Out of the twenty students currently inhabiting the decaying classroom, nineteen were talking about Teacher Wang's demonstration on combat techniques. Liu Yang, on the other hand, was marveling at the clock. He watched as the minutes ticked by, ignoring all the taunts from his classmates that seemed to come out like a stream of arrows.
"Hey, loser Liu, why are you so focused on that clock? Is it because that's the only thing that you can do?"
"Don't forget about your daily torture session outside the building today! I'll make sure to double the amount of blood that you spill."
"Maybe your ability relates to clocks in some way?"
"Bro, why you so stupid mate? Don't you know that Liu doesn't have an ability? Apparently, only 0.00000001% of people don't have an ability of any kind. (Less than 100 people.) It's harder to have no ability than to win the Powerball and the Mega Millions jackpots on the same day!"
"Yes, he's a rare talent indeed. His specialty? He has none."
"LOL, silly me. Why did I even think about the notion that he has an ability? Such an incredulous thought would have never entered my mind under normal circumstances. I must be losing my mind."
"Yeah dude, you should go to the doctor as soon as possible. I heard that there's a great neurologist nearby, and apparently he can tell if you have any brain issues. I'm scared for you dude, because you may have something like degenerative brain disease."
"I thought that brain disease could kill, right?"
"Yep."
This chorus of jeers went on for sometime, until the teacher finally had enough with it and ordered the students to stop.
"Quiet! Seriously, why are you students so loud? I'm fine with you guys teasing another student, as long as it's at an acceptable volume. Do you seriously think that this is an acceptable volume? This is as loud as a music concert, not a school classroom. The class next door is taking a test on stat points. There's only 20 more minutes of school left. After that, you can bully Yang as much as you want, and I don't care a single bit. You can even kill him if you want. But this is a school zone, and in school there are rules. If you don't like them, you can go talk to class 5c about why you disrupted their test!"
Faced with this barrage of harsh comments from Teacher, the students had no choice but to reply "Sorry, teacher."
Suddenly, a chorus of mechanical beeps and shrills could be heard. It was time. Before leaving, the teacher had a few words to say to the students. "Don't forget that there is an exam tomorrow! Remember to prep for it, because it's difficulty is beyond hard!"
Hearing this, all the students exorbitantly responded "Yes, teacher!".
That was, besides one person. His name was Liu Yang.
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Within five minutes, all but one of the students had departed the building. Most of them were playing outside, calling for Liu Yang to come join them. But Liu Yang knew more than most of the dangers of showing his face outside of public.
"Why are you still in this room? Is it because you want to retake that test you got a 52 on last time?"
"No, teacher" Liu Yang responded, with a voice that alternated with hopelessness and fury.
"Then why are you still in this building? Get the hell out or I'll beat you up instead."
Just as the teacher was saying this, Liu Yang thought of a possible solution. There were multiple exits inside the complex that was the school building. As long as he didn't go through the main exit, he would be fine. The problem was that those exits were farther away from his home. Inconvenience, however, was a small price to pay for safety. And Liu Yang, more than anyone, needed safety.
However, the teacher was not dumb. He knew the moment Liu Yang pulled out a map of the school that Liu Yang intended to go to an alternate exit. In fact, that was the reasonable and obvious thing to do.
Out of everyone in the building, Teacher Wang was the one who wanted Liu Yang to be beaten up and tortured the most.
First of all, Liu Yang never listened to the teacher. Instead, he would gaze longingly at some random object for the duration of the class, or he would be writing things down that had no connection to the lesson at hand. To some, Liu Yang seemed to have ADHD. To others, he was simply insane. But no matter what type of brain disorder Liu Yang had, it was clear that he was never focused on his classwork.
Second, Liu Yang was a disgrace to his class. Teacher Wang's class, the famed class 5d, was historically known as one of the strongest classes in the cavernous school, both in terms of combat prowess and battle planning. At least, that was before Liu Yang arrived on the second day of school as a transfer student. After that, Teacher Wang's class was no longer called "The Legend of 5d" like it used to be called. Instead, it went by the name "Oh, its the class of that weakling Liu". Soon enough, what was once the most respected class in the school became the laughingstock instead, much to the other pupil's chagrin.
And third, Liu Yang never did good on tests. Some speculated it was because he didn't focus in class. Others disagreed, blaming the root of the problem on Liu not doing homework. Whatever the case might be, Liu's presence alone dropped the class down 70 spots on the ranking of the best classes in the region, an unprecedented loss.
Normally, Teacher Wang would simply let the students outside do their thing. But today, Liu Yang seemed comfortable in his seat at the back row and didn't want to budge, so Teacher Wang had to offer some "encouragement" to Liu in order to get Liu out of the classroom.
"This is ridiculous. School already ended 20 minutes ago, so why are you still here?"
"I'm waiting for my parents." Liu nonchalantly replied.
"Waiting for your parents? Waiting for whom? I thought your parents died?"
"They didn't die, they just disappeared." Liu countered.
"Same thing. Anyways, you should be hurrying up now. I don't have all day, you know."
Liu flashed the teacher an insidious grin before leaving in a blink of an eye.
Before Teacher Wang could even react, Liu Yang was already out the door. Teacher Wang was furious by this unexpected turn of events. During the conversation, he spent so much concentration on talking that he was off guard when Liu slipped by.
"Was that the result Liu Yang was planning from the beginning?" Teacher Wang muttered to himself.
But he then realized that there was no way that Liu Yang would do such a thing. In the end, he packed his bags up and went home, saddened by the fact that he couldn't see Liu Yang getting beaten up by his own classmates.
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Meanwhile, Liu Yang was gasping for air at a barren hunk of land half a kilometer away from the school. He had already used up all his energy to run away from the school, and he had no choice but to rest in order to get some of his stamina back.
Even though Liu Yang was succeeding so far in the quest to get to safety, he knew that the road towards home would not be easy. Unlike most people, Liu Yang only had one life left. Die here, and his account would be locked out. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, since most of the time his classmates let him off with a few slaps on the back and a punch to the nose. But today, Liu Yang could feel a murderous intent oozing from his classmates and teacher. In fact, the murderous aura was so strong, even the weakest of noses like him could smell the difference. Liu Yang knew that if he stayed any second later at this school, his life would be in danger.