"What!?"
"An Animal-Type Devil Fruit?"
"What's going on?"
"I remember that with thirty-seven points in Spiritual Power, you're supposed to have a hundred percent chance of awakening a Logia-type Devil Fruit, right?"
"..."
For a while, a chorus of puzzled voices rose one after another.
And the one who had been forcing a stiff smile all this time—Li Jiangchang—suddenly revealed an expression of barely contained delight.
"What's all this noise about!"
Fang Qin frowned, swept her cold gaze across the classroom, and scolded, "There are barely ten days left before the college entrance exams! Instead of wasting time gossiping, you'd better use every moment to train harder. Every extra point you score could make all the difference!"
"Do you even realize how many candidates there are across the country? Over five million! Every point you earn means you'll surpass hundreds—maybe even thousands—of people!"
Under her reprimand, the noisy classroom quieted down once again.
Everyone quickly nodded and returned to training.
Fang Qin turned her eyes back toward Zhao Xuan and said gently, "Zhao Xuan, you don't have to feel too discouraged. Animal-Type Devil Fruits can be quite powerful too. Besides, yours seems rather special—any Fruit that can increase your Physique by eighty points in one go must be a rare kind among the Animal-Types, right?"
"Yes, Teacher Fang," Zhao Xuan nodded.
"In fact, there are a few extremely strong Animal-Type users. Take last year's top scorer from Nanjiang, Su Lie, for example—he had an Animal-Type Fruit too. Yet, in the national preliminaries for university candidates, he still crushed a whole bunch of Logia users and won second place, didn't he?"
"Alright, enough chatter. Back to class!" Fang Qin waved her hand dismissively.
"Yes, ma'am!"
Zhao Xuan nodded again, then quickly walked to an empty spot to continue his training.
Time passed swiftly.
In the blink of an eye, twenty minutes went by.
The class bell rang.
"Ding! You've earnestly trained your Iron Body technique for a short while and gained some progress.
Iron Body Proficiency +6!"
Hearing this, Zhao Xuan froze for a moment.
"System, what's going on? Why did my proficiency suddenly go up by six points?" he asked in confusion.
"This is a result of the host's sudden surge in physique. It's not an error. Once the host's overall ability levels stabilize, the growth rate will gradually return to normal. Please rest assured."
"So that's a thing?"
Zhao Xuan's eyes lit up in excitement.
He was just about to test whether his other abilities had also benefited from his sudden Physique boost when—
The classmates who had been holding back their curiosity all class period finally swarmed over.
"Zhao Xuan, did you really choose an Animal-Type Devil Fruit?"
"Zhao Xuan, are you crazy? Why didn't you choose a Logia-type?"
"Exactly! Logia Fruits are insanely powerful!"
"Don't tell me you've never looked at the Devil Fruit Compendium before?"
Their questions carried a mix of disbelief, confusion, pity, and even schadenfreude.
Although Zhao Xuan had never offended any of them, there was a kind of psychology at work here—
The so-called resentment of the fortunate—a mix of suspicion, jealousy, disdain, and hostility directed toward someone perceived as privileged or lucky.
Zhao Xuan didn't care.
He calmly answered a few of their questions without showing the slightest irritation.
"Quit pretending!"
"You could've picked a Logia Fruit, but instead, you just had to act special and go for some garbage Animal-Type! Who are you trying to impress?"
Li Jiangchang, watching Zhao Xuan's indifferent demeanor, was seething inside.
He strode right up to Zhao Xuan and said with a tone of exaggerated pity, "Ah, Zhao Xuan, what can I even say about you? I really thought you'd become a Logia user. With a Spiritual Power of thirty-seven, you were a shoo-in! Who would've thought you'd end up just like me—stuck with a measly twenty-one points' worth of potential!"
His words dripped with mockery and smugness.
Zhao Xuan couldn't even be bothered to respond.
After giving him a single glance, he simply turned to walk away.
But Li Jiangchang wasn't about to let him off that easily.
He'd been bottling this up for two days now—he thought he'd never get a chance to vent, yet here Zhao Xuan was, throwing away a guaranteed Logia-type for some "gut feeling."
"Zhao Xuan, wait." Li Jiangchang blocked his path. "I want to challenge you to a duel."
Then he quickly added, "In a few days, I'll be turning eighteen too. By then, I'll have my own Devil Fruit ability. The homeroom teacher said that the best way to master a Fruit's power is through real combat. What do you say?"
Zhao Xuan looked deeply at him and nodded. "Alright, no problem."
Only after hearing that did Li Jiangchang finally step aside, a satisfied grin on his face.
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