I was mulling over how to reply to their messages when my phone rang.

A call came in. Coincidence? Or had they been trying to reach me this whole time?

I checked and saw dozens of missed calls. Made sense—my phone’s battery drained fast, and none of their calls hit when it had power.

This one was from my little brother, Yang Yunhan. He’s the “new model” my parents raised after I turned out to be a disappointment. Not much younger than me, though.

I went to answer but froze. I wasn’t the old me anymore. My voice had changed—anyone close would notice.

Who was I supposed to be if I picked up?

My girlfriend? They knew I had one, but that wouldn’t fly.

The call was about to drop. My phone was on, because if I shut it off, they’d just get a dead line.

And they’d probably noticed since they kept trying.

So I answered.

“Hey, where the hell are you? I called a million times—why didn’t you pick up?” Yunhan’s voice exploded through the phone, all accusations and attitude.

This guy was pissed. Had Mom and Dad taken it out on him?

“Why aren’t you talking? You deaf? Get your ass back here!” he ranted, not giving me a chance to cut in.

His tone was a mess. I couldn’t tell what he wanted. I’d always been the family’s loose cannon, out of their control. Now Yunhan was barking orders like I owed him something—exactly the kind of crap I didn’t take.

“Talk, damn it! Did you run off with that bitch next door? You know Mom and Dad are losing it looking for you!”

When he called Bai Yu that, my calm cracked, I nearly let a string of curses fly.

But I stopped myself.

First, I wasn’t great at cussing—couldn’t outtalk him. Second, trading insults was a waste. It just burned energy, no gain.

I didn’t pick up to bicker or vent. I wanted to see what kind of drama they were stirring.

Just a peek at this world’s wild side. Original content can be found at N0veI.Fiɾe.net

“Don’t know,” I said, keeping my voice low. It came out different, not on purpose—just no enthusiasm for them.

“You—!” He choked, like my flat answer cut off his script.

“I’m doing fine, thanks,” I said, my voice flat.

Did he not notice my voice was different? Or was this old phone’s mic so bad it masked the change?

“You’re doing fine? FINE? You only care about yourself! Do you know what we’ve been through these past few days?” Yunhan’s voice spiked, practically shaking. “Dad’s skipped work looking for you, ran to the Security Bureau a dozen times, and you say you’re FINE?”

His rant made me pause for a second, wondering if I’d gone too far. But I shook it off quick.

Something was off with him. Too frantic. He was Mom and Dad’s golden boy—spoiled rotten. Why would they stress him out enough to dump it on me?

Were they suddenly worried about their screw-up son? Doubt it.

Or did they need me to take the fall for something?

No way…

“What’s the rush to find me? Shouldn’t you all be thrilled I’m gone?” I asked, slow and steady, racking my brain for what happened the day I left.

The spark that made me bolt? They wanted to ship me off to the Demonspawn School.

That place was a dump. They offered 50,000 bucks to go, but come on, that wasn’t it.

That money would just pad their wallets for a bit.

Oh, and it’d get rid of their crazy son for good.

Why did the Demonspawn School pay to recruit? Because no sucker would go willingly. If Witch School had a bad reputation, Demonspawn was straight-up trash. Think diploma mill from my old life—bottom of the School of Transcendence food chain.

They ran it like a boot camp for internet addicts, treating people like garbage. Paying for recruits screamed shady. They even took kids without Psi-vision, who had no business touching transcendence. That alone reeked of bad intentions.

Once you entered a School of Transcendence, you were cut off from the outside world. Unlike my old life, transcendence drew a hard line here. Academies controlled it tight—normies kept society stable, transcendence folks leveled up.

Sounds simple, but pulling it off was tricky. Even after years of social struggle, hiding the transcendence world from regular people was still the go-to move.

That’s why places like The Demonspawn School existed. People assumed the worst about them, and for good reason. I was at Witch School now, so I’d never know if Demonspawn was as bad as it sounded.

Maybe it was misunderstood?

Unlikely. I wasn’t about to jump into that pit to find out if it was burning.

“You'd better get home. The Demonspawn School’s recruiters came to our house. If you don’t show, I can’t promise you’ll have a smooth ride to their academy,” Yunhan spat, finally dropping the big news.

So, someone did show up at home. And it was about Demonspawn School?

I called it.

But I never signed up for Demonspawn. Did they contact Mom and Dad behind my back?

Did they think I skipped applying to any academy on my last day, planning to run off and work? So they just reached out to a school, figuring if the academy wanted me, they’d take me. Online registration’s just for paperwork.

Of course, Demonspawn would pull something like that to snag recruits.