Chapter 97
Chapter 97
This was Qin Lan’s final stop in the instance.
The principal’s office.
The principal of Dead Silence Academy had never appeared from beginning to end.
The highest-ranking school administrator they had encountered was Zhang Yuanfan, the Dean of Students.
Qin Lan had already guessed the identity of the current principal.
Who else could it be?
Naturally, it was Li Yuan, the transfer student responsible for the entire disaster.
Before Qin Lan could knock, the brown door slowly swung open as if welcoming their arrival.
“Once we’re inside, hit whoever you see. Got it?” Qin Lan reminded Xue Chuan in a low voice.
Xue Chuan froze. “Seriously? Me?”
“Of course not.” Qin Lan smiled and stepped into the office. “You can’t beat a 4-Star anomaly.”
Xue Chuan rolled his eyes and followed.
His right hand remained in his pocket, ready to draw a weapon of mass destruction at any moment. Whether he could actually produce one was another matter.
The principal’s office was not large. Evidently, the previous principal had lived a fairly honest life–at least, more honest than that fatty Wu Rendi.
Fatty Wu was admittedly unmatched when it came to protecting his students, but his fondness for “foreign-language educational materials” and lining his pockets made him a genuine bastard in other respects.
The old principal of Wind Chime High School had now been completely replaced by Li Yuan.
An ordinary-looking boy sat behind the desk with one leg crossed over the other. His cheek rested on one hand as he studied Qin Lan with interest.
It was as though he had discovered an amusing toy.
Qin Lan looked expressionlessly at the boy across the desk.
“Have you ever heard of a eunuch sitting on the emperor’s throne?”
“That’s the impression you’re giving me… Putting a pig behind that desk might have been more refreshing.”
The boy before Qin Lan was Li Yuan.
The same Li Yuan who had appeared in the group photograph.
Facing him directly made the wave of pure evil even clearer. Qin Lan’s expression darkened further.
It was far too familiar.
Li Yuan looked like an utterly ordinary boy, with nothing noteworthy about him from head to toe.
Yet simply sitting there made it impossible to look away.
Contradictorily, even as Qin Lan found his gaze drawn toward the boy, he did not dare meet those eyes.
They contained an aura that inspired visceral terror, as though a single moment of eye contact could drive someone mad.
“You’re laying the menace on awfully thick for a villain who’s destined to die…”
Qin Lan curled his lip. “At the end of the day, you’re just another troubled teenager.”
“Where I come from, troubled teenagers outnumber the bottles of iced tea sold every year.”
The corners of Li Yuan’s lips rose. Though he looked at Qin Lan on level ground, his gaze carried the arrogance of someone staring down from above.
He resembled a person standing over an anthill, looking down at ants that could be crushed beneath one foot.
“You speak rather amusingly… I cannot sense any fear from you.”
“Do you not realize I can crush you to death with one hand?”
Li Yuan’s voice was young and immature, yet permeated by a sinister quality.
It was the evil of someone with no reverence for life, only absolute indifference.
“Uh…”
Qin Lan scratched his nose. “I know. I already tested that just now… More than once, actually.”
No one but Qin Lan understood what he meant by “tested.”
Li Yuan smiled. His gaze became a hook that seemed eager to tear Qin Lan’s brain from his skull.
“I don’t understand… The two of you can already leave this place. Why insist on coming to see me?”
Before he finished speaking, Xue Chuan impatiently stepped forward and produced a fresh tube of mustard.
“Enough talk. Let me show you what it means to set your little bird on fire–”
Judging by his posture, he was preparing to rush forward and tear off Li Yuan’s pants.
Qin Lan raised a hand to stop him.
Then he looked at Li Yuan and spoke calmly.
“I don’t feel like talking to a problem child. Could the thing inside your body come out instead?”
“The one that gave you the power to distort reality and caused all of this?”
Li Yuan’s smile froze.
His gaze turned cold, and the false smile gradually vanished.
“Qin Lan, you truly are extraordinarily bold… No wonder Lord Shan Bai told us to keep a close eye on you.”
“You are indeed fascinating.”
Hearing the other party call him by name made Qin Lan’s heart jolt.
“Shan Bai?”
Qin Lan repeated the name, then gave Li Yuan a look that clearly said, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“You mean that idiotic dog with the foot fetish?”
“I could live a thousand lifetimes and never dream up anything as deranged as Northeast Bro Yu or Aladdin’s Magic Dong… I’m genuinely surprised that their creator is honored as a ‘lord.'”
“Does the Abyss determine rank by how absurd someone is?”
Qin Lan complained wearily.
He had encountered the Abyss only twice. The first time was in Fairytale Town, and the second was here.
Lord Shan Bai, whom Li Yuan had mentioned, was clearly the existence that created the Fairytale Town instance.
At some point, Li Yuan’s eyes had turned completely black.
Not a trace of white remained.
At the same time, a fluctuation unlike any known form of energy began emanating from his body.
It was a power unique to the other side of the Abyss.
“You have grown quickly. Given more time, you might truly interfere with our plans…”
Li Yuan–or rather, the Abyssal spawn inside him–spoke in a sinister voice. “But it doesn’t matter.”
“You will die here today, by my hand.”
Qin Lan listened, then nodded without showing the slightest fear. “Finished with your threats?”
“Then is it my turn?”
The thing occupying Li Yuan visibly paused. “What? You–”
Qin Lan cut it off.
“Stop putting on an act in front of me.”
“I know you aren’t something that crossed over from the Abyss in the truest sense. If you were, you would have left this instance long ago and started relieving yourself wherever you pleased in the Fallen Zone.”
“You’re probably something created by an existence on the other side. Maybe that foot fetishist Shan Bai, or some other Shan Black, Shan Red, Shan Orange, Shan Yellow, Shan Green, Shan Blue, or Shan Purple.”
Qin Lan’s tone was as flat as though he were reading instructions for a piece of furniture.
“You’re far too weak. So weak that you had to find a neglected child from a broken home with twisted values, then spend time occupying his body and mind before you could exert any power.”
“Oh, you haven’t even managed to take over his consciousness completely.”
Qin Lan grinned. “Anyone with eyes can tell this entire instance is saturated with that idiotic child’s own thoughts.”
“He studied himself half to death, but no matter how well he performed, his mother never acknowledged him.”
“So he hated. He hated everyone else who could earn ordinary grades and still live happily.”
“He hated children whose off-topic essays were praised for creativity. He hated children who could play basketball instead of solving problems and still receive praise. He hated the free, joyful atmosphere of this school.”
“Hmm… He probably also hated classmates who had plenty of time to enjoy the cafeteria’s delicious meals.”
Qin Lan listed each point with ease, while the expression on “Li Yuan’s” face grew uglier by the second.
“The only thing that made the little bastard happy was music class.”
Qin Lan sneered. “Given the way this school operates, music should never have appeared on the schedule.”
“You see? From the beginning, you have relied on his consciousness, his resentment, and his curse to transform Wind Chime High School into this.”
“That means the way to defeat you is simple. It was written in the instance description from the very beginning.”
Qin Lan extended a finger and pointed at “Li Yuan.”
“Set ‘them’ free.”
“And ‘them’ includes Li Yuan’s soul.”
Only then did the Abyssal spawn occupying Li Yuan’s mind reveal a savage expression.
“Enough!”
“Yes, you guessed correctly. I must rely on the resentment of this world’s natives to wield my power… But so what?”
“You are too weak. Even if you know how to break the situation, you lack the ability to do it!”
“Or do you believe you can defeat me?”
A terrifying aura surged from “Li Yuan,” and the curse energy around him soared.
It was the unmistakable signal that a boss battle was about to begin.
Ordinarily, the boy would transform next, becoming some horrifying thunder-wreathed monster capable of soaring through the sky and burrowing through the earth.
Xue Chuan’s expression changed. His right hand twitched inside his pocket as he asked in a low voice.
“What’s happening?”
“Is it my turn?”
Qin Lan did not let him act. Instead, excitement lit his face.
“Come to think of it, I’ve always wanted to test whether this ability works on anomalies…”
“Come forth!”
“Li Yuan’s father!”