Volume 2, Chapter 15: Professor Lakas and the First Lesson
Lakan didn't like stepping in directly. It felt too heavy-handed, like using a big hammer to fix a delicate watch. Instead, he preferred to guide things from behind the scenes. He got this idea from the 5th series of the Douluo Dalu book, where God Kings descended the Douluo World and became teachers.
High up in the Phoenix God Star, he sat in a comfortable reclining chair that looked a lot like a big beanbag. His consciousness was linked to a normal-looking human body he had created and placed in the Anito Academy's faculty lounge.
"You're really doing this?" Gu Yuena asked, leaning over his shoulder. She was holding a bowl of chilled lychees, popping one into her mouth with a soft click.
"It's not about doing it, Nana. It's about checking if the kids are actually learning," Lakan muttered, his eyes closed as he adjusted the connection. "I need to see if they're just memorizing the Baybayin characters or if they really understand how they work. Plus, someone needs to keep an eye on that transmigrator kid. He's already trying to poke holes in how things work here."
With one final mental adjustment, Lakan's awareness shifted.
••••••
At the Anito Academy, the body Lakan was using — a man in his late twenties with messy black hair and slightly crooked glasses — blinked awake. He wore a simple, coffee-stained lab coat over a faded t-shirt. On his desk was a nameplate that read: Professor Lakas.
He stood up, stretched until his joints popped, and headed toward the Advanced Resonance lecture hall.
The room was packed. Students like Ma Xiaotao and Dai Huabin sat in the front rows, their spirit pads ready. In the back corner, tucked away quietly, sat Huo Yuhao. He was wearing the standard academy uniform, though it was still a bit too big for his thin frame.
Professor Lakas didn't stand behind the podium like the other teachers. He walked to the center of the room and picked up a piece of white chalk.
"Alright, listen up," he said, his voice carrying that familiar, slightly cheeky tone. "Everything you've been taught about soul power is only half right. You think you're commanding the energy. You're not. You're asking it for a favor."
He turned to the board and drew a single simple character: ᜃ (Ka).
"This is the character for Connection," Lakas explained. "Most of you use it to link your soul to your spirit tool. But look at the curve here." He tapped the chalk against the board. "If you flatten this stroke, you're no longer connecting — you're consuming. And when you consume, you create friction. Friction is why your skills get tired. Friction is why you run out of energy."
He looked directly at Dai Huabin. "You. White Tiger kid. Stand up. Throw a punch at me. Use your first spirit skill."
Huabin stood, his face turning red with a mix of confusion and arrogance. "Professor, I'm already a Level 25 Grandmaster. If I hit you, you'll end up in the infirmary."
"I have insurance," Lakas said with a straight face. "Go ahead. Surprise me."
Stupid kid, what level do you think I am? Huabin thought.
Huabin roared and lunged forward. His fist glowed with sharp golden light. It was a perfect, heavy strike. But Lakas didn't dodge or block. He simply reached out and tapped the side of Huabin's wrist with a single finger.
He didn't use force. He just traced a small, invisible ᜊ (Ba) in the air right at the point of impact.
The golden light didn't shatter. It simply folded. Huabin's momentum vanished as if he had hit a wall of soft cotton. He stumbled forward, staring at his own hand in shock.
"See?" Lakas said, turning back to the class. "It's basic understanding, kids. A punch is just energy moving in one direction. If I change the pattern of the 'Ba' character in the air, the energy doesn't know where to go anymore. It just… gives up. No need for a shield. No need for a big counterattack. Just simple adjustment."
Huo Yuhao sat in the back, his eyes glowing with a faint violet light. The All-Seeing Library was working at full speed. He didn't just see the punch — he saw exactly how the professor had changed the flow. It was like watching someone turn off a complicated machine by pulling one small switch.
"Cool, right?" Lakas winked at Yuhao from across the room.
••••••••
After the lecture ended, the students slowly filed out, whispering excitedly about the strange new professor. But Lakas stayed by the door as Huo Yuhao walked past.
"Hey, kid," Lakas said, leaning casually against the wall. "You look like you've got a lot of questions and not enough answers. Why don't you head over to the Restricted Wing of the archives? Tell the Curator that The Guy with the Mangoes sent you."
Yuhao blinked in surprise. "The Restricted Wing? I don't have permission for that."
"Permissions are just suggestions for people who don't know how to ask nicely," Lakas said, patting him on the shoulder. "Go on. It's past the library's basement. Look for the old man who looks like he's trying to shoot birds with his eyes."
Yuhao followed the directions, walking deep into the stone hallways of the academy. The air grew cooler and smelled of old paper and faint ozone. Finally, he reached a heavy iron door.
Sitting on a stool in front of it was an elderly man with long silver hair tied in a ponytail. He was holding a small metallic bowstring, tensioning it with intense focus. This was Guang Ling, the Curator.
Yes, he was the Guang Ling who was once known as the Light Feather Douluo. He had served the Qian family loyally for many years along with the other elders. After Lakan created his Phoenix God Realm and fused it with the Douluo God Realm, Qian Renxue asked Lakan to help the elders — including her grandfather — become gods. It was her way of repaying them for all their loyal service.
Qian Renxue herself, being a newly ascended God King who was still getting used to her power, created God positions for some of them: Snake Spear, Porcupine, Guang Ling, the Twin Staff Wielders, and Golden Lion. Because she was still early in her God King stage, the positions she made were all Third Class Gods. But even then, the elders were eternally grateful. They knew their own potential was limited, and these positions still allowed them to become powerful and immortal. So they accepted them with deep thanks.
For Qian Daoliu, however, Lakan personally made his God Position — a Second Class God. It wasn't that Lakan couldn't make a stronger First Class position, but doing so would have been unfair to Lakan's parents, who were also Second Class Gods (God of Hearth and Goddess of Harmony). Qian Daoliu himself felt he hadn't earned such power yet, so he chose the Second Class position.
Lakan originally just wanted his parents to live a comfortable, worry-free life, but they were hardworking people before they died. Sitting around in a divine garden all day felt more like a chore than a reward. They wanted responsibilities. A real role. Qian Daoliu shared the same feeling, so Lakan made him the God of Radiance to match his attributes.
Guang Ling became a Third Class God of Guiding Bolt.
Now, back to the story.
The doors swung open to reveal the Echo-Library. It wasn't a normal room full of books. It was a grand hall filled with floating scrolls that hummed with a low, harmonic frequency.
Guang Ling led him to a pedestal in the center. Resting on it was a scroll made of woven light. "This is a Legacy Simulation," Guang Ling whispered. "Crafted by the Founder himself. It's a trial of intent. You won't use your spirit eyes in there. You'll use your brain."
Yuhao reached out and touched the scroll.
The world dissolved. He found himself standing on a vast, grey plain. In front of him was a shadow — a figure that moved with terrifying, mechanical precision.
[Trial 1: Dismantling the Pattern.]
The shadow lunged. It didn't use a spirit skill. It used a perfect sequence of attacks that felt cold and calculated. Yuhao tried to dodge, but the shadow seemed to predict every move.
"Don't look at the body," Electrolux's voice echoed in his head. "Look at the rhythm. The shadow is using a repeating pattern. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Find the pause between the movements."
Yuhao focused. He saw the shadow's intent. He saw a corrupted version of a Baybayin marking glowing in its chest — a marking that was draining the air around it.
He didn't strike back. He stepped into the shadow's reach and tapped the glowing marking with the understanding he had learned in Professor Lakas's class.
Delete, he thought.
The shadow shattered into a thousand sparks.
•••••••
While Yuhao was learning inside the simulation, Chen Feng was descending into a different kind of darkness.
He was deep in the ruins of the old Slaughter City, a hidden pocket dimension that the Federation had mostly left alone. The air here was thick with the smell of rot and old iron.
He wasn't alone. Several figures in grey robes surrounded him — remnants of the Holy Ghost Cult. They didn't have a system like him, and they didn't have god powers. But they had something else: Kamatayan, the Death Markings.
A twisted version of the Baybayin characters used in the Federation.
"You say your ability can improve our arts?" a tall, skeletal man asked. He was the High Priest of the Cult. He held a piece of parchment with a jagged, ugly symbol: ᜋ (Ma).
But it wasn't the normal "Ma" for mother or life. It was twisted, its strokes sharp and cruel like a vulture's beak.
"It's not just improving," Chen Feng said, his eyes glowing with a sickly blue light. "My ability can provide corrections. Your markings are inefficient. They waste a lot of energy on heat. If I adjust the flow to focus on consumption, you won't just kill your enemies. You'll drain their strength."
Chen Feng touched the parchment.
[System syncing with how things work here…]
[Corrupted Baybayin Syllable: Patay (Death) identified.]
[Optimizing for harmful influence…]
The symbol on the paper turned a deep, oily black. It began to vibrate, and the grass beneath Chen Feng's feet withered and turned to ash in seconds. The energy wasn't flowing — it was being dragged into the marking.
"This is it," Chen Feng whispered, a crazed grin spreading across his face. He looked at his rusted hoe. The metal was no longer red with rust. It was turning a dark, obsidian black. It pulsed with a dark rhythm that matched his own heartbeat.
[Quest Update: The Black Smith.]
[First Corrupted Tool Created: The Scythe of Stagnation.]
[Effect: Drains 5% soul power from all targets within a 10-meter radius per minute.]
"Perfect," Chen Feng said. "Now let's see how the so-called Hero Yuhao likes it when his rules get a bad influence."
The High Priest laughed, a sound like dry bones rattling. "With this… the Federation will fall. The Ancient Ancestors will watch their perfect world rot from the inside."
Chen Feng didn't care about the Cult's goals. He just wanted his status back. He wanted to see Lakan's confident face crack when he realized his perfect world was being broken by a kid with a rusty hoe.
And after that, he would become the ruler of the Divine Realm and have everything he wanted.
•••••••
In the Academy, the real Lakan (through his Professor Lakas body) sat on the roof of the library, looking out at the sunset. He pulled a small, half-melted chocolate bar from his pocket. He had forgotten it was there, and it was now a sticky mess.
He licked a bit of chocolate off his thumb — a small, ordinary habit. He thought about how much he missed the simple frustrations of Earth, like a broken elevator or slow internet. Here, everything was so grand and cosmic.
"The transmigrator is getting cocky," Lakas muttered to himself. "He thinks he's found a back door. He doesn't realize I'm the one who built the door in the first place."
He took a bite of the chocolate and winced at how sweet it was.
"But let him play. A world without challenges is just a boring museum. And besides…" Lakas looked toward the Echo Library where Yuhao was still training. "I think the Counter-Measure is about to move to the next level."
He stood up, dusted off his pants, and prepared to head back to the faculty lounge. He had a stack of "Advanced Resonance" papers to grade, and he had promised Ma Xiaotao he would explain why her "Phoenix Fire" was actually just a very aggressive form of kinetic friction.
"Being a professor is a lot of work," Lakan sighed. "Maybe I should've just stayed a God."
The war between the Sovereign and the System was no longer just a cold war. The first lines of code had been written, and the first virus was ready to be deployed.
End of Volume 2, Chapter 15