Shen Nian's mood could be summed up in four words:
Utterly petrified.
His brain felt like it had been assaulted, completely thunderstruck.
After a long pause, he finally lowered his voice to a whisper, leaning close to Xia Yanchun's ear, his tone dripping with disbelief.
"Your type is cute younger guys? That’s… quite a unique taste."
"Shut up, shut up!" Xia Yanchun swatted at him repeatedly, her small hand hitting him under the table.
Shen Nian was used to it—this girl either bit or hit.
Xia Yanchun was half a year older than him and had always acted like an elder sister. When they were kids, she could overpower him thanks to girls developing earlier and her age advantage. But by middle school, his growth spurt hit.
Shen Nian, who had once been much shorter than Xia Yanchun, shot up during those two years of puberty. By their sophomore year physical exam, he had reached 179 cm and was still growing, while Xia Yanchun had plateaued at 161 cm.
That height wasn’t short for a girl, but next to Shen Nian, who was nearly 180 cm, she looked like a tiny speck.
The reversal of their physical advantage forced Xia Yanchun, who had once relied on brute force to keep him in line, to start using reason instead.
After all, she couldn’t beat him anymore.
When you can effortlessly overpower someone, you don’t waste words. But when the tables turn…
Well, suddenly, compromise sounds a lot more appealing.
Back then, Xia Yanchun had been the one subduing him. Now, it was Shen Nian’s turn—except there was the added complication of gender differences. He couldn’t just hit or touch her freely.
If Xia Yanchun bit Shen Nian, no one batted an eye. But if Shen Nian bit Xia Yanchun? Instant label: creep.
The injustice of it all made him tremble with rage. The world was so unfair to boys.
"So what’s your deal? All this ‘I can’t stand you’ and ‘emotional baggage’ nonsense—are you having a breakdown or something?"
"Ahem, never mind." Shen Nian cut himself off. "This emotional baggage of yours isn’t cutting it. Try another one."
"Since when is emotional baggage something you can just swap out like that?"
Xia Yanchun massaged her temples, utterly baffled by Shen Nian’s antics. "I don’t have any emotional baggage. Stop messing with me."
"Impossible!"
Damn it!
If she had no emotional baggage, what was he supposed to do about his 1,000 gold coins? Was she going to compensate him?
Unbelievable. She better remember some emotional baggage, or else!
He made up his mind: if Xia Yanchun truly had no unresolved issues, he’d risk death by giving her a beating—making himself the source of her emotional baggage. Then he’d buy her gifts, grovel, and resolve it himself. Emotional baggage resolved, system rewards secured.
Flawless plan.
"I’ve decided. You’re definitely sick in the head."
With that, Xia Yanchun snatched a pen from Shen Nian’s desk, flipped open her workbook, and started writing.
There were only about ten minutes left before class ended, so there was no point returning to her seat. Hers was right under the AC vent, and since she was on her period, sitting here meant less cold air.
With no leads to follow, Shen Nian was at a loss.
Whether he was sick or not was debatable, but the system definitely was.
Could it be that his childhood companion was someone else?
He racked his brain but came up empty. Was there really some hidden childhood friend in their class?
The side quests kept piling up, but the main quest was eerily silent.
——
Evening self-study.
The classroom was a bit noisy. Su Kexi had a rule: the class monitors on duty had to maintain discipline and, if necessary, record the names of troublemakers in the logbook.
Xia Yanchun, being the top student, had been appointed class monitor after the division into streams.
The class’s study atmosphere was generally good, with only a few troublemakers occasionally causing a ruckus.
"Quiet, quiet! If you keep talking, I’ll write your names down," Xia Yanchun called out. The chatterboxes immediately fell silent—but only for a moment before the whispers started up again.
The noise wasn’t too loud, so Xia Yanchun usually let it slide unless it disrupted the whole class.
The peaceful study environment was shattered when the late-arriving athlete made his entrance.
Huang Chen, his spiky hair still damp, let out a long "Whew!" as he walked in, followed by an imaginary dribble and a fadeaway jump shot—his sneakers screeching against the tile floor.
Shen Nian’s eye twitched.
Was this some kind of default programming for basketball-playing jocks?
The guy seemed like the type to post workout clips with hashtags like #WhiteSocks #Tanned #SixPack #PeakGrind #CoachAppreciation.
Stereotypes existed for a reason.
Huang Chen plopped into his seat and immediately started chatting with his neighbors. The noise level rose, and Xia Yanchun gave another warning. They quieted down briefly before resuming their chatter.
"Aren’t you going to log them?" Shen Nian nudged Xia Yanchun with his chin.
Xia Yanchun pouted, then quickly scribbled down the names of the noisiest offenders.
During the last period, Su Kexi asked Xia Yanchun for the logbook.
Su Kexi was a strict, no-nonsense teacher in class, but Shen Nian had heard from some girls that she was surprisingly warm and chatty during dorm inspections.
She knew how to separate duty from personal life.
Every so often, Su Kexi would summon the most frequent troublemakers for a scolding—like now.
After reviewing the logbook, she called three boys and one girl to the office, Huang Chen among them.
When the four returned, their expressions were grim.
Shen Nian propped his chin on his hand and yawned.
What happened to all that laughter? Don’t tell me they’ve suddenly lost their sense of humor.
He despised Huang Chen. The guy had no sense of boundaries, touching other people’s stuff without permission. One Sunday night during their sophomore year, Huang Chen had sat at Shen Nian’s desk, chatting with friends and leaving it a complete mess—without cleaning up afterward.
Shen Nian, who lived off-campus, usually didn’t come on Sunday nights. When he arrived Monday morning to find his desk trashed, it felt like the sky had fallen.
Anyone walking in might’ve thought he was being bullied.
He confronted Huang Chen, and things nearly came to blows. Huang Chen eventually apologized and cleaned up the mess, so Shen Nian let it go—no point hitting someone who’s already surrendered.
Besides, actually fighting would’ve put him in the wrong, and he wasn’t even sure he could win against a trained athlete.
Huang Chen had also badmouthed Shen Nian in the dorm. If not for Chen Dong secretly tipping him off, Shen Nian would’ve graduated none the wiser.
Seeing Huang Chen get chewed out? Pure satisfaction.
With the troublemakers chastened, the classroom fell into a hush so deep Shen Nian could even hear Chen Dong flipping his textbook pages.
Maximum study efficiency achieved—Shen Nian breezed through his vocabulary list.
The bell rang.
Shen Nian packed up at lightning speed, ready to bolt.
"Wow, not giving up after three minutes? I thought you’d quit by tonight," Xia Yanchun remarked, watching him stuff his vocab book into his bag with exaggerated shock.
"Don’t project your narrow-mindedness onto me."
Bro had a system now. Future monster-slaying hero material. Petty high school rivalries? Beneath him.
Way beneath him.
"Don’t stay up too late. I wrote your name down today."
"After over a decade of friendship, you’d actually snitch on me? Let’s break up."
"Fine, we’re broken up." Xia Yanchun snorted, slinging her bag over her shoulder and marching out ahead of him. Shen Nian followed close behind.
When you knew someone well enough, even "breaking up" could be a joke.
Breaking up was what happened when friendships between besties, pals, or classmates soured. But between sworn rivals? There was no friendship to break—only life-or-death stakes.
As Xia Yanchun walked to the stairwell entrance, a woman's voice called out to her.
"Xia Yanchun, did you just write down my name?"
Yan Xi reminds you: Due to Tomato's request for over 3 million daily visits causing excessive server pressure, we now recommend switching to other high-quality sources.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
