“What? Principal Wang was an escapee?”

“No way, right? He hates it most when we do anything other than study.”

“But what’s with this broadcast then?”

“…”

The discussions in the dormitory buildings grew more heated. Something within the school grounds seemed to be gradually awakening.

Principal Wang’s expression grew increasingly foul. He gritted his teeth, looking as though he wanted to swallow the person in the broadcasting room alive.

He no longer paid any mind to the Baili Dao at his feet. Instead, he twisted the white ring on his hand.

It didn’t matter who the other party was. Once he got over there and crushed them, they wouldn’t be able to cause any more trouble.

Whoosh!

A light breeze swept past.

Principal Wang’s savage expression froze on his face.

He was still standing in front of the Teaching Building!

“How can this be? The ring stopped working?”

Principal Wang turned the white ring again in disbelief.

But no matter how he twisted it, nothing happened. He only felt a slight pressure on his finger and the pain of the tight ring rubbing against his skin.

He knew that stored within this ring was the supreme aura of That Existence.

Could it be that the person in the broadcasting room had accomplished in a single night what he had only dreamed of for decades?

Had they absorbed that aura?

Principal Wang refused to believe something so absurd. He was certain that person had used some method to block the connection between the ring and the aura.

With this thought, he immediately broke into a sprint.

His mountain-sized body began to run clumsily from the Teaching Building toward the Art Building.

Perhaps because he had never engaged in such vigorous exercise after obtaining the rings, Principal Wang’s running posture was comical, almost like a child who had just learned to walk.

The snarky voice from the broadcast continued to echo across the campus.

“Thirty years ago, during Gao Shan High School’s 50th-anniversary gala, you took advantage of the rare day off to hide in the Art Building’s broadcasting room.”

“You intended to wait until late at night, after the celebration ended, to climb over the back fence and escape. You had even investigated the security guards’ patrol routes and found a ten-minute gap to avoid being caught.”

“To that end, you even bribed the school doctor for a leave-of-absence slip, making your class teacher think you were resting in the infirmary.”

“None of your classmates knew of your escape plan, because you didn’t trust anyone.”

“But who would have thought that when everything was ready, when you were just one step away from freedom…”

“The broadcast turned on.”

Hearing his past exposed bit by bit, a look of abject hatred appeared on Principal Wang’s sweaty face.

How was this person more familiar with his past than he was?

Was this some kind of doxxing strike?

He had to admit, all of it had happened.

But so what?

If he hadn’t heard that broadcast and listened to the ravings of That Existence, how could he have possibly obtained everything he possessed today?

Inside the broadcasting room, Wu Wang slowly narrated the story from the journal, his gaze fixed on the two Little Fatties. The two of them had been trying to strangle each other from the moment they met.

Now he understood why Principal Wang was so worried about the corpse from the Little Black Room returning to the Art Building.

The restored Li Yang could easily hold down both Little Fatties. The one in Fierce Ghost form was especially helpless. No matter what incredible powers it possessed, it couldn’t inflict even the slightest harm on Li Yang.

“Let me guess,” Wu Wang said, his voice echoing from the speakers. “The Little Fatty in the Art Building is your human side, and the Fierce Ghost Little Fatty is your obsession with escaping. But I don’t understand. Why does he hold such great hostility toward students who enter the Art Building?”

Logically, someone trying to escape school should be on the same side as the students. So why had it been attacking him this whole time?

Principal Wang didn’t reply. He just gritted his teeth and rushed toward the Art Building.

Unexpectedly, the ‘humanity’ Little Fatty being held down by Li Yang began to speak, his voice trembling.

“I… I remember now.”

Wu Wang crossed his legs.

“Elaborate.”

The Little Fatty’s face was grim.

“Because he… no, I… I truly hated my classmates,” he said. “They laughed at my obese figure, a side effect of taking psychotropic medication for years. They mocked my mediocre grades and even physically abused me.”

“I was at the very bottom of the social ladder in my class.”

Hearing this, Wu Wang had a flash of insight.

Right. How could he have forgotten the most common problem on any school campus?

Bullying.

Looking at the ‘humanity’ Little Fatty, it was obvious that Principal Wang must have been a timid, overweight student who never dared to fight back.

Coupled with Gao Shan High School’s high-pressure environment and the laxer administration of the past, students found their own ways to vent their repression.

That meant bullying the weaker ones.

Therefore, the Fierce Ghost Little Fatty wasn’t just an obsession with escaping. It also represented Principal Wang’s disgust for the entire system of Gao Shan High School.

No wonder Principal Wang wouldn’t let it leave the Art Building.

If that thing got out, it would practice its own brand of equality by killing every single person in the school.

At this thought, Wu Wang turned back to the microphone.

“Principal Wang,” he broadcast to the whole school, “since you know what kind of repression this high pressure brings, and you even chose to run away back then, why have you returned to become the abuser?”

Just because you’ve been rained on, you have to tear up everyone else’s umbrella, is that it?

The principal’s mental state was even more twisted than his own.

This time, Principal Wang replied, his voice a vicious curse carried by his heavy breathing.

“So what if I ran away? Gao Shan High School is a damned cage, but how is the outside world any different? Ordinary people can never break free from the shackles society places on them!”

“So I came back!”

“Since the outside is just a bigger cage, it’s better to make the students of Gao Shan High School stronger before they even leave! Let them have a higher starting point! Make it easier for them to stand on the top floor of society in the future!”

“This way, they won’t be bullied by others…”

With that, he finally reached the Art Building.

This tirade made Wu Wang see him in a new light. He hadn’t expected the man to be so righteous, albeit in a twisted, self-serving way.

But he was truly acting on his ideas. It was just that his methods were monstrous.

For example, there was indeed no more bullying at Gao Shan High School now, because everyone was too exhausted from studying to think about anything else.

The students who graduated all entered top universities and became elites, but they were also abnormally cold and indifferent, caring for nothing but success. Family, friendship, and love were worthless to them.

Gao Shan High School’s fame also grew. The Instance description showed just how desperately parents wanted their children to get in.

But what about the students’ own feelings?

In Principal Wang’s eyes, that didn’t matter at all. He didn’t need students to possess freedom, thought, or emotion. He considered them all to be humanity’s inherent flaws.

All he needed was for these students to succeed.

Noticing that Wu Wang didn’t question him again, a proud smile spread across Principal Wang’s face. He knew his ideas were correct.

The boy was powerless to refute him!

But a moment later, Wu Wang’s voice crackled from the broadcast again.

“Your methods are indeed impressive.”

“Because you once bribed the school doctor and studied the security guards’ patrol routes, after you became principal, the doctor became a machine that only follows orders, and the guards became tireless ghosts that patrol forever. Gao Shan High School became an impenetrable fortress.”

“But now, they have become your weaknesses.”

Wu Wang’s voice suddenly rose, and he shouted into the microphone.

“Gao Shan High School security guards and school doctors, hear my command! There’s a damn fatty near the Art Building trying to escape! Seize him and drag him back to the Teaching Building!”

He had figured it out.

Since both the doctor and the guards had become mindless monsters, they wouldn’t care that he was the principal. They only followed orders.

The broadcasting room was usually Principal Wang’s personal domain.

Therefore, any broadcast from here was the highest command!

“How dare you!”

Principal Wang roared in fury, but a deafening sound rose from all around, drowning out his voice.

All the doctors and security guards in the school were rushing toward the Art Building. The commotion of their powerful Fierce Ghost forms running together was as terrifying as a landslide.

Even from the third floor, Wu Wang could hear the thundering outside, as if the sky itself were falling. The rest of the campus fell into an unprecedented silence, with no guards left on patrol.

A familiar, crazed expression appeared on Wu Wang’s face. He leaned close to the microphone and slowly spoke words that would make Principal Wang’s blood run cold.

“Your perspective is too narrow.”

“Running away is cowardly. The problem is right here, so what’s the point of escaping all by yourself?”

“I want to do something you’ve never even dreamed of. Something the students don’t even dare to hope for.”

At this, Wu Wang paused.

Then, in the loudest voice he could manage, he roared word by word into the broadcast for the whole school.

“To all students of Gao Shan High School!”

“Listen up! As of now…”

“School is dismissed!”