Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Class 44 was utterly silent, as though time itself had frozen. Only the sound of breathing and the ticking clock disturbed the stillness.
The image of the dormitory matron devouring someone remained vivid in their minds.
So that was how all the corpses that had vanished from the dormitory had been disposed of.
The mere memory of it was enough to make many players retch.
At first, they had not known what the dormitory matron intended to do. By the time they realized, the doors had already been locked, trapping them inside.
Even with their eyes squeezed shut, the sounds had still reached them… and nearly driven them mad.
Not a trace of color remained in the players’ faces. As always, every dish in the school cafeteria contained meat.
More and more players had begun fasting. Several novices had already gone two consecutive meals without eating.
Their bodies and minds were being tormented at once.
Only Xiao Huai carried on as if nothing had happened. He ate and slept as usual, then returned to class and promptly laid his head on his desk again.
They could not help wondering whether Xiao Huai was truly an ordinary player. His nerves were simply too steady.
Just as he had the day before, He Lecheng entered the classroom wearing a brilliant smile and delivered the exact same lines.
“Good morning, students! It’s another beautiful day. Let’s begin by reviewing your test results. Come up and collect your paper when I call your name.”
“Mm, not bad. Three points better than last time. Keep it up.”
“Ten points better than last time. Very good! Make sure you do even better next time!”
He Lecheng’s encouragement seemed to possess some magical power. The players who had been terrified earlier felt soothed and nodded emotionally.
“Thank you, sir! I’ll work hard and keep improving.”
One after another, they gave He Lecheng the same answer, and he rewarded each of them with a gentle smile.
But when the student who had previously scored sixty-two stepped forward, that smile changed.
A sinister shadow crossed He Lecheng’s face, and his lips curved into a peculiar smile. “Oh dear. Fifty-eight points: four points lower than before. You haven’t been working very hard, have you?”
The player’s expression crumpled. His body began to tremble as the surrounding air seemed to turn frigid.
“Sir… no, please, give me another chance. I promise I’ll improve next time.”
His starting score had simply been too high. With a test this difficult, even gaining a single point would have been challenging.
He Lecheng’s smile grew steadily more deranged as he approached the player with an ominous air.
Ignoring the plea, he said in a voice cold as ice, “Failing to work hard is a violation of school rules.”
He raised one hand slightly. The instant his fingertip descended, a ray of light transformed into an invisible blade.
It severed the student’s head.
Rip!
Blood erupted, spraying a scarlet rain through the air and spattering the floor.
“Aah!” A student in the front row screamed as blood splashed across their face.
He Lecheng paid no attention to the student’s reaction. He dragged the headless corpse beside the lectern and tossed it to the floor like a piece of trash.
Viscous blood coated his pallid face. The stench of death spread around him, yet that crazed smile remained fixed on his lips.
“Next. Three points of improvement. Very good. Keep it up.”
He resumed calling students forward as though nothing had happened, but every player who went up after that found their legs turning weak.
How were his words any different from a death sentence?
That meant the lower their original score, the better.
Only then would they have enough room to improve and a chance to survive until the seventh day.
Everyone’s gaze shifted toward Xiao Huai, who ranked dead last in the class.
Could that guy have known this rule from the very beginning?
Xiao Huai propped his chin on one hand and watched He Lecheng calmly. When he noticed the other players staring, he raised an eyebrow and wrote several large words in his notebook.
[I couldn’t be bothered.]
The players: “…”
Xiao Huai had not left most of the test blank merely out of laziness. Later, however, he noticed certain details: to clear the game, he had to probe its rules.
That was why he would use low-scoring test papers to probe them.
Anyone else might have felt hurt after being scolded by He Lecheng.
Xiao Huai, however, had sensed that something was amiss.
The more room he had to improve, the greater his advantage.
And because his advantage was so large, He Lecheng found him particularly irritating.
Once again, Xiao Huai ranked last, though his score had risen by six points.
He Lecheng said, “Last place again? Since you did improve, I won’t double your homework this time.”
By the end of this judgment by grades, five players in the class had died. Including Hui Yulian, who had perished that morning, only twenty-four players remained.
This was merely a first-floor instance, yet on just the third day, the death rate was already so high…
Perhaps the horror game was nothing more than a plan to purge humanity’s refuse.
The day’s schedule differed little from the previous day’s, but most of the novice players were already approaching their limits.
They shouted, wept, and broke down.
They tried to find answers in the Gods’ Livestream. Unfortunately, no god was willing to pay attention to the streams of novices like them.
Xiao Huai’s stream, however, was drawing an ever-growing audience.
Apparently, this was the effect of the system promoting it.
Ordinary players never even had the opportunity to enter the recommendation pool.
Xiao Huai paid no attention to the livestream. To him, those gods were nothing but perverts who delighted in spying on the ugliest side of human nature.
He was far more interested in the hidden mission awaiting him.
[Hidden Mission: Fulfill Miss Hanako’s wish and find her mother. Time remaining: two days.]
[Penalty for failure: Death.]
Hanako’s diary recorded the events of one week in her life.
First and foremost, this was an instance about school bullying.
And Hanako was its victim.
Her mother was an optimist, or perhaps simply far too kind for her own good.
At one o’clock that morning, Xiao Huai had gone to the west classroom building to look for Hanako. Yet he had failed to find her during that period.
Hanako was an NPC in the game. She would not disappear at random unless she only appeared during a specific window of time.
Had one in the morning been the wrong time?
Xiao Huai frowned in thought.
No. It had to do with the day of the week.
Today was Friday. In the diary, Hanako had written that her mother had vanished and she had to find her.
A ghost and the players.
Hide-and-seek.
Hanako had already died on Thursday.
It was not her mother who had disappeared. Hanako herself was dead.
She would never be able to find her mother.
After all, how could a dead person search for anyone?
Resting his cheek against one hand, Xiao Huai let his languid gaze fall upon He Lecheng.
As though a thought had occurred to him, the faintest smile touched his lips.