At this moment, Nan Fusheng was utterly dumbfounded.
Even though he had already known from the original work, he hadn't expected the dormitory for working students to be this shabby.
The single-story buildings looked dilapidated, clearly run down. A small forest stood in front of them, but it was obvious its purpose was mainly to block this place from view, so others wouldn't see it and feel embarrassed on the academy's behalf.
This was definitely not a place anyone could call comfortable.
The row of bungalows stretched for about twenty units, their walls mottled and peeling. Some had windows without glass, leaving them half-ruined.
Using the numbers on their keys, they soon found their assigned dormitory.
There was only one room. That's right—not even separated by gender. Just one room. It was roughly thirty square meters, which sounded decent, but inside… There were only two iron bunk beds, and even the planks for the mattresses were missing. Beyond that, there was nothing.
A thick layer of dust coated the floor. Two of the windowpanes were broken. And hanging from the ceiling was a wire connected to a small lightbulb. Decoration? Functionality? Hard to say.
"Damn it." Nan Fusheng immediately switched his consciousness back to his main body. No way he was suffering through this. Of course, he dumped the hardship on Fusheng No. 1 to endure.
(Fusheng No. 1: mmp…)
Tianhai City, Spirit Transmission Tower.
The same familiar room. The same familiar milk-spraying mushrooms. For years now, Nan Fusheng had remained inside the Spirit Transmission Tower of Tianhai City.
Most of its upper ranks had already been parasitized by him. By now, this place could be considered his base of operations.
Over the past three years, Nan Fusheng had completed the act of playing Sequence Four: The Parasite. Thanks to his martial soul, he had effectively been a Parasite from the very beginning.
As he parasitized more of the staff of both Donghai and Tianhai Towers, his role-playing progress soared.
With progress came faster digestion of his magical potions, which increased his strength, raised his parasite-host limit, and created a virtuous cycle.
A year ago, after fully digesting his Sequence Four potion—together with the amplification from his martial soul—Nan Fusheng already had over two hundred clones. That was the direct gain from complete digestion.
Such numbers were possible partly because of his martial soul. Unlike the Beyonders of the Lord of Mysteries world, who relied solely on potions for advancement, Nan Fusheng also wielded the unique advantage of a Douluo martial soul.
As his soul power rose, his strength rose too. But the potion boosts were so significant that they often overshadowed his soul power growth.
The difference between the Douluo Continent and the Lord of Mysteries world was stark:
On Douluo Continent, from a first-level Soul Master to a Level 99 Titled Douluo, each level raised power by relatively small amounts early on, but exponentially higher later—with martial souls, soul rings, soul bones, and even soul armor further amplifying growth.
In the Lord of Mysteries world, advancing from Sequence 9 to Sequence 5 could raise combat strength by tens to hundreds of points per step. But from Sequence 5 to Sequence 1, the leaps were godlike—thousands or tens of thousands per step, conservatively. Potion digestion brought additional bursts of power.
But at this point, those comparisons didn't matter much. The pressing issue before Nan Fusheng was—
Should he switch pathways?
For the Error pathway, he had no idea how to advance to Sequence Three.
The only known option was the Fool pathway. Its Sequence Three—Ancient Scholar—required a ritual: to completely detach from reality for at least 300 years, only taking the potion once one had become history, no longer belonging to the current era.
Three hundred years? By then, everything would have rotted. Worse, he'd have to remain hidden that whole time to avoid interference. Unacceptable.
Thankfully, while he didn't know the Error ritual, he did have clones.
As his parasite count grew, he realized those clones provided him with anchors. The more famous the clone, the stronger the anchor it gave him. This opened the chance to advance without a ritual—solely through himself.
Right now, his most stable anchor came from Qiangu Bubai, the Tower Master of Tianhai City, and a Titled Douluo with considerable renown.
"Looks like I'll need to call a meeting with my clones."
That night, after cleaning the dorm, eating, and watching the male angel in Shrek City splurge money to tease a fallen female angel, Nan Fusheng's group returned to their quarters.
"This is unlivable! That damn main body!" Fusheng No. 1 cursed. Living here felt like being in a slum. In this day and age, the dorm didn't even have hot water.
The entire working-student dorm district had only one communal water pipe with cold water. For hot water, they had to fetch it from the main teaching building. Baths were also located there.
And that was it. No other facilities. The cafeteria, too, was in the main building—requiring a trek across half of Lingbing Plaza.
Such misery could only have been devised by those brain-dead Shrek people. They even dressed it up with a fancy excuse: to let working students experience the hardships of Sea God Tang San two thousand years ago.
"Sigh." Life was harsh. Fusheng sighed as Fusheng No. 1 reluctantly entered meditation.
Elsewhere, in a dormitory near the main building, Fors was arranging her belongings.
Whether by design of the Academic Office or by chance, she had no roommate.
Her room was structured for two, but she lived alone. Other students generally moved in pairs.
"Never mind. Being alone is better—no risk of being disturbed."
With that thought, Fors drifted into sleep. She was Fors Wall, 13 years old, already a Soul Sect. With her ability, a little laziness was harmless.
Her dorm building had male rooms on floors 1–3, female rooms from floor 4 upward. She lived on the 6th floor.
"Is Shrek Academy really this poor? Can't they separate male and female dorms? Now I have to climb extra floors every time…" She fell asleep grumbling.
The next instant—
A red light filled her vision. A wave of dizziness struck. When she regained her senses, she stood upon a vast platform.
It resembled a stadium, but at its center floated a tribunal-like structure. Around it stretched countless floating stands, resembling audience seats. Fors stood on one of them.
With each flash of red light, figures appeared—several right beside her.
As the glow faded, she saw strangers, yet each radiated a strange familiarity.
"Clones?" she and the figure opposite her said in unison.
"..."
"Welcome, everyone. I now declare—the First Fusheng Conference has officially begun."