Mature Fantasy Power Invasion

Chapter 28

"President, guess what good thing happened?"

The office was empty except for Yan Huan. Yinggong Tong had gone home around noon after checking the surveillance camera on her phone and noticing something strange about her cat, "Meiyue."

Fortunately, Yinggong Tong lived close to the school.

At the moment, Yan Huan was organizing materials to form the study groups requested by the Principal.

Although, in reality, his thoughts were more focused on how to properly deal with the two students who held modifiers.

But there had been no progress. Bai Yi hadn't shown up at school at all—who knows if she was out there causing trouble with her modifier.

As for Spencer, Yan Huan had initially planned to wait for her to reach out to him.

But two days had passed, and she hadn’t even made an appearance.

Judging by her intelligence score of 66, she might have forgotten the whole thing entirely.

So, Yan Huan decided to take the initiative, especially since she'd already been forcibly assigned to a study group.

He hadn't even had the chance to send her an email when Yaqiao Mu's sudden entrance disrupted his train of thought.

Looking up, Yan Huan saw Yaqiao Mu’s face practically glowing with excitement, though he insisted on keeping it mysterious.

Following the cue, Yan Huan lazily guessed,

"Zhou Bin converted to all three major religions and became a devout, peace-loving, mixed-faith believer?"

"Well, that’s good news too, but no! President, guess again!" Yaqiao Mu said eagerly.

Yan Huan sighed in exasperation and continued,

"If it’s not about winning a top-tier gacha pull on the first try, maybe your pre-ordered figure finally shipped?"

Yaqiao Mu shook his head, adjusted his glasses, and with a dramatic *pa*, slapped two tickets down in front of Yan Huan.

Looking down, Yan Huan read the text:

"Linmen Jinghe Game Expo – Admission Ticket Bundle"

After reading it carefully, Yan Huan raised an eyebrow.

"So?"

"So what?! President, do you even realize how huge this event is? All the big-name game companies are attending! Tons of famous guests! I went through so much trouble to get these two tickets!"

"I think you're just going for A Ai from the otaku zone," Yan Huan replied flatly.

He flipped the ticket over and, sure enough, saw an eye-catching name in the "otaku zone" guest list.

Yan Huan's tone turned a bit speechless as he added,

A Ai was the voice actress Yaqiao Mu worshipped—a goddess in his eyes—from the 18+ galgame "Meeting a Loli After Work at 8:30," where she voiced the loli heroine.

It was one of her earlier, underground works, filled with R-rated content.

Since then, though, A Ai had gone mainstream and become a highly respected voice actress.

Her iconic, youthful loli voice could now be heard in many popular anime in Linmen.

"President, do you really think I'm that kind of person?" Yaqiao Mu asked, looking genuinely serious.

Yan Huan wasn’t sure how to respond.

"Hehe," Yaqiao Mu chuckled.

Yaqiao Mu once had a legendary moment.

Last semester, during a class trip, he boldly set A Ai’s voice as his phone alarm and forgot to change it.

The next morning, her tsundere loli voice ended up scolding every boy in Class B.

When he groggily tried to turn off the alarm, he accidentally dropped his phone between the bedframes, and couldn’t retrieve it for a while. The ringtone continued into the steamy part of the galgame.

That’s how Yaqiao Mu gave the boys of Class B a full-blown otaku shock as they woke up.

He became infamous from that moment on.

No wonder Pu Shuwen and the others in Class C could easily pinpoint Yaqiao Mu’s weakness—he was already a legend.

"If you want to go, just go. Why drag me into it with two tickets?"

"Exactly," Yaqiao Mu replied honestly.

"I bought them from a scalper. They only sold them in pairs. All the official channels were sold out. Since I had a spare, I thought, why not invite you?"

"I'll think about it," Yan Huan said.

Though he said that, Yan Huan honestly had no interest in going.

He was already drowning in work. Between handling modifiers and other responsibilities, he was completely burned out. Spending the weekend squeezed into a crowded venue sounded far less appealing than just sleeping in.

"More importantly, did you find out anything about Bai Yi from your class joining the study group? The student council sent her multiple emails with no response."

Yaqiao Mu was in the same class as Bai Yi, but even he rarely saw her at school.

Hearing that, Yaqiao Mu clapped his hands and shared what he knew.

"No luck. She basically never comes to school. Not just me—even the homeroom teacher probably can't reach her. Our best bet might be to ambush her backstage at the venue this weekend."

"Backstage at the venue?" Yan Huan repeated, surprised.

He picked up the event ticket Yaqiao Mu had placed on the desk again.

His eyes scanned it, and sure enough, at the bottom of the "VIP seating" list, he saw Bai Yi’s name.

The names listed with her were all high-profile, attractive influencers from both domestic and international circles. She had clearly been placed in the "visual appeal" category.

'She took a commercial gig?' Yan Huan thought, his interest suddenly piqued.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Yaqiao Mu leaned in, as if suddenly remembering something.

"Speaking of which, President, I think Bai Yi's mom came to school today."

"You actually recognized her mom?"

Seeing Yan Huan’s confusion, Yaqiao Mu shrugged.

"Basically, everyone in our class knows her. Someone once saw her picking Bai Yi up after school. Bai Yi’s really eye-catching, and she’s actually pretty nice—not snobby like a celebrity. But her mom... she seems intense."

As Yaqiao Mu spoke, he shook his head and sat down on the sofa in the office, muttering,

"But this morning, her mom looked super anxious and frantic. No idea what happened."

Hmm.

Although the situation was unclear, one thing was certain—Bai Yi hardly ever showed up at school. Who knew how much her modifier had evolved?

If left unchecked, would she become even more outrageous next time they met?

With that thought, Yan Huan reached out and took the game expo ticket Yaqiao Mu had handed him.

"I'll go with you this weekend and take a look around. Let’s confirm the meetup time on Plane."

(*) Note: "Plane" is a messaging app often used in East Asian school settings.

Hearing that, Yaqiao Mu’s eyes lit up.

In truth, he was socially anxious. Meeting his idol felt much more manageable with a trusted friend by his side.

What Yan Huan didn’t know was whether Yaqiao Mu planned to read that love letter he once wrote to the loli heroine in front of A Ai.

If he did... well, that would take some serious courage.

"Alright, President! I’ll message you when it’s time and we’ll—"

*Dong dong dong!*

Just as Yaqiao Mu was daydreaming about the weekend, someone knocked on the student council office door.

Yan Huan turned toward the door. "Come in!"

The door swung open to reveal a classmate of his—a girl as loud as a sparrow.

"President! Something’s wrong! Y-your desk... it’s in trouble!"

"My desk? In trouble? What do you mean? Explain."

"Aiya, I can’t explain it clearly. Just come back to class and see it for yourself!"

"?"

Yan Huan and Yaqiao Mu exchanged glances and slowly stood up.

"You’re saying you went to get some water, and my desk ended up like this?"

Back in Class A’s classroom, the sparrow-like girl looked around nervously.

At the moment, only three people were there: Yan Huan, Yaqiao Mu, and the girl.

Something had clearly happened that made her feel deeply uneasy.

Yan Huan’s desk had been splashed with several different colors of paint—even the chair was stained—and a pungent smell filled the room.

On the desk, scrawled in ghostly handwriting, were the words:

"Go die!" and "Disgusting!"

Purely personal, cruel attacks.

Yaqiao Mu examined the paint marks on the desk, then looked at Yan Huan and clicked his tongue.

"President, did you offend someone? But that shouldn’t happen inside the school... Wait, President—you must’ve offended a ghost!"

The girl behind him opened her mouth, and her words nearly made Yan Huan lose it.

She covered her mouth and said seriously,

"I went out to the water purifier to get a drink. When I came back to grab my glass, nothing seemed off. But in less than a minute, all that writing appeared... Just like what happened to Teacher Zhou. President, you’re definitely haunted like him!"

Yaqiao Mu rubbed his chin, thought for a second, then added,

"President, do you think this ghost might be a busty chick who needs you to purify her lingering regrets in the night before she can move on?"

...

Yan Huan stared at him in disbelief, speechless.

Yan Huan glanced at Yaqiao Mu beside him with a look that clearly said, "You're beyond saving."

Even without the reminder from the girl in their class, just listening to her description of the phenomenon, Yan Huan could already piece it together—it was related to the tragedy of Zhou Bin last Friday.

The culprit could only be the person he and Yaqiao Mu had just been discussing:

Bai Yi.

But the confused look on his face wasn’t an act—he truly had no idea what he had done to offend Bai Yi.

Since school started, had he even seen her more than three times?

What could he possibly have done to make her hate him so much?

Yan Huan was still completely baffled when he suddenly heard a crisp tapping sound at the window beside him.

*Ding!*

He turned his head and saw a small pebble roll down the glass.

"..."

"Ah! The ghost is here! This is definitely a paranormal incident!" the girl screamed, hiding behind Yan Huan.

'Throwing pebbles at people? Seriously, how old are you?'

'Do you want to up your medication dosage like Ye Shiyu?'

But when he looked outside, there was nothing—just a greenbelt beyond the first-floor classroom blocking the road. No one in sight.

It really did feel like some invisible ghost was targeting him.

Bai Yi?

Still no sign of her.

'Is she really just that good at hide-and-seek? Or did the level of her modifier increase again when I wasn’t looking, suppressing my resistance ability so much that I can’t detect her anymore?'

'Could this actually be a real paranormal event?'

'Zhou Bin, are you there? Can you send me the links to those things on you? It’s urgent.'

*Ding!*

Several more stones flew in. Even Yaqiao Mu couldn’t stay calm anymore.

He suddenly hugged Yan Huan, trembling in fear.

"President, protect me!"

'Don’t hug me, Yaqiao, or this really is going to become a paranormal overflow incident.'

Regardless, Yan Huan activated his skill [Perfect Expression Control].

He took a deep breath. Though he looked surprised by the stones flying in from the empty road, he forced himself to remain calm and stepped back, saying,

"You guys get out of the classroom first. I’ll go check outside. Stay far away from me—it feels like whatever this is, it’s targeting me."

*Ding!*

As he spoke, Yan Huan suddenly caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye—a faint, semi-transparent patch of black hair in the bushes to the right of the window.

He inhaled sharply, then quickly opened the window and leaned out.

Beneath a tree, he saw a semi-transparent girl squatting there, wearing a bucket hat and sunglasses, holding a small pebble in her hand.

There were also some larger stones beside her, but they looked too heavy for her to throw, so she’d given up on them.

It was Bai Yi!

Seeing her crouched under the tree like a little village girl, Yan Huan adjusted his expression, though he was inwardly speechless.

He raised an eyebrow, looking puzzled, and shouted,

"Don’t move!!"

With that, he climbed over the first-floor window sill and dashed outside.

"President!"

Behind him, Yaqiao Mu instinctively tried to follow, but his nerdy body moved like a rusted puppet.

He couldn’t even lift his leg properly, let alone jump over the window sill.

So he gave up and exited through the corridor instead.

Bai Yi was just about to throw another stone when she suddenly looked up and saw Yan Huan running toward her with a cold expression.

Startled, she fell onto her butt. But then she remembered she still had the [No Concern] modifier in effect.

So she stayed seated, unmoving, as Yan Huan ran up and stopped not far from her.

'Yan Huan. No matter how many times I see your face, I still find it disgusting.'

Bai Yi pressed her lips together, her gaze toward Yan Huan growing increasingly furious.

As she stared at him, a filthy thought suddenly popped into her head.

A thought so vile, even while under the influence of the modifier, she found it revolting.

She scanned Yan Huan from head to toe, unaware that he, while pretending to look around in confusion, was also observing her.

He noticed the fury on her face—something even her sunglasses couldn't hide.

Yan Huan genuinely had no idea what he had done to make her act like this.

Ye Shiyu, at least, made some kind of logical sense. But Bai Yi?

'Are you just randomly insane?'

The next second, the semi-transparent Bai Yi stood up with a cold expression.

She pressed her lips together and began walking toward Yan Huan step by step.

Yan Huan didn’t know what she was trying to do, but his instincts screamed that he needed to get far away from her.

Just as he was about to pretend he hadn’t seen anything and turn away, a siren suddenly blared from the school gate.

Both of them froze and looked toward the sound.

A middle-aged woman was crying as she got out of a police car, holding a phone, accompanied by several officers.

"Officer, please help me. My daughter left last night and hasn’t come home. We checked the surveillance, but there’s no sign of her. I’m so worried... so worried about her."

"Don’t worry, ma'am. We’ll investigate step by step."

Police?

'So Bai Yi... ran away from home?'

Yan Huan blinked and turned to look behind him—but Bai Yi had vanished without a trace.

In the corridor, Yaqiao Mu was just about to head outside the teaching building when he nearly collided with a girl walking with her head down.

"Watch out!"

He quickly dodged aside and was ready to pass her, but she stepped into his path again.

Yaqiao Mu paused, slightly stunned. The girl's pale face was hidden beneath thick black hair.

"Hey, classmate, you..."

Just as he began to speak, the girl mustered her courage and held out a pure white, undecorated envelope.

"Th-that... Yaqiao..."

Her voice was soft and mousy, barely audible, so Yaqiao could only look at the letter she offered.

Written on it were the words:

"To Xiaohuan"

"From An Le"

'Delivering another love letter to the President?'

Normally, Yaqiao Mu wouldn’t know how to turn down a girl, especially one more socially anxious than he was.

But now wasn’t the time.

He gently pushed the letter back into her hand. Under her nervous gaze, he quickly ran outside.

"President, wait for me!!"

"..."

An Le opened her mouth, stammering for a long time, but no words came out. She could only stare sadly at the undelivered letter in her hand.

'Was the timing wrong?'

An Le felt a bit discouraged, but her desire to reconnect with Xiaohuan was stronger than her disappointment.

'Then... I’ll deliver it again next time.'

Gathering her courage, An Le made her decision.

But just as she turned to head back to class, she saw a few girls standing in the corridor, arms crossed, clearly watching her.

At the front was her classmate Pu Shuwen, a cold sneer on her face.

[End of this chapter]

(*) Note: "Modifier" in this context refers to a supernatural or game-like ability system within the story's universe that affects characters' behavior or perception.