The Beautiful Idiot Is Forced To Play The Villain [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

After buying the gifts, Lan Zhen didn’t stay idle. It was a rare chance to get out of that wretched school, so he naturally had to explore properly.

[Do you still remember the main quest?] 370 couldn’t help but speak up after watching them eat, drink, and shop their way through a blissful afternoon. [If you don’t go back and check on things, the protagonist is going to dismantle the entire dungeon.]

Lan Zhen was busy stuffing chocolate sticks into his mouth and didn’t immediately process what the system was saying.

“But it’s the weekend! Don’t they get days off to rest?”

370: […?!]

Has he played himself into stupidity? Who insists on a two-day weekend inside an infinite flow dungeon?

[When you were a system yourself, did you get weekends?]

It wasn’t surprising that 370 found this absurd; at the very least, it had never heard of a system having a weekend.

Lan Zhen thought about it and said seriously: [Technically no, but I vaguely remember my hosts would give me holidays!]

370: [Oh.] 370: [We don’t have that rule here.] […]

“Let’s go back.” Lan Zhen tugged at Xu Gu’s sleeve, his face falling and his tone turning sour.

To think there was actually a job with no rest days. What a trash system; it must have been designed by a slave driver. Ptooie.

Lan Zhen clenched his fists, wishing he could give 370 a couple of good “thwacks.”

Xu Gu didn’t know why he was suddenly angry, but he didn’t ask. He simply followed Lan Zhen’s instructions and called a taxi back to the school.

“I have something to do; you go back first,” Lan Zhen said to Xu Gu as he unbuckled his seatbelt at the school gate.

Seeing Xu Gu look back with concern halfway through, Lan Zhen raised his hand and waved, a smile on his face that revealed two small dimples. His beautiful face was such that merely looking at it brightened one’s mood; even the surrounding students instinctively slowed their pace.

Only Xu Gu remained unhappy.

He returned to the dorm in silence, only to find Mo Changfeng still at the desk fiddling with felt dolls. A grown man, holding various wool balls, was meticulously sculpting the shape of a doll.

The ugly cat he made before was still hanging on Lan Zhen’s bed frame; the one in his hands now was likely intended to be a more beautiful replacement to gift to Lan Zhen.

Hearing the door open, Mo Changfeng reflexively hid his work. Upon seeing that Xu Gu had returned alone, he brazenly brought it back out, crossing his legs and practically shoving the doll in Xu Gu’s face to show off who was better at making Lan Zhen happy.

Xu Gu shot him a cold glance, said nothing, and pulled out a stool to squat by his locker, rummaging through something.

Finding this boring, Mo Changfeng turned back to focus on his doll. These small, exquisite things were no bigger than two of his knuckles when finished; he had never made anything like this before, and making it look good required real effort.

Beside him, the constant clattering and rummaging made Mo Changfeng’s already anxious heart even more restless. Finally, after stabbing his finger for the nth time, he snapped impatiently, “Can you be quiet?”

Xu Gu looked at him and waited.

Half a minute later, he suddenly lunged. He held a dagger from who-knows-where, the blade gleaming with a cold light as it thrust straight toward Mo Changfeng.

Warm droplets of blood rolled across the blade, dripping one by one onto the floor.

“Fuck, are you insane?” Mo Changfeng grunted, looking at his arm which had been slashed while he was protecting the doll.

The culprit expressionlessly raised the blade and casually wiped it on the nearby bedsheet.

Xu Gu’s eyes darkened as he saw the bloodstain. He was sick of it—sick of the opportunistic attempts to please, and sick of people who, after only a few meetings, acted like they owned the place and made Lan Zhen waste time buying them gifts.

If Mo Changfeng disappeared, everything would return to normal. Lan Zhen would only have him.

The room wasn’t cold, and Mo Changfeng was wearing only a black short-sleeved shirt, leaving his muscled, cut arm completely exposed. He took one look at Xu Gu’s hollow eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking.

They both knew very well that few people who thrived in this school were normal. They were either high-powered, low-empathy, or extreme in personality; none of them were weak, peace-loving “good guys.”

“What are you so pressed about?” Mo Changfeng tore a strip of the bedsheet to roughly wrap the wound, then casually brushed back his hair. “I haven’t even complained about you being an eyesore following him around yet.”

He pulled a chair over with his left hand, veins bulging on his arm. “Let’s talk. What did you two do out there today?”

As soon as Lan Zhen got out of the taxi, he rushed toward the lab building. On the way back, 370 had pointed out the locations of Pei Ran and Xing Shixi. Both were squeezed into a laboratory doing heaven-knows-what, and based on the “dungeon dismantling” comment, it sounded serious.

His mission was to follow the main plot. If the dungeon got dismantled, how was the plot supposed to happen!

Could these protagonists please stop causing him trouble and making such big moves the moment they arrived?

To stop the dungeon from being demolished, Lan Zhen felt forced to take up the mantle of responsibility!

He followed 370’s directions to the laboratory building. The lab building of First High was a landmark; even on rest days, many students came here to conduct experiments, so the main doors were always open. Only the labs containing dangerous chemicals were locked.

Logically, there shouldn’t be clues in such a place, but 370 wouldn’t lie to him.

Lan Zhen crept inside like a cat, feeling a chill in the air. He sniffed. [370, I’m a little scared. Let’s talk for a bit, okay?]

370: [Speak, I’m listening.]

[I actually think those players were wrong before.] Lan Zhen was practically counting on his fingers as he recalled the players’ conclusions. [They said that student became a vengeful ghost and influenced the school rules, but why would someone who was bullied create rules that clearly encourage bullying?]

The system-turned-human couldn’t quite grasp this. Lan Zhen blinked, waiting for an answer. 370 didn’t know how to explain it immediately. It couldn’t just say it was because of the inherent darkness in some humans—wanting others to suffer the same pain they had endured.

Lan Zhen wasn’t idle while talking; he was checking each lab one by one to find where the protagonists were.

To his surprise, when he finally found the main group of players, they were actually playing cards.

The tattooed man was shocked to see Lan Zhen. He looked left and right, then slapped himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Could it be that this beautiful NPC is so deeply in love with God Pei that even during break time, he’s finding ways to cling to him?

God Pei really has all the luck.

“Are you looking for God Pei?” He put away his cards, trembling slightly.

Lan Zhen nodded and asked, “What are you all doing? Where is Pei Ran?”

“Oh, we’re just waiting for God Pei. We got bored and found something to do,” the tattooed man said with a nervous smile. The other players followed suit with forced grins.

Pei Ran and Xing Shixi being together was a clash of titans; these mere mortals naturally stayed as far away as possible to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Lan Zhen was about to ask where he was exactly when a loud explosion echoed from the lab next door. If he wasn’t mistaken, a wall had just been blasted.

Although the lab they were in was fine, it was still affected. The room became thick with smoke and dust from the tremor. The air was grey and hazy, and one could barely see silhouettes.

Lan Zhen: “?”

Is this infinite flow dungeon a bit too hardcore?

With such a big commotion, can they really clean this up? What if the school investigates later!

[This is just a small sub-dungeon in the world; the world-building is as fragile as paper,] 370 quickly clarified. [Just like how the school rules strictly forbid going home, yet you can leave the school gates at will.]

What if someone just ran home? Obviously, this dungeon didn’t account for that, and players wouldn’t explore things beyond the mission scope.

“Why are you here?” Pei Ran entered the room with a sour expression, his hair dusted with debris from the ceiling. A flash of genuine shock crossed his eyes when he saw Lan Zhen.

“I came specifically to find you.” Lies told often enough become truth; Lan Zhen said this now without a hint of a blush, wearing his signature smile.

Xing Shixi followed behind Pei Ran, looking much tidier. He caught the sentence as he entered, and his smile froze.

“Stop coming to find me. I’m not interested in you,” Pei Ran said with his usual coldness.

There was a slight hint of impatience in his tone, which made Lan Zhen uncomfortable. After the incident in the file room, he thought they had established a basic connection. Why the sour face again?

He really should let Pei Ran and Mo Changfeng battle it out to see which was stronger: the sour face or the sour mouth.

“But I’m interested in you,” Lan Zhen said, looking a bit aggrieved.

Pei Ran reached out and pinched his chin. Lan Zhen tilted his head up slightly with the movement, fully exposing that impossibly beautiful face.

He seemed to use a bit of force; a red mark soon appeared on the smooth, white chin, standing out starkly against the snowy skin.

Pei Ran paused, and his grip loosened.

“Use this face to bait someone else. Like I said before, I don’t fall for this.” Ignoring Lan Zhen’s dazed expression, he turned toward the gathered players.

Logically, when a dungeon NPC is present, player behavior is strictly limited. But no matter how much the others signaled to him, Pei Ran remained indifferent: “This place is indeed strange. We couldn’t find the mechanism for the secret room.”

Lan Zhen found out the rest: because they couldn’t find the mechanism, they just tore down the wall. Once the wall was gone, the secret room effectively ceased to exist.

As expected of the protagonist. What a dominant way to solve a problem.

Lan Zhen was dumbstruck.

“Since you’re here for Pei Ran, why don’t you follow us, Zhenzhen?” Xing Shixi reached out to push up his glasses and looked at Lan Zhen.

Perhaps choked by the dust, the tip of Lan Zhen’s nose and the corners of his eyes were red. His beautiful face was slightly dusty, but it didn’t detract from his beauty; if anything, he seemed to glow in the grey laboratory.

“So white,” Xing Shixi praised softly, his voice low enough that only Pei Ran beside him could hear. “Other places should be very white too… maybe even pink.”

His face maintained a calm, gentle composure; looking at his expression, one would never guess he was saying something so lewd.

Pei Ran didn’t hesitate for a second—he turned and punched him.

When hit, Xing Shixi seemed to smile. He grunted, and a red bruise quickly appeared on his face.

“Though I don’t know how I’ve offended you, I hope you’ll reconsider letting Zhenzhen follow us,” Xing Shixi said softly with downcast eyes. With his words setting the stage, that punch looked entirely as if Pei Ran didn’t want Lan Zhen to follow them and had struck the person who suggested it.

Lan Zhen thought so too. He looked up at Pei Ran in a panic, then glanced anxiously at Xing Shixi.

He’s met a thousand-year-old ‘green tea’ master. Pei Ran knit his brows, wanting to get away from the “tea spirit” beside him.

He grabbed Lan Zhen and yanked him into his arms, like a beast circling prey into its territory.

The height difference between them was about a full head; Lan Zhen was perfectly tucked into his chest. The warmth of Lan Zhen’s breath fell entirely against Pei Ran’s neck.

Naturally, the person involved hadn’t quite reacted yet.

Didn’t he say he didn’t ‘fall for this’?