In front of the bulletin board, a crowd surged.
Rather than a crowd, it was more like a pot of boiling porridge; noisy, chaotic, and full of whispers of shock and incomprehension.
All pairs of eyes focused on the midterm exam ranking list that had just been posted. In the top position, as usual, was engraved the name "Yukinoshita Yukino". Her scores in every subject were so high they made people despair, as if they were scores from a different species.
However, when gazes swept downward, passing through the dense rows of names and arriving at the very bottom position, everyone saw the source of the commotion.
[Last Rank: Darius]
[National Language: 0]
[Mathematics: 0]
[English: 0]
[Physics: 0]
[History: 0]
That row of perfectly round zero numbers looked like a row of pitch-black eye sockets, silently mocking all souls who felt anxious for exams.
"Hey, this is a misprint, right? How could everything be zero?"
"Did he not take the exam? No, I was in the same room with him, he sat from start to finish and filled out the entire test sheet!"
"Filled it out but got zero? That's far harder than getting a perfect score, right?"
Yui, squeezed in the middle of the crowd, saw that conspicuous name, then anxiously tugged Yukino's sleeve: "Yukinon, Darius-kun he..."
Yukino's expression showed not the slightest surprise, only bone-deep exhaustion. She had predicted this, she just didn't expect the result would be this pure.
Just then, the noise subsided instantly.
Darius himself parted the crowd and walked to the front of the bulletin board. He looked up, silently staring at his own grade sheet. No shame, no anger, not even the slightest emotional ripple. His expression was as if admiring a work of art he had completed with his own hands.
"As I expected." He nodded and let out a short sigh.
Yui immediately ran over: "Darius-kun, are you okay? Did the teacher grade it wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Yuigahama." Darius turned, speaking in a tone full of compassion, "It's not them who are wrong, but this dimension."
"Eh?"
"My answers were written using the language of high-dimensional truth. Whereas the school grading system is merely a machine based on low-dimensional binary logic." Darius explained. His voice wasn't loud, but heard clearly in the midst of the silent crowd. "That system can't parse it, so it can only return the only symbol it understands—'Empty', aka '0'. This isn't a grade, this is a system error code."
He paused, then looked around at the petrified students.
"You don't understand, I don't blame you. Those imprisoned in Plato's Cave will never be able to understand the sunlight outside the cave."
Yukino closed her eyes. She felt her common sense being pulled out strand by strand.
Just then, a low-pressure system strong enough to freeze the atmosphere spread from behind the crowd. The students seemed to be split by an invisible hand, automatically opening a path.
Shizuka walked closer. She didn't speak, only stared at Darius in silence. The cigarette in her mouth wasn't lit, but her gaze burned more than a smoldering cigarette butt.
She extended her hand, gripping the back collar of Darius's shirt like holding a cat.
"Come with me."
That voice came from between her teeth.
Shizuka dragged Darius down the corridor to her office. Wherever they passed, students cleared the way, as if watching a public execution.
The office door closed with a loud sound.
*SLAM!*
Shizuka released her hand and slammed a stack of exam sheets onto the desk hard.
"Darius." She sat down, crossed her hands, exerting all her strength not to destroy that desk. "Give me one explanation."
On the desk were Darius's answer sheets. All filled with neat handwriting, but the red ink cross marks on top were more numerous than crosses at a fallen soldiers' memorial.
"Explanation for what, Sensei?" Darius looked innocent. "I've already presented complete solutions for correcting this world on the exam sheets. In my opinion, this is enough to win all categories of Nobel Prize, not just first rank at school."
The corner of Shizuka's eye twitched violently.
She picked up the National Language sheet: "Analyzing Mr. Lu Xun's writings as 'Early time traveler observation notes'?"
Then picked up the Physics sheet: "Arguing that 'Free Fall Motion' is 'Earth Gaia consciousness's gravitational enslavement of individuals'?"
Finally, she picked up a blank answer sheet containing only one line of text.
"'The answer itself is a shackle, I choose freedom'?"
Shizuka read it word by word, then crumpled that answer sheet into a ball of trash paper.
"Darius!" She finally exploded, her voice so loud it made the windows vibrate. "I'm warning you for the last time! This is a school! Not your mental hospital!"
"Sensei, please watch your word choice." Darius's expression became serious. "Aoyama Hospital is the last sanctuary for wise people, not a mental hospital."
"Good, very good!" Shizuka laughed from anger. She took a student file from the drawer, opened it to Darius's profile page, pointed at the "Guardian" column, then picked up the phone on the desk.
"It seems I need to have a serious talk with your 'Guardian', Mr. Aoyama Hospital Director, about your 'social rehabilitation' results."
The phone receiver was already raised. She prepared to press the number.
At that very moment, all expression on Darius's face disappeared.
The compassionate look, understanding of universal truth, and indifferent attitude he had shown before instantly vanished like bursting soap bubbles when the word "Director" was uttered.
His body suddenly stood perfectly upright, both hands tight at his pants seams, head slightly bowed, gaze so solemn like a soldier awaiting inspection.
"Sensei."
His voice transformed into something very sincere, even with a small tremor barely detectable.
"I was wrong."
Shizuka's finger about to press the number stopped. She raised an eyebrow, staring at the student before her whose attitude had changed 180 degrees.
"Oh? What was your mistake?"
"I shouldn't have underestimated the authority of the education system, shouldn't have used shallow personal perception to challenge established truth, and shouldn't have added to your mental burden." Darius spoke very quickly, as if trained thousands of times. "I realize most deeply that my actions are blasphemy against knowledge, disrespectful to schoolmates, and moreover disappointing your tireless guidance. I'm willing to accept any punishment and conduct deep self-reflection."
Shizuka slowly put down her phone. She had found it. She finally found the "control spell" for this king of troublemakers.
She leaned back in her chair, lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply, and exhaled the smoke as if expelling weeks of accumulated frustration.
"Self-reflection?" She snorted coldly. "Just talking isn't enough."
She pulled a pamphlet from a stack of documents and threw it in front of Darius.
[Chiba City Youth Aid Summer Camp Activity]
"This is a community service activity organized by the school. Go to a small village in Chiba to care for elementary school children there for one week." Shizuka flicked her cigarette ash. "You must participate. And, during the activity, don't you dare cause trouble for me. Got it?"
Darius's gaze fell on that pamphlet. He saw the three words reading "Chiba Village", saw the background of dense forest and that ancient village.
His pupils, from an angle unnoticed by Shizuka, contracted slightly.
[System Warning: High-risk geographical coordinates detected... Matching database...]
[Match Successful: Biochemical Pollution Isolation Zone No. T-007, Codename "Silent Village".]
Darius looked up again, his face adorned once more with an obedient smile that made hair stand on end.
"Ready, Sensei." He answered respectfully. "I guarantee the mission will be accomplished."
Shizuka nodded with satisfaction and waved her hand telling him to leave.
Darius took that pamphlet and turned to exit the office. When the door closed, the smile on his face transformed into something strange and full of passion. He looked down at the pamphlet in his hand, as if it wasn't merely a community service notice, but a high-level secret instruction from headquarters.
"I see..." He whispered to himself, his voice full of restrained fanaticism.
"Is this a forced event to advance the main storyline?"
"Resident Evil DLC, officially begins."
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