******
'What… the… hell…?'
Shen Tian's breathing slowed down, and his gaze instinctively dropped to his right hand—the very hand that had just obliterated Li Xu's face.
He blinked, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
He had put every ounce of strength he could muster into that slap, but realistically, given his weak physique compared to Li Xu's strong physique, it should have only nudged Li Xu back by at most a step. Yet…
He slowly lifted his eyes.
Li Xu hadn't stepped back. He had been launched back.
Like a cannonball fired from a medieval trebuchet, he had been flung across the classroom with staggering force. But strangely enough, Shen Tian's palm didn't even tingle.
'Was that… the Thunderous Slap? That skill that was just rewarded to me by the system?'
His thoughts reeled, disbelief roiling in his chest like a rising tide.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears, but his expression remained eerily composed. He exhaled slowly, forcefully reclaiming his senses.
Then…
"Yuechan… please pinch me. I swear I'm hallucinating."
A timid, wide-eyed girl with soft features and a fringe hiding part of her face suddenly whispered dazedly to her friend, her eyes glued to Shen Tian like he had just split the heavens open.
"H-Huh? O-okay." Her friend, a tall girl with a ponytail and a likewise dazed face, nodded her head absentmindedly… then reached over.
In the following second—
"AHH!"
A shrill shriek rang out as the first girl clutched her own arm, glaring at her friend like she'd just been betrayed by family. "Why did you pinch me, you psycho!?"
"Wait—what?! YOU told me to!" Her friend uttered in utter bewilderment.
"But I didn't mean for real! That was rhetorical!"
"So how was I supposed to know that?! You're always so dramatic anyway!"
"Ugh! You absolute menace!"
Their petty quarrel instantly sent ripples through the classroom like a rock dropped in a pond.
For a second, everyone just blinked at the duo. But soon, their expressions shifted—every head swiveling in slow motion back to Shen Tian.
Like terrified villagers staring at a newly awakened dragon.
A short boy with a sharp jaw and trembling lips murmured, "Tell me this is a bad dream. Shen Tian couldn't have slapped Li Xu, right?"
His deskmate choked. "I… I think he just did. I saw it too… That was Li Xu, right? THE Li Xu?"
Another gulped audibly. "It can't be real… right? All of us must have been hallucinating, RIGHT!?"
Then, the panic and disbelief truly set in.
"NO WAY! Shen Tian's possessed! Call a priest! Someone call a monk! An exorcist—ANYBODY!"
"Did the sun rise from the west today?! This is the guy who used to flinch even when a puppy coughed near him!"
"I'm telling you, we've just entered the Twilight Zone. The world is most probably nearing the end when strange things that aren't possible are said to happen!"
"How the hell did our resident pushover send Brother Xu—Li freaking Xu—flying like a ragdoll?!"
"Look at him! He's just standing there like nothing happened! Is that… confidence? Since when does Shen Tian radiate confidence!?"
It was madness.
Every student erupted.
Boys who normally kept to themselves now screamed in disbelief. Girls who barely blinked now clutched their chests in shock.
It was as though a mild breeze had turned into a category five hurricane, and Shen Tian stood at the eye of the storm—calm, detached… dangerous.
And then there was Li Xu.
His crumpled form lay sprawled on the floor like a discarded puppet.
His eyes were wide open… yet empty, soulless. He didn't blink. He didn't twitch. It was as if he had just been spiritually KO'd.
A few dared to whisper.
"Is… is he dead?"
But no. He was conscious. Barely.
His blank expression concealed a maelstrom of horror. His thoughts had descended into sheer anarchy.
That slap—that impossible slap continuously replayed in his mind like a broken film reel. He couldn't make sense of it. He refused to.
'Who am I?' he screamed internally. 'I'm Li Xu! One of the nightmares of Qingnan University!'
This wasn't just any student. Li Xu was the infamous campus predator.
He had always preyed on the weak, especially those with no connections or wealth—students like Shen Tian. He had made it his mission to torment scholarship kids, turning their lives into a daily hell.
Some influential students even feared him, whispering behind his back, never to his face. He walked the university grounds like a mafia boss, snatching girlfriends, humiliating others, and walking away with a laugh.
He was brutal. Dominant. Untouchable.
Until today.
Until Shen Tian.
'No…' he told himself. 'This is definitely a nightmare from my scariest imagination. Just a twisted dream!'
'This isn't real. It's a lie. A joke!'
But the lie wouldn't hold.
"Brother Xu!" someone finally shouted.
With this, his lackeys rushed forward in a panic.
As they laid hands on him to lift him up, Li Xu finally stirred. His eyes twitched, and his jaw clenched.
Then, a surge of agony struck him like lightning.
It wasn't just an ordinary pain—it was a violation of everything he thought he was. His face turned pale. Blood drained from his cheeks.
His vision blurred as the pain intensified, forcing him to grit his teeth just to keep from screaming.
Even his minions gasped.
"Oh god, Brother Xu—your face… It's swollen!"
"There's a handprint! It's red, man! It's still glowing!"
"Bro, forget the slap. You look like you got hit with a frying pan!"
Their terrified remarks rang in his ears, distant and warped. He couldn't even process the words. He could barely think.
Then, amid the chaos, his eyes locked onto Shen Tian.
There he was. Standing there. Serene, detached, and looking as if he hadn't just shattered the natural order of Qingnan University. As if Li Xu was beneath his notice.
The audacity.
The nerve.
The… calmness in Shen Tian's eyes.
It would most likely haunt him for the rest of his life.
In an instant, his rage erupted.
"I… will… KILL YOU!"
His voice came out gravelly, strained, and venomous, shaking with fury and bloodlust.
The atmosphere instantly turned heavy and suffocating, causing students to stumble back.
He staggered toward Shen Tian like a man possessed, as though he was about to go on a killing spree.
But then—
"OH MY GOD! BLOOD!"
A girl screamed. Her voice cracked with terror, and her trembling finger pointed straight at him.
Everything instantly froze for a second, but then a second later, dozens of heads swiveled toward Li Xu.
"That's… That's really blood!"
"He's bleeding! From the mouth!"
Girls squealed, a few boys flinched, and several people scrambled away like Li Xu had the plague.
Witnessing this, Li Xu's anger dissolved into confusion.
'Blood? Where?' his heart raced, alarm creeping into his bones. His fingers quickly brushed the corner of his lips.
They came away red.
Crimson.
'No… no, no, no!'
His pupils shrank, his legs buckling. Then—
BANG!
He hit the ground like a fallen titan, causing everyone to flinch.
In the following second, the room fell utterly silent, and for a full ten seconds, no one breathed. Then—
"Boss!!"
His followers scrambled and tried shaking him, slapping his cheeks. But nothing worked.
He was out cold.
"You... you bastard!" one of the lackeys suddenly snarled at Shen Tian, his eyes wild. "You have messed up BIG TIME! You dare assault our boss—he's done for the day, but you'll be ruined for life!"
"You're dead meat! Mark my words!"
"Just go dig your grave because the next time you see our boss, it will be to bury you!"
Two of them instantly hoisted Li Xu while the others forced a path open. Then they stormed out of the classroom like avengers heading to war.
Finally, silence reclaimed the space, heavier than before.
It lasted for a moment that felt like an eternity before finally—
"Is he… d-dead…?" A girl muttered nervously, jolting everyone back to their senses.
"He just fainted!" someone snapped. "Don't jinx it!"
The crowd murmured, but no one knew what to say.
The awkwardness grew unbearable.
And Shen Tian?
He hadn't moved. Not a flinch. Not a smirk. Just… there. Solid. Stoic. Unbothered.
One by one, everyone's eyes gradually returned to him. Then, for the first time since they knew him:
Shock. Fear. Confusion. Admiration. Hatred. Awe. Incredulity.
It was a strange cocktail of emotions—and Shen Tian stood in the middle of it all, a storm wrapped in silence.
No one—not a single soul—could've predicted this. Shen Tian, the class joke, had turned into a phenomenon in the blink of an eye.
Just at that moment:
"Eh? Why is the classroom so quiet this morning?"
A sudden, melodic voice echoed from the doorway.
"Also, I heard someone fainted? What's going on?" The voice sounded again, brimming with confusion, questions, and helplessness, startling everyone and jolting them back to their senses.
....
Author's Note.
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Thanks for reading.