FT DR Chapter 12: The Mischievous Child was Quite Ill.

Chapter 12: The Mischievous Child was Quite Ill.

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

On the first day of school, Wu Chenghe arrived at Gabriel School with slight dark circles under his eyes.

Gabriel School was a large complex with teaching buildings, laboratories, office buildings, and even facilities like standard grounds, baseball fields, tennis courts, etc. Behind the main teaching building, there was even a large garden with artificial hills, ponds, and streams, making the whole environment extremely beautiful.

Wu Chenghe walked among a large group of rowdy kids in his new school uniform, feeling extremely out of place. It had been ten years since he graduated from school, and suddenly reliving those adolescent days made him feel like a fool. What made him even more annoyed was that there were too many sentinels among these kids. He had to constantly discern which ones he “should see” and which ones he “should ignore,” and make corresponding facial expressions, making him feel extremely tense.

Fortunately, he was very adaptable, and after a period of practice, his acting skills had also greatly improved. By the time he entered the classroom, he had basically assimilated himself into acting as one of the rowdy kids.

Wu Chenghe’s class had only about forty students, evenly divided between boys and girls. Because he looked quite harmless, with no hint of aggression, he was quickly accepted, and some friendly girls even chatted with him.

Through their gossip, he learned that there were no classes today. After the opening ceremony in the morning, everyone would be dismissed, and in the afternoon, they would go home. According to tradition, the opening ceremony would last for more than two hours, including speeches from the principal, teachers, and student representatives. Coincidentally, his younger brother Marlow happened to be the student representative for their tenth grade class.

“Marlow is really impressive this year,” a female classmate enthusiastically gossiped with him. “During the holidays, he led the Gabriel Youth Team to participate in the Voyager Army Baseball League and won the championship. Yesterday, I heard that a lot of fans went to the port to welcome him back… By the way, you two are brothers, right? He’s your younger brother, isn’t he?”

“Um… sort of,” Wu Chenghe answered vaguely. Although he was legally a member of the Simpson family, no one probably considered him a proper family member, including himself.

“Ah, it’s a pity I had something to do last night and couldn’t go to the airport. But the campus network was more lively than the port last night. Because Marlow was coming back, his fans organized an event on the campus network, gathering a lot of people to show their support for him. You know, the campus network’s king is always King God. So, when they rallied for Marlow, of course, King’s fans got mad. They posted a lot of negative comments about Marlow, even targeting the Commander, saying he rigged the game and pressured others with his power, implying that Marlow’s team couldn’t have won the championship otherwise.”

Wu Chenghe was too busy preparing for his estrus last night and completely missed such a lively event. He felt somewhat regretful – he wasn’t a fan of celebrities, but he did enjoy gossip, and besides, it was a good way to improve his social skills as a tech geek.

“King is too powerful. Even though Marlow won the championship, he still can’t compete with him,” the girl sighed. “But King has the capital. How can there be such a perfect man in the world? He’s highly regarded in the art world, yet he’s also a top student in both arts and sciences. And although his brother is the newly elected president, he doesn’t play the president’s card at all. Last time, he even staged performance art at the presidential palace, satirizing the federal government as impotent! And the most outrageous thing is that he’s so handsome! Ah, it’s just not fair to others.”

Wu Chenghe had to admit that he was getting old and couldn’t relate to young people. How could this King sound like such a crazy and annoying person? And was he really that handsome?

The girl was still immersed in her admiration for King, completely oblivious to Wu Chenghe’s awkward expression, and continued, “King’s fans are really aggressive. I guess there will be a battle tonight. I’m going to sleep in the afternoon so I can stay up all night to watch.”

Wu Chenghe also wanted to witness such a gossip event, but he didn’t sleep well last night and felt a bit dizzy this morning. He even had some signs of a low fever. It would be better to rest and sleep well tonight.

At this moment, a prompt sounded in the classroom, announcing that the opening ceremony was about to begin and instructing everyone to gather in the auditorium.

Wu Chenghe followed his classmates to the auditorium, which was very spacious, with five levels, resembling a large opera house. The seats for the tenth grade were in the front row, closest to the stage. He arrived early and had to sit in the middle of the front row to avoid blocking the way. Many people came one after another, and soon the seats around him were filled.

A few minutes later, a melodious bell rang, reminding everyone that the ceremony was about to begin, and the noisy chatter gradually quieted down. Then, the protocol officer stepped onto the stage, asking everyone to stand up and indicating that the band would play the Federal Anthem. 

Since Wu Chenghe didn’t know the lyrics, he could only mouth along with the holographic subtitles. Fortunately, with hundreds of people mixed together, no one noticed his bluffing.

After the anthem, the protocol officer asked everyone to sit down and then invited the principal, vice principal, and heads of various grade levels to give speeches in turn. After a thousand years, the content of the teachers’ speeches remained the same, summarizing the past and envisioning the future. 

Wu Chenghe listened for a while and started to doze off. His head was almost drooping to his knees when suddenly there was a commotion around him, with people whispering, “Hey, it’s Marlow!”

Wu Chenghe became a little more awake, lifted his head, and saw that it was time for the student representative to speak. The handsome blond boy who had just stepped onto the stage was Marlow.

Marlow was only sixteen years old, but he was already over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and narrow hips, giving him a typical athlete’s physique. Because he was still young, he looked a bit thin, but he was tall and straight, already showing signs of masculinity. His appearance combined features from both Hannibal and Lilith, but overall, he looked more like his mother. With his icy blue eyes, light golden curly hair, and a hint of teenage melancholy between his brows, he casually scanned the audience, immediately attracting sighs of admiration from the female students (and a few male students).

As Wu Chenghe looked at his younger brother on stage and then thought about himself, he finally understood the scientific principle behind the phrase “like father, like son” or “like mother, like son.”

“Respected teachers, dear students, I am honored to represent the tenth grade students…” Marlow read the speech with an expressionless face, apparently reluctant to take on the responsibility of being the student representative. While reading mechanically, he glanced at the audience from the corner of his eye and accidentally spotted Wu Chenghe. His gaze lingered on him for a moment before moving away, seeming disdainful of having such a brother.

Wu Chenghe sighed inwardly, knowing that his identity would be hard to be liked by others, and he didn’t intend to make him like him either. He silently lowered his head and continued to doze off.

At this moment, suddenly, an egg flew from nowhere and smashed towards the stage. Marlow reacted quickly, dodging to the side and catching the egg in his hand. However, he exerted too much force and crushed the egg, spilling egg yolk all over his hand. His speech abruptly stopped, and a hint of hostility appeared on Marlow’s face as his ice-blue eyes glanced sharply in the direction where the egg had come from. 

The protocol officer standing aside was also furious, shouting loudly, “Who? What’s going on?”

“Where did the egg come from?”

“Seems like it came from the second floor over there.”

“What’s going on? Why throw eggs? Trying to hit someone?”

The students started to chatter and stand up, looking towards the direction of the disturbance. Wu Chenghe was startled awake, his drowsiness completely gone, and he stood up with the crowd to look around.

Suddenly, a sharp female voice exclaimed, “Marlow fans, get out of the interaction group!” Then came several voices in succession—

“Long live King! Marlow fans, stop badmouthing my King!”

“A baseball player is not qualified to be compared with an artist, it’s simply ridiculous!”

“Marlow fans, get out of the campus network!”

And so on.

With a “boom,” the entire auditorium of students ignited—damn, the fan war had escalated to the real world! How fashionable! How exhilarating! How high-class! Come on, let’s fight, young ones!

Wu Chenghe, as a twenty-eight-year-old juvenile, was completely dumbfounded. He had been a soldier, participated in wars, mediated conflicts, and even witnessed religious clashes, but he had never seen such a nonsensical battle—a fan war manifested in reality! It truly refreshed the fashion quotient!

The fans of King and Marlow were engaged in a crazy battle. It started with verbal arguments, but then someone shouted, “Say whatever you want, Marlow fans only know how to talk. If you dare, let’s fight!”

And then they started fighting!

Fucking idiots! Wu Chenghe rolled his eyes at their behavior. His seating position was a bit unlucky; there were two groups of fans from different camps not far from him. He didn’t know what they had for breakfast, but they were extremely irritable. They started fighting after exchanging a few words. Moreover, there were several sentinels among them, and their quantum beasts also began fighting in the higher-dimensional space.

Wu Chenghe had never dealt with such a diverse battle before. His eyes were suddenly dizzy, and he was about to rush up to stop them when he suddenly felt a jolt in his head, and his legs went weak, almost causing him to fall.

What’s going on? Wu Chenghe shook his head, feeling like the voices around him had amplified several times, pounding his eardrums like heavy hammers. And the heat emanating from these rowdy kids felt like a steam iron spraying on his face, making it hard for him to breathe. He leaned against the back of the chair in front of him to rest for a few seconds, feeling a bit better. He was about to squeeze out of the auditorium when he heard a desperate cry for help from the fighting group nearby, “Help, help!” 

At the same time, a faint smell of blood permeated the air.

Someone was injured! With a start, Wu Chenghe’s halo of sainthood instantly flashed, and he instinctively shouted to the fighting group, “Stop fighting! Everyone calm down! Step back, someone is injured!” 

Unfortunately, his voice was too small, and the surrounding environment was too noisy. He shouted for a long time, but no one paid any attention to him.

At this moment, his discomfort became more apparent—shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, inhaling the polluted air around him, and even a slight stinging sensation in his nostrils, as if being scalded by hot steam. Before long, even his eyes began to swell with discomfort.

What’s going on? A hint of suspicion flashed through his mind, but it was completely drowned out by the powerful halo of sainthood, leaving only a strong sense of mission to heal and save people. This golden finger was really frustrating at a critical moment!