Survival Guide for the Charming Villain
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[Students at Mingde High School Keep Disappearing One After Another]
Where is this...
[To ensure the safety of the students, the school has decided to implement a closed management system.]
[On this day, another group of transfer students arrived at the school...]
"Xi Rong! What are you dawdling for?"
Xi Rong stared blankly at the boy in front of him wearing a school uniform.
The nearly 1.9-meter-tall boy carried a backpack and walked over impatiently, his arrogant eyebrows raised. "Lu Feng, that idiot, is also at Mingde High. If we’re late, he might laugh at us. Are you still half-asleep?"
Lu Feng?
Wasn’t he the male lead from one of the story arcs in the full-immersion game 'Gentel Trap'?
"My dad insisted I transfer to Mingde High, saying something about their strong faculty. This time, we’re transferring together. You’re still my sidekick, right? Hey, are you even listening?"
"What are you spacing out for?"
A large, bony hand reached out, looking as if it was about to touch his forehead. Xi Rong was so startled he stumbled backward.
He couldn’t dodge in time, and his bangs were brushed.
"What’s the matter? Why are you so jumpy?"
He had haphephobia—he couldn’t be touched.
Being touched would trigger his condition.
Thankfully, it was just his hair.
The bold and handsome face suddenly leaned closer.
"Hey..."
"Now that I look closely, you’re actually quite pretty. Hmm... and fair-skinned too. How come I never noticed before? Why do you keep your bangs so long?"
"Hurry up and get in the car. Let the servants move the luggage to the dorm. We’ll head straight to Class 1 to report."
Soon, the car stopped in front of a grand school building. The bright sign reading 'Mingde High School' snapped Xi Rong back to reality.
Wasn’t this the main setting for the sweet and sour school arc *Top Ambiguity*?
Students disappearing? What was going on?
Xi Rong took a closer look at the boy beside him, checking the top and sides of his head.
Who was this?
Why was there no annotation?
Was he just a very marginal cannon fodder?
Why was he still in the game? How much time had passed? His body seemed to have grown up.
[Alpha has detected that the host is an abnormal NPC. Please do not break character.]
Who? What system?
[I am Alpha.]
Can you detect my thoughts?
How is that possible? Can full-immersion games detect players’ thoughts? How could current technology achieve that?
[Alpha’s existence aligns with the current level of societal technology.]
What society is this? How long have I been asleep? I think I heard something about students disappearing and transfer students?
Is this still the same game?
Alpha in his consciousness fell silent and didn’t answer any more questions.
It only left behind a message: "Please maintain your character." Xi Rong asked what the consequences of breaking character were.
It was as if he heard Alpha let out a cold "ding."
[Before the host fell unconscious, the character broke, causing the entire game 'Gentel Trap' to collapse. It has now been repurposed as a testing ground for a real-life horror game.]
No way?
He remembered that back then, he had just slightly stopped bullying the male lead! It was just a normal human reaction to a soft and adorable child. How could it have such a huge impact?
Liar.
Alpha, full of nonsense.
He had probably been bound to a scam system.
But he still raised a question.
Am I dead? Can I go back?
[You are not dead. If you survive in the game, you can return.]
But what danger could there be in a school arc?
He remembered that as the male lead’s sworn brother, even as a villain, his ultimate fate was just being kicked out of the Lu family.
How could it be a matter of survival?
[...]
It was as if it let out a cold laugh.
Alpha didn’t answer anymore.
Soon, they arrived at Class 1. The teacher led them into the classroom and assigned them seats.
It wasn’t until the boy beside him took out his student ID that Xi Rong saw his name.
Lu Tuo.
Xi Rong finally remembered who he was.
This was the cousin his mother’s character had told him to go to school with in the previous plot.
It seemed he was also a villain like him.
But now that the nature of the game had changed, he didn’t know what dangers lay ahead.
Alpha said that as long as he survived, he could return, which meant surviving would be difficult.
Where was Lu Feng? It seemed he wasn’t in this class.
"What’s wrong with you today? Who are you looking around for?"
"I’m not looking for anyone."
Class had already started. The teacher was standing at the podium, and Xi Rong replied in a low voice.
Lu Tuo smirked. "Could it be that your girlfriend is in this class? Otherwise, why didn’t you say a word when your family told you to transfer schools?"
Although Xi Rong was already 21 in real life, he had never been in a relationship. When Lu Tuo suddenly mentioned the word "girlfriend," Xi Rong’s ears turned red.
"It’s not a girlfriend."
"Hey, why are you speaking so softly? What are you so guilty about? Could it really be your girlfriend? Your ears are red!"
Xi Rong had never been good at communicating with others. Back at the company, he always worked alone in a small office, rarely speaking to anyone.
Xi Rong quickly explained, "Class has already started. I don’t dare speak too loudly."
Afraid of being asked more questions, he had no choice but to explain properly.
"Coward." Lu Tuo muttered something under his breath, then said, "What’s there to be afraid of?"
After a while, the homeroom teacher suddenly announced that several transfer students had arrived.
About five transfer students entered Class 1. As soon as they walked in, Xi Rong could tell these people were different from the rest.
One man looked almost 40, wearing a school uniform that seemed completely out of place. Strangely, no one found it odd?
[Xi Rong: Alpha, could these people all be players?]
[Please explore on your own, host.]
As expected, Alpha wouldn’t give him a straight answer.
If they were players, didn’t that mean he could leave the game with them?
His task was survival.
If he could get some information from the players, maybe he could clear the game?
This was just a game to clear levels. As long as he passed the set stages, he could win.
Great.
Xi Rong and Lu Tuo had also transferred today, but unlike these newcomers, they didn’t have to introduce themselves. Among the five suspected players—three males and two females—their eyes scanned the classmates as if searching for some kind of information.
Lu Tuo was a bit impatient. "Why are there other transfer students in Class 1 too? Weren’t they all supposed to be in other classes?"
The girl sitting in front turned around and said, "This time, over fifty students transferred. According to the usual rules, each class will have a few. Class 1 actually has the fewest."
Lu Tuo let out an annoyed "tch." The girl in front suddenly gave a strange smile. "Don’t worry about them taking up spots. They’ll all disappear anyway."
Xi Rong’s heart skipped a beat. He wanted to ask more, but the girl had already turned back to focus on her homework and books.
Xi Rong noticed the name on the girl’s homework: Xu Jiaxin.
He then carefully observed the transfer students’ seating.
Because Lu Tuo had been talking in his ear earlier, he hadn’t heard the transfer students’ self-introductions clearly.
He would have to find a chance to interact with the transfer students.
However, when class ended, the transfer students vanished in an instant. Lu Tuo even asked him to go to the school store to buy some snacks.
According to his character setting, he was supposed to be Lu Tuo’s lackey.
When he was younger, he often bullied Lu Feng. Now that Lu Feng had made something of himself, Xi Rong, being a coward who preyed on the weak, had to rely on his cousin.
He was Lu Tuo’s sidekick.
Xi Rong bought two bottles of drinks and five or six packs of snacks. The cashier forgot to give him a bag, and since he wasn’t good at talking to people, he ended up carrying the snacks back to the classroom.
Luckily, there weren’t too many snacks.
He paused when passing by the honor roll.
Unsurprisingly, Lu Feng’s name was at the very top.
The name was followed by Lu Feng’s class: Class 3.
There was a navigation map in front of the school building showing the class locations. He could find where Class 3 was.
He quickened his pace, planning to locate Class 3 before the next class started.
Suddenly, someone blocked his path.
A group of five or six people appeared, all seemingly transfer students. Two of them were from Class 1—the middle-aged bulky man and the girl with a braid. The others were probably from different classes.
"Are you Xi Rong?"
Xi Rong tightly held onto the snacks, already sensing that these people meant trouble. "What do you want?"
It seemed they were just confirming if he was indeed Xi Rong. Somehow, they had gotten his name. These transfer students, who had never interacted with him before, suddenly cornered him after class without any warning.
Xi Rong was forcibly taken away, the snacks scattering on the ground. He glanced back at the fallen snacks, faintly hoping Lu Tuo would come looking for him. But then he remembered his character setting—he was just a lackey. If anything, he might get scolded by Lu Tuo for not bringing the snacks back.
He recalled that Lu Tuo had always had a bad temper since childhood.
His wrist was tightly gripped. Thankfully, the long sleeves of his uniform covered his skin, preventing direct contact. However, the rough fabric of the uniform, combined with the forceful grip, made it feel like his wrist was about to break.
The bulky man on his left was nearly two meters tall, and the guy on his right was also built like an athlete. The two of them could easily lift Xi Rong.
At 21 years old, Xi Rong was 1.78 meters tall. In the game, his age was probably under 20, but his build was similar. He was carried off like a helpless chick.
[Age setting is 19 years old.]
Xi Rong: ...
Thanks a lot. Such a useless piece of information, and you’re so eager to share it.
The class bell had already rung, but the transfer students ignored it completely, showing no regard for classroom discipline. They dragged Xi Rong to an abandoned gym.
This area was rarely frequented.
Almost no one came here.
"Class 3 is having P.E. right now. Take him over and lure Lu Feng here."
So it was about Lu Feng.
What was the point of luring Lu Feng over?
"Will it really increase favorability by several points?"
"This NPC is terrible. He bullied Lu Feng since childhood. Lu Feng likes seeing others take revenge for him. Someone did a strategy on this before."
Xi Rong’s hand was in excruciating pain. The discomfort made him break out in a cold sweat, his skin sticking to the uniform underneath. The abandoned gym had a musty smell, and the occasional dust particles in the air made him feel even worse.
What kind of revenge were they planning?
Would it be life-threatening?
[Xi Rong: Alpha, what happens if I die in the game?]
[You will remain in the game forever, becoming a real NPC. Every time the game resets, your consciousness will be formatted.]
He would become a real NPC.
Xi Rong shuddered.
He didn’t want that.
Xi Rong, who rarely exercised, had a slender and frail build. His strength was no match for the robust players. His slight struggles not only failed to free him but also made the players more aggressive. The tall boy beside him pressed Xi Rong down with a fierce expression, while the bulky man seemed hesitant to provoke him further.
Xi Rong’s foot slipped, and he was pinned under a chair in the corner.
The autumn sun was still strong.
The dim, abandoned gym was illuminated by a few rays of light streaming through the windows in the mid-afternoon. Dust particles floated in the air, creating a beautiful Tyndall effect.
Xi Rong’s soft black hair fell away, revealing his smooth forehead. His beautiful face, now fully exposed, looked as if a veil had been lifted. His eyes blinked a few times from the sunlight, soon turning red, as if he were about to cry.
The boy holding him down seemed momentarily stunned. It wasn’t until his companion behind him spoke up that he snapped out of it.
"Yu Mingzun, have you figured out how to bully him? Lu Feng is almost here."
"As long as we gain Lu Feng’s approval, we can clear the level."
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