“Call an ambulance! Someone call an ambulance!”

A student froze for a second before shouting in panic.

Tina was rolling on the floor in agony. Her pants were already a horrifying mess. Every small movement pulled at torn skin, and blood soaked through the fabric.

Everyone in class turned pale at the sudden disaster. Only I calmly flipped to the next page of my book and watched the scene with an indifferent expression.

The floating comments filled my vision again.

[How did this happen? Didn’t she pour the glue on Edward’s chair?]

[There’s something seriously wrong with this guy! First the note, and now the glue…]

[Does he actually know some kind of dark magic?]

Hugh stared at Tina writhing on the floor, his face drained of color. Then, he looked at me with visible fear. I raised my head and met his gaze.

“Hugh,” I said with a faint smile, “your friend seems to be in trouble. Aren’t you going to check on her?”

He shuddered. My smile alone seemed to scare him so badly that he stumbled back half a step and bumped into the corner of a desk.

He whipped his head toward me, eyes full of terror. “Edward! It was you, wasn’t it? You did something!”

I stayed seated and spread my hands innocently.

“Hugh, accusations need evidence. Everyone in class saw what happened just now. I was at least ten feet away from her. How could I have done anything? What? Do you think I can pour glue through the air?”

Hugh was left speechless. After all, everyone had seen it. I hadn’t even touched Tina. However, the sheer strangeness of the coincidence sent a chill down his spine.

That afternoon, Tina was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment. Rumor had it that a large piece of her skin had to be removed during the procedure, so she would probably be out of school for the rest of the semester.

Meanwhile, the rumors about me on the campus forum evolved from “scheming nerd” to “cursed guy.” According to the posts, I apparently knew some kind of black magic, and anyone who messed with me would end up unlucky.

I couldn’t help laughing when I read those ridiculous comments. Black magic? No. It was simply karma.

Due to what happened to Tina, no one in class dared to openly target me anymore. However, I could still feel it. The isolation and quiet rejection were getting worse by the day.

Hugh had also learned his lesson. He stopped confronting me directly and switched to playing the victim instead. On social media, he started posting photos of himself studying late into the night with captions such as:

[Even though I’ve suffered a lot of unfair treatment, I won’t give up on my dream.]

[Even if there’s only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, I’ll give it everything I’ve got.]

When I read those posts, I couldn’t help feeling that the harder Hugh tried, the more pitiful he looked. However, I knew exactly why he was working so hard. It was because the final decision for the graduate admission spot would be made in three days, during an open defense. This was his last chance.

Our department was only given one slot this year. Originally, it should have been mine without question. However, thanks to some maneuvering by Hugh’s aunt—and the earlier cheating incident, even though it had been cleared up—the school now had an excuse to place me under a so-called “observation period.” So, the department decided that Hugh and I would compete in a public defense, and whoever performed better would get the spot.

The day before the defense, Hugh suddenly approached the girl responsible for managing the multimedia classroom. She was another one of his admirers, and her name was Jocelyn Benjamin. The two of them whispered in the corner for quite a while. Before leaving, Hugh slipped a USB drive into Jocelyn’s hand.

At that moment, the floating comments appeared again in front of my eyes.

[Here comes the big move! The USB Hugh gave Jocelyn contains a virus. As soon as Edward plugs it into the computer, it’ll run automatically.]

[This isn’t just a simple crash either. The virus will pop up explicit videos on the screen!]

[Hahaha, that bookworm is going to be humiliated!]

I looked at the vicious plan laid out in those comments, but my expression didn’t change at all.

They wanted to sabotage my presentation? Fine. We shall see who’d end up disgraced.

On the day of the open defense, the grand auditorium was packed.

Besides department heads and university administrators, many students had also come just to watch the spectacle. Everyone wanted to see which of the two would win in the end—the rumored “black-magic-using” top student or the campus heartthrob.

Hugh was scheduled right before me. His presentation was flashy and overdesigned, and his speech was dramatic and full of emotion. However, most of it focused on how passionate he was about charity work and how well he got along with his classmates. As for actual academic achievements, there were barely any.

Even so, when he finished, the auditorium erupted in thunderous applause. Especially Wendy, who was seated on the judging panel, was smiling from ear to ear.

As Hugh stepped off the stage and passed by me, he leaned close and whispered in my ear, “Edward, I’m going to destroy you today and make sure you’ll never recover from this.”

I didn’t even bother looking up at him. “Is that so? Then I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Next, let’s welcome Edward.”

After the host announced my name, I picked up my flash drive and walked onto the stage with calm, steady steps. The murmuring in the audience instantly grew louder.

“So that’s him? The guy who does black magic?”

“I heard Tina ended up in the hospital because of him. Creepy.”

“Shh, don’t say that. What if he curses you?”

I ignored the whispers and walked straight to the multimedia control desk.

Down in the audience, Hugh was watching me, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. Over at the control console, Jocelyn flashed me a strange, unsettling smile.

I plugged my flash drive into the computer and announced, “Good afternoon, professors and fellow students. I’m Edward.”

I opened the folder and clicked on the presentation titled ‘Academic Achievements.’ The moment the screen lit up, the entire hall fell into dead silence. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hugh covering his mouth as he stared at the screen in shock. However, beneath that shock was an unmistakable delight.

My heart skipped a beat. A wave of panic, one I had never felt before, rushed through me. I spun around and looked up at the giant screen. What was displayed there wasn’t my academic presentation at all. Instead, image after image of obscene photographs filled the screen, and the person in those photos had a face identical to mine.