Not long after, the fire department's head teacher, Wei Rong, strode into the hall with an air of frustration. His presence commanded respect, and in an instant, the noisy crowd of over a thousand fire students fell silent.
He stepped up to the podium, his gaze sweeping across the tiered rows of students in the lecture hall. His sharp eyes scanned the crowd.
"Which one of you is Mo Fan?" Wei Rong asked.
Mo Fan was a bit surprised but stood up without hesitation.
All eyes were on him. It was rare for the department head to call out a student's name, especially in a hall packed with so many elite fire students.
"You transferred here as a new student?" Wei Rong asked.
"Yes." Mo Fan nodded.
"We're almost at the end of the semester. Why are you transferring now? I don't take in students who can't commit and are just wasting time!" Wei Rong bluntly stated.
Mo Fan had returned earlier than expected, just before the semester's end.
Wei Rong was notoriously hot-tempered, and when he found out that a student was transferring into his department so late, he strongly opposed it. However, this student had some serious connections—the Principal himself had arranged for the transfer. The paperwork was all in order, so even if Wei Rong didn't want to, he had no choice but to accept the student. That said, as the department head, he still had significant authority. Wei Rong had final say in resource distribution and didn't care how important this new student was. On his turf, Mo Fan would receive no special treatment.
His fire department might have a lot of students, but every one of them was an elite, handpicked from thousands!
A newcomer who suddenly decided to transfer here? Wei Rong wasn't impressed.
Mo Fan, meanwhile, had been thinking about how to quickly climb the ranks. Seeing Wei Rong coming at him aggressively, he decided to meet him head-on. "Well, I'm sitting here, aren't I?" he said with a smirk.
Wei Rong's thick eyebrows shot up in surprise. This transfer student had the nerve to talk back?
The thousand or so students in the fire department were all respectful towards Wei Rong. Even those ranked in the top ten, no matter how powerful or influential, would never dare to be disrespectful.
"You think you're pretty tough, don't you?" Wei Rong challenged.
"I'm alright. Definitely not the waste of space you mentioned." Mo Fan replied.
"The tests for this month are already over, so I guess you got lucky. But next month, if I see that your ranking is below 1000, you can pack your bags and go back to whatever department you came from! The fire department's resources are allocated by me, and I can cut you off entirely for poor performance!" Wei Rong retorted, not holding back.
"You're joking, right? Ranked 1,000?" Mo Fan scoffed.
"Hmph, let's see you reach that level first!" Wei Rong shot back coldly.
Mo Fan sighed, glancing around the room before saying, "You say you don't accept useless students, but from what I can see, everyone here is trash. Could it be that your teaching skills are the problem, Teacher?"
Mo Fan's words were a direct insult to the entire fire department. He hadn't named anyone, but the phrase "everyone here" clearly targeted all of the students. Worse still, he implied that Wei Rong's teaching was to blame, insulting both the students and the teacher.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the room felt like it had caught fire. If their glares could burn, Mo Fan would have been reduced to ashes by the thousands of fiery eyes locked on him!
But Mo Fan didn't care at all.
By showing these people who's boss from the start, he'd save himself from unnecessary trouble later on.
Besides, it wasn't his fault that Teacher Wei hadn't assessed his strength before barking at him.
Wei Rong was visibly furious.
"Good. Very good." Wei Rong said, his voice full of anger. He was clearly tempted to throw Mo Fan out and beat him up right then and there.
The room buzzed with chatter, and several students ranked in the top 300 or 400 began to shout insults at Mo Fan, but Wei Rong's booming voice cut through the noise.
"Silence!" Wei Rong's voice echoed through the lecture hall, and his fiery eyes bore down on Mo Fan.
The room fell deathly quiet. All that could be heard was the sound of everyone breathing.
Wei Rong's authority was unquestionable. With just one command, the entire hall went silent. Clearly, he was respected as a teacher, but it was still his fault for not gauging Mo Fan's abilities before lashing out.
"This is Pearl Institute, the Fire Department," Wei Rong's voice rang out like iron. "I've seen plenty of so-called geniuses come through here, but never has anyone dared to speak to me like this. Fine, I'll see what you've got. Every student here is ranked on the fire board, from first place down to 1,149th."
As he spoke, the entire lecture hall remained silent. His voice carried such weight that no one dared to interrupt.
Wei Rong scanned the room before calling out, "Zheng Jiahui, stand up."
From the crowd, a timid-looking boy slowly rose to his feet. He didn't look proud to be called out; in fact, he seemed embarrassed.
"He's ranked last in the entire fire department," Wei Rong said, directing this statement at Mo Fan.
"Dongfang Lie, stand up." Wei Rong continued.
From the back row of the lecture hall, a cocky-looking guy reluctantly stood up, a smug smile on his face. His arrogance was obvious, and it contrasted sharply with Zheng Jiahui's humility.
"That's the top-ranked student in the fire department." Wei Rong said, pointing at Dongfang Lie.
"And this so-called number one doesn't seem all that impressive." Mo Fan said nonchalantly.
If he was going to make a statement, he might as well aim for the top.
Dongfang Lie had his own impressive skills, but with Mo Fan's demon power, his spirit seed, and mastery of three full intermediate levels, Dongfang Lie was nothing special in comparison.
Everyone in the room was stunned once again.
Arrogant! Insanely arrogant!
Yet, Dongfang Lie wasn't bothered at all. To him, Mo Fan was nothing more than a clown, not worth taking seriously.
"Fine. With your attitude, I'll place you at rank 100 for this month. I'll let you experience what it's like to compete with those in the top 100 of the fire department!" Wei Rong said angrily.
"Only 100? I thought you were going to give me first place." Mo Fan shrugged.
If he'd been ranked first, he could've claimed a bunch of free resources. That would've been a nice bonus.
But Wei Rong wasn't falling for that.
Nearby, the tomboy who'd earlier called Mo Fan out now thought he was completely insane. She decided to stay silent.
As for Wei Rong's decision, Mo Fan didn't mind at all.
A month was plenty of time for him to accomplish many things. First, he didn't need the demon power's soul reserves for now, so he could use them to strengthen his stars instead.
He also planned to go on some bounty hunts and collect some souls and essences along the way.
Once his star level increased, he could easily beat these people!
And besides, he had just gotten a bunch of free resources by being placed at rank 100—what a sweet deal!
(End of Chapter)