The last shadow blocking the sunlight was gone, and in the sunset-lit Classroom, not a sound remained.
It was a little lonely, but especially brilliant.
“Well done, Su Mu, you’ve earned an extra memory point.”
Su Mu touched the back of her neck in confusion.
After being bathed in sunlight, the suffocating feeling that had been wrapped around her finally faded away.
But that should’ve been from her damp pillowcase, right?
Did someone help her?
Oh, right, the sunflower.
‘Speaking of which, is there any use for this extra memory point?’
“It can slow down your descent, increase your magic index. Normally, you can hold up to five main memory points, but these extras don’t count towards that. Each memory point corresponds to an extra possibility—if you light them all up, sweeping through D Rank will be a piece of cake.”
Su Mu nodded, half-understanding.
‘So, it’s like a bonus question?’
“Pretty much. Now, can you guess what your five memory points are?”
In theory, as age and memories grow, memory points update and iterate.
But for Su Mu, who had just turned eighteen, her memory points should be focused on the period before she was arrested.
Besides this one at school, there’s another, from that day in the office.
That was the part of her memories Su Mu least wanted to touch.
But today, she planned to speedrun the whole school in one go.
Do the big questions first, save the little ones for later!
After hesitating for a moment, Su Mu pushed the door open again and returned to the corridor.
The sunlight behind her was swallowed by shadow, as if the pleasant scene from before had been nothing but an illusion.
Luckily, Mr. Tree had also faded away with the illusion.
Since the previous memory point was lit, did time skip automatically to the new memory point?
Su Mu looked up at the sky—it was pitch black, not a hint of light.
The faint yellow glow of a few streetlights reflected off the underside of the clouds, and the cold wind felt especially bleak.
It wasn’t evening, but a southern winter morning at 6:40, before sunrise.
‘Should I dress up like a ghost again and do another lap around the school gate?’
That wouldn’t count as a memory point—that’s just black history.
Frowning in thought, Su Mu remembered what was written in the School Rules.
‘Actually, as long as I commit a serious enough violation, it should be fine.’
That’s great, then.
Su Mu dashed downstairs, but in the dark stairwell, even the voice-activated lights didn’t turn on.
She missed a step and landed hard on her butt on the staircase.
Momentum sent Su Mu sliding all the way down.
Each step that hit her sensitive backside, still sore from a smack by Motes, made her suck in a sharp breath.
‘Right, I remember now—this was something that happened in my memory too. Damn, can stuff like this not ruin my mood?’
Get up.
One second she was rubbing her sore butt, baring her teeth, the next she was grinning foolishly.
Just thinking about what she was going to do next made it hard for her not to smile.
‘There’s no one in the school now, right?’
‘Watch carefully, kids—this kind of major School Rules violation, enough to go down in school history, I’m only going to perform once.’
Bouncing and skipping, Su Mu’s steps were as light as the wind, her pink ponytail swinging left and right behind her, making her look just like a cheerful schoolgirl straight out of a textbook.
If you ignored the long red firecrackers in her hand, that is.
“The sun shines bright, the flowers smile at me, the little bird says, morning, morning, morning, why do you have explosives on your back?”
Su Mu hummed as she coiled the firecrackers, made with her Handheld Console, around every corner of the hallway.
If memory serves, this lousy school only gave third years a one-week winter break.
On the fifth day of the lunar new year, the junior high kids were already back in the Classroom, spending the New Year together at school.
How can you celebrate the New Year without a little festivity?
“I’m going to blow up the school, the teacher doesn’t know, pull the string and I’ll run.”
After finally laying firecrackers all over the playground, Su Mu lit the fuse, then bolted into the Campus Security Office and covered her ears.
Thunderous booms and flashes of light shot out from every window of the teaching building.
In an instant, the whole school was reduced to ruins, with thick gray smoke spreading faster than the worst smog in B City, filling Su Mu’s vision.
All she could see was fire bursting again and again in the haze.
‘It’s blown up. The school’s really trashed now. When I wake up, the principal’s world will collapse.’
‘But since it’s my dream, no matter how bad I wreck things, as soon as I leave and come back, everything will be as good as new.’
Still, Su Mu couldn’t help but say—
“That felt awesome.”
“In my opinion, you’re still too restrained, little Su Mu.”
Irina’s voice rose above the firecrackers, echoing in Su Mu’s mind.
‘Could there be someone even more skilled?’
“If I remember right, haven’t we always had our eyes on that ridiculously huge screen and sound system in the multimedia Classroom?”
‘Now you’re talking!’
Hearing Irina’s tempting words, Su Mu was instantly overjoyed, and didn’t bother waiting for the firecrackers to finish exploding—she just swept everything away with her Handheld Console.
The school, which had just been blasted to rubble, was restored in a flash, though the thick smell of burnt firecrackers was now soaked into every building material.
Just being in there made it feel like a fire drill.
That was exactly the effect Su Mu wanted.
After all, this lousy school even used lunch break for fire drills.
Everyone would be sleeping soundly, only to be jolted awake by a piercing alarm, then stumble bleary-eyed, clutching their heads as they scrambled out.
After finally gathering on the playground, they had to listen to the principal’s lecture on for ten minutes.
By the time class started in the afternoon, everyone looked like they’d lost their souls, listless and drained.
But there were always a few rare types who just lay face-down on their desks, refusing to get up, and even when the teacher poked them, they barely reacted.
“It’s on fire! Why aren’t you running?”
“Can’t move, teacher. I’m already burnt to a crisp.”
Hilarious.
Now they’re really toast.