Chapter 143 Defense and Criticism

[One week later, during self-study class.]

With the arrival of the scene transition voice, Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi's surroundings changed once again.

They who were originally standing were now sitting back in their seats in the classroom.

Both knew that having successfully prevented Xiongji from being arrested, they wouldn't have much time to communicate. So, after the scene transition, they quickly exchanged information about the system voice and made some analyses...

[Successfully disrupted the investigation of the "Penguin Assistant's Death" incident.]

[Special script bonus Skill Points reward: 400]

[Xiongji's Hatred toward you +3%]

The above three lines were the system prompts that Wang Tanzhi heard when Yuanji was arrested. At the same second, Feng Bujue also heard similar prompts; however, this time, Brother Jue only received 50 Skill Points, and Xiongji's Hatred toward him only increased by 1%...

Combining this with the previous system prompts, two rules can be analyzed: First, the more effort put into disrupting the investigation and the more thorough it is, the more Skill Points are obtained. Second, the more effort a player puts into helping Xiongji escape conviction, the higher Xiongji's Hatred toward them.

"There haven't been any cases lately, so boring~"

Just as Brother Jue and Xiao Tan were about to start a discussion on "Xiongji's Hatred Value," Tumi's voice suddenly rang out from behind.

Because Xiongji and Tumi were sitting in the row behind the two players, their conversation could be heard very clearly.

"...Just try twisting your head off and see, Xiongji-kun." When Tumi said the second half of this sentence, her tone was very calm, not at all like she was joking.

"I... I don't want to!" Xiongji retorted, sweating profusely, "What kind of case is that?"

"Then... just go find a corner in the school and turn into a skeleton." Tumi said again.

"No way! I'll die!" Xiongji replied with a look of grievance.

"Then mummification will do." Tumi didn't seem to get the point of Xiongji's words at all, and continued, "Mummification should be fine, right? Just the upper body needs to change."

"I've never heard of that kind of mummy!" Xiongji roared.

"Eh—everyone, please pay attention." Just then, Panda Teacher appeared on the podium and said loudly to the whole class, "It's said that there's an exhibitionist going around near the school recently. If anyone encounters him, report it to the teacher immediately."

"Y-you see! Tumi-chan." Xiongji seemed to have found a lifeline and immediately said to Tumi, "A case has happened! A shameless exhibitionist case!"

"Exhibitionist, huh..." Tumi calmly turned her head to look at Xiongji, "Could it be you?"

"It's not me!" Xiongji put on an innocent expression, waved his hand, and denied, "Don't blame everything on me~ Don't be like that, it's very rude!"

At this moment, Brother Jue and Xiao Tan were both shouting the same line in their hearts; "Rude my ass! It is you!"

"Yesterday's victim was Miaomi..." Over at the podium, Panda Teacher said as he took a step to the right, raised his hand and said, "Miaomi, tell us about what happened then."

Miaomi was already standing next to the podium, at the position the teacher was pointing to. After receiving the teacher's instruction, she said in a slightly soft voice, "Yesterday after school, Xiongji-kun followed me all the way to my doorstep, naked and grinning."

Before the words were finished, Tumi's eyes became sharp...

And the focus of her gaze naturally shifted to Xiongji once again.

"Tch... It's me again." Xiongji's innocent face instantly turned lewd, "There's no way..." He even laughed, "Go ahead."

This "go ahead" contained too much information...

Of course, even if he didn't say it, Tumi would call the police without hesitation.

"Wait!" Facing this development, how could Feng Bujue sit idly by? He suddenly turned his head and said to Tumi, "Are you going to rashly call the police again? Tumi-chan."

Tumi stopped dialing and looked up at Brother Jue, "Rashly?" She paused, "In this situation, you still want to say... Xiongji is innocent?"

"That's right." Feng Bujue's expression was solemn, and he nodded in a deep voice.

"No way..." Even Xiao Tan on the side felt unsure, muttering in his heart, "His perverted behavior has already been pointed out on the spot... Can he still get away with this?"

"Then I'd like to hear..." Tumi really put down her phone and asked curiously, "What kind of reasoning do you have?"

"Teacher!" At this moment, Brother Jue suddenly stood up, waved a cat's paw, and pointed at the teacher, "Can I say a few words to the whole class?"

"Sure." Panda Teacher replied calmly, "Anyway, this is self-study class, you can come up and speak."

"Then I won't be polite." Feng Bujue smiled upon hearing this and walked onto the podium without fear.

He stood behind the podium, propped his hands on the table, and without saying a word, first swept his cat eyes across all the "people" in the entire classroom.

That aura... was more like a teacher than the real teacher.

"Everyone!" After a moment, Brother Jue opened his mouth, "Let me ask... Have you ever had this kind of experience?" He continued with a burning gaze, "...When you're focused on doing something, you'll ignore all the irrelevant details."

"Yes!" Only one falcon in the classroom responded to him in the fastest and loudest tone, the other students were all silent.

"Very good." Feng Bujue replied, "What I want to say is... yesterday, Xiongji-kun experienced exactly this situation." He raised his hand and pointed at Xiongji, "Like Rodin, Archimedes, Diogenes... when they're focused on something, even the threat of death will be ignored."

"So... he was so focused on stalking that he forgot to put on clothes?" Tumi interjected from below.

"Cat-sanrou." Panda Teacher continued, "Even if, as you say, Xiongji-kun 'forgot to put on clothes,' the act of stalking itself is still perverted behavior."

"Nay~ nay..." Feng Bujue shook his head and replied, "Teacher, you've all misunderstood Xiongji-kun... He wasn't stalking Miaomi-chan, but protecting her."

"I'll be damned..." Xiao Tan, who was listening below, was shocked, thinking, "Can this kind of nonsense... stand its ground?"

"Just as you said earlier, Teacher, there's an exhibitionist going around near the school recently." On the podium, Brother Jue's heresy continued, "This rumor is already well known, so... female students must be apprehensive when walking home alone after school."

As Feng Bujue spoke, he turned his head to look at Miaomi: "Miaomi-san, I'm not wrong about this... am I?"

"Uh... that's right." Miaomi nodded in response.

"Well, let's look at Xiongji-kun again." Feng Bujue pointed at Xiongji again, "As everyone knows, he himself also has exhibitionist tendencies."

"I feel like he's more than just tendencies..." Tumi muttered softly.

"Don't interrupt, Tumi-chan." Feng Bujue quickly stopped the other party's rebuttal, preempting, "As someone with exhibitionist tendencies, Xiongji-kun... should be the one who understands the mentality of an exhibitionist the most. Therefore... he felt that he should use this unique advantage to make some contributions to his classmates."

"So... a pervert with a sense of social responsibility..." Xiao Tan narrowed his eyes and squeezed out this sentence from between his teeth, he really couldn't hold back from this retort.

"Driven by this sense of responsibility, Xiongji-kun decided..." Feng Bujue continued with impassioned, righteous and awe-inspiring words, "To take the initiative to shoulder the important task of 'protecting female students who walk home alone along the way.'" He faced Xiongji and said loudly, "Right? Xiongji-kun!"

"Eh?" Xiongji was stunned by the question, "Y-yes... I guess?"

"The truth is out!" Feng Bujue said, "The reason why Xiongji-kun followed Miaomi home is this... the lewd grin on his face was probably just a simple smile, but because he wasn't wearing any clothes, it was misunderstood as an evil smile. As for why he was naked... purely because he was constantly thinking about how to deal with the exhibitionist, he unconsciously... forgot to put on clothes himself."

"Impossible..." Wang Tanzhi's bird face was awkward, thinking, "Even if this is a universe full of loopholes and absurd logic, it shouldn't be possible to fool people with such a set of arguments..."

Xiao Tan's idea was correct, but...

"Xiongji-kun, is that how it really was?" After listening to Brother Jue's words, Miaomi's expression changed slightly as she looked at Xiongji, "I-I'm sorry, I misunderstood you!"

"Not bad, Xiongji-kun, I'm impressed." Tumi also turned her head and praised Xiongji.

Seconds later, applause rang out in the classroom... it seemed that the whole class had accepted this setting.

[Successfully disrupted the investigation of the "Exhibitionist Stalking" incident.]

[Special script bonus Skill Points reward: 200]

[Xiongji's Hatred toward you +5%]

The system voice immediately entered the ears of the two players.

This time, the Skill Points that Feng Bujue received were the same as those he received in the "Stalker Letter" incident, but Xiongji's Hatred toward him had greatly increased.

As for Xiao Tan, he didn't receive any Skill Points or accumulate any Hatred. He only heard the prompt that the investigation had been disrupted.

"That works too..." This was Wang Tanzhi's first reaction after hearing the voice.

"That works too!" Even Feng Bujue himself felt that his remarks were full of loopholes, thinking to himself, "These guys are on par with those guys from *South Park*..."

Just as the two of them thought they were about to transition to another scene, suddenly, a system voice that had never appeared before came: [Due to successfully disrupting three investigations, a side quest has been triggered]