Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Thirty players remained.
Everyone stared at Xiao Huai. The man was fucking uncanny; he had appeared behind them without making a sound.
His knuckles shifted. Raising one finger, he tapped lightly on the phone screen. “He was poisoned.”
The players who had been about to give him an earful turned back and scrutinized the screen.
A woman suddenly cried out, “He’s right! He didn’t hang himself. He died of poisoning!”
She pointed at the dead man’s nose. “I’m a doctor. I didn’t notice the foam around his nostrils just now…”
She began explaining the medical details.
Simply put, a person who died by hanging usually had a bluish-purple face.
Someone who died of poison generally wore a pained expression, with grayish-white lips and foam around the mouth and nose.
If the victim had been poisoned first and someone later staged the body to resemble a suicide by hanging, the face would not show such extensive blue-purple discoloration.
After death, blood settled toward the lowest parts of the body. Suspending the corpse would not cause blood to flood its face.
The photograph had been taken against the light, leaving the victim’s features unclear. Even the doctor had failed to notice the signs at first, yet Xiao Huai had spotted them…
The classroom fell silent.
Ning Gaoqiang was the first to break it, roaring in fury. “Son of a bitch! This goddamn game is dangerous enough already, and now one of us is killing people too?”
The others came to the same realization. If the three had not died for breaking the game’s rules, then someone had deliberately murdered them.
Players did not simply drop dead in their rooms, only to end up posed as suicides.
“They may also have offended an NPC,” Hui Yulian said suddenly.
Xiao Huai turned to her with a soft smile.
Hui Yulian continued, “The NPCs in horror games have feelings and wills of their own. Offend one, and you may never even know what killed you.”
“So… that’s possible too?”
The novices looked at one another and silently committed the warning to memory. It was an unwritten rule that applied to every instance: never offend an NPC lightly.
“But we all went to the dorms together and then turned in for the night. How would they have offended an NPC?”
The timing simply did not make sense. If one of the people among them truly wanted to kill the others, that would be far more terrifying.
Ning Gaoqiang sneered at the novice who had asked. “Did none of you see the dorm supervisor during her rounds? That body…”
He whistled, his expression turning lecherous. “Let’s be honest, no one here is likely to be a saint. Maybe somebody couldn’t control himself and made a few suggestive comments when he saw a hot woman. Could be the NPC held a grudge.”
Everyone thought back to the previous night’s bed check.
Some had been too frightened to open their eyes and never saw what the supervisor looked like afterward. The bolder ones immediately chimed in. “Yeah! I remember. Damn, that woman had one hell of a body.”
More and more people admitted they had seen the beautiful supervisor. They even looked proud, as if seeing her proved they were special rather than cowards.
The timid players lowered their heads and said nothing.
The click of dress shoes came from the doorway. He Lecheng entered with a briefcase and a broad smile. He inhaled deeply, as if savoring the fresh air.
A faint trace of blood still lingered, but compared with the previous night, the air was much better.
“Good morning, students! It’s another wonderful day. Let’s begin by reviewing your test papers.”
The players immediately returned to their seats and fell silent. They all knew what kind of creature Smiling Tiger was.
He killed without batting an eye. If they broke some hidden rule or angered an NPC, death would likely be their only outcome.
“When I call your name, come collect your paper. Li Xiaoming…”
When Li Xiaoming saw his score of thirty, a chill ran down his back. The NPC was definitely going to punish him!
But He Lecheng kept smiling. “Thirty points. Not bad. Be sure to improve next time.”
“Y-yes! Thank you, sir!”
No one could resist praise from a teacher, even if that teacher was an NPC monster.
Li Xiaoming accepted the paper with excitement. For a moment, he actually felt inspired to study hard.
Every student called after him received praise too. Each had scored at least twenty, while a lucky few reached sixty.
The test was out of one hundred. Anyone who managed sixty was not merely lucky; they had the makings of a top student.
Xiao Huai was called last. He ambled to the lectern, glanced at his score, and raised one brow.
Three points: the value of a single multiple-choice question.
Apparently, his random answer had been correct. At least he had not scored a zero.
The smile vanished from He Lecheng’s face. His hand tightened around Xiao Huai’s paper.
“You are dead last in this class! To keep you from dragging everyone else down, you will do twice as much homework! Do you understand?!”
His expression became terrifying in an instant. Veins bulged across his face, and the viciousness in his eyes suggested he wanted to kill Xiao Huai on the spot.
The roar shook the entire classroom, all his earlier gentleness gone.
So this was how the student in last place was treated…
He was not yelling at them, yet everyone still ducked their heads in fear. It took a long time before they recovered enough to look at Xiao Huai.
Xiao Huai’s eyes remained languid. This time, however, they curved with a smile as he quietly regarded He Lecheng.
He took the paper from him, utterly unconcerned by the reprimand. “Thank you, sir.”
He Lecheng’s eyebrow twitched. His mouth twisted for a split second, too fast for the naked eye to catch, then his customary smile returned.
He handed out a thick stack of workbooks. “This is your homework. Be sure to finish every bit of it. After all, it is a school rule~”
He chuckled softly and turned to the blackboard to begin reviewing the test.
He Lecheng spent the entire morning explaining questions. Apparently, the school had no separate subject teachers.
He alone taught Chinese, mathematics, and biology.
Predictably, almost no one in the class understood a word.
They could at least follow the Chinese section.
Mathematics and biology? Heh.
He Lecheng smiled and put away the papers. “This afternoon is self-study. Once you’ve eaten lunch, study hard.” With that, he prepared to leave the classroom.
Listening to lectures made them sleepy and hungry, but their homeroom teacher was a murderous monster. They had no choice but to endure it.
Everyone prayed he would leave quickly. Yet just as one of He Lecheng’s feet crossed the threshold, he suddenly turned back.
“I almost forgot. Starting today, there will be an exam every evening. I hope you’ll all prepare well. Make sure your scores improve~”