Why Do All the Villains Look at Me Like This? - Chapter 1

A new school season had begun, and the Federal Military Academy was as busy and lively as ever. In this interstellar era where social order was chaotic, entering the Federal Military Academy and becoming a soldier was the only way to gain access to societal resources and change one’s social status.

At the school gate, there hung a banner personally written by a Federation admiral:

“Every freshman graduating from here is a newly hatched fledgling—the hope and future of the Federation.”

The incoming freshmen would instinctively pause at the school gate, either marveling at the admiral’s powerful calligraphy or admiring the statues of the academy’s outstanding graduates. Those who had left their mark here were almost all among the best of the Federation, figures everyone aspired to become.

Except for… one exceptionally beautiful boy.

The boy didn’t quite blend in with the other freshmen. There was little emotion in his eyes, and his steps never once paused. He quietly entered the campus, so quiet that he seemed almost without presence. Yet, when passersby caught sight of him, their gazes instinctively lingered for a moment.

Because the boy was simply too beautiful, so beautiful that people couldn’t help but glance at him a few more times. However, in this Federation Military Academy where strength reigned supreme, no matter how beautiful someone was, it was of no use. The passersby quickly withdrew their gazes.

The boy was Meng Xuexiao. He did not belong to this world and naturally could not feel the excitement that filled the other freshmen.

He was a transmigrator, having entered a star-era novel he had once read. In the interstellar era, energy was scarce, and humanity was forced to compete with other cosmic races for resources. Wars broke out across many regions, and various villains rose to power, plunging ordinary civilians into endless suffering.

The protagonist of the novel was a kind-hearted person. To protect the humans endangered by the villains’ battles, he led his team of heroes against the villains, striving to restore peace to the world.

But in an era of war, kindness was useless.

The members of the protagonist’s team fell one after another, sacrificing themselves. In the end, the protagonist exchanged his life for a brief moment of peace, and it was only a brief peace.

Soon after, the villains returned, even more viciously exploiting humanity, reducing them to the lowest-class beings in the universe.

Meng Xuexiao did not transmigrate into a villain, nor into a member of the protagonist’s team. He became a cannon-fodder nobody, a background character who died right at the start of the war, not even mentioned by name.

But Meng Xuexiao wanted to survive.

Before transmigrating, Meng Xuexiao had been a sickly and frail abandoned child. If not for a caretaker at the orphanage who had taken him in, he would have died young. In order to save his life, the kind caretaker spent all her savings to seek medical treatment for him.

In the end, Meng Xuexiao couldn’t bear it anymore and said, “Someone like me, living on, is just an extra burden for others.”

But the usually gentle caretaker scolded him for the first time, “You little brat, don’t you dare have those kinds of crooked thoughts! We’re treating you! How could we not treat you?! You have to stay alive, you understand? If you die, I won’t be at peace even if I close my eyes!”

Meng Xuexiao kept these words firmly in his heart, all the way until the caregiver aunt passed away, and until he transmigrated here. He had to live.

Therefore, he came to the safest place in the entire book, the Federal Military Academy, as an F-level student.

After going through layer upon layer of inspection and review at the academy’s gates, Meng Xuexiao dragged his luggage toward the dormitories. The dormitories at the Federal Military Academy were divided based on physical fitness, ranked from 3S down to E, a total of eight levels. The higher the level, the greater the authority, and the better the resources one could enjoy.

Those ranked C and below were considered inferior students, practically servants with the title of “student,” only allowed to do odd jobs serving the higher-ranked students. If they happened to catch the eye of a high-ranking student, they might manage to secure a respectable job in the future, such as becoming a nanny or a butler.

Looking at the big “E-level” sign at the entrance of the dormitory, Meng Xuexiao curled his lips slightly. For someone with F-level physical fitness to be allowed to stay in an E-level dormitory, wasn’t that already considered a win?

The Federation’s lowest physical fitness grade was E-level, and yet Meng Xuexiao had still fallen below that baseline. When the examiners saw that his test results placed him at F-level, their expressions visibly changed. If it hadn’t been for his perfect theoretical scores, he would never have been accepted through special admission.

The E-level dormitory’s environment was indeed poor. As soon as he stepped inside, Meng Xuexiao was hit by a heavy smell of mold and dust.

The F-level body immediately began to protest, his nasal passages and throat feeling as if they had been sanded with coarse paper, unbearably uncomfortable. He let out a few low coughs and bit his lower lip, forcibly suppressing the discomfort.

A roommate named Xu Gao was already there. When he saw the person entering the dormitory, a trace of amazement flashed through his eyes. It was only when Meng Xuexiao coughed lightly that he snapped out of it and gave Meng Xuexiao a friendly smile.

There were already roommates in the dormitory.

“You’re a new student this year, right? Congratulations on becoming a member of the Federal Military Academy.”

Meng Xuexiao nodded politely. “Hello.”

Xu Gao seemed to be a warm and talkative person. As he helped Meng Xuexiao put away his luggage, he also began explaining some news and rules about the academy.

“The school doesn’t issue textbooks, you have to buy them yourself. Have you gotten yours yet?”

Meng Xuexiao shook his head. He had just arrived at the academy and hadn’t had time to buy any books yet.

“The teacher for the freshman practical course is really strict. If you don’t have the textbook, he’ll kick you out of the classroom,” Xu Gao kindly reminded him. “And if you get kicked out of class on the first day, you’ll be expelled.”

Meng Xuexiao knew about this rule. In order to avoid being expelled, he had deliberately studied and memorized the Federal Military Academy’s school regulations before coming. It was only because the Federation’s school bus went directly to the school gates that he hadn’t gone to buy the textbooks first.

Meng Xuexiao glanced at the sky outside, which was gradually darkening. A trace of hesitation flashed in his eyes, it wasn’t very safe to go out at this time.

Xu Gao seemed to notice Meng Xuexiao’s hesitation and smiled as he said, “I’ll go with you.”

Perhaps afraid that Meng Xuexiao would refuse, Xu Gao added, “Since we’re roommates now, it’s only right that we look out for each other.”

This time, Meng Xuexiao didn’t refuse again. The novel had mentioned that the villains deliberately avoided the Federal Military Academy, and even the areas nearby were relatively safe, so the chances of encountering danger were very low.

…

The bookstore wasn’t far from the school, and the interior was arranged warmly, with soft lighting that easily put people at ease.

For some reason, the shop owner wasn’t in, but Xu Gao seemed to be very familiar with the place and directly led Meng Xuexiao into the storage room to find the books.

Compared to the bookstore, the storage room was much colder. Meng Xuexiao’s little finger couldn’t help but twitch. He stared at his twitching finger for a moment, then slowly massaged it.

“Xu Gao, did you hear any strange sounds?” he asked.

Xu Gao casually dragged Meng Xuexiao further down. “Strange sounds? No! Let’s hurry up and—wait! It does sound like… there really is something!”

The farther down they went, the clearer the sounds of people talking became.

“What are you afraid of? No one knows we kidnapped the colonel’s son and brought him here. Even if they find out, it’s no big deal. We can always kill the hostage. They won’t dare to act rashly, understand?”

Meng Xuexiao froze mid-step, holding his breath.

They had only come to buy some books, they hadn’t expected to get caught up in a kidnapping.

He immediately turned to look at Xu Gao, who was also looking at him, his face pale as paper.

These people didn’t even care about the life of a colonel’s son. If they got discovered, there was no way they’d let them leave alive!

Xu Gao, being a native of this world, had witnessed more accidents than Meng Xuexiao. He quickly made a hand gesture to Meng Xuexiao, ‘Let’s hurry and retrace our steps!’

Although he felt guilty about leaving the colonel’s son behind to suffer, the only thing he could do now was escape, then alert the military academy to send help.

Meng Xuexiao thought the same.

Silently counting to three in his heart, Meng Xuexiao and Xu Gao turned around simultaneously, trying their best to match each other’s pace without making a sound.

But Xu Gao accidentally stumbled over something on the warehouse floor.

Meng Xuexiao moved quickly and tried to cover Xu Gao’s mouth, but it was already too late— “Ah!”

“Who’s there?” The two kidnappers who had been talking immediately grew alert and came out, grabbing their weapons.

Meng Xuexiao saw that one of them was holding a gun, and the other was carrying an iron rod, either one of them was more muscular than the boxers from his original world.

Xu Gao recognized one of them. His eyes widened sharply. “Boss… you, you—”

He hadn’t expected that the normally forthright and generous shop owner would turn out to be one of the kidnappers.

The shop owner gave a smile with no warmth in it, cocked his gun, and said, “What bad luck, Xiao Gao. But since you’ve seen everything, I’ll have to trouble you and your little friend to go die.”

“Don’t always be thinking about killing people, it’s such a waste,” the shop owner’s accomplice stopped him.

A trace of hope flashed in Xu Gao’s eyes, only to be crushed when he heard the accomplice’s final decision, “Isn’t there a human experimentation group nearby? After we’re done with the colonel’s son, we’ll sell these two over there. We’ll split the money fifty-fifty!”

Xu Gao’s face instantly turned even paler than paper.

He had heard of that human experimentation group before and had seen plenty of the victims’ corpses on the news. Those bodies were already beyond recognition, it was unimaginable how much torture they had endured. It was truly a fate worse than death.

He turned and ran madly toward the warehouse door but was struck at the back of the head by the shop owner’s accomplice with an iron rod. His vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground. Blood gushed from his forehead, quickly pooling into a small puddle.

The pungent smell of blood rushed into Meng Xuexiao’s nose, making him feel a strong wave of nausea.

These people kept saying that they still had value, that they would be sold, but in reality, they didn’t care whether they lived or died. They were treated no differently from chickens, ducks, or geese raised in captivity.

If they lived, fine.

If they died, it wasn’t a loss either.

Thus, when both the shop owner and his accomplice turned to look at him, Meng Xuexiao raised his hands.

The shop owner smiled again, tapping the barrel of his gun against Meng Xuexiao’s forehead, leaving a glaring red mark on his pale skin.

“Good boy,” he said.