Apocalyptic Wasteland Simulator

The male proctor standing beside the testing machine double-checked the value on the display. After confirming he hadn’t misread it, he gave Chen Pingchuan a pitying look before announcing his score in a detached voice.

The proctor’s words made the surrounding students’ expressions change instantly. The female students who had previously admired Chen Pingchuan’s handsome face were no longer infatuated; they now looked at the good-looking transfer student with disdain.

Meanwhile, a few of the male students who had been jealous of his looks now wore smug, nasty expressions, their attitudes dripping with ridicule and contempt.

”0.8? I remember the lower-class citizens from the outer district were at that level about a year ago.”

”Hah! Some ’young master from a noble family’ he is. He’s probably just an illegitimate son.”

”Don’t insult illegitimate children. That was then, this is now. Even they aren’t this pathetic anymore. It’s been over a year since the Cataclysm. With enough resources, even a pig would be stronger than him.”

”Speaking of which, how did a worthless loser like him even get into First High? Who did he pull strings with? Do they not look at strength at all? This is ridiculous.”

Seeing her students gossiping and mocking Chen Pingchuan, Fang Yuxin felt a knot of unease in her stomach. Even if she herself had criticized Chen Pingchuan—partly due to her own emotions, but mostly due to her educational philosophy—his classmates shouldn’t be doing something that makes the entire class a laughingstock. It meant there was a problem with her own moral instruction as their teacher.

Therefore, she loudly reprimanded the mocking students.

”All of you, be quiet!” she snapped. ”He is your classmate. In future missions, he is supposed to be the person you can trust the most. Regardless of his strength, you should not be ridiculing him.”

In response to Teacher Fang’s lecture, the students verbally agreed.

”Teacher Fang is right. We’ll treat him well.”

”Yeah, yeah, we’ll definitely take care of him. We can just have him carry our gear in the back.”

Of course, for every sycophant, there was a detractor. Some students, using the others as cover, muttered quietly amongst themselves.

”The gear’s too heavy. You’d better carry it yourself. Our ’young master’ can’t lift it.”

”Who wants to be on a team with him? He’ll just drag us down and we’ll fail the mission.”

”Actually, I think it could be a good thing.”

”What do you mean?”

”If we take on a difficult mission and a Black Demon attacks, we just have to run faster than him. See? He’d be useful then.”

”Liu Haofeng, that’s not right. He’s our classmate, after all.”

The student who was called out, Liu Haofeng, first let a sneer cross his face before it was quickly replaced by a calm, fake smile. ”I was just kidding. You don’t really think I’d do that, do you?”