Mr. Chen, AAA Coffin Wholesale

Baal spoke lazily from within the mental space.

"If you walk out that door right now, the little crew outside are probably going to hold an impromptu meeting."

Chen Guan said nothing.

Baal let out another chuckle.

"One myth-class guarding the door, one enhancement-class blocking the path, and one axe-carrying guy with an old turtle staking out the ground floor. Quite the lineup. Even Lord Bael is envious of the treatment you're getting."

Chen Guan stayed silent. He had zero doubt about Baal's perception. He pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. "Don't they need sleep?"

Baal said with gleeful spite, "Friends, kid—sometimes they're harder to shake than a curse."

Chen Guan rubbed his brow and decided to check the academy forum.

The moment he tapped in, the top post—bolded and red—jumped right at him.

[Follow-up Discussion Regarding the Incident of Student Chen Guan Having Read the Notification but Declining to Activate the Photo Frame]

The thread was blazing hot.

Comments were refreshing at lightning speed.

[The student council works fast, just slightly off-target in direction.]

[“I have read it. Will not be activating for now.” Is this going into the academy's annual quote collection?]

[Proposal: turn this into a safety awareness poster. Title: Cherish Life, Reply in a Timely Manner.]

[Stop joking up there. President An looked like he was genuinely about to draw his sword tonight.]

[I was there on site. A red-haired beauty kept laughing the whole time, but she looked unfamiliar. Which class is she from? Drop her info, fellas. I'm a knowledge-type ability user, tall and handsome, not rich yet.]

[This isn't a confession wall, hey!]

Satisfied, he exited.

Chen Guan then opened his system panel.

This time, though, what caught his eye first was the soaring popularity value.

[Popularity Value: 1,960,000]

Chen Guan stared at that number, raising an eyebrow.

How much?

1.96 million?

Disappeared in Shanghai, resurrected at Huaqing. That one-two punch meant the Blue Star audience was probably reading the plot as having shifted from a campus battle arc to a suspense-thriller arc.

He tapped into the viewer forum.

Sure enough.

Blue Star was even more hyped than the academy forum.

[I said it all along—Chen Guan isn't dead! If he's dead, I'll eat my keyboard!]

[Hold your celebration, up there. Another identical coffin just showed up in the Northern Border. This plot is getting creepy.]

[Got it. Chen Guan isn't a coffin carrier. He's Boss Coffin Wholesale Chen.]

[Is it possible that coffin is another Chen Guan?]

[Don't say that. I've got goosebumps.]

[An Changqing traveled over ten thousand kilometers overnight. That friendship arc is maxed out.]

[Long Ao complains with his mouth but blocks the door with his body. Textbook tsundere. Red-haired stereotype confirmed again.]

Chen Guan scrolled a few more pages. The meme spam was endless.

The further he went, the more he felt the viewers' mental state was not exactly fit for continued spectatorship.

[Any chance the coffin up north is the genuine article and the one Chen Guan carries is just official merchandise?]

[You kidding? He's been on screen this long and you call him the bootleg?]

[What I really want to know is—does every version of Chen Guan come with the same coffin?]

Chen Guan's finger froze on the screen.

That particular comment had been boosted to the top.

Would he too have a duplicate of himself?

That was a picture he did not want to imagine.

He closed the forum, put the phone down on the table, walked over to the coffin, and pressed his palm flat against the surface.

The cold of dark iron seeped through his palm.

The coffin was perfectly still, but inside it lay his true body.

Ever since the day he'd crossed over, it had followed him as part of the starter package.

Chen Guan had never once considered the possibility of there being a duplicate of this thing.

But if the coffin could have a duplicate, what about the System?

He was starting to suspect his System was the bootleg anyway. It had already run off—probably recalled to factory for recycling.

Now that was truly ridiculous.

Chen Guan stared at the system panel for a long while.

The popularity value was still ticking up.

The digits after 1,960,000 crawled upward, like people over on Blue Star were lining up to slap labels onto his forehead.

Right now, the only one who might be able to answer that question was his System.

Miss you, glorious System. Come back quick.

Never before had Chen Guan longed for that mechanical voice.

Chen Guan's sleep didn't last long.

Just as dawn was breaking, the sounds of training drifted through the dorm window.

Students at Huaqing had never been kind to themselves, and after the Shanghai incident and the Northern Border conflict, training ground usage had doubled outright.

Plenty of students complained about exhaustion out loud, but their bodies were honest—standing in the morning breeze, showing off their high-school era discipline.

Only three kinds of people get into Huaqing: geniuses, grinders, and grinding geniuses.

Oh, and Chen Guan—the kind with a cheat system—didn't count.

Chen Guan opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling.

The room was still his room.

Phone on the desk. Coffin leaning against the wall. Curtains not fully drawn, morning light slanting through the gap.

Everything was normal.

So normal it felt almost foreign.

Baal spoke up from the mental space. "Awake, are you? Lord Bael figured you'd be lying in a while longer—after all, you're now officially recognized by the academy as a resurrected person."

Chen Guan sat up and pulled his jacket on. "You can keep sleeping."

"None of the Fiends sleep."

"Then you have it rough. Twenty-four seven on standby."

Baal paused, then laughed. "With that mouth of yours, sooner or later someone's going to put you on a shrine. They'll skip the memorial tablet—they already have a photo of you ready."

"And also, kid, don't measure a Fiend by mortal standards. I am constantly busy, and constantly at rest."

Chen Guan didn't respond, just went about his washing.

He walked to the door and opened it, and the first thing he saw was someone leaning against the wall across from him.

Long Ao stood with his arms crossed, head slightly lowered, as if he'd only just closed his eyes a moment ago.

Hearing the door open, he looked up.

Their eyes met.

Morning light on the corridor was thin.

Chen Guan asked, "You didn't go back last night?"

Long Ao rolled his neck. His tone was stiff. "Just passing by."

Stiffer was his mouth.

Chen Guan glanced at the empty energy drink bottle at Long Ao's feet.

"Passing by the whole night?"

Long Ao stuffed the bottle into his storage ring, poker-faced. "I felt like it."

He hadn't actually been passing by all night. He and An Changqing had taken shifts.

Chen Guan nodded. "Appreciate it."

Long Ao frowned. "Don't say that. It's weird."

Chen Guan turned and headed out.

At the stairway, An Changqing was coming up from below, carrying two breakfasts.

He'd changed into a clean school uniform, looking much better than last night, save for a calming patch from the medical building stuck on his brow.

Seeing Chen Guan, he handed one of the breakfast bags over.

"Thought you might want some food."

Chen Guan took it and glanced at the congee and buns inside. Simple and plain.

"You're up early."

An Changqing didn't hide anything. "Professor Situ asked me to go in for a follow-up."

Chen Guan looked at the patch on his brow. "What did the report say?"

"Still alive."

Chen Guan paused.

An Changqing had thrown those exact three words right back at him. Clean and swift.

Truly a black sesame dumpling—dark on the inside.

Long Ao caught up from behind, heard that, and wasn't letting it slide. He shot back, "Where have I heard that phrase before?"

An Changqing ignored him and just kept his eyes on Chen Guan. "You have class this morning, right? If you don't show up now, you're going to run out of chances to clock your hours."

Chen Guan nodded. "Yeah, so I was planning to go."

"I'm coming too."

Long Ao cut in. "Same here."

This is where the benefits of flexible class attendance really come in.