CH 8

“……” This unexpected news made Cen Zhen raise his head again. He looked at the blue and white data on the screen, and after half a second of confusion, he immediately knew that this surprise must have come from Lian Yu.

Cen Zhen didn’t deliberately try to hide his emotions at this moment, so Lian Yu laughed as soon as he saw the surprise in Cen Zhen’s eyes. He seemed to have just received the most desirable gift. He wanted to hold back his laughter, but was doing it with a lack of effort, “How come there are 14 badges, how strange~?”

“The room you are in also has a badge.” Cen Zhen affirmatively said.

Lian Yu nodded and didn’t question how Cen Zhen got the other 13 badges. He just smiled and said, “Were you surprised? Is it unexpected? As for where did that badge go… because you deliberately avoided my room, and walked right past it, I was upset, so I gave the number plate and badge to the team that came in afterward.”

There’s no way Cen Zhen is going to praise him for doing that, but these unexpected 2 points really made him feel relieved, that even Lian Yu, the psychopath’s, psychotic acts became much more pleasing to his eye.

Seeing that Cen Zhen’s face softened, Lian Yu couldn’t help but get closer, “But I want to know, why did you give up the win-win situation and decide to enter the room where I am?”

“I was willing to.”

“You……”

At this time, the dean suddenly interjected and asked the question everyone here was curious about: “Student Cen Zhen, many people are curious about how you, as a Guide, took down the badge on the 3.6-meter-high roof?”

Cen Zhen has been thinking about this question since he discovered it two months ago. His physical ability is far superior compared to a normal Guide; almost approaching a Sentinel’s B-level physical.

The physical strength of ‘Cen Zhen’ in the original book is also B-level, but it was the B-level for a Guide, and that’s not even enough to equate with Sentinel’s E-level physical strength. Guides with A-level physical are already rare, and their physical ability is not as good as the massive amount of Sentinels with C-level physical.

As for Guides with S-level physical strength, they still only exist in theory so far, keeping pace with the Sentinels with S-level spiritual power that only exists in legends.

The physical strength exam can’t be compared to the mental strength exam. The latter can be tested by machine at any hospital, but the physical strength level can only be quantified by the large-scale multi-item assessment organized by the White Tower and the Tower at the end of each semester. The semester is still currently in progress, so if one wants to get it tested out, they need to wait for another three months. Because of this, Cen Zhen can’t answer this question at the moment, so he just answers casually: “My spiritual body is a gecko.”

Lian Yu immediately laughed out loud and tried his best to be a claque. No matter how cold the jokes were, he would try his best to heat the scene.

After all, this is a match-making party, not an interrogation hall. Since Cen Zhen was not willing to share, the dean wouldn’t make things difficult for him. After awarding the top three teams and giving verbal encouragement to the rest, he started the next activity.

Taking advantage of the transition, Cen Zhen took one last look at the two male protagonists who were talking. Pan’s mood was slightly depressed, and Yao Jin was comforting him. Everything was slightly different from the plot, but the characters and personas were still consistent. After confirming that there was no problem, Cen Zhen lowered his eyes, sneaked into the crowd, and slipped out of the party.

He has concluded that the plot of the novel can be changed, so there is no point in staying here. He wants to go back to the dormitory to analyze the possible butterfly effects, and re-read the chapters where the Dark Sentinel 1802 appeared.

Of course, what Cen Zhen hopes the most is to get rid of the plot entirely as soon as possible so there is no trace of any spoiler from the novel. With that, this world finally can be regarded as the real world with unpredictable futures.

Lian Yu didn’t follow him, but this didn’t make Cen Zhen have a sigh of relief. He felt from the bottom of his heart that this Sentinel might have returned to his lair to accumulate big moves, and was ready to make a comeback at any time.

His premonition was indeed correct. Early the next morning, Lian Yu almost couldn’t wait to show up. However, a more important event happened before that. Cen Zhen encountered the plot of chapter six of the novel head on outside Class 12’s classroom in the White Tower. The plot: Two cannon fodder Guides block the second male lead, Pan, in the hallway to mock him.

The only roles of these two cannon fodder is to mock, get their faces beaten, mock more, and get their faces beaten again. Even if their faces are swollen, they will never learn their lesson, never give up mocking, truly use their lives to the fullest for mocking.

As soon as Cen Zhen stepped on the last flight of stairs, he saw Pan lowering his head with forbearance. Pan is standing in a corner helplessly, while the cannon fodder characters surround him, mocking Pan for being trash, not worthy to partner with an S-rank Sentinel, can’t imagine how he managed to lose with an 89% compatibility.

The second male lead was a very introverted Guide in the early stage of the story, with a soft personality. Because his mental strength is only C+, he has low self-esteem. The type that bad guys typically pick to target and bully.

In the original text, the cannon fodders purposely put it in a strange way saying that he’s really good at riding one’s coattails, where a mere C-level Guide was able to beat a double-A team. Due to losing the maze competition, when “Cen Zhen” heard that, he acted like a cat whose tail was stepped on. “Cen Zhen” angrily blamed everything on Pan, and joined the two cannon fodders mocking Pan.

The atmosphere is getting heated here, so is it possible that the author didn’t plan anything to happen next?

Sure enough, when the little poor Pan was ridiculed, Yao Jin appeared, “He is like a ray of light, selflessly and forcefully shining into the darkest crevice, gently covering the withered seedling, telling him that he will no longer be alone.”

After such an ambiguous description in the original text, the author didn’t even intend to be a mortal human being and made Pan think that Yao Jin was taking care of him as a younger brother. Pan was very moved and gave Yao Jin a ‘good person card’ because Pan felt inferior and Yao Jin was too good for him. It is impossible for Yao Jin to have feelings for him, so the only possibility is that he did it out of compassion.

To be honest, Cen Zhen doesn’t have much feeling for this description. After all, he understands that this is only the sixth to the seventh chapter of the novel, so if the two male leads reveal their feelings for each other here, what else would the author write for the remaining hundreds of chapters? ? Conflict between mother-in-law and ‘daughter’-in-law after marriage?

So now the only trouble he feels is how to drive away these two cannon fodder blocking the aisle.

Cannon Fodder 1 and 2 didn’t notice Cen Zhen approaching, but Pan spotted him. Pan looked at him helplessly and didn’t dare to say a word.

“If you want them to go away, don’t you know how to say it yourself?” Compared to the Pan in later stages of the story, who is soft on the outside and strong on the inside, the Pan now is really self-pitying, cowardly on the outside, and even more cowardly inside. If this is a web novel, the readers will be so upset that they will write hundreds of zero-star reviews. He is so humble to a point that Cen Zhen feels annoyed just by looking at him.

Before witnessing it with his own eyes, Cen Zhen expressed understanding of Pan’s character. After all, if there is no grievance in the early stage, how can there be growth and transformation throughout the novel? How could it be satisfying if the male lead didn’t go from being a C to an A and revenge on all the bullies? If both male leads were overpowered in the beginning, that won’t be a classic light novel, it’s purely just full-level expert bullying newbies.

However, as he experiences the Pan in his early stage in person, the persona of an aggrieved little ‘daughter’-in-law for real is something no one can bear except for the sunshine archangel like Yao Jin.

Cen Zhen’s words caught the attention of all three people, and Pan half-opened his mouth in surprise. What was unbelievable was not that someone spoke for him, but that this person turned out to be Cen Zhen. As for the other two cannon fodders, they have no limit to approach death, they dare to offend anyone they see. They were offended by Cen Zhen’s words, so they stared at him and said: “Courtesan, what do you mean?”

“Ghost will be real if Fan likes a Guide like you who tries to seduce every Sentinel you see. You won’t even let go of someone barely touching the passing mark.”

“Haha, that Sentinel must be such a simp, to a point that even Cen felt bad to say no.”

“By the way, have you seen his performance yesterday? Is he really a Guide? It’s almost like a Sentinel, so disgusting…”

“Shut up… Shut up! You both shut up!” Facing these vicious words of the cannon fodders, Cen Zhen still had no expression, but Pan suddenly yelled unbearably. Although his voice lacked confidence, the volume was much louder than the two cannon fodders that it covered over their words. Pan suddenly pushed the two cannon fodders away, grabbed Cen Zhen’s wrist, and was about to run away.

But what was frightening was that Pan couldn’t drag Cen Zhen at all…… Cen Zhen stood still as if he was nailed to the ground. He pulled Pan back from running away.

Pan turned his head back in horror, and met Cen Zhen’s eyes that were as cold as ice in a deep pool, he retrieved his hands instantly. The next second, Cen Zhen turned around to look at the two idiot cannon fodders, his low voice was extremely cold and chilling, “We are all adults, so you know that you are responsible for what you say, right?”

“What are you gonna do!” Cannon fodder 1 couldn’t help jumping a little, frightened and desperate to preserve their dignity, “Are you planning to punch us? You want to get a write-up?!”

Pan had ‘I want to escape’ written all over his face, but Cen Zhen, who had just stood up for him was still here, and he really couldn’t abandon him and turn around to run away.

Just when he was so anxious that he wanted to jump off the stairs to finish it off, Yao Jin and several other Sentinels suddenly appeared in the corridor. They all had red brooches pinned to their chests, which meant that they were here to cooperate with coursework at the White Tower today.

“Yao Jin!” Although this is only the second time Pan and Yao Jin met, and Pan’s original persona would not ask for help even if he was beaten to death, because of the long-term spiritual link the two of them just established through marking yesterday, Pan unconsciously trusts Yao Jin with all his heart.

Hearing the name Yao Jin, Cen Zhen immediately put away the domineering aura emanating all over him, and silently took two steps back. There are two reasons for why he’s making a scene earlier. One is to see if he can change the plot and get rid of the two cannon fodder before Yao Jin appears, and then observe what will happen next; the second is to let the male leads notice him, establishing a positive image, and perhaps helping him get rid of the Sentinel who destroyed ‘Cen Zhen’ ‘s gland in the future through their protagonist aura.

However, Yao Jin showed up early. In the original plot, it took ‘Cen Zhen’ more than ten minutes of talking before he finally arrived. Since it changed, Cen Zhen decided to abandon his first plan and focus on the second one. 

“Pan?” Yao Jin happily waved his hand in the distance, and at the same time, two Sentinels also looked over. One with a straight face, looking at people with his nostrils the whole time, and the other looked like a good person, smiling all the time, and the school uniform is neat and he looks gentle.

The arrival of the Sentinels made cannon fodder 1 and 2 speechless for a moment. They knew that what they had done before was not good, so they looked at each other with guilt and walked away quickly.

At this time, Yao Jin also walked to Pan’s side explaining that he came to the White Tower for class, then he raised his head and found Cen Zhen standing behind Pan. He immediately acquiesced that the two were friends, and introduced himself generously: “Nice to meet you again, the Guide of Team 10, my name is Yao Jin, a student in class 1 of the Tower. You were amazing yesterday, you must have an S-level physical.”

“Cen Zhen.” Cen Zhen nodded slightly and didn’t say much.

But he didn’t expect that after he said that, the Sentinel who looked at people with nostrils suddenly clicked his tongue, and everyone looked at him strangely. While the Sentinel glanced at Cen Zhen with a side eye, no one knew what he was hiding behind his eyes.

After two seconds of awkward silence, the smiling Sentinel took the initiative to make a rescue: “Fan, don’t you want to say hello to the Guides?” After speaking, he nodded to Pan and Cen Zhen respectively: “I am Hong Xing, and I am in the same class as Yao Jin. Very happy to meet you two.”

Cen Zhen felt that it was the right decision to come here today and get involved, otherwise, how could he have met Fan, the one “Cen Zhen” pursuits, and that one character who ambushed near the male leads. The one who pretends to be a good friend all the time, but is secretly betraying the male leads the whole time; the biggest villain during their school years— Hong Xing.

“Why is it so lively here?” Just when the five of them blocked the way to classrooms, another Sentinel suddenly appeared making the hallway even more crowded and making it more chaotic for the reader to sort out the relationship between the characters present. Cen Zhen felt a weight on his shoulders, followed by a strand of pale golden hair brushed near his cheeks and falling onto his shoulders.