Chapter 2132 - 2130: The Truman Show
"Thank you, teacher."
"You’re welcome, come to me if you need anything."
Fang Zheng nodded slightly and smiled at the uniformed girl in front of him. After hearing his response, the two girls quickly bowed and then left the room. Even after the door closed, their squeals could be faintly heard.
Fang Zheng glanced at the door and then turned his attention back to the coffee on the desk, while his eyes shifted back to the laptop beside him.
Upon arriving in this "Sealed World," Fang Zheng spent almost two days figuring out the situation inside this world.
First, according to the world’s background, there was a meteor strike on Earth, which then led to an alien virus invasion... Okay, this is quite a Hollywood science fiction theme.
Then, several years ago, during an event known as "Lost Christmas," the virus began to explode massively, killing many in the process. After that, the international community quarantined Japan and dispatched an organization named GHQ to govern the pandemic area.
To resist GHQ’s tyranny, a resistance group called Funeral Society was founded underground in Japan...
Hmm? Why does this setup sound so familiar?
If you replace GHQ with Britannia and Funeral Society with some revolutionary group...
Hmm, it seems humanity keeps repeating the same mistakes.
If this setting is real, then Fang Zheng would surely side with GHQ. In the Mech World, he went out of his way to divide Area 11 into the hands of the Chinese Federation. In this world, Fang Zheng certainly wouldn’t help that Funeral Society.
Japanese independence? Don’t even dream about it.
However, sadly, the outside world is already finished, which makes this Sealed World... quite laughable.
Yes, very laughable indeed.
According to Fang Zheng’s observation, everyone’s memories in this Sealed World have been rewritten and affected. They are entirely unaware of the nuclear blasts and everything happening outside. They resemble unwitting actors performing earnestly in a theatrical play, executing their roles faithfully.
This reminded Fang Zheng of a movie called "The Truman Show," where only Truman was unaware and everyone else were actors. But in this world, except for some existence, everyone else is "Truman."
If this were just a normal world, Fang Zheng would have already taken action, just like with Black and White Bear before, and flipped the table.
But that’s not possible now; considering the other party might possess the same Order Clan authority as him, Fang Zheng has to act cautiously. He’s only met the Goddess of Order within the Order Clan, and based on what he knows of her... Hmm, she’s a lunatic.
Moreover, a very dangerous lunatic.
If it were just a personality issue of the Goddess of Order, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But if that is the common state in the Order Clan...
Better to back down a bit.
Thus, Fang Zheng entered First High School in Uranus State under the guise of a health doctor. According to his understanding, any setting involving juveniles must relate to high school students. As long as he’s in the high school, he should quickly come into contact with the main characters of this "instance," then he could observe them to understand what that mysterious entity wants to do.
As for why he’s a health doctor... That reason is simple.
It’s a profession that legally allows you to watch high school girls change clothes.
It also prevents some couples from using the sacred infirmary for unsacred activities.
Plus, during idle days, he can slack off without needing to prepare lectures, assign homework, or worry about exams.
It’s totally a profitable arrangement, isn’t it?
"Beep... Beep..."
Suddenly, at this moment, a sound chimed from Fang Zheng’s laptop, drawing his attention to the screen. He gently moved his fingers and tapped on the keyboard.
Quickly, the scene changed, revealing a boy in uniform slowly walking forward in a desolate ruin at dusk.
"Ah, sure enough... it’s all cliché."
Looking at the scene in front of him, Fang Zheng shrugged. To cover all bases, he certainly released Little Ding Dong to monitor every area within the Sealed World. Based on Fang Zheng’s experience, such juvenile setups usually start from some secluded places, especially those areas considered "virus outbreak zones" and thus sealed in this city.
Generally speaking, these places are where protagonists are often found. Either they end up here accidentally while chasing something, or hear things they shouldn’t have, anyway it always involves stupidity mixed with strong adventurous spirit.
Of course, there’s logic in this, because look, if you on the crowded street transform under public gaze and then see a crowd taking pictures... it would be quite embarrassing, wouldn’t it?
Finding a more secluded place wouldn’t be as embarrassing.
"Come, let me see who this lucky one is..."
Fang Zheng tapped the keyboard once again, and a face of a brown-haired boy who looked quite submissive appeared on the screen.
"Hmm, Sakuramitsu Shuu, 17 years old, 2nd year student in A Group of First High School in Uranus State... Tch, a guy."
Seeing it was a male, Fang Zheng’s interest immediately declined by more than half.
This setup would be so much better if it featured a Magical Girl. What’s good about a guy... I’m the God of Magical Girls, protecting men isn’t in my options!
So after that, Fang Zheng watched Sakuramitsu Shuu’s actions rather indifferently, seeing him reach the restricted area and meet a golden-haired man. Oh, this man is the leader of the Funeral Society resistance organization, Yangg Shenyai.
That’s normal procedure, after all, he’s the protagonist, he can’t just meet a low-level soldier at the start.
Then the man named Yangg Shenyai said a bunch of nonsense to Sakuramitsu Shuu, and suddenly GHQ’s army burst in—this is also normal procedure, after all, a tense atmosphere must be created to allow the protagonist to awaken, show off, and go overboard.
Then everyone scattered during GHQ’s army raid, and Sakuramitsu Shuu ran and ran, inexplicably ending up on the street where he saw a girl with pink twin tails standing in front of a giant robot, seemingly in danger.
As a result, Sakuramitsu Shuu, unsurprisingly, rushed over, unsurprisingly embraced the girl, unsurprisingly...
"Hmm?"
Just then, Fang Zheng saw something from Sakuramitsu Shuu’s chest seemingly shattering like an explosion, followed by a burst of white light emerging and enveloping Sakuramitsu Shuu and the girl.
Wait, is this a Magical Boy transformation?
Seeing this, Fang Zheng’s expression darkened. It reminded him of the Goddess of Order—she had those twisted lamentations, maybe the other members of the Order Clan have them too? What if there really is a weirdo in the Order Clan who likes to watch Magical Boy transformations?!
If you say this, I’m dropping it!
As the God of Magical Girls, that’s my bottom line, alright!
Fortunately, in the next moment, Fang Zheng saw Sakuramitsu Shuu suddenly reach out his hand, entering the pink-haired girl’s chest and pulling out a... sword?
Alright, at least it’s not a transformation, he tolerated it.
Watching Sakuramitsu Shuu raising the sword higher than himself, with a green light shooting straight into the sky, Fang Zheng remained unusually calm.
Next, as Fang Zheng imagined, the Mecha on the other side, as the target of the protagonist’s flaunting, attacked without hesitation and was then blown up by Sakuramitsu Shuu with a single slash, becoming the first sacrifice after the protagonist’s aura awakened. The second Mecha hurriedly arrived, only to become another fallen soul beneath Sakuramitsu Shuu’s sword.
Then, Sakuramitsu Shuu rushed to the apparently unconscious girl, picked her up, and immediately watched as the greatsword he summoned quickly disappeared, returning into the girl’s body.
"I see, this setting is kind of interesting, but isn’t it a bit stupid?"
Seeing this, Fang Zheng roughly understood that, to put it simply, the protagonist’s hack probably involves summoning weapons from other people’s bodies. However, the problem is, once the weapon is summoned, the affected person falls unconscious, no different from being dead. Honestly, at this moment, simply deploying a sniper to take a shot at the girl would solve everything, wouldn’t it?
And if you want to protect the girl, it means you’re adding a burden—being a pushover isn’t an issue, but if the fight is even, wouldn’t it be a drag?
Sure enough, only such a story with a chuunibyou setting would suit this chuunibyou background; otherwise, Fang Zheng wouldn’t want this idiotic ability. Moreover...
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng glanced at the Sword Sprite emblem on his hand.
He already has plenty of weapons, adding a new one might just start a fire in the harem.
Then Fang Zheng saw Sakuramitsu Shuu carrying the girl away from the scene, meeting the leader of the Resistance Group again, who dutifully explained Sakuramitsu Shuu’s power to him—that it comes from something called the "Enhanced Genome," which grants the user power. According to Yangg Shenyai, it was supposed to be for himself... Fang Zheng sneered at this, which simply shows that he has the heart of a protagonist but not the life of one.
In simple terms, this power can explore each person’s traits and then transform them into "voids" that manifest, and the greatsword in the body of the girl named Inori Yuzuriha is her "void."
"I see, turns out that pink-haired one is the guaranteed SR."
Hearing this, Fang Zheng finally understood. It just means treating people like Gashapon draws, leaving it entirely to luck on what you get. That pink-haired girl is just the official guaranteed SR; otherwise, imagine going up to rescue the girl, unleashing power, and then drawing a teapot, a pen, a cup, or a game console from her body...
This would be reasonable, but what if you draw something like a vibrating gadget, a flighty cup, or a body pillow...
Where’s the chance to be a protagonist; it’s instant societal death, okay.
But Fang Zheng likes this design a lot, and he’s considering whether to use it in the next game version update.
Hmm... Oh yeah, just design it so that players can recruit NPC followers, giving them void abilities, and what they draw out from the followers’ bodies is left entirely to chance. Top-ups can increase the chance of getting high-level followers, and he can also design some particularly cute, tragically backgrounded, ultra-low drop rate lolita characters for players to draw... Or perhaps, initially, the cute characters are low-ranked, and players need top-up items to increase their rank, and only after consecutively leveling up to the top can they draw weapons from an NPC’s body through a void ability.
However, restrictions need to be set; make it so upgrading NPC levels has a certain chance of failure, and if it fails, the NPC enters a weakened state. To cure the weakened state, players need to buy potions for healing, and if there are too many failures, the NPC might die... This way, it will also stimulate players’ guilty feelings.
Wait, that still seems too bland; got it! Design it so players first need to increase rapport with NPCs, and only when rapport is maxed out can they use the void, with each NPC rank-up increasing the rapport cap.
Players will only cherish NPCs after building rapport; otherwise, it’s hard to spend money without an emotional foundation.
With this, players not only need to top-up for upgrade items and healing potions but also spend money to buy items that increase rapport...
Oh dear, talking about this makes me wide awake.
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng immediately stopped caring about the life and death of Sakuramitsu Shuu and began drafting his game version update plan.
After all, it seems he’s the protagonist, so he won’t die anytime soon.
Once Fang Zheng finished making the settings and had nothing to do, he learned the news of that day from the internet. The news was pretty vague, but essentially it was about a terrorist organization called the Funeral Society launching a terror attack on the GHQ, urging the public to report to authorities if they knew anything about the Society.
"This is so unprofessional; at least provide a bounty amount."
Watching the news and announcement, Fang Zheng curled his lips. This notice was too perfunctory; as the saying goes, money can make the devil turn mills, but you have to have money first, right? How can you expect information without any money? Unless some benevolent Chaoyang District resident reports...
𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖
"Knock, knock, knock."
Just as Fang Zheng was getting imaginative with the news, there was a knock on the door of the nurse’s office, and Fang Zheng turned off the laptop and turned his head.
"Come in."
Hearing Fang Zheng’s voice, the nurse’s office door opened, and in came a girl with short black hair and glasses.
"Sorry to disturb, Teacher Fang Zheng."
"It’s alright, I’m quite free at the moment. Is there anything you need, Miss Kusama?"
Fang Zheng asked the girl in front of him, remembering that she should be Kusama Kanon, the class monitor of Class 2-A... Oh, which means she’s in the same class as Sakuramitsu Shuu?
"It’s like this, I am showing the new transfer student around the school."
"Oh..."
Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng nodded and looked behind Kusama Kanon... Hmm? Isn’t that the initial SR?
"Her name is Inori Yuzuriha, she’s the student transferring in today."
At this, Kusama Kanon glanced at Inori Yuzuriha.
"Inori Yuzuriha, this is Teacher Fang Zheng from the nurse’s office. If you need anything, you can find him."
"Hello, Inori Yuzuriha, I am Fang Zheng."
This time, Fang Zheng stood up with a smile, reaching out his hand.
"I am mainly responsible for the students’ health and psychological management. If there are any unpleasant things, feel free to tell me, as I also serve as a psychological counselor."
After all, it should be quite unpleasant to have someone pull a sword out of your body, right?
"Hello, I am Inori Yuzuriha."
Facing Fang Zheng, the girl named Inori Yuzuriha remained silent for a moment, then reached out to shake Fang Zheng’s hand lightly, greeted him, and then turned and left.
"So that Sakuramitsu Shuu really is the protagonist?"
Watching Inori Yuzuriha leave, Fang Zheng chuckled. It’s all formulaic—the mysterious girl he met just yesterday suddenly transferred to his class, all part of the formula... According to logic, the next would be Sakuramitsu Shuu and Inori Yuzuriha having cheerful daily school life and then doing some undercover work occasionally, then developing feelings for each other... Isn’t that how it typically unfolds?
But this time I have no intention of getting involved in such matters.
With this in mind, Fang Zheng picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello, is this the GHQ? I have information regarding the Funeral Society, a person closely associated with them is at the First High School in Uranus State... Yes, that’s right, his name is Sakuramitsu Shuu, student of Class 2-A. As for my identity..."
While speaking, Fang Zheng curled the corners of his mouth.
"I am just an enthusiastic member of the Chaoyang Masses."