Back at her seat.
Kiana sat properly at her desk, earnestly reading her book with a quiet and gentle expression.
The sunlight cast tiny, dappled spots of light across her flawless face. As she blinked, her eyelashes fluttered, making the shadows on her desk dance nimbly.
No noise, no excitement, no annoyance. It was incredibly difficult to read any emotion on her face, let alone guess what she was thinking.
All the events that had just transpired—
The little boy's confession, her classmates' malicious slander, the unprovoked dispute she had personally intervened in...
They were nothing but insignificant interludes that wouldn't affect what she was going to do next in the slightest.
The atmosphere in the classroom grew exceedingly bizarre.
Whispers started up again, but the volume was much lower, and the topic had shifted to questioning why Kiana had suddenly intervened.
The students who had been utterly unrestrained earlier now looked evasive, no longer daring to cast blatant, mocking gazes toward Li Wu and Mei.
And this scene successfully drew Raiden Mei's dissatisfaction.
Raiden Mei tugged on Li Wu's sleeve, leaning close to his ear to vent in a low whisper: "A rich girl backed by Schicksal. Just like I used to be: putting on airs, thinking she's so reserved, acting all high and mighty. It's so disgusting. Let's find a chance and I'll help you kill her."
???
Do you even hear yourself right now?
Are those even words a human would say?
Just because you got caught in the rain, you have to trample on everyone else's umbrellas too?
Li Wu looked at Kiana's serene, snow-like profile. To be honest, Li Wu saw the true aura of a "Princess of Honkai" in her—free from worldly desires, mysterious, and aesthetically beautiful.
She was like a thick book that required a very long time to read, ponder, and finally comprehend.
Perhaps you might resonate with it a little by the end, but you would still never be able to fully guess what the book was truly trying to convey, or what hidden plots and foreshadowing lay within.
But to him right now, that was way too far off.
Her personality was far too different from the Kiana in the game; they were practically two entirely different people. Coupled with the fact that he had altered the plot for the comic, honestly, Li Wu couldn't predict whether Kiana would act according to the comic's storyline.
After all...
Whether in the game's plot or the comic's setting, Kiana had never displayed her background or extraordinary abilities while studying at Chiba Academy. But right now, she wasn't using her power to oppress others, nor was she hiding it.
This is a bit of a headache...
Li Wu tried to analyze her, lest Kiana's extreme contrast cause him to misjudge the subsequent plot.
From what he could see so far, Kiana stood firmly on the side of Lawful Good.
She didn't care who was a noble or a commoner, who was being put on a pedestal or who was being bullied.
She possessed a pride entirely different from the original work, acting according to what she deemed correct: efficiency, logic, rules, and a respect for "hard work that deserves to be taken seriously."
She rejected that boy's confession because his "hard work" was applied in the wrong direction, and he misunderstood her help.
She pointed out Mei's dress code violation and offered a solution because it adhered to the rules and efficiently put an end to a bullying incident that was disrupting order.
Mentioning the school rules and evidence was to maintain harmony within the classroom. She wouldn't poke her nose into things outside the classroom, but inside, no one was allowed to break the rules in front of her—not even herself.
It had nothing to do with status; she simply respected what was worthy of respect and took seriously those who were worthy of being taken seriously.
Looking at it that way, it didn't seem so bad, did it?
At least it was much better than Raiden Mei's situation...
Riiiing—
The class bell rang, and Raiden Mei reluctantly returned to her seat.
The teacher walked in. His gaze paused for a moment on Raiden Mei's inappropriate clothing, but he quickly looked away to the other students as if he hadn't seen anything, indifferently proceeding to lecture from the textbook.
"..."
"I don't understand a word of this. It's way too different from what I studied... Whatever, I should just think about the upcoming crisis events in the plot. It's not like I'm a good student anyway."
As a certified slacker, Li Wu expertly pulled out his books, piling them into a small mountain in front of him to block the teacher's line of sight. Then, he naturally slumped over his desk, using his pen to jot down the key points of the upcoming plot in his notebook.
Sniper Incident: There's a kendo class at 2:00 PM that lasts over two hours. In the comic, someone hires a sniper to assassinate Raiden Mei.
Transitional Safe Period: At 4:45 PM, Kiana and he will be on duty to stay behind and clean the classroom.
Kidnapping Incident: School ends at 5:00 PM. On the way home, street thugs hired by some unknown gang will attempt to kidnap Raiden Mei.
Deliveryman Incident: At home at 8:00 PM. A mercenary posing as a deliveryman will knock on the door and, the moment it opens, thrust a knife into Raiden Mei's stomach...
Tsk. I was so hot-headed back then, just shoving every random crisis I could think of into the comic. What a headache.
Li Wu paused his pen for a long time.
The ink from the nib pooled into a small dot on the paper, continuously bleeding through more pages.
He knew the general crises and had a clear idea of how to solve them, but to actually execute those solutions, he needed to figure out every single detail.
For example, the sniper's exact location. The comic only showed him on some rooftop; the specific building was unknown.
The Kidnapping Incident could be avoided by changing their route and time of heading home. And the Deliveryman Incident wouldn't be too hard to handle if he prepared in advance. The main problem was this Sniper Incident.
Li Wu drew a circle around the words Sniper Incident.
In the comic, the protagonist died over ten times just to locate the sniper, and then died another fifty times to figure out his attack rhythm. Only then was he able to counter-kill the mercenary with the physical fitness of an ordinary person.
That death count was almost in the triple digits...
He wasn't some Japanese shonen protagonist who could casually power up and save the world.
A wave of cold dread washed over Li Wu's heart, and a phantom pain throbbed faintly in his jaw from being pierced by a sharp object. Whether it was suicide or murder, he absolutely did not want to experience the feeling of death again.
I need to think of a better way to handle these crises with the minimum cost.
Thinking of this, Li Wu pulled out his phone. The moment he unlocked it, he received a message from Ruslan.
After reading it, Li Wu suddenly smiled in relief. The positive feedback from altering parts of the plot was already starting to take effect.
The message contained the complete sniper plan: the sniper's location, the type of rifle, the time of the assassination attempt, and the mercenary group he belonged to.
Ruslan had originally planned to handle it himself, but to avoid blowing his cover, Li Wu had assigned him to prepare for the other crisis events.
So Li Wu would have to resolve the Sniper Incident on his own. The only upside was that Ruslan had left a handgun downstairs at the target building, complete with a photo of its exact location.
Excellent. The specific location was known, and the method of execution was confirmed. Next, he just needed to find an excuse to slip away during kendo class and deal with the sniper alone.
With the problem solved, Li Wu couldn't help but chuckle. The corners of his mouth curled up into a pleased expression as he slowly raised his head from the notebook covered in scribbled notes.
During this process, Li Wu suddenly noticed a burning gaze on him and instantly glanced sideways.
His eyes met Kiana's exactly.