Leading the group wasn’t the wealthy ringleader, but his toady—a shifty-looking kid with beady eyes.
How someone this young could already look so untrustworthy was a mystery—but just one glance made your hands itch to punch him.
“Well, look who showed up early. Real obedient, aren’t you?” he sneered, voice thick with mockery. “Guess you heard what Yu-ge said.”
“Yu-ge” was likely the pampered heir standing at the center of the group.
Before the rich kid even opened his mouth, the lackey had already sauntered up and reached out to shove Cheng En. But before he could land the push, Cheng En blocked him and shoved him right back.
“I didn’t come here to be your punching bag. Can you just—”
“What?” the lackey snapped.
Cheng En: “…”
Crap. Brain freeze. Lost the line.
He glanced helplessly at Fu Changxun, who had already covered his face in secondhand embarrassment.
Because Cheng En had stopped halfway through his sentence and just… stood there.
The lackey waited for a beat, then got annoyed. “The hell are you on about?” He lunged forward, fist raised, ready to throw a punch.
But Cheng En’s training kicked in. His body reacted before his brain did—he ducked the punch instinctively and swept the other kid’s legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground.
Seeing their lead guy go down, the rest of the lackeys charged in.
“Holy shit, he knows how to fight?!”
The weasel-faced one, who’d started the whole thing, scrambled to his feet and quickly scurried to the back. He shoved the others forward and barked orders to keep up appearances. “He can’t take us all! Yu-ge, look how cocky this loser is! We should—”
Yu-ge wasn’t thrilled either. He’d come to teach someone a lesson, and now his lackey had gotten dropped? Unacceptable. He nodded coldly. “Beat him. I want him on his knees begging for mercy!”
He wanted this so-called model student, the teacher’s favorite, kneeling before him in disgrace.
It was Cheng En’s first time facing so many people. At first, it was overwhelming, but with Dong Zi coaching him in stealth mode, he managed to dodge most of the incoming blows.
Things were going surprisingly well—until he took one of them down. That’s when Yu-ge himself stepped in.
That alone wouldn’t have been too bad.
But then the rich kid pulled out a folding knife.
Cheng En’s heart dropped. That hadn’t been in the original timeline. No one ever said they brought weapons.
Did this mean he was fated to die, no matter what? Was the universe rewriting the rules just to make sure he died?
He froze.
Fu Changxun reacted instantly, grabbing his arm and yanking him back—but not in time. The blade slashed across Cheng En’s forearm, slicing deep. Blood gushed out.
At least it wasn’t his chest. At least he was still alive.
Dong Zi’s expression went cold. “Focus! What did I teach you? Use it all. Fight dirty if you have to—kick him in the crotch, scratch his face, whatever it takes! Cheng En, we’re here to help you, and that means you can survive!”
He rarely spoke so much at once. The pain and urgency in his voice jolted Cheng En out of his stupor. He winced, sucking in air through his teeth as the wound throbbed.
Yu-ge was still waving that knife around, smug and fearless—like he was used to doing whatever he wanted.
“You’re trying to kill me?” Cheng En asked, voice trembling.
Yu-ge sneered. “You think you’re better than everyone? Look down on me again, I dare you. You’re gonna kneel and apologize, or next time I’m not saying where this knife lands.”
Cheng En looked terrified—his whole body trembling. Twice, he stammered, “Don’t kill me,” but still refused to kneel.
Yu-ge stepped forward, knife poised to strike—just as Cheng En sprang into action.
He slapped the knife out of Yu-ge’s hand and kicked upward with all his strength.
A sickening thud echoed through the room, followed by Yu-ge’s high-pitched, animalistic scream. He crumpled to the ground, clutching his stomach and groin, howling in agony. None of the others dared move.
Cheng En took a step forward. “Are you okay? I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to…”
That one step made the pain even worse for Yu-ge.
He scrambled to his feet and ran, half-rolling, half-crawling out of the equipment room. His goons looked at each other, stunned and lost, and eventually followed.
The second their footsteps disappeared down the hall, the air in the storage room finally relaxed.
“I… I made it through?” Cheng En was still in disbelief. “I survived?”
Fu Changxun gave him a push. “No time to be sentimental. Go find your teacher. Tell her they tried to kill you—and show her your wound.”
The gash on his arm looked serious, but it had missed all the tendons and bones. It would heal with time. Leave a scar, sure—but no permanent damage.
Clutching his injured arm, Cheng En winced through a grin. “Okay. Thank you. Really.”
He’d made it through.
Fu Changxun reminded him, “Don’t let your guard down. That camera I had you install—grab it and take it to your teacher. Then tell her to call the cops. This needs to go full-on criminal case. Otherwise, they’ll just come back stronger next time.”
While cleaning the room the day before, Fu Changxun and Dong Zi had discussed how to handle Cheng En’s situation—and agreed that the best outcome was getting the bullies arrested.
But Cheng En’s word alone wouldn’t be enough. He needed hard evidence. Proof that he’d been threatened and bullied for a long time.
After thinking it through, Fu Changxun had exchanged points in the Game Shop for a surveillance camera.
It had been pretty cheap, too.
[High-Definition Camera]: Records various scenes. Durable under normal conditions—unless you try to record continuously for a full week. Cost: 10 points.
Dong Zi only saw how drastically Fu Changxun’s point total had dropped after entering this instance after the purchase. His heart ached. He tried to insist on paying for it himself.
But Fu Changxun stopped him with a smile: “Nah, it’s fine. I’ve spent more than you, but I still have way more points than you.”
Dong Zi: “…”
Could he just… transfer all his points to Ah Xun right now?
Let him spend whatever he wanted? In that moment, Dong Zi finally understood what it felt like for a guy to want to spoil his girlfriend—except in this case…
His “girlfriend” had more money than he did and didn’t need his help.
After buying the camera, Fu Changxun taught Cheng En how to use it and helped him hide it in a discreet yet effective spot.
They needed it to look like it had always been there. Like it just happened to catch the attack.
Back to the present—
Cheng En took out the camera, reviewed the footage, and confirmed that neither Fu Changxun nor Dong Zi appeared in the recording.
He finally relaxed.
“We won’t show up on tape,” Fu Changxun reassured him. “No one can hear us either. We’re like ghosts to everyone else.”
Then, with the camera in hand, a body full of scrapes, and a bleeding arm, Cheng En found his homeroom teacher.
She nearly fainted on the spot. In a panic, she rushed him to the infirmary for first aid, even prepared to call an ambulance—but Cheng En stopped her.
“Teacher… call the police.”
“The police—yes, yes, we need to call the police!” she cried, hands trembling as she pulled out her phone.
She’d never imagined that school bullying could escalate this far.
There was blood.
This wasn’t bullying anymore.
This—was attempted murder.
Emergency services, both ambulance and police, arrived in quick succession. Curious students who hadn’t heard the full story craned their necks to peek out the windows.
Meanwhile, Yu-ge—still doubled over in pain—was feeling a strange sense of unease. His father was a high-ranking official; normally, nothing could touch him. No matter what he did, there was always someone to clean up the mess.
But this time was different. This time, the police walked straight into the classroom and took him away.
That was all thanks to Cheng En—who, under Fu Changxun’s guidance, had carefully chosen how to present things. He didn’t rage or point fingers like a textbook victim. Instead, he calmly recounted his ordeal: being bullied, ostracized, and threatened with a knife if he refused to kneel.
More than that, after confirming that internet access worked in this timeline, Fu Changxun personally taught him how to spread the truth online.
Because if the internet worked, that meant this world was real within the game instance.
The camera had captured everything. From the bullies barging in, to their threats, to the moment Yu-ge pulled out a knife.
That line—“Kneel and apologize, or who knows where this knife goes next”—was recorded crystal clear. Cheng En’s retaliation, his act of self-defense, was entirely justified.
No matter what the cops or lawyers said, the video made the facts undeniable.
At minimum, the bullies were looking at expulsion.
“Will this really work?” Cheng En still had doubts. “I mean… I planned ahead. Doesn’t that make me a less-than-perfect victim?”
Fu Changxun sighed. “You’re right—you’re not perfect. But that doesn’t matter. Victims don’t have to be perfect. What matters is that the ones who hurt you are guilty.”
He looked Cheng En in the eye. “Post it. Don’t worry. Most people in the world still have their heads on straight.”
So Cheng En clipped the footage and uploaded it.
The reaction was immediate.
Even though the video was blurred for privacy, sharp-eyed viewers noticed the school uniform. It didn’t take long before netizens identified the school, then flooded its official website with demands to expel the students responsible for the violence.
With public pressure mounting, neither the police nor the school could cover it up—no matter how powerful the family behind Yu-ge might be.
In the end, Yu-ge himself was forced to make a public apology.
But it didn’t help. The school decisively cut ties with him, sacrificing its “prestigious connection” in favor of public accountability.
As for the lackeys who’d backed him up, the least they got was a disciplinary mark on their record. From then on, they kept their heads down—no longer daring to bully anyone again.
But Cheng En didn’t stop there.
The next day, arm in a sling, he went to the police station with his parents and teacher. He filed a formal report, demanding serious punishment for Yu-ge—and brought enough evidence to also report Yu-ge’s father for accepting bribes. With everything laid out, the authorities immediately opened a criminal investigation.
Instinctively, Cheng En turned around, looking for his two mentors—but they were gone.
They hadn’t stayed to handle the aftermath.
Once they confirmed that Cheng En wouldn’t die from bullying, Fu Changxun and Dong Zi left the scene. They headed to the stairwell, wrote their names on the classroom’s chalkboard “leave request” form—and then erased them.
The familiar dizziness followed.
They were back in their original timeline.
