Dr. Lin was the community doctor responsible for their neighborhood. He handled Ren Man’s monthly follow-up exams and Ren Yi’s annual guardianship check-ins.
"Oh, heading out already? How brave of you." Dr. Lin adjusted his glasses, looking Ren Yi up and down with great interest.
"What does the little guy actually look like? Change back and let me have a peek," Dr. Lin said, his casual and flippant demeanor hardly becoming of a doctor.
Ren Yi stared at him with dead-fish eyes. However, he didn't notice any non-human parts on Dr. Lin; the man actually looked refined and handsome, like a sophisticated scumbag.
Ren Yi then looked at Ren Man with concern.
Brother, you can't possibly agree to such a ridiculous request, right?
To Dr. Lin's request, Ren Man responded calmly, his words as sparse as ever:
"Get lost."
Dr. Lin's hand froze as he adjusted his glasses. As if trying to save face, he immediately added, "It doesn't matter if you don't agree. As long as he comes to me for treatment in the future, I'll see it eventually."
Feeling the temperature around them drop rapidly as the two Anomalies faced off, Ren Yi quickly tried to smooth things over.
"Dr. Lin, what were you saying about school advancement just now?"
The temperature rose again. Dr. Lin looked at Ren Yi helplessly. "The next batch of 'children' moving here for school, of course."
"The university is residential. After your year graduates, the families renting here have to give up their apartments to the next class. It’s a huge deal if 'children' have nowhere to go for school... But your family doesn't need to worry; you own your place."
So, Anomalies have to fight over school district housing too?
It wasn't easy to catch an Anomaly who was willing to give a long-winded explanation, so Ren Yi was about to ask why they would have "nowhere to go for school" when he suddenly remembered a detail from the news that he had almost forgotten:
"A total of 2,726 'children' participated in this Awakening Ceremony."
That number seemed to be roughly the same as the total number of students in his grade at school.
"Do all 'children' have to come to the Alliance First Comprehensive Education School? What about the students in other schools?" Ren Yi asked, changing the subject.
"Clever Cub," Dr. Lin said with a charming smile.
"The Alliance only has one school. You 2,726 little Cubs are the entirety of this year's class. So, you see how precious you are now, right?"
Ren Yi asked back in shock, "But there are clearly so many residents in the Alliance?"
In his memory, the population was at least comparable to that of his previous planet.
"That's all there is. We generally don't die, so the population only grows and never shrinks, yet we only have this many," Dr. Lin said as if it were obvious.
"But I've definitely heard of many other schools outside," Ren Yi thought of another blind spot.
Dr. Lin curled his lip in disdain. "They're all empty shells, built to trick the kids."
"Later, so as not to waste the land, the Alliance partitioned them off to build Instances. Now school-themed Instances are everywhere; they've lost all originality."
You guys certainly put a lot of effort into tricking kids.
"Cough, cough." Ren Man suddenly coughed twice. Ren Yi followed his gaze and saw a little girl not far away staring intently at them, looking as if she were eavesdropping.
"There are too many kids here; I'll tell you more about it later," Dr. Lin shrugged. "Come on, I'll accompany you inside for a look."
They walked into the store. Fortunately, although it was crowded, there was still enough room to move around.
Even though the "people" browsing the store looked quite bizarre, the furniture seemed ordinary enough. There weren't any "special editions for Anomaly body structures" as he had imagined.
Ren Yi was actually a bit disappointed.
They soon found a chair on the shelf that was identical to the one at home and called the owner over to pay.
The owner was a burly middle-aged man with a full beard—except the beard wasn't made of hair, but of constantly writhing and twisting tentacles.
"How are you taking it back?" he asked Ren Man.
Ren Man thought for a moment, pulled Ren Yi behind the counter, and placed the chair on his own shadow.
In the next second, the chair sank down silently.
"...Huh?"
Ren Yi's eyes widened. He looked back and forth between Ren Man and the shadow on the ground, which looked perfectly ordinary.
He gave a look that said, "Brother, do that trick again," only to receive a swift, clean flick to the forehead.
As he rubbed his head and continued to stare at the shadow in disbelief, his peripheral vision caught a small object covered by a cloth behind the counter.
The wind blew, lifting a corner of the cloth to reveal a small vanity mirror.
To be fair, they didn't have any mirrors at home. Ren Yi had always assumed they were just too poor to buy one, so he usually used the mirrors in the school bathrooms.
Therefore, this was the first time since his awakening that he saw his "reconstructed" appearance.
He seemed to have grown a few centimeters taller and had become quite handsome. His brother’s character-molding skills were pretty good... Should he ask his brother to buy this mirror?
As he was thinking, the Ren Yi in the mirror seemed to move suddenly.
"Hmm?"
He frowned and tried to lean in to confirm, but a foot appeared in his field of vision.
Crash!
Ren Man kicked the mirror to pieces and dragged Ren Yi out from behind the counter in one smooth motion.
"What happened?" Dr. Lin was startled by the sound of the mirror breaking and peered over.
Ren Yi also shuddered. Damn it, he wasn't supposed to look at mirrors right now!
Even though he had memorized the rules by heart, the moment he saw the mirror, his mind had gone blank, as if something had silenced his brain. He couldn't remember the reason why he wasn't allowed to look.
On the other side, Dr. Lin glanced at the shards on the floor and immediately understood what had happened.
With a child and a semi-mute autistic person on his side, he felt a sudden, overwhelming sense of responsibility.
Dr. Lin took a deep breath and decided to start scolding.
"No, what do you mean by this? How dare you put a mirror in a public area! It's dangerous, okay? Look, a child saw it!"
The owner was a bit dazed by the scolding, his tentacle beard flailing wildly. "I had it covered so tightly! You parents should keep a better eye on your kid!"
"Just tell me if this is a public area or not! Is there a risk or not? ...Pay up!"
Ren Man ignored the two of them. He scanned Ren Yi from head to toe, and after confirming there were no issues, he turned away.
He looked quite angry.
Ren Yi took two steps back, his heart racing. It wasn't physical discomfort; he just felt a lingering fear from what had happened in the mirror.
Horror novels really don't lie; mirrors are definitely not good things.
Just as his mind was wandering, he felt a gentle tug on his sleeve.
He turned his head and saw the little girl who had been staring at them outside the furniture store. She was tugging at his cuff, looking up at him timidly.
Ren Yi was stunned for a moment. Logically, this little girl should still be a "child."
He looked around. Dr. Lin and the owner looked like they were about to come to blows, and Ren Man was watching them closely. More and more onlookers were gathering, but no one was paying attention to the two of them.
"What's wrong, little sister? Can't find your mom and dad?" he asked, crouching down and trying to sound as gentle as possible.
The little girl shook her head and pointed at the owner, whose tentacles were all turning red from the shouting, and murmured.
"Papa."
So she was the owner's daughter.
"Uh..." So this was because of him. Ren Yi felt a bit awkward. "Well, I'll go try to break up the fight."
He was about to stand up, but the little girl continued to grip him tightly.
Rate on N.U.
