novelnext Chapter 79
Chapter 79
Chapter 79: Fujino's Farewell, the RV's Upgrade
Day 5, 5:55 AM.
Time flew by in an instant.
When the blazing sun Jiang Nan had borrowed strength from finally leapt fully above the horizon.
The golden morning light pierced through the unbroken curtain of rain.
It shone upon the one place in this Rainy Night Valley that light could reach—Rose High School.
And under the scrutiny of sunlight, the terrifying Ghost Domain smothering the campus seemed to feel something like fear.
It chose to retreat further.
Completely shutting down the 【Rose Campus】 of the surface world, it curled inward and withdrew into the 【Thorn Campus】 of the inner world.
Everything seemed to return to stillness.
Jiang Nan stood beside the RV, waiting for that voice that would soon ring out from the Sky Screen.
And at the same time…
He was also waiting for someone.
Oh—not someone. A ghost.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A tall, broad-shouldered silhouette slowly emerged from the shadows of the school building.
It stood at the boundary between light and shadow, and raised a hand in greeting.
"Boss!!"
The sharp-eyed Wang Meng pointed in that direction and shouted excitedly at Jiang Nan.
"It's that Chinese teacher! Fujino!"
Jiang Nan gave a small nod—he had seen it too, naturally.
He walked forward, pulled out his notepad, and quickly wrote a line before holding it out.
【How do you have time to come out?】
【Aren't you afraid of the sun?】
"Ha ha ha!"
Fujino Juro took the note and laughed with open warmth.
Even at the edge of the sunlight, with his skin sizzling audibly, he paid it no mind at all.
"Of course I came to congratulate you, my Class Representative."
"And also…to thank all of you."
As he spoke, he reached into his chest and produced a black credential trimmed in gold, which he hung around his own neck.
It was the【Principal's Certificate】.
"From this moment on, I am no longer a Chinese teacher."
Fujino straightened his back.
"After the former principal died, the Ghost Domain's rules automatically filtered for the strongest candidate to succeed the position."
"And so…I am now the principal of Rose High School."
"Moreover, following the revision to the school rules I just made."
"Starting today, everyone may enter and exit Rose High School freely."
"This place is no longer a death trap where you can only go in and never come out."
Jiang Nan gave a slight nod in congratulation.
At that moment.
Guo Shuai came trotting up, cradling the Divine Fetus with the Circle Face—who had cried itself to exhaustion and fallen asleep—in his arms.
He unclipped the Pig-Slaughtering Knife from his waist, looking reluctant, but held it out anyway.
"Um…Teacher?"
"Returning this to you. Thank you for lending it to me for self-defence—it was genuinely useful."
However.
Fujino waved the gesture off and pushed the knife back.
"No need."
"This knife…is yours now."
"Huh?"
Guo Shuai froze, and reflexively blurted out.
"But Teacher…didn't you say before you were going to 'abandon literature for medicine'?"
"This knife is your scalpel—shouldn't it be really important to you?"
"Not so, not so."
Fujino clasped his hands behind his back, swayed that enormous head of his, and smiled.
"Ha ha, yes, I did abandon literature for medicine before."
"But I never said…I couldn't abandon medicine for literature, did I?"
"I'm a principal now—what do I need to be a doctor for?"
"That kind of rough work should be left to the teachers under me."
As he spoke, he smiled with an air of mystery and pointed toward the shadows behind him.
"Don't believe me? Take a look—this is the new Chinese teacher-slash-school physician I just hired as my replacement!"
"Remarkably talented!"
Jiang Nan and Guo Shuai looked in the direction he was pointing.
The next second, both of them went still at the same time.
A woman in a blood-stained nurse's uniform was standing there, drooling with a vacant, blissful expression on her face.
It was Natsuki—the one who had been scared out of her wits earlier.
At this moment, her eyes were glassy and unfocused. There was clearly no sign of recovery whatsoever; if anything, her condition had gotten worse.
"This…"
Guo Shuai's mouth twitched.
Fujino, for his part, saw absolutely nothing wrong with the situation.
To demonstrate just how exceptional his newly recruited employee was, he called out to her in front of everyone.
"Teacher Natsuki!"
"Tell me! As a Chinese teacher, what is your sole purpose of instruction?!"
At the sound of his voice, Natsuki's body gave a start, as though some kind of muscle memory had been triggered.
She drooled, then struck a pose and answered at full volume.
"Reporting to Daddy!!"
"My purpose is to obey your every command!!"
"No matter what position…"
"Oh no—no matter what kind of game, I can handle it!"
"Heh heh heh……"
Evidently.
Her mind was elsewhere, and she had mistaken Fujino for the wealthy sugar daddy she had latched onto back on Blue Star.
However.
Fujino slapped his thigh with a thunderous crack.
"Natsuki!!"
"You are an absolute goddamn genius!!"
"I have never heard a more satisfactory answer in my life!!"
Fujino turned to look at Jiang Nan, his eyes brimming with admiration.
"Listen to that! What remarkable awareness!"
"'No matter what kind of game I can handle it'—that means she's willing to try all manner of educational reform!"
"Absolute obedience to the principal's management!"
"Your IQ must have already surpassed a goddamn 250!!"
"I'm pinning the Annual Outstanding Teacher Badge on you right this instant!!"
"Heh heh heh heh heh~"
Natsuki grinned vacantly, letting Fujino pin a skull badge to her chest, her face the picture of contentment.
"……"
Jiang Nan's eyes twitched.
Guo Shuai's jaw had dropped so far it was nearly on the ground.
"Boss……"
Guo Shuai murmured under his breath:
“Are you sure these two are on the same server?”
“Because this feels like…a complete cross-server conversation.”
One was talking about absolute loyalty. The other was talking about absolute submission.
On the surface the words were similar enough, but the actual implication was a galaxy apart.
‘Whatever.’
Jiang Nan shook his head.
‘At least fools have fool's luck.’
Under the protection of a principal like Fujino, a simpleton like Natsuki could at least survive for a while in the short term—and might even live quite comfortably.
None of them needed to feel any guilt about leaving a living person behind in a ghost school.
Though, to be fair…
Jiang Nan didn't have anything as superfluous as "guilt" in him to begin with.
……
"All right, the reminiscing is over."
Fujino glanced at the sky and clapped his hands together.
"Time to get down to business."
Clap! Clap!
As the sound of clapping fell.
The puddles beside the school building suddenly began to bubble.
And then.
One after another, several ghosts wearing 【Discipline Committee】armbands rose up from the water, hauling out car after car!
These were the vehicles belonging to the other unfortunate teachers—ones that had been carried through along with the Thorn Campus.
All manner of luxury cars!
Dozens of them in total!
"These hunks of junk are no use to us ghosts."
Fujino pointed at the mountain of vehicles and declared magnanimously.
"We're giving them all to you."
"Consider it…a parting gift from the new principal to outstanding graduates."
"Whoa!!"
Wang Meng's eyes lit up the instant he saw this—brighter than the headlights of any of those cars.
He charged straight into the pile, running his hands over them, peering inside.
"So many cars!!"
"We're rich! We've actually hit it big!!"
"Is this what mechanic heaven looks like?!"
Wang Meng spun around and shouted at Jiang Nan.
"Boss!!"
"With all these parts and materials, we can absolutely give the RV a massive upgrade!!"
Jiang Nan heard this, and a flicker of satisfaction crossed his eyes.
He tore off a note and handed it to Wang Meng.
【I'll leave it to you.】
【Can you finish before sundown?】
Wang Meng thought it over.
"Leave it to me, Boss!"
"I'll do everything I can! Based on my estimate, there might be some issues on the energy side for now."
"But with my ability, stripping apart regular iron like this—it's even easier than taking apart building blocks!"
Jiang Nan nodded.
At this point, Fujino straightened his suit jacket and spoke.
"Well then. Now that I've taken on the principal's role, there's quite a backlog of paperwork to deal with."
"I'll be heading back."
"Come and visit whenever you have the time—the gates of your alma mater will always be open to you."
After the farewell.
Fujino led Natsuki and a crowd of ghost students back into the shadows, and vanished from sight.
The school gate stood empty.
All that remained was that pile of cars, stacked nearly into a small mountain.
Wang Meng had already plunged into the heap and begun tearing things apart with great enthusiasm.
And Jiang Nan.
Stood quietly in the morning light, and slowly raised his head.
Hum.
Time pulsed.
【06:00:00】
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
'The leaderboard…it should be refreshing now.'