Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Ning Shuo kept it brief. “Yeah.”
“Then teach me how to solve problems tonight, okay?”
Ning Shuo gave an ambiguous answer. “Depends on the time.”
Chen Qu’an came up beside them too. “Perfect timing. There’s a problem I don’t really have any ideas for either. Want to talk it through together?”
Just like that, the two of them ditched the NPC and walked off. Mainly, Ning Shuo was walking ahead, while Chen Qu’an followed him to “talk problems.”
“Study rep, are you a wolf?”
Ning Shuo kept walking and eating his bread. “I am. Are you going to make an Accusation against me?”
Chen Qu’an said, “The second I find the Notary Office, I’m making an Accusation against you.”
Ning Shuo shook his head. “Just kidding. I heard everyone from Zone B plays very steadily and methodically. If you’re probing me this boldly, are you a sheep?”
“Then you can consider me the outlier of Zone B.”
After learning that Chen Qu’an’s character setting had fairly good grades, Ning Shuo asked, “What’s going on with the legend in the story background?”
He had never attended high school. When he studied in the modern world, he had never gone out of his way to look into what a school’s key university admission rate meant, and by sheer coincidence, he had never matched into a single campus Script during training. So he had no concrete concept of a one-hundred-percent key university admission rate.
Chen Qu’an also knew that Ning Shuo and Ning Wang were NPCs who had escaped from a Script. Zone F’s Team was mockingly called the NPC Team, and it could even be considered a derogatory nickname.
“You mean that one-hundred-percent key university admission rate? Man, that thing’s creepy. I used to study at the No. 1 High School back home, and I was in the top class too. And what happened? I only got into a second-tier university. Someone in our class didn’t even make the undergraduate cutoff!”
He spouted nonsense with a perfectly serious face. Ning Shuo looked thoughtful. “So, a top class at City No. 1 High School having a one-hundred-percent key university admission rate isn’t impossible. Then why is it a strange rumor?”
Chen Qu’an: ?
Ning Shuo seemed to have only just noticed his confusion. “Sorry. After all, we’re opponents. I listen to everything you say in reverse. Thank you for clearing that up for me.”
Chen Qu’an watched helplessly as the man spotted his own teammate in the distance, gave her a reserved nod, and then strode away without looking back.
The person Ning Shuo had seen was Qin Genan. “The rumor appearing in the first place is strange. Nan-ge, have you seen the captain and the others?”
Qin Genan pointed toward a classroom not far away. “Aside from you and Number One Swordsman in the World, everyone’s here.”
Just in case, they all addressed each other by code name or identity inside the Script. Ning Shuo said, “He won’t be late unless he’s limited by his character setting. Let’s go in first.”
There were already some people sitting in the classroom. When Ning Shuo entered, he swept a glance over the bulletin board beside the blackboard.
Today was Monday, Week 19.
Rao Lin seemed to have been the first to arrive and had already figured out everyone’s seats. When Ning Shuo walked in, he gave him a look. Ning Shuo nodded almost imperceptibly, then sat down in a window seat in the second-to-last row.
Written on the blackboard was the countdown to the gaokao: 42 days.
Chen Qu’an was the last one to enter. Strangely, when Ning Shuo swept his gaze around, he realized the classroom was only half full at most.
And when their eyes met upon entering the classroom, he could also tell that more than half of that half were Players.
According to the rumor, no matter how you looked at it, this class shouldn’t have had so many people arriving late. Yet two minutes after Chen Qu’an entered, someone dressed like a teacher walked in.
…Ning Wang still hadn’t appeared.
Ning Shuo briefly looked over the books on the desk and judged that this class was a pure science track class.
The middle-aged teacher looked like he should be the homeroom teacher. With a sharp smack, he used a magnet to pin a form to the blackboard, his voice booming. “This time, once again, eight students scored below last year’s key university cutoff!”
Eight.
“Willow, Nan-ge, Xiangxiang, Zhi Xing, Shangguan, Jiang Zong, Number One Swordsman in the World, Passerby A! The eight of you, stand up!”
There was a rustling commotion as seven people stood up: six Players and one NPC.
The homeroom teacher’s eyes bulged with anger. “Where is Number One Swordsman in the World!? Is he late again???”
“Reporting.”
Ning Shuo looked toward the door.
Ning Wang was leaning lazily in the doorway as he called out his report, his school uniform jacket hanging crookedly off him.
The homeroom teacher snapped, “Why are you late again!?”
Ning Wang picked at his ear. “Teacher, even my dad doesn’t bother managing me. You don’t need to either, do you?”
The teacher took two deep breaths, then told him to go stand at his seat. Ning Wang read Rao Lin’s expression and headed over. As he passed, the other NPCs all looked like they couldn’t get away from him fast enough.
Ning Shuo had originally been maintaining his untouchable, flower-on-a-high-mountain persona when he heard Ning Wang say, “Bro, Dad said that whoever does better on the college entrance exam gets company shares as a coming-of-age gift. Guess I’ll have to start working hard from now on.”
Their identities this time were students, no longer roles like “tourists” or “outsiders” that the NPCs knew nothing about.
In other words, the NPCs had some understanding of them.
So in this Script, Ning Shuo and Ning Wang really were brothers.
He glanced coldly at Ning Wang and said nothing, merely continuing with his exercise workbook.
The teacher was clearly very pleased by this. “As long as you’re willing to study. That’s good, that’s good.”
The people who had stood up were called out one by one for talks. Ning Wang was the seventh to go.
The relationship between the two of them was obviously no secret. Ning Shuo heard the two people in front of him whispering, “Explosive news! The illegitimate son is dancing right in front of him! Is he openly challenging him for the family assets now?”
“If it’s based on grades, how could he possibly beat Ning Banxian?”
“True. The study rep has never fallen out of the top three in the whole school.”
“Forget about them for now. Hurry up and study. We still don’t know who came last this time…”
“Oh my god, everyone’s been called out, so is last place Passerby A?”
“Shut up! Study!”
Compared to the top rankings, the two NPCs in front were clearly far more concerned about last place.
“Last place” seemed to be an unspoken secret in the class.
Ning Shuo paid attention to Passerby A.
He had to admit, that name really did sound like background-filler.
Passerby A sat at his desk, his face sallow, dark circles under his eyes, his lips completely bloodless.
His entire body was trembling. When he saw Ning Wang return to his seat and the teacher step back onto the podium with no intention of calling him out at all, his face turned white with a swish.
The homeroom teacher’s words were like a message from some grim reaper. “Last week’s weekly test. Last place: Passerby A.”
Passerby A suddenly shot to his feet, turned, and ran outside.
Aside from the Player participants, who looked a little shocked but didn’t make any big movements, the other classmates all looked as if they had seen this plenty of times before.
The person in front even pulled the curtains shut on that side.
Seeing that Ning Shuo didn’t move, that person asked, “Ning Banxian, aren’t you closing the curtains?”
Ning Shuo already had a guess about the school’s “one hundred percent key university admission rate.” He shook his head. “No need. It’s not the first time.”
The next second-
A tremendous bang came from outside the window.
Because they had been talking about the curtains, Ning Shuo happened to be looking out the window, and he personally saw that bizarrely twisted face streak past the glass.
Then it hit the ground, a bloody, mangled mess.
The teaching buildings had five floors. For convenience, the senior-year classes were on the first floor of each building.
After sweeping a cold glance over the corpse outside, Ning Shuo silently filled an answer into a blank on his worksheet.
Sure enough, this was not the first time something like this had happened.
While the homeroom teacher had been away earlier, Ning Shuo had silently counted the people in the classroom, as well as the desks that had books on them but no one sitting there.
Senior 3 Class 1 was supposed to have forty-one people. Twenty-four were present.
Now that Passerby A was dead, twenty-three were present.
There were still six weeks, forty-two days, until the college entrance exam.
It was currently week nineteen.
Eighteen people had already died.