Chapter 1760: Chapter 1758: American Horror Story (It’s Been Raining These Days)

Certainly! Here’s the translation:

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The next day, Fang Zheng arrived at the entrance of Academy Garden early in the morning. After meeting up with Ruiko and Hatsuharu, the three of them entered the Academy Garden together.

However...

"What’s going on here?"

Looking at Ruiko’s skirt, which was wet all over, Fang Zheng was a bit puzzled, while Ruiko stuck out her tongue, embarrassed.

"Haha, um... I was a bit too excited when I came out..."

"Forget it, let’s go inside first."

Fang Zheng shook his head helplessly, then led the two of them into the Academy Garden.

Although it’s located in the Seventh School District, Academy Garden does not allow ordinary people to enter at will. After all, it houses five private girls’ schools, all of which are noble schools, and the students inside are either rich or noble. If outsiders were allowed to enter freely, it would inevitably cause troubles, so the external security of Academy Garden is quite strict.

However, Fang Zheng himself had high authority granted by the Tree Diagram Designer, and Hatsuharu and Ruiko were invited guests, so after their identities were verified, the three of them entered the Academy Garden.

"Wow, this is Academy Garden, it looks so different from the outside, so beautiful..."

Walking on the ancient-style streets, Hatsuharu gazed around with shining eyes, feeling overwhelmed. Ruiko was also curiously looking around, glancing left and right. It’s not surprising, compared with the modern atmosphere outside, the internal design of Academy Garden is more akin to Western classical style, making it feel a bit like entering another world.

And those coming and going were mostly girls, not only that...

"Ah, Mr. Fang Zheng, greetings."

"Greetings, Mr. Fang Zheng, what brings you to Academy Garden?"

"Saten, how come you’ve come to Academy Garden? Why didn’t you tell me?"

Along the way, people frequently spoke to Fang Zheng and Ruiko, which surprised Hatsuharu.

"Saten? How do you know the young ladies here!"

"Ah... because they often attend Mr. Fang Zheng’s lectures..."

Upon hearing this, Ruiko also spread her hands with a bitter smile. Many young ladies in Academy Garden had attended Fang Zheng’s lectures, so it was natural for them to know Ruiko. Since Ruiko had always been popular, she became friends with many people.

"It’s so nice, so nice! To be friends with young ladies..."

Upon hearing Ruiko’s reply, Hatsuharu suddenly felt envious.

"But I have my duties as a Discipline Committee Member, sigh, if I didn’t have work, I would want to go too..."

Saying this, Hatsuharu looked towards Fang Zheng.

"Mr. Fang Zheng, can I go listen too?"

"Of course."

Fang Zheng nodded and added with a smile.

"If you don’t have work as a Discipline Committee Member to do."

"..."

Hatsuharu fell silent.

After that, the group arrived at the entrance of Tokiwadai and joined up with Misaka Mikoto and Kuroko Shirai. Here, Ruiko changed out of her dirty uniform and into Tokiwadai’s clothes—which made Hatsuharu, enamored with the young lady’s style, envious once more.

It wasn’t until they reached the cake shop that Hatsuharu finally perked up, no longer tangled with these trivial matters, and seemingly to make up for her broken heart, she ordered several cakes in one go.

Without worrying about getting fat.

"Academy Garden is so different from outside, it’s amazing..."

Happily taking a bite of cake, Hatsuharu felt almost tearful.

"Yes... It feels like being abroad..."

Ruiko also rested her chin on her hand, gazing at the scenery outside, with a bit of depth in her tone. Seeing her like this, Misaka Mikoto and Kuroko Shirai exchanged puzzled glances, not knowing why, they felt Ruiko was acting differently than before.

"Hehe."

Seeing this, Fang Zheng smiled and shook his head, then glanced at a certain corner of the cake shop and spoke up.

"By the way, while we’re bored, let me tell you all a story."

"Eh? A story?"

Still being young girls, hearing this, all four of them were intrigued, curiously looking at Fang Zheng.

"What kind of story?"

"Well... I guess you could call it a horror story, it’s from a horror novel I read before."

With that, Fang Zheng took a sip of his coffee, then turned to the four and smiled, continuing.

"The protagonist of this story is named Bit, an ordinary, average office worker, going to and from work, living the same life every day. Bit had little presence in the company; people barely paid attention to him; as if he were invisible, being ignored. And Bit had grown accustomed to this life. Then one day, he discovered something had changed..."

"What changed?"

Hearing this, Ruiko widened her eyes excitedly and leaned in.

"He found that he was being ignored... Not in the usual sense of ignoring, people seemed unable to see him, as if he was invisible. He clearly came to work and diligently worked at his desk all day, and his superior even assigned him tasks. But when he approached his superior, his superior said they hadn’t seen him at work that day, and hadn’t given him any tasks."

"What’s going on?"

"Isn’t his superior bullying him!"

At this point, Kuroko and Hatsuharu also spoke out curiously, and Fang Zheng shook his finger, continuing.

"At first, it was just not being seen, but later the situation became more severe; Bit found everyone seemed to ignore him, even his work was credited to others. This made Bit extremely angry; he even thought about dancing in the office to attract attention, but no matter what he did, no one took a glance at him, as if he didn’t exist at all."

"Could it be that Bit awakened some ability?"

Mikoto also offered her opinion, and Fang Zheng shrugged.

"In any case, Bit couldn’t bear this life anymore; finally, one day, he snapped, dressed himself up as a ridiculous Joker, took a kitchen knife, and walked into the company. Yet even so, neither the security nor the employees looked at him, then Bit went into the office and killed the colleague who had stolen his achievements and credit!"

"———!!"

Upon hearing this, Misaka Mikoto trembled slightly, and the others were also taken aback.

"So was Bit captured?"

"No."

"Huh......?"

"Why?"

"Because he is someone who is ignored by everyone. In fact, everyone has already forgotten Bit’s existence, even his parents don’t remember Bit. Although the police found the body and defined it as a murder case, they completely ignored Bit, who was standing on the scene holding a dagger. This made Bit very desperate. He left the company, but just as Bit was planning to end it all by committing suicide, suddenly, someone appeared in front of him."

"Gollum."

Hearing this, the four of them swallowed collectively.

"Was that person good or bad?"

"Could it be an Angel or a Demon?"

"It was a man named Philip. In fact, just like Bit, he was also a person who was ignored. He told Bit that there were many people like him in the world who were ignored by everyone, forgotten, like living invisible people. According to Philip, there is a city belonging to the ignored on this land, where everyone living is just like Bit, and so Philip invited Bit to go there to start a new life, and Bit agreed."

"......What happened afterward?"

"They successfully reached that city and began a new life."

"......That doesn’t sound scary at all."

Upon hearing this, Kuroko Shirai commented uninterestedly, while Fang Zheng just chuckled.

"That’s right, it’s not scary at all. Once there, Bit found someone he loved and thought he could start a new life, and then......Bit discovered something: he started being ignored again."

"......Huh?"

Facing this unexpected turn, everyone was stunned.

"That’s right, he was ignored again. Among the group of ignored people, Bit found himself still being ignored. And this time, the situation was more severe than before. As the people around began to forget him again, he found himself gradually disappearing!"

"Whoah!"

If the earlier part of the story wasn’t particularly terrifying to the young girls, now their hair was standing on end.

Being forgotten and ignored by most people is already terrible. After finally finding your companions, you realize that even among a group of ignored people, you’re still the one being ignored?

And then to disappear?

This is really terrifying.

"And at this moment, an unexpected incident occurred. Philip, who brought him to this city, had a bold idea. As revenge against those who ignored them, Philip wanted to announce their existence using a special method, which was to occupy the political center of their country, that White House."

"Huh?!"

At this point, everyone, including Misaka Mikoto, was shocked.

"So did they succeed?"

"Of course, they......failed."

"???"

"They were just the ignored ones."

Looking at the bewildered four girls in front of him, Fang Zheng smiled and spread his hands.

"They didn’t have the ability to become invisible, nor did they disappear from the world; they were simply ignored. But when they drove tanks and carried guns on the streets, only a blind person could ignore their existence. In front of the army, these people naturally had no power to fight back. They originally thought they could just stride in and capture the President directly, but reality was obviously completely different from what they imagined. Most of them were killed, and the rest were captured."

"What about Bit?"

This time Ruiko couldn’t contain her inner question and spoke up.

"He wasn’t captured. Although he hoped to prove his existence again and joined this ’war,’ he was already completely ignored. The army and even his companions forgot about him. In the end, he stood alone in the middle of the battlefield, and then......disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"That’s right."

Fang Zheng clapped his hands.

"No one remembered him, so he did not exist anymore."

"........."

After listening to this story, the expressions of the young girls were somewhat complex, and just at that moment, Hatsuharu’s phone rang. She picked up the call, and her expression changed slightly.

"Is there work to do?"

Seeing Hatsuharu’s expression, Kuroko Shirai immediately understood, and Hatsuharu nodded.

"Looks like today we can only stop here."

With a sigh, Kuroko stood up, bowed to Fang Zheng and Ruiko and Mikoto.

"Well, Sister Dear, Saten-san, and Mr. Fang Zheng, we have important matters, and we must be going now, farewell."

Having said that, Kuroko and Hatsuharu quickly left the cafe, and at this moment, Ruiko finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"It feels really pitiful for that person named Bit, clearly someone who is ignored, only to be ignored again......"

"Being ignored is indeed not a good thing, but it’s not a reason for you to do whatever you want."

Fang Zheng put down his coffee cup and then looked to the side.

"What do you say? Miss?"

As Fang Zheng’s words fell, suddenly, a young girl silently appeared in front of them from the air.