42: Disciplinary Committee? You call this an illegal building?

The morning sun shone on the tree-lined path of Tianqiong War God Academy, with birds singing and flowers blooming—a scene of peace.

Except in front of Dormitory 404.

A group of uninvited guests had gathered here, breaking the morning's tranquility.

Leading them was a young man with black-rimmed glasses, slicked-back hair, and a bright Red Armband on his left arm.

His name was Zhao Zhengyi, the Chairman of the Student Union's Disciplinary Committee, and also the cousin of that unlucky fellow, Zhao Gang.

Zhao Zhengyi lived up to his name, possessing a Face that screamed "I am righteous." He loved throwing his weight around, looking for any excuse to deduct points across the academy.

At this moment, he was leading seven or eight committee members, also wearing Red Armbands, aggressively blocking the entrance to Dormitory 404, pointing his finger at the crooked wooden sign hanging on the door frame.

【Lying Flat Mutual Aid Society】

“Absurd! Simply absurd!”

Zhao Zhengyi pushed up his glasses, his voice impassioned. “What is this thing? Who authorized it? In the sacred dormitory area of the War God Academy, hanging such an illegal plaque that promotes slacking off and lacks any aesthetic value is a serious provocation to the academy's discipline!”

“According to Article 73 of the ‘Tianqiong War God Academy Student Handbook,’ no club logos may be set up privately without permission! Article 108, strictly forbids damaging the exterior appearance of buildings!”

“Gu Fan! Come out right now! Take down this trashy sign and write a five-thousand-word self-reflection!”

Inside the dormitory.

Xiao Fan was preparing to go out for morning exercise. Hearing the commotion outside, he frowned.

“Gu Fan, the Student Union people are here. This Zhao Zhengyi is hard to deal with; he's stubborn and a relative of the Director of the Dean's Office. How about... we take down the sign first?” Xiao Fan said with some concern. He didn't want to get into a heap of trouble right after starting school.

However, Gu Fan was carrying his signature small stool, slowly walking to the door.

He held a cup of steaming soy milk in his hand. Facing Zhao Zhengyi's angry gaze, he calmly took a sip.

“Slurp—”

“Morning, Senior. Having such a big temper so early in the morning makes it easy to get constipated.”

Gu Fan said with a smile, “What's wrong with this sign? This is the spiritual totem of my society; it's a work of art. Look at the wild cursive style of the handwriting—it's full of disdain for the mundane world. It's very profound.”

“Cut the crap!”

Zhao Zhengyi was infuriated by Gu Fan's attitude. He stepped forward and pointed at Gu Fan. “I don't care about your totem or whatever. Take it down immediately! Otherwise, all your credits for this semester will be deducted, and you'll be publicly criticized throughout the school!”

Gu Fan shrugged, spreading his hands helplessly.

“I can take it down. But my back hasn't been great lately, and I can't reach it. Besides, I've developed feelings for this sign. If it doesn't want to come down itself, there's nothing I can do.”

“Also, Senior, just a friendly tip: the position of this sign is a bit metaphysical. Moving it might bring bad luck.”

“Feudal superstition!”

Zhao Zhengyi sneered. “Since you won't take it down, I'll do it for you! Don't say I didn't give you Face when the time comes!”

Having said that, Zhao Zhengyi strode forward, stood on his tiptoes, and reached out to grab the wooden sign.

The committee members behind him stood with their arms crossed, waiting to see Gu Fan humiliated. In their eyes, with the Chairman personally taking action, wouldn't a mere scrap of a sign be easily dealt with?

Just as Zhao Zhengyi's fingertips touched the wooden sign...

[Ding! Detected 'Zhao Zhengyi's' strong desire for destruction and bureaucratic malice.]

[Malice Rank: C+ (A nauseating sense of superiority).]

[Backlash triggered! Multiplier: 50x!]

[Random effect generating... Detected that the target pays extreme attention to 'appearance' and 'dignity'.]

[Congratulations! Selected: The Emperor's New Clothes (Physical Version).]

Without any warning.

“Snap!”

A crisp sound, like a lute string snapping, rang out.

It was the expensive crocodile-skin belt around Zhao Zhengyi's waist. Without any external force, it suddenly snapped into two pieces.

Without the belt's restraint, his already somewhat loose suit trousers instantly slipped down.

“Whoosh—”

The pants slid down smoothly to his ankles.

Revealing the boxers inside, printed with a bright yellow duck pattern.

The surroundings suddenly went silent.

Zhao Zhengyi's hand remained in the position of grabbing the sign, his whole body frozen in place.

A cool breeze blew across his hairy legs, making him shiver involuntarily.

The committee members around him were all stunned.

Student passersby not far away stopped in their tracks, taking out their phones to start snapping photos frantically.

“Is... is this the 'inner depth' of the Disciplinary Committee Chairman? Little yellow ducks? How childlike!”

“Shocking! High-ranking Student Union official displays 'inner beauty' in public. What is he trying to achieve?”

Zhao Zhengyi's Face instantly turned beet red, a sense of shame rushing to his head.

“Ah! My pants!”

He let out a scream and, in a panic, tried to bend over to pull up his pants.

But the Karma backlash wasn't over yet.

The moment he bent down, because the movement was too abrupt and his pants were tangled around his ankles, restricting his movement...

“Slip!”

Zhao Zhengyi's foot slipped, and he lunged forward.

Right in front of him was the dormitory wall and that wooden sign.

To avoid faceplanting, Zhao Zhengyi subconsciously spread his limbs to brace against the wall.

“Slap!”

He was stuck to the wall like a gecko.

And his Face, by pure coincidence, was wedged right under the “Lying Flat Mutual Aid Society” sign, as if he were using his Face to provide a vivid support for it.

“Mmph mmph mmph!”

Zhao Zhengyi tried to struggle down, but he found that his shirt buttons had somehow gotten caught on a nail in the wall. He was actually hanging there in mid-air.

The little yellow duck boxers swayed in the wind.

“Chairman!”

The committee members behind him finally reacted, screaming as they rushed forward to save him.

“Quick! Get the Chairman down!”

However, the group was running too fast. A fat committee member in the lead suddenly tripped, stepping right on the belt buckle Zhao Zhengyi had dropped on the ground.

“Ouch!”

The fat guy fell forward, crashing directly into the second person's butt.

The second person hit the third.

A domino effect erupted instantly.

“Bang bang bang bang!”

Seven or eight committee members were like a human pyramid, one on top of another, instantly collapsing into a mountain of flesh at the door of Dormitory 404. And the most miserable one, Zhao Zhengyi, was pressed at the very bottom (although he was on the wall, everyone had lunged at the base of the wall to save him, and in the struggle, they dragged him down and pinned him underneath).

“Ow! My back!”

“Who stepped on my Face! Don't step on the Face!”

“Where's the Chairman? The Chairman seems to have stopped moving at the bottom!”

The originally aggressive disciplinary crackdown had instantly turned into a large-scale performance art show.

Gu Fan stood to the side, still holding that cup of soy milk, with not even a single drop spilled.

He looked at the scene before him, shook his head helplessly, and sighed:

“Tsk tsk tsk. I told you this sign was metaphysical, but you just wouldn't believe it.”

“You didn't have to bow so deeply just to join our society, did you? Although we are indeed short of people, we don't take anyone this clumsy.”

The spectating students were already dying of laughter, the sound of camera shutters clicking one after another.

“Hahaha! I can't take it, this is hilarious! Is this the combat power of the Disciplinary Committee?”

“Is Gu Fan's mouth blessed? As soon as he said they'd be unlucky, they were?”

[Ding! Detected 'schadenfreude' and 'explosive laughter' from the surrounding crowd (towards Zhao Zhengyi). malice points +600!]

[Detected 'Zhao Zhengyi's' extreme emotions of shame and indignation, wishing he could explode on the spot. malice points +500!]

[Ding! Congratulations, host! The Malice Gauge is 100% full!]

[Obtained one Epic Malice Mystery Box! Would you like to open it?]

“Open it.” Gu Fan said, feeling delighted.

[Congratulations! You have obtained a one-time Karma skill: 100% Being Caught Barehanded - Group Version.]

[Description: When you make a sword-swinging motion, everyone within the designated range must instantly teleport in front of you, kneel on both knees, and clasp their hands together to catch your “sword.” No matter what they are doing, no matter how far away they are. This is called—Forced Worship.]

“Good stuff.” Gu Fan's eyes lit up.

At this time, Zhao Zhengyi was finally pulled out from the pile of people.

He was disheveled, one lens of his glasses was shattered, and there was a large footprint on his Face. His whole body was trembling.

“Gu Fan... you... you just wait!”

Zhao Zhengyi held up his pants with his hand, his eyes full of venom. But looking at the wooden sign still hanging steadily, he instinctively felt a sliver of fear and didn't dare to step forward again.

“Let's go!”

Zhao Zhengyi led his group of defeated soldiers and fled in embarrassment amidst a burst of laughter.

Gu Fan watched their retreating backs, slowly took a marker out of his pocket, and walked to the wall.

When Zhao Zhengyi was stuck to the wall earlier, his Face had picked up quite a bit of dust.

Gu Fan drew a cute little turtle where Zhao Zhengyi's Face had been and wrote a line of small characters next to it:

“Disciplinary Committee Chairman was here.”

Having finished all this, Gu Fan looked back at the stunned Xiao Fan and smiled:

“See, I told you. As long as I lie flat enough, trouble will just slip past me.”

Xiao Fan looked at the little turtle and then at Gu Fan, feeling as if his worldview had been shattered.

“This guy... what kind of freak is he?”