Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The front door of the classroom was locked tight.

Outside the window wasn’t a normal campus, but a pitch-black sports field. It was filled with figures wearing school uniforms, their backs turned toward the teaching building. Their necks hung at unnatural angles, like rows of broken clothes hangers.

Someone rushed to the back door and yanked it open, only for a gentle voice to drift in from the school intercom.

“Leaving school during evening self-study is prohibited.”

The person had only managed to step one foot out before their body was instantly flattened, looking like a test paper being jammed through a door crack.

Blood seeped in through the gap.

The classroom descended into total chaos.

People were crying, others were cursing, and some began to huddle together. One boy tried to grab the girl next to him, saying, “We’ve always been close, we can definitely survive this together.” Terrified, the girl shook him off, and the System immediately flashed yellow text.

[Detected player Zhao Mingyuan generating intense possessiveness.]

[Danger level: 61%.]

Zhao Mingyuan turned pale and took a step back.

Jiang Xu said in a low voice, “It’s not that we can’t cooperate; it’s that you can’t treat your partner as an emotional crutch.”

I glanced at him. “You seem to know a lot?”

He replied calmly, “I just read the rules.”

“The rules go into that much detail?”

“No.” He flipped the school handbook on the desk to the last page. “But before the class monitor confessed, Zhou Lin didn’t respond. The System waited until she spoke to carry out the Erasure, which means it judges based on the formation of one-sided emotions, not the formation of a relationship.”

He pointed toward Zhao Mingyuan. “He got a warning for possessiveness but wasn’t erased, which means there’s a threshold for the danger level. What we need to do isn’t to be emotionless, but to keep those emotions from crossing the line.”

I looked at him and couldn’t help but ask, “Were you a top student back in the day?”

Jiang Xu thought for a moment. “I suppose so.”

“Which school?”

“I forgot.”

The danger level suddenly jumped to 9%.

I shut my mouth immediately.

Right, lesson one of the Death Game: Do not get curious about a handsome guy’s past.

Curiosity is a distant relative of attraction.

We searched the classroom and found three items: a yellowed class schedule, a duty log with half a page missing, and a ring of keys in the teacher’s desk drawer.

On the schedule, the ten o’clock slot for tonight read: “Graduation Ceremony.”

The last page of the duty log was filled with the same sentence repeated over and over.

[When she said she liked me, I heard the bell ring.]

Jiang Xu stared at that sentence for a long time.

“Did you find something?” I asked.

He closed the duty log. “The core urban legend of this Dungeon should be related to a confession. The Life Gate won’t be hidden in the classroom; we need to find the source of the bell.”

“The school has a Bell Tower?”

“Typical campus urban legends usually have one.”

“How do you know that?”

He looked at me.

I immediately raised my hand. “Fine, don’t say it. Keep it mysterious. A low danger level is better for both of us.”

A hint of a smile appeared in Jiang Xu’s eyes.

The System popped up without warning.

[Detected player Shen Zhi generating positive emotions toward player Jiang Xu.]

[Danger level: 12%.]

My expression soured, and I pointed at him. “Don’t smile.”

Jiang Xu was slightly stunned. “Why?”

“The System might get the wrong idea.”

He stopped smiling as expected.

He was too cooperative.

The danger level rose again to 15%.

I cursed inwardly and decided that, from now on, I would imagine him as a walking math exam.