Chapter 4

After being scolded harshly by Mrs. Mercer, I had no choice but to fill a basin with cold water and grit my teeth as I wiped myself down.

The next morning, I went to class with dark circles under my eyes.

As I passed the automatic water dispenser in the hallway, I only wanted to get a cup of water. Before my hand even touched the button, scalding hot water suddenly shot out, splashing precisely onto the back of my hand.

I gasped sharply in pain. The skin on the back of my hand instantly turned red.

I stepped aside and watched as other students calmly filled their cups with cold water or warm water. Not a single one of them got burned.

Watching scene after scene where only I was targeted, only I was rejected, I was reminded of every moment of torment I had endured here in my previous life.

The library access system seemed to be out to get me. Every time I swiped my card, it blared an alarm and automatically locked, trapping me outside until a security guard came to manually register me and let me in.

The cafeteria card readers despised me. The moment my card came near, the screen flashed "Invalid Card", forcing me to ask the cafeteria staff to manually record my meal every time. I had to endure the strange looks from everyone around me.

The suffering from both this life and the last gnawed relentlessly at my nerves. I felt like I was about to be driven mad by this malice that seeped in everywhere, leaving no escape.

From that day on, I used my own methods to fight back against the malice that was everywhere.

When I went to the cafeteria, I brought cash, even though the cafeteria ladies rolled their eyes at me every time because they did not have enough change.

I stopped living in the dorm and commuted every day instead, even though the journey took two hours each way.

I stopped touching any electronic equipment in the classroom. All course materials were printed out in advance on paper.

I wrapped myself up like a hedgehog, cutting off every possible object that might harm me.

My strange behavior only further cemented the rumors among my classmates that I was mentally unstable.

Under all those judgmental gazes, I finally endured my way to the day of the college entrance exam.

That day, the sun was blisteringly hot. To avoid being electrocuted to death on the spot like in my previous life, I deliberately changed into athletic clothes with no metal parts before leaving home. I even switched to sports underwear and checked the elastic in my hair, making sure there was not a trace of metal anywhere.

Standing outside the exam site and looking at that familiar security gate, my calves were trembling.

In my previous life, this was where the searing pain of electricity ripping through my body became my final memory before death.

The line crept forward slowly. With every step I took, my heartbeat sped up.

One examinee after another passed through the gate smoothly. After each beep, it was declared safe.

With only one person left ahead of me, I felt like my heart was about to leap out of my throat. I was terrified the machine would start leaking electricity again.

Just as cold sweat poured down my back, a woman wearing a mask and a hat bumped into me.

She swiftly shoved a slip of paper into my hand and lowered her voice by my ear to say, "Read it. Then go through security."

Then she melted into the crowd and disappeared.

When it was my turn, I still had not fully reacted. Seeing that I was not moving forward, the security staff urged me, "Hey, you, move ahead."

Clutching the slip of paper, I apologized repeatedly and stepped aside, retreating to the edge of the line.

I walked to a deserted corner and lowered my head to unfold the paper.

There was only one hastily scribbled line on it, but it made every hair on my body stand on end.

So this was it.

So this was the secret behind why the entire school had been targeting me.