School Shock

The year is 2017. Shun Hao Xuan, an Ordinary High School Student, goes about his peaceful life, observing that everyone, including him, is doing the same thing everyday, and those who change merely replace others' roles. Although he wants a girlfriend, he perceives himself to be inferior and having no redeeming features. Therefore, he contents himself with his normal, repetitive life and comes to the conclusion that life has nothing to look forward to.

But that is about to change when the building he is in is overtaken by heavily armed terrorists. They quickly take out police units sent in to get them and demand an artifact/person called Child of Eden. If the police take their time, they will kill a hostage every ten minutes. Hao Xuan turns out to be the first to be shot. Luckily for him, he is saved by a mysterious girl who wears a strange device that resembles a bee's posterior and allows flight, as well as an accessory that resembles a bee's attenna. She turns out to be a new human weapon called Vanguard, which is made by putting nanomachines into a human, greatly enhancing his/her physical abilities and reflexes. The girl, Liu Li, quickly suppresses the terrorists and returns to her base.

But that's not the end of the two protagonists' relationship. Liu Li turns out to be a Vanguard who's almost at her limit, and she has to take drugs everyday to keep herself alive. The cost of the drugs is too much hence, the military generals decide to "let her rest". Her instructor, Colonel Lee, objects to this, and begs them to let her to live a normal life for another year like promised by them before. The generals, do not keep their words, since they see her as a mere machine which has outlived its purpose. They're willing to compromise however, by letting her live if Colonel Li assigns her a new mission. The promised normal life is not possible, but Liu Li does not want it anyway. She has never had any conception of a normal life, and her "raison d'etre" has always been to finish a mission. Yet, Colonel Lee still tries to give her a normal life, by assigning her to protect Shun Hao Xuan, who, like all Ordinary High School Student, turns out to be not as ordinary as he seems, as he appears to be the Child of Eden. Liu Li is hence transferred into Hao Xuan's school and acts as a normal student, and so, the manhua's title is finally justified. Sadly for Liu Li however, her normal life turns out to be short-lived, as new enemies have appeared, and they also seem to believe that Hao Xuan is the Child of Eden they are looking for.

This manhua is written and drawn by Sun Heng.

"Huai Te: “Whaat? You think I´m an extremist? How did you reach the same conclusion as the psychologist I recently strangled?“"
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade : The Mantis-Vanguard sports two of 'em, a large kukri and a arm-mounted one.
 * May also be a Vibroweapon it does buzz.
 * Accidental Pervert: This. Nuff said.
 * Action Girl: Liu Li,
 * Action Survivor: Hao Xuan
 * A Father To His Girls: Colonel Lee to Liu Li, up to the point of only opening up to him and getting jealous of Ah-Xuan for all the sudden attention he got.
 * Ahoge: The Spider Vanguard.
 * Alliterative Name: Liu Li's name just rolls out of your mouth.
 * Aerith and Bob: Cyatheaceae, Cecilia, Malick and Alicia in China or in the case of the latter 3: the friggin' military.
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Bai Hua
 * Animal Motif: A bee for Liu Li, a praying mantis for, a spider (Cyatheaceae) and three ants (Malick, Alicia, Shao Yu) and the Queen of the Moth, Cecilia.
 * Anti Heroine: Liu Li… yeah, sometimes the Mantis Vanguard seems more morally upstanding than her.
 * Apocalypse Maiden: Inverted.  It is also more implied,
 * Applied Phlebotinum: Nanomachines make the Vanguards strong.
 * Arm Cannon: Zhou Zhong Rong had an ace up his sleeve.
 * The Atoner:.
 * Artificial Limbs: Xiao Jiang has a foot prothesis, Rong an Arm Cannon.
 * The Atoner:
 * Author Avatar: White Cat (Sun Heng) and his boss and staff are drawn in the omake section, often making comments on Fan Art.
 * Back From the Dead:.
 * Badass Grandpa: Zhou Zhong Rong, fought in Vietnam when he was seventeen and hasn't stopped fighting since then. Considering the average age of a Vanguard he definitely is a grandpa.
 * Bandage Babe: Liu Li at one point.
 * Barehanded Blade Block: Liu can perform this against the Absurdly Sharp Blade of . Since she does it with only one hand, it results in bleeding.
 * Beam Spam: Cecilias weapon use of choice.
 * Berserk Button: The Spider Vanguard is very unpleased about the loss of her twice licked popsicle. Liu Li  Interestingly enough, it didn't give her the usual powerup connected with this trope, but simply resulted in a headshot, which she could have and would have done anyway.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Liu Li saves Xuan's life during the hostage situation just before his lights get blown out.
 * Blessed with Suck: Liu Li's power source, the Nanomachines, have become more and more detrimental.
 * Blood Knight: Liu Li enjoys a good fight.
 * Brain In a Jar: The spider tank is controlled/powered by a human brain. Liu Li puts it out of it's misery.
 * Brains and Bondage:
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Huai Te did this once, explaining and justifying himself directly into the camera.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Huai Te did this once, explaining and justifying himself directly into the camera.


 * The Brute: Ju Jiang, a giant with a equally huge siberian hat, who cracks Mecha like peanuts with his bear hands. And seemingly stops bullets in mid-air. Doesn't talk much.
 * Casanova Wannabe: Wang He.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Played with. Huai Te first quotes Chekhov's trope naming line, then explains the bomb he apparently placed might as well blow up now following that line of thinking. It doesn`t do that yet. Unless he was speaking in metaphors.
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * Child Soldier: Liu Li,
 * Close-Call Haircut: Rong doesn't quite miss Liu Li, resulting in this trope.
 * Companion Cube: B.E.E., Liu Li's propulsion and weapon system, that also provides coverfire, monitoring services and medical equipment. Due to operating mainly over voice command, it at least appears to be one.
 * Cool Shades: Zhou Zhong Rong.
 * Cross-Popping Veins: Tells us how much Wang He just fucked up with Liu Li.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Boy, Liu Li gets trashed by the spider.
 * Cyborg: There's the question if containing nanomachines makes you an actual cyborg, which then would include any vanguard.. Moot point, since Liu Li and  have their electronic sensory antennae implanted and Zhou Zhong Rong has an Arm Cannon.
 * Dandere: Liu Li towards Instructor Li, to the point where she gets enthusiastically hyperactive.
 * Dark Action Girl:
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Compare Liu Li in earlier chapters to this Liu Li.
 * Disappeared Dad
 * Eagle Land: Flavor 2, America, the International Bully. Comes with war threats as default negotiation tactic.
 * Expy: Liu, at the beginning, is an action version of Rei Ayanami. Then there's Alicia. Twin Pigtails. Creepy affection towards her senior whom she calls Onee-sama. Very open displayal of said affection. Being a complete bitch and drama queen about their relationship. This is Shirai Kuroko.
 * Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Female Vanguards.
 * Face Heel Turn:.
 * Faceless Goons: The terrorist in the first three chapters all were black skull masks.
 * Fish Out of Water: Liu Li in High School. With greetings to Sagara Sousuke.
 * Five Rounds Rapid: Seriously, that'll never work.
 * Flower Motifs: Schoolgirl Bai Hua has backgrounds exploding with these.
 * Funny Afro: President Omina.
 * Genre Savvy: Li never takes the elevator. In high school, she's not as efficient
 * Also, Hao Xuan.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Hao Xuan, although he claims himself to be an Ordinary High School Student.
 * Genki Girl: Alicia.
 * Girlish Pigtails: Alicia. And yes, she is a brat at heart.
 * Government Agency of Fiction: The NPSA or Nation Preservation Special Assault.
 * Goggles Do Nothing: What's the point of a foot prothesis when you're in a wheel chair?
 * Groin Attack: With an improvised weapon, no less. Poor Wang He. Accompanied with a subtle Visual Pun.
 * Gun Slinger: Liu Li.
 * Handsome Lech: Malick.
 * Healing Factor: Comes with Nanotechnology.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Hostage Situation: You haven't read the summary at the top yet, have you?
 * Humongous Mecha: Present but not terribly effictive. Well, apart from being effectively Mooks. Moreover, they aren't that big. The army has quite a lot of them
 * I Am Your Father: Huai Te tries to invoke this on Liu Li. In a sense, he made what she used to be, so he's half right, but still:
 * I Did What I Had to Do:  Also, his superiors understand that sacrifice is a common thing and necessary in the life of a soldier.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Ah-Xuan definitely would prefer a life with less fighting, explosions and murder around him. Liu Li zigzags this trope: first of all, her life belongs on the battlefield and in the baracks, which she's pretty much accustomed to by now, thus making that normal for her. She turns any form of normal life, since she believes she is only suited to fight. She claims she has to fight.
 * Ill Girl: Xiao Jiang
 * Important Haircut : Inverted, Liu Li's hair grows several inches
 * In-Series Nickname: Ah-Xuan for Hao Xuan.
 * Joshikousei: Liu Li and Bai Hua.
 * The Klutz : Our capable Liu Li fails at almost anything non-military related. Ahem… Picasso bee embroidery. Injured fingers. Gadget repair frustration. Completely misunderstanding the situation.
 * Lady of War:
 * Large Ham: Huai Te, the Snake Professor.
 * Lightning Bruiser: The Mantis Vanguard, even more so than Liu Li.
 * Little Miss Badass: Liu Li.
 * Living MacGuffin: Hao Xuan
 * Love Triangle: Liu Li - Ah-Xuan - Bai Hua.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: Beats a spider tank. Nice job, Liu.
 * Mad Scientist : The Snake Professor.
 * Meganekko: Shao Yu.
 * Mind Over Matter: Ju Jiang. If it isn't supermagnetism that can stop bullets.
 * Missing Mom: Died in a plane crash..
 * Mooks: Arab insurgents, terrorists, soldiers and Public Security policemen.
 * Most Common Superpower: Huai Te's Vanguard Troops are stecked with muscles and tits.
 * Nanomachines: Applied Phlebotinum.
 * New Transfer Student: Liu Li;
 * Nice Hat: Ju Jiang's siberian hat. Andrew King's … THING.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: President Onima
 * Non-Action Guy: Hao Xuan
 * Noodle Incident: Just what was this Ci Xi Vocational School Milk Squeezing Incident?
 * Occidental Otaku: Andrew King.
 * Of Course I Smoke: Hao Xuan fails at smoking at first, but manages to keep it up. Liu Li snarks it'll make him even dumber.
 * One of Us: White Cat is a fan of Gantz, Resident Evil and most obviously, Moe
 * Onee-Sama: The Moth Queen towards at least one of the ant girls.
 * Opening Action Sequence: The first scene shows us Liu Li fighting mujaheddin or arab terrorists somewhere in the near or middle east.
 * Oral Fixation Fixation: The Spider Vanguard is fond of popsicles.
 * Ordinary High School Student: Hao Xuan, or so he claims.
 * Parental Abandonment: Ah-Xuan, Liu Li, Bai Hua.
 * People Puppet: Liu Li get turned into one (literally by getting attached to wires) for a chapter and remains conscious through out.
 * Pettanko: Liu Li, by Word of God, has only a nice medium bust because of her suit, though a few pictures of her with out it seem to show her having a larger chest than most characters that could be considered flat-chested.
 * Police Are Useless: Totally.
 * Pretty Freeloader: Liu Li crashes at Ah-Xuans place for a while.
 * Pretty Little Headshots:
 * Punch a Wall: After a discussion with his superiors gone bad, Colonel Lee does that. Can be easily mistaken for Rage Against the Reflection, since he actually hits a window.
 * Puppet Master: The Spider Vanguard does this with her Wire Apparatus and People Puppets, or…
 * Razor Floss, but she thinks it's not as satisfying.
 * Rapunzel Hair: The Queen of the Moth.
 * Reality Ensues : So there's this injured girl lying on the street and due to spoileriffic circumstances you have to carry her home. Good thing that all girls are light… NOT, with this one filled up with lil' buddies called nanomachines, no wonder she's heavy.
 * A Hostage Situation will always call for sniper support.
 * Most people don't look cool with their first cig.
 * And major fights downtown attract attention.
 * Readings Are Off the Scale: Guess what this is: http://www.mangafox.com/manga/school_shock/v01/c014.2/14.html.
 * Answer:.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning:
 * Revenge: One of Huai Te's motivations. As an apparent developer of nanotechnology, he seems to have been mistreated and robbed of his creation.
 * Sarcastic Clapping: Huai Te's arrival on the battle between Liu Li and
 * Save the Villain: . Resulting in impressive backstabbing.
 * Also, Zhou Zhong Rong inverts this as he grabs Hao Xuan's hand to prevent him from falling to a very messy death. And subverts the saving by using him as hostage.
 * Sempai-Kohai: Ah-Xuan and Bai Hua (The Senior).
 * Sensor Character : Apparently, Vanguards can sense each other through bio-electrical fluctuations, probably referring to side-effects of the nanomachines.
 * She Fu:  and Liu Li.
 * Shout-Out: A lot.
 * The logo Liu Li uploads into the screens of the mall as she takes over the system with B.E.E. is an allusion to Ghost in the Shell and the “laughing man“ symbol.
 * Huai Te's eyelid holders are taken from A Clockwork Orange.
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion: IF HE ORDERED YOU TO DIE, WOULD YOU DO IT?
 * Didn't you see Salem and Rios working with the terrorists in the first chapter?
 * You'd probably see some Full Metal Panic references in the first few chapters.
 * President Omina's a Trigun fan by the look of things.
 * The United Federation logo seems to be like the ESF in the Gundam 00 series.
 * An omake in chapter 14 is based on Lucky Star's Lucky Channel.
 * Kamen Rider Decade's henshin belt can be spotted on Andrew King's waist in chapter 16.
 * As well as his K-On! shirt.
 * Show Within a Show: Kamen Rider 555, along with what looks like RL pictures on the tv screen.
 * Slasher Smile: Huai Te loves this trope.
 * Smoking Is Cool: Zhou Zhong Rong.
 * Spider Tank: Cause nothing screams overkill like taking hostages with heavy armor.
 * Starter Villain:
 * Stop or I Shoot Myself:
 * Stripperific: Cyatheceae's outfit.
 * Super Soldier : What the Vanguards basically are, if you're willing to consider them human and not just a mere weapon. Deconstructed, since they aren't long-lived (Liu Li has to face her death in about a year) and very expensive to maintain, thus a liability, though the earlier models still have it better.
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Although it's 2017, the only new thing seems to be only related to the military
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo : Bai Hua.
 * Teen Genius:
 * Too Kinky to Torture : As Hao Xuan says, sympathy is wasted on Wang He.
 * Tsundere: Liu Li
 * Ungrateful Bastard: . The "sorry" may have been sarcastic (or not).
 * Though what is said after that heavily indicates that it was thought of as a favor.
 * Unsound Effect: Heal, Heal.
 * The Voiceless: Ju Jiang.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Cecilia's weapon of choice.
 * Web Comic: School Shock is definitely a manhua, but it's still originally published online.
 * Waif Fu: Liu Li;
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl : Liu Li, oh so very much.
 * Wingding Eyes: Liu Li sports this, surprisingly, as well as her superior officer.
 * The Worf Effect: Mechas provide this.
 * Worthy Opponent: Liu Li to Rong.  to Liu Li.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: Somebody should have told Liu Li that school boys who stalk you are interested in your body, not your organization.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Shao Yu apparently wants to become one (or, to properly quote: "How To Become A Economic Housewife).
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Liu is silver-haired.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Liu Li.