The Principal's Professionalism

Ren Yi stood before the mirror, his gaze hollow and his soul seemingly adrift. He couldn't muster even a shred of energy.

He finally understood. Life was hard enough, but being an Anomaly was even harder.

He had thought the three assessment missions issued by the Alliance were already hellish and absurd enough to work him to death.

He hadn't expected the stakes to keep piling up.

Especially with Ms. Zhang right in front of him.

This was his homeroom teacher of three years, a woman who knew the way of education as well as she knew how to twist the knife.

Every word she spoke was like planting a massive flag right in Ren Yi's chest.

At this moment, Ms. Zhang was completely oblivious to her star pupil's internal screaming as she continued to brief him on the basic settings of the Native World.

"Oh, right. I almost forgot to tell you."

"That world has its own unique energy circulation system, so it naturally has methods similar to how we Anomalies condense energy crystals."

"The difference, however, is that we can condense any number of energy crystals."

"In that world, an individual can only produce one in their entire lifetime."

"From what I know, once they absorb enough energy, they hit a storage limit within their own bodies."

"To break through their physical shackles and continue growing stronger, they have to take the path of compression."

"They force the energy into a liquid or solid state, eventually condensing it into a spherical energy crystal called..."

Ren Yi interrupted her at that point.

"The Gold Core."

"Exactly! Correct answer!"

Ms. Zhang reflexively gave him the classroom praise of a seasoned teacher before suddenly snapping out of it, blinking in surprise.

The next second, the dense cluster of eyes on the bathroom walls, ceiling, and floor all swiveled in unison to stare at Ren Yi in wonder.

"I don't just know about the Gold Core."

"The Gold Core stage is just the basic threshold. To break through further, one must follow the path of destruction before creation."

"They have to personally shatter the energy crystal they spent decades painstakingly cultivating and transform it into an infant-shaped energy body."

"Oh, right. That's called the Nascent Soul stage."

"And after that, there's an even more abstruse spiritual sublimation where they sense the world's laws and channel the power of heaven and earth..."

"What was that called? Spirit Severing or Mahayana?"

Ms. Zhang listened, completely dazed.

"Ren Yi, how do you know all this?"

Ren Yi's mouth twitched as he threw up his hands in resignation. "How do I put this... Teacher, your memory is failing you."

"Do you remember back when I was still in school for evening self-study? One time, you and the Principal were patrolling the halls to check on discipline."

"That night, you personally confiscated a book from my desk drawer. The title was 《The Immortal Cultivation Chronicles of Little Ren》. Remember?"

Ms. Zhang had an epiphany.

"Oh! It seems the Alliance's extracurricular education was quite effective after all."

"Wait, what education?" Ren Yi asked, a mental question mark appearing over his head.

"The Alliance previously introduced a cultivation plan for underage Anomalies—the Learning Through Play Five-Year Plan."

"The Alliance assigned specialized clerical Anomalies to adapt the power systems, world rules, and racial ecologies common in the Myriad Realms into children's extracurricular reading materials."

"The core objective was to enrich the knowledge base of underage Anomalies, letting you understand the basic conditions of different worlds in advance to enhance your extra-dimensional adaptation skills."

"The goal is to ensure that once an Anomaly awakens, they can quickly adapt to their identity and participate in the Alliance's daily external operations."

Ms. Zhang was getting into it, looking as if she were about to start a long political education lecture.

Ren Yi's head throbbed. There were so many things wrong with what she said that he didn't even have the strength to complain.

Good grief, his eyes were truly opened now.

They really were raising Anomalies from the cradle.

"Teacher, stop, stop! No more lectures!"

He interrupted the non-stop Ms. Zhang with a mournful look and stared into her eyes.

"Since we both know what kind of world that is, we should realize something."

"A world involving power systems like 'Immortal Cultivation' is something a tiny Anomaly like me can't possibly stand against alone."

"Are you sending me to fight a Nascent Soul or Spirit Severing expert?"

"Do you hear yourself? Is that even Anomaly-speak?"

"Ahem." Ms. Zhang coughed to hide her shifting gaze.

"Don't twist the facts. That world has been completely destroyed; it no longer exists."

"As for those 'souls' and 'gods' you mentioned, the fact that the Alliance assigned you this mission means they've determined it's within your capabilities."

Ren Yi was utterly defeated. He slumped, adopting a posture of complete surrender.

"Teacher, you said before that I could retake the exam, right?"

"I'll just forfeit this one. Mark me as a fail. Can I just take it next time?"

Hearing this, the smile vanished from Ms. Zhang's face. Her expression turned grave, and her tone became incredibly serious.

"I'm sorry, but you cannot."

"Once the assessment has officially started, the process is locked."

"Even if you turn in a blank exam, you must stay in the assessment world until the exam ends."

"The Alliance's rules cannot be defied."

"Oh... I see."

To her surprise, once Ren Yi heard this news, his mournful expression vanished, replaced by a calm indifference.

He shrugged and actually began to comfort Ms. Zhang instead.

"Alright, alright, Teacher. Don't be so nervous. I didn't say I wasn't going."

Ms. Zhang was a bit stunned by his sudden change in attitude. All the eyes in the room blinked in confusion.

"Then all that wailing and acting so reluctant just now... you little brat, were you playing me again?"

Well, she was the woman who had been Ren Yi's homeroom teacher for three years after all.

After a brief moment of confusion, she quickly realized:

She had been played again by this little brat—a student who had good grades but was a constant source of headaches, full of wicked ideas and a love for putting on an act.

Even though the kid had already graduated, encountering this kind of behavior still made her blood pressure spike.

"What are you doing, you little brat? If you have a problem, just tell me! Why put on this whole act of being reluctant? Do you have a drama bug or something?"

"Ahem, Teacher, calm down. I wasn't targeting you," Ren Yi quickly pleaded for mercy.

"Not targeting me?" Ms. Zhang's elegant persona completely shattered. "There's only me and you here! If you aren't targeting me, who are you targeting?"

Her elegant expression was gone. There was no helping it; every homeroom teacher had moments like this.

Ren Yi understood instantly.

No wonder the class monitor, Zhang Qiuqiu, always went around saying "I'm the boss." It turned out she had inherited it from Ms. Zhang.

"Teacher, stay calm! Spare me! I really wasn't playing you!" Ren Yi surrendered at light speed.

Ms. Zhang stared suspiciously at Ren Yi's face.

Based on the teacher's intuition she had developed over three years of high school, she felt that Ren Yi was telling the truth this time.

So she glared at him coldly, signaling for him to continue.

"I just wanted to see if a certain bald-headed old man who loves to mock people would come out and say something."

"After all, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you don't wail, you don't get fed."

"As it turns out, he really doesn't care. That old bastard just loves giving students impossible targets."

"Does he have any sense of a Principal's professionalism at all?"