"That masked freak is here again... Don't mess with him. Last time someone tried, he knocked them out..."
Soft whispers of malice drifted from his ears. Zero walked alone in the corridor. He wore a baseball cap and a mask to cover his face. The students who had been bullying others immediately changed their expressions when they saw him.
But Zero ignored them, walking straight into his classroom and sitting down at his desk.
Knocked out?
Zero had merely happened to witness the bullying and intervened. When someone tried to attack him, he simply defended himself, and the person wasn't even injured, just momentarily stunned.
After that, he, who already had no friends, became even more isolated, as no one could figure out what he was thinking.
But he didn't care about any of that; he just listened quietly.
...
"Let go of me..."
A woman's scream came from the dark alley, along with the smell of alcohol. Even though Zero couldn't see the scene inside, he had already deduced from the information that a group of drunks were harassing a woman.
Completely intoxicated men lacked sexual capability, but they didn't care about having it or not.
There were thousands of ways to humiliate someone that were far worse than sexual assault, especially for a group of people without self-control.
He stood at the intersection, carrying his shoulder bag, gazing into the dark alley.
To the left was the way home. To the right was the dark alley.
"What? Hesitating?"
A voice came from behind. A man in a hood and a mask walked past him, scoffing.
Hesitating?
Zero had to admit he was hesitating. The memory in his mind told him he was a transmigrator, and logically, he should prioritize his own safety and not get involved in unnecessary trouble.
But his body involuntarily wanted to stop what was happening, without any logical reason.
So Zero wanted to know why. Was it simply because he was born with a sense of justice?
No...
He still stopped the drunks from humiliating the woman. The woman fled without looking back, and he stood before the drunks, who were looking for new fun, still deep in thought.
...
The tedious red and green traffic light, day after day, year after year.
Fifty-nine seconds... fifty-eight seconds... fifty-seven seconds...
The ticking counter, the pedestrians with their heads down. This unchanging world was how it appeared in Zero's eyes.
He could clearly see which muscles everyone lifted when they smiled, but Zero never felt that they were smiling.
At least in front of him, they were just lifting muscles—an action different from "smiling."
The red light turned green. Zero stopped counting. He glanced at the timer, which was exactly the same as the one he was silently counting.
"Oh dear... Oh dear..."
A groan made Zero stop. He turned around and saw an elderly woman lying in the middle of the road. She looked about seventy or eighty years old, with white hair and a face that was almost the same color as her hair. She was lying helplessly on the ground.
Zero saw countless people walk past her. He considered it, and thought about leaving with the crowd.
Thirty-seven seconds... thirty-six seconds...
He silently counted the green light duration.
This was an act with no benefit and many potential drawbacks.
Zero could list a hundred cases of people being extorted after helping the elderly, but he couldn't help but think of the fewer, inconspicuous cases of people being praised for helping the elderly.
Those were the minority.
Zero told himself this.
He believed he was rational, an exceptionally intelligent person. Most people were probably not as clear-headed as he was.
"What's wrong? Are you afraid?"
A familiar person walked past him, but when Zero looked, they were gone without a trace.
He walked to the elderly woman, helped her up, and stayed with her until her family arrived to pick her up.
Soon, the elderly woman's family rushed over. They immediately reprimanded Zero, claiming he had knocked the elderly woman down and demanding compensation for the damages.
Zero had only one question.
He asked the roaring people: "Why didn't you take good care of her? Why did you let her cross the road alone? Isn't that very dangerous?"
He didn't see the astonishment on their faces. He left the scene.
As expected, his case was not the special one.
...
"Excuse me, has anyone seen my concert ticket?"
Zero waited with his eyes closed for the concert venue to open. Upon hearing the question, he saw a person anxiously searching everywhere for a dropped ticket.
Dropped?
Eden's concert tickets were rare, especially for this limited tour. Although her music was enjoyed by everyone, and she rarely did limited releases, as a singer, she could only control a small part of the process.
Zero had managed to buy the highly sought-after ticket with little effort. He was here for the concert because Eden's music briefly brought him peace, reducing his tendency to overthink.
He felt as if he had two consciousnesses fighting in his mind, yet they seemed to be in perfect harmony, almost capable of coordinating to control his left and right hands to copy two different assignments.
But Zero didn't believe this brought any convenience to his daily life. He wouldn't copy two assignments, nor would he let the two consciousnesses fight in his mind.
Besides these two consciousnesses that occasionally made different decisions, another voice often appeared, saying strange things.
It told Zero to decide for himself and not to believe either of the two consciousnesses.
"You... did you happen to see my ticket?"
The person asked Zero with a hint of desperation. He stared intensely at the ticket in Zero's hand, while everyone before Zero had impatiently shooed him away, believing he was just trying to scam a ticket.
"...Do you need it badly?" Zero asked.
"I tried so hard to get it..." His gaze dimmed. "Although attending the concert isn't essential to my life, when will I have another chance to see Eden from such a close distance..."
"Do you have money?"
"What?"
"If you have money, I'll sell it to you." Zero raised the ticket in his hand. "At the original price."
The concert was also not essential to his life, so there was no problem in giving it to someone else.
"You, you're selling it to me?" He was very surprised. The ticket was already being resold at astronomical prices online. Selling it at the original price, and on the eve of the concert, was almost impossible.
So, naturally, he suspected Zero.
"Did you find my ticket and now you're trying to extort money from me?"
"..."
Even Zero hadn't expected him to say that.
He silently lowered his head, looked at the ticket in his hand, and then looked at the man, who was now angry and almost decided to check the surveillance cameras.
Whose fault was this?
The ticket? The man? Or Zero?
He didn't know.
So, he suddenly wanted to do something.
"Here you go." Zero handed the ticket to the man.
"See, it was you! Hmph! Since you're admitting your mistake, I'll let it go this time!" The man's smile reappeared.
"..." Zero watched his muscles move and asked, "Aren't you going to check the surveillance cameras?"
"No, I forgive you."
"What if this isn't your ticket?"
No one answered Zero. The man had already walked away excitedly.
Zero remained standing there, looking at a world full of colors yet utterly devoid of color.