Working Records in a Weird World - 87

 

| WRIAWW | No, I'm Straight | 87

What? One-sided pursuit?

Hearing this, Zhou Ke'er's eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

He wasn't the only one, since the exchange hadn't been hushed, several nearby survivors now had bright red exclamation marks practically floating over their heads.

If it weren't for the mission constraints, they would have dragged over stools and cracked open melons for this front-hand gossip!

This was 1st's gossip, after all!!!

Had they not heard it firsthand, no one would've believed it.

Yet these words had come straight from Joshua's mouth!

"What pursuit? What are you talking about?" Zong Le looked even more shocked than Zhou Ke'er.

Half-baffled, Zhou Ke'er turned when the homeroom teacher's voice rang out: "Will the parent of Zhou Lian please come to the podium? Zhou Lian is Class 2-A's class president, will the parent please come up."

Sunshine Elementary's parent-teacher meetings were oddly considerate, kids didn't have to stick around for report card distribution. Earlier, the teacher had handed out candy and shooed the students out to play, leaving parents alone in the classroom.

This, however, tested the survivors' memorization skills. In those brief moments, they'd had to pick a child and remember their names and class roles.

After calling out three times, the shadows by the doorway began visibly swelling. 

Which snapped them out of their gossip trance, Zhou Ke'er finally came to his senses, wasn't he the temporary parent for that little girl?

"Coming!" he yelped.

The instant he responded, the encroaching shadows shrank back.

Watching this, the mediums exchanged stunned glances, piecing things together.

'Oh my god, that aura outside just now was definitely S-level weird!'

'More than that, it felt stronger than standard S-level, but not quite like a typical weird. Wait, the whole school got enveloped in a weird domain when the lights went out earlier. Could there be rules in the weird domain?'

'The education bureau inspectors outside are definitely watching. If we slip up as fake parents, we're dead.'

As the pinnacle of standard mission difficulties, the difficulty of S-level tasks is self-evident.

It is a common consensus that this level of weird has a weird domain. Unlike those minor A-level weirds that can enhance their own domains, S-level weird domains typically come with inherent rules, some are so strict that even the slightest violation means instant death.

As seasoned survivors, everyone was quite adept at deducing these rules and wouldn't make mistakes on such trivial details.

Zhou Ke'er stood up to assist the homeroom teacher with the attendance list at the podium, while Zong Le stiffened his back. His eyes remained fixed on the blackboard ahead, though his brows unconsciously furrowed.

Under the scorching gazes of their "thirst-for-gossip" teammates, Zong Le had no choice but to lower his voice to a whisper: "Joshua... it'd be better to clarify things when he returns. That remark just now could easily be misunderstood."

Even someone as dense as Zong Le realized the gravity of the situation when he caught Zhou Ke'er's widened eyes in that split second.

How could anyone joke about something like this? What if people took it seriously? His reputation would be ruined!

Joshua leisurely admired the dark-haired young man's current flustered state before mimicking his lowered tone: "Why explain? Everything I said was true."

Zong Le: !!!

"Surprised?" The silver-haired man chuckled. "Didn't you know my sexual orientation a long ago? You also confirmed it during the last mission. Can I interpret this behavior as an invitation?"

"No!" Zong Le recoiled in horror. "I'm a straight man!"

"What does that matter? This is my one-sided pursuit. Are you going to determined people's personal behavior now?"

"......" This sentence hit its mark.

It is undeniable that Zong Le's intense emotional reaction greatly pleased him.

Since formulating his plan to claim Zong Le exclusively, this was the first time Joshua had witnessed such vivid emotional fluctuations from him.

In a good mood, Joshua picked up a pen from the desk and twirled it gracefully: "Speaking of which, we didn't finish our conversation from last time. Lele you still remember, right?"

Caught off guard by the subject change, Zong Le wanted to continue explaining. But noticing their teammates inching closer, some even dragging their chairs over to eavesdrop, he silently swallowed his words.

Forget it. This sensitive and dangerous topic must be kept in private setting to avoid further misunderstandings.

"I remember." Zong Le sighed in resignation. "You're neither good nor bad. Satisfied?"

At this point, the dark-haired youth's attitude softened. "I was wrong to be on guard against you before. To make amends, I accept your friend request. In the future, I will no longer have bias against you, and we will we coexist peacefully."

He discreetly pulled up the QR code, sliding his phone across the desk's blind spot where surveillance couldn't see, this innermost classroom corner at least spared them from the inspection team's full scrutiny, otherwise they wouldn't have to whisper to each other.

Strangely, Joshua didn't move.

A single glance lasting barely a second was enough to see Zong Le's friend list.

One, two, three... Well now. The guild master, vice-leader, and other prominent figures were all there, and there were even some D-level friends, and Zhou Ke'er was included.

So he alone had been rejected? Joshua's smile grew increasingly sarcastic.

At first, he thought Zong Le disliked making friends or socializing for some reason, but it turned out he treated him differently

He said calmly, "There is still a weird watching outside right now. It's not safe to use your phone. Wait until later."

"Huh? Oh." Completely oblivious to the deliberate coldness in the man's tone, Zong Le found the explanation perfectly reasonable and quickly locked his phone screen before putting it away.

Although he had long known that emotional manipulation tactics were utterly ineffective against Zong Le, this oblivious, thick-skinned young man always managed to sidestep every trap with perfect timing. 

Joshua couldn't help but feel a pang of frustration at his lack of emotional intelligence.

No one would be pleased when their usually foolproof weapon failed to make any impact.

Joshua had always enjoyed preferential treatment from others, but he had never been subjected to such blatant discrimination.

Still, it wasn’t all bad news.

The only silver lining was the number above the black-haired youth’s head that had been unchanged until now, had quietly shifted from 0 to 1. Although it was just a single point, it marked the beginning of a breakthrough.

If he could maintain this momentum, he would eventually achieve his goal...

Just then, Zhou Ke'er returned to his seat after helping the homeroom teacher tally the attendance sheet.

Having been called away from his front row seat of gossip and missing the details, he looked slightly annoyed as he sat down and eagerly asked Zong Le, "What were you guys talking about earlier?"

"Nothing much."

Seeing his friend wasn’t keen on continuing the topic, Zhou Ke'er tactfully dropped it.

But no matter how you looked at it, 1st's earlier words didn't sound like a joke.

Among the current top ten survivors, Zhou Ke'er was the least experienced. His rise to the rank of 10th had been largely due to luck, several high-ranking survivors had left the Infinite Space during a reshuffling of the S-level hierarchy, and he had seized the opportunity to climb the ranks.

As a result, Zhou Ke'er's mission record paled in comparison to the other top ten members.

This meant he had very few chances to work alongside 1st.

Zhou Ke'er had always maintained a neutral and respectful attitude toward 1st. In addition, the other party's living habits, personality tendencies, and ways of dealing with people... are obvious to all.

Most people viewed Joshua as something akin to an untouchable god, far removed from worldly affairs, making the current situation all the more unbelievable.

"Will the parent of Liu Fu, please come up to collect the report card."

Just as he was lost in thought, Xiao Fu’s name was called.

Hearing this, Zong Le quickly stood and went to the podium to retrieve the report card.

The homeroom teacher, having already learned his true identity from the principal, greeted him with far more enthusiasm than the other temporary parents. 

"Xiao Fu behaves very well in school and is very obedient. He studies hard in class, and gets along with his classmates, and friendly to his teachers. The only regret is that the results of this exam... are a little less than ideal. But you don't have to worry too much. Xiao Fu is a transfer student and has just been enrolled for a month. it’s normal for him to struggle to catch up."

Zong Le, who was mentally prepared, took the report card.

"......"

It was all red, and only the ideological and political class had the highest score.

But the ideological and political course in Guiyi City could essentially be summarized as "How to cultivate an excellent good kid.", and getting high marks in such a class didn't seem like a good thing at all.

"Mm, thank you, teacher. I understand."

Zong Le returned to his seat with mixed feelings, holding his report card and examining it carefully once more.

He recalled seeing tutoring advertisements at the school gate and thought he might ask Xiao Fu if he needed to spend time on extra tutoring.

Since they were in a mission instance, most survivors focused their energy on observing the weird outside the door, analyzing the rules of the weird domain, and keeping track of the names being called.

Only Joshua, who had been watching Zong Le out of the corner of his eye, noticed his distraction.

Zong Le's contemplation was abruptly cut short by an ear-splitting slam of the door.

Following the procedure, the survivors were taking turns stepping forward to receive their report cards. The sudden disturbance threw several careless survivors into panic, they hadn’t even memorized their "child's" name.

As the weird outside the window grew increasingly restless, one muscular survivor steeled himself and stood up, bracing for the worst.

Who would have thought that while even the homeroom teacher couldn’t recognize all these temporary guardians, the weird domain remembered every single one with perfect clarity.

"You are not Wang Yun’s guardian. The school is suspected of violating Article 12 of the Education Act, you are under arrest!"

The moment the words fell, the entire window was instantly smothered by a viscous black shadow. In the blink of an eye, the burly man vanished as if he was erased.

Then, with a deafening BANG, the door slammed shut, as if a greedy giant predator had completed its hunt.

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