These Dangerous Girls Placed Me Into Jeopardy

After walking for a while, I finally calmed down.

I still couldn’t say for sure whether those floating words—like nicknames and titles in a video game—were real. So far, I’d only seen those weird characters floating above Serena and Cora’s heads.

I needed more examples before I could confirm it. Yes, I couldn’t just jump to conclusions!

As I walked down the road to school, I started paying closer attention to the crowd.

And sure enough—every single person had writing above their head.

What’s more, the words were always facing me, no matter which way the person was turned—whether they had their back to me or were standing sideways. The words were fixed to face me, as if deliberately positioned for my convenience.

It didn’t feel like a hallucination or an illusion. Maybe I had actually lost it... or maybe I’d awakened some strange ability. Either way, there was no exception—every human I looked at had writing floating above their head.

But only humans.

For example, a cat that passed me by? No text. A sparrow perched on a branch? Also nothing.

From what I could tell, there were always two lines of text—one should be the name, and the other... seemed like some kind of title.

Take the guy walking ahead of me in another school’s uniform. The two lines above his head read:

[Psych Ward Escapee]

[Liu Yibing]

...What the hell? He looks like a normal person, and he’s actually a psych patient?!

Hey, hey, doctor! What are you doing? A mental patient is loose on the streets!

Cough cough, calm down. Honestly, if anyone’s got mental problems here, it’s probably me—seeing weird floating text above people’s heads. Who am I to judge?

What mattered wasn’t whether they were normal, but what I was seeing.

“Liu Yibing” was probably that guy’s name. And “Psych Ward Escapee”... represented his “identity”?

That led me to a new question.

A person can have many identities. It’s impossible for a single title to encapsulate everything they are. So... how were these titles being chosen?

That guy earlier didn’t know me, and I didn’t know him. If it were based on my perception, then something like [Stranger] or [High School Student] might’ve made sense. But instead, it was [Psych Ward Escapee]...

That’s a bit much, isn’t it?

I observed a few more people. I saw titles like [Wrestling Fan] and [Loli-Con], which seemed to reflect personal tastes, and others like [Climbing Prodigy] or [Fishing Expert], which showed off talents. I even spotted some normal, identity-based ones like [Male High School Student] and [High School Math Teacher].

So I could conclude that these titles probably represented something core to a person—what they were most devoted to, or what was most essential about them.

But... thinking back to Serena and Cora’s titles made my head spin again.

Serena was [Cold-Type Brocon Sister (Fake)], and Cora was [Scheming-Type Brocon Sister (True)]...

Let’s not even get into what “fake” and “true” were supposed to mean—but there were types of little sisters now?! It even exposed their traits? What the hell?

I really didn’t want to believe what I was seeing. But after last night’s experience... that title was probably the truth. Which meant Serena actually had feelings for me. And Cora... pfft...

Just thinking about how that sweet, cute, gentle, shy Cora was actually a calculating brocon...

I imagined her with a disgusted expression, sneering at me:

“Hmph, the only reason I even call you my brother is out of respect for Mom and Dad. Who the hell would acknowledge a block of wood like you as their brother otherwise? Don’t flatter yourself. Gross.”

...Huh? Why did that get me a little excited...?

No no no no! I’m not allowed to awaken weird fetishes right now!

Haah... Anyway, it seemed like the content of these titles was real.

But there was still one more thing bugging me.

All the names and titles I’d seen were white.

Just plain, glaring white.

But above my two sisters' heads—the text was pink.

I still didn’t understand why Serena and Cora’s names and titles were a different color from everyone else’s...

What did the color represent?

Also—come to think of it, I couldn’t see my own title.

I’d looked in the mirror while brushing my teeth this morning, but saw nothing above my head. So that meant the words only appeared when looking at someone directly—they didn’t show up in reflections.

That said, I guessed mine would probably be something boring like [Male High School Student] or [Normal Person].

Ah, no—that’s too optimistic.

More likely it’d be something sarcastic like [Invisible NPC (lol)], or [Forever Alone Virgin], or [Total Life Loser]... Maybe even [Masochistic Pervert]?

I’m done thinking about it. I’ll just assume I’m normal for now. I mean, sure—I can see some weird-ass titles, but so what? If I pretend I didn’t notice, there’s no harm done.

I’d spent a while observing people on the way, so I arrived at school later than usual.

Not late enough to be tardy, probably—but cutting it close. It was rare for me to enter the classroom this late.

Come to think of it, I wonder what kind of titles my classmates have?

The more you know, the more you want to know—curiosity expands your world. And I wasn’t immune to that. By now, I’d completely forgotten the simple truth that “curiosity killed the cat.” I just followed that itching desire to learn and peeked into Class 2-B with full anticipation, scanning the faces of classmates I barely knew...

And my eyes went blind.

Seriously. Just—blind.

If discovering Cora was a scheming brocon had shaken my worldview... this was a total collapse of my entire belief system.

Should I say it’s because I used to know too little, or because I now know too much?

In short, this classroom I once thought of as mundane, filled with forgettable classmates, had flipped one-eighty degrees into a twisted nightmare world. It was like suddenly jumping from the surface world into the otherworld of Silent H*.

The contrast was that jarring.

Hey, hey, what kind of bullshit plot twist is this? This is beyond anything a novel would pull!

Compared to this, all those titles I saw on the street were nothing. Absolutely meaningless!

Turns out my classmates are all weirdos. No—some of them probably aren’t even human!

Everywhere I looked, bizarre and grotesque titles hovered. The ratio of normal to abnormal was completely lopsided—no, scratch that—I couldn’t find a single normal person.

Don’t tell me... I’m the only normal one left?!

No no no, that’s way too messed up.

There’s no way I’m the only ordinary person!

“Ethan? What are you doing just standing there? Get to your seat—class already started!”

The voice came from behind me—our homeroom teacher, Miss Ke, snapped me out of it. Only then did I realize the bell had already rung... and I was still frozen at the classroom door.

But now she expected me to walk into this den of monsters?!

I turned around.

Our homeroom teacher, Miss Ke Xiaozhen, barely came up to my waist. She held her teaching manual and tilted her head at me with a puzzled look.

But what I saw was...

[Clone #223]

[Ke Xiaozhen]

“Ethan? Ethan An! Ethan! If you keep spacing out like that, I’m going to get mad!”

She switched to three different ways of calling my name before I snapped out of it ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) again. That sci-fi flavored title of hers sent my imagination spiraling.

“Ah?! R-Right! I’m coming in now!”

Miss Ke is this baby-faced woman who looks like a literal elementary school kid. People even call her the “Loli Teacher”—she’s pretty famous in school and the neighborhood. On her first day, she told us her height was due to a rare growth condition and that she was actually 24 years old.

But now... maybe that wasn’t the truth at all?

Clone #223...?

Then there were all the others... I swallowed hard, my eyes darting around as the insane titles continued to bombard me. I couldn’t keep my cool at all. I just wanted to run.

Seriously...

Is there not a single normal person left?!

What the hell is going on?!