Chapter 1: My Head Was Hit by an Unidentified Flying Object
In class, I’m a nobody.
To put it simply, my presence is so low that my name is only called when the teacher is taking attendance.
My seat is in the second to last row by the window, which is supposedly the protagonist’s spot. However, I haven’t received the treatment a protagonist deserves. Perhaps it’s because I lack the unique aura of male protagonists, or maybe I don’t gaze out the window like they do…
Ah, it’s not really a complaint, just stating the current situation.
My name is Juncheng An. I was born in 2000, my birthday is January 1st, and I’m currently 17 years old, a second-year student at Qiangshui High School.
My appearance is ordinary, at least I don’t disappoint my parents. My short black hair is mixed with many white strands. From a distance, one might think my hair is gray. The abundance of white hair is genetic, not because I overthink things, nor because I’ve been… well, you know.
My name comes from the saying, “If you treat me with sincerity, I will never betray you.” It was my grandfather’s idea. It means that if someone treats you sincerely, you must not take their sincerity for granted and must repay it properly.
Unfortunately, your grandson has hardly any friends… Grandpa…
Cough, cough, I’ve accidentally fallen into a pessimistic mood… Always thinking about things in a negative way is also one of my habits.
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t have many friends, so I spend all my time at school alone.
Since I’m always alone, I can’t just stare out the window daydreaming. So, my chosen forms of entertainment are reading manga and novels. At home, I watch anime and movies. I don’t play many video games; I’m more the type who enjoys watching others play games rather than playing myself.
On weekends, I usually spend my time sleeping and watching movies at home. If you call me a shut-in, then so be it. But I don’t collect figurines or anything, and I’m not very interested in cosplay, so maybe I’m just a pseudo-shut-in?
Well, in short, I’m just a very boring person.
After once again confirming these pathetic aspects of myself, I sighed and closed the manga I had finished reading.
It’s now 8:45 PM, and it’s evening study session time. I’m still in the school library.
Although most schools have abolished evening study sessions, our school still retains this system. This is because the vast majority of our students are day scholars, and there are no dormitories. However, while we have evening study sessions, they are a bit different from ordinary ones because of the “ranking” system.
Of course, following the traditional Chinese custom, students are ranked based on their exam scores. If you rank in the top 100 in the unified exam, you can skip evening study sessions. If you rank between 101 and 200, you can go home after staying from 6 PM to 7:30 PM. If you rank below 200… you’ll sadly have to stay until 9 PM.
This is one of the school’s ways of motivating students, as most people probably don’t want to stay at school until 9 PM.
And I just happened to rank 201st, so unfortunately, I have to stay until the end of the evening study session.
However, while evening study sessions might be agonizing for other students, it’s not too bad for me.
This is because the library in our school has a collection of manga and light novels in a corner. Ever since I found out about this last semester, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the library. After all, there’s a certain charm to reading a physical book compared to reading an electronic version on my phone.
Evening study sessions don’t require us to stay in the classroom. As long as we get a slip signed by the librarian and give it to our homeroom teacher the next day, it’s proof that we attended.
Besides me, there are four other students doing this, but they aren’t from my class. I haven’t tried to get to know them, as maintaining quiet in the library is common sense.
I originally thought there would be many people in the library, but including myself, there are only five. Perhaps the others feel that any place is the same… If they knew there were novels and manga to read here, the library would be packed. But no one has asked me, my social skills are truly terrible…
Incidentally, the librarian is a female teacher with glasses named Lili Yang. She looks to be in her twenties. Her long hair covers most of her face, but don’t imagine that Teacher Yang is beautiful. I’ve seen what Teacher Yang looks like, and how should I put it… well, she’s a bit plain, so the possibility of a teacher-student romance like in novels is nonexistent.
Teacher Yang is probably not married. If she were, she couldn’t be working overtime in the library until 9 PM… And the reason she might not be married is likely her appearance… Even someone like me, who isn’t overly concerned with looks, finds it a bit hard to accept.
Cough, cough, cough, saying this is a bit too impolite… Sinful, sinful.
Seeing that the evening study session time is about to end, I put my book back on the shelf and walked towards the counter to get my sign-off slip from the teacher.
As I approached the counter, I lowered my voice and called out to the teacher.
“Teacher Yang.”
“Hmm? Oh, Juncheng, you’re here for a sign-off slip, aren’t you?”
Teacher Yang looked up at me, then checked her phone to see the time, guessing why I had come. Since Teacher Yang and I are quite familiar with each other, she calls me directly by my name. Sometimes, she even asks me to help her move things, and so on. Although I don’t have friends, I get along pretty well with the teachers. My homeroom teacher is also very kind to me… Of course, it’s more likely she’s worried I’m being ostracized…
“Yes.”
“Okay, I understand. Wait a moment.”
Teacher Yang readily tore off a sheet of paper from her notebook and then tore it into several pieces. The ripping sound seemed quite loud in the quiet library. The teacher tore off several slips and then wrote names on them one by one, stamping them. She was probably preparing the sign-off slips for the others as well.
However, what I didn’t expect was that Teacher Yang ended up handing all the sign-off slips directly to me.
“Here, take these.”
“Huh? All of them?”
I thought these were slips prepared for others, but she gave them all to me at once…
Having so many sign-off slips means I don’t have to attend evening study sessions. Is the teacher encouraging me to skip them…
No, no, no, that’s impossible. How could a teacher do something like that? It must be because it’s too troublesome to write one for me every time, so she decided to distribute them all at once. She trusts me! She trusts that I won’t skip school, which is why she did this.
In any case, since she trusts me, I mustn’t let her down. That would be a betrayal of my name.
“Um… you know what this means, right? It’s not very safe at night recently, so with these slips, you don’t have to come to evening study sessions.”
What the heck! She really wants me to skip class!
And what kind of reason is that? It’s not safe at night? What am I, a man, afraid of… If she said there were murderers or something lurking around, that would be one thing, but there haven’t been any such news lately, right?
Could it be… Ah, I understand.
The teacher must want to leave early.
Yes, there are only five students in the library. If she can send us away, Teacher Yang can leave work early!
I see~ I get it, I get it. Teacher, your secret is safe with me~ Perhaps Teacher Yang is so eager to leave because she’s finally found a boyfriend.
With this realization, I silently nodded twice and took the sign-off slips from the teacher.
“Ah!”
When I took them, I accidentally touched Teacher Yang’s hand. She let out a strange cry and lightning-fast retracted her hand, scattering the slips all over the floor.
This kind of scene, which should happen when one touches a certain age beautiful girl, occurred when I touched a ‘certain age’ female teacher… I can’t feel happy about it at all.
“S-sor-sorry, Juncheng, it might have been static electricity just now…”
Teacher Yang apologized while hurriedly crouching down to pick up the scattered slips.
“Ah, it’s okay, I’ll pick them up.”
I also crouched down to pick up the slips, but I was still filled with confusion. Static electricity? Why didn’t I feel anything?
After picking up all the slips, I put them in my pocket, gave Teacher Yang a salute, and left the library.
Before leaving, I heard Teacher Yang muttering to herself: “…Maybe I should wear gloves…”
“…”
I don’t really understand what Teacher Yang is troubled about. Has she reached menopause early?
The bell rang just as I reached the school gate. The guard, hearing the bell, opened the gate, and I became the first person to leave school.
I took out the sign-off slips from my pocket and counted how many there were.
There were eight slips in total, meaning I don’t have to attend evening study sessions for eight days… However, staying at home, I don’t seem to have much to do…
“Mm… What’s this?”
While counting the slips, I suddenly noticed there seemed to be something drawn on the back of them.
Curious, I decided to find a place to piece them together and see what the pattern was.
Sitting down on a park bench nearby, I arranged the slips one by one, and easily assembled them into the correct pattern.
It looks like a pentagram… No, looking at the text, it should be seen upside down. Meaning, an inverted pentagram?
Uh, I remember that an inverted pentagram is usually associated with Satan and other demons… Could Teacher Yang be involved in some cult? This is quite bad…
As I was contemplating what to do, I heard a whistling sound in the air. I turned my head in confusion, but halfway through turning, something like a shooting star struck my temple!
The violent impact caused me to fall sideways, and eventually, I crashed directly onto the inverted pentagram I had just reassembled.
Immediately after, I felt a blinding light that was so bright it could blind someone, entering my eyes.
A feeling of dizziness and blindness caused me to lose consciousness instantly.
…
“Oops, oh no! I’ve affected an ordinary person!”
“It’s all your fault for being so impulsive. Let me see… It’s okay, this person just fainted. They should be fine. Let’s just leave them be and retrieve the magical artifact first.”
“Oh… Huh? It’s gone!”
“What?”
“The Eight Trigrams Demon Mirror is gone!”
“Hmm? How could a magical artifact disappear? Look more carefully.”
“I’ve looked! It’s really gone! And the connection to the artifact is severed!”
“How is that possible? The connection between an artifact and its master can only be broken if the artifact is completely destroyed… But how could the Eight Trigrams Demon Mirror be damaged so easily?”
“But I really can’t feel it anymore! Sob sob, what do we do… Grandpa is going to scold me to death…”
“Heh… In any case, let’s go back. We’ll figure something out when we get back.”
“Sob sob… Okay…”
